Crow’s Nest 85: 061525
Shout-out to Will (at Will’s request)
Hey there, and welcome to issue #85 of Crow’s Nest. As always, thank you for opening this, perusing its contents, and doing whatever it is you do with it.
This issue skews towards dance music. I’m not quite sure why that is; partially, I suspect it’s just the ebb and flow of how music comes and feels to me. Perhaps it’s also that I haven’t yet uncovered a guitar-focused record that feels definitive or like a strong contender for record of the year (so far) as we near the halfway point of 2025. Of course, in the same way I didn’t expect this issue and my recent listening to be as dominated by dance music as it has been, such a record may rear its head moments after I hit send on this issue. Hard to say, but that same unpredictability is what makes continued listening and searching a worthwhile endeavor.
Before I get to the main focus of this issue, I feel compelled to say that, yes, it does feel weird as fuck to be engaging in something as seemingly frivolous as writing about music at this time. Iran and Israel are firing hundreds upon thousands of missiles and other ordinance at each other (something that will require some more professional cognitive dissonance than usual to manage at my day job next week), the political discourse in this nation continues, somehow, to degrade even further (not that that’s necessarily new, but it remains impressively appalling that there are constant new lows to sink to), ICE is kidnapping people out of the same office building I work from a couple times a week … and here I am, sitting on my ass in my apartment going ‘Hmm, how do I describe how this record bangs to my followers?’
I don’t know. I would not claim to have all the answers—indeed, seemingly the only predictable constants about current events is their unpredictability and that the deescalatory option won’t be chosen by the powers that be. I am trying my best not to give in to unproductive despair, and am hoping that my attempts to maintain some normalcy and separation from what’s going on in the world at least helps to offer some relief and comfort to those around me also dealing with everything going on (and probably more than me). I suppose these feelings and my activity in response to them are escapist in nature, but that doesn’t fully seem to capture the sensation. Being aware of all this, am I stopping and doing something else? Obviously not. Could I? Perhaps, and I’m aware of the arguments as to why I should, but at the same time, you cannot fully expect people to stop trying to live their lives through such tumult. Frequently, it’s the only thing you can do. So, hopefully what’s below helps you in some way, as we all figure out what comes next both for the world and our personal lives within said world. It’s the only one we’ve got, after all.
A few years ago, I featured an archival release from The Stick Figures—the short-lived first-wave Floridian post-punk group who, in their afterlife, were crucial to the development of My Bloody Valentine. I still get ’N-Light’ stuck in my head from time to time. They only officially released an EP during their original run, though they’ve prepped and released a second archival LP of material recorded in the early 80s. It’s not that they were never not scrappy, but this one is even scrappier than Archaeology, if you can believe it. The collection moves between sketch-like recordings and longer, more developed stuff, even of that’s just finding a good groove like on ‘Notes From Now On’. This is definitely for those who like the weirder, sunnier side of post-punk like Delta 5 and Y Pants, and those into more contemporary egg punk-like material.
Sometimes the universe gives you pretty obvious signs to pay attention. That was pretty clear to me last week, when my inbox delivered a pair of records from Stuttgart’s LDS. One of them was on Tresor in collaboration with DJ Sotofett—another underrated name constantly on my periphery—another on Peder Mannerfelt Produktion, plus a second one from earlier this year, also on Tresor. The combination is certainly indicative of quality. All three releases are techno, no house (when Sotofett isn’t involved), maintaining an experimental edge that keeps things engaging at home. My favorite moments in this trio come from the earlier Tresor record I had skipped over: after a pair of tracks establishing his techno bonafides, LDS pivots to tense work somewhere between electro and juke. It’s all fairly gripping material worth getting a grip on.
[Editor’s note: ok, so the next day when reposting content to promote this on social media, I realized that, actually, the DJ Sotofett collab record is by a different producer than LDS. The similarly named LNS. Still not to be confused with LWS below. That would explain the house elements on it, perhaps. Three separate but similarly named producers! If LWS didn’t have such a distinct image in my head, I might’ve gotten all three of them confused for each other! Probably would have formatted this section differently (and cut the 2nd LDS embed) if I had realized this before hitting publish too. Anyway, I guess this is proof that just because you can write doesn’t mean you can read. I don’t regret the error because the tunes still bang.]
Not to be confused with LDS above, Edinburgh-based producer LWS returns with his first standalone tracks since last year’s exceptional Palloon EP. Still bass-techno hybrid stuff with a stronger sense of melody, development and progression than many of his peers. Still worth keeping an ear on.
Ghanaian artist Florence Adooni subtitles her album An Afro-Futuristic Highlife Odyssey, which certainly feels appropriate. This can feel a bit more subtle than you might expect, considering the strongest outside influence on the main genre appears to be bossa nova, to my ears. Still, you can also hear some of the rhythmic innovation of artists in the Nyege Nyege orbit on the sound, and I surely didn’t expect a 303 to burble in following the ambitiously-arranged, multi-part suite of a title track. Life affirming music in the best way possible.
They say the past is another planet, and that’s definitely how I feel trying to contextualize Royal Trux. Listening to this reissue of Accelerator is still puzzling my brain. They were signed to Virgin? And got them to pay to make this record even though Drag City actually released it? All these years later, this still sounds severely fried and out there, though admittedly there will perhaps always be some freaks out there attempting to reconcile what’s in their heads with the limitations of the tools in front of them (or, perhaps, I’m not doing the right drugs this is intended to be enjoyed under).
I have to admit, my eyes tend to glaze over when I read that a producer is exceptional at ‘sound design’. Not that that doesn’t matter, but often times it feels like an attempt to justify using expensive equipment in productions, or focusing on details at the expense of the overall track quality. It can be easy to ignore that something doesn’t bang or isn’t engaging when you’re paying attention to the details, after all. Leave it to Hessle Audio to release an EP from a Berlin-based, Bulgarian-raised producer of Greek/Turkish background. It’s an eclectic record for sure, taking inspiration from both recent and foundational memories of their background, yet nevertheless coheres and remains compellingly danceable. Perfect for refreshing yourself if the thump from your speakers starts feeling a bit too stale.
Producers and frequent collaborators Jacques Greene and Nosaj Thing’s most recent release is this single that pretty nakedly sounds like Burial were he to return to making proper 2-step. That’s by no means a bad thing! On the B-side, Audion remixes it into a churning, minimal dub techno weapon. It’s a winning combination of different sounds as far as I’m concerned.
The latest record from techno mainstays Steffi & Virginia sees the pair center vocals throughout this set of material. It’s a bit different than vocal house since the lyrics are a bit more prominent in the mix than you might assume, somewhere between being more mechanical than you might assume, and feeling more critical to the songs than the majority of vocal samples or singing can be in contemporary dance music. Be sure to stick around until the end as the duo save the best for last on this record, and here’s hoping some of this music makes an appearance on a summer dancefloor near you.
D. Tiffany has been a producer I’ve been aware of for years—I’m certain I’ve known about her for the majority of time I’ve followed dance music—yet nothing of hers has really stuck with me or been ‘distinct’ to my ears. Until this release on Optimo’s weaponise your sound sublabel. It starts off a good stage or two away from the dancefloor, all moody distorted vocals and hypnagogic guitar somewhere in the realm of Blackest Ever Black/Mica Levi/Dean Blunt. A couple tracks in, the drumming picks up and we’re fully in that post-punk/minimal wave, dark-but-dreamy space you can, well, maybe not fully dance to, but sway and groove to nonetheless.
Well, I’ll call that issue #85 of Crow’s Nest then. Running out of gas to write up a few more folks I thought I would—though I am listening to one of them as I write/edit this—which, in light of the above, I’m sure you get. Until next time, thanks again for reading and listening.
