Futurism Restated

I read Matthew Schnipper’s book Rise Above in two sittings—a sitting and a half, really. There are a number of reasons that I found myself unable to put it down. Matthew is a friend (and former work colleague), and one of my favorite writers. And its subject matter—Rise Above is about the aftermath of the death of his son, Renzo, at 22 months old—lends the book unusual gravitas. Beyond that, though, I found myself captivated by his ability to keep surprising me, page after page.

I can’t remember the last time I connected with an album the way I have with Lambchop’s Punching the Clown—the last time an album has gone almost instantly, within three or four plays, from object of curiosity to something more like a ritual ablution, and then retained that sanctified air, assuaging some deep and unnameable need, for days on end. I can’t remember the last time I’ve kept coming back to a record like I have this one, as though in search of answers.

In observation of the dog days of summer—aka the “silly season”—I leave you with an essay inspired by Pitchfork’s recent electroclash list, to which I contributed both voting and blurbs, as well as Anna Gaca’s related hyperclash essay and Sam Valenti IV’s excellent Herb Sundays essay on the topic.

Last week I saw my first eclipse. We were among the luckiest of the lucky. While 18,000 people here on Menorca crammed into the beach of Son Bou, on the island’s southwest coast, and roads to the northern lighthouses and other scenic vantage points were closed to traffic as early as 8 a.m., we knew the event would be visible from our backyard, so we threw a party. Maybe 25 people, including a ton of kids. There was beer, there was swimming, there was potluck.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been so busy with interviews—with Topdown Dialectic, GB, Lifted, Smalltown Supersound’s Joakim Haugland, and Balmat’s own Play Time (the trio of Ben Vida, Booker Stardrum, and Will Epstein)—that I’ve been neglecting the newsletter’s new-release roundups. That changes today! This week is all about the records that have been keeping me company over the past month or so. Hopefully, there’s a little something for everyone.

Unicorn in the forest, Oswald West State Park, Oregon Summer barrels onward. You may have noticed that it’s been a minute, certainly longer than I’d intended, to publish a fresh roundup of new releases. In large part that’s because I’ve been fortunate enough recently to secure interviews with some fantastic interview subjects.

For a while there, everything about Topdown Dialectic seemed carefully designed to defer any question of identity, meaning, or context.

For paying subscribers: some thoughts on the retromanic pleasures of Picture’s Uuuuuuuu (Short Span), which I was thrilled to see receive Best New Music on Pitchfork this week, smartly reviewed by H.D. Angel. Should music move forward? Not in time—all music, after all, does that—but in history? Should musicians strive to reflect, or express, or even prod the changing times in the forms they choose and the sounds they imagine?

GB (photo: Samuel Wilson) If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the AD 93 label, it’s that virtually anything might happen on one of its records. Still, I wasn’t prepared for the sounds that greeted me when I first pressed play on the promo of Herzsprung, the forthcoming album from the Copenhagen artist known simply as GB. The London label’s previous forays into rock music have veered variously toward gloomy post-punk (Moin) or batshit chaos (YHWH Nailgun).

Matt Papich & Andrew Field-Pickering (photo: Farrah Skeiky) Back in 2005, when Tortoise released an album-length set of remixes of their self-titled debut album, it was a rework from Steve Albini dubbed “The Match Incident” that most caught my attention—all the more so because it didn’t sound anything like that band’s music. In fact, it didn’t really even sound like music at all. His remix is essentially a film without images.