Genius #15 - Mar '25
Richard Dawson. New music from UE, Yazz Ahmed, Yama Warashi. Revisiting Mike Cooper, Nyokabi Kari. Spirit Of The Beehive.
Hello Geniuses
We are so back. The sun came back out, brought with it some warmer weather, and just like that, I want to live again. Who could have predicted this? Am I such a simple ape? Yes.
While down on myself & the world, I was looking ahead at the release calendar and wondered if 2025 will be a good year for music. The first two months of the year were so slow, with very little that could hold my attention. In March, that has shifted enormously & I found a ton of new music that spoke to me – I'm still processing it, but will be writing about those new releases in the scrap heap & GDC#16.
That said, the strain of living in our increasingly hostile world is going to make the act of making art more of a luxury – but it will also make it more challenging to find time, space, & energy to engage with music. How are we supposed to develop a relationship with art when the world increasingly feels like a single-use K cup that's been left to dry out? These are the questions that I've been pondering, while laying on the floor & squeezing my head as hard as I can.
Anyway, I was browsing on YouTube and was brought back to life by a comment on a metal band’s music video. I don't remember which song it was, but the comment read something like “it's a terrible situation in Sri Lanka and your music makes me feel better, thank you.” And THIS is what this is all about!!
Getting this website up and running (and learning how DNS works, etc.) has rekindled a love of learning & yearning – I have some good recs this month. Let's listen to some tunes together.
Table of contents
- Capitalism - Blokas MIDIHub
- Album Recs - Ambient & Abstract
- Replay: Richard Dawson
- Upcoming Shows
Capitalism
I found a used Blokas MIDIHub on Reverb.com at the end of January and I became consumed by the idea that I am a genius who knows his way around the MIDI protocol. Too bad I am actually a fool, an idiot, a jester. It's been months of tinkering with it, but I only just started to get halfway-decent mediation between all of my synths and pedals.
My main use case for the MIDIHub is as a controlled switcher for MIDI instruments with 4 inputs, 4 outputs, and USB I/O. But the vaguely inscrutable software also hints at some more experimental fun things, like MIDI arpeggiation, auto-shifted harmonies, etc. If I can get my main functions working, maybe I'll fuck around with that stuff next.
My plan is to set it up so that I can use my Digitakt to be the "brain" for my synths and pedals – while still allowing me to play the synths at the same time. In this setup, the Digitakt (MIDI sequencer), Launchpad Pro (live polyphonic aftertouch), Launchkey (big piano, but mostly a ton of knobs & sliders), and Hydrasynth Explorer (MPE) are all plugged into MIDI-Ins, while the Digitakt, Digitone+Analog4, Hydrasynth, and guitar pedals are on the MIDI-Outs. This way, the DT can send MIDI sequences, but I can still affect the sounds via the knobs on the LK or play some of the parts live on the LPPro or HSE. Someday, I'd love to get the whole thing running USB into an iOS rig or maybe an Ableton laptop setup.
I've started the beginnings of a live set that involve a bunch of MIDI messages being sent and mangled between different sources – watch this space for news on that front.
Album Recommendations
This month's album recs are heavy on the abstract stuff – inside out recordings, resampled sounds, negative space. As I drifted through the end of winter, I felt more like an outline of a person than a real human & I think that's reflected here. The only album rec I have which is NOT included in this list is Richard Dawson's The End Of The Middle, which I gave more detail to in the Garbage Corner section down below.
U.E. - Hometown Girl (self, Jan ‘25)
Vincent Giard
Captivating & blissful ambient record – and ambient in the true sense that these compositions sound like they were spun up out of the air. These are not a bunch of washy synth compositions, but instead sound like a computer's memory of a small chamber group playing abstract music in a giant room. Pianos with the sustain pedal glued to the floor, acoustic guitars, disembodied voice, fluttering woodwinds, field recording buzz, a drumkit in the room mic. Everything’s been run through the washing machine over and over and then left out to dry in the sun, the pastel colors all ran together. Stunningly musical, nothing about this feels throwaway – an easy front runner for me so far this year. The song "Drawing Of Me" is as close to a pop song as this one gets and it's chemically sublime – solid sounds evaporating into mist. Every time I revisit this record, I hear something new that I hadn't heard the last time. Big recommend.
Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise In The Hold (NTS, Feb ‘25)
Jeremy Cherfas
If you're into jazz that leans over until it becomes more of an Arabic psych-rock, have I got a record for you. What a rich palette of sounds! The Bahraini-British Ahmed’s trumpet work is obviously stellar, but her compositions give a ton of space for percussion, slippery bass guitar, murky synths, and (in a first for Ahmed) voice. Most of the vocals are in Arabic, which sound incredible – but one or 2 of the English language vocal tracks slip into vocal jazz, which I could take or leave. The lyrics were inspired by her heritage — she trawled bookstores in her home country for poems and prayers that she could morph into lyrics. An expansive and engrossing listen.
Mike Cooper - Rayon Hula (Room40, 2005)
smoothiebrain
Imaginative rethinking of “exotica” music from the veteran English guitarist/cosmonaut. Vibraphones, lap steel guitars, sliding acoustics, resampled crackly vinyl, and field recordings from the artist's travels in Kiritbati all get jumbled up into an experimental electronic record. Cooper’s driving notion was to demonstrate the tenuousness of island living, thanks to the destructive forces of colonialism and global capital. The album is the audio equivalent of going to the beach and looking at a screensaver instead of the vista. Don't just take it from me, here’s an instructive quote from the artist himself, written in the liner notes for this album:
“Kiribati is a Pacific Island Nation and was one of the last places to be settled by humans and will be one of the first to disappear as the waters rise due to Global Warming. Is music political that has no lyrics? I would like to think so.”
Yama Warashi - At My Mother’s Piano (PRAH, Feb ‘24)
Jeremy Cherfas
Touching and intimate, tastefully reverb'd. Not sure what the genre of music for this would be besides “piano music” – it's not classical, it's not jazz, but it's almost like parlor music. The sound is exactly what the title indicates: returning to an old instrument, tentatively getting it back under your fingers, and then wailing on it as the memories come flooding back. Each composition builds up from simple notes, with field recordings and conversations mixed in. I hate to say this, since it's so much more, but this is fantastic music for working or writing – you can sync up your flowstate with the artist's and just let it all fly out from you.
Nyokabi Kariũki - FEELING BODY (Cmntx, 2023)
stair
Might be the first true "post-COVID" album? Kenyan-American vocalist & experimental composer Kariũki wrote the album while struggling through gnarly symptoms of long COVID; she explores of the frailties of the human body and what it’s like to look at yourself inside out and pray for healing. Kariũki uses a mix of field recordings taken on different continents, lush self-harmonies, and deeply probing lyrics – the full package is honestly a pretty uncomfortable listen, but an engaging and intimate experience. If you're willing to sit with the artist's pain, you may learn more about her and yourself in the process.
Upcoming April albums:
Jeremy Cherfas
- LA Jazz trio Greg Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, and Sam Wilkes are releasing a self-titled album on 4/3 on International Anthem. Very stoked! Uhlmann and Johnson's work with SML was one of my faves from last year, I'm sure this trio will be stellar.
- Berghain DJ Barker is releasing his 2nd full length, Stochastic Drift, on 4/4 via Smalltown Supersound. This guy is a wizard with an arpeggiator, really satisfying percussive synths – I'm excited to hear what he's been cooking up.
- South London chamber-sextet Black Country New Road are releasing their first record since lead vocalist Isaac Wood left the group. I'll be checking it out! Forever Howlong is out on 4/4 via Ninja Tune.
- Deerhoof, one of my all time favorite bands, are putting out another one! Noble and Godlike in Ruin is out on 4/25 via Joyful Noise. Absolutely perfect band, so excited.
- PNW heavy-as-fuck freaks SUMAC and Philly rapper/poet Moor Mother are collaborating on a new album after BOTH artists just put out some of my fave albums of the year last year. I'm flipping out a little! The Film is out on 4/25 via Thrill Jockey. Let's (and I can't stress this enough) go.
Replay: Richard Dawson
I’ve been on stage enough times, I’m kind of steeled to live music performance — I know what it’s like to stand there and look out at a sea of faces (ok a puddle of faces). When I go to see a show, I have to fight the urge to investigate it from a technical perspective. What amp is the guitarist using? How is it mic'd up? Is the stage lighting is being manipulated in time with the music? How many inputs are in use on the board? Is the bass mixed right? Boring garbage! And, even worse, I annoy you when I lean over to try and tell you about it mid-set! YIKES. Shut the fuck up, me!!!
There is a terribly shot, but effective video from the Public Records show – I recommend listening & not bothering to watch.
Two years ago, I went to see Richard Dawson perform at Public Records at his first ever US show and all of those thoughts melted away. I was a fan before, but I left the show a convert. I literally cried! I was fully taken in. His evocative lyrics are moving, but his uninhibited delivery & animalistic approach to the guitar imbues so much humanity to his North English folk songs.
At the Public Records gig, Dawson had just arrived in the US and was completing a short tour to Chicago – the time difference had an impact on him, but he allowed that exhaustion to fuel the performance. He performed solo, singing and playing an electric guitar plugged directly into an amplifier. A perfect accompaniment to his thoughtfully-written folk songs, tumbling back & forth between meditative fingerstyle passages and absolutely rocking the fuck out. Lyrics were easily understood over the best soundsystem in America as he boomed, whispered, crooned in falsetto, croaked, bellowed, and howled. I was completely transfixed, hanging on every word.
The End Of The Middle was released on 2/14 and is a perfect starting point for getting into Dawson's music — there are no super long songs (his last album opened with a 45min epic track), no unaccompanied vocal folk songs, and no fully instrumental songs – all of which are incredible, but can be off-putting to a first time listener. His lyrics on this album also tend to focus on families, especially fathers and husbands, with clear-eyed looks at gendered family dynamics.
Richard Dawson - End of the Middle (Weird World, Feb '25)
afancalleddeath
If you’re into stuff like earlier Mountain Goats or Mount Eerie, then this might be a somewhat familiar description: slice-of-life folk songs with wordy songwriting & specific historical references & questionable-but-charming vocals. The splitting point is a raggedness to the approach – primitivist fingerstyle guitar, a Waitsian method of using his voice as an instrument itself. Add in a dose of vocal range-jumping Sheffield psych (a la Robert Wyatt) and you've got something that gets at the root of folk music: tradition & passion.
The music for these songs is not as wild and primal as in his earlier releases – where earlier instrumental passages would be full of the unmistakable buzz of a loose string slapping against the fretboard, his touch has become lighter. Instead there's a stripped-back folk rock approach, featuring the right mix of rock band, sparsely arranged guitar & vocal songs, and just the right amount of occasional free-jazz clarinet skronk.
The lyrics are where Dawson shines on this one. My favorite tracks from the new record are "Polytunnel," where an amateur gardener-narrator explains how it is that he‘s taken over an ailing lover’s community plot, and "The question," whose narrators impart a ghost story: a parent remembers their young daughter's encounter with a beheaded ghost of a train conductor in their old house, then the daughter sees the apparition again as an adult. The ghost carries his own head, which repeatedly asks her "where are you going?" in different tones.
Lyrically, the way Dawson takes the family unit & the way that our interactions echo forward/backward is nothing short of a miracle of songwriting. His previous albums look at these interactions on a grander scale: from 2017 to 2022, he released a tryptich of records whose themes span English daily life from medieval ages, to late 2010s, and then the year 2500. Each album works in remarkable specificity & this newest one feels like a perfect entry point to his unique voice.
afancalleddeath
I've found a lot of joy in going from his newest release backward to his oldest – I think that there's a sweet spot in his mid career, but seeing how the songs connect to each other and how he's grown is a rewarding journey.
Scene Report
Spirit Of The Beehive, Kassie Krut, POLO PERKS <3 <3 <3 @ Black Cat (3/9)
I haven't been to the Black Cat in DC since probably 2018? I caught a Superchunk show there before I moved to Portland & haven't been to many shows in DC since then. It's still my favorite spot to see music in DC, even if the basement back room has been converted into a Brooklinen & the whole vibe of 14th St NW is like a Warby Parker that broke its containment zone. Bonus: my buddy Lee was working sound – hi Lee! Everything sounded great!
Opener POLO PERKS is a Bronx rapper who won the crowd over with his loose delivery & charming banter. Sure, it also helped that one his beats was a crispy deep-fried ”Mr Brightside” sample. It was kind of embarrassing that people were not feeling it at first 0r not really responsive to his stuff — get with it, people. Goofy lyrics, kinda backseat rhymes – his DJ looked like he got out of school early to be there. It’s gotta be so hard to lead off an indie rock tour as a rapper. Lots of respect to Perks.
Nice to finally catch the ex-Palm group Kassie Krut live. There was a brief moment where I thought the 2 vocalists would be my neighbors in Brooklyn (I helped them get in touch with my neighbor to tour the apartment underneath my old place), but that's not really relevant to this, it's just a funny and kind of weird story.
To me, the Krut material comes through better live – the recording has more of a hyperpop sound, but in the live context, you get more of the harsh noise & dub influence. The trio had 2 MIDI controllers & a noise table rig with a hi hat and an electric guitar on it (both played with a drumstick). Sick as hell. On the record, it's all kind of smashed together & sounds more like it's all done in Ableton, so it was cool to get more insight into the songs.
Spirit of the Beehive looked like they wanted to go home so bad. Technical issues with instruments, interband disagreements over how long the samples should play in between songs, and pleas with the sound desk for more vocals in monitors.. the vibes weren't great. Will this be the last SOTB show of all time? Hopefully not!
That said, it's amazing that they can play this whole set – it's about an hour of music with such an intricate setup: multiple laptops running Ableton, mid-song instrument exchanges between bandmates, giant swings in tempo, etc. Impressive from a technical perspective, but then the songs are also emotional – their set was made up mostly of the new album, where both lead vocalists sing about the dissolution of their relationship. Maybe it's more obvious why they were excited to finish the tour & go sleep in their own beds!
For me, I left seeing a band that was at the end of their rope, but it didn't change my relationship with the music – I've been revisiting these albums and still finding so many lovely moments and ideas that sprout up like little flowers in between the cracks of the verses & choruses. I hope that there's more to come, but there's already so much here to revisit.
Upcoming Shows
I am continuing to play shows in the area with Catherine Savage – two Wednesday nights in April! There are a ton of cool shows happening in DC this month, hopefully I'll be able to jump down and catch FACS and YHWH Nailgun.
Baltimore
- 4/1 (Tue) Still House Plants, Aunt Katrina @ Ottobar
- 4/5 (Sat) Susan Alcorn Memorial @ Normals
- 4/6 (Sun) John Berndt discussion abt improv @ Normal's
- 4/8 (Tue) Diles Que No Me Maten @ Ottobar
- 4/9 (Wed) Brainiac @ Metro
- 4/12 (Sat) Kool Keith @ Mobtown Ballroom
- 4/13 (Sun) CH of Hirsceh Nicht aufs Sofa @ Normals
- 4/14 (Mon) Jerome's Dream, Eyelet, Gloop @ Metro
- 4/18 (Fri) Swami John Reis, Cloak/Dagger @ Metro
- 4/23 (Wed) Loolowingen, Lean Tee, File Select, Room Corners @ Metro
- 4/30 (Wed) Bloody Crying Twinks, The Namby Pamby, Catherine Savage @ Ottobar
DC
- 4/7 (Mon) FACS @ Songbyrd
- 4/13 (Sun) YHWH Nailgun @ Songbyrd
- 4/14 (Mon) RAP Ferreira @ Songbyrd
- 4/15 (Tue) Mabe Fratti @ Songbyrd
- 4/16 (Wed) King Hannah & Catherine Savage @ Pearl St Warehouse
- 4/17 (Thu) MIKE @ Black Cat
- 4/20 (Sun) Mount Eerie @ The Atlantis
NYC
- 4/2 (Wed) Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio (w/ Natto Maki, Oden) @ ibeam
- 4/3 (Thu) Still House Plants @ Elsewhere zone 1
- 4/12 (Sat) Outline Fest: Explosions In The Sky, múm, Mabe Fratti, They Are Gutting a Body of Water, upsammy, Diles Que No Me Maten @ Knockdown Center
- 4/12 (Sat) Tim Berne Warped Ensemble @ The Jazz Gallery
- 4/19 (Sat) Mkultra, sana sana, Trophy Wife @ Purgatory
Philly
- 4/5 (Sat) Butcher Brown @ Milkboy
- 4/8 (Tue) FACS @ Johnny Brendas
- 4/9 (Wed) Wormrot, No Mas @ Kung Fu Necktie
- 4/11 (Fri) YHWH Nailgun, babybaby_explores @ Ukie Club
- 4/12 (Sat) Nels Cline Quartet @ Solar Myth
- 4/13 (Sun) Mabe Fratti @ World Café Live
- 4/13 (Sun) Diles Que No Me Maten @ PhilaMOCA
Future Shows
- 5/1 (Thu) Argentinian Turnable & Synthesizer @ Normals (Baltimore)
- 5/3 (Sat) Tim Hecker @ Black Cat (DC)
- 5/3 (Sat) Steve Lyman, BlankFor.ms, Donny McCaslin @ Ki Smith Gallery (NYC)
- 5/4 (Sun) Napalm Death & The Melvins @ Soundstage (Baltimore)
- 5/4 (Sun) Nuvolascura, Life, Julia Set @ Metro (Baltimore)
- 5/5 (Mon) Nada Surf @ Ottobar (Baltimore)
- 5/8 (Thu) Krallice @ The Broadway (NYC)
- 5/8 (Thu) Roger C Miller (from Mission of Burma) @ Normals (Baltimore)
- 5/9 (Fri) Oneohtrix Point Never, Nala Sinephro, Two Shell, etc. @ Knockdown Center (NYC)
- 5/21 (Wed) Squid @ Black Cat (DC)
- 5/31 (Sat) Full of Hell, Harm's Way, Jarhead Fertilizer @ Baltimore Soundstage (Baltimore)
- 6/7 (Sat) Perfume Genius @ 9:30 Club (DC)
- 6/7 (Sat) Young Widows, Rid of Me, Kal Marks @ Metro (Baltimore)
- 6/8 (Sun) JPEGMAFIA @ Baltimore Soundstage (Baltimore)
- 6/10 (Tue) John Wiese, Lana Del Rabies, Jeff Carey @ Metro (Baltimore)
- 6/13 (Fri) Astrid Sonne @ Current Space (Baltimore)
- 6/23 (Mon) GY!BE @ 9:30 Club (DC)
- 6/25 (Wed) Femi Kuti @ 9:30 Club (DC)