New Music – Page 188 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Wild Manes Combines Spare Elements to Craft a Deep Listening Experience With Indie Pop Song “Cicadas”

“Cicadas” by Wild Manes is a great example of a song that combines several spare elements to create a deep listening experience. The interlocking guitar melodies are both soothing and gritty as befits the moment in the song. The vocal harmonies are tight and melodious yet flowing with a gentle energy that helps carry the momentum of the song alongside an equally fluid, tuneful bass line that doesn’t serve merely to accent the rhythm as is often the case in a lot of modern indie music. The percussion is minimal but it sets a mood of its own, one of anticipation that resolves in the choruses and by the song’s end. One imagines the entire song conceived of and written for all the parts to complement each other so that even a song that doesn’t bowl you over with volume or melodramatic dynamics can strike you as so vivid and compelling. There are no cheap tropes, no empty sonic calories, not heavy handed sentiments or musical flourishes, it’s simply a song that you can get something new out of with every listen which is rare in pop music at any time. Listen to “Cicadas” on Spotify and connect with New York’s Wild Manes at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/19keP25yDsn0Y6WpOvmxaB
https://www.reverbnation.com/wildmanes
https://soundcloud.com/wildmanes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3jcJoOdCg7DkXPCqsgh9EQ
https://wildmanes.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/WildManesmusic
https://www.instagram.com/wildmanesmusic

Alex Mali Dismisses the Trifling Fools in Her Life With Swagger and Style on “Problem”

The glossy lips and gold grill that you see in the beginning of the music video for “Problem” by Alex Mali (directed by the artist and OMNI) is more than symbolic of someone finally having to listen after so not doing so for entirely too long. Mali sings with a bold but cool swagger outlining the ways in which she had been taken for granted with her needs dismissed as insignificant. But now that the offender is in a time of need the chorus of “Sound like a you problem, cuz it ain’t my problem” is delivered with a touch of amusement—the kind you get when someone who has been so neglectful, abusive and unmindful of you has the gall to approach you like you owe them a favor or anything at all. When Mali manages to make the rhyme and rhythm work on the line “All the time I gave you was unrecognized, now all you want do is reconcile” it’s a marvel of creative vocals and speaks directly to the remembered pain while giving nothing to the person undeserving of consideration. The beat is trap but Mali makes use of a deeply evocative palette of sounds that goes beyond the tropes of style. It feels dark, lush and fluid and fans of Kari Faux and R A R E B Y R D $ will appreciate the attitude and the chill yet intense vibe of the track. Watch the video for “Problem” on YouTube, connect with Alex Mali at the links provided and look out for her new EP Phenom due out late Spring 2020.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/77SLhlrrJKzclwLB9bnRJZ
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/alex-mali/1123463077
https://soundcloud.com/alex-mali
https://twitter.com/MAINLYMALI
https://www.instagram.com/mainlymali

Alex Nauva’s Hybrid Synthwave/Chillwave “Vivid” is a Psychic Palate Cleanser

The stream of distorted white noise give Alex Nauva’s “Vivid” the feeling of flying through the air in a dream. The phasing on the main melody line and pulsing rhythm under the soaring higher tone second melody is reminiscent of something you might have heard on an early 80s Gary Numan album. But the composition has breezy, bright quality that feels like a modern re-imagining of the early, experimental syth pop. Nauva is the frontman of Swiss post-punk band OGMH but on “Vivid” there are no vocals, rather layers of contrasting textures and emotional shifts that are both introspective and uplifting. Like listening to the song will cleanse your psyche ever so slightly and in the current period of amplified angst and turmoil we all need a bit of that. Listen to “Vivid” on Soundcloud, connect with Nauva at the links provided and take a listen to his new EP Yume from which this track hails.

open.spotify.com/artist/0sSNWTcImp5SbbdAVxn1WR
soundcloud.com/alexnauva
youtube.com/channel/UCXtJ-IRZsKXPCCq5QAblOXA
alexnauva.bandcamp.com

“Creep For Life” by The Great Dictators Mirrors the Warped Dynamic of a Dysfunctional Family and Renders it Escapable

The Great Dictators, photo courtesy the artists

“Creep For Life,” the final single from The Great Dictators’ new album One Eye Opener (released April 17, 2020 on Celebration Records) sounds like a warping collage of melodies and textures held together, oddly, by the vocals telling the story of a dysfunctional family, the deviously passive aggressive kind in which that dynamic rolls back and forth with everyone on the lookout and never really knowing where they stand with anyone. The kind of family dynamic of mutual abuse that goes unexamined and undiscussed for years because to admit to not being able to “deal” with it is to admit one’s shortcomings, leaving oneself vulnerable to becoming the family scapegoat that everyone else can pile on even when they’re fairly shitty to each other if the occasion presents itself. The song’s soundscapes is like the emotional feedback loop that one can ride out of the situation and it’s reminiscent of a more pop version of My Bloody Valentine’s “Loomer” from Loveless. Though, according to the band, the song is a bit of a tribute to the imaginative soundscapes of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannson who passed away in 2018. The imagery that includes the line “This party is the worst party ever” is so poignant because it captures those awkward family gatherings, name the occasion, in which people seem to competitively snipe at each other. Fortunately, in being able to identify all of these shenanigans the song offers an exit which is often taking yourself out of the situation as often as possible because that kind of neuroses is only perpetuated when people participate without having any distance from that being the twisted norm and even if, when you make that move, you’re dubbed a terrible person by those choosing to be snared by that endless cycle of co-dependent abuse. Listen to “Creep For Life” on Soundcloud and connect with The Great Dictators at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/the-great-dictators
open.spotify.com/artist/5lLz1TtyX6e2LlUdbbAsJH
youtube.com/user/TheGreatDictators/videos
twitter.com/great_dictators
facebook.com/thegreatdictators
instagram.com/thegreatdictators

Kamil Kula and Wiesław Miernik Miernik Team Up For Hypnotic Tribal Industrial Sutra Track “Pieśń Wielkiej Pieczęci”

Kamil Kukla and Wiesław Miernik teamed up for a unique amalgam of their creative work with “Pieśń Wielkiej Pieczęci.” Wiesław Miernik is an outsider music representative from Suchedniow in Poland and he wrote words to Kukla’s song “Kto Umarl” from his latest album Gehenna. Though the song is in Polish and about Buddhism it is the mix of almost chanted poetry and tribal-industrial music that conveys a meaning that transcends specific context. The organic percussion and electronic beats with Miernik seeming to utter a kind of sutra brings together ancient ideas and contexts with modern avant-garde music in a way that few other artists synthesize so well. Maybe Einstürzende Neubauten and SWANS and other artists whose sonic palette embraces sounds outside strict genres and timeframes and even invents a few to create the proper emotional resonance. Listen to “Pieśń Wielkiej Pieczęci” on Soundcloud and connect with Kamil Kula at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/kamilqkla
kamilkukla.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/KAMIL-KUKLA-XOo0o-111315547131616
instagram.com/kamilkonradkukla

TV FACE Punctures the Pomposity of Boastful Fools on “Yarns”

We all know at least one person who talks big and has a story about everything that’s grander than anything you can speak to with any integrity. The president of the United States of America is one of these people for whom everything is the non-plus ultra of whatever subject is at hand. But in the end these stories don’t stand up to scrutiny and when they unravel the whole edifice of making the teller out to be some kind of hero or person of great accomplishment crumbles. TV FACE’s song “Yarns” spins such a tale in words and the language of wiry, layered discordant riffs and amplified energy. In moments it’s reminiscent of one of Lee Ranaldo’s more punk songs for Sonic Youth with its wide-ranging and sprawling dynamic that somehow welds to that stretched out composition an enthusiastic intensity. With the line “Just like the yarns you’ve come undone, you look washed out” the band encapsulates the end result of making oneself and one’s life more interesting than is the truth. Why not tell stories of your life that you can live up to instead of getting lost in a web of what you think to be beautiful truths when someone somewhere is going to know you’re exaggerating if not outright lying? Listen to “Yarns” on Soundcloud, follow UK-based post-punk band TV FACE at the links below and give a listen to the group’s new EP Like Dominoes which released April 24, 2020 on Bandcamp.

open.spotify.com/artist/2guRUrsON9OcOAx27AHe82
youtube.com/watch?v=wgi1FRV3-zg&feature=youtu.be
tvface.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/tvfaceband
facebook.com/tvfaceband
instagram.com/tvfaceband

dpe0’s Haunting and Affecting “Devotion” is the Soundtrack to a Perilous Existential Journey

There was a time in the 2000s and early 2010s when horror movies and thrillers had truly enigmatic soundtracks and deeply evocative sound design that was as much a part of the cinematic experience as the visual elements. Oftentimes that side of the movie was more compelling than what was on the screen or just edged it into the haunting and affecting. “Devotion” by dpe0 comes from that lineage whether formally or otherwise and it sounds like it was written after a marathon of listening to old Hearts of Space broadcasts alongside watching the entire works of Andrei Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr. It is spare and simple in its composition but its low volume puts your listening focus in the distance as it evolves slowly with hazy, melodic drones that echo through a cycle that never quite resolves and because of that it holds your attention with a vague sense of anticipation like something mysterious and transformative is on the horizon. It brings to mind when the “Stalker” character from the Tarkovsky movie of the same name leads “The Writer” and “The Professor” into the “Zone” and towards the “Room” where it is said the wishes of those who step inside are granted. Listen to “Devotion” on Spotify.

ttypes Celebrates “Building A Life” Rather Than Staying Stuck in a Relationship That Erodes You From the Inside

There comes a time in many people’s lives when the creeping realizations of having lived a life of tolerating abuses big and small, the emotional betrayals and those of trust, become impossible to ignore. “Building A Life” by ttypes puts that transformation into a catchy pop song that perfectly weds AM radio pop of the 60s and 70s with self-aware noise rock. If you don’t pay too much attention to the lyrics it sounds so much like a hopeful, uplifting, summertime indie hit. And it might be argued that it is exactly that but not one essentially devoid of content. The decision to leave the relationship has been made and a sense of excitement heading toward psychological freedom and actual happiness is palpable in the song. The headlong momentum is joyful and the feeling of a weight having lifted off is palpable. Could the title be more appropriate and wanting to build a life rather than getting stuck in one that doesn’t truly nurture you as a person? Listen to “Building A Life” on Spotify and connect with ttypes at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/1aEq8wrzOvAxB7UCnxWkIo
soundcloud.com/ttypes-music
youtube.com/user/ttttypes
ttttypes.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/ttttypes
facebook.com/ttypes

A. Spectre Synthesizes Dub, Industrial, Deathrock and Noise on “Subterranean”

A. Spectre channels a bit of early Ministry and deathrock on the “Subterranean” single. A slinky, dub-funk bass line buoys a crunchy/cutting guitar riff as the vocals tell a tale of disaffection and alienation and find a place where you can escape a mundane and superficial culture in an underground it doesn’t care about or acknowledge as legitimate. When the guitar solo comes in during the last fourth of the song it’s like a symbolic burning of the bridges between those two worlds. It celebrates subculture and the differentiating sensibilities and ethos. The production on the track is further reminiscent of the aforementioned Ministry as well as Skinny Puppy in how both use a sort of hip-hop production style with an emphasis on bass and rhythm as the driving elements of the song and everything around it is a genre bending amalgam of hard rock and noise. Listen to this genre-busting track on Soundcloud, connect with A. Spectre at the links provided and look out for the project’s Angst EP which includes “Subterranean.”

open.spotify.com/artist/07ByIrr6aftXygExNHxa6G
aspectre.bandcamp.com

The Brush Contemplates the Impermanence of All Things With the Delicately Melancholic “Squeeze & Turn”

The Brush “Squeeze & Turn” cover, image by Laura Moreau

Aaron Alan Mitchell, the singer, guitarist, keyboardist of The Brush, filmed and directed the video for his single “Squeeze & Turn.” It shows fireworks bursting in the foreground across the faces of statuary figures, many of them Roman emperors, to enhance the song’s message of contemplating the impermanence of all things. Fireworks are not lacking in their visual glory and power for being so fleeting in duration and in the grand timeline of history people come and go and make their mark but in the living it you don’t, can’t and shouldn’t think of it as meaningless and ephemeral and thus insignificant. And yet the resigned tone of the song and its contemplative pace with Mitchell’s vocals shifting seemingly effortlessly from soft introspection to emotive falsetto and back indicates not an abstraction of one’s place in the universe but the realization that even an Augustus or Mansa Musa mean little to the everyday lives of people today. With all the dramatic political and economic turmoil of the past few years and more it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that even though we can only live in the moment we do not have to give more weight to particular events than they warrant. Mitchell brought together a bit of an all star cast to record the track with Eli Thompson on bass (Father John Misty), Joey McClellan on guitar (Midlake, Elle King) and McKenzie Smith on drums (Midlake, St. Vincent). Watch the video for “Squeeze & Turn” on YouTube and connect with The Brush at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/0MKQ1osU4JaFgkKHn5BrQN
soundcloud.com/user-360310038
youtube.com/channel/UCBYyfeCiZ-9kFyQfLmtJ-Tg?app=desktop
instagram.com/thebrushmusic