New Music – Page 5 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Dis Fig’s Cathartic and Dark, Organic Industrial Track “The Account” Evokes the Ambient Heaviness of the Current Era

“The Account” is the debut track from Dis Fig’s forthcoming album What To Make Of These Mortal Hands (out October 23 via Thrill Jockey on vinyl, digital download and streaming). It brings us in with minimal, organic industrial beats at times like the sound of a knock on the door of a forgotten industrial sector of town. Then the wind between aka Eldon Somers comes in with a poetic statement/manifesto about a struggle for an authentic life where one’s capacity for vulnerability, basic humanity and simply feeling alive and not simply surviving is assaulted regularly by the machinations of a dysfunctional society. And how one must cultivate those capacities for inherent goodness and virtue against attempts at eroding them because what is life without them? Dis Fig aka Felicia Chen comes in with vocals echoing in the darkness of the song’s underground midnight mood before progressing into impassioned declarations of being weary of cycles of destruction. The beats hit hard in accenting the emotional weight of the words and the expert flourishes of sound design lend the track the feel of a lived experience because we’ve all lived through and are living through a time of corrosive social and economic forces pressing down on all and everything. Listen to “The Account” on Spotify and follow Dis Fig on Instagram.

Dis Fig on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S6E11: Observation Room

Observation Room, photo courtesy the artists

Observation Room is a synth pop duo from New York City comprised of Marina F and Chloe Olson. From its 2025 self-titled EP the project seemed to have a knack for vivid and clear electronic production and a keen ear for layered rhythms and percussive synth tone. There is a kinetic presence to the music that became even more honed and fully-realized on the forthcoming full-length Superstructure. Inevitable comparisons might be made with the likes of Book of Love for the crisp melodic sound and expert use of space on all levels of the songwriting and production like a creative embodiment of the concept of the title as an architectural term and Marxist political concept in which the ideas at the foundation of the work manifest in its essence and expression. It works as an incredibly well-executed synth pop dance record but not one devoid of rich subject content as a commentary on the broad and ambient corrosive quality of the economic and political system dominating the world today. But in the record there are stories about looking to a future in which we all survive this time rather than be purely mired and limited by it. Fans of Tangerine Dream, Human League and Talk Talk will appreciate the attention to sonic detail and songcraft. The highly stylized album cover is reminiscent of a not-so-obvious influence on the band, Roxy Music and its own enigmatic yet striking record artwork. The album’s variety in mood and pacing also lends it a cinematic quality with linked narratives that are as personal as they are political. Superstructure will be available on vinyl, digital download and streaming via á La Carte Records on September 11, 2026.

Listen to our interview with Observation Room on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below. Observation Room is going on a short tour with dates listed below as well.

Observation Room on Bandcamp

Observation Room on Instagram

Observation Room on á La Carte Records

Observation Room Tour Dates

Aug 14 at The Living Gallery in Brooklyn, NY

Aug 19 at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland, CA

Aug 21 at The Sïx in Portland, OR

Aug 22 at Le Voyeur in Olympia, WA

Queen City Sounds Podcast S6E10: Leila Abdul-Rauf

Leila Abdul-Rauf, photo by Gregory C. Hagan

Leila Abdul-Rauf is a multi-instrumentalist based in Oakland, California who re;eased her latest, and sixth, studio album Andros Insidium on April 17, 2026 via 20 Buck Spin. The record, with its cinematically resonant titles, is like a mythical and ritualistic exploration of themes of resistance to oppression, external and internalized, and the liberation of self from the patriarchy in culture, psychology and our conceptualization of the universe and an embrace of concepts of the divine feminine. Its songs cast in ambient, industrial, dark folk and post-punk like something that sounds like it has drawn some influence and inspiration from late 80s Dead Can Dance, Jarboe and Diamanda Galas. It’s also reminiscent of older musical forms like medieval choral music, Middle Eastern classical, devotional and folk. The effect is an album that feels like its outside normal time and space but anchored in sounds and rhythms that feel familiar yet mind-expanding. With imaginative poetry Abdul-Rauf comments on the cycle of societal pressure to strive for unrealistic expectations as goals defined by one’s utility to the machinery of capitalism. The songs feel like a story arc like something out of the initiation rites of ancient mystery cults but with the end including the cultivation of a consciousness of the world as it is and how it could be. It all sounds like it has to be a recording project only but Abdul-Rauf has performed the music live.

Listen to our interview with Leila Abdul-Rauf on Bandcamp and follow her at the links below. Andros Insidium is currently available on vinyl, CD, digital download and for streaming via 20 Buck Spin.

Leila Abdul-Rauf on Bandcamp

Leila Abdul-Rauf Linkr.ee

Leila Abdul-Rauf on Instagram

Bug Facer’s Apocalyptic Doom Thrash Song “Nuclear Bounty Hunter” is the Sound of Fascism, Oligarchy and Late Capitalism Collapsing In On Itself

Bug Facer’s “Nuclear Bounty Hunter” sounds like a doomy thrash theme song about a post-apocalyptic future. Its distorted riff stretches, lingers and crushes and the nearly shouted lyrics conjure the image of a perhaps none-too-distant time when nihilistic savagery reigns supreme but really it’s a reflection of the cruelty and brutality of our current world when niceties like the rule of law seem to have been all but abandoned in too many places where once at least the veneer of a world where an international order reigned in the worst excesses of power and rapacious national and personal agendas. This song feels like its acknowledging this current reality while also expressing its jagged ugliness. Yet there’s a harsh beauty to the song that ends in ethereal melody like a peek into something better past the horizon of the caustic darkness of the world under fascism, oligarchy and late capitalism. Listen to “Nuclear Bounty Hunter” on Spotify and follow Bug Facer at the links provided.

Bug Facer on Facebook

Bug Facer on Instagram

Mark Weatherley’s Ever-Evolving Downtempo Single “Petrichor” is Like the Soothing Soundtrack to Transitional Seasons

Mark Weatherley, photo courtesy the artist

The beats in Mark Weatherley’s “Petrichor” shouldn’t work. The breakbeats start and stop, seem to change directions, pick back up and yet it all fits together like a moving puzzle with the harmonic and melodic motes of sound arranged so that the song constantly has an evolving and effervescent atmosphere. Like the direct experience of late spring weather when the environment hasn’t seemingly decided how it’s going to be except moment to moment. Weatherley captures as best a person can these micro-changes in mood and texture and fit that into the format of a song. There are no immediate touchstones but in the multitude of moments employed in the song one can hear peeps of late-90s Moby, sampled organic percussion and layers of luminous haunted sounds that drift through but soothe rather than startle. And then the song is over. What sets it apart from a good deal of electronic music is that the repetition never fully feels like it because Weatherley’s arrangements are so detailed and ever-shifting without feeling jarring and at worst merely disorienting in a way that feels comfortable. Listen to “Petrichor” on Spotify and follow Mark Weatherley at the links provided.

Mark Weatherley on Facebook

Mark Weatherley on Instagram

Josaleigh Pollett’s Lushly Meditative “Cherry” is an Existential Dream Folk Song About Re-Examining Identity

Josaleigh Pollett sounds like she’s drifting through an environment as much as a song on “Cherry.” The languid pace and intimate yet deep mood is reminiscent of Strange Mercy-period St. Vincent. The gentle strums of guitar like rhythm and texture with layers of synth giving atmospheric definition to the song as Pollett’s voice seems to tell a story of people who have a lot of history together and thus have been through many of the same struggles and travails of shared experiences but things have gotten to the point where in spite of these long-held bonds some things feel like they’re no longer the ties that bind and coming to terms with being weary of old ways and habits of living and of mind. Yet not throwing away the memories and their significance for the kind of person you are now even if you’ve outgrown what felt so critically important at an earlier part of your life. The song sticks with you and like the lingering thoughts from deep within that never fully leave your psyche it leaves a strong impression well after the song is over. Listen to “Cherry” on Bandcamp and follow Josaleigh Pollett at the links below. The new album If I Let It Quiet is out now on vinyl, digital download and streaming. Pollett is alo currently on tour in the American west through August 14th with a performance at D3 arts in Denver, Colorado.

Josaleigh Pollett LinkTr.ee

Josaleigh Pollett on Facebook

Josaleigh Pollett on TikTok

Josaleigh Pollett on Instagram

SPYCAMERA’s “Hey You” Fuses Synth Pop and Dissonant Art Pop to Express a Sense of Connection in a Disconnected World

“Hey You” sounds like SPYCAMERA took strands of Tubeway Army, early Radiohead and in general the song and its music video are reminiscent of that corner of the 90s when record labels were still trying to find the next big thing and would greenlight albums from bands that seemed or actually were outside the mainstream yet had a sense of melody and songwriting. Except that SPYCAMERA looks like a rivethead and an enigmatic garage rocker formed a band and held on to a sense of the mysterious and creatively eccentric. In the music video we’re informed this is “Room 5” of a forthcoming album called 12 Rooms suggesting each song is its own world and flavor but so far the band is revealing it has a knack for an unusual hook like Everclear influenced more by New Wave and alternative rock than punk. The words in the song seem to be sentiments of holding on to the only things and people that make disordered world make sense even when sometimes it hurts. Watch the video for “Hey You” on YouTube and follow SPYCAMERA at the links provided.

SPYCAMERA on Instagram

Annie Elise’s Shoegaze-y Synth Pop Single “everything” is Like Being Caught Up in the Euphoria of a New Love

Annie Elise’s production choices on “everything” from the vocal processing and the layering of bright and hazy synth sounds in a drifting rhythm serve a sense of feeling being caught up in the emotional moment. The way the vocals switch from a warping and fluidly pitch shifting in the beginning so there is a touch of hyperpop sensibility without being of that aesthetic. The song expresses a charming sense of infatuation and melancholy mood at the feeling that you might be too much, too caught up in your own psychology to be adequate for the moment with a new relationship but feeling so strongly about it all that you’re not willing to give up even if things feel a little overwhelming because it clearly matters so much as a larger part of one’s life. The song bursts with emotions and then settles into a tranquil fadeout without wasting a moment of time and conveying so much in a mere two minutes twenty seconds. Fans of Jockstrap and Caroline Polacek will appreciate what this songwriter has been up to lately. Listen to “everything” on Spotify and follow Annie Elise at the links below.

annieelisemusic.com

Annie Elise on Twitter

Annie Elise on Facebook

Annie Elise on TikTok

Annie Elise on Instagram

Annie Elise on YouTube

applied communications’ Retro Synth Pop Single “return of jafar” is a Song Suggesting We Re-Examine What We Think Are Our Dreams

applied communications, photo courtesy the artist

There is something surreal and relatable about applied communications in the video for “return of jafar.” It looks like something made on an iMac in the 90s, appropriate given the cinematic reference of the title with its own resonances for the themes of the song as well. Throughout the song Max Wood relates what sounds like the inversion of the usual nostalgia of youth like someone who is deeply skeptical of the concept in the face of lived reality. But he whimsically delivers lines that are dryly amusing yet insightful like a music resonant with the sensibilities of a Daniel Clowes comic. The line “I have this vision I can’t see/It’s always driving me/To something I don’t believe” and the bit about the “jazz interlude” reveals a level of sardonic wit that isn’t heard in much music. With the song ending with the repeated line “return of jafar” fits the rhythm of what we’ve been hearing but also a sly nod to hey this thing you think you’ve always wanted out of life, is it really what it’s cracked up to be or do you maybe take what you think your aspirations might be a little less to heart and be willing to do things differently. Nothing about the song is too on the nose and that’s part of the appeal behind it sounding like a bizarre alternative soundtrack to a lost computer and New Age self-help informercial. Watch the video for “return of jafar” on YouTube and follow applied communications at the links below. The new album applied communications bites the big one released September 25, 2026 via Rare Noodles in collaboration with Bar/None Records.

applied communications on Instagram

Josaleigh Pollett Guides Us Out of the Hypnosis of Insomniac Thoughts With Electro Pop Single “Bed of Quiet”

“Bed of Quiet” finds Josaleigh Pollett initially sketching thoughts against a backdrop of impressionistic sound but goes into gear exploring themes of insomniac thinking. The steady beat and Pollett’s voice anchor the song while swells of tone and minimal guitar comes in to accent lines until the song expands into full-flung expression before seemingly fading into a harmonic outro. The song captures well the sort of thoughts one can go over endlessly when you can’t sleep if you’re prone to overthinking mistakes and better options because you could have made better decisions for your life and how it can be hard to accept your perceived mistakes rather than accept that maybe your conscious mind can’t know or think of everything or account for every possibility in the moment. Life can present itself to you as a high stakes game but most things in life aren’t necessarily imbued with a sense of catastrophe yet we can convince ourselves that everything is a life or death decision without considering the pressure we put on ourselves and others in the process. The song takes on a more playful tone than that and feels more like an odd yet soothing dream given its themes of nighttime anxiety and in that way serves as a passage out of that headspace. Listen to “Bed of Quiet” on Bandcamp and follow Josaleigh Pollett at the links below. Pollett is touring this summer in the wake of the release of the new album If I Let It Quiet out July 24, 2026 on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

Josaleigh Pollett Lintr.ee

Josaleigh Pollett on Facebook

Josaleigh Pollett on TikTok

Josaleigh Pollett on Instagram