New Music – Page 146 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Death Hags Offers a Soothing Haven for the Realization of Dreams on “This ∞ Mind”

Death Hags brings to the single “This ∞ Mind” (from the album Big Grey Sun #4) a rather tonally vivid dream pop sensibility. There are ethereal melodies but there are jagged edges that give definition to their character that are bit like lightning in a storm allowing delineation of the boundaries of clouds in a thunderstorm. The album itself is a bit of a journey through luminously dreamlike soundscapes with a touch of fuzzy psychedelia providing some bite to the soothing aesthetic of the songwriting. This song in the beginning is reminiscent of Midwife’s 2020 album Forever but rather than the soul shearing heartache the track feels like the other side of that emotional black hole and a contemplation of possibilities that one hopes for and seem within reach if you truly take the time to plot some trajectories for your energies in making what are now mere hopes and dreams happen. Watch the gorgeously mysterious and colorful music video for “This ∞ Mind” on YouTube and follow Death Hags at the links below.

Death Hags on Twitter

Death Hags on Instagram

Graffiti Welfare Guide’s the Mind to a More Blissful State With Hypnogogic Pop Single “Just Follow”

Graffiti Welfare’s single “Just Follow” sits somewhere between gentle, drifty psychedelia and ambient IDM dream pop. Think a lo-fi and more chill Big Black Delta and Washed Out. Melody and texture flows through the song like water and wind, pooling in eddies of sound before dissolving into silence leaving the lightly echoing vocals which haunt the track like the voice of a lingering spirit. In moments it’s reminiscent of parts of The Helio Sequence circa Young Effectuals with the blissed out vocals and layers of hazy melody. Whatever the exact shape, impact and texture of the music the music video for the song is brimming with signifiers synced with what we’re hearing with vocals coming in paired with plants coming into bloom, the vocals represented by abstract fireworks float over the rippling texture of flowing water in a river. Guitar too accompany the burst of blooms and give way to percussion counting the moments as the whole takes a casual pace, dreamlike in a steady flow of soothing energy. It is like a dynamic collage of pop songcraft and symbolic imagery. As the title of the song suggests sometimes it’s best to go with a benevolent flow rather than overthink. Watch the video for “Just Follow” on YouTube, give the rest of the new album Revolving Shores when it releases to Spotify on June 17, 2002 and follow Graffiti Welface at the links provided.

Graffiti Welfare on Twitter

Graffiti Welfare on Instagram

theWorst’s “Hurt Forever” is a Raw and Powerful Expression of Radical Vulnerability and a Will to Self Love

“Hurt Forever” showcases theWorst’s ability to deliver blistering melodies as expressions of a sensitivity abused by bad faith actors far too many times. But also not being willing to lose that vulnerability that makes one open to oneself and others in spite the of the risk of running afoul of people who think you’ll just take their abuse without comment. Joshua James Hand’s video treatment for the song has Brooke Binion in a mental health facility with other people also often stuck in such places when family and society doesn’t know what to do with people who have hit some sort of breaking point often as a normal reaction to extraordinarily harmful situations. We see the stark conditions and the surreal quality of that experience until that imagery and that of being in a rock band is juxtaposed perhaps revealing how creative work and pursuing one’s non-destructive passions can be a way out of that state as a positive way to build the psychological infrastructure to sustain a functional existence. Maybe rock music as therapy is a bit on the nose but it really works here because there is no suggestion that having creative outlets for your psychic agony is going to solve all your problems or soothe the tender places where you still hurt from a lifetime of abuse, self-inflicted and otherwise. When the end of the song comes and Binion is cloaked in a plastic drape singing quietly with only an acoustic about a yearning for genuine connection after much of the rest of the song raging with channeled frustration at having no control over one’s life and no meaningful agency it hits perhaps hardest because it’s where the anger and furious energy are set aside to express what everyone wants and needs with the simplicity of an unvarnished truth. Watch the video for “Hurt Forever” on YouTube and follow theWorst at the links below where you can also listen to the rest of The Worst’s new album Yes Regrets with released on 6/2/22.

theWorst’s Link Tree

theWorst on Twitter

theWorst on Facebook

theWorst on Instagram

Lake Over Fire’s Gritty Horror-Themed Music Video for “The Devil Provides” Has Tobe Hooper Vibes

Lake Over Fire, photo courtesy the artists

Lake Over Fire’s video for “The Devil Provides” looks like lost footage of the movie Tobe Hooper made on sixteen millimeter after the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and discarded in a shed rediscovered nearly 50 years hence. Or the sequel to Antrum. The grainy image quality certainly looks like we’re seeing something forbidden and when the bikers head out into the desert with a cloaked figure, death-like in appearance, looking on the scene takes on a sinister aspect. The music itself is like a strange mix of post-punk, blues rock, crust punk and Dead Kennedys-esque dynamics with vocals that cut through to tell this story of a person who is afflicted with a mysterious condition and fascinated with the darker side of the psyche. Where it seems the pulp storytelling aspect and tongue in cheek seems obvious is in the subtitles that come later in the video separate from the proper lyrics when The Devil makes an appearance with a company of demons to enact a ritual and the dialogue is subtitled as well as the words “[epic guitar solo]” when there is in fact such a tasty performance. Humorous aspects aside there’s no doubting the song doesn’t sit neatly in some predictable genre niche and the aesthetics of the video as well as the production is as good as any of the better, more believable found footage horror films to have come out in the last thirty years. Watch the video for yourself on YouTube and connect with Maine-based Lake Over Fire on Instagram.

Making Movies’ Video For “Sala De Los Pecadores” is a Celebration of the Seedier Side of Hedonism

Making Movies, photo by Black Haven Visuals

Making Movies lives up to its moniker with the video for “Sala De Los Pecadores.” Think like a Quentin Tarantino film with characters of questionable morals and character partying in a hotel room dimly lit with colored lights and at one point miniature versions of the band is playing from inside a microwave. The music is a lively hybrid of styles: cumbia, rock, salsa, blues and psychedelia. It’s reminiscent of a Latin and Afro-Cuban version of Gogol Bordello. The English meaning of the title of the song is “Hall of Sinners” and the video and energy of the song is a celebration of behavior that transgresses conventional morality and mores because most people engage in some form of sin while many don’t recognize the concept as a part of a rational human life and accept these indulgences as part of the broad spectrum of a life lived to the fullest whether or not they choose to participate in specific activities. Watch the video for “Sala De Los Pecadores” on YouTube.

Evil Gima Chart the Flow of Natural Forces on Engrossing Ambient Track “IT/AM”

One has to imagine that Evil Gima conceived of the song and video for “IT/AM” in some sort of creative tandem. The sounds themselves suggest spaciousness and texture like the snow and water droplets depicted in the video. The piano figure drifts while plinks of metallic sounds like processed windchimes or stringed instrument plucking and slowly resolving drones convey a languid atmosphere. It’s like the analog of natural processes unfolding like the accumulation of snow depicted in the video as it forms and melts into water and fills into ponds then evaporates and the cycle begins again. It’s a little like an orchestral piece Anthony Braxton might have written around the turn of the 70s if he had access to a robust electronic palette of sounds. That organic improvisational way of arranging noises in abstract, conceptual fashion that made him a rebel then and a style outside orthodox music making that ambient music and abstract free jazz aficionados appreciate now. Watch the video for “IT/AM” on YouTube and follow Evil Gima on the project’s website linked below.

evilgima.com

Joshua Creek Precisely Captures the Excitement of Going Into the Dark for Night Time Adventures on “Thrill”

Joshua Creek’s economy of composition on “Thrill,” a track from his new album Phenomena which released April 22, 2022, serves well his aim in the writing and production of the song. He wanted to capture the excitement and anticipation of going out into the dark and night time adventures. His energetic yet light and lively piano figure paired with a shuffling percussion line that is joined by other electronic drum sounds to fill out the texture and some light delay on the bass line that sits deep yet evocatively in the mix. In a song that lasts two minutes twenty it stirs the imagination with recursive compositional structure that brings themes in and out of the song so that it feels like a pleasant and memory looped to remind one of a feeling that is difficult to convey with as much precision and quiet power as Creek does here. In moments it may remind one of one of Coil’s more upbeat and classically-inspired pieces or that of producer William Orbit. Listen to “Thrill” on YouTube and follow Joshua Creek on Spotify below.

GoGo Penguin’s “Badeep” is a Fast Track Post-rock Jazz Glimpse Into a More Emotionally Elegant Future

The gently percussive guitar melody that opens GoGo Penguin’s “Badeep” is the perfect intro into the elegant piano composition to follow. The introspective piano figure evolves into urgent passages that parallel the increase in pace of the percussion and then the introduction of muted horns. The effect is like a fusion of post-rock sensibilities and jazz arrangements of cinematic scope suggesting sweeping movement toward a future time when the angst of the present has melted away and there is ample time to delve into the fine nuances of our emotional lives and inner aspirations and dreams as carried along by the energy many of us have had to channel into mere survival and staving off the despair that comes from having to carry the weight of so many challenges to daily life from which we’ve had little to no reprieve for years. This song imagines that future time and thus suggests we can create that space for ourselves in the present as a precursor to better times. Watch the visualizer for “Badeep” on YouTube and connect with GoGo Penguin at the links below.

GoGo Penguin on Facebook

GoGo Penguin on Twitter

GoGo Penguin on Instagram

Anthony Menzia Weaves Together Spectral Drones and Organic Art Rock Beats to Craft the Darkly Beguiling “The Witch”

The artwork for Anthony Menzia’s single “The Witch” sets the mysterious mood for a song that doesn’t fit neatly in any single genre designation. It’s a design suggesting simultaneously a face, a sword, a caduceus as an image like stained glass in the chapel of the mystic of a forgotten spiritual faith.The song itself is a journey from darkly shimmering electronic shimmers over a an organic beat seemingly tapped out with sticks on wood while pulses of distorted sound establish a rhythm before processed vocals come in reminiscent of Barry Andrews of Shriekback circa 1986 and Big Night Music. It’s hushed and sits in the mix, ghost-like. Tones hover brightly and dissolve like swarms of luminous insects coming together like a temporary colony and dispersing. The lyrics are a bit enigmatic making references to not having to guess what’s on someone’s mind and directions to swivel one’s hips if under the spell of the person singing. Is it an inducement to dance or an attempt at seduction of the carnal and/or spiritual kind. Difficult to say but the song sounds like something you’d hear in one of those elevated horror movies in a scene where more mundane characters are introduced to a secret society or a clandestine subculture that promises a more interesting life. Listen to “The Witch” on YouTube and follow Anthony Menzia at the links provided.

Anthony Menzia on Twitter

Anthony Menzia on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast Ep. 28: Hex Cassette

Hex Cassette at the Hi-Dive December 23, 2021, photo by Tom Murphy

Hex Cassette is an EBM/synth pop/confrontational industrial artist from Denver, Colorado. As the solo project of Zachary Jordan, Hex Cassette has been around since the mid-2010s and his gift for crafting fairly accessible, exuberant dance music with a darkwave flavor has garnered him a bit of a local following among people who not only appreciate his particular style of music but potentially of anyone that would like to see musicians engage with the crowd in a way that is aimed at blurring the line between performer and audience and sharing in a dissolving of a complacent dynamic in live music. His spirited shows involve wicked but benevolent humor including a comical needling of the audience and it wouldn’t be unusual to see Jordan not just roaming the stage but coming off stage with his animated style and bringing that energy into the crowd. His latest release is Pomegranate Death and while the themes of death and mortality and irreverence for stuffy, traditional religion and culture remains a feature from the music of Hex Cassette in general, the album is also one that injects into the mix expressions of hopefulness and seeking to live a vital existence. All set to some of the most vibrant electronic music you’re likely to hear all year.

Hex Cassette celebrates the release of the album on June 10, 2022 at Jester’s Palace with other local darkwave greats Church Fire and eHpH as well as experimental indie rock artist Pink Lady Monster. The show is also the tour kickoff for Hex Cassette who will be headed out on a mini-tour of the west where you will be able to purchase a, yes, cassette copy of Pomegranate Death. Listen to our interview with Jordan on Bandcamp linked below.