Crumb Giver gives me strong 00s vibes, ARP synths and tense drums evoking the intersection of electroclash and post-punk that dominated my ears in that period.
The foreboding atmosphere and pitch blackness on this new single reminds me of Trevor Jackson’s Output label at its best. With dead pan, woozy alto vocals, Crumb Giver has a doped and disoriented feel to it as Van Ness lays out a seething takedown of a friendship that turned into something darker. Describing the song, she says:
‘Crumb Giver is about an ex-close friend who breadcrumbed me after we slept together—a confusing and painful dynamic that went on for years. I often felt like I was an object to her—wanted when it suited her, irrelevant when it didn’t—though in her mind she told herself she gave everything.
‘I wrote and produced the track at home two years ago during the fallout, then shelved it; the lyrics felt too biting to release. But when a friend asked if she could share it with someone going through something similar, I realized there’s a point when songs become bigger than the people they’re about.
‘Crumb Giver is an empowering dance track for anyone who has been used—romantically or otherwise—who never got to name the dynamic or say what they needed to say.’
The whole song has a taut feel to it — stretched to the point of breaking point, a threat that teeters on the verge of outright violence. That moment comes, sonically at least, in the song’s final third, with a clattering drum roll that leads into a wailing guitar solo. Vanessa pairs that with an instantly iconic line that likens herself to ZZ Top, laying into her subject as she sheds her own sense of not being enough.
Venessa Van Ness is a British American single who grew up in Venice Beach, California, in the building Jim Morrison had once lived in before he found success and infamy. Born of immigrants from Kent in England, her parents were both crafts people and makers, with her father believing music the ultimate art-form. Inspired by the DIY atmospheric of the Venice boardwalk, Van Ness began to make music. Investing in her talent with instruments was her way to offset her perception of her voice, which she saw as a weakness, yet is now a distinctive component of her sound.
Crumb Giver is one of the most thrilling pieces of electronic music I’ve heard this year, reminding me of the avant-garde work of Planningtorock. Check it out below: