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Otis Mensah’s Mystical, Existential “That Mouth Of Rainfall” is an Avant-Downtempo Hip-Hop Exploration of Identity, Depression and Dreams

Otis Mensah, photo from cover of *WINTERSKIN*

Otis Mensah, the first Poet Laureate of the City of Sheffield in the UK, free associates spiritual imagery and experiences with those more earth bound throughout “That Mouth Of Rainfall” (featuring contributions from Rituals of Mine). In the music video we see Mensah walking through a church and the streets of Berlin captured on Super 8 which suits well the soft, soulful, pulsing synth and hushed, downtempo production and Mensah’s sentiments with each line of lyrics. Mensah navigates issues of perception and reality, of identity and aspirations and how those intersect with a life that can seem to throw you setbacks and opportunities at seemingly perversely random intervals. Mensah is open about an extended depression and contemplating surrendering to what seems inevitable and pulling back and finding vitality in new experiences and contemplating possibilities. In the soulful vocals of Terra Lopez aka Rituals of Mine (some may know Lopez for her tenure writing and performing music as Sister Crayon) we hear an emotional clarity as a companion to Mensah’s flow of existential sketches, an architecture of the song that reflects Mensah’s seemingly dialectical narrative with self. The effect of all these elements working in perfect sync with each other brings a great dimensionality to the song musically, thematically and emotionally all while pulling you into its gorgeously lush layers of melody and gentle rhythm. All in all a fine example of the kind of music we’ve come to expect from Sheffield in terms of being incredibly experimental and forward thinking and accessible in ways that aren’t immediately predictable. Watch the video for “The Mouth Of Rainfall” on YouTube and follow Otis Mensah at the links below. The album WINTERSKIN dropped on October 4, 2023.

Otis Mensah on Facebook

Otis Mensah on Instagram

Johnathan Maske’s Chilling Folk Single “Chasing Shadows” is Like the End Theme Music for a Haunted Spaghetti Western

Johnathan Maske, photo courtesy the artist

Johnathan Maske sounds like he immersed himself in some late 60s and early 70s folk singers on “Chasing Shadows,” the debut single from his forthcoming album The Down Valley (out in May 2024). The vocals tilt over the edge a little when hitting that falsetto with raw feeling but reel back in with the the chill melodies that run through the song. There’s a melancholic tone to the song and its orchestral songwriting is reminiscent of something out of a Spaghetti western but with all the desert tones turned icy and overcast rather than sun scorched, like a film Sergio Leone might have made based on an Edgar Allan Poe story. The shuffling beat and slightly lo-fi production lends the song a quality that feels like it’s from another decade like music you’d hear in the end scenes and credits of a baroque horror or thriller film from the UK or Europe in the aforementioned era of folk. The sentiments of the lyrics read like the thoughts of a person who is trapped by his own paranoid thoughts and visions of failure, petty revenge and futility and the song serves well the tragic mood of that kind of emotional isolation and that the song sometimes feels like it could fall apart the essential fragility of that headspace. And yet there’s a compelling hauntedness to the song that draws you in to the end. Listen to “Chasing Shadows” on Spotify and follow Johanthan Maske at the links below. In the months ahead Maske will release further singles from the album leading up to its issuance in the spring.

Johnathan Maske on Facebook

Johnathan Maske on Instagram

Johnathan Maske on Bandcamp

The Fog Enshrouded Melodic Drones of CoastalDives’ “Bloodline Through The Mirage” is Like a Conscious Sleepwalk Through a Long Dark Night of the Soul

Distorted, fast rippling pulses of tone rising and falling issue forth at the beginning of CoastalDives’ “Bloodline Through The Mirage” like something from the more industrial end of The Legendary Pink Dots. But streams of clear melody cut through that sonic fog after a minute or so like a lifeline of clarity through the haze to a zone of soporific drones that warp at the edges. Those guidance melodies arc into different shapes around you cleansing the grit of the earlier part of the song and replacing it with haunted fogs and spectral beacons to lead you further into the mysterious space that CoastalDives has crafted. In the last quarter of the song there’s a sense of being on the edges of that roiling cloud of melancholic haze that feels like it’s moving further away while you wake from what has felt like a mysterious dream all along into wakeful clarity and silence like Elena at the end of Beyond the Black Rainbow when she leaves the Arboria Institute free from years of experimentation,, the extended nightmare over. What did it all mean? Who can say but it is a listening experience that leaves your brain feeling better. Listen to “Bloodline Through The Mirage” on Spotify and follow CoastalDives at the links below. The song is the first single from the album Lineage due out in early 2024, mastered by composer Rafael Anton Irisarri of The Sight Below.

CoastalDives on Facebook

CoastalDives on Instagram

CoastalDives on Bandcamp

AUS!Funkt’s Art Garage Funk Punk Single “That’s a Fact” is an Exhilarating Anthem Against Xenophobia, Fascism, Racism and Misogyny

AUS!Funkt sound like a futuristic garage rock band on the noisy and discordant funk punk of “That’s a Fact.” In the music video the four figures representing the band look like The Residents gone cyberpunk anti-authoritarian gang, appropriate to the subject of the song. Pulsing, seething, distorted synth over urgent guitar and an almost hypnotically steady beat are the back drop to lines like “I don’t want to stop and reflect, xenophobia’s real that’s a fact, I never know what to expect, racism kills, that’s a fact, social norms we need to reject, misogyny hurts, that’s a fact, I have a need to disaffect, fascism kills, that’s a fact.” Indubitably. The song sounds frantic and emphatic on those points and even with the breakdown section mid-song for a breather with a repeat of the lyrics, the Canadian band leaves us with no doubt about its intentions and the kind of presentation of these truths that we’ve been needing to remember for decades but the immediacy of which is more than looming on the horizon at this moment. AUS!Funkt’s song, the title track to its December 22, 2023 EP, doesn’t overcomplicate the messaging nor simplifies a complex set of issues, it simply states some core principles with clarity and sets it to exhilarating and exciting art punk. Watch the video for “That’s a Fact” on YouTube and follow AUS!Funkt at the links provided.

AUS!Funkt on Facebook

AUS!Funkt on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E03: Best Albums, Songs and Shows of 2023

This isn’t a definitive list of the best music that came out in 2023 but just a selection of some of the best that seemed to stand out for Brian Tallman and myself (Tom Murphy). I already chimed in heavily on my Birdy column and will eventually publish my extended year end best albums list in the coming weeks. Tallman is someone I met when I would work out of coffee shops when I was still freelancing for Westword and getting Queen City Sounds and Art off the ground and he seemed very aware of newer music for someone close to my age and had seen plenty of shows going back to the 80s and worked at record store in NYC in the 90s and 2000s. We both went to college in Illinois around the same time, him at Northwestern in Chicago and me at Knox College in rural Galesburg and have a shared cultural background in underground and popular music. We began work on a podcast in 2022 that hasn’t yet seen the light of day discussing music scenes and albums and shows so I thought this year to ask him about a top list of albums and songs for 2023 and shows because he’s been living in other parts of the country and traveling to see shows across America and I’ve been only seeing shows in Colorado but as an active music journalist I’ve been able to see more than most people. Oh yeah, the Sex Swing record is a live album but its versions of previously released material is fantastic. Hopefully you find something of interest in our discussion and maybe discover artists you might not otherwise have known about or whose work you have heard of but have yet to explore. Listen to the discussion on Bandcamp and below I will include playlists for the albums, songs and music by artists at the shows covered.

Michael James Tapscott Collaborated With Psych Folk Legend Ed Askew For the Transcendent and Nightmarish “Police Patrol the Border”

Michael James Tapscott (middle) and Ed Askew (right), photo courtesy the artists

Michael James Tapscott brought psych folk legend Ed Askew on board for vocals for “Police Patrol the Border.” Askew’s vulnerable voice tells the tale a guy whose night seems haunted by his memories of a time of a time of conflict and perhaps of war. Askew’s voice has enough of a quaver to give the song a deeply haunting quality and emotional weight while also able to carry the melody into its melodic heights. Electric organ and synth swells alongside elegant acoustic guitar figures recall the kind of weirdo folk from the realm of music Askew helped to usher in during the late 60s and 70s. Maybe more in the vein of the likes of Comus, Mason Proffit, Pentangle, Fairport Convention. But there’s a bit of an edge with this song that feels very present and reflecting modern anxieties that echo some of those of another era. That quality lends the song a timeless quality present in the production and songwriting in the rest of Tapscott’s new EP Charlie No-Face (released December 15, 2023 on Royal Oakie Records). With contributions from members of Odawas and Sugar Candy Mountain the songs incorporates elements of lo-fi indiepop more often heard in the 2000s with an ambitious songwriting style that one might associate with late 60s art rock and folk groups including what sounds like a touch of Mellotron tones. Listen to “Police Patrol the Border” on Spotify and follow Michael James Tapscott at the links below.

michaeljamestapscott.com

Michael James Tapscott on Instagram

The Lingering Luminosity of the Melodies of loverghost’s “there was a hole here” is an Audio-Visual Haunting You’ll Want to Revisit

The new single by loverghost “there was a hole here” is as much an abstract downtempo ambient song as existential and enigmatic, science fiction horror short. Maybe best experienced watching it in the dark and taking in its hauntingly beautiful and unusual imagery. The tones are in that saturated lo-fi production style that sounds like it was done on cassette and transferred to digital. Maybe even recorded to VHS like the visuals very well could be and then manipulated into otherworldly dimensions utilizing sources that already have great potential to convey both a tactile and human immediacy of physical space and pure emotional expression. Amid visions of animals in the dark, glitched out faces, silhouettes on a luminous backdrop and slow streaks of melody and incandescent electronic piano we hear a voice seemingly lost in reverie drift in and out of the track and as spectral as the video is you almost want to be in that blissed out emotional space disconnected from the demands of everyday life. Visually it’s reminiscent of the aesthetics of Skinamarink and perhaps even The Outwaters or Beyond the Black Rainbow but altogether it resonates with what acts like Yoga and Peaking Lights at the outer edges of its experimental soundscaping, think the more blurry boundaries of The Stargazer Lilies. But this all sounds purely electronic in its composition and its arrangements seemingly as informed by visual editing processing and techniques as those more musical. Watch the video for “there was a hole here” on YouTube.

Out of Moon’s Jazz-Inflected Downtempo Single “Fifteen” is a Coming of Age Story Told in Retrospect With Compassion For One’s Younger Self

Out of Moon’s soft rhythms and fluid melodic arrangements on “Fifteen” fit its sensitive tale of a girl coming of age and navigating family legacy. She seems to struggle with her own acting out as most teenagers tend to do in crucial moments of personal development between adolescence and adulthood trying to test the boundaries of one’s own life and working out a sense of self. She says to her father “I’m only fifteen, I’m trying out the dreams you gave me.” But he says she’s wonderful and wants to know what she’s doing because that’s what a concerned and benevolent parent does though she’s aware of how he behaved at the same age and tells him so. She also comes to terms with how she’s like her mother in various ways. In the animated music video we see set pieces of the story in a tropical location with turtles on the beach and it seems so peaceful if a touch melancholic just like the song in contrast perhaps to the family struggles depicted in the song’s narrative. One gets the sense that the song is written in retrospect and from a place of self-awareness and compassion for one’s younger self. The soulful vocals in a downtempo jazz style with expressive saxophone flourishes over the languid beats truly set a mood of reflection and personal reconciliation. Watch the video for “Fifteen” on Vimeo and follow Out of Moon at the links below.

Out of Moon on S ecret Sounds Records

Out of Moon on Facebook

Out of Moon on TikTok

Out of Moon on Instagram

“Extraordinary Love” by evrshde Blends Lush, Downtempo New Age Pop with Sensuous and Soulful Sophisti-pop

evrshde “Fear of Falling” cover, image courtesy the artists

“Extraordinary Love” by evrshde features an electronic horn that runs through much of the song, melancholic in the middle distance. The beginning of the song has near whispered vocals for an effect like the mysterious sounds of Enigma on that 1990 debut album MCMXC a.D. But no Gregorian chants in this downtempo. The vocals quickly transition to a sound that is introspective but present in expressing features of a love that is brimming with yearning, passion and connection beyond mere attraction and consistent and enduring. The music’s layers of sensual tones and pulsing rhythms has a jazz-like quality akin to another downtempo band that first came to prominence in the 90s, Everything But The Girl. This song unites the latter’s soulful sophisti-pop with the aforementioned Enigma’s more New Age pop sound and establishes an undeniably alluring mystique. Listen to “Extraordinary Love” on Spotify and follow evrshde at the links below. The group’s 2023 album Fear of Falling dropped November 29, 2023 and is available to stream on Spotify as well.

evrshde on Facebook

evrshde on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E02: Weathered Statues

Weathered Statues in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy

Weathered Statues is a post-punk band from Denver whose sound is more in the deathrock vein with clear roots in punk with an edge in its overall sound. The quartet got its start in the mid-2010s when singer Jennie Mather’s previous band Cloak of Organs dissolved and she, original guitarist Jason Heller and then (and current) drummer Andrew Warner reconvened as Weathered Statues, borrowing the name from the 1982 T.S.O.L. EP. The group played its first shows by spring of 2017 and was immediately striking for not really fitting in with the ascendant darkwave scene but very much in the post-punk vein of dark tones and an exceptional rhythm section. The following year the band released its debut LP Borderlands via Finnish label Svart Records and toured Finland and Europe in the wake of that release. But within a year or two Heller dropped out of the band, Andrew Warner took a bit of a hiatus during which Clusterfux guitarist Justin Lent filled in on drums before taking over on guitar when Warner returned to the fold and syncing perfectly with Bryan Flanagan’s creative and powerful bass lines.

Since the current lineup has gelled in the last few years Weathered Statues has released the Desolation EP (2019) and played numerous shows and expanding its sound some with Mather taking on the role of keyboardist as well. The band’s music hasn’t always fit in neatly with a subscene in Denver because it isn’t a darkwave band but whose emotionally resonant songs, reminiscent of Xmal Deutschland, Christian Death and Skeletal Family, is clearly adjacent to the sounds of modern darkwave and post-punk groups but its guitar tones tend to be more robust than one often hears among many bands out of that movement and Mather’s vocals more passionate. All the members of the band have been veterans of the Denver music scene with Lent as a member of the aforementioned, long running punk outfit Clusterfux, Mather and Flanagan having been members of punk group The Nervous and Warner in numerous noteworthy rock and experimental bands over the years (including Bad Luck City, Red Cloud, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, Dormition and currently Slim Cessna’s Auto Club) which goes some way to explaining why Weathered Statues isn’t much like its presumed peers but that storied lineage has also not instilled in the members of the band a sense of resting on its laurels or riding a trend it helped to establish. Its songwriting and commanding live shows speak to deserving that recognition on their own. Expect a new Weathered Statues album by summer or fall 2024.

Listen to our interview with Jennie Mather and Justin Lent of Weathered Statues on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below. You can catch the outfit live on Saturday, December 30, 2023 at the Hi-Dive with Moon Pussy opening for Denver Americana legends Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Thursday, February 22, 2024 at HQ with Circling Over, Summer of Peril and Mood Swing Misery.

Weathered S tatues on Instagram

Weathered Statues on Bandcamp