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Genius #3: Mar '24

New music from Lao, Mannequin Pussy, Discovery Zone, Moor Mother, Nicole Mccabe, and more! Polvo! Ableton 12 garbage! Live music across the eastern US!

Larry Michaels

• 9 min read

Hello brainiacs — Genius #3 is here! This month has been really wild for me with travel & with some exciting news! I listened to a lot of new new music while driving back and forth to DC, I’m pumped to share my picks with you.

Table of Contents:

  • Capitalism
  • Album recommendations
  • Replay
  • Garbage Corner
  • Scene Report & Upcoming NYC-area shows
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Capitalism:

Let’s not bury the lede: In March I bought a house in Baltimore MD. Well, kind of. I’m under contract on a house in Baltimore MD. It’s not a done deal. But it’s looking like LL and I are moving to Baltimore sometime later this year! We’re very excited to return to MD. Very much looking forward to seeing my DMV friends more often. Also, I also bought this album on bandcamp.

Marina Herlop - Pripyat (PAN, 2022)

Ugh I love her. Her music sounds like a woven tapestry of sound, with her chopped and looped vocals the thread pulling it all together. Most importantly, the songs are inviting and fun — Herlop sings in a mix of Catalan and nonsense syllables. We deserve experimental music that sounds like the artist is enjoying the process! “We have Bjork at home” but it’s not Grimes (woof) and it’s not FKA Twigs (blah) — instead, it’s something that I actually like listening to.

Album Recommendations:

Five brand new albums from February and March, no oldies.

Lao - Chapultepec (N.A.A.F.I., Feb ‘24)

Nineteen deconstructed club jams inspired by both the pre-colonial history of Chapultepec in CDMX and the modern club music of the city, it hits a really sweet gap between dance music and anthropological study. Lao is a member of the NAAFI (“No Ambition And Fuck-all Interest”) collective, a record label/DJ organization that eschews western influences to present dance music in a language of the global south. He uses naturalistic rhythms of the city to make intense beats that pulse and chirp! Listening to this makes me feel much cooler than I actually am.

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven (Epitaph, Mar ‘24)

Mannequin Pussy write snarling punk rock songs and they also write sparkling shoegazy songs — blissfully, they don’t worry too much about making each song fit each of their moods, so this album feels extremely varied. Plus, John Congleton’s production brings a nice sheen to the scuzziness. The highlight for this band is Dabice’s vocal melodies and her delivery (cutting deftly between a coo and a howl) — she is what makes this so special. Love that Epitaph Records is still putting out stuff that catches my attention. (Big thanks to my friend Gabriel for the rec!)

Discovery Zone - Quantum Web (Mar ‘24)

Dreamy synth pads and tastefully autotuned vocals — this is the holographic Twin Peaks vibe we deserve in 2024. Wistful songwriting with great lyrics to match — the opening track’s chorus asks, “What does it cost to stay? How can you leave / When you’re living in somebody else’s dream?” Love how each song feels shimmery & humming, with arpeggiated FM synths bouncing around light drum machines. One of my favorites so far this year and one of the better synth pop releases I’ve heard lately. Discovery Zone is playing at TV Eye in Ridgewood this Weds 4/3.

Moor Mother - The Great Bailout (Anti, Mar ‘24)

Moor Mother is a singular artist and poet. Each of her albums is at once genre-less, while being distinctly of her work — somewhere between spoken word, hip-hop, jazz, noise, ambient. One of the best lyricists out there and her depiction of the history and resulting horror of slavery & colonialism is as chilling as it should be. When I saw her live in 2021, her only banter in between songs was to repeatedly shriek, “WE ARE STANDING ON TOP OF GRAVES.” This album specifically interrogates the British Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, which offered reparations…. for the slaveowners who stood to lose profits. Of course their networks of trafficked humans were given nothing for their efforts that built and enriched the kingdom. The album is better than just its concept: each track has a different guest artist, who brings a completely different palette for Moor Mother’s poetry to run alongside or on top of — from mournful crooning on opener “GUILTY” to rhythmic pulsing on “LIVERPOOL WINS,” the album feels like a complete work.

Nicole McCabe - Mosaic (Ghost Note, Mar ‘24)

Interesting and varied compositions that McCabe’s expressive sax playing deftly weaves through. It’s an LA jazz group (mild shade, sorry), so it’s a clean and bright recording — but occasionally they find time to do some skronking (especially on ”Human Cycles”). This rhythm section really cooks — I love the piano and bass work especially. You get the impression that McCabe’s compositions were written for this band in particular to play. All joking aside about LA jazz, this album has all the breeziness you want from the city of angels, but none of the bland, 3rd-wave coffeeshop vibes that plague the scene. Bonus, McCabe used to be my neighbor in Portland and the weekly outdoor jazz jam sessions in the park near my house were a highlight in early lockdown.

Upcoming April albums to look forward to:

  • Michigan screamo standing army Heavenly Blue (prev. Youth Novel) is putting out their first LP We Have The Answer on Secret Voice 4/5. Let’s be honest: I’ll listen to anything Maya Chun records or plays in. This is what music is supposed to sound like.
  • Glitched out techno artist Container has a new transmission for Alter titled Yacker and the singles are full of blippy, slippery synths. Can’t beat that title! Releases on 4/5.
  • If you think I’m too cool to check out the new Vampire Weekend, you’re sorely wrong. I was 17 when their s/t came out, I’m beholden to listen to whatever garbage Ezra Koenig throws my way. Only God Above Us will also be out on 4/5 via Columbia & the singles are pretty decent IMO!
  • Ocean City MD grind freaks Full of Hell still have plenty of gas in the tank and Coagulated Bliss is looking like another departure from what is already an expansive discography. Out on 4/26 via Closed Casket Activities.
  • Australian electro-metalcore act Diamond Construct‘s new Angel Killer Zero seems like it’s directly influenced by the horrible bands that plague instagram account Catatonic Youths. Self-released, comes out on 4/26. Leave me alone, this rules.

Replay:

Polvo

I sat down with the Polvo discography in March & I can’t stress enough that you should listen to Polvo. They released 5 LPs and a handful of EPs over their lifespan, but I wanted to focus on their 2nd and 3rd LPs: Today’s Active Lifestyles & Exploded Drawing. These perfectly hit the gap between college rock, SST-style nebulously punk stuff (ie Minutemen), and early noise & math rock. Slackened, down-tuned guitar strings bend through the notes they’re seeking, with pulsing rhythms that highlight the band’s East/Southeast Asian influences: they’re not playing erhus or gamelan bells, but they show how a guitar can fill that role.

Quick history: Polvo came out of the Chapel Hill scene of the 90s, alongside bands like Superchunk (whose members run Merge Records) and Archers Of Loaf. Geographically & aesthetically, they seem balanced between noisy experimental Chicago (Tortoise and Shellac) and kooky, hooky Athens GA (REM & Elephant 6). Vocals are undermixed, with tom-heavy pounding drums and chord-focused bass taking the forefront of the mix. Squawking guitars dual it out in the stereo channels.

Today’s Active Lifestyles (Merge, 1993)

Where their debut was tentative and searching, this follow-up album is supremely confident. “Lazy Comet” is IMO a perfect song, “Gemini Cusp” is an all-timer album closer. It’s at once exactly of its time and futuristic — the kind of band that modern bands are ripping off when they try on a “90s aesthetic” as if that means anything. I could throw this album on and let it go over and over without getting tired of it.

Exploded Drawing (Touch And Go, 1996)

The jump from small Merge records to Chicago-based (relative) giant Touch And Go brings some immediate dividends: the album production is crisp, with the guitar work mixed a little better. The vocals are still buried, but they’re more confident. While the album is a little over-long, it vibes like they put every single idea they had into it. “Feather Of Forgiveness” is probably my favorite Polvo song. The elastic tempo of “High Wire Moves” is mind-bending (I can’t imagine playing in this band and having to keep in time with those sudden jumps). Honestly, the album slams. Weird & full of hooks.

After Exploded Drawing, Polvo started to splinter apart. Their last album in the original lineup, Shapes more sprawling, more prog rock. Less focused. Band members eventually drifted to different cities across the US. They would reunite in 2008 and release one final album, but that one also feels like an attempt to return to the albums above, instead of a real push into something new.

In 2020, Polvo re-issued their debut and Today’s Active Lifestyles to fanfare, but recent interviews with the band show humility nearing on embarrassment. It’s a shame they either can’t or won’t admit that they are proud of this work. I honestly don’t want to see another reunion (I will do some other lengthy writing about reunions)… but I hope that the band recognizes that they made something special for us. That their experiments from 30 years ago still shine a light on pathways for bands today.

Garbage Corner:

Fors.fm - Kit

I barely had time to play music in March, so this is a quick love letter to Fors and Ess.

Not sure how many of my readers are Ableton Live nerds, so this is maybe a bridge too far. Fors.fm is a synth company, but (as of now) they only make instruments that use Max For Live as the basis — so these synths can only be played using Ableton Suite.

Fors was started by Ess Mattisson, who previously worked with Elektron on the Digitone and Model:Cycles. This post is verging on free advertisement, so I’m not going to harp on it much. Basically, he developed this group of instruments and called it “Kit” and is selling it for $30. I think it’s a good bargain, I use all of these instruments in my regular Ableton messing around time.

Included in the Kit:

  • Pop: Simple 6-voice, 2-op FM Synth with a few different ratio options (and microtonal options)
  • Lux: Wacky additive synth with pitch env & slippery de-tuning (also microtonal)
  • Dot & Jog: 2 Sequencers — Euclidean & a simple, weird arpeggiator
  • Ego: Pitch-Delay (with smeary reverb)
  • Box: Flexible reverb (with nasty distortion)
  • Hue: Sequenced filter with envelopes

Overall, I think this is an extremely worthwhile addition to the Ableton Suite. Not paid content, I just like the stuff.

Scene Report:

mclusky at Warsaw (3/7)

What a band! So glad these lads are back at it. This show was rescheduled due to vocalist/guitarist Falco getting extreme tinnitus on the original tour and the set did not disappoint! They played nearly the whole of Do Dallas (my favorite, their clear-cut best album), plus a handful of songs off their other records AND a couple of new songs from their new record (!!). Highlight of the night: when the band broke into the hi-hat shuffle to signal “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues,” a guy in front of me sprinted at an acute-angle into the rest of the crowd. Like a football tackle. He returned a few songs later to drunkenly ask if anyone had seen his hat. Insane. Rowdy stuff.

Horse Lords & Ka Baird at Ottobar (3/21)

Note: this was the only live footage I could find on youtube of Horse Lords’ March tour, it’s accurate to the experience.

I was supposed to catch this bill at Market Hotel in Brooklyn, but work had me down in DC, so I decided to make the trip up to Baltimore to see the homecoming show (Horse Lords are from Baltimore, but 3/4 of the band has relocated to Germany). First off: Ka Baird’s opening set was SO cool, but the loud crowd wouldn’t shut the fuck up during their very quiet set and it really fucked up the vibe. Baird even left the stage at one point after complaining about the noise level. Baird is a noise/performance artist that uses their voice & flute, Max/MSP (I assume, there was a laptop on stage that was def running some kind of live processing), and the subtle feedback of the stage to generate tones. Astonishing set. I wish they had been given more respect!

That said, Horse Lords brought it: I don’t know how they play these songs lol — each composition is so knotted up in polymeters and polyrhythms that converge and then pull apart.. but the band always starts and stop at the right time for the breaks. At one point, sax/aux percussionist Andrew Bernstein finished a drum fill, stood up during the break, clipped the sax on, and IMMEDIATELY began playing in time with the group. Extraordinarily talented band.

April upcoming shows:

Later shows:

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