New Music – Page 161 – Queen City Sounds and Art

1st Base Runner’s “Near Me” and Its Brooding Music Video Contains a Subtle and Unexpected Catharsis

Longtime Radiohead creative director Dilly Ghent commissioned Ellis Chai Bahl and Johnny Chew to do a video treatment for 1st Base Runner’s busy yet brooding single “Near Me.” Songwriter Tim Husmann is seen sitting in the dark contemplating his insecurities and late night fears amid the trappings of the neighborhood bar: pool table, dart board, headlights shining through blinds off mirrored sections of wall, a tiny ballerina figure spinning in front of him, a cigarette sitting in an ashtray with a spindly plume of smoke. Chairs disassemble and then reassemble. He sings “Will you come near me, would you come for me, would you come?” like a mantra holding himself together while ghostly guitar work rings out in a reverberating arpeggio and staccato riffs over shuffling rhythms. These simple elements suggest hazy and dreamlike experiences that comfort you while you’re stuck in your own thoughts before sleep takes over. The whole thing feels like nothing happened yet emotionally it conveys an undeniable feeling of release. It’s rare that a songwriter can lay out his anxieties and insecurities so vividly yet effect a subtle catharsis. Watch the video for “Near Me” on YouTube and connect with 1st Base Runner at the links below.

1stbaserunner.com

1st Base Runner on Twitter

1st Base Runner on Facebook

1st Base Runner on Instagram

1st Base Runner on Tik Tok

Alvinos Zavlis Evokes a Sense of Countless Multitudes and Depths in One’s Own Mind on “Can’t let U go”

With a title like “Can’t let U go” one might expect a different style of music going in. But composer Alvinos Zavlis brings a looped piano figure that suggests endless cycles of seemingly infinite variety. This while wind instrument drones drift in and out while a female vocalist sings in a fashion both ritualistic and classical. Lingering piano notes mark time later in the track and distorted violin adds dramatic texture alongside slow bursts of synth tones. The vocals layer and double to create a sense of experiences and memories outside of linear time and in fact the song feels like something written in compound time akin to something you might have heard from late 80s Dead Can Dance or Heilung. The net effect is majestic and transporting while meditative and tranquil. The image for the single of a figure crying out to reveal spiral staircases within spiral staircases truly evokes the impression of the song expressing the idea of countless multitudes and depth within everyone. Listen to “Can’t let U go” on Spotify and connect with Zavlis at the links below.

Alvinos Zavlis on musicglue.com

Alvinos Zavlis on Twitter

Alvinos Zavlis on Instagram

Divorce’s Humorously Clever Take on Petty Domestic Turmoil and How It Comes to an End Finds Charming Cinematic Form in the Video for “Services”

The video for Divorce’s single “Services” (as created by Clump Collective) gives us a glimpse into a past decade style-wise in a small flat with a small television on a scene of domestic turmoil. The song is clearly about that sense some people have that the little things they do to make their partner’s or family members’ lives easier that can be taken for granted but which are really the oft unrecognized glue that makes life simpler and smooths over minor challenges that really do take up a lot of our days when we have to take them into account ourselves. Little things some people never think about and stumble through life somehow getting by despite lacking every day skills that they should be glad someone else is willing to take on. Though the song seems to be one of the accumulation of minor conflicts and annoyances being what breaks so many people up in the end it is a humorous reminder to maybe not be an ungrateful boor because no one can do it all well and if you can find someone to be with either in a relationship, friendship or mere roommate situation that complements well your weaker areas count yourself fortunate. Musically it is a nicely dynamic pop song reminiscent of Rilo Kiley in its sharply observed lyrics and facility for expressing the nuances of the details of personal interaction and where things fall apart. All while offering an eclectic flavoring of Americana, rock and classic pop. Watch the video for “Services” on YouTube and follow Divorce at the links below.

The Soft Tones of Monggrel’s “Friendly Skies” Sounds Like a Welcoming Invite For a Tour Through Late Night Asian Cuisine

“Friendly Skies” opens Monggrel’s new album Urban Strata with tones that sound ever so slightly smoothed over and out of focus for a few moments before a crystalline, distinct melody takes the foreground and syncs well with the other synth line like you’re waiting at some kind of docking station in a future metropolis. It sounds welcoming and indeed friendly like the dynamic and the notes working together are designed to put you at rest and in a contemplative state of mind. The rest of the album is akin to a journey through a technologically advanced and culturally developed and diverse large city like something Oneohtrix Point Never might have done for an Anthony Bourdain limited series about Asian street food that never happened. But “Friendly Skies” is the gateway to that journey and it immediately brings you on board for what’s to follow by cleansing the psyche of preonceptions. Listen to the track on Soundcloud, listen to the rest of Urban Strata on Bandcamp and connect with Monggrel at the links below.

Monggrel on YouTube

Maroulita de Kol Arranges the Musical the Elements of “The Water” Like Inspired Choreography

Maroulita de Kol, photo courtesy the artist

Maroulita de Kol sets in motion an intricate piano line that runs through “The Water” while her own vocals float and soar with an elegance of expression of movement, bolstered by a second vocal slightly distorted. Background drones give the proceedings a moody cast and when the second piano introduces chords that ring out darkly in counterpoint to the running atmospherics with the vocals becoming even more active and interacting with the instrumentation like they are all finely choreographed set pieces in a dance performance. The song truly conjures images in your mind of a performance done for mystical purposes and as a manifestation of spiritual principles. Tempting to compare the composition to something by Björk from the early 2000s but may have more in common with avant-garde makers of music like Anna von Hausswolff and Julia Holter. Listen to “The Water” on Soundcloud and follow Maroulita de Kol on Spotify.

Celsey McFadden Employ’s Holly Herndon’s Holly+ App to Craft Actual Future Pop on “Almost Human”

Celsey McFadden, photo courtesy the artist

“Almost Human” is a more clever title than is immediately obvious for Celsey McFadden’s single. The composer used avant-garde electronic music artist/technologist/performance artist Holly Herndon’s AI voice model app Holly+ to introduce the analog of the sound of her voice into the track and processed violins and other aspects of the song through the app as well giving the song an unusual quality that’s hard to pin down. McFadden compares it to the way DeepFake technology functions except instead of nefarious ends his are to expand the horizons of creative possibility. The strong rhythmic elements have it sounding like some futuristic Indonesian pop as they sync together with a touch of Middle Eastern flavor. And the tones come off like cybernetic insects having an improv session and resonating unconventional tonalities and textural sounds to give the whole a simultaneously alien and familiar feel. Listen to “Almost Human” on Soundcloud and connect with McFadden at the links below.

celsey.net

Celsey McFadden on Instagram

“Paranoid” is Razz’s Genre Mashing, Psychedelic Hip-hop, Blues Pop Song About Needing to Get Some Sleep Before One’s Mind Goes Completely Into the Red

From the beginning of Razz’s single “Paranoid” you’re not quite sure what you’re in for. It comes on like an techno track but has production like a hip-hop song with vocals like a rap but executed more like an odd psychedelic pop song. The music swims with simple percussion, bell tone swirls, burbling tones and counterpoint backing vocals. A synth bass accents the passages and seems to establish the rhythm of the song but all the elements dip in and hang back like an odd barbershop quartet but without anything of that aesthetic except the structure. It’s an unusual song that defies genre pigeonholes almost completely. The lyrics outline the late night thoughts of a person who is plagued by night terrors that shake his psyche and interpret the world through the stressed perspective of someone whose mind never fully gets to rest and it makes him, yes, paranoid. Listen to “Paranoid” on Spotify below.

Detective Larsson’s “Magic Show” is a Deep Dive Into a Sense of Mystery and Romance

Detective Larsson, photo from artist’s Bandcamp

Detective Larsson tap into some deep emotional territory on its single “Magic Show.” The great blend of acoustic guitar and washes of synth and cello are truly transporting in a way that perfectly complements Amanda Larsson’s warm, clear and delicately powerful vocals. It is a song about love but in a larger as well as the personal sense and its use of natural imagery like the Harvest Moon, morning dew, a pebble beach and the sunrise on the sea ground the track as its ethereal melodies coalesce and drift about enshrouding you in a sense of wonder. At times it’s reminiscent of “Lucky Man” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer but without that songs poignant sense of tragedy. This song sounds like its words are about making memories to last a lifetime and fans of Tindersticks will enjoy its inventive interweaving of organic sounds and those more abstract and electronic for a completely engrossing emotional listening experience with nuance and an ear for rich emotional colorings. Listen to “Magic Show” on Bandcamp and follow Detective Larsson at the links provided.

Detective Larsson on Facebook

Eldridge Rodriguez Peers Empathically into the Fraying Collective Psyche of Humanity on “All My Favorite Clowns Are Dead”

Something sounds slightly off from the beginning of Eldridge Rodriguez’s “All My Favorite Clowns Are Dead.” The melody warps slightly, a bell rings out counting cadence in the rhythm like a reminder of how things have gone a bit or more than a bit off the rails in the world the last few years. In half a decade we’ll collectively have glossed over this time when we should be remembering and taking steps to make the world a better place because we’ve really been given a chance with a relatively minor global health disaster compared to the collapse of all world economies in the wake of what looks like the inevitable future climate disaster. But that’s getting away from the way this song’s strong rhythms and lightly psychedelic flourishes frame a song about hubris, ego and the delusional behaviors that happen every day that help so many of us to hold on to beliefs and lifestyles that are unsustainable. Eldridge Rodriguez makes those behaviors personal and relatable. You hear a bit of that Liquid Liquid bass style circa “Cavern” keeping things steady but the distorted, burbling synth flows over those reliable bass lines like life and society coming apart and Cameron Keiber’s vocals doubling and waxing ever so slightly desperate as well. There is a strong tone of compassion for the ways in which we alow ourselves to believe what seems convenient to preserve a way of life that has brought us success and comfort and the manner in which we cling to those ways of being even as it’s coming apart. On this song the band unites the virtues of post-punk’s strong and stark rhythms with colorful atmospheric touches that can flow and dribble outside established boundaries giving the whole thing a fragile quality that keeps you hooked to the end. Listen to “All My Favorite Clowns Are Dead” on Soundcloud and follow the group at its website linked below. The single is the B-side to the Eldridge Rodriguez single “Have I Gone Too Far” released on January 28, 2022.

eldridgerodriguez.com

DataBass Creates the Piano Ambient Analog of the Eternal and Ancient Shepherding of the Souls of the Departed to the Underworld on “Journey of Anubis”

The sonorous piano notes drawn out as if headed to a distant and mysterious horizon bring us into DataBass’s “Journey of Anubis.” The inspiration of the track is the never ending journeys of the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis, as he delivers and protects souls of the departerd on their way to the underworld. The measured and processional pace of the piano work and synth drones like the distant winds of eternity create a sense of the sacred and enigmatic but also a gentle spirit like the sound of acceptance of the inevitable without angst, of a natural process and order of things and the passage from earthly death to another state. In Western culture a deity like Anubis might be seen as sinister but in ancient Egyptian culture Anubis is undoubtedly benevolent and nurturing in his stewardship of the souls of the departed and his own role in the grand order of the universe. There is that sense to the song too, a chance to experience the unknowable as a musical analog thereof and in that manner “Journey of Anubis” succeeds completely. Listen to the song on Spotify and connect with DataBass at the links below.