Charcoal Burners described their new single “Time’s Informers” as “an unlikely marriage of Hüsker Dü and Pet Shop Boys.” Fair enough considering the mix of distorted pop hooks and acerbic wit is actually like a latter day, more slackery “Could You Be The One.” But at times it also oddly reminds one of “Living After Midnight” by Judas Priest in its changes and dynamics. All this combines to make for a song that touches upon familiar places in your brain. But overall its sweet synth sheen and back beat-driven rhythm and introspective yet pointed lyrics delivered in laid back, almost disengaged, fashion give the single fascinating contrasts that add another dynamic dimension to the song but one more emotional than purely sonic. For a band that has a single called “The Verlaines and Hüsker Dü” name-checking its most obvious influences, this song isn’t as crackling with inspired cheek but it is informed by a similarly wonderful sardonic humor. Listen to “Time’s Informers” on Bandcamp and follow New Zeland’s Charcoal Burners at the links provided.
Iñigo Montoya’s animated video for “MDTG” traces the band’s journey since releasing its debut EP in 2015. The triumphs signified by green and frustrations by red. Natural disasters both benefit and throw stumbling blocks. Nuclear waste and warplanes represent the active and passive conflict that plagues everyone’s lives making them more dramatic than need be but also enervating at times that aren’t always obvious. All the while the playful yet sometimes frantic melody and almost sing-song-y vocals give the surreal imagery their emotional context as an expression of perversity of our lives in the developed world as we are encouraged to indulge our whims even in the face of impending global disaster. Follow Iñigo Montoya at the links below.
Fatima Al Qadiri Atlantics soundtrack cover (cropped)
Senegal born, Kuwaiti raised composer Fatima Al Qadiri brings the gravity of her experience with war and post-colonial history to her darkly evocative soundtrack for the critically acclaimed 2019 movie Atlantics. The movie, marking the directorial debut of Mati Diop, is the story of a woman in a suburb of Dakar, Senegal who falls in love with one of the construction workers that have been building a futuristic-looking tower although she is betrothed to another man. The track “Boys in the Mirror” is imbued with that sense of melancholic longing, conflicted emotions and portents of tragic endings. The linger keyboard melody is reminiscent of Eduard Artemiev’s beautifully brooding and desolate work for Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) and Stalker (1979). The depth of tone, the suggestion of texture and an organic flow that courses through your mind, haunting it long after. Listen to “Boys in the Mirror” on YouTube, stream Atlantics on Netflix from November 29 onward and follow Al Qadiri at the links provided.
Mark Korven The Lighthouse soundtrack cover (cropped)
Mark Korven’s score for the 2019 supernatural horror film The Lighthouse is well represented by the track “Stranded.” The swell of menacing horns like a sudden stormy wind giving way to a tense calm only for the horns to weft their way into the sonic frame again with portents of cosmic horror on the horizon. Director Robert Eggers worked with Korven for his chilling and moody score for Eggers’ previous horror masterpiece, 2015’s The Witch, and brings a similar sensibility employing textures and interweaving, dynamic layers of brass instruments to give voice to the forces of darkness waiting outside normal space to drive humans mad and feed on their fear. Like his work for The Witch, Korven’s composition on “Stranded” gets under your skin with its deeply unsettling moods by masterful use of tone, texture and dynamics. Listen to “Stranded” on YouTube and follow Korven on Twitter.
The music video for ARCHE’s single “Back to the Sun” suggests a certain disregard for conventional style and in subtle ways a willingness to look silly and absurd. Like when one of the members of the band looks into the camera nonchalantly as a shower rains down on him in the background. Musically it’s a bit like if Duran Duran had come up in the period after chillwave and summery post-punk like Beach Fossils happened. Glistening synth melodies and swirl around as you see the guys wearing terrible sandals, intentionally mis-matching outfits and a mix of personal styles that a conventional manager trying to guide a band to commercial success would advise against. But it works so well for the song and speaks to a wonderfully carefree spirit in the music itself. It is a level of self-awareness that embraces ones imperfections in a real attitude of not caring about superficial nonsense when its the transporting emotional quality of the music that matters. A lot of videos where bands are looking like they’re relaxing and having fun it looks like they’re also trying too hard. ARCHE is having none of that try harditude. The subtext of the video and the song is be yourself especially when no one is watching. Check out the video on YouTube and follow the band at the links below.
Kyle Emerson just released his second album as a solo artist, the introspective and thought-provoking Only Coming Down. The songwriter recently relocated back to Los Angeles in August 2019 after a stint back in Denver where he originally came to the attention of fans of psychedelic pop during his stint in the band Plum. For a couple of years, the latter was a bit of a buzz band before it realized that maybe Denver wasn’t the best place to base a band that seemed to have the opportunity expand its reach beyond the local scene, beyond being nominated for local awards and playing the same gauntlet of small clubs and occasionally playing bigger venues like the 550 capacity Bluebird Theater or graduate in draw and popularity to the Gothic Theatre at 1,100. Plum moved to Los Angeles in 2016 and within about a year Emerson had left the band and not long after Plum fizzled out. For some that would have been discouragement enough but not for Emerson who had already relocated once to pursue his dream of being a musician with a career.
Emerson was born in Northern Ohio not far south of Detroit where his father was a worship leader at a non-denominational church. While involved in a worship band Emerson learned some music theory from the group’s leader who also shared his love of Radiohead, indie rock and later era alternative music. Emerson also connected with and studied guitar under a music teacher of a local private school, Patrick Paringer, who had grown up in Seattle and known Elliott Smith. At that time Emerson the current bassist in his live band Dan Volmer who also played in the youth group band.
After high school a number of Emerson’s friends moved to Colorado and Brooklyn. Those that moved to the latter offered to let him join their band and sleep on their couch until he got on his feet. But life in NYC was daunting and Emerson didn’t feel like he was ready to live in the city on his own.
Colorado beckoned in 2014 and before moving to Denver Emerson was blithely unaware of happenings in the state and city. He did not know about the legalization of recreational cannabis or that the city was experiencing its largest and longest period of population growth in many years with many musicians moving to Denver seeking out the opportunity for perceived overnight success of acts like The Lumineers and The Fray or at least to be in a place where music was happening and the scene not yet oversaturated. Emerson’s friend Andrew Bair (now of dream pop phenoms Tyto Alba and other projects), son of the pastor of Emerson’s church in Ohio, had moved to Denver and he felt like with Bair and other friends around he could keep his footing in a less expensive city than New York. So he moved into a two bedroom apartment at Thirteenth Avenue and Marion St. near the former location of the Gypsy House Café and shared a room with Volmer for a few months before moving in with the guys from Plum in the Villa Park neighborhood of west central Denver.
The fledgling band had a lot going for it aside from musical and songwriting talent. Ty Baron was a music business major and did some talent buying at Larimer Lounge, a club where many up and coming acts perform weekly, and Jake Supple had been also playing in Abandin Pictures, a group with some cachet in the local psychedelic rock world (he now performs in Flaural). Both had navigated the local music world both as artists and on the less romantic business end of what it actually means to be in a band that might want to do more than play for a few dollars and free drinks.
But like a lot of bands Plum ran into that often unspoken barrier to a lot of bands from Denver and Colorado generally that prevents most from reaching beyond the local band status. Sure, there are anomalies like the aforementioned Lumineers, The Fray and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats and on a smaller scale, Tennis. But outside of jam bands and the EDM world, not a lot of in between being bonafide famous and “local band” status regardless of one’s artistic merits. So even though the move and living in cramped quarters in what was essentially a practice space in L.A. lead to the band breaking up, the decision to relocate was understandable. When you have some hype at home it stands to reason you can build that elsewhere, especially when you’re young.
When Emerson left Plum in 2016 he moved back to Denver where he had some roots and connections and wrote and recorded his moving debut solo album, 2017’s Dorothy Alice. It combined Emerson’s insightful lyrics and storytelling with a folky psychedelia and almost textural atmospheric melodies. The sound has become a bit of the songwriter’s signature sound. Emerson had recently split with his then girlfriend and on top of the other experiences it’s no wonder there is more than a bit of a melancholic vibe to Dorothy Alice that is part of its deep appeal. But recorded with Jeff Cormack of pop band South of France and Justin Renaud of psychedelic rock outfit Sunboy the record reflects Emerson’s renewed hope for his music and his affection for the Mile High City.
“It felt very Denver, very Colorado and it felt great to be back,” says Emerson. “I was living back in that old house where Plum was living. It was like picking up where I had left off in a weird way.”
Emerson didn’t waste any time in writing for his sophomore record nor did he intend for it to come across like a journal entry of the last few years as he moved from Denver to Los Angeles, then repeating that same move and the experiences that framed those moves but it does. In writing the new material Emerson had no working title, which he feels might influence the sound of a record and songs chosen for better or worse, it just came to him one day. “You talk about the come down from anything, a natural high or drugs or alcohol or whatever,” says Emerson. “The more I conceptualize it I don’t know if it gets cooler or more lame but I just think there’s something about if you’re only ever coming down then there was no high on the other side of it.”
Emerson also suffered from a bit of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as a kid and the acronym has the same letters as Only Coming Down. It reflects the fact that Emerson feels that music was the only thing that got him out of that head space of focusing so much on minutiae to the detriment of a productive life. Now in the process of writing his third record Emerson realized that he had to grow up.
“It’s not a conscious thing for a lot of people and you dabble in things you know you need to move on from,” explains Emerson. “The last two records are about the woes of growing into yourself. You’re always growing up your entire life. It’s not like you get to a certain place and you’ve arrived. There was something about putting a bookend on a lot of the themes I was writing about and the things I was feeling. The title summarized that feeling in so many ways with just three words.”
The heaviness that many listeners heard on Dorothy Alice is still there on Only Coming Down but the early feedback has remarked on it being upbeat. Whether it’s Emerson’s recent decision to use more electronics on the new record since discarding a purist’s disdain for technology or the more than a hint of hope in his songs that often contrast hope and despair, or the songwriter’s compassionate take on his role as a musician, the new album definitely tilts toward the positive.
“I don’t play party music, it’s not like that,” says Emerson. “But it’s like I stand in front of a room full of people who at the end of the day are just there to have a good time and as artistic as this can get and as some songwriters and musicians think they are I do believe in the power of positivity. I didn’t think about that so much when I was younger but now if you can say yeah this sucks but I’m here for you, it’s going to get better. I think that’s more worthwhile to say than it’s all shit and then we die. I think there’s power and reality in both of those, I just find it a little bit easier living in the first one a little easier.”
Catch Emerson live during his run of shows in Colorado with Houndmouth:
The throbbing hum of low end coursing through “River of Crows” by Hollowlove as misty synths float over top alongside the sound of the titular birds cawing in the distance sounds like the soundtrack to a long lost 80s science fiction or fantasy movie. The music video suggests a mythical take on urban decay and hazy imagery akin to Children of Men or, in a lighter mood, the next Dash Shaw film. The track meanders with menace and dark promise of the mysterious path ahead with the crows as harbingers of something approaching out of sight. At times it’s reminiscent, moodwise, of the part of Apocalypse Now when Willard and crew reach the haven of Kurtz but have not yet met the Colonel. As crows are both a symbol of ill fortune and intelligence and destiny it’s perfect for a song that sounds like we’re in for a great adventure fraught with peril. Listen to the instrumental track on Soundcloud, watch the video and follow Hollowlove at the links below where you can listen to the rest of the project’s entrancing self-titled album.
The new KIN CAPA single “Queen of the ‘Niles” from The American Opera: Act II might be too clever for its own good. Couched in a sort of sound design production style, the song feels like an experience presented as much as well-crafted pop song with no short measure of creative ambition. The rousing choruses outline the various ways our civilization has failed to grow up (the “Queen of Juveniles”) and the multiple ways its been in denial about its direct role in the destruction of the planet and the consequences that have been crashing into our lives for more than a few years now while America and other world powers are busy telling themselves how great they are and that they can put off the impending disaster for some future date that never seems to come. Capa’s use of the diva, the kind that can’t be bothered with the petty, everyday concerns of “regular” people lacking extreme privilege, as metaphor for the attitude our societies take toward Mother Nature’s not so gentle warnings is brilliant and clever taking what could be a bluntly topical song about climate change to the level of art without blunting the message. Listen to “Queen of the ‘Niles” on Spotify and follow KIN CAPA at his website linked below.
“Superyacht Party” is a bit of a different flavor for multi-instrumentalist, producer and drummer for Gypsys of Pangea, Lochie Earl. It was inspired by his having taken an Uber home one day with a Pakistani driver who had an engineering degree that wasn’t considered valid in Australia so he worked in retail and drove Uber with the rest of his time so that he could bring his family over to Turtle Island and hopefully a better life. The song starts out like an odd but evocative 80s lounge pop song written after having your mind blown by a bummer story, as it happens to be, and your mind aswirl with the hard realities so many people face and the opportunities they never have due to class and legal status. They have to take jobs that more privileged people would never countenance, deal with horrible work situations that make one think things like the Simpsons quip where Homer once said, “Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream?” and otherwise settle for extremely diminished expectations. While some get to go to those superyacht parties of the song title and worry about things like Tinder matches. From the initial lounge sound the song kicks up in sound and dynamics like the end of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” before Lochie offers the line about Tinder matches as if throwing out such a trivial concern when compared with hustling and grinding away in a society that generally treats you like trash. Not only does Earl address the immigrant situation but also the lingering injustices suffered by Australia’s Aborigines population. It is a rare sensitive take on a sensitive subject and a great pop song to boot. Listen for yourself on Soundcloud.
The concept of Wax Heart Sodality is that of a secret society against despair and more, to take those down low and take them to their potential heights. Or at least that seems to be the aim outlined in the sort of short origin story video below the Spotify player below. The group’s debut single “Alphas” is the story of a frustration with the kinds of bully alpha males many of us grew up knowing and who grew up to be authoritarian personality types who think Brexit or Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro are perfectly fine. But also with the mentality of “generation alpha,” the children of millennials who are tech savvy and imagine themselves more informed and thus superior in some ways to previous generations but due to the inescapable realities of age and lack of life experience do not possess the knowledge and perspective to be aware of their own blind spots just like all previous generations in their youth and the myriad social and psychological problems not yet understood, acknowledged or dealt with in a humane and productive way. On the surface the driving pace of the song and its melancholic tone seems to be a both sides critique but in the end it’s really a call to cut with the praise of generations as the clear tool of marketing and the oligarchy to flatter and divide. Which is a much more nuanced perspective than self-congratulations on not being a “Boomer,” an apathetic “Gen X-er” or smugly vitriolic casting aspersions on “millennials” and “Gen Z” and their supposed laziness and subpar taste in music and so-called culture. But even if one doesn’t want to engage in the finer points of the song, it’s a rousing post-punk anthem with momentum and splintered yet brooding melody delivered by a band intentionally keeping its identities under wraps for the moment at a time when there’s not a lot of mystery in the world of music, art and culture. Listen to “Alphas” (recorded by Steven Bardgett of Mouses) on Spotify, watch the Anonymous-esque origin story video below and follow the band at the links provided.
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