MEYY sounds like she wrote and recorded “Common Love” in a secret hideout after two in the morning. Her breathy vocals and hazy vocal samples drift in a flow of gentle tones and drones over a shuffling beat of processed electronic percussion. It’s a dreamlike song that envelops you in a warm embrace evocative of its sentiments of love described in poetically sensual terms urging her lover to come closer and more. The song is an unabashed expression of passion and lust but one that makes it seem like something easy and natural and enticing. In another era the song might be considered downtempo but its composition bears all the hallmarks of the production style where hip-hop and deep house meet to create irresistible soundscapes that stir the imagination and the body. Listen to “Common Love” on Spotify.
Phantogram’s single “Pedestal” from its new album Ceremony finds the band reigning in the brashness of what made some of its earlier material so noteworthy. It begins with a tone of reflection that unfurls into the dramatic, sweeping, evocative soundscapes that is one of its signature songwriting dynamics. The duo has also been skillful in writing a pop song that has much more nuance and dimensionality in its lyrics than might be assumed with how elevated in tone the songs often are. With “Pedestal,” Phantogram writes what might be called a post-love song. Most love songs hit us over the head with declarations of eternal and perfect love or in those more worth listening to the struggles of being in love with someone. This song addresses what the consequence of that kind of love might have for someone once the luster has dulled. “Cause I was in love with you/Is that what you’re supposed to do/When I put you on this pedestal/Is that what you’re supposed to do,” Sarah Barthel sings in the choruses, making questioning all aspects of the union in simple but direct lines. Though there is a resigned aspect to the mood of the song and of the lyrics there is a recognition of there having been something, some passion, but that in the end without a deep understanding and existing in a similar realm emotionally that one’s idealistic view of another person is not enough to sustain the relationship. When she sings “I could walk away or stay either way I’m giving up a fight,” it seems as though Barthels, or the perspective of the song, is saying that she’s not putting any more energy into what seemed so real and powerful but was an illusion she’s ready to give up. At the start of the song there is a hint of hope if the object of the song is willing to open up and trust but try as you might you can’t change someone. And yet, “Pedestal” doesn’t sound like a downer, it sounds like a song wherein in someone finds their own light to move forward and sometimes that light comes in the form of learning to accept what is and give up struggling against it. Listen to “Pedestal” on YouTube and follow Phantogram at the links provided.
“Delete” by magnetic ghost is a song about today’s mediated world and how the digital medium has increasingly become integral to the lives of everyone with access to the technology and the internet. Whereas the latter was perhaps initially a way for people to connect with others in a way that helped some of us feel not so alone it these days has been shown to amplify a sense of isolation and self-alienation and some people suggest it is a method of mass behavior modification. The soft swells of drone and melody driven by a gently strummed guitar and nearly falsetto vocals strikes a thoughtful, comforting, tender chord reminiscent of a blend of Radiohead and Legendary Pink Dots. But the song isn’t comforting so much as seeking whether or not all of this relatively new way of being serves us, or we serve it, whether its warping our ability to imagine and thus to understand ourselves and others on a genuine and profound level rather than mistaking an accumulation of mediated presentations and experiences for an identity. Magnetic ghost offers us no answers but asks interesting questions. Listen to “Delete” on Bandcamp and follow magnetic ghost on Spotify as well.
There’s something oddly familiar to Classy Joanzy’s single “Brokedance.” Like the melody of Queens of the Stone Age’s “Better Living Through Chemistry” channeled through the lens of T. Rex and modern psychedelic pop. Some gentle guitar strumming, spare percussion, phase-y, near falsetto vocals and expertly accented, melodic bass. With the latter, though, is where this song sets itself apart because it sits in the mix with some creative, hard panning and if you listen with headphones or a decent sound system/sound card each note of the bass arpeggio hits on a different side of the stereo frequency giving the song not just a unique sonic dynamic but also an unconventional musical complexity that is intricate but not too busy. When many bands aiming to give a song a dance rhythm aim for what’s been done a million times better by other artists essentially borrowing funk and disco beats, Classy Joanzy gives us something different and dance-worthy. Listen to “Brokedance” on Soundcloud and follow Clazzy Joanzy at the links below.
There a sense of urgent menace to Violent Vickie’s “Serotonin.” The distorted synth loop, the crunchy guitar drone, the insistent beat, darkly plaintive vocals sound like something straight out of the depths of the darker corners of American urban decay of the 90s and early 2000s before developers much cared about all this future prime property and left it neglected while they expanded suburban sprawl. In moments it recalls early Switchblade Symphony and The Cranes but more industrial, more gritty and certainly drawing on more current electronic music influences and soundscape sculptors out of the realm of experimental, abstract metal and underground retro-electro—the intense, plaintive and emotionally nuanced vocals is where that resonance is strongest. The production is solid and well arranged but Violent Vickie remembered not to smooth over the rough edges that give the music some character and unflinching expression of despair and desperation mixed in with the catharsis of personal angst. Listen to “Serotonin” on Soundcloud, follow Violent Vickie at the links provided and look out for the new album, Division, due out May 2020 on Crunch Pod.
Final Days Society’s “ASKA” begins with a majestic soundscape saturated with exalted guitar that transitions to a more spacious and introspective passage. In that more quiet space the vocals come in to intone about a desire for transcendence. It manages to evoke a sense of the epic and mythological without pretentiousness. The guitars incandesce and swirl together to create a tonal wind of great momentum a bracing emotional sweep. Once the song engages again into the heights of sound and dynamism we’re given a surprise outro as the song comes to rest in a hushed calm of fading drones and distorted white noise like some great struggle has ended and either the aforementioned transcendence was achieved or some other resolution to put the colossus of sound just witnessed to rest, like a personal catharsis attained. Listen to “ASKA” on Spotify, follow Final Days Society at the links below and look for the band’s new, fourth album, Firestarter, out April 10.
The frantic pace and splayed dynamic of Adult Programming’s “YR FAULT” captures the demands of modern life in their seeming ability to pull us in all directions. Nothing we do is enough, no sacrifice is too much for a job or being an adult (or a kid, let’s be real), no effort is too much and if you want some time to yourself or falter in the avalanche of your responsibilities then you only have yourself to blame who cares if the structure of society, its culture and its economic system grinds you under as a mere human. When the information economy and technology can permeate and reach you in all areas of your life, when you are accessible and essentially on demand, most of your day, it wears thin and it’s natural to want to rebel against this turning of self into product. The music is a mix of hectic Faint-esque post-punk and 80s synth pop fueled by nervous energy. Best of all, the song commands but doesn’t demand too much of your time at two and a half minutes. Watch the video for “YR FAULT” on YouTube.
TROVA’s first single of 2020 “Cerro” rewards your patience as the song develops from a quiet flow of melodic drones like the fingers of the sun through fading storm clouds at dawn. The strands of sunlight poke through breaks in the cloud cover as the orb climbs into the sky while the world remains still from nocturnal inactivity. But the sun doesn’t compete with the clouds, rather works with and through them as the skies rain down intermittent sprinkles through the day to bring with it a sense of peace and tranquility accented by moments of sunshine to signal the storm system of the night before is moving on and the promise of a bright day ahead sets in. The mix of shadow and light as embodied in this song puts one in a reflective mood as its tones and textures flow through your mind to smooth out angst and apprehension to make way for clarity and resolve to go into the future with a clear head. Listen to “Cerro” on Bandcamp and follow TROVA at the links below.
Sara Jackson-Holman shot the video for “Candy” on an iPhone in the hotel room in Yucca Valley one evening with her husband to give the making of the video the same intimate quality of the song. From the visual effects of the title and color bars to the visual tones the video looks like a far better than average home movie shot on VHS. Jackson-Holman’s breathy vocals are reminiscent of a mix of Emma Ruth Rundle and Julee Cruise. Lush atmospheres hang around the edges of the melody, swelling with the cadence of the lyrics, accented by minimal percussion. There is an off-the-cuff quality to the editing of the video in how it begins more traditionally but ends without a resolution of the action like a lot of early 80s, New Wave music videos. That aspect of the video and the song sync well as this song is like one love song in what could be a larger narrative but works well on its own. Watch the video for “Candy” on YouTube and follow Jackson-Holman on Spotify.
Anil Macwan draws heavily on a broad swath of 80s synth pop music for his single “Champagne Problems.” Using that palette of sounds from synths and drum machines with processed guitar Macwan gives us a song about how everyone’s problems probably seem quaint to someone who has it relatively worse but how we all live our own lives and our everyday struggles are unique to our life circumstances and it’s just inhumane to expect people to have to imagine someone else’s life experience in daring to have an emotional reaction to events in their own. It’s a song that in the end encourages people to live in the moment regardless of what their life might be like and to feel in that moment and live through it and honor one’s feelings. Sure, Macwan sounds like he is dipping into the vibe of early Talk Talk, Depeche Mode and Howard Jones but what elevated all of those artists beyond disposable pop was an inventiveness in composing electronic pop songs with a root in richness of feeling and that is true of Macwan’s song as well. Watch the video for “Champagne Problems” on YouTube and follow Macwan at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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