New Music – Page 231 – Queen City Sounds and Art

In the Cacophany and Surreal Imagery of Kopper’s Video for “Fading Fires” We See a Psychologically Violent Artistic Reinvention Come to Pass

Kopper1_crop — Kopper, photo courtesy the artists

Kopper’s rambunctious riffing suits the story of the song “Fading Fires” (from the EP of the same name) as its about an artist who is stuck and frustrated with his work, hoping for some kind of breakthrough. Guitar, vocals, bass and drums seem to be working not at sync so much as coming from the same source and then working in tandem at points, giving the impression of a frayed dynamic reflecting a frazzled psyche. Often rather than just chords it sounds like the guitar riff winds up into a seeming explosion of fragmented melody accented by the rhythm. The effect is one of a different kind of psychedelic rock than the kind we’ve heard of late get so trendy. It sounds like a mind coming apart and reorienting in necessary new patterns and the inner turmoil that can be part of that process of forcing your mind into unfamiliar paths in order to grow out of your bad habits. In the music video we see the painter disgusted with his own stagnation and then visions of the band wearing faces like modern post-modernist Chagall pieces as well as people at a social gathering with the same. This imagery puts him over the edge into confronting the creative urges he’s been resisting until he finally wrestles with the visions taunting him and then takes them in to be cast out again as his new level of artistic expression and persona. The violence of the music reflects this catharsis in setting the old mind and methods to flame and getting on with the new. Watch the surreal video on YouTube and follow Kopper at the links provided.

kopperuk.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/Koppermusic
instagram.com/_kopper_

Emiji’s “Ambient Trip” remix of “Katharsis” is Design to Convey a Deep Sense of Peace in the Body and Spirit

Emiji2_crop — Emiji “Katharsis” cover (cropped)

Emiji’s “Ambient Trip” remix of his song “Katharsis” takes some of the edge off the IDM original, removes the beat and emphasizes the pure atmosphere over the understated textures of the original and keeps the tempo to an organic flow where the sounds almost feed back on each other like the movements on an enclosed body of water. It makes you think of what it might be like to lie on the bottom of a lake and watch large snowflakes fall on the surface as you drift along letting the tranquil waters dissolve any tension in your body and spirit, letting a deep sense of peace settle into you. The remix gives the song an almost entirely new meaning. Whereas the pace picks up on the original and conveys a strong sense of place, this remix emphasizes a strong sense of mood and the ability to get even more lost in the music. Listen to the “Ambient Trip” remix of “Katharsis” on Spotify and follow the Dublin-based artist at the links provided.

emijimusic.com
facebook.com/emijimusic
instagram.com/emijimusic

Retrofuturist Glam Pop Icon Dominic Sen Takes Us on a Charmingly Nerdy Romantic Trip to the Museum on “Natural History”

DominicSen1_crop — Dominic Sen, photo courtesy the artist

Dominic Sen’s video for the new single “Natural History” is a jaunt through a natural history museum on the part of a visitor from the future captured with all of the intentionally lo-fi charm of an early 1980s camcorder. As with previous singles, Dominic Sen blends a soft synth pop with idiosyncratic science fiction concepts and the unabashed embrace of being a nerd. The lyrics of “Natural History” has lines like “A day at the museum with you is a parallel universe crossing my path” and “The mood in the gift shop is a phony uncertainty, do I purchase this postcard, do I let you inside?” No “normal” pop artist writes songs with words and imagery like that and it allows Dominic Sen to make truly unique metaphors and reinvent what romance and romanticizing and personal mythmaking can look and sound like. The “futuristic” outfit she wears in the video is about as convincing as something from a BBC production from the 1970s like something you’d see on Blake’s 7 or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The Tomorrow People or Dr. Who. But it works and it gives the video and its syncing with the vibe of the song a charming authenticity it wouldn’t if it was too conventionally legit. The song is part of Dominic Sen’s album Can’t Tell You written with Cameron Wisch (Cende, Porches) and Ronnie Stone (Ronnie Stone & The Lonely Riders) with Lily Cohen taking on the persona of Dominic Sen, a retrofuturist glam pop icon. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Dominic Sen at the links below.

dominicsen.com
youtube.com/channel/UCOZdo1EKiddN4QAyqgp__bQ
twitter.com/dominics3n
facebook.com/dominics3n
instagram.com/dominic.sen

New Wolves’ “Influencer” and its Eye-Catching Animated Collage Video Call Into Question the Performative Aspects of Social Media Culture

NewWolves2_crop — New Wolves, photo courtesy the artist

The music video for New Wolves’ new single “Influencer” gives now obvious clues about whether the song is a commentary on the socio-cultural phenomenon of the “influencer.” It’s a series of adventures in collage and it introduces an ever-changing array of imagery interacting and evolving before returning to an early image of a bird humanoid stepping out of the fray of the jungle of messaging and visuals that it had stepped into and strolled through. The chill pop song with nicely subtle textures and an incandescent synth line has lyrics more than hinting at the pressures involved with being an influencer and the constant need to provide content and preferably from one’s own life so that one turns one’s individual experiences and preferences into a commodity to present and to be consumed on the regular. Without explicitly saying so, New Wolves perhaps suggest that that is, on some level, the nature of social media entirely in which we present a mediated experience all the time in a way we did not before its existence. In the song’s soothing yet melancholic town we hear some empathy for the state of things but also a yearning to escape and even entirely derail the process of making out psyches a consumer product to be monetized by corporations. Watch the video on YouTube and follow New Wolves at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/new-wolves
open.spotify.com/artist/2KOqtDxp2na3uUfP37R7VK
twitter.com/wolves_new

Ganser’s New Single “Buio” Calls For Sometimes Rocking Your Own Boat With Dramatic, Futile Gestures to Disrupt Patterns of Complacency and Stagnation

Ganser1_crop — Ganser, photo courtesy the artists

The video for “Buio,” the lead single from Chicago post-punk band Ganser’s new EP You Must Be New Here (due out November 8) depicts a situation many of us are familiar with and that being at a social occasion where we’re disengaged and not sure why we’re there. So the protagonist, played by Caitlin Eward, envisons putting her hands in the middle of the cake and wrecking the décor and violating decorum. It represents being at that point in your life where going through the motions of a life that seems stale and stagnant that you’re not even sure what it is about that place in your life, however much one sought it out, that makes sense. The chorus of “I won’t pretend I know anymore, I don’t even know what I like anymore” speaks directly to that moment when you’re ready to do something ridiculous to shake up your status quo whether something like putting both hands deep in a cake, one that you baked to celebrate the accomplishments that mean little to you anymore or some other dramatic gesture to inject some chaos into stultifying comfort. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Ganser at the links below.

soundcloud.com/ganserband
open.spotify.com/artist/32ONqBogM4wH7VRbcMZYtE
ganser.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/ganserband
instagram.com/ganserband

Isserley Plumbs the Depths of the Dark Places of the Psyche With “VEINS,” the Lead Single From Her Latest Album VIRCHOW METHOD

Isserly2_crop — Isserley, image courtesy the artist

Australian doom artist Isserley released her latest album VIRCHOW METHOD on October 4, 2019 in time for the appropriate season for its dark, gnarled mood. On lead single “VEINS” the grey background tone and swirl of distortion unfolds into an insistent, burning riff while the agonized yet melodic wails of vocals float over the proceedings like an aggrieved ghost. The album is, according to Isserlely, “an examination of self through autopsy” and all the tracks are named after body parts and each song takes us down a darkened path of personal epiphany. The ancient Greeks initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries underwent a ritual process symbolically embodied in the story of Persephone who went to the underworld. This album feels like a musical, modern journey of getting to the core of one’s being and identity and looking deeply at the places we often don’t or which remain hidden from our conscious mind until we are willing to delve a little deeper. Fans of SubRosa, Eye of Nix and Chelsea Wolfe will appreciate the way Isserley mixes dense, distorted, dynamic atmospherics with delicate sonic details to give the songwriting depth of field and a raw, vibrant emotionalism. Listen to “VEINS” on Soundcloud and follow Isserley at the links below.

soundcloud.com/isserleyishome
youtube.com/channel/UCn9uUETm8XfdGXoK7apMVFA
isserley.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/Isserley_OwO
facebook.com/IsserleyIsHome
instagram.com/isserleyowo

Stark, sharp and Nuanced, Nuri Anderson’s New Single “Super Predator” Captures the Climate of Fear, Desperation and Defiance in the Face of Police Violence

NuriAnderson1_crop — Nuri Anderson, photo courtesy the artist

The phasing on a synth line paired with processed strings on Nuri Anderson’s new single “Super Predator” gives the perfect air of warped menace for a song that captures the tense atmosphere of the continued legacy of American racism from the rhetoric of political leaders and public policy down to the level of the street where law enforcement in many places in the country seem unable to reign in violence against African Americans, particularly young black men. It’s nothing new, anyone paying attention has seen that violence and oppression for decades. Hip-hop and punk artists have written songs on the subject for years too. Public Enemy, after all, named an album Fear of a Black Planet which included a song called “911 is a Joke.” Comedians have discussed these issues, but easily dismissed as humor. Anderson’s take on the subject is raw and also includes a nuanced yet very personal critique with his fast and adept wordplay using modern references and language. You can hear the combination of outrage and fear in the words but also a call for justice backed with one for survival because justice hasn’t exactly been forthcoming in a society claiming to be one of laws and decency. In the song Anderson speaks of having dreams but not being able to keep them it cuts deep because it goes beyond the obviously unacceptable police violence and hints at the broader realm of the way racism seems to limit the future you envision for yourself and if that police harassment is part of your everyday it has to be even that much more desperate. Listen to “Super Predator” on Spotify and follow Nuri Anderson at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/32jluxx3qTb8PTnttz0aXi
instagram.com/irunbackwardz

Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams’ “Landing” is the Sound of Skullduggery Afoot in a Cybernetic Future

MobileSteveAndTheGrandSlams_crop — Mobile Steve and the Grand Slam, image courtesy the artists

The curiously named Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams offer us its new single “Landing.” The analog electronic high pitched bubbling, the distorted low end synth and circular drum figure that runs in the first half of the song sounds like an update on the theme music for the 1967 limited series television show The Prisoner. But then the song goes in a direction more abstract with throbbing sounds like a jet engine of a craft gone sinister and the engine of a transport that is taking us to some clandestine rendezvous where we’ll be asked like Snake Plisskin in Escape From New York to do some daring rescue mission with little reward for the risk. If this is meant to convey a landing as the title suggests, it’s one done after dark and in a secret location. Listen to “Landing” on YouTube and follow Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams at the links below.

facebook.com/msatgs
instagram.com/mobilestevethegrand

The Mirrored Narrative of Jr. Rhodes’ “Trust Nobody” Reveals the Corrosive Power of Miscommunication in a Relationship Without Casting Anyone as the Villain

JrRhodes1_lg — Jr. Rhodes, photo courtesy the artist

Jr. Rhodes takes some risks on “Trust Nobody” in taking the first verse from the perspective of a woman, the second from the point of view of a man, both in a relationship together and airing frustrations. The first verse ends with the call to a voicemail. The second ends with listening to the voicemail left. The words illustrate a basic miscommunication and misapprehension between the two people but it doesn’t try to cast one or both parties as having ill intent or casting the other as irrational–no one is the villain of the piece. We just hear confusion and a yearning for reconnecting in a way that works for both people but most importantly, the expectations and needs spelled out explicitly and none of which sounds overly demanding, just not met. All while a spare, melancholic guitar melody sketches the lines of tear-streaked misery happening in the song and an even more minimal beat keeps a pace that while obviously programmed, comes off as accenting the vibe of the moment. While the song sounds like the beginning of the end of the relationship one also hears how with a little trust, perhaps the ability of which was damaged by past relationships, these two can patch things up. Listen to “Trust Nobody” on Soundcloud and follow Jr. Rhodes on Instagram linked below.

instagram.com/jrrhodesmusic

The Pastoral and Luminious “Cracked Porcelain” is but One Chapter of Kris Kelly’s Bohemian Coming of Age Album Runaways

KrisKelly6_sm — Kris Kelly, photo courtesy the artist

Kris Kelly’s vocals on “Cracked Porcelain” have a graceful, fragile quality matched by the delicate guitar work and luminous orchestral melody. It suggests a grand arc of a story and reflecting on the events that have transpired. Like an extended prologue before the main story takes place, introducing themes that recur throughout the narrative. The music video is like something out of 1970s manga depicting two figures making their way through a desert and reaching an oasis together where they indulge delights of the senses represented by endless food and drink and other hedonistic pursuits. One of the figures makes a break from this trap of endless indulgence and while the song comes to an end we are left wanting more of the story. The lyric, “We couldn’t see what we sacrificed for our gala” sums up the story so far well and the perils of a life out of balance and also suggests more to come. Turns out “Cracked Porcelain” is at the halfway mark of Kelly’s 2019 album Runaways and thus the turning point of a story of a young person’s journey from youthful wanderlust and excess to a place of love and belonging after making mistakes along the way, in form and structure the equivalent of a Bildungsroman. Watch the video on YouTube, visit Kelly’s website (linked below) to further explore the new album and follow the artist at the links provided.

kriskellymusic.com
soundcloud.com/kriskellymusic
open.spotify.com/artist/1ZBQXa9gaZit3EGc9g5c7l
youtube.com/channel/UCkWMVjoZzEPgouK9IXQh-Og/featured
twitter.com/KrisKellyMusic
facebook.com/KrisKellyMusic
instagram.com/kriskellymusic