Category: New Music

Hanna Ojala’s “In this Dusk” is a Poetic Meditation on Engendering a Head Space of Radical Awareness and Vulnerability

Hanna Ojala, “In this Dusk” cover

Hanna Ojala ses the lyrical poetry of “In this Dusk” to the sound of water lapping at the show, gentle wind chimes and birdsong. To call it a mere song would be improper as it doesn’t follow any conventional songwriting conventions, its poetic meter is as organic and free as the assembled field recordings, intuitive in its cadences. As usual, Ojala’s vocals invite you into a private world the likes of which perhaps you have experienced or need to experience wherein you allow your being to flow through experiences rather than try to control them. The Western mind is trained to try to control and to dominate rather than understand things on their own terms and to let go and gain comprehension of the world around us by taking things in unobtrusively so that we may learn and reflect without taking and without needing to outwardly transform until the time comes when action must be made. The lyrics with the sounds is like an audio meditation to put oneself in a frame of mind to be open to the hidden secrets of the world that are invisible to us when we impose meaning based purely on conditioned prior knowledge rather than observe things for what they are whether they are external quantities or aspects of ourselves. It’s a song that seems to aim at a kind of mystical experience through radical awareness of the world on its own terms, of other people and of our own subjective experience thereof and our lenses of interpretation. Watch the video for “In This Dusk” on YouTube and connect with Hanna Ojala at the links below.

https://soundcloud.com/h_mo
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOciWsXO_7cDSrveFlwSmkA

Felix Martin’s Remix of Sparkling’s Indie Rock Track “I Want To See Everything” Transforms a Warm Indie Rock Song Into a Techno Banger

Sparkling, photo by Ecoute Cherie

Sparkling turned over its song “I Want To See Everything,” the title track to its debut album to Hot Chip’s Felix Martin for a remix that expands and completely transforms the original. Whereas the original song is an upbeat pop song in German and French with a winsome moment of synth infused reverie in the middle, Martin takes that aspect of the song and renders the rest of the song in its tonal colors while adding synth lines and emphasizes the techno possibilities inherent to the song along with vocoder and isolated guitar lines that intone a chord and sound like they’re melting slowly in the wind of the momentum of the song. The warm indie rock song becomes something more ethereal yet Martin somehow preserves the emotional warmth and earnest quality of the song that made the original so appealing. It’s like a retrofuturist treatment that wouldn’t have been out of place on a playlist for The Hacienda or one of the clubs that would have welcomed Daft Punk or Air in their respective early days. Listen to the Felix Martin remix of “I Want To See Everything” on Soundcloud and connect with Sparkling at the links provided.

https://www.facebook.com/Sparklingofficial
https://www.instagram.com/sparkling_official
https://www.youtube.com/user/Sparklingofficial

K.I.N.G. the MC Reminds Us to Keep Our Eyes on the Prize Even During Life’s Bleakest Passages on “Napoleon Hill”

K.I.N.G. the MC, photo courtesy the artist

K.I.N.G. the MC says that during the creation of his 2020 album The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. II he went through some of the toughest times of his life losing family and friends and even his home. The track list reads like one man’s spiritual struggle with the forces of darkness from within and without. The track “Napoleon Hill” invokes the famous author of the 1937 self-help classic Think and Grow Rich as he lists the seemingly endless string of challenges hitting him that could sink his ship but in a fashion similar to the way Bad Brains channeled Hill’s message he uses that “positive mental attitude” to keep his efforts and aspirations focused in order to not stay stuck in a mindset of defeat and despair. Bookending the track with spectral drones and grainy footage frames the situation realistically to perhaps put the dreams and the need for them and their pursuit in proper context as a way of implementing a flexible plan to reach a goal without losing sight of all the good that can come from it. Could be a song merely born of desperation but comes off as a song of striving and grinding and hope. Watch the music video for “Napoleon Hill” on YouTube and connect with K.I.N.G. the MC at the links below.

https://campsite.bio/kingthemc
https://soundcloud.com/kingthemc
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwDBhAWIdTv6RclRJHlgRRA
https://kingthemc.bandcamp.com/releases
https://twitter.com/kingthemc_
https://www.instagram.com/kingthemc

HEARTATTRACKS Captures a Zen State of Hyper Awareness on “Isolated Arrest”

HEARTATTRACKS, photo courtesy the artist

“Isolated Arrest” by multimedia artist HEARTATTRACKS (with guest vocals from Kim Little aka Hnymlk) folds together some hip-hop production with glitchy IDM and ambient music. The vocals center the tonal flow of the song when they come in like a vortex of illumination. The effect is a bit like what might have happened had William Orbit and Future Sound of London come up after the advent of trap beats. The song conveys a sense of the exotic and the alien while also establishing a calming influence with its high pitched background arpeggio and softened, accenting percussion. The song evokes images of the dreams of a calm jungle in the morning with the myriad of stimuli washing gently over you that will recede into the ambient soundscape once your conscious mind fully takes hold. It is a soundtrack to hyper awareness without being overwhelmed by what you perceive. Listen to “Isolated Arrest” on Spotify and connect with HEARTTRACKS at the links below.

https://soundcloud.com/heartattracks
https://www.facebook.com/heartattracks
https://www.instagram.com/heartattracks

The Jerry Cans’ Electrifying and Rousing “Swell (My Brother)” Highlights a Need For Societal Action to Address Mental Health Issues With Compassion and Integrity Now

The Jerry Cans, photo courtesy the artists

Mental health issues used to be talked about in patronizing tones with a hint of moral failings and thus deserved pain and suffering and deprivation in some fashion but these days the public dialogue has shifted slightly with widespread information on how widespread it is and how the nature of these ailments has been misrepresented, misreported and pushed off into the realm of things other people have to deal with. The frustration at the gap between people suffering from these issues and the way they are administered is infused in The Jerry Cans’ single “Swell (My Brother).” It’s an uplifting, electrifyingly melodic song with rousing choruses and horns, percussion, keyboards and guitar coming together in a panoramic orchestral arrangement like The Polyphonic Spree with a bit more punk in the equation. The group, from Iqualuit, Nunavit, Canada, offers no pat answers or patronizing sentiments about how it’s all going to be alright. Rather, the choruses brim with compassion and questions demanding some kind of answer from society at large, a society that has chosen, and it is a choice to prioritize some concerns and not others, to try to not approach addressing root causes and offering real aid to those suffering. In the chorus the lines, “How long must we keep on dying? How long can we keep on dying?” leaves the question open regarding when will enough be enough for the issue to reach the policy making level or the action level in a national dialogue beyond empty sympathy. And yet the song doesn’t strike dire tones, just a passionate one calling for human action now. At a time when mental health issues are exploited for marketing purposes and employed by corporate propaganda to signal their supposed moral character, the song strikes an especially sincere and vital note. Listen to “Swell (My Brother)” on Spotify, connect with The Jerry Cans at the links below and check out the rest of the band’s new album Echoes which was released on May 15, 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCchGda0RiqbCeNWIVkja2QA
https://soundcloud.com/thejerrycans

Buggie Gives a Silver Lining to the End of Western Civilization as We Know It on “Westend”

Buggie, still from the video for “Westend”

Pulsing low end rumble pushes Buggie’s song “Westend” along as Gretchen King almost reads the story of the current dissolution of the world order as we knew it and the desperate attempts to save it. Whether that be with “corporate saviors” or clinging to the utterly discredited neoliberal order with its distractions in entertainment, social media and dead end jobs held out as our only options as a way to perpetuate an economic model that hasn’t been sustainable in even the most powerful countries for four decades. Buggie points out that it seems like the last legs of resisting the inevitable. The almost industrial percussion wedded with King’s pondering but cautionary vocals convey the hard reality before us but inject it with a hint of whimsical flavor as if to suggest that maybe this end of things as we know it is a positive because it’s already been crashing in on itself since the turn of the century and maybe we’re already ready for something new even if it seems scary. Fans of Holly Herndon and Hiro Kone will greatly appreciate the production and soundscaping and the conceptual nature as well as the social critique of the song. Listen to “Westend” on Soundcloud, watch a short clip of the stop motion music video on Instagram and connect with Buggie at the links provided.



https://soundcloud.com/buggieclub
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7R6_w1l6B-_V6EQS3qLA2A
https://www.facebook.com/buggieclub
https://www.instagram.com/buggieclub

Alex the Astronaut Tells a Tale of Learning to Trust Your Abilities in Unfamiliar Situations on “Lost”

Alex the Astronaut, photo courtesy the artist

Australian singer and songwriter Alex the Astronaut (Alex Lynn) is set to release her debut album The Theory of Absolutely Nothing out on Nettwerk on August 21, 2020. And if the lead single “Lost” is any indication, there are plenty of emotionally vibrant stories to be heard on the record. Her pacing of the lyrics and the urgency of the vocals coupled with the orchestral arrangements really highlight a sense of uncertainty, excitement and vulnerability when you find yourself in unfamiliar territory and everything you assumed to be true about your situation fall by the wayside and you have to navigate in the moment. But instead of being overwhelmed by fear and anxiety you find a way to go with it and learn and find your way without established protocols and a proper way to go about things because oftentimes the most interesting place to find yourself in life is when there is no map and you have to trust yourself to help establish a path for yourself and others. Fans of 80s jangle rock and will appreciate the well-crafted tunefulness of the song and those of Kimya Dawson’s unvarnished, emotional openness will find something to savor in Lynn’s willingness to risk going off the rails while managing to not quite do so. Listen to “Lost” on Soundcloud and connect with Alex the Astronaut at the links provided.

https://twitter.com/AtheAstronaut
https://www.facebook.com/alextheastronaut
https://www.instagram.com/alex.the.astronaut

SOHEILL Creates the Perfect Soundtrack For Romanticizing Your Authentic Life on “Start All Over”

SOHEILL, photo courtesy the artist

On “Start All Over” SOHEILL creates an especially evocative dynamic when his vocals come in warmly over an introspective ambient passage by uniting the abstract emotional atmospheres and a direct expression of a desire of not wanting to start at zero once life can feel like it’s back in forward momentum instead of its current stasis. In another year, another time it might have been a song for late summer nights taking stock of where you’re going and mid-song the momentum hangs to create a compositional space in which those assessments can take be mulled over and discussed with impressionistic sketches of thought. Then the guitar and percussion come full back in for an extended outro suggesting coming to terms with actually needing to start your life again. But this time from a place of authenticity despite how much you’ve built on what you thought you wanted and what you were rather than what is at the core of your being as you’ve experienced life and been changed by those experiences and have had time to revisit what you’ve learned instead of moving forward and moving on as we’re encouraged to in modern life. The song seems to be one of unburying yourself, of the things you’ve pursued in hopes of fixing something in you, making up for some inadequacy rather than cultivating a true sense of self because after all if you’re living someone else’s dream it’s always going to feel off and the hazy synths of the song feel like taking the time to dissolve the facade with patience and gentleness. Musically it’s reminiscent of the warm psychedelia of The War on Drugs and the nostalgic tones of one of those 80s alternative rock bands that got past the phase of their initial popularity and started writing songs about adult themes instead of being perpetually stuck in singing about adolescence, which also seems to be one of the underlying themes of the song as well, to live in the present in your own story instead of what you’ve romanticized. Listen to “Start All Over” on Soundcloud and connect with SOHEILL at the links below.

https://www.instagram.com/soheillmusic

Drens Helps to Make Smashing Fascism Fun on “I Can Barely See”

Drens, photo by Leonie Scheufler

German post-punk band Drens from Dortmund celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE Day on May 8 on which Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies in 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe with the release of its single and video “I Can Barely See” from the group’s Pet Peeves EP. With the rise of far right and generally authoritarian parties and leaders across the world things can seem pretty bleak and hopeless particularly if you’re living under the regimes of Donald Trump in the USA, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. You may have heard of some of the anti-human rights practices of the likes of Russia’s Vladimir Putin or China’s Xi Jinping. But the song and its playful video takes on modern fascism and authoritarianism with a spirited humor casting the band members as heroes in a video game with the rock band as a force for good against the bad guys. It’s a light-hearted approach but it makes the whole affair seem manageable if challenging and the urgency of the music with its echoing guitar chimes and driving rhythms do honor to the peril and hard work that will be required but it also shows how when people work together and remain diligent in the struggle against the sort of politics it was assumed was vanquished following the second world war that anti-Fascists can prevail. Watch the video for “I Can Barely See” on YouTube, connect with Drens at the links below and you can support the non-profit campaign group Kein Bock auf Nazis which fights far right politics in Germany and elsewhere at https://www.keinbockaufnazis.de.

http://www.drens.de
https://soundcloud.com/drens
https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialDrensChannel
https://www.instagram.com/drens_band

Cindy Gravity Shares Our Disappointment in the Future of the 1980s not Delivering on the Promise of a Technological Utopia on “Rocket Men”

Cindy Gravity, photo courtesy the artists

Cindy Gravity free associates cultural references in the video for the “Rocket Men” single. From the VHS glitch and simulation of camcorder effects and old video editing effects. From the nod to music video for Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” to a tin foil headband to eccentric early 80s music videos like if Harry Nilsson and Thomas Dolby made a parody of the format through a creative use of the limitations of available technology the video is like a collage of unusual and laid back irony. The song itself is an interesting blend of downtempo pop and what might be described as 80s New Wave kitsch with keyboards rimmed with distorted synth lines and vocals that shift from contemplative to borderline intense as though insisting someone produce the rocket men who promised us a different kind of future than the dystopian present in which we’ve passed critical years in science fiction. Certainly 1984 was long ago, 2001 nearly twenty years in the past and we sure didn’t get advanced replicants like Roy Blatty and Pris Stratton in 2016. Cindy Gravity almost sounds disappointed we didn’t get any of this except for that whole Big Brother deal. Watch the video for “Rocket Men” on YouTube and connect with Cindy Gravity at the links below.

https://soundcloud.com/cindy-gravity