You can hear an ache and a melancholic yearning in O Slow’s “Every Time You Come Back, You Come Colder.” The echoing tones, the delicate guitar work and the ethereal vocals are reminiscent of Björk’s more dream pop leanings with a similar intensity of feeling that can seem less committed unless you actually pay attention to what is being sung. The song is about a once close friendship that seems to be turning increasingly distant with no explanation and how that can feel like a strange betrayal in which one might rightfully seek a reason behind this change in the nature of the relationship. Perhaps one could interpret in the lyrics something more than feelings of friendship but in the modern era people can come to see a friendship as something casual when in reality friendships can often outlast romantic associations and prove more durable. One picks up on a well of sadness from the song’s gorgeous soundscaping and fans of The Knife will appreciate its rich sonic details in tone and rhythm and the dynamic structure of the song that keeps expansive yet introspective. Listen to “Every Time You Come Back, You Come Colder” on Spotify and follow O Slow on Instagram.
Envyes pairs its nostalgic and lo-fi hazy dream pop single “Blessings” with Hi-8 footage of the Baltimore Zoo and a cemetery in Hunt Valley, Maryland for an entrancing audio-visual experience. The aesthetics together reinforce the song’s themes of appreciating the things and experiences of your everyday that you take for granted. The presentation of the song demonstrates a connection with life’s liminal moments in contrast to the more overtly exciting and stimulating situations that we’re socially conditioned to value most. But it is the connective tissues of your life that are just as important in creating meaning, context and significance and often it is the things that don’t push themselves into your consciousness with what might be described as an existential aggression that linger in the mind, offering a sense of belonging and comfort. The drifting melodies of the song with guitar, piano and gentle vocals embody these elements of one’s life so the song while not bombastic has an overall effect of feeling like something one can live within and with without it needing to command one’s constant focus yet rewarding connecting with it. Watch the video for “Blessings” on YouTube and follow Envyes at the links provided.
The wiry momentum of “Sucker,” the latest single from Chicago art punks KAPUT is seething with distortion and a kind of desperate exhaustion. That lends the song an edge that lends its pointed commentary about the seemingly constant static coming your way just getting through modern life and the demands and expectations for you constantly in terms of perceived duties, obligations and attention. Amid the claustrophobic, urgent cacophony and persistent rhythm Nadia Garofalo’s vocals provide a human clarity that becomes so poignant in the final chorus of “Hey give me a minute/Well what about me” as it speaks directly to how everything is demanded of you in late capitalism down to the any spare seconds and if you don’t at least try to claim that back without having to justify your own needs to not have every moment of life spoken for by someone or something else you’ll never get it. Anyone that has worked a regular job in modern America or anywhere else where the technocrats are selling their tools of holding everyone accountable for every minute through workplace surveillance systems of some kind and how that “striving” culture bleeds into everything will recognize the spirit of this song immediately. Whatever happened to just living and having time to have your mind wander where it will and simply enjoying your time not dedicated to commerce? Can’t have that in oligarch-dominated human society, sucker. Resisting this extraction of the vitality of life can and should be one of the lines of resistance to commodifying everything to the nth degree. KAPUT makes that act seem exciting. Listen to the song “Sucker” on Spotify and follow KAPUT at the links below.
Heavy Feelings puts into words a difficult feeling to convey with accuracy on the “Breather” single. The title suggests multiple meanings including merely being a person who breathes like all humans must but also a need to get a break from feeling the pressure to conform instead of just be allowed to be different. To feel like you have to explain something about the way you are when you shouldn’t have to. And that sense of being stifled for nothing. The line “Someday I’ll run out of ways to explain there’s nothing to fix, it’s always this way, can’t find the right things to say” perfectly sums up the existential exhaustion you can reach when it feels like you’re being interrogated and picked apart by normies that feel like they have to figure out you can’t be just like them even if you’re not demanding they be like you. The urgent melodies and echoing vocals in the chorus express perfectly a discordant mood that is getting a bit of catharsis in the song’s asymmetrical structure and willingness to sprawl past the edges of conventional songwriting methods. It as its own kind of hooks and like the lyrics illustrate perfectly it demands acceptance on its own terms. If you like your post-punk a little more unconventional this song and the Anatomy EP (released December 20, 2024) are what you should make the effort to take in. Listen to “Breather” on Spotify and follow Heavy Feelings at the links below.
The saturated synths and percussive electronic bass lines in Bending Grid’s “Neon Heat” catches you up in the song’s upbeat momentum from the start. When Jolie Grieco’s vocals come in they’re like something you’d expect to hear on the soundtrack to a better yet still bombastic 80s action movie or a 2020’s tapping into that vibe with the clarity of modern production. Fans of synthwave will appreciate the way the heady rhythms and rich tone pair well with melancholic melodies and the expertly placed transitions into spacious introspection before the song gets back into high gear before transitioning into a satisfying ending. The song’s arc reflects the thrilling melodrama of a story of lust, seduction and love in a hurry but without the desperation one might expect. Listen to “Neon Heat” on Spotify and follow Bending Grid at the links provided.
Extra Kool and Time recently released their album The Grimies for streaming, digital download and limited green vinyl. The record represents the product of decades of working together playing shows and on each other’s respective tracks. Danny Vincennie aka Extra Kool and Chris Steele aka Time are two of the most gifted lyricists and rappers in Denver of recent years but their work has not often been championed in local much less national press and culture. Several years back they worked on tracks together in a project they called The Grimies with singles that appeared on obscure compilations now challenging to track down. But separately and contributing to each other’s work they have written poignantly personal and vulnerable, insightful, emotional songs about life and society that are vibrant and heartbreaking. Time has frequently released music with the brilliant producer AwareNess as the experimental hip-hop duo Calm. and along with Extra Kool and artists under the label umbrella of The Dirty Laboratory they were a force in alternative hip-hop in the 2000s. That world imploded or faded away in “commercial relevance” if not in impact in influence around the 2010s but the legacy of that time has continued in the more interesting hip-hop of today and certainly Time and Extra Kool didn’t stop creating powerful work just because the crumbling music culture wasn’t shining as much of a spotlight on alternative hip-hop for a long time. In September 2024 Extra Kool and Time finally released their fully collaborative album titled The Grimes. It’s full of vivid and emotionally resonant bars traded by both artists with tales of Denver and existential exploration of what endures in the mind and heart long term, the ghosts that haunt us, our communities and our various cultures. It’s a deep record with richly realized production from the likes of Fumes the Threat, AwareNess, Satyr and Preacher vs. Choir with contributions from Illogic. The record is rich with pop culture references used with a cleverness and poetry that makes the music fun and insightful even as it delves into heavier subjects.
Listen to our interview with Extra Kool and Time on Bandcamp and follow the artists at the links below. The vinyl can be purchased on the Bandcamp or at select Denver record shops.
A poignant self-awareness informs the title track to Loic Moonmattress’s new EP Last Nostalgia (December 18, 2025). In the song the artist looks back on a chapter in his life he recognizes has come to an end in a way that prompted some moments of self-examination with a sense of how that period like many distinct periods in our existence isn’t the beginning or the end but part of a hopefully long life story which helped to shape us for the better and the struggles that in retrospect were sometimes self-imposed by our attitudes in the complexity that is lived experience. The lyrics are like the impressionistic thoughts read in cadence over harmonic drones that resonate with the clarity of a waking dream while minimal keyboards keep the cadence and later on lightly distorted guitar lends the often borderline ethereal track a tactile immediacy that brings string of reflections back to the present tense and the world of this moment. The song blurs the line between experimental hip-hop, ambient and dream pop in a unique way that is welcome when a lot of music is trying to be in an established style but Loic Moonmattress has never really settled for being in some pocket seeming to prefer to chart a different and consistently fascinating musical path. Watch the video for “Last Nostalgia” on YouTube and follow the Edmonton-based artist at the links below.
The distorted low end pulses and modulated beats that run through BAGGY GRL’s “Love is on the Screen” create a sense of headlong urgency. And one that is reflected in the music video with its flashes, jump cuts and lo-fi production like a found footage horror intermixed with scenes of the producer frolicking in a bathtub, on a balcony, on a psychedically colorful couch, in darkened rooms and in the depths of an interdimensional cosmos. The horror featuring BAGGY GRL as well like a miscreant loose in a hardware superstore. The pace of the song accelerates with a thrilling sense that you’re not quite where the song is going to go with its electronic industrial dance sounds that fans of Machine Girl and Boy Harsher will appreciate. There is a confrontational spark to BAGGY GRL’s performance that gives the song an edge to the playful spirit on screen as the artist offers perspectives on the nature of virtual relationships when the illusions of performative identity dissolve. Watch the video for “Love is on the Screen” on YouTube and follow BAGGY GRL at the links below. Her new album BADMOUTH dropped January 22, 2025.
Boston-based producer and DJ lilith teams up with V V N for a left field hip-hop single called “ryder.” The song is about deep affection for and infatuation with a loved one. The vocal delivery is wide-ranging and gentle but passionate and the beats and sound sculpting is like an evolution from classic neo soul with expertly crafted layers of rhythm bringing together ideas from classic hip-hop and strong electronic percussion and the textural feel of the best end of trap. It has that spontaneous and raw quality of a bedroom production but there is nothing lacking in the way the song brings you into the mood, the vibe, the moment. It sounds like the kind of song you’d want to hear from someone you love with all the sincerity and sensuality that would make it irresistible. Watch the video for “ryder” on YouTube and hear more of lilith’s choice cuts on Spotify.
Drew Danburry infuses a tenderness and subtle poetry to “Love” that elevates a simple song about the way love for someone can help you get through some rough moments. The song is concise but captures that mutual feeling people have for each other in a way that feels complete. Musically it’s like if a Christmas song got an indiepop treatment and was about something deeply personal rather than about something like a season or a holiday yet contains that uplifting, warmly nostalgic energy that turns what might seem sappy into something that hits as poignantly sincere. Listen to “Love” on Spotify and follow all things Drew Danburry and his Telos Tapes label via the link tree on his Instagram profile. “Love” can also be heard on the Bird Songs EP which released on December 19, 2024 for streaming, digital download and cassette.
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