Ice Cream For Crow Records
Ice Cream For Crow Records is a “boutique” Bandcamp-based cassette label run by Gav, of Aberdeen, Scotland. “Boutique” meaning small and doing small runs, typically 50, which are normally split 50/50 between the label and the artist (initially local Aberdeen acts, as well as Gav’s own music). After Bernhard of Bleak Netlabel decided to pause the label with the release of Super Whippy in 2017, CA found themselves in the position of receiving no overtures from labels, and of having little sense of where we might go, either to release a further collection of ’80s material (Frank of VOD Records was winding down), or, as there was a lot more unreleased post-2000 material and we continued to record, who might release a further collection of recent material in the bewildering swarm of the contemporary virtual music scene, where specialist labels continue to proliferate, but none seem quite right for CA, yet review media, at least for CA, dwindle.
For it has always been a problem for CA, though surely it is a virtue too, that we have never quite seemed to fit anywhere. We are not industrial or post-industrial, we are not “minimal synth” (the specialism of Anna Logue Records and Minimal Wave), though we have made some music that falls into both these categories. CA started as an experimental electronic band that included guitar, with a strong emphasis on songs (though we have done instrumental music) and a background of listening not only to the contemporary mainstream and alternative music of the late ‘70/early ‘80s, but also to a great deal of the art rock, including progressive rock, of the late ’60s and 1970s. And that identity, as it has been remarked by reviewers, remains consistent since our reformation in 1998 (see the reviews for This Is Not Your Shape and Bad Meditation).
We do not fit easily into any category, which is why we use the broad designation: “post-punk electronic ensemble”. It was for this reason that the Bleak Netlabel, with its signature phrase “Music from elsewhere”, and set up to release just such difficult-to-pigeonhole music, was so suitable an outlet for CA. But Bernhard had decided to rest the label.
Also, although we did a CD with Bernhard, Bleak is primarily a netlabel, and whilst download figures were good, it is extremely difficult to get reviews for digital-only releases. For despite the fact that most music is consumed digitally, physical release functions as a simple filtering mechanism for review media in a contemporary scene – if the implication of some unity with the word "scene" makes sense – of overwhelming musical productivity/discoverability. A situation that has resulted in a significantly nostalgic attitude in prominent music publications, such as the curiously named The Quietus (quietus est meaning "he is quit", a literary term for death; what is it supposed to signify?), with its equally curious subtitle: "Culture Countered" (what "Culture" does this musical and cultural review counter exactly?), and indeed in much music making, and which stands behind the current futile attempts to emphasise community in the virtual world and "human curation" against the "algorithm", a now widely used code word for a contemporary condition that vastly exceeds assimilation.
We came across mention of Ice Cream For Crow in an issue of Electronic Sound magazine, in which Ben’s solo project themilgramobediencetoauthorityexperiment (tMOAE) had received a favourable notice. I contacted Gav and sent some MP3s through. Gav took us on. Rather than the usual run of 50, we upped it to 100. Did You Hear The Music was released 17 September 2025, an eight-track cassette of material initially recorded 10 years previously, 2013–15. We are very pleased with the collection, and Gav was very pleased, and surprised, to sell out his share of the run before release, as of course were we. GG, 15/09/26