Sea Glass brought in singer Misty Boyce for the hazy dream pop track “Razor Bones” from his new EP Elevator Chat. A spare guitar line provides some background texture to Boyce’s warmly melodic vocals floating in slow wash of incandescent synths. This combination and the use of vintage electronic pop sounds lends the song an air of nostalgia or at least a fondness for shared experiences in a moment of indulgent reflection. The song seems to be about feeling vulnerable and fragile but allowing that frame of mind to be open to the positive intentions and feelings coming your way. The line “If you’re the starlight give my heart to the night/How do I reach you? Still holding on” speaks to the ability a person has to harbor hope even coming from a low point in life. The glimmering tonality of the song evokes those threads of hope that keep a heart together that’s been broken as well. In terms of structure and atmosphere “Razor Bones” is reminiscent of the Lower Dens song “I Get Nervous” and that song’s own sheltered hopefulness. Listen to “Razor Bones” on Spotify and follow Sea Glass at the links below.
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.
There’s something to the visualizer for girl_irl’s single “float” with an avatar that looks like a video game avatar of songwriter Em Perlman working out her boxing moves. With vocals that are both dispassionate and bold over a beat of layered percussion dynamics and other electronic elements that bring an air of the menacing and mysterious the song is reminiscent of something we might have heard from one of the more introspective periods of Charli XCX’s career. The vocals at times are more in the foreground and others laying back in the mix like she’s sparring with a would be suitor who is more a persistent distraction than someone to take seriously. It’s a nuanced sentiment throughout the song even as it contains a bit of coolly detached bravado as on one hand the desire for attention is acknowledged in the way any musical artist, or really any person, would want but nothing beyond that from anyone that isn’t a serious person and who isn’t really interesting. The line in the chorus “Keep a picture of me on your night stand” and a line later in the song “Don’t be scared of the one you’re desiring” after a bit about the suitor’s girl trying to become the narrator’s best friend really illustrates the kind of person being addressed who simps but won’t commit and underneath that veneer of devotion is someone whose intentions should always be questioned. Somewhere between an experimental hip-hop track and an electronic dance song, “float” is a vivid portrait of a variety of human at a particular point in his life that wastes everyone’s time including his own with muted amorous adventurism. And as the boxing avatar, girl_irl dodges and weaves out of the pantomime of passive-aggressive wannabe romantic gestures with style and wit. Watch the video for “float” on YouTube and follow girl_irl at the links below.
Hearts On Speed is a band comprised of remote collaborators in New York City, Atlanta and Seattle. David Yeend and Mark Galis Hall took on a challenge to record an album’s worth of songs in less than a month and continued on writing more material with David’s brother Mark Yeend. The trio’s single “So Serious” has that sort of blue eyed soul vocal style paired with a dynamic, simple guitar progression that is like its own call and response riff accented perfectly by the percussion as it goes into distorted solos that embody the frustration expressed in the lyrics. The latter seems to be coming from the perspective of the kind of man who thinks his innate charm and force of will can overcome any emotional rough patch and when it doesn’t he responds with anger, a willingness to be a clown and in more honest moments confusion. These strategies that worked for him before fail him in this moment and he struggles with trying to understand what’s wrong when part of the issue is assuming it’s a problem to solve, a situation to fix while starting to comprehend that maybe listening more rather than imposing a ready made solution is the way to go. You hear that dawning in the breakdown section in the last half of the song where the direct energy of the first half loses some of its momentum and wends in more nuanced directions and here is a distinct change of mood. It’s a subtle move but one that turns the song from a simple “Girl why do you have to break my heart” sentiment to one where our narrator starts to consider that his whole approach is flawed and yet it’s hard to give up old habits for growth. Fans of Spoon will appreciate the dynamic flair of the song and its pairing of power pop hooks with elegantly rendered dynamic shifts in mood and emotional coloring. Listen to “So Serious” on Spotify and follow Hearts On Speed on Instagram.
Maccogallo weave layers of introspective sounds on the pastoral “Parafin.” The gentle guitar work and vocal harmonies floating on unexpectedly moody and wistfully uplifting horns sound like something from a dream, a distant and faded but cherished memory of a time. But the song is about the struggle with being open and sensitive when certain people around you are cruel and manipulative when they detect vulnerability as an excuse to exercise their low rent power out of their own insecurities until people draw that line and harden to them. But the song is about more than that kind of psychodrama. It’s also about not succumbing to the effects of those petty mind games and not losing one’s capacity to be vulnerable and being willing to risk getting hurt because the benefits of being more open are worth more than the fears of the actions of bad faith actors who can be identified as such and paid no more mind than is necessary. Musically Maccogallo here and on the rest of its 2022 album Monuni bring together elements of indie folk in the elegant compositions, classic indiepop of the 90s variety and shoegaze-tinged psychedelia for a sound that is deeply introspective yet passionately rendered. Listen to “Parafin” on YouTube and follow the Indianapolis-based band at the links below.
Dan Wilson’s single “Space Operator” makes great use of seemingly random tones in a steady beet to give a sense of being an entity monitoring interstellar communication networks and making sure the pathways of technology and infrastructure as yet unimagined up to the task of facilitating are functioning as designed and troubleshooting any anomalies. A disembodied female voice comments on the quantum phenomena occurring in this environment and otherwise the track proceeds at a great yet measured clip. Music it’s reminiscent of the Wire song “Ahead” but stripped of the formal rhythms and dynamics with other sounds more techno-flavored swapped in for the guitar, bass and the kinds of synths Wire would have used. It has that mysteriousness and momentum and a sense of moving forward boldly into the unknown. Think of it a bit like cosmic motorik disco. Listen to “Space Operator” on Spotify and follow Dan Wilson at the links below.
Ambient Music For Watering Plants is the latest EP from Past Palms. A clear nod to Brian Eno’s landmark 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports and possibly to Stevie Wonder’s 1979 soundtrack album Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through “The Secret Life of Plants” for the documentary directed by Walon Green (and based on the book The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird), Past Palms utilizes textures and processed atmospheric elements with field recordings to produce a musical analog to replicate the emotions and outer life of fairly common household plants. The track “Meditation III: Philodendron” celebrates the qualities of one of the most popular and durable potted plants one finds in most homes that host such relatively domesticated flora. Its vaguely heart shaped, shiny leaves with gentle wrinkles from extending out from a central stem often found hanging over the edge of the pot in one version of the plant, a fern-like structure with distinct branches off the central stem in another. All lushly green without being overwhelming. Past Palms evokes how these plants bring a freshness to a room without being obtrusive with bright flowing tones and tactile arrangements that suggest ease and comfort. Listen to “Meditation III: Philodendron” and the rest of Ambient Music For Watering Plants on Spotify and follow Past Palms at the links provided.
You would be hard pressed to find a more representative slice of underground/independent industrial/darkwave artists with punk energy and aesthetics than the spring 2022 tour headlined by Detroit’s ADULT., who have been pioneering that sound since the 90s.
Spike Hellis at Hi-Dive 5/14/22, photo by Tom Murphy
Spike Hellis opened the proceeings with its kinetic industrial glitchcore sounds like Atari Teenage Riot. Its aggressive and urgent beats and eruptive dynamics delivered a sense of displacement and disorientation yet not confusion. The mood was very focused and present with that disruptive energy seemingly aimed at the complacency that has the culture stuck, repeating outworn patterns that seem comfortable but has society trapped in a psychological death spiral from which the music of Spike Hellis and its ferocious performance seemed like a counter to that emotional paralysis.
Spike Hellis at Hi-Dive 5/14/22, photo by Tom MurphyKontravoid at Hi-Dive 5/14/22, photo by Tom Murphy
Kontravoid’s set set a similar tone with a flood of strobes in sync with the avalanche of textured melody and rhythms. Wearing a white mask and black clothes, Cameron Findlay seemed to channel and resist the spirit of an era when we’re all encouraged to monetize our very lives and become yes a “Faceless” figure in service to an international corporate and authoritarian agenda that sees pretty much everyone as interchangeable and only useful insofar as they fit into the strategy of maximizing profit above all other human needs or concerns. But with this music Findlay gives a powerful form of dark dance music that makes it impossible to forget you have a body you live in and that the experience of it is very much your own and with vitality of the performance and the sonics of the music it felt like you were part of something while also not being subsumed by it. Kontravoid created a headspace outside of normal time with the strobes and when they shut down it felt like being eased back into ordinary existence and that effect is surely a gift.
Kontravoid at Hi-Dive 5/14/22, photo by Tom MurphyADULT. at Hi-Dive 5/14/22, photo by Tom Murphy
ADULT. had been on the road for weeks prior to this gig and anyone driving to Denver is coming from far away. Nicola Kuperus may have alluded to this fact early in the show while at the same time seeming pleasantly surprised that people showed up maybe more so than in the past in Denver. But no predictable complaints about the altitude and with little preamble Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller gave us a generously lengthy set. Kuperus used her two microphones like conductor batons in gesturing with the crowd and prowled the stage striking an array of ritualistic poses as one might have come to expect from the singer. But it never feels rote from this band. There was no phoning it in, rather, a performance that honors why ADULT. has been at this project for some twenty-four years.
ADULT. at Hi-Dive 5/14/22, photo by Tom Murphy
The set list sounded seamless in production style though mostly drawing from the group’s three most recent albums This Behavior (2018) including the brooding title track, Perception is/as/of Deception (2020) and the stellar new record Becoming Undone. There’s something instantly compelling when you can see that a performer is feeling the emotions that went into the writing the songs, as heavy as they can be with ADULT., all over again. It’s shamanic in its ability to induce a catharsis for the anxieties, fears, frustrations of living in a country and global civilization seemingly bent on overt and what is insisted is subtle self-destruction with the specter of climate change and environmental degradation neglected for so long politicians and corporate leaders blame the effects on personal choice over the way the economic system is organized and prioritized to maximize profits and push the costs of questionable choices and agendas onto the natural world including human life in aggregate. The weight of that pressure you heard in the way ADULT. crafted atmospherics and in how Kuperus evoked that no longer ignorable agony that the is subconsciously pervasive with most people and not at all subconsciously for many of us. The honesty of that expression extended a human solidarity that underlined the show thus making it beyond a signal of the endurance of live music and the hunger for it the kind of performance that might actually be good for you too.
ADULT. at Hi-Dive 5/14/22, photo by Tom MurphyADULT. at Hi-Dive 5/14/22, photo by Tom Murphy
The processional pace of “What Comes Around,” the title track from Leland And The Silver Wells’ forthcoming album (out June 3 via Rubia Records) is represented well in the music video directed by Larissa Jaks. The song is driven by a brooding piano line, finely accented percussion and Leland Ettinger’s bright, forceful vocals that shift effortlessly from powerful and direct to introspective and back. The theme of the song seems obscured except that Ettinger’s lyrics hint at past transgressions and guilt followed by an impending reckoning cast in religious terms with references to the sacrament, the devil’s screams haunting the narrator and the sounds of angels gathering for a crisis of the soul and answering for a mysterious sin. Watch the video for “What Comes Around” on YouTube and follow Leland And The Silver Wells at the links below.
“Panic Attacks In Love” by Ferguson’s Daughter is not a conventional song in form, in composition, in length. In the background one hears a raw and aching conversation between, presumably, two people in a relationship who are discussing one person’s insecurities coming to the fore at what could be a crossroads in that relationship where they’re making big decisions that could change everything about the bond like moving in together as a big step and the possibility of starting a family but not wanting to be a bad parent because one person doesn’t know if she’s up to being a parent before figuring herself out some more. After all parenting while offering the potential for other kinds of growth, puts a lot of personal growth on pause for years even if you’re engaged and don’t do the obvious things wrong. In the foreground throughout is a spacious and lonely piano line that evolves and breaks from expected progressions and melodies to reflect the mood of the piece with peaks of tonal activity and lingering chord progressions like your mood when you’re going through a messy spell in your brain. It’s nearly uncomfortably vulnerable in expression but in the end cathartic for anyone who has hit that time in their lives when your sense of self isn’t as strong as maybe it was or that you’d like it to be but you’re faced with important decisions you can’t put off and heavy conversations need to be had to try to get to a place where it doesn’t all feel like loose and frayed ends. Thus the title of the track is perfect because in the throes of a panic attack everything feels like its crashing in on you and that you could die any moment for a sustained period that amplifies every feeling to the point of being acutely overwhelming. The song is from Ferguson’s Daughter’s April 2022 EP Blissed Out Blues which isn’t short on songs that pair dynamic and evocative piano composition with highly emotional lyrics and vocal delivery although the other tracks aren’t so overtly experimental as this piece. Listen to “Panic Attacks In Love” on Spotify where you can also listen to the rest of Blissed Out Blues and follow Ferguson’s Daughter on Soundcloud.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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