simianthinker

The Lollygags Call For an Embrace of Our Collective Imperfections in Struggling For a Better Future on “Grand Consolation”

The Lollygags circa 2017, photo by Tom Murphy

Denver-based power pop band The Lollygags recently released a creative take on the lyric video for its song “Grand Consolation.” Lyrics appear in a series of animations that illustrate themes of struggling through life despite our imperfections and the revelations of how our past, including the actions of ancestors we’ve never met whose efforts have benefited our lives, threaten to hobble our progress and development as humans as we contemplate what to do about that legacy. Life is often challenging enough and we rarely get the tools to adequately handle everyday life but the only alternative is to give up. “Grand Consolation” suggests that accepting what in typical cultural parlance is considered failure and loss is part of growth and completely normal for everyone. The chorus “The war is lost, we pay the cost, every day/We trudge along, and win, battles along the way” highlights how maybe learning to know when you’ve been wrong or in the wrong and dealing with it some maturity while also realizing that you’re not always losing just because you perceive some loss. Perhaps the subtext of the song, too, is that maybe that dynamic of winners and losers, victors and vanquished, is outmoded and a block to a better world both personally, socially and politically. Fans of jangle-y end of Guided By Voices and Archers of Loaf will appreciate The Lollygags’ gift for raw melodies and thoughtful turns of phrase in general but especially so in this song. Watch the video for “Grand Consolation” on YouTube and connect with The Lollygags at the links below.

facebook.com/thelollygags
thelollygags.com

Grace Joyner Illuminates the Foggy Corners of Doubt and Confusion in a Troubled Relationship on “Hung The Moon”

Grace Joyner’s second single from her album Settle In, “Hung The Moon,” attempts to map out the fraught emotional territory of connecting with someone you love. The layers of atmospheric dynamics parallel the varying levels of emotional intensity that come from being involved with someone who seems to be behaving in inconsistent and confusing ways. Are you being tested? Is being tested even really acceptable? Are you overwhelming your loved one and they don’t know how to tell you its too much right now? Joyner conveys this feeling of emotional suspension through contrasting music that sounds simultaneously melancholic, wistful and hopeful. The chorus “You’ve got me pulled in so many directions, baby/I started to think that’s what you wanted maybe/But now I am weak and I’ve got to change my tune/I thought you hung the moon” says much about how love is rarely if ever some simple process where you mix the right ingredients and always have the same results. And the subtext would seem to be that fundamental breakdowns in communication always leave everyone involved with an uncertainty that jeopardizes the relationship, sometimes beyond reconciliation. Since the song has the hallmarks of a sultry synth pop song with a soft but finely accented bass line and the intimate immediacy of Joyner’s vocals one comes away with a sense that this is a moment of doubt looming into the heart going a different direction than back toward the loved one that in singing out these thoughts maybe these wrinkles can be smoothed out in the end. Listen to “Hung The Moon” on Soundcloud and connect with Joyner at the links provided.

https://www.facebook.com/gracejoynermusic

https://www.instagram.com/gracejoyner

Ravenstorm Beautifully Weds the Epic Melodrama of Progressive Death Metal With Classic Romantic Literature on “Erlkönig”

Italian melodic metal band Ravenstorm combine metal with opera in its song “Erlkönig.” The latter is a ballad written by early Romantic writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1782 and one which evidently lends itself well to the high drama of progressive death metal. The animated music video for the song tells the tale of a child who claims that he is being assailed by the titular “Elf King” but his father not being able to see the supernatural creature comforts his son with more prosaic explanations for his perceptions of this creature of faerie. The father rushes off with his son presumably to seek earthly aid only to find his child has been taken from him either by a natural ailment or through preternatural means by the aforementioned Erlkönig. The animalistic vocals suit well the narrative and the epic gallop of the music in that grand tradition that one often hears in the Gothenburg style an apt emotional soundscape for the story unfolding as well as the tragic ending. Franz Schubert set the Goethe ballad to music in his time, Ravenstorm just gave it a beautiful modern interpretation worthy of the spirit of the original ballad by one of the godfathers of melodramatic theater. Watch the video for “Erlkönig” on YouTube and connect with Ravenstorm at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2HwkKXjcwlmQlZ71LKyhVX
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwprwYTO8LewO1AwCLQrOBw
https://www.facebook.com/ravenstormmmetal
https://www.instagram.com/ravenstorm_official

“Grain Barge” by From Apes to Angels Takes Us on a Journey From Exalted Illumination to a Blissful Endless Summer

From Apes to Angels, photo courtesy the artists

Millie Gaum and Andrew Brassleay bridge the worlds of IDM, modern synthwave and dream pop with their project From Apes to Angels and the new album Let the Light In. The single “Grain Barge” begins with what feel like the thoughts of immortals floating in a stream of the ambient energy that permeates the universe moving in slow arcing waves of distorted quanta. When the wind passes we find ourselves bathed in ethereal vocals that sing of someone becoming divine. And it is then that the percussion comes in with an urgent piano line that what began as the expression of universal beings congeals into a pop song of luminous but those grounded in energies and experiences that have a human immediacy. It’s an interesting reverse of the progression of many pop songs that begin with the earthbound human experience and aim for more elevated realms of expression. But not once does the song lack for an emotionally cleansing quality that leaves you uplifted at the end. Listen to “Grain Barge” on Soundcloud and connect with From Apes to Angels at the links provided.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/18bQ9mHwuOqLsppbBFVAtq?si=XiEhKLh1R8WDH4b0McYXBg
https://soundcloud.com/fromapestoangels
https://twitter.com/apestoangels
https://www.facebook.com/fromapestoangels
https://www.instagram.com/fromapestoangels
https://fata.bandcamp.com

Telestation Alpha Articulates the Mysterious Draw of the Possibilities of Unknown Spaces on “Underwater Creatures”

Telestation Alpha “Underwater Creatures” cover (cropped)

Telestation Alpha brings you directly into alien environments on its track “Underwater Creatures.” The layers of analog synth establish a streaming, abstract melody in the distance with a slow pulse of distorted tone like a slow cycling pulsar, a lighthouse or a new kind of sonar that gives you nearby imagery with intermittent accuracy. But in this journey, nothing. Just empty vistas of underwater landscape. All the while you are drawn further into the deep, further into spaces that are largely dark to the naked eye but which the extension of sensory capabilities thanks to technology bring within reach of exploration. The song articulates the draw of the unknown and the possibility of discovery of worlds and unhitherto unknown geographies and, with any luck, civilizations hidden from us by time and space. Listen to “Underwater Creatures” on Spotify and connect with Danish ambient and drone project Telestation Alpha at the the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5mSjb1ECyYlkvyGUiKsNtD
https://telestationalpha.com/index.html
https://telestationalpha.bandcamp.com/album/transmission-started
https://twitter.com/CodeElektrohttps://www.instagram.com/code_elektro

frogi Sings With Gentle Immediacy of a Love That Transcends Time and Space on “til i turn blue”

The way frogi arranges her atmospheric melodies has always given her songs a strong emotional resonance. They craft a sense of intimacy with the listener with a gentle immediacy. Her song “til i turn blue” catches us up in drifting with a nearly impressionistic piano melody and frogi’s contemplating the nature of the strong love bond and how it changes and evolves across years. How some people seem to be able to pull at our heartstrings because somehow we understand or have a natural empathy for what they’re going through and even if we drift apart for a time or forever that emotional dynamic somehow remains. Sometimes we struggle against it but frogi’s song speaks of an acceptance of that bond of love even if it can’t be the same as it once was because even if our lives change because we evolve as people it’s not so difficult to understand that our relationship to the bond can evolve as well if we don’t cling to the demands of ego’s insistence on the linear and the now. It’s a song about love in the spiritual and worldly sense but one that is imbued with a comprehension of the overlap. In a time of great conflict it’s a strong reminder of greater possibilities in our relationships with each other. Listen to “til i turn blue” on Soundcloud and connect with frogi at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/0frlcBV9pFq0Ip624rdUen
instagram.com/frogimakesmusic

Holden Laurence’s “Sometimes Laughter” Plumbs the Depths of Personal Darkness With a Tenuous Sense of Hope

Holden Laurence, photo courtesy the artist

Opening with a melodic bass line, steady tom rolls and hi-hat tapping with a ghostly synth haunting the background, Holden Laurence’s “Sometimes Laughter” immediately recalls Joy Division’s “Decades.” But when the vocals come in the keyboards soar into a more uplifting dynamic while somehow remaining melancholic, guitar melody gloomily bending in flanger. Laurence’s vocals imbue a story of tragedy and heartache with a sense of romance and humor at the absurdity of some of the situations life throws at you. Laurence played all the instruments on the track minus the drums performed by Michael O’Brien of The Modern Electric and there is a coherent and balanced aesthetic.The fiery, rhythmic guitar solo at the end of the song paired with ethereal keyboard work isn’t just reminiscent of Joy Division, but also of The Sound and the way the band could sound so hopeful while plumbing the depths of personal darkness trying to find there some revelatory and illuminating emotional truth. Listen to “Sometimes Laughter” on Soundcloud and connect with Holden Laurence at the links provided.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ni612NB9KFU963TGqohXX
https://holdenlaurence.com
https://soundcloud.com/holdenlaurence
https://holdenlaurence.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/holdenlaurence
https://www.facebook.com/HoldenLaurence
https://www.instagram.com/holdenlaurence

Woods End’s “Rowan Road” is a Vividly Haunted Tale of Heartache and Loss

The soundscapes of “Rowan Road” by Woods End convey the physical and emotional sense of wide open spaces and the kind of isolation that induces an introspective spirit. With acoustic guitar, drums and piano sweep of drones give shading to delicate melodies through which the haunted vocals sing a tale of heartache and loss cast in hear mythological terms. Perhaps it would be better to think of it in terms of melodrama as the details that contain the artifacts of memory and experience figure prominently: parts of the landscape, food left out, wind, a labyrinth of feeling. As the song progresses it’s grand architecture is reminiscent of I, Robot period Alan Parsons Project and the personal darkness, emotional struggle and sound palette resonates with those same qualities heard in a 16 Horsepower song. Listen to “Rowan Road” on Soundcloud and connect with Woods End at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/0aRjJ2EpWQe1C15B2N241L?si=dtIWvglfSn6C8xcltaV6bA
woodsendband.com
soundcloud.com/woodsendband
woodsend.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/woodsendband
facebook.com/woodsendband

Tess Posner Helps us to Appreciate the Relationships We’ve Outgrown Without Getting Stuck in the Past on “Ashes”

Tess Posner’s song “Ashes” sounds like a nostalgic look back on an earlier part of life. The uplifting keyboard tones and soft percussion give the song a feel of an affectionate look back at one’s younger self and in some ways that’s what the song is, partly a memory of friends with whom you shared dreams, creative ideas and the shared collective experiences that bond many people for the rest of their lives in some way but other friendships, like some or many relationships, have a place in a very specific part of your life before you grow in different ways that result in a natural drift apart even if the intensity and exuberance of that time felt like it could last forever. Posner also wonders how they could ever go back and find themselves again as is natural when you’ve reached that period in your life where you feel like you’re missing being young and feeling everything is possible (even if it never really is) and that you have all the time in the world relatively unburdened by the demands of adulthood. Posner with the song helps us to understand that these experiences help to shape our lives but do not define them forever nor should they and that we can revisit them in our hearts and maybe, just maybe, reconnect and reminisce with an old friend yet not live in the past.

open.spotify.com/artist/6E0ipJwSn72SyGZUHAp2ht
sonicbids.com/band/tessposner

DISCHAAAGEEE’s Frantic, Synth-driven Song “Xuxu” Sits at the Sweet Spot Between Garage Rock, Synth Pop and Post-punk

Imagine a lo-fi blend of Devo, The Fall and Quintron and that will give you some idea what you’re in for listening to “Xuxu” by Japanese band DISCHAAAGEEE. Its propulsive pace, regimented yet borderline unhinged dynamics, playful synth melodies and enigmatic vocals sit in the sweet spot between garage rock, synth pop and post-punk. It sounds futuristic in the way it free associates musical ideas and recontextualizes them to make something that draws inspiration from what has come before without being beholden to it stylistically even if the spirit of that music can be heard echoing in the distorted gyrations and frantic pulses of “Xuxu.” Fans of Pow! and The Screamers will appreciate the songs surrealistic soundscaping and raw energy as well as its undeniably catchy tunefulness. Listen to “Xuxu” on Spotify and connect with DISCHAAAGEEE at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3OEW90E5e6KLcFFRrDJCba
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK3Eokb8k_1NsZO4IQnLPrw
https://twitter.com/dischaaageee
https://www.facebook.com/uch.kenhttps://www.instagram.com/dischaaageee