Genius #22 - Oct '25
New music from Okkyung Lee, Agriculture, Flock Of Dimes, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills, Snooper. MIDI guitar pedal nuts & bolts. Show calendar for November
Hello geniuses, today's issue has some true new release bangers. I've been spinning the hell out of the Agriculture album & the Palladino/Mills collab album, I think both groups have hit something special with these ones. It's hard to say if 2025 has been a weak year for music or if just less has grabbed me than in the past few years – I'd like to believe that it's a personal failing & not that the nature of life in our current world is not conducive to art.
That said, I've read a little about Ireland's artist UBI program & that's been really heartening – we're so far away from that in this country, but to see it take shape somewhere is enough to keep the candle lit for a little longer.
Let's take care of each other & let's listen to some tunes
- Capitalism
- Album Recs
- Replay
- Garbage Corner
- Upcoming Shows
Capitalism
I ain't buying shit these days. I donated to the MD Food Bank – it was really easy, they accept Venmo. With SNAP benefits expiring, we should all be looking out for one another. Feeding America has a food bank finder – if you have spare time or money, please consider donating to your local food bank.
Album Recommendations
Okkyung Lee - just like any other day (어느날): background music for your mundane activities (Shelter Press, Sep '25)
playful & rhythmic ambient
Florian Janyszek
If you're familiar with Okkyung Lee's work, you know that the Korean composer/cellist has an enormous breadth of interests and abilities: She composes works for classical quartets, releases insane harsh noise records, collaborates with jazz artists. Her 2025 record is a new sound for her – a minimalist ambient album of little keyboard sounds, tiny arpeggios, and slow melodies. A mix of piano-esque plinky synths, and organ-esque droning synths offering little plaintive sounds. At times, the pieces remind of the works of Faten Kanaan or Hiroshi Yoshimura. A cheeky title, but honestly it's true – you can throw this on and just kind of bop around.
Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound (The Flenser, Oct '25)
gripping yin-yang metal
Andy Fitzgerald
Stellar record that brings the listener on a full journey of Buddhism, black metal, queer America, and WWI. Both a black metal album & something entirely new, resting on a fulcrum point in the midway-point title track. To paint the story: we open with gigantic riffs, blastbeats, blood-curdling shrieks – songs led by bassist Leah Levinson exploring the horrors of life. Dogs haunting rabbits, fear of strangers lobbing slurs, desperately seeking comfort in the words of the Buddha. A classic "ecstatic" Agriculture song where the wheel of dharma turns brings the album to a fulcrum point. The second half of the record is mostly led by guitarist Dan Meyer, whose tender love songs and sit on a bed of noisy shoegaze, big rollicking riffs, and chiming almost-clean guitars. The album ends with "The Reply," a merging of the sounds: we open with blastbeats, peel it away to almost nothing, then close the record with swelling post-rock.
Flock Of Dimes - The Life You Save (Sub Pop, Oct '25)
lush singer-songwriter
Flock of Dimes
I haven't kept up with the solo work from Jen Wasner of Wye Oak, but since moving to Baltimore, I've been trying to stay up to date on all of the local output. Wasner doesn't live here anymore, but the record mostly concerns her relationship to her family & her self-imposed narrative of being a separate entity from her family. The album is steeped in the impotence of Wasner's savior complex – she dares herself to slake off her own fears of death and wrestles with the way her involvement in her family's addition issues may exacerbate the very problems she is seeking to solve. Her voice is dusky and suits the absolutely lush arrangement of classic indie rock sounds: analog synths, acoustic guitars, pedal steel. The album art really captures the feeling of listening to this record – a darkness with a bright light at the center trying to break thru.
Pino Palladino & Blake Mills - That Wasn't A Dream (Impulse!, Aug '25)
sparse & surreal ambient-jazz
[not on bandcamp, stream elsewhere]
I wonder if hyperreal is a better explanation – this is uncanny and oddly beautiful music – little flickers of sound with transformations that feel both natural and oddly naturalistic. The meat of the sound is the fretless bass from Palladino (a living legend session player who has played with everyone including the late D'Angelo), whose little bumps & harmonics are immensely satisfying. Blake Mills' guitar playing and production offers double-tracked fingerstyle acoustic guitar, as well as glitchy little electric guitar freakouts – slightly detuned chords that change the sound of the room, more intensely detuned lead-lines that push into ring modulation. The resulting sound is like being in an ornately decorated room that is melting while you're inside of it. There's a specificity to every note & every sound, but it all dissolves as soon as it's been heard. The album breezes through styles until the nearly-14min track "Heat Sink" which meditates on how a bass line can be mutated by what happens around it. Transfixing stuff.
Snooper - Worldwide (Third Man, Oct '25)
hi-energy, lo-fidelity post-punk
isabeljane
Great debut from the Nashville DIY quintet. You can't beat the combo of fast drums, lofi guitars, and monotone vocals with funny lyrics. Note about the fidelity: not sure how they got producer John Congleton (St Vincent, Modest Mouse, etc.) to make an album that sounded like it was recorded in a basement, but enormous props. Occasional moments of synth are a nice change-up, but we are mostly getting 1-2min long songs with lyrics about driving the company car to Planet Fitness, getting spawnkilled, the anxiety of dogs barking at someone you're with. The highlights for me are the stellar closing track where a krautrock jam simmers over until it clips the tape and the absolutely bizarre cover of "Come Together." I listened to this at the gym & it kept me going thru a pretty brutal workout.
Upcoming November albums:
Vastzination
- NYC hip-hop super duo Armand Hammer returns with legendary producer The Alchemist for another collab after 2021's incredible Haram. The follow-up, Mercy is out 11/7 via billy woods' Backwoodz label.
- Detroit freak rapper Danny Brown has seemingly gone super saiyan and has another one coming out on Warp Records. Stoked for Stardust on 11/7.
- Oneohtrix Point Never's new album seems like a return to his older work, with muted textures and slight movements. Tranquilizer is out on 11/17 via Warp Records.
- Baltimore math geniuses Horse Lords are teaming up with American modern classical composer Arnold Dreyblatt in the latest in the incredible FRKWYS series from RVNG Int'l. Vol 18: The Extended Field is out on 11/21.
- You better BELIEVE that I'm hyped for the latest from LA jazz supergroup SML. Their debut last year has kept in my regular rotation. How You Been is out on 11/25 thru Int'l Anthem.
Garbage Corner - MIDI pt 2
Back in July, I went into MIDI protocol basics with a promise of MIDI guitar pedals to be the next item. To recap: MIDI sends musical data between instruments on as many as 16 Channels and arrives as note data (pitch, velocity, pressure), transport (start/stop, clock tempo), presets (Program Change or PC messages), and parameters (Control Change or CC messages). Let's get into it.
Some guitar pedal companies have started to introduce MIDI functionality to their pedals – these pedals have microcontrollers inside that can receive MIDI data to access presets, sync up tap-tempo, and adjust the values of the knobs in the devices. MIDI input is NOT the same as expression or control voltage (CV). If you think your guitar pedal has MIDI capabilities, consult the manual!
Example: the Chase Bliss Tonal Recall delay pedal accepts values of 0-127 on CC#17 to address the Time knob. Sending a value of 0 to CC#17 on the TR's channel will set the pedal's delay time to the shortest possible; sending 127 to CC#17 will set the time to the maximum possible delay time.
Why?
Who knows? I've ended up here for a reason & if you've made it this far, maybe you are in this rabbit hole for the same reason? Here's a non-comprehensive list of what I'm using MIDI for:
- Presets: this is how I started off using MIDI – Oh No Oh No and Chanp live sets require drastically different pedal settings in between songs. I can 100% guarantee that no one wants to watch me fiddle with the pedals in between every song trying to remember all of the changes needed. With MIDI, I can click one button & change presets for all of my MIDI-enabled pedals at once.
- Intercommunication: I have a full electronic rig separate from my guitar – with MIDI I can pluck guitar notes & send the note information out to synths (if I play slow), match my delay time to the drum machine's tempo, sequence in pitch-shifted arpeggios, that kind of thing.
- Mid-song pedal changes: In the Oh No song "You++_Scientists" at 1:18 there's a moment where a loop slowly degrades until 1:42, then at 1:45 it turns into a synthy glitch freakout. This was recorded live in one take & achieved using a string of MIDI CC messages sent to my Ottobit Jr and Tensor via the ZOIA.
- LFOs: There's something about wiggling a knob back and forth! A little movement can bring a lot of emotion to a sound. Using electricity to do it for you while you play is even more flexible – it can wiggle smoothly or jaggedly, it can do it faster than a human hand, it can wiggle more than 2 knobs at once at different rates, etc.
Ok how
The main components to bringing MIDI into your board are: a brain that can create MIDI messages, cables to take that MIDI message to your pedal, and (if you have more than 1 MIDI device) a routing box.
1. A Brain
The guitar pedal itself is typically just a receiver – they typically can't transmit MIDI data, just receive. If you want to use MIDI in your set-up, you'll need some kind of device that can create a MIDI message.
You could use a laptop with Ableton or Garageband, or a sequencer like a Beatstep Pro, or a regular MIDI keyboard, etc. It just needs to be able to send MIDI data. It helps if your brain can choose what channel the data is sent out on, since your pedal can only receive data on one channel and it is sometimes a pain to change that channel.
The brain generates MIDI information and then you can send it to your pedals, typically via TRS cables.
2. MIDI-to-TRS Cables
We regret to inform that you will need more cables. MIDI data typically is transmitted on a 5-pin cable, but only actually uses 3 of those pins. I believe the reason its got 5 pins is because microphone XLR cables are 3-pin cables & they didn't want people mixing up their cables, but who knows – before MIDI, electronic musicians used DIN signals which are transmitted on 5-pin cables so it might have just been for flexibility of different control protocols.
A 5-pin MIDI receptacle is usually way too big to fit on a a guitar pedal. Because MIDI only uses 3 of the 5 pins, that means that MIDI data can also be transmitted on a simple headphone-style Tip-Ring-Sleeve (TRS) cable in either 1/8" or 1/4" sizes.
There's one really stupid problem: different brands wire up their devices to use different parts of the TRS cable. Sometimes, the tip is active, sometimes the ring is active, etc. LOL. Be sure to check first (minimidi keeps a database for you).
You could splice these cables yourself & solder them together if you're handy, but there are also MIDI 5-pin-to-TRS adapters available, which are great. Pro tip: if you buy MIDI adapters, get a piece of tape on the cable & write down what type it is.
3. Routing
If you have one brain and one MIDI pedal, then you're all set. If you have a second MIDI pedal, you're gonna need to rout the information to the correct pedal. Disaster Area makes the gold standard MIDI box. I use their now-discontinued QConnect – it was a huge pain to set up but now that it's done I never think about it. It has 5-pin MIDI-in, 5-pin MIDI out, 6 standard TRS outputs that can each be set for each of the different possible MIDI-TRS configurations, and 2 special TRS ports for expression pedals, tap tempo, MIDI-I/O, etc. The QConnect ALSO sends MIDI PC messages to manage groups of presets for all of the pedals. People are selling these used on Reverb for pretty cheap.
Last Thoughts
Overall, I hope this is sort of useful – I had to piece a lot of this information together thru different websites & youtube videos & tutorials, etc. It may be a little esoteric, but if you're intrigued by MIDI guitar then this should be a decent starting guide for what you need to do to make that happen.
Upcoming Shows
Catherine Savage has our big album release show on 11/20 @ Metro Gallery!!
Ok I only recorded guitar for 1 song on the album, but I AM playing guitar in the live band & this is literally the day of my birthday! Come thru!!!
Also, I'm going to be out of town on 11/7, but all of my Baltimore readers better be at a gig Friday night, there's so many good shows that night!
Baltimore
- 11/2 (Sun) Life, Ythgrp, Powerwasher, Grail @ Ema's Corner
- 11/3 (Mon) Biblically Fucked, So Over It, Culture Effect @ Skatepark
- 11/4 (Tue) @, Bella Hayes @ Current Space
- 11/6 (Thu) Hundreds of Au, Julia Set, Anaerobic Static Pile @ Holy Frijoles
- 11/7 (Fri) Pink Siifu, Akai Solo, Infinity Knives, Kaz, +MORE @ Ottobar
- 11/7 (Fri) Consumer Culture, Don Pardo, Mast Year @ Holy Frijoles
- 11/7 (Fri) Peabody Heights Anniversary w/ Sdot, Spring Silver, Crying Laughing, Arbouretum @ Peabody Heights
- 11/7 (Fri) Will Orchard, Bloody Crying Twinks, Sleepy Sword @ Undercroft
- 11/7 (Fri) Diffusion Festival @ Normals
- 11/8 (Sat) Peabody Heights Anniversary w/ Karizma, DJ Meesh, Blue Angel, Kade Young, Micah E. Wood, Eat The Cake, Giji @ Peabody Heights
- 11/8 (Sat) Diffusion Festival @ Normals
- 11/8 (Sat) Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, The Umbra @ The Zone Of Totality (2835 Sisson St)
- 11/9 (Sun) Militarie Gun, Liquid Mike, Public Opinion @ Ottobar
- 11/9 (Sun) Peabody Heights Anniversary w/ Super City, Hot Blood, Ray Winder, Landis Harry Larry @ Peabody Heights
- 11/11 (Tue) Ava Luna, Kotic Couture, Dyyo @ Ottobar
- 11/11 (Tue) The Arm, Nick Zoulek, Waco Mammoth @ 2640 Space
- 11/12 (Wed) Diffusion Festival @ Normals
- 11/14 (Fri) Diffusion Festival @ The Voxel
- 11/15 (Sat) Diffusion Festival @ The Voxel
- 11/17 (Mon) Heavy Heavy Low Low, For Your Health, Euclid C Finder, Tripper @ Ottobar
- 11/20 (Thu) Catherine Savage (album release), Sleepy Sword, The Cosmos Project @ Metro
- 11/22 (Sat) War On Women, The HIRS Collective, Mondrary @ Ottobar
- 11/23 (Sun) Ostraca, Samskara, Eyelet, Life @ Ottobar
DC
- 11/1 (Sat) Boris, Agriculture @ Fillmore Silver Spring
- 11/7 (Fri) Flowerbomb, Caring Less, Peak Bloom @ Comet Ping Pong
- 11/8 (Sat) Bill Orcutt, Steve Shelley, Ethan Miller Trio @ Comet Ping Pong
- 11/8 (Sat) Consumer Culture, Wastoid, Don Pardo, Colo @ Pie Shop
- 11/19 (Wed) Bar Italia @ Black Cat
- 11/21 (Fri) Wednesday @ 9:30 Club
NYC
- 11/5 (Wed) Jan Jelinek + Jefre Cantu-Ledesma @ Public Records
- 11/6 (Thu) Kelly Moran @ Roulette
- 11/7 (Fri) Bill Orcutt/Steve Shelley/Ethan Miller band @ Union Pool
- 11/7 (Fri) Bill Orcutt/Steve Shelley/Ethan Miller band @ Union Pool
- 11/9 (Sun) Jeff Parker, Patrick Shiroishi, Fergus Jones (live), M. Sage, Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn, Lyra Pramuk, Call Super, Amelia Holt @ Public Records
- 11/16 (Sun) Dis Fig x KING VISION ULTRA, Dreamcrusher, Chris Ryan Williams, Lo.S.O, Miss Grit, Latinacroft, medium. (DJ b2b) @ Trans-Pecos
- 11/29 (Sat) Kalia Vandever Quartet @ Public Records
Future Shows
- 12/4 (Thu) They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, Hooky, Snoozer @ Black Cat (DC)
- 12/5 (Fri) Model/Actriz @ Black Cat (DC)
- 12/6 (Sat) Raven Chacon Ensemble @ Library of Congress (DC)
- 12/9 (Tue) The Beths, Phoebe Rings @ 9:30 Club (DC)
- 12/10 (Wed) The Beths, Phoebe Rings @ 9:30 Club (DC)
- 12/11 (Thu) Bitchin Bajas @ Union Pool (NYC)
- 12/12 (Fri) Algernon Cadwallader, Gladie, Snoozer @ The Atlantis (DC)
- 12/13 (Sat) SML @ The Sultan Room (NYC)
- 1/15 (Thu) shame @ Ottobar