New Music – Page 196 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Bathe Alone Crafts a Benevolent Mirror Image of the Cyclone of Anxiety That is a Panic Attack on “Calm Down”

BatheAlone_CalmDown1_sm — Bathe Alone, photo courtesy the artist

“Calm Down” is Bathe Alone’s concept song composed to be full of metaphors for panic attacks. The vocals are soothing like the part of your mind that goes on hold during a panic attack until it has subsided enough for you to gain some control over your nervous system and the way it escalates all the urgency in your psyche. The guitar has smaller builds and descending dynamics paralleled by the percussion and the relative intensity of the vocals. In moments the guitar arpeggios heat up and dissolve quickly. The guitar lead mid-song leaps up in fiery registers to give way to impressionistic, rhythmic notes. The song dynamics are vortices of emotional peaks and dramatic contrasts much like have a cluster of panic attacks and the overarching structure of the song has its own climax and peaceful denouement. But rather than the terror, the raging anxiety and the way your breathing seems out of your control, the song is comprised of gorgeous, transporting melodies that are an analog of a benevolent form of the experience by being a heady emotionally rich listen instead of the overwhelming sense that everything is over and you can’t escape or relief from the escalating and exploding tensions inside your own mind. By being keyed into the experience, though, Bathe Alone has given us a song that can speak to where your mind takes a wrong turn with some obvious understanding of the inner dialogue and the sensations that drive it, perhaps showing how you can get ahead of the worst of it and derail its full effect. Listen to “Calm Down” on Spotify, connect with Bathe Alone at the links provided and keep an eye out for the Last Looks LP due out summer 2020.

bathealone.com
soundcloud.com/bathealone
open.spotify.com/artist/384r9G0NILqkGrQL8IPMkC
youtube.com/channel/UC9hpjK2lI9E24Y40Dl6knfA
bathealone.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/bathemusic
facebook.com/bathealone
instagram.com/bathealone

Sunbather Imbues “Winter” With the Introspective Grandeur of the Season

Sunbather_Winter2_crop — Sunbather, image courtesy the artist

The sound of wind and echoing guitar notes leads us into Sunbather’s beautifully sprawling post-rock/dream pop track “Winter.” The percussion hits softly with splashes of cymbal and a second guitar plays a companion melody while the expressive vocals sit somewhere in the middle of the shifting whorls of sound. If there was a video for the song, one imagines a figure superimposed on a sunny but windswept, snowy landscape as the day timelapses by. It sounds like the kind of song that was written to embody not just the psychology of the introspective mood of a cold winter day but also the harboring and cultivating of dreams and aspirations and exploring them in detail and give them a full fledged expression. In this case with a lush but elegantly dynamic composition that uses sweeping passages and wide spaces that welcomes the winter mood and the limitations the season imposes on many of us as a season in which looking inward isn’t seen as antisocial and the multitudes of distractions available at other times of the year don’t pull us as much in various directions out of our focus on taking stock and contemplating life. Listen to “Winter” on Soundcloud and connect with Sunbather at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/sunbatherjams
open.spotify.com/artist/6jUWj9prMfMRXyCj7PXLxw
sunbatherjams.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/sunbatherjams
instagram.com/sunbatherjams

Esbie Fonte Muses on the Perils and Pleasures of Embracing One’s Own Growth Through Embracing Sensitivity and Vulnerability on “Your Dad’s Banjo”

EsbieFonte_YourDadsBanjo1_crop — Esbie Fonte “Your Dad’s Banjo” cover (cropped)

“Your Dad’s Banjo” has a title that may lead you to think you’re in for some kind of Americana or bluegrass song. But from the beginning of Esbie Fonte’s song it’s obvious you’re entering a dreamy realm of flowing soundscapes and enveloping melodies. Nearly abstract bell tones sound throughout like sun dappled accents, ascending synth figures, minimalist and processional percussion guides us through the haze of textural drones floating through the song with vocals seeming to articulates the insecurities we all have going through life and the complexities of all our relationships with people and where our boundaries can seem fluid at certain times in our lives while we’re open to being transformed, being vulnerable to change and accepting difficult, challenging and even painful experiences as part of living a full life not fearing growth and having our cultivated notions evolve with new insights and learning. The distorted synth melodies and shifting dynamics of the song and vocals that sit in the sweet spot between confident and tender make “Your Dad’s Banjo” immediately accessible and thoroughly entrancing. Listen to “Your Dad’s Banjo” on Soundcloud and connect with Esbie Fonte at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/esbiefonteofficial/boulevard-1
open.spotify.com/artist/6Sh3ahSTQD6LqMh1wMaSLY
twitter.com/esbiefontemusic
facebook.com/esbiefonteofficial
instagram.com/esbiefontemusic

The Tapetown Sessions Video of The Murder Capital’s “For Everything” Captures the Post-Punk Band’s Powers of Collective Catharsis

Dublin’s The Murder Capital has been one of the main buzz bands of post-punk of recent years and its Tapetown Sessions video of “For Everything” gives you a little taste of why. The group builds a brooding, seething, abrasive-yet-entrancing mood. The guitar bends and stretches into disorienting shapes while percussion and bass build a tense momentum that unleashes and releases a third of the way into the song. Echoing slashes of sound flash through the song and the hollow, forceful vocals haunts the sound with a commanding critique of a political and economic system that is failing everyone. But it is not didactic, it is visceral and comes from a place of genuine pain and frustration, of disappointed aspirations that need to be channeled into something productive and emotionally fulfilling. The song is six minutes long but it’s so electrifying and compelling you forget the time and get swept along in the shared catharsis.

Akkor’s “An” is like the Slow Motion, Somber, Psychedelic, Modern Classical Soundtrack to a Looming Tragedy

Akkor_An1_sm — Akkor, photo courtesy the artist

Akkor’s upcoming album Durma came out on 3/13/20 but now you can listen to the atmospherically rich single “An.” Akkor is Üstün Lütfi Yildirim, a Turkish composer who used piano to create the through line to the song but used digital processing and samples to assemble an experience of traveling backwards and forwards through time with reverse delay and a processional rhythm for a feel like some inevitable misfortune ahead. It is not easy or soothing listening but its layers of texture and drones is nevertheless compelling in the way it envelops you and commands your experiencing of the melancholic moments it conveys so well. It’s like a mixture of modern classical music and noise, some of which draws much of its influence from the former. It is a song that might be described as the slow motion, somber, psychedelic, modern classical soundtrack to a looming tragedy and all the more beautiful for that mix of aesthetics. Listen to “An” on Spotify and connect with Akkor at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/akkor
open.spotify.com/artist/2hpjVFRumhcw0oQiYTfZjx
youtube.com/AkkorOfficial
akkor.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/AkkorMusic
facebook.com/akkorAV
instagram.com/akkorofficial

ANFA Blasts the Uniformity of Social Media and Internet Culture on “Fukk It”

ANFA_FukkIt1_sm — ANFA, photo courtesy the artist

ANFA’s frustration with meaningless experience and social rewards is visceral on her track “Fukk It.” It blasts into your ears in the beginning like an industrial rap song. The touch of autotune on the vocals give it a surreal quality that jibes well with when the song goes into its more melancholic, melodic passages with a little bit of Middle Eastern flavor in the tonal choices. The Swedish-born Iranian/Balochi packs a lot of sound and several ideas into this relative short song (2:33) giving it a dynamism and depth that augments its hard hitting critique of social media and its handmaiden consumer culture. The fiery chorus of “Everybody, same shit” highlights how social media and internet culture has also eroded cultural differentiation that made for a more diverse world so that it can seem that people are repeating, sharing and being influenced by the same viral content and concepts without taking the time to cultivate something truly their own and enriching their own lives and that of others in the process. Listen to “Fukk It” on Soundcloud and connect with ANFA at the links below.

soundcloud.com/thisisanfa
open.spotify.com/artist/6YVHFtqryv3KWS1mYxTqCf
facebook.com/thisisanfa
instagram.com/thisisanfa

Turista Examines the Ways Social Dynamics Often Get in the Way of Emotional Intimacy on “All of Your Cards”

Turista_AllOfYourCards1_crop — Turista “All of Your Cards” cover (cropped)

The lush production of Turista’s “All of Your Cards” gives it the hazy, soft lighting quality of an early 80s pop music video. But as the song progresses to the end the through line dissolves into pure, abstract bliss. An interesting way to end a song that seems to be about being open and learning to trust and dispensing with the games people play with each other like you need to compete with people you know or with whom you might become involved or are involved. That dynamic puts up barriers to understanding and real intimacy, the kind the vibe of the song embodies. Fans of vaporwave generally will enjoy this song’s chill tones and almost meditative pace but Turista weaves in a bit of chiptune composition here and the key changes and lo-fi flourishes give the emotional coloring of the track something darker and more enigmatic than is immediately obvious. Listen to “All of Your Cards” on Spotify and follow Turista on Instagram.

ST3PH and Karl Williams Contemplate the Dissolution of Authoritarian Power on “Babylon”

ST3PH_Babylon1_sm — ST3PH, photo courtesy the artist

ST3PH teams up with Karl Williams for the track “Babylon” for a song that critiques compromising one’s values to fit in line with the values and culture of the power and economic elite. The beat utilizes some trap production but pairs it with a phasing, slow bouncing synth line and an intro that sounds like music one might hear at a mass transit station late at night—that lonely yet clear arpeggio intended to soothe rather than alert. Using the term “Babylon” as Rastafarians used for the same socio-cultural phenomenon in a variety of contexts, the video shows a figure who resembles and presumably represents Boris Johnson being kidnapped and shown out of the places of power alongside other authority figures. Not violently but in a way that leaves him and them confused like they never anticipated being put out of power without knowing how it happened or when that process started when in fact it starts in the consciousness of the oppressed who are tired of fake populists and authoritarians making all the decisions impacting their lives and coming to realize that all power is granted and can easily dissolve if people decide to place that power elsewhere. ST3PH’s more contemplative trading off with Karl Williams’ more angular, hard delivery is an interesting contrast showing how hard and soft power can work together to deliver an important message both in a song and in life. Watch the video for “Babylon” on YouTube as well as the debut episode of I AM ST3PH “Feels like its gonna go Bang!” where you can learn more about the story of the songwriter. Connect with ST3PH at the links below.

I AM ST3PH, Episode 01: “Feels like it’s gonna go Bang!”

soundcloud.com/st3phofficial
twitter.com/st3phofficial
facebook.com/st3phofficial
instagram.com/st3phofficial

Beverly Moon Dissolves and Heals a Sense of Deep Loss on the Dreamy and Breezily Cathartic “Ocean Eyes”

BeverlyMoon_OceanEyes2_crop — Beverly Moon, photo courtesy Beverly Moon

Beverly Moon’s debut single “Ocean Eyes” was written for a family member not long after their passing. This person spent their whole life near the ocean surfing, diving and sailing and the sort of idyllic existence one imagines from that is captured well in the perfectly drawn out strums into hanging notes and hazy atmospherics of the song and the way the vocals sound wistful in memory of a person who always seemed strong and supportive but carefree. The way chords roll off the main progression and rhythm suggests easy waves and better times. But the melancholic mood of the song is undeniable and the sense of loss at the center of it is undeniable. But like some of the more poppy songs of Slowdive or Beach Fossils “Ocean Eyes” floods that pain with transporting energy and a sense of uneasy acceptance of what we feel has been taken away from us so soon. Listen to “Ocean Eyes” on Spotify and connect with Bournemouth, UK-based Beverly Moon at the links below. The single was released at the end of February 2020 through Canadian Label LHM Records and Norwegian label Brilliance and can be purchased here.

facebook.com/beverlymoonmusic
instagram.com/beverlymoonmusic

The Non-Linear Structure of Mukura’s “As Long as There is Time” Charts the Mind’s Proclivity for Spontaneous Tangents in Thought

Mukura_AsLongAsThereIsTime2_crop — Mukura, photo courtesy the artist

There is a sense of drifting through time and space contemplating life’s challenges and possibilities in Mukura’s single “As Long as There is Time.” The song starts off like a collage of Mellotron warble, Casio tones and piano and Mukura’s vocals both carrying the melody and accenting the rhythm. Near the two minute mark the song takes on a different character, drones warp and bend, Mukura’s vocals are more spoken internal dialogue for several moments before floating off into ethereal territory and coming back into the vivid, focused vocals from the beginning of the song. The song appears to outline how one’s mind can feel like it can run on and on through tangents that strike one’s fancy and how that can be both interesting, illuminating and fruitful provided one has the time to indulge those multitudinous detours but also that it can be a way to get lost in oneself. Though the song has the luminous melodies of a dream pop song, its structure is decidedly unconventional to reflect the way one’s mind can shift gears and moods spontaneously in a way that makes sense to the non-linear aspect of consciousness that transcends standard logic. Watch the dynamic video for “As Long as There is Time” on YouTube.