Noah Berlatsky

Noah Berlatsky

Noah Berlatsky is a freelance writer in Chicago.

Noah's Articles

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The Linda Lindas Talk ‘No Obligation,’ Cats & Working With Weird Al

The members of the L.A. punk band the Linda Lindas are all under 20 years old but, in many ways, they’re already old hands at the music industry.  The quartet formed back in 2018 for a performance at a music festival called Girlschool USA when guitarists Bela Salazar and Lucia de la Garza were 14 and 13, respectively; bassist Eloise…

Georgia Anne Muldrow On ‘VWETO III’ & Why She Makes Music For The Black Experience

Georgia Anne Muldrow On ‘VWETO III’ & Why She Makes Music For The Black Experience

One of the tracks on singer/producer Georgia Anne Muldrow’s new beat tape, VWETO III (Foreseen Entertainment), is called "Afro AF." The title is a good summation of her career. Since her first full-length album 15 years ago, she has released more than 20 albums exploring and blending virtually every shade of Black music into a funky psychedelic kaleidoscope. As a producer,…

On ‘Transmissions,’ Beverly Glenn-Copeland Looks Back On A Long And Varied Musical Life

On ‘Transmissions,’ Beverly Glenn-Copeland Looks Back On A Long And Varied Musical Life

Beverly Glenn-Copeland's new album, Transmissions, released on the artist's new Transgressive label, is a collection of recordings from a stunning, expansive and largely unknown five decade career in folk, electronica, jazz, New Age, world music and genres of his own invention. Born in Philadelphia to musical parents, Glenn-Copeland entered McGill as one of the school's first Black music students. He was also…

Anjimile Opens Up On ‘Giver Taker,’ Sobriety, Identifying As Trans & More

Anjimile Opens Up On ‘Giver Taker,’ Sobriety, Identifying As Trans & More

"Buried under earth/All our living worth/How I long to be/blooming from your tree." Boston singer/songwriter Anjimile sings in an otherworldly tenor vibrato on "Your Tree," the first song of his debut album Giver Taker on Father/Daugher Records. The chorus sings back to him, "Nothing dies, nothing dies," as Anjimile's fluid finger-picked guitar is augmented by drums and flute. You can…

South African Jazz Collective SPAZA Look To The Past To Capture The Present On ‘UPRIZE!’

South African Jazz Collective SPAZA Look To The Past To Capture The Present On ‘UPRIZE!’

SPAZA's new album, Uprize! (out on Oct. 16), has a fierce, enthusiastic title, complete with exclamation mark. The cover is similarly joyous; it shows two women raising their arms ecstatically in the air, fists clenched. It makes revolution look like fun. The music inside that upbeat package, though, is a stark contrast. Uprize! is an album of meditative, solemn, spiritual…

A.G. Cook & The Art Of A Perfect Pop Song

A.G. Cook & The Art Of A Perfect Pop Song

On the phone, producer and musician A.G. Cook sounds exactly like his pop creations—cheerful, accessible and eager to race off on a tangent to explore the next new shiny idea that comes his way. Smashing Pumpkins, Cher, and Theodor Adorno chime and dance and spiral around each other as he talks about making music that hooks you with a fuzzy bath of odd…

Tricky Reflects On His Musical Legacy: “No One Sounds Like Me. And I Sound Like No One”

Tricky Reflects On His Musical Legacy: “No One Sounds Like Me. And I Sound Like No One”

"Hate This Pain," from Tricky's new album Fall To Pieces, may be the most affecting track of his career. Over a repetitive piano loop and Marie-Claire Schlameus' cello, Tricky half whispers lines about his daughter, Mazy Topley-Bird, who died in 2019. "What a f**king game/I hate this f**king pain/Was crying on the coast/Baby girl, she knew me most." Singer Marta Złakowska repeats the…

How Bandcamp’s Fee Waiver Days Are Supporting Musicians In The Pandemic

How Bandcamp’s Fee Waiver Days Are Supporting Musicians In The Pandemic

Like most musicians, Belgian ambient synthscape vaporwave artist Sebastian Dessauvage, a.k.a. Zer0 れい, has been struggling since the coronavirus pandemic began. Belgium has been in lockdown for two months and summer festivals have all been canceled. He's lost tour dates in Amsterdam and London. His day job in retail laid him off as well, and while he still gets 70% of his…

“ONO Is Gumbo”: Chicago Industrial Revolutionaries ONO On Their Latest Release, ‘Red Summer’

“ONO Is Gumbo”: Chicago Industrial Revolutionaries ONO On Their Latest Release, ‘Red Summer’

"I become black noise. I become that undesirable force on the landscape." That's what singer/spoken-word artist travis told me when describing his work with 40-year-old Chicago gospel/industrial/experimental band ONO. It makes sense when you listen to a track like "Tar Baby" from their new self-released album Red Summer. A tribute to the Haitian revolution, the song feels like it's composed…

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