SWEEP FREQUENCY #415: The Big Hurt
New tunes by Clutter, YHWH Nailgun, Cristale, Casino Hearts, Marina Zispin, and more...
OPENING RIFF: "Was it grief? Fear? Disgust? Whatever it was, it was beyond language. I'd sunk into my mutest animal self, and that animal was in charge." -- Sarah Manguso, Liars
SMALL TALK: A hard-earned truth I discovered several years ago is that anger masks your other, less acceptable emotions, and it's much easier to let it take the wheel when you're in distress. That's simple to say in hindsight, though, and it can be hard to explain that you spent months or years in a state of pure rage over something terrible that happened to you (or, more often than not, we let happen without realizing). We usually only revisit our worst moments once that rage has subsided, when there's more clarity, and we often tend to only pay brief lip service to that rage as we tell our stories. The most admirable thing about Liars, the latest novel from Sarah Manguso, is that she manages to tap into that rage in a controlled fashion, refusing to turn away from it. Liars is a (very) autobiographical novel about divorce, adultery, and parenthood, all framed with the exhausted rage that comes with trauma. Despite that rage, Manguso — who, full disclosure, was my writing professor as a college freshman 800 years ago — also taps into something else that we rarely like to admit when telling our stories after we moved on: the fact that people usually have a degree of complicity in order to endure a shitty relationship for years. If you've ever had to navigate those troubled waters yourself, you probably know what I'm talking about, and this can be a hard read if you have. Still, Manguso has written something that deeply resonated with me even if I wish it hadn't, and there are few people as well-tasked with concisely assessing a wreckage quite like her. Let's get to this week's new music.
Nearly Every Song From Every 2025 Newsletter Will Be Available in Playlist Form: SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC
1. CLUTTER - "KRAUT": While I spent some time last week talking about a bygone era of Swedish indie pop, Sweden's been churning out excellent rock bands in more recent times. Clutter are the latest of that wave, and you'll be clamoring for their upcoming debut EP after taking a listen to "Kraut," a jam that is equal parts grungy and melodic that reaches new heights thanks to both lovelorn vocals and a surprisingly vintage-sounding organ.
2. YHWH NAILGUN - "SICKLE WALK": This new single announcing YHWH Nailgun's debut album is just shy of 90 seconds, and it's unlike anything else you'll hear this week. With a backbone of rapid drums and expertly peppered distortion, "Sickle Walk" is the kind of song that you can feel pushing the boundaries of the gray area between rock, post-punk, dance, and avant-pop.
3. CRISTALE - "READY 2 GO": There's something about Cristale's rhymes that manage to feel as bright as they do hard-hitting. The former Crystal Palace youth player (!) brings a bouncy flow to a beat from Toddla T, and she'll give you all the energy you need to get out there and seize the day as the title might indicate.
4. CASINO HEARTS - "SAY IT FOR YOURSELF": The vibes out there are bad right now, to put it mildly. It can be a lot easier to drown out the noise, and this lovely, melancholy tune from Casino Hearts is a perfectly timed reminder to combat that impulse, all with gorgeous, lush instrumentation to boot.
5. MARINA ZISPIN - "PENTHOUSE SAMBA": Bianca Scout and Martyn Reid are releasing their debut album under the Marina Zispin moniker next month, something I've been waiting for since the good folks at Scenic Route hipped me to them last year. "Penthouse Samba" is a beautiful piece of synth-pop, one that evokes the shimmering and ethereal strains of the genre just as much as the cold and industrial.
PARTING SHOTS: Rebecca Solnit just launched a newsletter to log these dystopian times, and one of the first posts is a great call to arms as this new fascist administration tries to further rob us all of our dignity. This was a good essay about what recovery should actually look like in disaster-ravaged places like Los Angeles or New Orleans. As if AI slop wasn't bad enough, it's even in our public libraries now. Despite the horrible state of affairs right now, a lot of my brain space is still occupied by the insane Luka trade.
ENCORE: "BROKEN ENGLISH"