Crow’s Nest 71: 062324
Nothing More Punk Than Deciding You’ve Had It With the City, Moving To The Suburbs In a Huff, Acting Like It’s No Big Deal and Actually Better Than Before, While Doubling Down On Your Sneering, and
Hey there, welcome is issue number 71 of Crow’s Nest. I was hoping to have something a bit longer on the big news in Chicago-area music to start this off but work’s really been getting to me recently, my A/C was acting up right as the heat wave was hitting here, and part of it was cut off during preview setting this up. Anyway, that same stress also affected my recent listening; not sure if you can tell on that front but I know it’s had an impact, and I’m still attempting to get back to where I kinda had been before Vegas. Nevertheless, let’s get to it:
I know last issue I said I don’t really get traveling for concerts in other cities—maybe that’s because I find the practice second-tier city coded—but this new release from reunited noise figureheads Yellow Swans is making me regret not making a trip to catch them last year. Two wildly different takes on the same song as part of those live shows, the first one is only a tad noisy before moving into a really beautiful ambient space, the second one really gets crunchy as the duo mulches their source material into something more noise-ambient. This is the first in a series of 3-4 tapes, and comes after the pair took 15 years off. You can hardly tell about the latter part. Now if only a Chicago show was on the books …
Just a little sublime slice of Brazil meeting America with singer-songwriter Rogê featuring on this single by the Menahan Street Band, who are closely affiliated with Daptone. Exactly the kind of record this kinda weather calls for that never gets old when it’s this well executed; if it wasn’t new I’d imagine the crate diggers would be falling over themselves to outbid each other for any copy of this that surfaces. Click through for some additional mixes on the expanded 12” version.
By this point you know me, I love some good post-punk/jangle, especially if it’s got a bit of sprawl to it. Reaching new heights in garbage SEO practices is London’s World News, with this impressive new EP under their belt. The key distinguishing factor between them and pretty much any other similar band I’ve featured before has to be the production quality on here: the band sounds like they spent a decent amount of time in a fancy studio to ensure they sound lush. You could probably pretty easily slip this one onto rock FM radio or past your dad, and have them none the wiser. An addictive listen for sure.
While easily best known as the home of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Montreal’s Constellation Records put out a wide variety of intriguing experimental releases far outside of post-rock’s parameters. A lot of them kinda go in one ear and out the other, only to occasionally surface as ‘Oh yeah, X and Y from G were on that F record a few years ago, that’s kinda crazy …’ remembrances, but this one from Eric Chenaux will likely stay further in mind. This is his first record billed as a trio, and definitely not the first of his I’ve listened to, but this some incredible, melted sophisti-pop/avant-garde jazz, pulling from New Age, psych pop and weirdo jazz alike. Listening, it just doesn’t add up yet somehow does. Reading the liner notes, it’s clear that we’re sleeping on the Wurlitzer organ in this day and age of widely available, high-quality, and easily accessible weed.
As someone who likes to think he has a great breadth of taste in music and can dig up some interesting stuff, I’m always impressed by Chicago Reader staff writer Leor Galil’s ability to run circles around me in chronicling undertold tales from this city. Buried in a small list of recommendations for his weekly Reader newsletter is this retrospective compilation of local 80s New Age group Planetary Peace. This was a nice listen this morning as I was figuring out what to do today (I settled on ‘Try to take it easy and work on some stuff’), it’s not the most original thing in the genre but nevertheless fairly solid. This is definitely one of those records that you’re grateful a crate digger unearthed and brought to your attention, whether through a record-resetting reissue or not. I imagine the original small-pressing tapes would fetch a pretty penny on Discogs, but thankfully you can get this one for just $11 plus shipping (or $2 digitally).
Speaking of old-school New Age folks, Laraaji’s latest record is a 4-way collaboration with the groups Agnes Martian, Music For Connection, and Hair and Space Museum. Easily the most meditative and transportive of the New Age-y stuff in this issue—which isn’t without conflict, there’s a great krautrock/post-rock-y build to the second jam—this is also the most longform of the group. Exactly what’s needed when you’re looking to chill out to some relaxing music.
Shifting gears a lot, Nashville punk oddballs Snooper put out one of my favorite albums of last year, but I’ve not been not been impressed by the drip feed of singles from this year. Hearing those back-to-back on this record, a split 7” with the Spanish band (and fellow punk oddballs) Prison Affair, makes more sense. It’s a blistering lo-fi affair that rips through 6 songs on one side of 7” wax, great for putting on another time or two once you’ve finished it. Pretty much a perfect meeting of the minds here. I wasn’t hip enough to Prison Affair when they came through town a few months ago, but already have a ticket to see Snooper again next month.
I’m writing this one relatively early in my assembly of this issue yet still am struggling to find words for it. Sounds massive, somewhere in the broader tech house realm, would certainly do some damage in a big room setting whether you know everything or nothing about dance music. Definitely in a similar realm to the stuff from Floating Points, Jon Hopkins, Hessle Audio etc. that is big but still has underground credibility. Good work overall from Robert Dietz and Nous’klaer on this one.
I don’t really get a whole lot of contemporary music that gets labeled as funk. I’ve never really been confident in the definition of the genre, and this sounds nothing like the ‘classic’ funk from the 70s, long before digital tools took over everything. Nevertheless, a solid single from rising Berlin talent Big Ever, even if I think it sounds more like Four Tet than anything else. DJ Plead’s a fan too so don’t just take my word for it.
FaltyDL is still a bit of a nebulous figure for me to pin down production-wise here. This record for electro haven CPU Records sees him in that vein alongside the kind of genre-hopping, IDM-centric sounds you hear a lot from veterans like him and Mike Paradinas. Still always worth checking out for material like this.
In a sign of how clogged my music listening queue is, I got very excited to see HHY & The Macumbas’s new record, their first studio one since 2018’s incredible Beheaded Totem, had finally been released, but it took me at least a week to actually put it on. Simulating their live show, leader Jonathan Uliel Saldanha assembled 6 other musicians—4 of them percussionists— and recorded this in a theater. It’s more somewhere in between Beheaded Totem and the record Saldanha made with The Kampala Unit, featured in the very first issue of this newsletter. I probably set my expectations a little too high for this one, but it’s still a great listen for those who like a load of percussion with strong dub and tribal influences.
Well, I’m gonna call that issue #71 of Crow’s Nest above. As always, thank you for reading, I hope something above captured your fancy. Hopefully the heat wave is over by the time you get to this, but if not, remember to stay hydrated and, in general, take some time to relax even if you’re trying to pack as much in to your summer as you can. Schedule in taking it easy if you must.
