New Music – Page 26 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Cleo Handler Walks Away From a Relationship With Too Many Granular Demands on Indie Pop Single “rules”

Cleo Handler released her new album compare & contrast on April 4, 2025 and it’s full of songs that contemplate aspects of ourselves when we are in relationships and how we are by ourselves and the way our intuition speaks to us that we can ignore at our peril in pursuit of what we think will make us happy or fulfilled with someone else. The single “rules” is a wry yet lively song that seems to come from a place of being involved with someone who has a lot of rules for their life that they don’t always adhere to themselves in ways that are growth oriented but don’t always extend to accommodating the needs of others. The song doesn’t strike a regretful tone, just one noting the ways in which the relationship with its restrictions would never work out long term and just embracing coming to that realization without rancor. Essentially the song is one that asks oneself what compromises and accommodations you’re willing to make to be in someone’s life and if it’s what you want for yourself and if that relationship is worth it for those restrictions and that it’s okay to decide that it’s not. Which is a major theme throughout the record. Listen to “rules” on Spotify and follow Cleo Handler at the links below.

cleohandler.com

Cleo Handler on Twitter

Cleo Handler on Instagram

Cleo Handler on Bandcamp

Dream Bodies’ Krautrock Infused Gothic Rock Single “Eclipse” is a Song of Personal Transformation and Transcendence

The motorik beat driving Dream Bodies’ “Eclipse” is hypnotic even before the ethereal, Chameleons-esque guitar work comes in to shimmer with introspective melodies. It seems to be a tale of someone transforming in ways he doesn’t fully understand and absorbing influences from the natural world and the cosmos as he travels toward a mysterious fate with references to oblique occult initiation experiences and/or pagan mystery rituals like the Eleusinian Mysteries and attaining a connection to the world that expands one’s consciousness. But all set to beautifully spectral tones and in moments reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder’s soundtrack work for Midnight Express had he reworked that with the help of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. The tonal shimmer in the synths alongside robust low end and commanding vocals in the song make it a standout from the increasingly standardized modern post-punk and darkwave milieu. Listen to “Eclipse” on Spotify and follow Dream Bodies at the links provided.

Dream Bodies on Instagram

Dream Bodies on Bandcamp

Baby Grendel Embrace the Madness of Living the Creative Life on Art Punk Single “Hatching”

Baby Grendel, photo courtesy the artists

Baby Grendel’s “Hatching” sounds like one of those better late 90s punk bands from the Pacific Northwest that discovered that punk was an attitude and not a genre. And then took that sense of creative liberation and applied it to the kind of sound that combines wry self-awareness akin to Superchunk with the dark and incisive humor of the likes of Alice Donut. The fractured guitar solo in the middle of the song is a refreshing bit of chops in a realm of music that often eschews such things but fits what seems to be the cracked perspective of the song with lyrics like “I’m psycho, knew it all along though, so shallow, deeper than a year ago.” And then talk of hatching a plan of losing one’s brain and asking “Am I going down like this?” These musings aside the song seems like an oblique exploration of personal integrity and the precarious balance of trying to do something creative in a world that almost requires mental illness to be involved. More than one person that has become involved in music has made similar observations but Baby Grendel gives it an unabashed expression in embracing the madness. Listen to “Hatching” on Spotify and follow the band at the links below. It’s new EP Hatch(l)ing dropped February 10, 2025 on streaming and digital download.

babygrendel.com

Baby Grendel on Instagram

Baby Grendel on Bandcamp

Frally’s Slowcore Reinvention of Yazoo’s “Only You” Gives it a Heartfelt, Pastoral Resonance

Frally’s reinvent Yazoo’s 1982 debut single “Only You” completely as a pastoral and introspective pop song imbued with rich tones and a gorgeous vocal duet between Teddy Thompson and Frally. It turns the emotionally resonant mood of the original and imbues it with a majestic grace and deep mood. It’s like a slowcore Americana song with delicate piano work providing the framing melodies, texture and rhythm with a touch of elegiac guitar around the edges courtesy of The War On Drugs’ Charly Hall. But the commanding vocals are the star here and Thompson and Frally complement each other perfectly to deliver a vulnerable yet quietly passionate love song worthy of its source material. Listen to “Only You” on Spotify and follow Frally at the links below. Her new EP Message from the Future dropped March 28, 2025.

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Frally on YouTube

Joseph Salazar Builds a Cosmic Sense of Wonder on Hazy Ambient Synth Track “Everything Is Information”

Joseph Salazar, photo by Ishmael Quintanilla

The title of Joseph Salazar’s song “Everything Is Information” is simple enough and a bare statement of fact like Boards of Canada’s “Music is Math.” It can deconstruct some of the magic of the effect of the music as well as make it attainable for anyone willing to put in the time to connect with it. Salazar’s ambient sprawl starts out quiet and builds in almost pointillist fashion an evolving and growing soundscape of evocative drones, spare melodies and hazy flares of tone reminiscent of the cosmic, late night sounds and excursions of 1980s Steve Roach. But Salazar’s song also sounds like something that should be in a modern science fiction film that goes beyond mere adventure fantasy and action into something more struck by a sense of wonder as Salazar elicits in the listening to this song. The rich tones build and converge and wash away in the flow of gentle white noise in the end as it fades into silence. Listen to “Everything Is Information” on YouTube and follow Joseph Salazar at the links provided.

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Joseph Salazar on Twitter

Joseph Salazar on Facebook

Joseph Salazar on Instagram

Joseph Salazar on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E04: Mike Baggetta of mssv

Comprised of guitarist and vocalist Mike Bagetta, bassist mike watt and drummer Stephen Hodges, mssv is a band whose music defies easy genre categorization. Early on it was mostly or entirely instrumental but with vocals introduced more prominently on its second studio album Human Reaction and an attentive listener can hear rock and jazz roots in the mix with elements of improvisation. But on the group’s new record On And On (out March 7, 2025 via BIG EGO Records on vinyl, download and streaming) the detailed songcraft makes it obvious that the group has always been about songs but that this time the loose concept album explore themes of impermanence and chance in society, in our, on the planet and in our own minds. Utilizing detailed compositions and a keen ear for atmosphere and texture in building the emotional resonance of the songs the band uses the vehicle of the album as a commentary on and celebration of the life we live every day and its own essential significance to everything connected to it.

Listen to our interview with Mike Baggetta and follow the musician and songwriter as well as mssv at the links below.

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Lucille Two’s Richly Melodic Synth Pop Single “Seasons” is a Soothing Song About the Art of Letting Go

Lucille Two’s vivid tones enhance the emotional complexity of the synth pop single “Seasons.” The sequenced melodies and guitar accents provide a sort of gently uplifting context for Trudy Bennett’s introspective vocals as she sings about a situation in which she’s let go of a relationship in which she now sees is long in the rearview and the processing the potential painful memories involved required a touch of disassociation to have the proper perspective. To embrace not knowing fully how you feel about the other person or about why it all eventually went sideways or dissolved. But knowing that you don’t want to go back and that any appeal that was once there is gone and you’re better in your head and in life because of it. The orchestration of melody and rhythm is reminiscent of a certain era of chillwave and how that music was the perfect vehicle for nuanced emotional expression but Lucille Two here doesn’t tap into feelings of nostalgia so much as a sense of moving forward out of the temptation of fond memories that can get us to gloss over when things weren’t so glowing. Listen to “Seasons” on Spotify and follow Lucille Two at the links below.

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Lucille Two on Facebook

Lucille Two on Instagram

Lucille Two on YouTube

Brunch Deconstructs the Dark End of Modern Science on Noisy Post-Punk Single “Dr. Benway”

Brunch’s song “Dr. Benway” is about the character of the same name from William S. Burroughs’ influential 1959 novel The Naked Lunch and within the lyrics it’s a critique of the way modern science, and the not so modern version, has been used in warped and twisted ways with consequences perhaps unintended but conducted in such a way that such consequences aren’t considered as much for the sake of discovery in the positive sense as well as that more disruptive. Think Jeff Goldblum’s character Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park and his commentary on unearned knowledge and not taking the responsibility for the blowback. The song’s rambunctious rhythms and the vocals that are initially more clear and then borderline unhinged reminiscent of Frank Black is a perfect parallel to the themes of the song. The charade of rationality cloaking the rationalization of the use of scientific methods to create quickly monetizable products or technologies for war or to exploit one’s fellow humans. Brunch just infuse that content with a danceable rhythm paired with wonderfully fractured melodies and a spirited delivery. Listen to “Dr. Benway” recorded live at Robot Dog Studio in Burlington, Vermont on Spotify and follow the band at the links provided.

Brunch on Bandcamp

Brunch of Instagram

Araz Salek’s “Âshenâ” is Orchestral Yet Intimate Evocation of Melancholic Yet Passionate Yearning

“Âshenâ” is the second single from Araz Salek’s new album Peripheries of Nahavand (out April 11, 2025 on Worlds Within Worlds). The song and the rest of the album represents modal music influenced by the musician’s background in Turkish and Arabic makam music as well as the Iranian dastgāh tradition.The song whose title in Farsi has multiple resonances and meanings depending on the context from acquaintance, close friend, lover. The rich interplay of instrumentation including Salek’s own masterfully expressive performance on the tar interweave evocatively with Asare Shekarchi’s vocals in Farsi to convey a sense of melancholic yearning. The multiple rhythms and textures in which the tones manifest are both orchestral and intimate with the sound production rendering the whole piece vivid and instantly entrancing. Something about Salek’s arrangements lend the song a familiarity even to someone that hasn’t spent much time listening to music coming from similar roots. The energy and emotional power of the piece is undeniable in its cross-cultural appeal. Listen to “Âshenâ” on Spotify.

BB Sabina Pushes Back Against Restrictive Notions of Identity on the Gorgeously Expansive Downtempo Post-Punk Single “Multitude”

“Multitude” unfolds and evolves with iterative, pulsing, percussive synth tones, steady yet subtly shifting bass lines and vocals that intone in warm focus and trailing off in short echoes. It’s a song about refusing to be defined, penned in, forced into strict shapes and identities as an assertion of the essential changing nature of a living being going through life, to be, as singer Bethany Uhe put on the Bandcamp page for the song, “in a constant state of flux.” The recognition of which is to acknowledge reality. The song too defies easy genre categorization yet its aesthetic is coherent and strong. Think downtempo post-punk or shoegaze darkwave that fans of Jenny Hval and Broadcast may fully appreciate in all its gorgeous and moving sonic dimensions. Listen to “Multitude” on Spotify and follow Australian band BB Sabina at the links blow.

BB Sabina on Facebook

BB Sabina on Instagram

BB Sabina on Bandcamp