New Music – Page 200 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Alicia Clara’s “Closing Time at the Gates” is a Dream Pop Song About Finding a Sense of Home Where You Are Rather Than Defined by Your Birthplace

AliciaClara_ClosingTimeAtTheGates1_crop — Alicia Clara, photo courtesy the artist

Alicia Clara’s debut single “Closing Time at the Gates” sounds like time spent in the soft lighting of a dream in which you find yourself in a familiar setting among strangers. Yet through the dream you glean insight about the reality of your waking life and thus a clarity that spawns a bittersweet, melancholic moods because you really are free in your heart from the rooting of the social context to which you were born. Most people in their lives don’t move too far for good from the place they were born and part of that comes from seeing the familiar as the comfortable rather than what suits who you are internally. This song, while soothing and lush in its composition, is about that discomfort yet acceptance of how you will never fully fit in with what you grew up to know. It’s about that mood that makes you wish you could fit in with that familiar context because it would give you the grounding in something to help define your life and where you have a place even if it limits your potential as a human. It is a song about self-liberation and learning to find your comfort in who you are and want to be rather than let yourself be warped and shaped completely by the expectations of your origins. Listen to “Closing Time at the Gates” on Spotify and follow Alicia Clara at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/alicia-clara
open.spotify.com/artist/2SXUlfCHZornfHnrSMqIPe
youtube.com/channel/UCEqf_71Ntju8V6dwzcYxF5w
aliciaclara.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/itsaliciaclara
instagram.com/_aliciaclara

Rachael Sage Explores What it Really Means to be a Person of Integrity and Quality on “Character”

RachaelSage_Character1_crop — Rachael Sage *Character* cover

The title track to Rachael Sage’s 2020 album Character comes in with a mild sense of menace established by strings and distorted guitar and an inquiry about what it means to have character and what goes into establishing that quality with any meaning. The minor chord progression on the guitar is reminiscent of Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and with the violin arcing over the top and giving the song a touch of elegant moodiness. All while Sage’s strong, breathy vocals delve further into the subject and how people can put on what they like to project as character to hide their sharp edges and cruelty and when maybe empathy and sensitivity is more integral to having character than being willing to harm and being what some might think of as being tough but is in the end more like sadism. Maybe character, in this song, is being able to weather the harm and remaining a good person in a real sense rather than in the more performative aspect. A dazzling blend of grittiness, soulfulness and atmosphere, “Character” like the rest of Sage’s record sticks with you long after the song is over. Listen to “Character” no Spotify and follow Sage at the links provided.

rachaelsage.com
soundcloud.com/rachaelsage
open.spotify.com/artist/7EedWEoxpzbiPNkqkDp3Vw
youtube.com/user/rachaelsage
twitter.com/rachaelsage
facebook.com/rachaelsagepage
instagram.com/rachael_sage

“Vampire” by Laya Laya is a Song About Wallowing in Abstract Fantasy Pining For a Love That Will Never Be

Laya Laya’s “Vampire” is written from the perspective of a Vampire waiting for love. Its bright, rising tonality and luminous tone swells give the track a lush quality in which the vocals sit well fantasizing about a love that exists in the heart as a vague quantity to aspire to the way someone will crush on someone they’ll never talk to but build it up as this beautiful thing that could be if only. It’s a lushly gorgeous song but one that has a hermetic quality the way the aforementioned fantasies can have when there’s no reality to bring it into focus or question its validity or the fantasizer’s attempts to make it real when that would ruin the ideal of something that can never really be. Like the vampire being in love and then one day having to make a meal of that love. It’s just not going to end well without a lot of change happening from within first. Listen to “Vampire” on Soundcloud and follow the London-based duo at the links below.

soundcloud.com/layalayaworld/both-s
instagram.com/LayaLayaWorld

Jaguar Jonze’s “Rabbit Hole” is a Lively, Subversive Pop Song About Gaslighting

JaguarJonze_RabbitHole1_sm — Jaguar Jonze, photo courtesy the artist

Visual artist and musician Deena Lynch uses her creative work to enter into dialogue with others and her own subconscious mind, transforming the dynamic of the engagement of art and the creator and others experiencing the work. As Jaguar Jonze, Lynch has been making experimental pop songs with a theatrical performance element as evidenced by her music video for “Rabbit Hole.” The lyrics could be able what it’s like to be on the delivery end of a manipulative personality that works to undermine another person’s sense of self while making themselves an enticing center of attention. In the video Lynch looks like she’s in some kind of psychiatrist’s office surrounded by yellow painted walls. It recalls Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” which today might be interpreted as being about gaslighting as a means of social control of women. Lynch seems to be breaking down as the lyrics progress as though she herself is singing the internalized oppression to herself. This contrasts with the fact that she’s speaking to the truth of that narrative and its effects in the context of a lively pop song that wouldn’t have been out of place in the catalog of Garbage and at times Lynch’s vocal inflections are reminiscent of those of Fiona Apple. Taken alone the song, if one takes in the lyrics, is a catchy yet unusual bit of pop songcraft but when given the visual context it takes on a greater meaning and hits a much more powerfully. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Lynch’s various creative endeavors at the links below.

Jaguar Jonze (Music)
www.jaguarjonze.com
www.instagram.com/jaguarjonze

Spectator Jonze (Visual Art)
https://spectatorjonze.com
www.instagram.com/spectatorjonze

Dusky Jonze (Photography)
www.duskyjonze.com
www.instagram.com/duskyjonze

Tomike Smoothly Makes the Case for Sticking With Your Values and Ethics on Electro-R&B Track “Need to Go”

Tomike_NeedToGo2_crop — Tomike, photo courtesy the artist

Tomike addresses an issue most people have dealt with in some fashion in their lives on her single “Need to Go.” The track, a follow up to her 2019 EP Stage of Love, is about finding yourself where you think you want to be only to find you are not around people like you, not around people who really even understand where you’re coming from or who can relate to your values. In her specific case, Tomike was inspired by her experience of being a graduate of law school with the corporate world ahead and potentially a lucrative career but one where you end up maybe using your knowledge and skills toward ends that don’t fit with your morals and ethics. The lushly electronic R&B song flows with seemingly effortless grace as Tomike’s gently soulful vocals lay out the scene and addressing issues of race in a way that honors her specific experience while universalizing the struggle with setting aside the path that would seem practical and which you’ve worked your whole life to attain only to find maybe it isn’t what you thought it could and would be. It’s a dilemma but one that Tomike makes seem not so difficult in the end by deciding to exit the scene that would force her to compromise not just her values but herself. Listen to “Need to Go” on Spotify and follow the Irish singer-songwriter at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/1kETB3sIaKJ2uuC9xb6eCI
twitter.com/xoTomikexo
instagram.com/tomike_j

Carley Sunn Eviscerates Power Tripping Narcissists on “How Many Horses Do You Have?”

CarleySunn_HowManyHorsesDoYouHave1_crop — Carley Sunn “How Many Horses Do You Have?” cover (cropped)

“How Many Horses Do You Have?” finds Carley Sunn dipping into a glimmering, bass and synth driven 80s-era synth pop/new wave post-punk sound, like maybe the songwriter was taking in a lot of The Sound’s middle era, Sparks and early Wall of Voodoo. Maybe Sunn was into Echoes period The Rapture too or Les Savy Fav. What gives the song an interesting dichotomy is like all of those bands there’s the bright, melodic atmospheric element paired with an emotional intensity to the vocals. The story of the song is about a power tripping hypocrite who seems to have taken all his manufactured success symbols of proof for his validity as an authority figure. “How many damsels have you saved? How many pirates have you killed?” the vocalist asks in mockery of the faux heroics and the title of the song taking that dig even further. One only imagines the exact inspiration behind the song but we’ve all been in situations where someone in our lives seems to have so much power over us for a while, always entirely too long, and they seem to get a thrill out of their ability to control us and manipulate us thinking we don’t see through them and that their power will last forever when it never does. Listen to “How Many Horses Do You Have?” on Spotify and follow Carley Sunn on Instagram.

Ellie Moon Masterfully Walks the Line Between Exuberance and Insouciance on “Indecisive”

EllieMoon_Indecisive1_crop — Ellie Moon “Indecisive” cover (cropped)

Ellie Moon’s video for “Indecisive” looks like something she might have shot for Instagram stories post with the minimal effects and cartoon-y lettering. She looks so over it until she engages directly with the chorus of the song where her animated dancing matches the uptempo moments of a song in which she explores the myriad choices that seem to be imbued with importance and the quandary of struggling to choose between every decision for everything in one’s day with competing demand affecting seemingly everything you do. “I used to be indecisive but I’m not so sure” is the key line to the theme of the song but one thing that doesn’t seem so tentative is the way Moon seems to effortlessly blend styles from a Herb Alpert horns-inflected indie pop by way of Red Pony Clock to a relentlessly upbeat, sweeping melody and a paradoxical mix of exuberance and insouciance. The contrast between these modes and moods gives what might otherwise be a solid pop song some creative depth that isn’t common enough. Watch the video for “Indecisive” on YouTube, follow Ellie Moon at the links below and look out for her forthcoming EP Moonisms due out in 2020.

instagram.com/thisiselliemoon
facebook.com/thisiselliemoon
twitter.com/thisiselliemoon

“Hineh Ani” is a Vibrant Example of Rachel & Eliyahu’s Expression of Love of Culture and Each Other From Their Album Open the Gates

RachelNEliyahu_3crop — Rachel & Eliyahu, photo by Briana Di Mara

Eliyahu Sills and Rachel Valfer have made a name for themselves among fans of world music as members of The Qadim Ensemble, a group whose music synthesizes various musical traditions of the Middle East. Their new album as the duo Rachel & Eliyahu Open the Gates (released on January 31, 2020) is a collection of Jewish Middle Eastern music inspired by both contemporary work and the more traditional. The single “Hineh Ani” displays the lively and richly imagined compositional quality of the project’s music incorporating wind and string instruments, percussion, harmonium and dynamic, melodic vocals in Hebrew. The impetus behind the writing of the album was to demonstrate a love for culture, the music therefrom and for each other and the songwriting reveals layers and nuances of that love in the sonic details of musicianship and the polyrhythms inherent to the music giving it an ever-evolving and hypnotic quality while maintaining a vibrant and energetic quality. Listen to “Hineh Ani” on Soundcloud.

“Pray For Me” by WITCHZ is a Heartfelt Plea for Aid in Transcending the Grips of One’s Personal Demons

WITCHZ_PrayForMe1_crop — WITCHZ, photo courtesy the artist

“Pray For Me” by WITCHZ combines a bit of lush spaghetti Western guitar with trap production, reggae and highly emotional vocals. It evokes the imagery of someone looking back on the personal demons that have to some extent helped to define his life and its direction with a melancholic ambivalence. The structure and signal processing on the song has a cinematic quality, particularly when the rhythm slows down like a film that is warping out in front of you, like the chapters in one’s life hitting you as points at which you recognize in retrospect that you had a chance to take a different path but you feel like you took the turn that led further down negative road. And yet the song is a plea for help in climbing out of one’s own personal hell into a better place, to redemption and a chance to free oneself of those demons once and for all. Listen to “Pray For Me” on Spotify.

Yaglander Has an Ambivalent Existential Crisis on “Changing Lanes”

Yaglander_ChangingLanes1_crop — Yaglander, image courtesy the artist

Listening to “Changing Lanes” by Yaglander, one thinks of The Clean and The Fall and their gift for combining lo-fi production, loose guitar jangle, slackery vocals and a knack for an unconventionally tuneful melody. The minimal guitar riff punctuated by a lively keyboard arpeggio alongside vocals that sound like they were sampled by on a mono recording from the radio gives the song an strange quality of mixing not just styles but eras of recording and songwriting. Like a collage of indie pop and garage rock this song about aspiring to commit to a course of action and mentality but being unsure where to direct that energy when too many things seem viable but also doomed to failure or disappointment. Or, frankly, that choosing would demand too much of you and where you feel you’ve been comfortable in what you assume is the core of your personality. It’s also a song about thinking you know who you are and what your identity might be and your values only to be struck by the realization that, like too many politicians in our time, you really stand for nothing and your values are contingent on what you think are polar opposites in the world around you where everything seems to be changing whether you’ve adapted or not. Listen to “Changing Lanes” on Soundcloud and follow Yaglander at the links below.

soundcloud.com/user-825645319
open.spotify.com/artist/0ZrNtIUB2Ek9DGgg7jwkTb
yaglander1.bandcamp.com/releases
facebook.com/yaglander
instagram.com