New Music – Page 250 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“Tears of the Past” is Duphi’s Musical Journey Away From a Cycle of Self-Punishment for Your Mistakes

Duphi_TearsOfThePast_crop — Duphi, “Tears of the Past” cover (cropped)

Duphi’s latest single “Tears of the Past” brings together production and natural sounds to create a track that sounds like a cycle of processing regret and grief in the context of your whole life. It’s a natural tendency to look back and assess and, if you’re a person of conscience possessed of self-honesty, flagellate yourself a little for mistakes, reliving those moments as if that ritual of punishment is an endless act of atonement that is the only proper way to demonstrate you’ve acknowledged that mistake but are never able to live it down. The gentle beats of this song and its utilizing sampled sounds of a storm in the distance and a sense of traveling away from that storm into more tranquil zones of melodic, percussive arpeggiation that bring a clarity of mind and engender giving yourself the perspective of placing your mistakes as part of your evolution as a person and not as something to always hang over your own head. The song is a reminder that while self-martyrdom may be normal it’s really a waste of time, energy and life better spent being the better person you aspire to be. Listen to “Tears of the Past” on Spotify and follow Duphi at any of the links below.

soundcloud.com/duphi
facebook.com/duphi.phillips

“Twintails” by Podge is a Dynamic Blend of the Aesthetics of Indie Pop and Manga

Podge1_sm_crop — Podge, photo courtesy the artist

A charming mix of 8-bit sounds, organic percussion and sounds and keyboards, Podge’s “Twintails” is a song that picks up where 80s Ninendo game soundtracks left off and explored the pop songwriting possibilities of that sensibility. The effect is something like a playfully yet melancholy indie pop song that draws on what is an element of so much manga and anime and that is how it reflects a sense of loneliness and yearning for connection while speaking to the aspirations and dreams of the artists. This palette of sounds thus never comes off as gimmicky or mere affectation. Podge’s songwriting is fully immersed in the blend of cultures Western and Japanese on that creative level and that gives “Twintails” an unexpected emotional and sonic depth for an effect of an eclecticism reminiscent of Alopecia-period Why? Listen to “Twintails” on Soundcloud and follow Podge at the links below.

www.instagram.com/_podge___
twitter.com/_podge___

edad del pavo’s Ambient Track “centric” Evokes a Sense of Place Both Physical and Existential

EdadDelPavo3_sm_crop — edad del pavo, photo courtesy the artist

One imagines this track inspired by dropping a small stone into a still pond from on high and watching the ripple effect as it intersects with small waves and the influence of a breeze on the water. Or contemplating a Zen garden and its use of organic and mathematical elements and contemplating how nature doesn’t do the calculations we create to model them imperfectly. Yet with the bright tone in an otherwise ethereal unfolding of sounds emits in echo like the horn of a ship in a distant harbor indistinctly on a foggy morning. Whatever was the collection of inspirations behind edad del pavo’s “centric,” it has a sense of place and wonder and a feeling of contemplative acceptance of our place in the entirety of existence. Listen to “centric” on Soundcloud and follow edad del pavo at the links provided.

edaddelpavo.com
soundcloud.com/edaddelpavo
open.spotify.com/artist/21tMOkmvZl9fpl2qsaWuLd
edaddelpavo.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/edaddelpavomusic
instagram.com/edaddelpavo

“Orders of Magnitude” by Lakes of Wada Has the Mood of Summer Breaking and Descending Into the Cool of Fall

LakesOfWada1_sm_crop — Lakes of Wada logo, cropped

Beginning with volume swells on guitar and a low background repeating synth figure “Orders of Magnitude” by Lakes of Wada edges forward like a drifting cloud formation. Melodic electronic drones thread into the mix in layers giving the composition a bit of conventional songwriting element inside the more experimental soundscape framing. Going from minimal to a full spectrum of sounds including a full drum set, the song progresses to give expression to the title. From quiet calm of the beginnings of a rainstorm to not torrents but a steady rain interrupted by sunshine as the rain clouds pass overhead away from a sun headed toward the night time horizon. Rather than morning music or night music, this is late afternoon music and while dynamic with flaring tones, it’s feel is like that time of the day when you know it’s time to wind down a bit or the part of the summer when you can tell the season has broken and cooler days area ahead. Listen to “Orders of Magnitude” on YouTube and follow Lakes of Wada at the links below.

youtube.com/channel/UCxOgxdEbk3UpDTi-xiMqdFw
lakesofwada.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/lakesofwada
instagram.com/lakesofwada

Sulene’s “Diamond” is a Song For Anyone Who Realizes They’ve Outgrown Their Past

Sulene_ BaoNgo — Sulene, photo by Bao Ngo

It’s the little biographical details that Sulene puts into her song “Diamond” that really sets it apart from so many indie synth pop songs. The hook and the breezy chorus are what keeps the momentum going and the tasty and fluid bass line at the song’s outro. But Sulene knows how to set a scene as early in the song when she speaks of drinking whiskey in the August heat and hanging out on the fire escape. Dancing in Brooklyn and grinding her teeth and how friends move on, talking about LCD (presumably Soundsystem) – these are the sorts of memories that can tie you to a time in your life and a situation that you’ve outgrown and as Sulene sings in the chorus about being a diamond in the rough she’s ready to let go of the life and some of the attachments she once had for the next step in her life’s journey. Listen to “Diamond” on Soundcloud and follow Sulene at the links provided.

itunes.apple.com/us/artist/sulene/id790314223
soundcloud.com/sulene
open.spotify.com/artist/3H0Mdkhat3ZJFgKxLHEymg
twitter.com/sulenemusic
facebook.com/sulenemusic
instagram.com/sulenemusic

Per Störby Jutbring Instills a Sense of Childhood Curiosity and Sense of Adventure on the Title Track to His New Album The Thief Bunny Society

PerStorbyJutbring1_crop — Per Störby Jutbring, photo courtesy the artist

The title track to Per Störby Jutbring’s latest album The Thief Bunny Society has all the light, playful yet imagination stirring qualities of great childhood fantasy movies, the kind that don’t pander and remain enjoyable through adulthood. Like Nigel Westlake’s score for Babe, Alan Silvestri’s soundtrack to FernGully or any of Danny Elfman’s cinematic music. With layers of piano, strings, clarinet and electronics, Jutbring conveys a sense of openness and freedom, of a vista of adventures to look forward to in whatever this Thief Bunny Society may be. Is it the kind of society children form to bond over a summer of shared hijinks and discovery, of creative mischief and several weeks free of all the demands of life during the school year? While that may be an age and perhaps for many class specific option, it is something everyone should get to experience sometime in their lives—a lengthy period of time where your imagination and intuition are the guide and fun is the goal—so that you have a place in your heart that you can go to when life can seem like drudgery and the demands place on you seem burdensome. It’s a psychological space that represents a freedom that can’t be taken away from you. Jutbring’s soundtrack provides the sonic analog of that experience as the childhood soundtrack to a film that does not yet exist, He taps into those parts of your brain that create those feelings with his composition and your mind is better for having heard it. Listen to “The Thief Bunny Society” on Soundcloud and follow Jutbring at the links below.

www.perstorbyjutbring.com
www.instagram.com/perstorbyjutbring
www.facebook.com/perstorbyjutbring
open.spotify.com/artist/5HKQ1eZfmajJNGC12Nj7xB?si=px7e_sadQcyPbfgPmUOW-Q

Secret Shame’s “Calm” is a Deathrock Tale of Troubled Times Exorcised With Startling Emotional Honesty

SecretShame1_sm_crop — Secret Shame, photo courtesy the artists

“Calm” by Secret Shame is probably the state of mind this song is a kind of an emotional exorcism to attain given its narrative of chaos and anxiety among a circle of friends and associates. Comparisons to Siouxsie & The Banshees is inevitable as Lena’s vocals have a similar power and versatility. The rhythms are steady and appropriately brooding and the guitar minimal yet melodic and spidery after the manner of early Sisters of Mercy. But when the guitars, bass and drums sync up with the vocals, including the backup vocals, for the choruses the band alchemically attains an electrifying frisson that pushes the sound beyond what one might expect with the intentionally lo-fi recording. The latter actually contributes to a sense that this song could have come out in 1983 or today except that, while also reminiscent at times of Denver’s Your Funeral or a death rock version of The Vanishing, there is nothing museum piece about what the band is doing. It’s moods are introspective and its words unsparing yet poetic and compassionate in their examination of self and socio-political issues—aspects of the music that often seem underappreciated in a lot of dark post-punk. And it is that side of the songwriting that gives the music its powerful emotional resonance. Look for the group’s debut full-length Dark Synthetics out on Portrayal of Guilt Records (yes, run by the great weirdo hardcore band) on September 6, 2019. Listen to “Calm” on Soundcloud and follow Asheville, North Carolina’s Secret Shame at the links below.

soundcloud.com/user-477692705
open.spotify.com/artist/0QFIowD5P1Ej1Pb0gsZPzN
secretshame.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/ShameSecret
facebook.com/secretshameband
instagram.com/secretshameband

Seattle’s Peyote Ugly Examines the Perils of Our Personal Blind and Collective Blind Spots on its New Single “Myopia”

PeyoteUgly3_sm — Peyote Ugly, photo courtesy the artists

“Myopia” by Seattle band Peyote Ugly sounds like a song about one’s own inability to see situations in our lives clearly until they’re right before us because we’re so focused on our own context most of the time. Our blind spots are often revealed to us when we’re least prepared to deal with the fallout, a phenomenon that seems to have run amok in the society at large from politicians, corporations and humans in general or maybe we’re just examining the things we refused to look at for years. The coruscating psychedelic riffs of “Myopia” express this cognitive dissonance perfectly as Peyote Ugly channel shades of Built to Spill, The Posies and Dinosaur Jr while in the end casting itself in a different mold of its own making. The fiery guitar work and the subtle and dynamic atmospheres and emotional awareness informing the lyrics are a refreshingly rare pairing. Watch the video for “Myopia,” filmed and edited by Kyle Toda of the band Antonioni, on YouTube and follow Peyote Ugly at the links provided.

peyoteugly.com
open.spotify.com/artist/1jdrxYFuQLx3OOJU7R2jML
peyoteuglyseattle.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/PeyoteUgly_
facebook.com/peyoteugly
instagram.com/peyote_ugly

“Die For Your Love” is LP’s Triumphant Ballad About the Inspirational Power of Love

LP’s new single “Die For Your Love” bursts with her signature passionate delivery and emotional vulnerability. Yes, the title of the song might be interpreted as a hackneyed and melodramatic premise in pop music. But LP never sounds less than utterly sincere and the triumphant and bombastically expansive dynamic to the song is stirring and imbued with a sense of endless possibilities and hope. Many pop artists write romantic ballads but with “Die For Your Love” one gets a real feeling for the romance of the moment in that sense that one knows the validity of one’s feelings and how the strength of that certainty can inspire you in other ways to work toward positive ends in all areas of your life. Listen to “Die For Your Love” on Soundcloud and follow LP at the link below.

open.spotify.com/artist/0J7U24vlOOIeMpuaO6Q85A

Palm Haze Brings an Emotional Weightiness to the Ethereal Fuzz and Drone of “Almost Soon”

PalmeHaze1_lg — Palm Haze, image courtesy the artists

Palm Haze’s melding of ethereal vocals and distorted drones on “Almost Soon” may remind some listeners of how Medicine could come across like a blend of Bailter Space’s fuzzy and urgent space rock drone and Band of Susans at their most minimal and gently crushing. The song keeps to a similar pace throughout but because of the modulation in tone and melody alongside the introspective and enigmatic vocals and phased and hypnotic yet driving fuzz the song has a surprising emotional weightiness. At one point the song’s noisiness drops off into a purely delicate, downtempo vocals and undistorted guitar tone. This dynamic of the song as well as how the short expansive bursts of synth toward the end are emblematic of the chorus of “It’s okay” as a mantra of hope for the end of a tough time that has gone on too long and will end, almost soon. And, with any luck, soon enough. Listen to the song on Soundcloud and follow Palm Haze at the links below. Also, look for the album Rêve Bleu due out August 30 on YHS Records.

soundcloud.com/palmhaze
palmhaze.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/palmhaze
instagram.com/lovepalmhaze