Gavin Shea has been sitting on several songs in the past five years of producing other artists in Nashville. But now he’s releasing songs as Richard String including the single “Pocket/Same.” Its blend of neo soul and psychedelia is a touch reminiscent of Toro Y Moi but with a softer tone. The way the synth melody bubbles up and the melodic drones swirl about suggests a playfulness and free spirited quality reflected in the lyrics in which Shea seems amused by having worked “hard on my mistakes” and trying to make up for them but never quite being able to catch up, considering how he’ll have left undoing those mistakes after he’s already passed on. Shea’s vocals make it seem like it’s no big deal, the weight of that legacy, because in the end its folly to try to keep up with that plan and that you can only hope you haven’t messed anything up so badly. Listen to “Pocket/Same on Spotify.
“Dancing In Parking Lots” by Marella refers to a time the songwriter looks back on fondly when you’re in high school and old enough to feel the future out of high school approaching but at which it’s probably felt like forever that you’ve been there and you’re reveling with your friends in celebration of some kind of victory and feeling that sense of freedom. But the song also refers to first meeting someone he would fall in love with. Both experiences are way stations in life that are significant in the moment and after which things won’t be quite the same again once life takes you beyond that specific time but flashing back to those experiences you can capture for yourself memories of when things seemed for just a little while a little brighter and more magical. Friendships change when people go to college, move away or get jobs after high school and your bonds born of having to be in the same place almost everyday, your romantic notions face being involved with an actual human being and you change too the same way everyone else does. But there’s no denying the times in our lives that Marella celebrates so evocatively on this song. Musically it’s reminiscent of late 90s pop punk and, in the guitar and rhythm, of The Clean. Perhaps because Marella is a drummer the rhythms are so tight, creative and dynamic but whatever the reason, “Dancing In Parking Lots” manages to be a nostalgic summer time anthem without being overly sentimental. Listen to the song on Soundcloud and follow Marella at his Instagram account linked below.
“Learning the Feeling” begins with talker talking about how time gets away from us when every day seems the same and echoing how habits can become their own kind of prison until we decide to change them. The song’s dark undertones paired with Suzanne Vega-esque vocals, elegantly moody guitar figure give the a nice contrast to when everything kicks into more blustery emotional spaces crossing over into the realm of modern pop. It reflects the emotional journey of the song that transitions with the line “I’ve been keeping quiet, what has silence done for me?” From thre our narrator breaks free of her old habits and finally feels like she can breathe, a metaphor for living, by not keeping in her feelings, in fact “learning the feeling” of what it’s like to be able to come into one’s full truth and not having to suppress it at long last, to learn to embrace and trust her feelings rather than give heed to any gaslighting. Listen to “Learning the Feeling” on Soundcloud and follow talker at the links below.
“Night,”the third song from VYKS’ debut album, sounds like a chapter of a story arc by the late French comic legend Moebius. There is a sense of the far flung future but one that also feels familiar. The sound design on the song making extensive use of hard, rapid panning to alternate in stimulating both sides of your brain could be disorienting if it wasn’t also employed in a way that seems to reconcile opposites. The mechanistic percussive elements ground the ethereal vocals in the conflicted emotions that run through the narrative and a story of wanting to be free of the control and oppression of a mysterious “they.” As the song is part of a concept album that sounds like it has some footing in experimental, electronic industrial music it hearkens one to Battle Angel Alita as she awakens to her own identity and independence beyond that programmed into her design. This song is like the inner dialogue one might engage in late at night while sorting out your real feelings and how you want to act on them if at all. Listen to “Night” on Spotify.
From the beginning of “Satellite,” Jenny Kern’s vocals immediately strike you as being different, uniquely expressive. Is it because her voice is huskier or deeper? Perhaps but her cadence and delivery goes in directions that seem to be almost the opposite of the predictable instincts of many singers. As she sketches for us the emotional setting for us and her uncommonly deep self-examination exposing her awareness of her own failings and yet knowing she is capable of better backed by a desire to be better than she had previously thought she could be before becoming intimately familiar with her shortcomings and the consequences for others. The song doesn’t strike a defensive tone, it is not maudlin, instead it reaches out with a spirit of vulnerability and honesty. Kern’s voice sits like a constant presence in an evolving soundscape of lush sounds that swell and change pace with the way she lays out the strains of her aching heart at how she doesn’t want to mess things up this time around as she has in the past. Kern gets you to identify with such feelings in yourself and with her struggle and hope for a better future. Listen to “Satellite” on Spotify and follow Kern at the links below.
The guitar on Easy Jane’s “Manic Mood” doesn’t carry a melody so much as provide textures and emotional atmospheres the way Daniel Ash has done with various projects. On this song it sears through the track while the bass and drums keep the song moving forward. The sense of menace and and disorientation is only enhanced by the two vocalists whose singing goes from fairly dry to slightly echoing and swirly. Where many other bands in the vein of post-punk and darkwave eschew technical prowess in their instruments, Easy Jane embraces the bombastic, searing guitar solo and song breakdown here as “Manic Mood” goes to outro in a manner reflecting the title of the song. Though the tone is lurid and the singers sound like they’re coming to us from some kind of afterlife, there is nothing tentative to the pacing lending even the most melancholic moments some grit and intensity. Listen to “Manic Mood” on Spotify.
Hunnid spits the lyrics of “Let Em Down” like he’s been running for miles but finding not his second but his third and even fifth wind because he can’t let himself falter out of concern for those for whom he feels the weight of great responsibility. So he repeats the refrain “Ain’t no way that Imma let ’em down, see my family dependent on me, ain’t no way that Imma let ’em down” like a focusing mantra to stay motivated even as life throws challenges and stumbling blocks his way. There is no bravado in these proclamations because it doesn’t feel like Hunnid is talking tough, he is talking himself up as a reminder that if he doesn’t make the effort no one else really will. Ignoring his discomfort and the effort and time it takes he needs to tell himself what needs to be done and his own motivation for persevering. Along with the vocals is a beat with kinetic percussion and a simple yet dynamic synth arpeggio and piano line that traces the outer edges of the mood. It is almost a counterpoint to the momentum of the vocal line but also the element of the song that can go outside the tight focus of the narrators vision and it is in the beat that the song can take a breath making the sense of mission running through the song possible. Listen to “Let Em Down” on Soundcloud and follow Hunnid at the links provided.
On overpasses, in Asian markets, amid shops of various kinds, on balconies, in darkened streets and fields, on a bridge in broad daylight and standing unobtrusively staring, a figure with a mask covering the lower part of her face is the central figure of Draag’s video for “Ghost Leak.” The figure seems invisible to other people except us who see it from the vantage of not being in the video. Like we’re getting that ghost leak that is the title and granted special powers of observation that we all possess but have come to ignore and neglect. And yet this figure doesn’t instill a sense of fear. Rather it’s more like the ghost experience many report of figures who appear unexpectedly without menace. Perhaps here it represents those things in the world many of us miss if we don’t pay attention or are turned in to our surroundings with the proper cognition as the mind often renders insensible or terrifying that which it has no framework or expectation.
Musically the song is like layers of cassette recordings put together so that vocals wander about spectrally as ethereal guitars glide along at a metronomic pace, sweeping between chords and notes, organic percussion provides texture and a shuffling and hypnotic pacing. Synths swirl into the mix and bass figures help to give the track occasional and loose definition. All the sounds convey a sense of depth and mystery that is soothing and inviting. Like if My Bloody Valentine wrote an IDM song using a similar palette of sounds. Its amorphous structure suits it as it winds its way into your consciousness as a reminder of everyday unexpected phenomena that, when noticed and observed can turn a mundane environment into something fascinating and inspiring once we’re able to perceive beyond our conditioned responses and interpretations. The song will be part of the band’s Clara Luz EP produced by Jon Nuñez of Torche due out in February when the group will have a residency at The Echo in Los Angeles. Watch the video for “Ghost Leak” on YouTube and follow Draag at the links below.
Moontwin’s “Reach Through” has the kind of momentum and urgency one doesn’t hear often enough in an era of too much dispassionate music that also seems to lack for conviction. It’s tempting to compare it to 90s bands that fused industrial music with post-punk like Curve but the production on the track doesn’t sound or feel throwback. More comparable to something like Big Black Delta or TR/ST where the low end, rhythm and melody compliment each other in a mutually fortifying way. The distorted bass line starts the song off in a headlong drive that pushes and carries the song in its wake. Maple Bee’s vocals are part commentary part subject in the way Dale Bozzio’s were in Missing Persons. Zac Kuzmanov lost the use of his hands a few years ago due to a degenerative muscular disorder (the crowdfunding campaign to aid his disability can be found here https://zhouse.xraydio.net/?fbclid=IwAR0_Tc2SJDKwxmSfUhuo2X6wb8qzraezU9jkIwVhchAjGlm6JvC0pntu7k8 ) but it clearly didn’t put a damper on his powers of imaginative production and songwriting. Listen to “Reach Through” on Bandcamp where you can also sample the rest of the album Moon TV (available digitally but also as a limited edition cassette) and follow Moontwin at the links below.
The video for “Canada” by Domus, directed by Marcus Malmström, gives us the hazy, enigmatic night time imagery of traveling on lonely rural highways and wandering in mysterious spaces, and a wolf whose image phases as though traversing multiple dimensions at the same time. All while guest singer Ljung’s vocals drift in to add to the impressionistic composition with ethereal couplets that weave together perfectly with the languorous pace as synths swirl out in slow, hypnotic rosettes of tone accented by a melodic, distinct bass line. The song is based on impressions one of the songwriters had of his visit to Canada so he must have been through in spring or fall with the murky weather and lightning without the snow, when the world is not yet woken up from winter or preparing for the long slumber thereof. It speaks to the allure of a world where nature and urban living are so close together and making for a culture that isn’t so disconnected from the spiritual aspect of the uniqueness of the environment. The song itself though dusky and meditative provokes a spirit of exploration and reflection. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Domus at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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