New Music – Page 187 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“Grain Barge” by From Apes to Angels Takes Us on a Journey From Exalted Illumination to a Blissful Endless Summer

From Apes to Angels, photo courtesy the artists

Millie Gaum and Andrew Brassleay bridge the worlds of IDM, modern synthwave and dream pop with their project From Apes to Angels and the new album Let the Light In. The single “Grain Barge” begins with what feel like the thoughts of immortals floating in a stream of the ambient energy that permeates the universe moving in slow arcing waves of distorted quanta. When the wind passes we find ourselves bathed in ethereal vocals that sing of someone becoming divine. And it is then that the percussion comes in with an urgent piano line that what began as the expression of universal beings congeals into a pop song of luminous but those grounded in energies and experiences that have a human immediacy. It’s an interesting reverse of the progression of many pop songs that begin with the earthbound human experience and aim for more elevated realms of expression. But not once does the song lack for an emotionally cleansing quality that leaves you uplifted at the end. Listen to “Grain Barge” on Soundcloud and connect with From Apes to Angels at the links provided.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/18bQ9mHwuOqLsppbBFVAtq?si=XiEhKLh1R8WDH4b0McYXBg
https://soundcloud.com/fromapestoangels
https://twitter.com/apestoangels
https://www.facebook.com/fromapestoangels
https://www.instagram.com/fromapestoangels
https://fata.bandcamp.com

Telestation Alpha Articulates the Mysterious Draw of the Possibilities of Unknown Spaces on “Underwater Creatures”

Telestation Alpha “Underwater Creatures” cover (cropped)

Telestation Alpha brings you directly into alien environments on its track “Underwater Creatures.” The layers of analog synth establish a streaming, abstract melody in the distance with a slow pulse of distorted tone like a slow cycling pulsar, a lighthouse or a new kind of sonar that gives you nearby imagery with intermittent accuracy. But in this journey, nothing. Just empty vistas of underwater landscape. All the while you are drawn further into the deep, further into spaces that are largely dark to the naked eye but which the extension of sensory capabilities thanks to technology bring within reach of exploration. The song articulates the draw of the unknown and the possibility of discovery of worlds and unhitherto unknown geographies and, with any luck, civilizations hidden from us by time and space. Listen to “Underwater Creatures” on Spotify and connect with Danish ambient and drone project Telestation Alpha at the the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5mSjb1ECyYlkvyGUiKsNtD
https://telestationalpha.com/index.html
https://telestationalpha.bandcamp.com/album/transmission-started
https://twitter.com/CodeElektrohttps://www.instagram.com/code_elektro

frogi Sings With Gentle Immediacy of a Love That Transcends Time and Space on “til i turn blue”

The way frogi arranges her atmospheric melodies has always given her songs a strong emotional resonance. They craft a sense of intimacy with the listener with a gentle immediacy. Her song “til i turn blue” catches us up in drifting with a nearly impressionistic piano melody and frogi’s contemplating the nature of the strong love bond and how it changes and evolves across years. How some people seem to be able to pull at our heartstrings because somehow we understand or have a natural empathy for what they’re going through and even if we drift apart for a time or forever that emotional dynamic somehow remains. Sometimes we struggle against it but frogi’s song speaks of an acceptance of that bond of love even if it can’t be the same as it once was because even if our lives change because we evolve as people it’s not so difficult to understand that our relationship to the bond can evolve as well if we don’t cling to the demands of ego’s insistence on the linear and the now. It’s a song about love in the spiritual and worldly sense but one that is imbued with a comprehension of the overlap. In a time of great conflict it’s a strong reminder of greater possibilities in our relationships with each other. Listen to “til i turn blue” on Soundcloud and connect with frogi at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/0frlcBV9pFq0Ip624rdUen
instagram.com/frogimakesmusic

Holden Laurence’s “Sometimes Laughter” Plumbs the Depths of Personal Darkness With a Tenuous Sense of Hope

Holden Laurence, photo courtesy the artist

Opening with a melodic bass line, steady tom rolls and hi-hat tapping with a ghostly synth haunting the background, Holden Laurence’s “Sometimes Laughter” immediately recalls Joy Division’s “Decades.” But when the vocals come in the keyboards soar into a more uplifting dynamic while somehow remaining melancholic, guitar melody gloomily bending in flanger. Laurence’s vocals imbue a story of tragedy and heartache with a sense of romance and humor at the absurdity of some of the situations life throws at you. Laurence played all the instruments on the track minus the drums performed by Michael O’Brien of The Modern Electric and there is a coherent and balanced aesthetic.The fiery, rhythmic guitar solo at the end of the song paired with ethereal keyboard work isn’t just reminiscent of Joy Division, but also of The Sound and the way the band could sound so hopeful while plumbing the depths of personal darkness trying to find there some revelatory and illuminating emotional truth. Listen to “Sometimes Laughter” on Soundcloud and connect with Holden Laurence at the links provided.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ni612NB9KFU963TGqohXX
https://holdenlaurence.com
https://soundcloud.com/holdenlaurence
https://holdenlaurence.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/holdenlaurence
https://www.facebook.com/HoldenLaurence
https://www.instagram.com/holdenlaurence

Woods End’s “Rowan Road” is a Vividly Haunted Tale of Heartache and Loss

The soundscapes of “Rowan Road” by Woods End convey the physical and emotional sense of wide open spaces and the kind of isolation that induces an introspective spirit. With acoustic guitar, drums and piano sweep of drones give shading to delicate melodies through which the haunted vocals sing a tale of heartache and loss cast in hear mythological terms. Perhaps it would be better to think of it in terms of melodrama as the details that contain the artifacts of memory and experience figure prominently: parts of the landscape, food left out, wind, a labyrinth of feeling. As the song progresses it’s grand architecture is reminiscent of I, Robot period Alan Parsons Project and the personal darkness, emotional struggle and sound palette resonates with those same qualities heard in a 16 Horsepower song. Listen to “Rowan Road” on Soundcloud and connect with Woods End at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/0aRjJ2EpWQe1C15B2N241L?si=dtIWvglfSn6C8xcltaV6bA
woodsendband.com
soundcloud.com/woodsendband
woodsend.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/woodsendband
facebook.com/woodsendband

Tess Posner Helps us to Appreciate the Relationships We’ve Outgrown Without Getting Stuck in the Past on “Ashes”

Tess Posner’s song “Ashes” sounds like a nostalgic look back on an earlier part of life. The uplifting keyboard tones and soft percussion give the song a feel of an affectionate look back at one’s younger self and in some ways that’s what the song is, partly a memory of friends with whom you shared dreams, creative ideas and the shared collective experiences that bond many people for the rest of their lives in some way but other friendships, like some or many relationships, have a place in a very specific part of your life before you grow in different ways that result in a natural drift apart even if the intensity and exuberance of that time felt like it could last forever. Posner also wonders how they could ever go back and find themselves again as is natural when you’ve reached that period in your life where you feel like you’re missing being young and feeling everything is possible (even if it never really is) and that you have all the time in the world relatively unburdened by the demands of adulthood. Posner with the song helps us to understand that these experiences help to shape our lives but do not define them forever nor should they and that we can revisit them in our hearts and maybe, just maybe, reconnect and reminisce with an old friend yet not live in the past.

open.spotify.com/artist/6E0ipJwSn72SyGZUHAp2ht
sonicbids.com/band/tessposner

DISCHAAAGEEE’s Frantic, Synth-driven Song “Xuxu” Sits at the Sweet Spot Between Garage Rock, Synth Pop and Post-punk

Imagine a lo-fi blend of Devo, The Fall and Quintron and that will give you some idea what you’re in for listening to “Xuxu” by Japanese band DISCHAAAGEEE. Its propulsive pace, regimented yet borderline unhinged dynamics, playful synth melodies and enigmatic vocals sit in the sweet spot between garage rock, synth pop and post-punk. It sounds futuristic in the way it free associates musical ideas and recontextualizes them to make something that draws inspiration from what has come before without being beholden to it stylistically even if the spirit of that music can be heard echoing in the distorted gyrations and frantic pulses of “Xuxu.” Fans of Pow! and The Screamers will appreciate the songs surrealistic soundscaping and raw energy as well as its undeniably catchy tunefulness. Listen to “Xuxu” on Spotify and connect with DISCHAAAGEEE at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3OEW90E5e6KLcFFRrDJCba
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK3Eokb8k_1NsZO4IQnLPrw
https://twitter.com/dischaaageee
https://www.facebook.com/uch.kenhttps://www.instagram.com/dischaaageee

AWON, BluntOne and ANTITHESIS Give Voice to a Skeptical Yet Tentative Hope for the Fulfillment of Creative Dreams on “Timing”

AWON, BluntOne and A N T I T H E S I S ” Timing” cover (cropped)

“Timing” is a collaboration between A N T I T H E S I S, a piano project by Georgii Speakman and Phil Lewis, BluntOne and rapper AWON. Speakman and Lewis have crafted for the song a spare piano line that starts simple and crescendos into more emphatic emotional spaces alongside a horn part that is melancholic, moody and accents the reflective tones and tempos throughout. It sounds like a perfect melding of downtempo hip-hop, modern classical music and jazz between its repeating figure acting like a sample in real time in the beat. AWON raps through the song a tale of wanting to live up to responsibilities to the people that make it possible for him to pursue his art with integrity and support and the fears born of uncertainty and the pressure to succeed being both exciting and threatening to undermine what can feel like an edifice when you’re hampered ever so slightly by a touch of impostor’s syndrome. But amid that wave of doubt, at the beginning of the song, we hear that burgeoning trust in self that will hopefully carry the day when you know you’re on the right path and the creative work you’re doing is solid and not you and your friends simply pumping each other up as friends and collaborators do in faking until you make it. You hear the hints of someone who has been down that path and now doesn’t trust it and instead feels tentative as a defense against wishful thinking and the way that can compromise your work. Listen to “Timing” on Spotify, connect with A N T I T H E S I S at the links below and keep a look out for the project’s new album A N T I T H E S I S Vol. 1, Pt. 3.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1sbuH2QadilkAzCOOrjHuf
https://soundcloud.com/project-antithesis

The Dusky, Incandescent Tones of “Days on You” by Joe James Lewis Takes us Into the Deep Waters of Romantic Doubt

Joe James Lewis, photo courtesy the artist

Joe James Lewis says that “Days on You” is a “song for the age of indoors.” The title track of his new EP finds Lewis using what sounds like Fender-Rhodes to cast the tone of the song in a dreamlike haze matched with a downtempo beat and a soulful hush in his vocal inflections. If one could have a jazz lounge chillout room in your ground floor apartment in a coastal town and perform during one of those late nights when the rain has been going on steadily on and off for hours that would be an analog to the vibe of the song. Lewis contemplates a period of doubt in a relationship where he examines aspects of the interpersonal dynamic and if the excitement and passion is worth the challenges and in the end he makes no absolute decisions, there’s no television show ending platitudes and that makes the songwriting emotionally and creatively brave because often people want to hear a song that tells them it’s all going to be okay but we all know life is rarely like that even if it would be nice once in awhile. That choice, coupled with the song’s lush soundscapes also rewards repeated listens through the song’s duskily incandescent tones. Check it out for yourself on Soundcloud and follow Lewis on Bandcamp linked below.

https://joejameslewis.bandcamp.com/releases

The Sweeping Momentum of “Far Behind” by Sub Cultures is Like a Hurried Yet Wistful Goodbye From Life in a Dead End Town

Sub Cultures “Far Behind” cover (cropped)

You can hear the echoes of the breezy, emotive melodies of the likes of Sarah Records bands or Veronica Falls and Beach Fossils in “Far Behind” by Sub Cultures. The simple yet intricate guitar lead transitions seamlessly into impressionistic rhythmic passages and back again. The captivating vocals evoke a sense of renewed hope in the wake of feeling like you might be trapped by life circumstances for the rest of your life like many of us seem to if not prodded by friends or family or events beyond our control. There is a touch of regret in the song even though it has great forward momentum like you’re taking a quick glance back at a life that felt like the whole world as you’re about to exit it for something better or at least different. Listen to “Far Behind” on Soundcloud and connect with the UK-based band on Spotify below as well.