New Music – Page 8 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Kat KIKTA’s Sound Art Piece “Your Voice In My Ear” Challenges Conventional Notions of Desire and Romance

It’s best to set aside musical expectations when hearing/watching the video for Kat KIKTA’s sound piece “Your Voice In My Ear.” The background harmonics establish a dreamlike mood and the dialogue between a human woman and a processed voice whose source is implied to be a sentient machine intelligence in which there is a sensuousness and even sexual aspect to the way the voices interact. The touch of delicate rhythm along with the drones is very much more an ambient companion to the mood in the sonic foreground. It may be conceptually something like science fiction without the special effects but it speaks to the very human phenomenon of people falling for each other purely through vocal contact or even indirectly through letters or online because they feel a connection for the other person and a sense of ease, comfort and emotional attraction that can bond people together in a way that transcends more outward and superficial factors. It captures the essence of a modern experience of desire in a way few “songs” ever do. Watch the video for “Your Voice In My Ear” on YouTube and follow Kat KIKTA at the links below.

kiktamusic.com

Kat Kikta on Twitter

Kat Kikta on Facebook

Kat Kikta on TikTok

Kat Kikta on Instagram

Kat Kikta on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E33: Laveda

Laveda formed as a dream pop band in Albany, New York in 2018. The core duo of Ali Genevich and Jake Brooks released two outstanding albums of deeply introspective, atmospheric and tender records with 2020’s What Happens After and 2023’s A Place You Grew Up In. As though the title of the latter was a prompt to evolve creatively Laveda relocated to New York City the same year and whether it was already happening then or more came together once in the big city the band evolved in a decidedly different sonic direction without losing its instincts for crafting memorable melodies and vivid, emotionally vibrant and immediately relatable lyrics. 2025’s Love, Darla marked a change in style for a more gritty, more angular, almost No Wave sound as though Genevich and Brooks had delved further into the Sonic Youth catalog and found their way to the likes of Live Skull and, perhaps unrelated, The Cleaners From Venus. The new album sounds like the work of people who made the move to pursue their art further and didn’t come out the other side jaded. Instead transformed and challenged to do something to reflect their own development as people and artists.

Listen to our interview with Genevich and Brooks on Bandcamp and follow Laveda at the links below.

Laveda on Instagram

Laveda on Facebook

Laveda LinkTr.ee

Cry9c’s Darkly Moody and Enigmatic “Play Pretend” is Reminiscent of Modern Avant-Post-Punk and Early Ambient Industrial

“Play Pretend” has a kind of icy moodiness, enigmatic energy and imaginative production that makes you wonder if Cry9c is tapping into the same frequency of creativity as more left field post-punk bands like The Serfs, Kaput and Luna Honey. The interweaving layers of rhythm, minimal guitar riffs, drones, distorted harmonics and lightly echoing vocals are reminiscent of an update of late 70s and early 80s proto-industrial pop like the members of the band listened to a lot of Cabaret Voltaire, Indian Jewelry and Drab Majesty at the same time. But the song has its own wonderfully dark resonance like the more accessible band at the noise show or the startling refreshingly different arty Witch House band at a more generally conventional post-punk show. The energy of the music is reminiscent of late 2000s American DIY scene with an elusive air of mystique and that’s a rarefied quality these days. Listen to “Play Pretend” on YouTube and follow Cry9C at the links below. The self-titled EP released October 16, 2025 and is available for digital download, streaming and on cassette.

Cry9c on Bandcamp

The Title Track to Lizzy Rose’s New Album Faultlines is an Indiepop Map to Emotional Health in a Time of Catastrophe

The simple piano figure and soft programmed drums that open the title track to Lizzy Rose’s new album Faultlines (released October 24, 2025) eases us into a tender song about life starting to come apart. The urgent synth arpeggios later in the song perfectly embody the moment when you can no longer ignore the fissures in one’s relationship and one’s life and are forced to deal with them before you feel you’re ready. But in the song, Rose’s vocals are steady, strong and gentle and while conveying the truths of coming to terms with aspects of one’s life that can be unpleasant also show how we can get through this time with grace through emotional honesty, patience and a willingness to take on life’s challenges as they are without having to over-dramatize or catastrophizing the situation at hand. It is honestly a perfect song for reminding oneself that this approach can be taken to just about everything even when it all feels like nothing can make it better. The new album was written and recorded six years ago by the singer/songwriter who is finally bringing the music to light and as circumstances now make clear it’s emerging at just the right time at a time of crisis for many. Listen to “Faultlines” on Soundcloud and follow Lizzy Rose at the links below.

Lizzy Rose on YouTube

Lizzy Rose on Instagram

Lizzy Rose on Bandcamp

The Noisy’s “Ballerino” is a Heartwarming and Affectionate Indie Rock Tribute to a New Romance

Philadelphia’s The Noisy released its new album The Secret Ingredient Is Even More Meat on October 24, 2025 via Audio Antihero. Lead singles “Ballerino” demonstrates an aspect of the band’s songwriting that perfectly displays its knack for a solid pop hook in the vein of 90s indie rock bands like Velocity Girl and The Breeders. The perfect blend of guitar grit and irresistibly melodic vocals and a buoyant spirit courses throughout the song along with a touch of wistful melancholia. But really it seems like a sweet and affectionate song recounting heartwarming memories of a romantic relationship. The music video has a playful, fantastical whimsical quality that thoroughly embodies the sentiments and energy of the song. Watch that video on YouTube and follow The Noisy at the links below.

Sara Mae on Substack

The Noisy on Instagram

The Noisy on Bandcamp

Reykjavik Kids’ “Hyper Etrian (Gleaming Universe)” is a Buoyant and Immersive Synth Pop Song About Unplugging From the Attention Economy

Reykjavik Kids, photo courtesy the artists

Reykjavik Kids offer their usual richly rendered synth melodies on “Hyper Etrian (Gleaming Universe).” With a mix by James Aparicio, the song seems to make a commentary on the mediated nature of how we often interact with the larger world these days and how there is an impulse to break with that and the pressures of presenting an image to be judged and consumed. Maybe it’s not a commentary on how always performing or the social inducement to do so is ultimately unsustainable and corrosive to the human psyche and to our relationships with each other. Whatever the origins of the song’s lyrics the layers of saturated synth tone and a retro synth pop aesthetic and modern, vivid production with strong low end is immersive and carries you along with in its buoyant energy and vibrant tones from beginning to end. Fans of MGMT and M83 will appreciate the sonic and emotional places the song goes. Listen to “Hyper Etrian (Gleaming Universe)” on Spotify and follow Reykjavik Kids from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and not in fact Iceland, at the links below.

Reykjavik Kids on Facebook

Reykjavik Kids on Instagram

Reykjavik Kids on Bandcamp

Silver Liz’s Electro-Shoegaze Single “Dream More Vivid” is a Sustained State of Dreamlike Bliss

Duo Silver Liz sounds like its spent some time deep into the more obscure regions of 1980s synth pop and the more interesting end of the soundscapes of OMD and Gary Numan. The single “Dream More Vivid” has the saturated synth sound adjacent to what we’ve heard from Black Moth Super Rainbow. But the percussion and its finely accented, almost break beat style, rhythms lend the song an electronic music quality like a piece of music out of the part of the 90s that hasn’t often been adopted by modern artists. Think the more electro end of Lush and Medicine and fully Curve. Maybe Sextile most prominently has been taking inspiration from 90s Big Beat. But the vocals and the arrangements of melody place the song solidly in a modern aesthetic of genre bending pop that fuses styles in service to creating a song that sounds like it is pulling from past decades to craft a mood that feels vibrant and transporting. When the song is over you want to be in the energy it has sustained all along because it’s like getting to exist in a beautiful dream for a full four minutes thirty nine of pure bliss and worthy of its title. Listen to “Dream More Vivid” on YouTube and follow Silver Liz at the links below. The band’s new album III releases January 30, 2026 on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

silverlizmusic.com

Silver Liz on Facebook

Silver Liz on Instagram

Silver Liz on Bandcamp

Macatier’s Hypnotic and Melancholic Post-Punk Song “Fade Away” Captures What It Feels Like to Struggle to Let Go Long After You Should

“Fade Away” by Macatier will be reminiscent of The Cure in the vocals and the bass line in the best way. That being a pitch perfect evocation of melancholia and a strong and steady low end pulse to push the song. The song is about a relationship that is probably over but not yet “officially,” just on its last legs with neither party wanting to pull the plug but let things linger until it dissolves of its own inertia after each person is harmed a little in the holding on too long. What makes the song is some use of reverse delay in the guitar so that the song’s melodic structure curves back on itself the way one’s feelings often can which can be a pleasant thing or in the case of this song, reinforcing all the things that keep you trapped rather than moving onward even if it hurts to do so. And yet the effect really gets stuck in your head as does the song’s irresistible melody. Listen to “Fade Away” on Spotify and follow Macatier at the links below.

Macatier on Facebook

Macatier on Instagram

“I Used To See Her On The Way Home from School and She Lit Up The Sky with her Beauty” by Dylan Henner is a Transcendent Expression of an Adolescent Experience of Infatuation

Dylan Henner perfectly mixes sonic elements to capture a different kind of adolescent headspace than in a typical rock or pop song on the blissful “I Used To See Her On The Way Home from School and She Lit Up The Sky with her Beauty.” The harp arpeggios and lightly distorted tones going from one end of the stereo field of sound to the other and the wordless vocals feel like that elevated state of emotional rapture that one associates with the kind of infatuation that you only really feel quite that same way when you’re young while your heart and mind are not as covered over by life experience and the corrosive effects of regular adult life often have on the human spirit. That purity of feeling Henner has conjured up and plugged directly into the composition of the song and for those five minutes and fifteen seconds you can feel a cleansing of the psyche the songwriter must have drawn from in putting together its angelic strands. Fans of Popol Vuh’s music for Aguirre, the Wrath of God in its unalloyed sense of wonder will find resonance with the piece as well. Listen to “I Used To See Her On The Way Home from School and She Lit Up The Sky with her Beauty” on YouTube and follow Dylan Henner at the links provided.

Dylan Henner on Facebook

Dylan Henner on Instagram

CATBEAR Tells Us How Self-Acceptance is Attainable on Breezy Synth Pop Single “It’s Okay”

“It’s Okay” finds synth pop duo CATBEAR making a strong yet sensitive statement about self-acceptance. The pace of the song and its typically tonally rich synths are reminiscent of early Ladytron and Pleasure Victim-period Berlin. The touch of guitar shimmer washes bring a gentle texture the song that enhances the mood. When the rhythm drops out we’re left with the warmly comforting vocals and ethereal streaming it’s like an extended moment to rest and relax, to let one’s guard down as the song suggests and to step into a complete sense of self rather than one more edited for arbitrary standards of acceptance on any level. Listen to “It’s Okay” on Spotify and follow CATBEAR at the links below. The group’s new album For Now, For Ever is available now on limited edition vinyl, digital download and streaming.