such as it is

Graham Latham

Graham Latham

— 4 min read

Don't confuse the way things have happened for the way things happen. It's a little axiom I've tried to keep close to my heart over the years, shoring up my resolve against all that pressure towards determinist metaphysics and "political science." Nothing has ever been anything more than the shape it takes in empty and homogeneous time, and though it's terrifying to think that no great historical force is coming to rescue us, in that conviction I swear I can also sometimes feel the strength of some ancestor lifting me up, insisting on the power and agency of human hands.

And I know it can skirt dangerously close to the edge of that other abyss, the seductive and totalizing promise of nihilism, but I still believe the only path towards meaningful hope is paved with brutal, unflinching skepticism. I can’t live without hope, but I can’t live with the word so stripped of purpose that it essentially functions as a looking away, so hollowed out that it’s little more than an empty signifier. We’ve got to look this world in the face with honesty and with courage, and then make our choices. What else is there?

Give me an historical perspective that doesn’t erase the messiness and beauty of individual human lives, an aesthetics that doesn’t displace action with its representation. Give me staunch materialism that doesn’t deny the power of ideas, and discourse analysis that doesn’t forget that most people’s parents aren’t rich. I want economy and precision, but not without subtlety. I want reasoned critique, but not without wild rage. I want ruthless self-consciousness, but not without sincerity. I want it smart, but also a bit crazy. That's not too much to ask for, is it?

It's spring, so like any normal person I've been listening to Operation Ivy when the sun's out, crying on the couch to Neutral Milk Hotel when it's not. The mix this time is once again all guitar and voice, alt country-adjacent indie rock to help soothe those 6pm panic attacks.

It starts off with "It's a Mirror," the lead single from Perfume Genius' Glory LP, which came out at the end of March. The fragility and raw emotion of Mike Hadreas' earliest releases is still intact, but as is his wont of late, it's buoyed with a kind of sensuous exuberance that's almost too radiant to look at directly. Next it's Montreal's own Nennen, which is to say dearest comrade Amy MacDonald, with "Aurora," from You Reflect the Light, her new LP out this month (see below for release show details). As I said on Bluesky, it's an album of graceful heaviness, earthy warmth and fierce wisdom, luminous rock music for dark fkn times. Then it's "Please Tell Me," a burst of folky indie fuzz from LA's Lightning Bug, courtesy of Red Hot Org's epic TRANSA compilation, which came out last year and features the work of dozens of amazing trans and non-binary musicians.

After that it's "Mona," an oldie from Toronto indie rock vet and notable Eric Chenaux collaborator Michelle McAdorey, followed by "Guthrie," an acoustic B-side from Julien Baker (whom you may know as one third of boygenius). Then it's Brooklyn's Big Thief with the thrilling and long-awaited studio recording of their live favourite "Vampire Empire," which, I'll confess, feels as though written to call out me specifically ("I see you as you see yourself through all the books you read/ Overwhelmed with guilt and realizing the disease"). That's followed up by "Dirt" by Finom, the Chicago-based weirdo indie rock duo of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart (whose incredible When the Distance is Blue, recently came out on International Anthem).

Then it's another oldie, this one from Jerk With A Bomb, whose The Old Noise LP, which I picked up after seeing them play a basement in East Van one thousand years ago, has since become one of my all-time favourite records. "Tragic Anatomy" is gloriously, unabashedly maudlin, its stripped-down hammer-on guitar line an embryo of what would later become the fuzzed-out stoner metal of Black Mountain. Next it's "Vacillator" a glacial yet strangely steamy highlight from Ethel Cain's Perverts LP, which came out in January. This is about as melodic as it gets on the album, which saw Cain taking a sudden unexpected left turn into sprawling, blackened drone (and then tweeting support for Luigi Mangione and doubling down when Fox News tried to call her out for it... Go team!).

Finally, it's Vancouver sound sculptor Ian William Craig with a standout from his 2020 LP Red Sun Through Smoke – "Weight" is tender and dramatic, built around a swooping piano lead that feels at once pensive and utterly committed – and Chicago's Tasha, with the generous and achingly earnest "So Much More," the title track from her second LP, which came out last Fall and has been fluttering around my brain ever since. And that's it!

• Mixcloud: such as it is (may 2025)

• MP3s: 25/05 - such as it is.zip

NB: The zip file linked above contains the individual MP3s as well as a single 50-minute track of the whole mix.

A few other things to note:

  • New Feeling Cooperative let me interview Robin and Mathieu about BIG | BRAVE's awesome new record OST, and about being broke artists in a town that's falling apart. Read all about it here.
  • A Closer Listen let me write a review of frailty, Toronto-based ambient composer Brad Deschamps' new album as anthéne: "Atop serene washes of processed guitar," I wrote, "Deschamps layers simple melodic flourishes and impressionistic field recordings, effecting textured and grainy soundscapes that reverberate with humanity and emotion." Read the review here.
  • Three big shows in May!

Okay. Thanks for reading, everyone, and thanks to Dave for steering me towards the light.

xo, graham

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