Bklyn Sounds 2/20/2025—2/25/2025
This week's shows include Floating Points (& friends) / Cassie Watson Francillon (& friends) / Ron Trent / Guerilla Toss / 'The Lot Radio 9th Anniversary' / Balún / Daniel Lanois / and more
The “For Los Angeles…” thread seems to be dying down, though there are still donations to be made and fundraising drives to join. Please help.
Earlier this week, I announced a Dada Strain collaboration to celebrate Love Injection’s 10th anniversary. Tickets are going quick. Join us.
THIS WEEK’S SHOWS:
Present Sounds, the LSD loft’s excellent Thursday night deep listening series, has a special treat, a pair of excellent, searching electronic music producers answering the in-house prompt. Bookworms is, by now, a veteran of NYC’s DIY art + techno community, whose live sets take on a life of their own; whereas infinityBC (fka 30000 AD) is a recent Chicago transplant, mixing the notions of “live” and “DJing” into what they label TDM, transgender dance music. (Thurs 2/20, 7p @ Light & Sound Design Studios, Greenpoint - $20-$30/RSVP for address)
Legendary NYC guitarist Marc Ribot appears to have taken a liking to LunAtico, returning to the intimate Bed-Stuy room for the third time in a year with a shit-hot new quartet (that also features guitarist Ava Mendoza, drummer Chad Taylor and bassist Sebastian Steinberg), performing a program called Hurry Red Telephone. (Thurs 2/20, 8p & 10p @ Bar LunAtico, Bed-Stuy - $20+$20min)
Alto saxophonist Tim Berne’s stop-bys at Lowlands aren’t as regular as they were a couple of years ago, but he’s still there at least once a month, and on this Thursday it’s a special group joining him. Where the great drummer Tom Rainey is a regular and keyboard/synth futurist Elias Stemeseder is also often out-and-about, the opportunity to hear old Berne cohort guitarist Nels Cline join this particular community fray will be a special treat. (Thurs 2/20, 9p @ Lowlands Bar, Gowanus - $20suggested)
Much like his recordings over the past decade, Sam Floating Points’ live shows have run the gamut from large ensemble spiritual jazz, to small band freak-outs, to solo electronics, which, considering the sound of last year’s Cascade, is the one I would expect. FloPo’s playing two sets on Friday, and while the late show is sold-out, the early one is not, and features a massive multi-layered line-up: drone-ambient composer and chanteuse Julianna Barwick plays in a duo with Mary Lattimore, modular synth technologist Arushi Jain likely plays solo, and if the “special guest DJ” isn’t F**rt*t, I’ll be surprised. Highest Recommendation. (Fri 2/21, 6p @ Knockdown Center, Maspeth - $43)
Originally from San Juan, PR, Balún is an indie-tronic quartet that specializes in lush, exuberant, meticulously composed and arranged pop epics. Pop though these songs may be, anchored by Angélica Negrón's reedy delivery, they rarely give up on the material’s emotional demands. The great violinist/producer Darian Donovan Thomas at times plays with Balún; at the museum tonight, they're also the opening act. (Fri 2/21, 6:30p @ Whitney Museum, Manhattan - FREE)
The practice of drummer Mike Mitchell, a.k.a. Blaque Dynamite, has always been hard-as -hell to pin down. A funk-jazz-fusion rhythm-keeper of immense power, Dynamite also plays with DJs (more often than not, fellow Dolfin Records co-founder, Ben Hixon) and sings electronic funk tracks. Truly down for whatever. Tonight’s gig at Dada Bar features a quartet with saxophonist Aaron Burnett, as well as Hixon. Your guess where it ends up is as good as mine, but in the best way possible. (Fri 2/21, 9p @ Dada Bar, Ridgewood - $TK)
The Lifesavers party is my low-scale idea of great cultural work, astutely curating great young Midwestern techno and house talent, bringing them to NYC, and pairing them with the best locals. Atop the Lifesavers 020 bill are Detroit’s electro futurist Shawescape Renegade (Jeremiah Shaw) and art-bass live-meets-DJ duo SCRAAATCH, with young Black rave conjurer Juno, plus KHOPE and Armoor. (Fri 2/21, 10p @ Bossa Nova Civic Club, Bushwick - $10-$15)
INTERCOMM is a new space operated by John Pugh (Center For Psychic Technology), who knows a thing or a thousand about constructing DIY energy and great bills. And this one’s a doozy, with bassist Brandon Lopez, harpist/electronics player Cassie Watson Francillon, artful conguero/producer Mobey Lola Irizarry, drummer/sound designer Mowri, and DJ Sodomahigomorra of Voluminous Arts. The gig is a benefit for the Ridgewood Migrant Community. (Sat 2/22, 8p @ INTERCOMM, Ridgewood - $10-30 NOTAFLOF)
Since its founding in 2019, the LA-based Salon Recordings has been one of the city’s great young exporters of house music, ranging from sleek R&B song-informed variations, to more strip-club-oriented slappers, to drum fantasias. And while Salon artists have occasionally graced NYC (s/o DJ Sevyn), tonight’s Club Night at 99 Scott marks its debut label showcase around these parts. With Sevyn and Salon founder Damar Davis joining local house stalwarts Donis and Sean Lyles. Watch their space. (Sat 2/22, 10p @ 99 Scott, Bushwick - $15-$30)
Black Flamingo’s penultimate weekend sees three of the club’s recent residents unite to bid farewell to one of Bklyn dance community’s foundational clubs over the past decade. Hunny Bunny, Planet B and Blvck Truffle bring the party records, and “Young Pavarotti,” Brandon Markell Holmes, brings his beautiful pipes for a live performance. (Sat 2/22, 10:30p @ Black Flamingo, W’burg - $10-$15)
I may be biased, having played a monthly show on The Lot Radio for most of the nine years the Greenpoint-based station has been in existence, but I think it's one of the best 21st century additions to New York’s musical landscape. There’s the great young DJs who’ve called it home, and have developed a practice they now flaunt in clubs. There’s the visiting DJs who’ve found NYC’s answer to NTS or Dublab. And then there’s all the other Internet/digital-pirate radio stations that have come in The Lot’s wake, providing even more opportunities. Tonight’s 9th Anniversary party has a massive bill of residents, and is guaranteed to bang. Highest Recommendation. (Sat 2/22, 10p @ Good Room, Greenpoint - $30)
FILM: Directed by Jacqueline Reem Salloum, Slingshot Hip-Hop is an excellent 2008 documentary about the development of a Palestinian hip-hop scene, focusing on artists in the Occupied Territories and Palestine 48. It premiered at Sundance that year, and got a bunch of critical love on the back of that show. (Saturday’s screening will be followed by a Q&A with Salloum and Suhel Nafar, a rapper featured in the film who, since then, went on to work in the global music business.) (Sat 2/22 6:45p & Mon 2/24, 5p @ BAM Cinemas, Downtown Bklyn - $17)
Another one of those Sunday stretches of Nowadays Nonstop that make me wish I had the Berlin-techno stamina (or stimulant consumption) or myself at 40—or even 45. Arrive early for Juliana Huxtable (8a) to get pulverized; get into minimal, lo-fi pop-techno primalness with Olof Dreijer (noon) (a.k.a. The Knife producer, a.k.a. Oni Ayhun); stick around for the transition into a deep MUSCLECARS (3p) groove; the end the run with one of Chicago’s finest, Ron Trent (6p til ???). Highest Recommendation! (Sun 2/23, all day @ Nowadays, Ridgewood - $10-$30)
A special (if a little expensive) treat: Daniel Lanois has led many musical lives, from partnering with Eno on various explorations (and pop productions) over the course of the 1980s, to developing his own idiosyncratic studio style that transformed the music of numerous Hall of Famers. All the while, Lanois was writing and performing a version of roots music that was ambient and cinematic, often veering into soundscapes, jazz and…drill’n’bass. In short, an experimentalist with a large-ass audience. This “evening of instrumentals and sonics” is a rare NYC club date. (Sun 2/23, 7p @ Babys Allright, W’burg - $$$)
When two great experimental music nights come together. Shara Lunon’s Heavy Florals meets Lester St. Louis and Luke Stewart’s Assembly to create A Gathering of Flowers, with a spectacular line-up. There’s multi-instrumentalist Samira Mendoza, sometimes Mira Mira, a producer/conceptualist/instigator and member of Las Mariquitas. There’s the mighty Lester St. Louis & friends (or which, you know, he has many). There’s tap-dance improvisor Melissa Almaguer and Warren Trae Crudup III on drums, doing their percussive duet thing. And there is the mighty Nicole Misha DJing all night long. Nothing but great people making community music and connections. Highest Recommendation (Mon 2/24, 8p @ Sisters, Fulton St - $15-$20)
It’s been three years since Kassie Carlson and her mighty art-dub-glitch punk troupe, Guerilla Toss, has released a new album, but the group keeps folding naturally into any musical conversation about politics or psychedelics or noise or dancing. And they keep playing ferociously fun shows that make even cranky olds <raises hand> feel like they’re back at an all-ages hovel. This one’s with Pleaser, and it’s one of Union Pool’s great winter freebies. (Tues 2/25, 7p @ Union Pool, W’burg - FREE)
MORE RECOMMENDED SHOWS:
esperanza spalding (Wed 2/19 - Sun 3/2, 8p & 10:30p @ Blue Note, Manhattan - $$$$) - one of this generation’s great jazz bassists and music-narrative reconceptualizers moves into the spendy club for a two-week residency. Some sets are sold out, but tix available throughout.
Leo Chang with Efraín Rozas: Primitive Technologies (Thurs 2/20, 8p @ Roulette, Downtown Bklyn - $25adv/$30) - cross-cultural interdisciplinary work between two percussionists working in separate indigenous traditions with custom-built electronic set-ups.
Sleepy Doug Shaw & Danny Arakaki (Thurs 2/20, 9p @ Ore Bar, W’burg - FREE) - two guitarists with expansive ideas about global psychedelia and improvised music, at one of my favorite musicking bars in W’burg.
Narcotix (Fri 2/21, 7p @ Sleepwalk, East W’burg - $15) - a wonderful Bklyn-based Afro-psychedelic quintet led by the voices and songwriting of Esther Quansah and Becky Foinchas.
Noah Preminger (Fri 2/21, 7p @ Three’s Brewing, Gowanus - $20) - record release party for the tenor saxophonist’s new album, Ballads, features an incredible quartet, with keyboardist Julian Shore, bassist Kim Cass, and drummer Allan Mednard.
Mdou Moctar (Fri 2/21, 10p @ Sony Hall, Midtown - $40-$$$) - tickets still available to the late set by indie-rock’s favorite Tuareg guitarist, playing acoustic tonight.
Rafiq Bhatia & Chris Pattishall (Sat 2/22, 7:30p @ National Sawdust, W’burg - $30-$40) - incredible soundscape guitarist and creator of extraordinary film score Bhatia, joins recording partner, keyboardist Pattishall, to celebrate a new EP, Each Dream, A Melting Door
Nora Rose Tomas + Chase Elodia + Eden Girma (Sat 2/22, 8p @ The Owl, Prospect-Lefferts - $15suggested) - excellent progressive triple-bill: Bklyn poet Tomas, a song-oriented quartet led by jazz drummer Elodia, and stunning vocalist-futurist Girma.
Bring Dat Acid Mama - Toribio & MD (Marsweather & Dio Garcia) (Sat 2/22, 10p @ Earthly Delights, Ridgewood - $10) - Two great populist parties join forces at one of the best new small rooms in the city.
Rich Medina presents HOME (Sat 2/22, 10p @ Nublu, Manhattan - $25) - the legend, Rich Medina, seems to have swapped House of Yes for Nublu as location for his signature NYC jam.
DJ Shufflemaster + Sepehr (live) + Bookworms (live) (Sat 2/22, 10p @ H0L0. Ridgewood - $$$$) - one of minimal Japanese techno’s leading lights returns to NYC after too many years, joined by a pair of great locals playing live sets.
Philip Golub & Lesley Mok (Mon 2/24, 7:30p & 9p @ CloseUp, Manhattan - $20) - pianist Golub and drummer Mok are an abstract dream brigade.
Katy Pinke + Jana Horn + Black Lazarus (Tues 2/25, 7p @ Sultan Room, Bushwick - $20) - back in the land of interesting singers with interesting songs, with indie-folkies Pinke (celebrating a new album) and Horn, and Black Lazarus, whose Kyle Kidd is fostering a local blues legend.