As “magenta” unfolds in its flow of soft and bright tones, the song by Frij sounds like the manifestation of a time lapse view of a cloudy nebula viewed through a powerful telescope. Tones wink and resonate, linger, an arpeggio of tones like small star systems floating in view overlapping hazy fields of light as per the song title, shining through the melodic drones that flow through the song in its short course. There is a playfulness and sense of wonder conveyed in the song from the beginning to when the song slowly fades to a minimal sequence. It’s like listening to what it’s like for the mind to get stimulated and fascinated by the sights of deep space and its eternal dynamism and inspired to capture that energy for a time beyond that moment. Fans of the Hearts of Space program will appreciate Frij’s elegance of composition. Listen to “magenta” on Spotify and folow Frij at the links below.
Mary Middlefield articulates in “Sexless” a certain kind of desperation and frustration that many people can relate to at some point in their lives or for entirely too long a stretches of time. The song’s orchestral sounds and upbeat energy are a wonderful contrast to lyrics that in another context might be considered pathetic. But in Middlefield’s words we hear about how she’s not without options just none that seem appealing and she expresses how she finds even self-pleasure unsatisfying. She sings about how when she was a little younger she had that network of friends that meant she could find someone to pair off with for fun and companionship but that maybe her temperament as an artist or as a human being with regular human needs that some might see as a burden has ensured her lonely status. And she wonders how this all happened leaving her thinking, “I’m sexless and I’m not loved.” Maybe a lot of people can’t relate to it and when you watch the music video directed by Imogen Harrison you may think oh right, how is Mary Middlefield suffering from this state of things. But it happens when you have standards and you’re not someone who can feel attracted that way to just anyone for whom you feel like you’re settling. Stranger things have happened and one can only hope this plight in the life of Middleton has resolved itself or will soon and for you as well if you also find yourself “Sexless.” Watch the music video on YouTube and follow indie singer-songwriter Mary Middlefield at the links below.
“Illusion II” is the second single from L Twills’ forthcoming new multimedia album [After her Destruction] (due out February 16, 2024). The album is a cybernetic sci-fi opera in which its protagonist Girl journeys through her own mind to find out whether it has mutated. In ten video chapters of the album Girl meets various characters and creatures and undergoes epiphanies that transform her and opens her to new vistas of creative imagination. “Illusion II” brings us in with a rippling low end sound like a deeply processed piano abstracted and echoing, metallic sounds counting time and creating an evolving texture while L Twills sings soulfully about a figure that seems to hold a strange and irresistible allure while she is under the spell of a mysterious affliction. Even though it’s obvious you’re hearing a portion of a larger narrative the song stands on its own. It sounds like an unlikely pairing of Fiona Apple, Malaria! and Chris & Cosey and hints at a fascinating album ahead. Listen to “Illusion II” on Soundcloud and follow L Twills at the links provided.
Paula Romy’s video treatment for Kaeto’s sultry and urgent synth pop track “No Body” gives it a feel like if Flashdance took place in some grimy, underground Berlin industrial music venue that took over an abandoned parking structure. That this place likely doesn’t exist in reality gives the video a sense of being futuristic with the aesthetics of cyberpunk without the glitz. The fantastically driving and pulsing yet fluid bass line alongside Kaeto’s introspective and exploratory vocals in a song that seems to have something to say about the nature of personal liberation creates an immediately compelling dynamic and finely paired with the choreographed moves and dancers frolicking amid hazy lights and the shadows of a place that in addition to the aforementioned is reminiscent of a techno club that could be in Germany, London or Detroit. It lends a widely accessible spirit to the song. Fans of The Knife will appreciate the sense of mystery Kaeto establishes with the moods and rhythms that interlock and release throughout. Watch the video for “No Body” on YouTube and follow Kaeto on Instagram.
For his single “Life” Dax brings together a simple guitar melody played over a spare beat and lets his typically fluid and commanding vocal cadence carry the momentum of the song. For this song there’s an accompanying video, Dax’s signature and consistently creative and compelling presentation of his songs, that shows ups, downs and everyday struggles of life. We see Dax serving as a janitor in a music venue symbolizing paying his dues and how it must have felt after he’d established himself somewhat as an artist. We see Dax sitting in a classroom being open to learning and setting aside ego to learn from sources beyond his immediate faculties. In the song he refers to his faith and his battles with that and keeping it even though he finds solace and a source of strength and perseverance in it. But even if you don’t share his particular belief system the song has plenty to say about the impermanence of life and how it’s best to make the most of the time we have in this life because it’s all we know. Even if you believe in an afterlife the only life you know is this one and it’s too easy to waste that time and not make the best of our lives even with the challenges that may be in front of us. It’s a compassionate song about living life and the spirit of vulnerability that Dax expresses throughout is a welcome change from the hollow bravado positivity and toughness of entirely too much popular music in all styles. Watch the video for “Life” on YouTube and follow Dax at the links below.
Danny Stewart runs Pete’s 9mm Rec hords and in 2022 and 2023 he has issued the first two volumes of Colorado Springs Underground 1983-1994. Stewart grew up Southern California and came of age around the time of the heyday of Los Angeles punk and experienced some of those shows and that culture firsthand in the early 80s. By his late teens, Stewart’s mom moved to Colorado Springs in time for his senior year of high school but there he found his people albeit in smaller numbers and became involved in the underground music world in the city and at times with voyages north into Denver and beyond. While still in Los Angeles, Stewart was involved in a garage rock/punk band in that Sonics vein called Incest Cattle. In the Springs he played in various bands including Night Gallery and Idle Hands before relocating back to California for several years and returning to Colorado in recent years. He currently plays in Glass Parade and cover band #1 Crush.
At some point Stewart realized he had access to several recordings from bands in the period covered by the compilations and the ability to master them for vinyl and set about assembling a collection of songs documenting a time in a place that would largely be otherwise forgotten. The songs on both volumes of the compilation thus far reveal that the Springs didn’t just have quality punk bands but a broad spectrum of rock and experimental music with a metal song or two included. Which is a feature of the eclectic and rich music scene in the city to this day. The compilations are available as digital downloads on Bandcamp, linked below, where you can also purchase the limited vinyl editions as well.
Listen to our interview with Danny Stewart on Bandcamp in which we talk about his youth in punk and in Colorado Springs as well as how the compilations came together.
The drift of melody in Salvana’s “Cielos Rojos” (“Red Skies” in English) is anchored to a weighty sound when the song shifts gentle from ethereal to a gentle boil. The percussion provides a physicality that frames the song with a meditative rhythm as its guitars billow forth and the vocals occupy the center of the song like a spirit of warmth commenting on nostalgic memories. The resonant guitar tones that linger have a crystalline quality like something you’d hear in a Slowdive song from the Pygmalion period. While the atmospheres here are full there is a spaciousness that draws you into its immersive, dreamlike moods. The pairing of heaviness and lightness also brings to mind the more gentle end of Slow Crush and SOM and a more dream pop cousin to Holy Fawn. Comparison’s aside “Cielos Rojos” evokes a time of life one can look back on fondly to warm the colder months. Listen to the song on Spotify and follow Barcelona, Spain’s Salvana at the links below.
“Chrysanthemum Rock” engages in a bit of subversive songwriting in opening with a burst of noise before settling into a measured pace with layers of melody and texture on guitar. The song rushes and whirls while glittering with guitar jangle in a wall of noise mode while Matthew Engwall sings about personal decline and how that often comes about from burnout and the depression at so many factors living in a world mostly dominated by the extractive economic system that is capitalism that demands more and more of everyone at all levels while delivering little to anyone but the system itself and its biggest “winners.” Instead you have to do more faster and more efficiently but that isn’t what humans are built for and Engwall’s song takes aim at that culture of striving and grinding yourself to death and making yourself useful to a system on its own terms and not meeting you on yours. The chorus of “Teach yourself to ease the pain of learning how to live again/Prepare your body for the shock of learning to sing chrysanthemum rock”is so poignant if you know that chrysanthemums in many European cultures symbolizes death and the flower is used for funerals and left at graves and in China, Japan and Korea the flower symbolizes adversity and grief. In his own poetic and clever away Engwall has given us a song about how we’re all encouraged to work ourselves to death even if we no longer possess the capacity to operate at 100% at some job all the time. No one has that capability without it costing them long term. But at this point hopefully all of us realize this at some level but in America people largely still suffer from capitalism’s equivalent of the Stockholm Syndrome yet it seems more and more people are becoming aware of the deleterious effects of overwork and having little to show for it. This song is a lively expression of solidarity for that awakening. Listen to “Chrysanthemum Rock” on Spotify and follow llawgne at the links provided.
Pulses of hazy, gritty tone and click-y percussion guide us into DSTRY’s “Cassini Shields.” The song (referencing the space probe that studied Saturn and its system including its rings and satellites) has an animated music video that features a colorful outer space environment that shifts into scenes of the heroine of the song falling through space and roaming around an evolving set of scenery from buildings to ocean and more fantastical realms of existence. All the while almost pointillist rhythms and the sample of a tambourine keeps beat while various strands of bright electronic melody trace the paces of the song and warp off into the distance and vocals that sing and utter phrases that have emotional resonance even as their actual meaning is not discernible. None of it matters on this cosmic journey of music and visuals to the center of the galaxy where by the end of the video you see black holes forming and then transforming into planets as a figure in a space suit like those worn by American astronauts drifts forward. Is there a genre for this music outside of maybe calling it an IDM or more loosely and vaguely an “experimental electronic” song? The arbitrary designations and reference points don’t matter and the song draws you in with its warmly otherworldly energy and constantly evolving melodies and beats and within it an appealing sense of wonder and a spirit of adventure to match that seen in its visual representation. Watch the video for “Cassini Shields” on YouTube and follow DSTRY at the links below.
The Small Square is the duo of mult-instrumentalist and vocalist Paul Chastain and drummer, percussionist and vocalist John Louis Richardson. The project released its self-titled album in 2015 and in 2023 following the reissue of that record, the new album Ours & Others dropped on October 31 via Farm to Label Records on digital download, on streaming platforms and CD. Fans of classic power pop like Big Star and the psychedelically tinged pop rock of The Paisley Underground will find much to like about what Chastain and Richardson have been crafting together. Chastain, some may know as the songwriter and co-founder of power pop band Velvet Crush that enjoyed critical and commercial success in the indie rock circles of the early-to-mid-90s before the group split for a couple of years in 1996 and reforming in 1998. Velvet Crush worked with in studio and live with Matthew Sweet, Mitch Easter, Roger McGuinn, Susanna Hoffs and Tommy Keene and in recent years has been one of the undersung acts of the alternative rock era. Its 1993 album Teenage Symphonies was reissued on vinyl in 2023 to mark its 30 year anniversary.
Chastain and Richardson recorded the new album at the latter’s Drum Farm Studio where the unique and differing musical roots and ideas have been fruitful in bringing a freshness and energy to the creative process. With contributions from Adam Ollendorf (lap steel, 12 string guitar), R. Walt Vincent (bass, keyboards, engineering) and the band Shoes, Ours & Others is a sonically rich and at times orchestral collection of vibrant songs and while most fit in that classic power pop sensibility that has rendered the aforementioned so re-listenable over the years there are songs (for example “Insta,” “Days In” and “Baby Face”) that are more experimental in their incorporation of synths and unconventional song structures. It all gives the album a depth of songwriting and emotional expression not common enough in modern pop music.
Listen to our interview with Paul Chastain on Bandcamp and follow The Small Square at the links below.
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