New Music – Page 188 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Adélaide’s “Silent Hope” Gives Voice to the Realization That Sometimes a Hoped For Romance is Better Left Unrequited

Adélaide’s single “Silent Hope” is reminiscent of a more downtempo early Talk Talk. Its urgent rhythm syncs well with its evocation of the a time in life when you have to reconcile yourself with the possibility, even the reality, that a romance you thought would manifest isn’t and maybe shouldn’t happen. The line “the silent hope makes my head spin” near the beginning and “my silent hopes have faded” later on reflects the impact of someone sending mixed messages that perhaps seemed promising in the beginning but in the end leave you feeling confused and wanting something more vital and real. Which is a more complex emotional sentiment than one often hears in a pop song. Listen to the downcast but buoyant synth pop song on Soundcloud and connect with Adélaide at the links provided.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4IqyIXyWko1WbYKXN26TZo
https://soundcloud.com/user-268703467-54716390
https://www.facebook.com/Adelaide.Muzik
https://www.instagram.com/adelaide.musik

Ariane Creates a Heady Sense of a Burgeoning Romance on “VHS”

Ariane was inspired by the seemingly carefree quality of a 1980s romantic comedy for her single “VHS.” But like many of those movies, there’s a bit more complexity and reticence to work through before the relationship can actually blossom. But the upbeat and bright synth melody and moments of contemplation giving way to what might be described as tentative excitement as though maybe the narrator in the song is reluctant to rush into things and expressing some of the roots of that hesitancy. But what Ariane also captures well is the sense of an aspiration to being swept up in the romance or perhaps one might say the romance of being swept up in a good, passionate relationship. The sweeping pace and introspective tones one imagines suiting a montage scene accompanied by music that seems to have been a part of most movies from the 80s during which one sees the principal characters interact without dialogue and you get an unconventional insight into their chemistry through the music setting the mood to the action. Listen to “VHS” on Soundcloud and connect with the French-American pop singer and songwriter Ariane at the links below.

facebook.com/arianeogabriel
instagram.com/arianeogabriel

The Found Tape Aesthetic of Mild Wild’s “Chain-Link Fence” Makes it a Lo-Fi, Timeless Commentary on the Perils of Consumerism and Culture as a Disposable Commodity

Mild Wild “Chain Link Fence” cover (cropped)

Mild Wild took the opposite approach to crafting the music and production of its single “Chain-Link Fence” than what we hear too often now when most makers of music can afford to sound “good” in a professional musical sense. But what too much music lacks is a sense of rough hewn spontaneity. The instruments used on the recording and the gear employed to capture the sounds were come by through inheriting items from friends or finding them at the thrift store or in a dumpster. And if that’s partly a myth, this song certainly sounds like someone used an old Tascam Portastudio and used it to great effect as say John Vanderslice did on his early recordings or the way Microphones sound on The Glow, Pt. 2. It has the aesthetic of a found reel-to-reel tape of indeterminate vintage as the songwriting isn’t really dated by popular cultural references but, rather, a commentary on the corrosive nature of consumerist culture on how we value not just art but how we construct meaning in the world and thus each other and ourselves. It warns of not aspiring to dubious dreams that make you essentially a servant of a system of economics and existence that relegates everyone and everything to a commodity that is immediately disposable and consumable. It suggests that we deserve better and we can have it if we don’t fall victim to a mentality that atomizes our experiences and lives by colonizing our sense of self and each other in all areas of our lives. The song is a refreshingly unvarnished hearkening back to mid-2000s lo-fi indie pop that seemed to take no cues from commercial musical trends while being instantly accessible as the music was meant to be relatable and convey a sincere commentary on society without being didactic. Listen to “Chain-Link Fence” on Spotify (where you can listen to the rest of the album Mild Wild, Vol. 1) and connect with Mild Wild at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0U6PR4Gzq9kw5mL05qSVXu
https://soundcloud.com/mildwildmusic
https://www.instagram.com/mildwildmusic

“Mercury in Retrograde” by Impostor Syndrome is the Soundtrack to the Calm Before the Existential Storm

Impostor Syndrome, photo courtesy the artists

Impostor Syndrome’s industrial post-punk track “Mercury in Retrograde” was partially inspired by the concept how events and phenomena beyond our control can have a negative impact on our behavior and thinking. Given how the worst global pandemic in a century has barrelled into the lives of most people in the world it’s easy to see how that scenario plays out whether one chooses to believe in things like astrology or not. The song feels like the intro to something bigger like the first track of a larger song cycle of an album. It sounds a bit as if Front Line Assembly picked up some musical cues from big beat artists along the way. The song, although short, establishes a strong sense of urgency and menace with the suggesting of a burgeoning crisis on the immediate horizon. Listen to “Mercury in Retrograde” on Spotify and connect with Impostor Syndrome at the links provided.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/notion-single/1470565393
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOsJ-cye0oH6XafeuJ2Ebxw
https://www.facebook.com/ImpostorSyndrome
https://www.instagram.com/impostor_syndrome_music

Kaption’s “Calm” Helps Us to Take a Break From the Ambient Angst and Emotional Turmoil of the World in This Moment

In calling its song “Calm,” Kaption makes a simple statement of intent for a song that embodies exactly that. The simple electronic piano figure over a gentle flow of white noise and meditative percussion, melodic winds calling gently over the proceedings and gorgeously ethereal threads of non-verbal vocals and resonant tonal accents that elevate the mood run through the entire song as though designed to untangle the ambient angst and intensity that seems to be coursing through the world like a slow motion wrecking ball of everyone’s mood. The song doesn’t downplay the concerns that inspire so much of the amplified emotions of today so much as remind us that we can’t always dwell there and that doing so might be unhealthy long term and that we can indulge moments of being transported from our dark places to moments of blissful tranquility. Listen to “Calm” on Spotify and connect with Kaption at the links below.

soundcloud.com/kaption
music.apple.com/us/artist/kaption/1276943166
youtube.com/c/kaptionmusic
facebook.com/kaptionmusic

“Screened” by Witchbrew is the Sound of the Cleansed Mind Refreshed

“Screened” billows forth with vocals processed as an abstracted atmospheric presence floating through bright, drifty synth arpeggios and simple beats. Its layer of minimal components creating a soundscape like the analog of having the luxury of taking in the view of a foggy coastal morning with the sunlight illuminating the sky and slowly cutting through the haze and a swirl of clouds as you contemplate what you will do with a day when there are no pressing concerns and no real demands on your time. It is the sound of a mind cleansed of life’s pressures, like your own internal heaven out of which you can emerge refreshed and ready for whatever comes your way. Aficionaodos of chillout IDM and downtempo techno will appreciate the way Witchbrew crafts a beat as a kind of sonic canvas across which tones flow and resolve organically. Listen to “Screened” on Spotify, follow Witchbrew at the links below and if you like what you hear you can check out the full album Anamorphosis at any of the streaming platforms linked on the Instagram profile.

soundcloud.com/witchbrew
https://www.instagram.com/witchbrewmusic

Adult Programming Evokes the Dark Surreality and Humor of John Constantine in the Music Video for “Let It Come 2 U”

Adult Programming still from video for “Let It Come 2 U”

The music video for Adult Programming’s “Let It Come 2 U” looks like something out of a better version of John Constantine: Hellblazer with the mix of the lurid, the gritty, the menacingly mystical and the surreal. The song itself is an upbeat synth pop song with a dark underbelly with vocals that have an edge and power like something you’d expect to hear in a death rock song. And maybe that’s what “Let It Come 2 U” is in some sense, an urgent death rock song written with the immediacy baked into a bright melody. Watch the video for the song on YouTube where you can sample several of Adult Programming’s other imaginative and playfully haunting music videos.

Dan Sartain Gives Us a Psychedelic Cowboy Ballad With His Cover of Elvis Presley’s “Flaming Star”

Still from the music video for Dan Sartain’s “Flaming Star”

Dan Sartain invites us for a journey into the myth of the Old West as embodied in American popular music on his new album Western Hills (due out in the Fall on Earth Libraries) but it’s one that subverts the paradigm a bit in presentation and execution. The debut single from the record “Flaming Star” is a cover of the song originally recorded by Elvis for his 1960 movie of the same name in which he plays a half Native American, half European American character in arguably one of The King’s greatest roles. But in the music video directed by Sarah Orr we do not even see Dan Sartain, we see an older black actor performing the song in surreal lighting and commanding your attention like a legendary Vegas performer playing a private room like a rock and roll magician, like Sun Ra of countrified rockabilly. It is both haunting and endearing precisely because of this experience of the song. The song itself and what it promises for the rest of the album gives us a different side of Sartain who, while not a household name, has built a mystique as a performer with his fans including the likes of Jack White and John Reiss (Rocket From The Crypt/Drive Like Jehu/Hot Snakes). The single is an example of a psychedelic cowboy ballad. Which you can’t say about too many songs. So take a gander at the video for “Flaming Star,” follow Sartain at the links provided and look out for Western Hills when it drops in the Fall.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6AZ4TQhtH9GsoTFe2CxR2n
https://www.instagram.com/dansartain
https://joindansartain.bandcamp.com

Magic Cobra’s “Golden Child” is a Fuzz Infused, Psychedelic Ride Into Bliss and Ardor

The entrancing, spiralling melodies of “Golden Child” from Philadephia-based psychedelic band Magic Cobra leads you backwards and forwards through time in musical history. The shimmering, fuzzy and fiery guitar work melts with the keyboard undertones while preserving a core of folk-inflected songwriting. One hears echoes of Camper Van Beethoven covering Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men” through the lens of late 90s Brian Jonestown Massacre. The potential nod to Syd Barrett’s “Golden Hair” is deft as well. Touchstones aside, “Golden Child” is an immersive sonic expression of joyous ardor. Listen to “Golden Child” on Soundcloud and follow Magic Cobra at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5uspuYXr9qDVWeHraIwoY2
https://soundcloud.com/magic-cobra
https://magiccobra.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/magiccobraphilly
https://www.instagram.com/magiccobraphilly

“Want U 4 Mine” Finds Les Gold Turning a Song of Attraction and Desire Into a Electro-Psychedelic Epic

The minor chord progression in the guitar riff of Les Gold’s “Want U 4 Mine” sets the song up to go to interesting tonal and emotional places from the beginning. It seems to start as a kind of modern garage rock song but blossoms into a sonically rich bit of electronic psychedelia all while soul-inflected vocals lay out lines about a strong attraction in a manner more poetic and creative than the standard pop song and gives a sense that the attraction goes beyond the raw, physical kind. The lyrics aren’t just an expression of bravado-laden desire but also speak to the narrator’s own weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The driving electronic bass section later in the song alongside fiery guitar work and glimmering synth arpeggios bring to the song a rare richness of soundscaping that sets it apart from a great deal of music tapping into similar influences in post-punk, psychedelic garage rock and R&B. Listen to “Want U 4 Mine” on Spotify and connect with Les Gold at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3XfOlbu8GzAWZgunWPap5s
https://soundcloud.com/lesgold
https://www.facebook.com/lesgoldmusic
https://www.instagram.com/lesgoldmusic