New Music – Page 255 – Queen City Sounds and Art

The Dark Synth Pop of Oliver Marson’s “Cocaine Romance” is a Lurid, Lynchian Snapshot of a Doomed Romance

OliverMarson2_lg — Oliver Marson, photo courtesy the artist

The music video for Oliver Marson’s “Cocaine Romance” is like a short Panos Cosmatos film about the paranoia and amplified unreality that the title of the song suggests. The female lead runs through glowing red forests and other characters, like rejects from the Black Lodge, look on with an eerie knowing of her dark end after losing her mind while driving away desperately to escape from her tormentors. It’s Lovecraftian in that way minus overt denizens from a dark, menacing part of the universe. The music is like a synth pop song written by The Damned with dramatic vocals and a neo-Gothic story about a doomed romance based on the shaky foundation of a fondness for substances and not something more substantial. Though upbeat and melodic there is a darkness to the song that resonates with juxtaposition of brightness with personal darkness in the likes of New Order’s “True Faith” and Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” and their own surreal videos. Oliver Marson is tapping into similar sensibilities but his sound is a more contemporary take on the aesthetic of that era with more distorted synths and a hint of self-awareness. Watch the video below and follow Oliver Marson at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/olivermarson
youtube.com/channel/UCGWui3Lpq0lY60qc9rpLPYQ
facebook.com/oliver.marson
instagram.com/oliver.marson

Remi’s New Single “5 A.M.” is a Fearless, Beautiful and Self-Deprecating Examination of a Toxic Relationship

REMI3_sm — Remi and Whosane, photo courtesy the artists

Remi’s new single “5 A.M.” features his friend and collaborator Whosane and together the two artists vividly evoke how the mind in extreme circumstances often forces us to the dark places of the truth we might otherwise leave buried. It was inspired by a time when Remi had been sick with the flu and as his body was processing out the virus in its various ways his psyche was bubbling with past emotional trauma that had not been properly processed either yet sparking in Remi the need to articulate that for himself the experience and then to cast it forth as a song with the help of his friend Silent J’s (no relation or connection, really) beat. The result is a vibrant song that is haunted by atmospheric synths, expertly syncopated electronic percussion and self-avowedly self-deprecating and shockingly frank and vivid lyrics that swim and flow with uncomfortable truths amid dreamy melodies. Listen to “5 A.M.” on Soundcloud and follow the Australian hip-hop artist Remi at the links below.

remikolawole.com
soundcloud.com/remzilla
twitter.com/remikolawole
facebook.com/RemiKolawoleMusic
instagram.com/remikolawole

“Keep Talkin” by Bader x Colz is a Genre Bending and Bursting Crossover of Middle Eastern, African and English Dance Music

bader x colz 2 — Colz of Bader x Colz, photo courtesy Tenwest

“Keep Talkin,” represents a meeting of international minds an creatives between Saudi Arabia’s fairly new electronic music world as represented by producer Bader and Lewisham, London-based vocalist Colz. The latter’s musical style is a mix of reggaeton and afro swing he calls “Afroton” and the collaboration as “Bader x Colz” is the debut release on Bader’s label SoundsBader. The video, filmed in Dubai, stikes one as incredibly subversive for the swagger and sentiments and celebration of lighthearted hedonism and references to ganja in and out of a place where such things are, at least in the public sphere, not just taboo but subject to severe criminal penalties. Nevertheless the jaunty rhythm and infectious melody of “Keep Talkin” is irresistible and its genre crossover from South London “Afroton” and Bader’s finely sculpted, dub-like bass warble accenting Colz’s deft wordplay sound is an exciting, natural and inevitable synthesis of Middle Eastern and African polyrhythms and poetry (which have so much in common sonically and culturally) and modern club music. Check out the video below and follow the artists through their UK based imprint Tenwest.

www.tenwestgroup.com

Magdaluna’s “Deep Space: 1985” Is a Post-Rock, Black Metal, Dark Science Fiction Epic

Magadluna1_crop — Magdaluna, image courtesy the artist

Enigmatically titled “Deep Space: 1985,” Magdaluna’s latest single weaves together post-rock, mournful piano with fiery and corrosive drone guitar and dramatic and expressive percussion. One might think of it as a slice out of a lost science fiction movie of the era like the background information on the space vampires from Lifeforce before they were encased in the sleep coffins having been put in suspended animation to end their reign of terror. One imagines from there a group of people who tricked the vampires eons ago into quelling their endless hunger and then launched them into a lost part of space aimed toward a black hole only to be catapulted back toward inhabited regions by a quirk of gravity in a long arc like a comet from another galaxy. Little known to the would be hero of another world, the vampires would live on again to wreak havoc. But the song suggests this with the melancholic outro. Of course the song isn’t about this but it does stir the imagination and it is imbued with the aesthetic of 1980s space fantasy and dark, dystopian science fiction like Aliens or stories from Heavy Metal Magazine. Listen to the song on Bandcamp and explore Magadaluna’s other work there as well.

Deep Space: 1985 by Magdaluna

magdaluna.bandcamp.com

Relentlessly Playful and Inventive, Shwesmo’s “Concerto for Guitar and Computer” is the Sound of the 8-bit, Technical Metal, Glitchcore Evolution Revolution

Shwesmo_ConcertoForGuitarAndComputer_cover_lg — Shwesmo, “Concerto for Guitar and Computer” cover

The compound time and grinding, bit-crushed sound of the beginning of Shwesmo’s noise/fusion/death/thrash song “Concerto for Guitar and Computer” is like John Zorn infused with 8-bit DNA and a penchant for some choice computer cutting and reassembling. Is it tech metal + EDM + glitchcore? Are such distinctions useful in parsing out a song like this? The cover art for the single shows a cyberpunk ape wielding a part bass/guitar and a MIDI controller for samples and visuals. Which is perfect because the song turns on a dime into interesting territory. It might be busy for some people but it never gets too busy to follow and it’s relentlessly playful and inventive beginning to end. If all the 8-bit artists of five to seven years ago moved on to a higher degree of sophistication and synthesis of musical styles some of them would have ended up in the realm of what Shwesmo has accomplished with this song. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Shwesmo at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/3oJve5kEy2Ds8329L596Ts
shwesmo.bandcamp.com/releases
facebook.com/shwesmo.music
instagram.com/shwesmo

Bels Lontano’s “Hope” Has All the Beauty and Grace of a Benevolent Cryptid in Flight

BelsLontano1_crop — Bels Lontano, photo courtesy the artist

The Bels Lontano track “Hope” takes some time getting off the ground but like a plane or a baby bird when it does take flight its potential is obvious. Buzzy yet melodic pulses drive the song while ethereal tones flutter and hold alongside the almost clop clop horse hoof percussion as the song comes into full focus and volume and its sonic features engulfing. Textures, claps, a contemplative second melody breezes through the middle of the song. The effect is a bit like what it would be like to see a great, bird or insect approaching and as it float near you benevolent and curious, you can marvel at its grace and parts moving together with a dazzling efficiency before it flies off to parts unknown. And by its very existence it fills you with hope for a present and future in which there are still things to discover and plenty of unknown that the technocratic oligarchy hasn’t fully exploited. Listen to “Hope” on YouTube and follow Bels Lontano at the links below.

soundcloud.com/belslontano
open.spotify.com/artist/2wDdIIdpp8cL7WKAQAcdJP
twitter.com/belslontano
facebook.com/belslontano

Lune Rose’s Downtempo and Murkily Melodic “Can’t Be Sure” Uncertainties and Insecurities of Relationships in the Era of Social Media and Texting

“Can’t Be Sure” by Lune Rose speaks to the uncertainties and misapprehensions that have sprung up in new ways in the era of social media and text-only forms of communication with which you don’t get solid hints of tone, inflection and body language. One’s insecurities can run rampant in the imagination and haunt your conscious thoughts like a cloak of darkness. The sinuous flow of the murky synths and the pulsing tones reflect the way you can almost hypnotize yourself into revisiting your worst fears and how social media algorithms seem to reinforce a sense of disconnect from what’s real and thus your own emotions and your actual relationships with others. That the song is in part about the threat of these things on a long distance relationship is worth noting but if we’re to be honest with ourselves, similar emotional and social phenomena happens even when our loved one doesn’t live far away as the technologies that are meant to bring us closer together at a distance often serve to do the opposite.

Xoller’s Gertrude Stein Inspired “A Rose” is a Meditation on the Cyclical Nature of Human Life and Love

Xoller_ARose_art_crop — Xoller, photo courtesy the artist

Inspired by Gertrude Stein’s 1913 poem “Sacred Emily,” Xoller’s “A Rose” quotes the famous line “a rose is a rose is a rose” as a symbol for the cyclical nature of our lives and of time and how it ultimately warps and makes indistinct our memories. Experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage once pointed out how Stein’s use of those words suggested a circular shape and how that visual language influenced his approach to his own work and Xoller’s wistful and nostalgic melody seems similarly impacted in connecting the repetition of chorus and verse with the all too familiar patterns of life and human behavior that she poetically outlines in the song’s lyrics. The hope, as in all patterns and cycles, is that even though we tend to be consistent in our long term behaviors that we can be cognizant of the patterns that no longer fully serve us well. Listen to “A Rose” on Soundcloud and follow Xoller at the links provided.

twitter.com/_xoller
facebook.com/xollersounds
instagram.com/__xoller

Juhan Ongbrian’s “Idling” featuring Ricky Gartell and Sly Chong Evokes the Late Night Life of Service Industry Workers Before the Dawn

JuhanOngbrian1_crop — Juhan Ongbrian, image courtesy the artist

There is an incandescent quality to the keyboard work on Juhan Onbrian’s “Idling” like something written for a restaurant lounge where the night staff is hanging out after operations have been shut down for the night hanging out with the band. Ricky Gartell’s saxophone figures curl upward like tendrils of cigarette smoke shared on the balcony and talking about the future as the moon rises.Sly Chong’s bass sits like an unmistakable presence keeping the song afloat when it’s not drifting, guiding the proceedings into the proper channels. It captures those hours when most normal people are already asleep but everyone who has worked a service job knows well when you are getting things ready for the next day and going home and maybe watch whatever movie might be on TV at three or four in the morning and to bed by sunrise. There’s a tranquility to the track that evokes the kind of exhausted sleep one gets after working hard and dealing with demanding people all night and enjoying that small bit of joy before waking in the late morning or early afternoon and running some errands before starting all over again. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Juhan Onbrian’s projects at the links below.

soundcloud.com/juhanongbrian
open.spotify.com/artist/7mEJxWdf21g1dRVwNDaLq8
instagram.com/juhanongbrian

Eamonn Watt’s “Laputa” Resonates With a Sense of Cosmic Wonder

EamonnWatt-Dopamine_cover_crop — Eamonn Watt, *Dopamine* cover (cropped)

The melodic, watery sounds of Eamonn Watt’s “Laputa,” as well as other tracks on the new album Dopamine, were inspired by the fantastic worlds of 1980s television and cinema. Without reference specifically to the soundtracks to any of those films, “Laputa” nevertheless resonates with the imagery and mood of films like Labyrinth and The Neverending Story and, of course, Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 masterpiece Laputa: Castle in the Sky—the presumed source of the song’s title. Soft synth tones while around each other and shimmer out into a sonic cloudscape while a lead tonal figure cuts through the dreamlike haze and illuminates a solid musical line through the song. Though not fantasy, the song is like the moodier cousin of the ending music of American public television’s astronomy program Star Gazers (known to many in its earlier and equally defunct incarnation as Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler). It works similar major scale progressions and conveys a similar sense of wonder at the workings of cosmic phenomena. Listen to “Laputa” on Spotify and follow Eamonn Watt at any of the links below.

soundcloud.com/eamonnwatt
thevirtualconductor.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/VirtuallyConducted