New Music – Page 227 – Queen City Sounds and Art

On “Amygdala” (featuring ZAAR), RARE CIGARETTES Shows How Fear and Anxiety Can Overwhelm Our Conscious Mind if We Remain Unaware

RARE_CIGARETTES1_crop — RARE CIGARETTES, photo courtesy the artist

RARE CIGARETTES is the alias of producer Daniel Gol who in the single “Amygdala,” made in collaboration with ZAAR, gives us a downtempo exploration of that most modern of ailments, anxiety. The vocals seem very chill on the subject but in the music with the distorted synth haunting after the finely textured beats and enshrouding the other elements of the music you hear how those emotions can overwhelm so much of your life. The vocals can’t escape it, the rhythm can’t and in the end those distorted drones and synth arpeggios close out the track. In expressing the power of those phenomena of the mind, though, Gol suggests we can externalize and express those feelings and perhaps better understand and get a grasp of them so they do not have undue power over our minds. Listen to “Amygdala,” a word that refers to the part of the brain that processes emotion, another nice touch to the song, on YouTube and follow RARE CIGARETTES at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/rarecigarettes
facebook.com/RARECIGARETTES
instagram.com/rarecigarettes_

Voga’s Ambient Track “A Render In Sepia” Combines the Analog With the Digital to Convey a Sound Like the Prelude to a Round of Homespun Storytelling

Voga1_crop — Voga, photo courtesy the artist

A distant drone flecked with the sound of static or a nearby flame introduce us to Voga’s new track “A Render in Sepia.” When the strings come in with the melodic and drifty companion tone like a processed organ one does get the sense of looking at an old photograph. The song has the mood of a window onto a time and place of rustic simplicity. Like sitting by the fire in your cottage in the woods as the snow falls outside in heavy but quiet layers, reading from a beloved book and pausing now and then to stoke the fire and contemplate the fact that you don’t have to be anywhere for days compounded by the snowstorm. Because of this the quiet part of your mind can merge with the imagination and put your mind in its own storytelling mode as you finally get to writing your own book of wonder and adventure. This song feels like a prelude coming from a place of supreme tranquility. Created with synth drones, strings and muted horn the track was re-recorded through a cell phone and thus the sense of another time or cut off from civilization is an illusion but one that seems welcome fantasy away from the rate race most of us live in today. Listen to “A Render in Sepia” on Soundcloud and follow Voga at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/voga_music
open.spotify.com/artist/2RlJC4L25sFb1dL7FKJerv
voga1.bandcamp.com/releases
instagram.com/voga.music

Like a Good Science Fiction Story, the Video For Cares’ Environmental Noise Track “Lucid” is a Startling Look at the Brutal Present to Warn Against a Worse Future

Cares4_sm — Cares, photo courtesy the artist

The floating eye in the middle of the collage of footage of technology and society gone awry in the video for Cares’ single “Lucid” looks troubled. As if to suggest we see all of this happening but we are also a bit dazzled by the seeming options and frontiers it opens for us without considering how it might all impact our lives in ways we can’t predict. Footage of black bloc protesters, looting and high speed rail, body sculpting and a pit where a fire has been going on for perhaps decades, car crashes and crash test dummies are all reminders of the compromises we’ve all made to make life easier when really we’ve also made it more mediated and enriched a ruling elite who seethe vast majority of us as interchangeable and when we act up maybe someday they’ll send in the automated army. In the background sub bass pounds with the heartbeat of civilization, sub-howling white noise streams and after disappearing for a few minutes the eye returns with visible tears as if to suggest we could stop this if we wanted to or is it too late? Are these trends documented in the video beyond our control? The track comes from the latest Cares album Control Isn’t Real and you can watch the video on YouTube and follow the project on Soundcloud.

soundcloud.com/cares

Ava Heatley’s “Party” is a Song For Everyone Who Dread’s the Superficiality of Forced Social Interaction to Let Them Know They’re Not Alone

AvaHeatley2_crop — Ava Heatley, “Beautiful/Terrifying” cover image courtesy the artist

The languid pace and spaciousness of Ava Heatley’s new single “Party” serves as a fine backdrop to her song about anxiety and how it can be a bit of a wrecking ball in your life. From putting a damper on social situations and using the supremely anxiety-inducing situation of the party as the centerpiece. An occasion where everyone is supposed to mix and enjoy themselves. But for anyone with a bit of the introvert in their personality that setting embodies one of the greatest potentials for awkward conversation or behavior as they are most often best handled with a lighthearted, casual spirit to get the most out of them. But when you’re used to committing to ideas or a conversation or a way of being, an emotion, all of that social lubrication seems pointless and a disservice to everyone involved. This song is written keeping in mind all the people who would rather give their focus and energy to people or a project in a direct way rather than sprinkling that attention around superficially, even if a little of that wouldn’t be so bad, to let them know they are not alone in experiencing anxiety over all manner of things but especially over the thought of having to spread themselves too thin in order to please the most number of people. Listen to “Party” on Soundcloud where you can also give a listen to Heatley’s other emotionally rich and thoughtful work.

soundcloud.com/user-949113108

Devorah’s “Blue” is a Warm and Sympathetic Salve for the Heartbroken Soul

Devorah1_sm — Devorah, photo courtesy the artist

Devorah, aka Anita Lester, seems to share the heartache of the protagonist of “Blue” who gives up on an attempt to externalize a deep sadness. The warm, textured, billowing, guitar chords drone and strike both melodic and discordant notes in time with the waves of feeling as the gnarled feelings and conflicted thoughts rummage through your heart finding an anchor from which to haunt the psyche. But there is a compassion to Lester’s tone and an understanding that dealing with heartache is not a simple apply a cure, go to a therapist a few times, work it out in some physical way or the false magic of putting it all into your art to make it go away. It’s a process and it may never fully leave you. The song sounds like a coming to terms with the ways these feelings can get stuck or take years to work through rather than simply fool ourselves into thinking we’ve conquered them through a simple legerdemain of the mind or chemistry. Listen to “Blue” on Soundcloud and follow Devorah at the links below.

devorah.net
facebook.com/theycallmedevorah
instagram.com/devorah.music

It Took Hunnid an Epiphany “In Paris” to Appreciate How Far He’d Come as an Artist From Chicago’s East Side

Hunnid2_sm — Hunnid, photo courtesy the artist

Hunnid sets scenes for us on “In Paris” in his typically creative wordplay describing the environment and the vibe and the context of these mini-vignettes throughout the song. The beat and its layers of rhythm and electronic percussion and hazy synths with female vocals capturing a hushed, late night vibe as Hunnid looks out over the city from a terrace both admiring the “divine” sunsets that “focus the mind.” Hunnid reflects on the similarities and contrasting differences between Paris and the east side of Chicago. But he reminds himself not to take the experience for granted or to make too many comparisons. Rather he takes in the sites and appreciates how someone like him who encountered so much discouragement as an artist could be there performing his music except that this epiphany could have come to him in any city, it just happened to be in Paris. The song is interesting in that it mixes so many emotions and ideas together in a small space but says much about how so many of us have to grind so long and so often than we find it hard to enjoy our accomplishments when they come but that we need to no matter when that moment strikes and if it does so in an artistic and cultural world capital like Paris, that’s just the icing. Listen to “In Paris” on Soundcloud and follow Hunnid at the links provided.

keepit1oo.com/home
soundcloud.com/hunnid-2
open.spotify.com/artist/2fA2gTgVlYNhArTuXvHwy0
youtube.com/channel/UCkIiLVOUS_yNjNPYMKTxq5A
twitter.com/Hunnid_CCG
facebook.com/HunnidCCG
instagram.com/hunnid_ccg

Stereo Soul Future’s “Chelsea Pier” is an Elegy to 1970s New York and the Pre-Mass Gentrification World

StereoSoulFuture1_Crop — Stereo Soul Future, image courtesy the artists

Stereo Soul Future took some inspiration from photographer Peter Hujar for its new single “Chelsea Pier.” Hujar’s black and white photos captured the vibrancy, the life, the diversity – the essence of New York City and American culture and cityscapes until his untimely death in 1987. The gentle yet effervescent melody parallels Hujar’s sense of curiosity and wonder. The opening line “No one was afraid to die” and the expansive dynamic of the song looks back fondly at a time that seemed to be one enshrined by a sense of possibilities with New York City and its abundant urban decay and neglect as a canvass for culture and art to project and reflect ideas and life and a place where American creative types could go an interact with like-minded folks and be who they are and find some part of the city where a community for who you are existed. While the context is specific the ethereal pop song could be about most cities of size in America and elsewhere before predatory real estate developers and the oligarchy as well as moneyed no culture having heathens decided to come in from their suburban refuges from the unwashed urban masses and live closer to work, buying up cheap, neglected properties and displacing the people and places that had made the city a desirable place to live. This song is a nostalgic view back to a time before that was happening everywhere but without the bitterness expressed above. It gets at the essence of that magic time when it seemed gross income inequality wasn’t pricing everyone out of being able to create culture and co-exist without as much struggle. In linking this nostalgic view to Hujar’s beautiful and representative art the song personalizes the perspective and makes it thus a more original take than some, albeit utterly understandable, screed against gentrification. It’s a poetic reminder of what we lost and can maybe again regain in another form. Listen to “Chelsea Pier” on Spotify and follow Stereo Soul Future at the links below where you can also find information on hearing the rest of the band’s new album Sex Scene.

open.spotify.com/artist/16MzvXKtVw7G8B485sf3dJ
youtube.com/channel/UCn_7qyIV7LZsq1XwoQI4BEg
stereosoulfuture.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/stereosoulfuture

Koresma’s Chill, Downtempo Track “Free” is Imbued With a Sense of Open Spaces and Possibilities

Koresma1_crop — Koresma, photo courtesy the artist

“Free,” the first single from Koresma’s forthcoming North EP begins with the kind of soft synth figure that suggests snowbound landscapes, female vocals floating through an evolving melody accented by minimalist electronic percussion. Bubbling arpeggios swell into the foreground and retreat like a wind. Spare guitar filigrees give the song some of its grounding but the song is structured to convey a memories of the songwriter’s grandfather’s stories of living in the Faroe Islands, an archipelago between Iceland and Norway. The track succeeds in capturing for us the stark beauty and sense of the whole world open around you that must have been part of everyday life and thus the title. Listen to “Free” on Soundcloud and follow Koresma at the links below.

soundcloud.com/koresma
open.spotify.com/artist/14EybDMySlkntyuxgm1pek
twitter.com/Koresmamusic
facebook.com/koresmamusic
instagram.com/koresmamusic

Poppy Jean Crawford Purges the Weariness of Tired Narratives on “Same Old Tricks”

PoppyJeanCrawford1_crop — Poppy Jean Crawford, image courtesy the artist

The steady pace of Poppy Jean Crawford’s “Same Old Tricks” with the initial winsome vocals almost make you think you’re in for a solid indie pop song. But as the song progresses one gets the impression that the singer is tapping into some of the dark spaces of the mind that old blues singers used to go to in evoking a weariness at finding the same patterns of abuse, from self and others, and returning to those situations and encountering the same lines with different wording and wondering when, if ever, the narrative is going to change on the part of anyone involved. Which is a more nuanced take than pointing the finger. The steady and simple guitar figure gives way to blown out psychedelia, comes back down and blossoms again as Crawford’s vocals nearly crack from the strain of emotion flowing through her taut performance. Apparently Rob Campanella of The Brian Jonestown Massacre helped Crawford to hone in on the sonics of the single so we can look forward to hearing more emotionally charged tracks from the songwriter soon. Listen to “Same Old Tricks” on Soundcloud.

Simon D. James’ Single “Fooled By You” is the Sound of a Winnowed Ego Letting Go of Self-Destructive Instincts

SimonDJames1_sm — Simon D. James, image courtesy the artist

“Fooled By You,” the fifth release from his Days of Heaven EP, Simon D. James, sounds like he was writing this song while having a revelatory, haunted dream of a past love on a breeze swept hilltop, the landscape in amber and sepia tones. The haze of tonal white noise provides the embodiment of fog through the field of sound as James sings with a world weary forlorn quality, drawing out each syllable as minimal guitar traces the sad shadows of a misery his unconscious mind is now able to process and let go. It’s an interesting way to end an EP that begins with great energy and spirit but which is about making the same mistakes in life and being worn out into submission to a core of wanting to reclaim your dignity after your conscious mind has given up and after your ego has been eroded enough for a new, and hopefully better, you to emerge. Listen to “Fooled By You” on Soundcloud and follow James at the links provided.

apple.co/2Qkw28Z
soundcloud.com/simondjames
twitter.com/MrSimonDJames
facebook.com/SimonDJamesMusic/
instagram.com/simondjamesmusic