New Music – Queen City Sounds and Art

Amiture Music and Eliana Glass Evoke an Intense Sense of Pending Existential Crisis on Avant Post-Punk Single “Idela”

Amiture Music teams up with experimental pop/jazz artist Eliana Glass for the song “Idela” and its accompanying music video. We see Hanna Gabbler on a patio in New York looking across the bay to downtown and making shapes with her hands toward the clouds and sun. The music begins minimal and builds to an urgent melody paired with a discordant part that suggests tension and an internal conflict. The view goes from Gabbler standing and walking around to a negative image of a hallway while the visuals seem to focus on angles, close-ups and long shots. Directed by both Jack Whitescarver of Amiture Music and Eliana Glass it is reminiscent of the kind of underlying menace present in the film version of High Rise where normalcy is surface level. But it never quite goes as dark except that the lyrics suggest skullduggery and the decay and fall of Western civilization. But that’s just on point for the time and place we’re living. If there’s a film version of Jim Di Bartolo’s 2026 graphic novel F*ck Billionaires this should probably be on the soundtrack. Watch the video for “Idela” on YouTube and follow Amiture Music at the links below. The new Amiture Music EP 2 Women releases October 30, 2026.

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Amiture Music on Instagram

Eric Angel Bessel Expresses the Convergence of Natural Patterns on Cosmic Ambient Single “Book of Astrology”

Eric Angelo Bessel utilizes a more low key production style on “Book of Astrology” from his forthcoming new album Illusion of an Inland Ocean (out October 30, 2026 on double LP vinyl, digital download and streaming). Often Bessel’s compositions are immediately immersive but this time it’s a little in the distance but this works with layers of harmonic sounds flowing together and bell tone sounds resonating within that evolving ambient convergence of frequencies. In the music video we see waters like the incoming tide rippling in elegant active motion creating physical distortion and the manifestation of standing waves. Bessel orchestrating this with his music is the perfect expression of a natural phenomenon and making it comprehensible in a different way than just scientific terms and numbers much as the title of the song attempts to make sense of patterns in the universe. Fans of Brian Eno’s early 80s ambient works will likely find this track to be in line with what Eno was attempting to express with Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks and Ambient 4: On Land. Watch the video for “Book of Astrology” on YouTube and follow Eric Angelo Bessel at the links below.

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Eric Angelo Bessel on Twitter

Dis Fig’s “The Snake You Built” is a Processional, Ritualistic Fusion of the Organic and Electronic

“The Snake You Built” creeps in with distorted drones and processed strings with the hint of vocals in the beginning. It’s like the opening sequence of an existential, cosmic science fiction horror film and when the drums join the mix of sounds the song takes on the character of a slow, ritual procession. But it’s a slow build until into the three minute mark when distorted motes burst forth and Felicia Chen’s vocals are more beckoning and intense expressing what sounds like an appeal to the universe for justice, for relief from oppression and for transcendence. Chen has collaborated with the heaviest of bands (for example The Body whose Lee Buford contributes to this track) and other experimental artists like Diana Miron (who also collaborated on the song) and this feels like a true fusion of the organic and the electronic. Fans of Jenny Hval and the more recent Jarboe solo albums will find great resonance here. Listen to “The Snake You Built” on YouTube and follow Dis Fig at the links below. The new album What To Make Of These Mortal Hands is out October 23, 2026 via Thrill Jockey Records on vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming.

Dis Fig on Instagram

The Jet Black Berries’ Psychedelic Rockabilly Song “Masked Astronaut” Re-Imagines The Lone Ranger as a Space Faring Hero For the People

The Jet Black Berries, photo by Sarah Davidson

The Jet Black Berries were one of the noteworthy bands of the 1980s in milieu of psychedelic garage rock of that decade with the song “Love Under Will” appearing on the soundtrack to The Return of the Living Dead (1985). The group returns to celebrate the release of Sundown On Venus [Definitive Edition] via Propeller Records, the remastered reissue of its ferocious 1985 debut album. Preceded by the release of a new song “Rocketfire Sex66” the new edition of the album sounds like it could have come out in the 2010s during the new garage rock explosion or now and hit like something fresh tapping into the group’s peers in The Cramps, The Scientists and The Gun Club. The single “Masked Astronaut” is a fine example of how the record sounds as intended like stories of short movies right out of B science fiction and horror movie cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. The lyrics seem to imagine the Lone Ranger as a space traveling hero for the people. There is some rockabilly surf rock attitude in the song with the hooks and grit that any of the best of that music has aplenty. Through from New York, The Jet Black Berries sound like they could have been part of the Los Angeles scene of the 1980s where countrified psychedelia, post-punk, retro rock and punk attitude fused together was in its heyday. Listen to “Masked Astronaut” on YouTube and follow The Jet Black Berries at the links provided.

Jet Black Berries on Instagram

Jet Black Berries on Apple Music

Eventually Flowers’ Melodically Uplifting Dream Pop Single “Chasing Time” is a Song About Moving On to Your Better Horizons

Eventually Flowers, photo courtesy the artists

Eventually Flowers’ expansive and melodically vibrant single “Chasing Time” is a song about not wasting time chasing after what we think we should be doing with our time when we could make the most of what is in front of us. The song was originally written by vocalist Janise Lazart a decade ago but developed now and then into its current form where it has an exuberant spirit and urgency aimed at brushing aside the tendency to hyperfixate as a creative person when it’s best to move on and, often enough, come back to a song or a pursuit when your skill set, sensibilities and psychology is better equipped to make the most of something that was ahead of its time in your own life. Or in the moment be willing to let go whatever that means or looks like because some things, situations or people can ultimately be a complete diversion from your best path. Musically the song is reminiscent of early Drop 19s and early Pale Saints and the way that music had an uplifting quality with free-flowing atmospheric melodies. Listen to “Chasing Time” on YouTube and follow Eventually Flowers at the links provided.

Eventually Flowers on Instagram

Travel Kit’s Playful Indietronica Ambient Single “Anywhere” is Like Hearing Timeless Moments Strung Together

Travel Kit returns with its first extended release in a handful of years with the album Anywhere (released September 17, 2026). The title track hearkens back to an era when lo-fi DIY electronic music and indie rock crossed paths for a refreshing and playful sound. The sampled/programmed drums are steady and gentle and the sequenced melodies layered with wordless vocals lilting from a seeming near distance like someone calling out to sea for the sunrise in the early morning. The spoken word samples ending in an echoing “Anywhere” when the song drifts off beatless for some countless moments feels like holding on to a timeless memory that won’t end before the beat comes back in to carry us further into the song. Musically it resonates with the dreamlike and retrofuturist sounds of Boards of Canada but also the spiritual ambient haze of the self-titled Burial album. Co-produced by Jack Truax from the band and Chris Bowers-Castillo of Kiltro fame, the song and album has a truly entrancing effect Listen to “Anywhere” on YouTube and follow Travel Kit at the links below.

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Travel Kit on Instagram

Nadine O’s Alluring and Haunted Downtempo Pop Single “Siren Song” is the Perfect Song For a Fog Enshrouded Late Night Club

Nadine O puts enough of an effect on her vocals to give them a slight echo and reverb on “Siren Song” to give a mood of reflection, yearning and the psychological ripple of memories that haunt you. The minimal percussion comes in and out of the track as if in sync with the melancholic string arrangement. The whole song feels like something out of a European late night club in a port city, of course, like Anita Lane in her more orchestral pop mode. It’s a song seemingly written from the perspective of the titular siren beckoning for the ship that resisted her call to come back but as perhaps a stand-in for expression a yearning for a connection that seems out of reach. Stylistically fans of downtempo and a more brooding, dark pop will find Nadine O’s way with weaving together texture and atmosphere in an immersive and dreamlike musical concoction. Listen to “Siren Song” on YouTube and follow Nadine O at the links provided.

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Nadine O on TikTok

Nadine O on Instagram

Taleen Kali’s Dark Shoegaze Single “Viper” Charts a Path For Breaking Out of Oppressive Cycles

Los Angeles-based post-punk band Taleen Kali has been known for its expansive and immersive sound that blurs the boundary between shoegaze and post-punk. For its latest single “Viper” the group journeys into a heavier sonic palette and in its gritty melody one might hear the resonance of doom bands like SubRosa and Kylesa including the emotionally rich vocals but it is because both of those bands didn’t seem to be confined to doom and had well-developed atmospheric guitar that transcended genre. The structure of the song and its repeated themes bring to it a hypnotic aspect that is reminiscent of early Dead Can Dance and the ways in which that band utilized ritualistic strategies in the songwriting to lend the music a sense of being outside normal time. The music video for the song directed by Alex LeGolvan gives us a view of dark spaces of the psyche from which the themes of the song occur of the effect of breaking someone down repeatedly and how that can result in a wounded psyche yet the song suggests that one can break from that cycle. Watch the video for “Viper” on YouTube and follow Taleen Kali at the links below. The new Taleen Kali album Apex will be released in early 2027.

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Taleen Kali on TikTok

Taleen Kali on Instagram

MANAS’ Layering of Texture and Rhythm on Free Jazz Single “100 sunset” is the Soundtrack to a Transformative Experience

MANAS is a duo comprised of Tashi Dorji and Thom Nguyen who will release the album The most yielding thing in the world will overcome the most rigid on October 30 via American Dreams. Conceptualized as the score for 100 Sunset, the feature film debut from Tibetan-Canadian director Kunsang Kyirong. The piece “100 sunset” sounds like the music you’d expect to hear in an ancient temple. It sounds mysterious, the production is immersive in its use of space and how it captures the texture of Dorji’s unconventional use of guitar and Nguyen’s almost impressionistic employment of drum, gong, cymbal and utility items for an effect like abstract free jazz. But it also has an analog, tactile quality that keeps you in wondering where this evolving set of sounds is going as it does move into different dynamics as the song progresses with the soundscape not so minimal and spacious at times but with an intricacy and establishment of atmosphere that isn’t fully dependent on sustained notes although there are some of those in the drones Dorji brings forth. By the end of the song one feels like one has undergone some kind of internal change of perspective and expectation in a way no standard pop song could effect. Fans of how John Hassell established unique moods in his own compositions with a transformative processing and performance of trumpet will recognize a creative kinship here. Listen to “100 sunset” on Spotify and follow Tashi Dorjii on Instagram.

Baby Grendel Casts the Reality of Abuse and Codependency in Stark Terms on Orchestral Pop Single “Broken Skin Reprise (Beaten Bloody II)”

Baby Grendel, photo courtesy the artists

“Broken Skin Reprise (Beaten Bloody II)” is sonically a different kind of song for the often more post-punk flavor of Baby Grendel’s songwriting. In fact the song “Broken Skin” is a moodier, even more vulnerable flavor. But the “Reprise” is more rooted in acoustic sounds and brings in some orchestral arrangements with piano and all to serve a song that seems to address the uncomfortable subject of abuse and codependency and the narratives that keep people in a cycle that anyone observing from the outside seems horrific. But in writing the song with the honesty displayed here it forces the narrator and anyone that perhaps has experienced a similar relationship dynamic to see severe dysfunction and its rationalizations for what they are. That the song is melancholic and orchestral heightens the impact without savagery and cruelty. Listen to “Broken Skin Reprise (Beaten Bloody II)” on YouTube and follow Baby Grendel at the links provided.

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Baby Grendel on Instagram