Kate Ramsey’s video treatment for her band Roze Haze’s song “Charge On” incorporates some of the inspirations for the song and its themes of emotional turmoil following a period of friendships fragmenting and dissolving and a loss of what one that was one’s support system. In the early part of quarantine Ramsey had read Yukio Mishima’s 1967 collection of essays On Hagakure which prompted her to acquire a katana for use in her meditation practice. Knowing that helps to make sense of the presence of the katana in the video as we see Ramsey preparing herself with an extended bath for seppuku, the ritual suicide intended to restore honor to oneself or to one’s family or clan, purging the shame of some imagined or actual transgression. The tone of the music is ethereal and somber to fit the occasion of struggling with the competing voices and spirits in the psyche when you feel in deep conflict with yourself seemingly unable to overcome the emotional trauma of your life made worse when people think that on the surface you “should” be doing fine. The twin narratives of reliving one’s darkest times and more positive voices of hope, healing and moving forward work through the song with a surprise ending that won’t get spoiled here but humorously suggests that there was never really a need to take on the cloak of shame and self-persecution to the point of death when you can let go of a burden than never should have been yours to bear so heavily. It’s tempting to call this dream pop, new age shoegaze or gently cathartic psychedelia because it is all of those things but never limited to any of those designations. Watch “Charge On” for yourself on YouTube, give a listen to the rest of Rose Haze’s new album Maximum Security Prism on Bandcamp and follow Rose Haze at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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