Song Post – Page 170 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Hypnotic and Meditative, “Asura” by Acado and Elias Doré is a Mind-Altering Electronic Dance Track

AcadoEliasDore_cover_sm_crop — Acado, Elias Doré “Asura” cover (cropped)

“Asura,” a collaboration between German electronic music duo Acado and producer Elias Doré takes us on a journey to sacred spaces as suggested by the title. Asuras are divine beings from Hindu mythology that often do battle with the deities. It’s also a word that means “powerful” or “mighty.” It’s the latter that might be used to describe the slow but steady forward momentum of the track’s low end. Subtle but inescapable and giving context to the organic feel of the complex and finely syncopated percussion and a foundation on which the the tracks numerous sound experiments and melodies can come to the fore and shine like characters in some tonal version of shadow puppet theater moving and expressing themselves with grace and nuance. Appropriately the closing end of the track begins with a spoken mantra that ushers in a period in the song featuring what sounds like processed dulcimer and an electronic version of a highly processed steel drum. Hypnotic and meditative, “Asura” is a mind-altering electronic dance track. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Acado at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/acado_musik
open.spotify.com/artist/1z6fgjuCMlbaHSM0xqApwM
youtube.com/acado_musik
facebook.com/acado.musik
instagram.com/acado_musik

DOXA’s New Single “Hypnogogia” Taps Into the Unconscious and the Intellect to Craft its Deeply Emotional Experience

DOXA1_sm — DOXA, photo courtesy the artist

DOXA’s new track from it’s newly released EP2 “Hypnogogia” is appropriately titled because its mixture of melody, synth drones and organic textures as rhythms flows in a way that feels like coming in and out of conscious and the state between. Calling it “dreamlike” wouldn’t be quite accurate as it has a quite vivid character that doesn’t feel like you’re lost in a haze so much as hyper aware of your surroundings yet able to relax and let the mind function at a higher level. The video for the song and its time lapse visual pace fits perfectly with the electronic percussion and its accents, cutting out the inessential stuff like speed reading reality. Fans of Boards of Canada and Seefeel will find much to like with DOXA’s work as it shares that spirit of tapping into and engaging both the unconscious and the intellect to stir emotional responses. Watch the video for “Hypnogogia” on YouTube and follow DOXA on the project’s Facebook page linked below.

facebook.com/pg/DoxaNewZealand

“Lifetimes” is a Synthwave Anthem for an Anti-Dystopian Future

Zaxcess2_sm — Zaxcess, photo courtesy the artist

A lot of synthwave sounds like it’s reflecting the dystopian end of 80s science fiction and crime drama, as it should, as the 80s had more post-apocalyptic cinema per capita than any other decade unless you count the whole zombie thing. But “Lifetimes” by Zaxcess, the fourth track from its new The Takeover EP, sounds like what a sequel to Blade Runner soundtrack might be like if things worked out with Deckard and Rachael. Roy Batty’s expiration date turned out to be a false alarm and they all hung out in a tropical paradise with Gaff who decorated the landscape with even more elaborate and fanciful origami creatures. The melodies are bright and effervescent, the dynamic expansive and filled with a sense of joy and wonder. And hope, which is the antithesis of the cynicism that informs the dystopian aesthetic. Now that we live in fairly dystopian times, Zaxcess is offering the sound for a divergent vision of our future. Listen to “Lifetimes” on Soundcloud and follow Zaxcess at the links below.

zaxcess.com
twitter.com/zaxcess
instagram.com/zaxcess

Patrick Goddard Honors the Spirit of Old Friendships and Creative Kinships on “Hollow Home”

PatrickGoddard2_crop — Patrick Goddard, photo courtesy the artist

With a little dub echo and dancehall flavor, Patrick Goddard’s “Hollow Home” is the kind of post-punk that draws on that era of punk when all the London punks were deep into Jamaican music of the 1970s and the musical ideas, sounds and rhythms mingled more than is often acknowledged much these days as an influence outside of ska punk. Goddard uses the melancholic tone or undertone of much of post-punk and reggae to write a song looking back on the past and lost friends whose ideals fueled their lives and bonded them and how when those friends pass on it leaves an emptiness in your concept of place and what you think of as home whether that’s a physical place, a community and or a web of social relationships like a creative scene in a city, across continents and around the world. Goddard’s use of horns to sound out a mournful melody, sure, places the music in the context of a style of music but also where that music fit in with the life he’s lead and the friend’s he’s had whose now absence haunts him. Listen to “Hollow Home” on Soundcloud and follow Patrick Goddard at the links below. They’re you can find out where to listen to more of the album Apparition (Lung Records) from which this single hails.

lungrecords.com/patrick-goddard
soundcloud.com/patrickgoddard
open.spotify.com/artist/0Z1GQGOKh1YiSGaPLhe0Ol
patrickgoddard.bandcamp.com/album/apparition

“1996, For Luke Graham, Ryan Hibler and Aaron Mickelson” is Drew Danburry’s Passionate Tribute to the Continuing Relevance of DIY Culture and Music

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Drew Danburry, April 3, 2007, house show in Boulder, CO. Photo by Tom Murphy

Drew Danburry’s new single “1996, For Luke Graham, Ryan Hibler and Aaron Mickelson” from his new album Pallid Boy & Spindling Girl encapsulates what’s always been appealing about the songwriter. There’s a raw earnestness to Danburry’s vocal delivery that bursts forth occasionally in moments of peak emotional intensity in the song. But he is so often able to channel that passion into offbeat vocal melodies. On this single he sings about the importance of holding on to your dreams and ideals especially at a time when those sorts of DIY touring and releasing music seem to be increasingly an artifact of the past when in fact it is essential now when corporate culture is trying to streamline every aspect of our lives into monetizable units of time, of interest even of attention and to use our very humanity as a marketing too and as product. This is indie pop in the classic mold—rough around the edges but all the more appealing because of that. It’s not challenging to the very concept of a good pop song itself but rather to the purely market driven rather than imagination and artistically driven concept of what music can be and the inherent power it has if it isn’t completely compromised and its promise of personal liberation if we can embrace a similar ethos. It doesn’t sound like punk but fifteen years into living the DIY life, Danburry sure seems like a rebel and this song reflects that and his frustration with a society that seems to be working hard to produce a bland conformity.

drewdanburry.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/album/6SDwpLnbVu1gAMO2Cx4aY8
https://www.youtube.com/user/drewdanburry

“Stationary Running” is Sketchy Lines’ Song About the Quiet Ennui of Everyday Tedium

SketchyLines1_Crop — Sketchy Lines, photo courtesy the artist

Sketchy Lines’ “Stationary Running” is like a time capsule, a diary entry, a slice of of a life with a lot of time where daily activities seem rote and stagnant with a hint at the discomfort, discontent and dissatisfaction such static holds for the narrator. The finger picking style of guitar lends itself well to what sounds like a very off the cuff and impromptu song as it provides the real energy of the song and where the action of the music takes place as the chords rove out further than the words. Although there are phrases dropped indicating that this state of affairs, of ennui, can’t be sustained with a welcoming of a break in the tedium so that maybe a chance meeting or encounter can be a catalyst for real change rather than a quiet desperation for something different to happen. Listen to “Stationary Running” below.

Jack DeMeo’s Warmly Introspective “Don’t Look Up” Makes Hitting Rock Bottom Seem Survivable

JackDeMeo1_crop — Jack DeMeo, photo courtesy the artist

Jack DeMeo has experienced that moment that strikes you like a thunderbolt and rendered temporarily breathless from the crushing weight of realizing you’ve hit one of the low ends of your life. His song “Don’t Look Up” has a great line that captures this sensation perfectly: “And you dance around the truth until it hits you in the gut/You don’t know you’re at the bottom until you start looking up.” Has anyone that’s lived sufficiently long enough and possessed of a keen self-awareness not felt that deeply? The beginning of the song is so spare with mostly DeMeo’s vocals and acoustic guitar but as the song builds synth swirls elevating the mood even as the lyrics point out how maybe you never learned the skills and capacities, psychological and social, to prevent yourself from the kind of headspace from which it seems impossible to bounce back. And yet, in the writing those words and singing them, DeMeo is more than suggesting it is possible to come back and that we must even in our darkest times. Watch the creative music video below or listen to the song on Spotify and follow DeMeo at the links provided.

https://youtu.be/PT4vu0-Hxms
soundcloud.com/jackdemeo

“Better Weather” by Nolan Garrett Encourages Us All to Break With Life Patterns That No Longer Serve Us

NolanGarrett1_sm — Nolan Garrett, photo courtesy the artist

“Better Weather” has similar vibes to mid-80s Tears for Fears in the way Nolan Garrett masterfully brings up a swelling halo of rich atmospherics to accent the chorus. What makes this song interesting is how is uses some of the songwriting methods to tap into your sense of nostalgia with the pacing and use of dowwntempo beats and moody atmospheres but the message of the song is not in fact to get hung up on the past but to break with life patterns that no longer serve you. The bright, Yamaha DX-7-esque main melody is the perfect sound to bridge the gap between past and present and moving forward as one of the classic 80s synth sounds has taken on a new life in the modern era. It’s like a symbol of self as you are the same person with the same character and quality in so many ways but you choose to put yourself in a new context rather than allow yourself to be trapped by mere habit. When Garret and the female vocals sing “That’s the old you” it’s a reminder that you can change your internal narrative and thus your life. Listen to “Better Weather” on Spotify and follow Garrett at the links below.

soundcloud.com/nolan-garrett
open.spotify.com/artist/7pt1EL2DIGAZeqgnXBXYxM
instagram.com/nolangarrett

Charcoal Burners’ “Winged Bird” is a Winning Alchemy of Dissonance and Melody

CharcoalBurners1_sm_crop — Charcoal Burners, photo courtesy the artists

Fans of Ride and Bailter Space are going to feel an immediate affinity for Charcoal Burners’ new single “Winged Bird.” The mixture of melody, channeled atmosphere and dissonance and the elastic quality of the main guitar riff give the song a similarly fuzzy and fluid dynamic that allows the vocals to comfortably float within a fiery cloud of guitar harmonics. In that way the band’s songwriting bears some comparison to Hüsker Dü balancing raw intensity and cutting noise with gorgeous melodies. Hailing from Dunedin, New Zealand, Charcoal Burners also bring to its songwriting that certain something that makes almost all music from New Zealand a little different than a similar form of music would take in say the United States or the UK. And also from other noteworthy music scenes in New Zealand like Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. Though while it may be difficult to pin down how Charcoal Burners reflect what some might call the “Dunedin sound” (who wants to be pigeonholed in such ways, really?) except for maybe in some of the jangle-y guitar dynamics and the penchant for expert descending chord lines, Charcoal Burners do not eschew the tasty solo and that’s what makes this track and the band’s new album The Best Day You Could Imagine stand out. Listen to the single on YouTube and follow Charcoal Burners at the links below.

charcoalburners.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/charcoalburnersdunedin

Laurent Chambert Evokes the Soundtrack of Dreams in the Sensory Deprivation Tank on “Errance 7”

laurent-chambert-cover2_crop — Laurent Chambert “Errance 7” cover (cropped)

Composed as an environmental audio experience, “Errance 7” by French artist Laurent Chambert feels like what it must be like to sit in a sensory deprivation tank for over an hour as your mind fills in the blank of a lack of ambient sound. Maybe that’s the closest any of us living with full faculties will get to being put into suspended animation for interstellar travel on the “generation ships” of science fiction canon. The distant, traveling sound comes across as a fellow traveler in the psychosphere of a the quantum field that theoretically connects our matter and our minds with all other points in the universe through a base common frequency of energy that is the fundamental building block quanta of existence itself. “Errance” means “wander” or “wanderlust” in French, but also “mistake” or perhaps, to take some poetic license, the kind of mistake that leads to breakthrough, the kind you couldn’t plan for but turns out fortunate nonetheless. Listen to “Errance 7” on Soundcloud and follow Chambert at the Spotify link below.

open.spotify.com/artist/5FQ5cdmtqfLtE8UdCg7LLa