New Music – Page 242 – Queen City Sounds and Art

In the Video for “Sorceress,” Desert Sharks Help Awaken People to Their Own Inner Mystical Punk Power

DesertSharks1 — Desert Sharks, photo courtesy the artists

In the music video for “Sorceress,” the band Desert Sharks looks like a cool, Goth street gang with more than a passing familiarity with the occult. But the music is like a fuzzy, more garage rock Dum Dum Girls—the anthemic dynamics and tight vocal harmonies. The song is a celebration of recognizing and using one’s powers whether musical or personal in other ways with the symbol of the “sorceress” as the kind of magical, subconscious power we all wield in life if we choose to run toward and cultivate rather than away from the non-linear, dark side of our consciousness. In the video various people are “awakened” to their possibilities through a kind of magic touch and prematurely aged but in possession of supernatural powers. Maybe it wasn’t meant as anti-ageist but an interesting detail nevertheless as the newly old are brought under the spell and into the circle of the mystical punk rock gang. That this kind of message comes through the auspices of a song reminiscent of an ultra-catchy Ramones-esque surf punk song is a major bonus. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Desert Sharks at the links below.

desertsharks.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/Desert_Sharks
facebook.com/desertsharks
instagram.com/desertsharks

“Strange Bodies” is the Broodily Suggestive Chapter of a Dark Rock Opera Unfolding

ParliamentCat1_crop — Parliament Cat, photo courtesy the artist

In writing “Strange Bodies” for his solo project Parliament Cat, Douglas Guerra seems to have had in mind some kind of rock opera and we get a peek into some late chapter of the drama. The lead character, a kind of anti-hero is taking stock of the action up to now. “Where did you place your excitable ways?” is the opening line before going into a story of the pursuit of a one night stand. The lonely piano line and chilling synth washes imbue the narrative with a dark and creepy quality to match the chorus of “strange bodies” which sounds more like a strange rationalization than fact. Like the mantra of someone who thinks that being intimate with another human means you can really be strangers and that both parties will walk away without any lingering emotional connections. It’s that disconnect and the articulation thereof that gives the track an eerie quality beyond the brooding atmosphere. It makes you wonder what brought both people to this place like we’re seeing one slice of a multi-perspective movie and in fact only one aspect of the narrators life. Guerra says the song is “A dark ballad that illustrates a forbidden one night stand” so the lurid underbelly to the tale is established. And as a song that suggests much more to the story, it works on its own but makes you want to hear more. Listen to the song on YouTube and follow Parliament Cat at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/0RNIO2vspk1iNxLi11mE8e
instagram.com/theparliamentcat

“The Fruit” by Toronto’s Jazz Funeral Tells a Dark Tale of Why We Desire What We Do

JazzFuneral4 — Jazz Funeral, photo courtesy the artists

What you’re about to read shouldn’t make sense but listening to Jazz Funeral’s “The Fruit” brought to mind the video for Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” The pacing, the visual mood of the video. Like an alternative soundtrack to the 80s pop classic. Except that Toronto’s Jazz Funeral, musically, is more like Floodland period The Sisters of Mercy, like “Colours” and “Neverland.” The brooding melody and distorted synths, the low bass drone, the flares of tone that linger and flicker away. But Jazz Funeral’s sonic character is a little brighter while the subject matter of the song hits at the more personal and mythological. Words of the narrator’s “body breaking all the time” and of “noises heard down the block” and of escape by necessity or inclination. With the lyrics “what’s it worth to you, you know you don’t really get to choose the fruit” one can take away many things in the context of the rest of the song but one interpretation is the critical pedagogy view of education in that we go through life thinking we know what we want and what we need but we’ve all been conditioned and often our desires are shaped by outside forces internalized and until we become aware of this fact and learn to deconstruct these seemingly instinctual sides of our personality for what they are we will never be in control of our own lives from base impulses of desire and our aspirations when our dreams and psyche have been colonized and warped to serve a purpose that might even be detrimental to us and has been driving our entire lives in ways we wouldn’t choose to if we were fully conscious of what’s been going on in our heads. Do we really want what we think we want and why do we want those things? “The Fruit” dares to question such a fundamental side of our personalities. The song can also be enjoyed as simply a powerful and engrossing neo-darkwave track about fractious relationships but its composition and lyrics suggest a depth, intellect and soul searching that is rare in popular music. The group recently released its new EP The Fruit. Listen to “The Fruit” on Soundcloud and follow Jazz Funeral at any of the links below.

jazz-funeral.bandcamp.com/releases
instagram.com/jazz.funeral

“Where We Live” is Born Days’ Ray of Light in the Fog of Personal Darkness

BornDays3_sm_crop — Born Days, photo courtesy the artist

“Where We Live” is the kind of song that is able to tap into the pleasure centers reached by both 80s inspired minimal synth and the retrofuturist pop of an Alice Glass. The multiple rhythms running throughout the song let each minimal layer shine and the vocals to resonate in all their melancholic glory. There is an iciness to the melody suggesting creative gestation through the winter months and fully manifesting the music as the days get longer but still in the grips of the mood that inspired the writing of the beautifully desolate arpeggios and the breathily introspective vocals that illuminate the dark hues of the song with a ray of hope. Look for the Where We Live EP out Oct 4 through Rain Heart Records.

soundcloud.com/borndays
borndays.bandcamp.com/album/be-true
twitter.com/borndaysmusic
facebook.com/borndaysmusic

Andalou-dog’s “Blinding Light” Suggests That as Powerful as the Negative Ghosts of History Past Can Be, Their Repeated Manifestation Today Isn’t Inevitable

Andalou-dog1_crop — Andalou-dog, image courtesy the artist

“Blinding Light” and its layers of processed piano sounds like the modeling of leaves falling from trees in the autumn wind. Apt for a song looking back on the past of the echos of voices long thought dead or in perpetual hibernation or whose energy was transformed into something more productive, beginning as it does with an electric insect buzz, introspective, minimal, melancholic piano and a reverted echo of a Mussolini speech. Though the winds of authoritarianism have blown throughout the world once again with leaders spouting that sort of rhetoric familiar to those who lived through the first half of the twentieth century Andalou-dog’s song beckons us not to succumb to those voices much more to the despair that comes with thinking they are more powerful than they are. The song suggests that as strong and seductive as the wave of emotion and intensity can be it can dissolve into nothing nearly as easily if we do not amplify the phenomenon and deprive it of support in the various ways we can because few things are inherently inevitable in the political and cultural sphere, all things being contingent on the context for them to manifest whether fascism or inspired art and social justice movements. Listen to “Blinding Light” on Soundcloud and follow Andalou-dog at the links below.

soundcloud.com/andalou-dog
open.spotify.com/artist/485ZPlo3NvLsQtGB5GWCFw
andalou-dog.bandcamp.com/releases
facebook.com/AndalouDogMusic

On “How Do You Sleep At Night” Phay Bridges Gives Voice to the Agony and Frustrations of Those Who’ve Kept Quiet About Abuse

PhayBridges1_sm — Phay Bridges, photo courtesy the artist

With a languid pace and a mix of smoldering, cathartic anger, Phay Bridges imbues her song “How Do You Sleep At Night” with the appropriate level of righteous indignation directed toward an abuser. Of course we’ve heard countless stories of these people like Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein who used their wealth and power to abuse women and to cover up that abuse for decades. But in our own immediate lives we probably know a few people who on a far lesser scale power trip and abuse as a boost to their own fragile egos when they have a temporary place of minor power and influence over others whether in the workplace, in a community, in social circles, in a family or in a relationship of any kind that they use to peddle “favors” or take out some sadistic outlet on whoever they can. Bridges’ voice articulates the feelings most people swallow or bury to get through those times and coupled with the expressive, fiery guitar work it does so without malice but a call to conscience without letting the abuser off the hook. Look out for her debut full-length due out in fall 2019. Watch the lyric video on YouTube and follow Bridges at the links provided.

facebook.com/bridgett.mess
instagram.com/phaybridges

Like a Balm for the Psyche, Krikl’s “Unease” Stimulates Your Brain With Its Unique Synthesis of the Analog and the Electronic

Krikl1_crop — Krikl, image courtesy Adrianna Krikl

“Unease,” the latest single from avant-garde electronic/ambient artist Krikl weaves together the tactile quality of live cello with layers of synth and electronic beats. The way the elements come in and out of the track gives one a sense of open spaces but also of textures and environmental details we may otherwise ignore like the hum of an air conditioner at a house down the street or of a vending machine. The sounds that when they are gone we might experience a sense of displacement and not fully understand why. The song is called “Unease” perhaps because it was written to dispel that feeling and to make music that could calm and soothe the mind and spirit by stimulating your brain through those aforementioned analog and purely electronic sounds orchestrated in a way that hits you on multiple levels. Highly recommended as a companion to listening to “Unease” are watching Adrianna Krikl’s one minute videos on her Instagram account (linked below) as they give a visually striking and human element to the music that can seem abstract but for the artist is very much a personal statement. The single is part of a larger cassette release with six songs in a handsome package that you can acquire on Adrianna Krikl’s website. Listen to “Unease” on Soundcloud and follow Krikl at the links provided.

adriannakrikl.com
facebook.com/kriklmusic
instagram.com/adriannakrikl

“Kyushu” is Total Bike Forever’s Downtempo Ambient Track With an Intercontinental Flavor

TotalBikeForever6_sm — Total Bike Forever, photo courtesy the artists

Adam Faulkner and Tim Stephens traveled a long way both physically and psychologically to make the music they’ve released as Total Bike Forever. The track “Kyushu” found the longtime friends making the trek from London to Tokyo (we can assume they didn’t ride their bikes the entire route seeing as large bodies of water are involved). Along the route they composted tracks of electronic music infused by local influences taking fourteen months across over twenty-five thousand kilometers and traversing twenty-six countries. The plan is to release their debut album with an accompanying documentary to screen at festivals in Europe and the UK. But for now you can listen to “Kyushu” which includes the sound of various Japanese flutes and a Nepalese women’s choir from Kathmandu. The story behind the song could overshadow the music but “Kyushu” is an engrossing downtempo song that combines the analog with the digital in a way that feels like a synthesis of methods and cultures that transcends preconceived notions of where this music must come from and where it fits in. It washes over your mind like a sonic palette cleansing for the mind. It sounds like the end of a long journey and taking some time to look back on everything you experienced before going back home to the contexts you know best. Listen to “Kyushu” on Soundcloud and follow Total Bike Forever at the links below.

soundcloud.com/totalbikeforever
youtube.com/channel/UCZ3r7jPQ-eUs6v2ss3frs_g
facebook.com/totalbikeforever
instagram.com/totalbikeforever

Marble Arch’s “Moonstruck” is a Song About Reconnecting With the Creative Magic and Joy of Childhood

MarbleArch3_sm — Marble Arch, photo courtesy the artists

Vinyl Williams’ video for the Marble Arch single “Moonstruck” is like an expanded universe of colors, imagery and shapes on a framework of sixteen bit video game graphics aesthetic. It suits the song which is a chill, downtempo song that sounds like time spent taking stock and contemplating the past through the emotional lens of childhood in order to recapture some of the magic and purity of going through life without having your perceptions and instincts shaped so much by the weight of a lifetime of mixed experiences. It’s a creative wiping away of life’s spiritual crust and rediscovering some of the magic and wonder of feeling and creating with unalloyed joy but one informed by the knowledge of how easy it is to let so many things in life let you get jaded and stunted in your natural development as a human and creative person. Pablo Picasso famously said something about taking a lifetime to learn to paint like a child, this song feels like a similar process of reconnecting with that energy in songwriter Yann Le Razavet’s life. Look for the full album Children of the Slump out on Géographie. Watch the remarkable video below and follow Marble Arch at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/6Oy6CwwhQqijvzAjpkoazG
facebook.com/marblearchmusic
instagram.com/marblearchband

“White Noise (Don’t Be a Winner)” Finds Indigo Bunting Time Travelling Down the Pop Vortex and the Post-Punk Collage Wall of Sound

IndigoBunting2_crop — Indigo Bunting, photo courtesy the artists

Austin’s Indigo Bunting is thankfully not taking cues from modern trends in pop music and its new single “White Noise (Don’t Be a Winner)” taps liberally across decades for musical ideas to inspire something decidedly different. The choruses have a classic melodic quality and large sonics akin to the songs produced by Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in the 1960s. But the palette of sound is an enchantingly disorienting mash-up of Siouxsie-esque post-punk, warping psychedelic reminiscent of the less noisy end of Indian Jewelry and a drums that sound like they were recorded while the drummer was sitting inside an echo chamber with curiously tight reverb so that beats cascade off each other in a manner that really compliments the subculture jamming composition generally. Nevertheless, this is an accessible song that is not a send-up of possible influences so much as some cool nods amid the band’s inspired, dancing, gyering collage of sound. Listen to the song on Soundcloud and follow Indigo Bunting at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/indigobuntingband
open.spotify.com/artist/6avshE7vAUgZHXmbU3AfFy
indigobuntingmusic.bandcamp.com/releases
twitter.com/_IndigoBunting
facebook.com/IndigoBuntingBand