Song Post – Page 175 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“White Walls” by August Ten is an Understated and Elegant Breakup Song that Will Drift Into Your Psyche

August Ten uses layers of atmospherics in composing “White Walls,” the lead single off its second EP. Floating over the soothing procession of sounds are nearly ghostly vocals for an effect like a kind of dream pop and downtempo side of Legendary Pink Dots. There’s something enigmatic to this song about a breakup reflected on in the rear view with a rare personal insight into how that past relationship and breakup echoes into the narrator’s psyche now. The line “I can only sleep when I’m alone” is simple enough but speaks volumes of the emotional aftermath. This is not a song screaming in anguish, anger or bitterness, rather it’s poignant because it acknowledges the hurt long after and not having that all figured out. Subdued keys, light percussion with brushed snare, a progressive yet spare guitar line climbing elegantly up a melodic trajectory all make for a listening experience that is unobtrusive yet impactful. Listen below on YouTube and follow August Ten at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/augustten
open.spotify.com/artist/4YfmCJlMxx6dJ5yRnNTBpA
youtube.com/channel/UCAtHUqKpHN4cA_ONPr8IJXA

The “respawn” Video Single by bensnburner is a Haunting Embodiment of the Game Concept as Manifested in Song

bensburner1_crop — bensnburner logo (cropped)

A montage of what appears to be a passing bus in reverse and then I forward motion is the backdrop of “respawn,” the first single from bensnburner’s forthcoming album. The low textural drone flowing along with a cycling background melodic drone convey a dream-like energy as guitar strikes fractured and drawn out riffing and distorted synth winds warble and whorl. It’s reminiscent of the film Koyaanisqatsi in how the music and the footage are synergistic in highlighting how mysterious and alien every day, seemingly mundane events can be unless we truly pull back and examine what it is that’s really going on if we’re able and willing to strip it of the cultural knowledge and assumptions that give them the meaning suggested and programmed by cultural context. The concept of “respawning” in a video game is to die in game and then come back to life at a beginning point and to, in a way, to start over, have another chance to approach things from another angle or to make the same fatal mistakes all over again but without the consequences of actual death. The motion of the video and the recursive structure of the song is sort of an embodiment of respawning in musical form but with the iterations evolving as one hopes one would in a game setting. Watch the video below and follow bensnburner at the links provided.

bensnburner.com
youtube.com/user/bensnburner
facebook.com/bensnburner
instagram.com/bensnburner

Kip LaVie Evokes the Rhythms and Organic Musicality of the Natural World on “Time Enough”

KipLaVie2_crop — Kip LaVie, image courtesy the artist

The wash of textures and melodic strings of beeps and swirling up of bloops and the visceral sound of air bubbles all commingle in the organic flow of Kip LaVie’s “Time Enough.” It sounds like the musical equivalent of recreating the environment of a mountain bound wetlands. Electronic dulcimer casting a figure in the breeze as sculpted white noise and shiny tones blowing down from mountain peaks, the glisten off the water as arpeggiated distant notes, synth swells as the sunlight peeking through clouds. It presents an abstract analog of the inherent musicality of natural rhythms allowing the listener to take it in as a different manifestation of the experience. Often environment-oriented compositions try to create something more industrial or urban, “Time Enough” is a reminder that the field of this type of music rooted in minimal electronics is broad with possibilities. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Kip LaVie at any of the links below.

itunes.apple.com/album/id1449644752
soundcloud.com/kiplavie
open.spotify.com/artist/4uvFMStdlU6xSYr5ygeCDD
kiplavie.bandcamp.com/releases

Suzy V’s Melancholic “Gone Tomorrow” Blends the Exotic, The Familiar and The Classic

SuzyV1_crop — Suzy V, photo courtesy the artist

It sounds like there’s a touch of reverse delay on the guitar in Suzy V’s “Gone Tomorrow” like a touch of psychedelia in a Flamenco-inflected pop song. Her breathy vocals sound like they’re coming in from another time like a translucent overlay of a narrator in a movie scene lamenting what could have been. The reverb on her singing reinforces the sense of lonely desolation, inconsolable. In some ways the song hearkens to a prologue to a Jim Jarmusch movie because while distinct and concrete it has a fully-integrated, multicultural sensibility and the impression that it is not drawing on a single, fixed, cultural time frame and without topical and specific references to ground the song in a narrow context in which it must have been made. Blending the exotic and the familiar with the classic and modern flourishes in production, Suzy V has crafted a timeless, melancholic, existential composition.

On the Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Moon Landing, Justin Robinson Takes Us to Those Tranquil and Exciting Moments Prior With “Satellite (First Orbit)”

JustinRobinson1_sm — Justin Robinson, photo courtesy the artist

On the fiftieth anniversary of the first landing on the moon we present Justin Robinson’s song “Satellite (First Orbit).” Inspired in part by Brian Eno, and possibly in particular by the latter’s 1983 classic Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, the song evolves slowly with sounds that capture the elegance and deep mystery of outer space and the sense of being suspended in the great beyond as your craft reaches a comfortable orbit. The subtle layers of drones and lightly struck strings and bell tones mark cosmic time as high frequency resonances sound like starshine and plasma trails, the white-blue haze of earth nearby, a constant presence that dominates your field of view. Robinson takes us to that moment that has changed the consciousness of everyone who has experienced it forever, the feeling of existing beyond mother earth, the only world that, as far as we know, all of humanity going back to its primordial ancestors have ever known. The enigmatic enormity of that moment looking back on the planet and to the nearby moon and floating weightlessly between. Robinson articulates that sense of calm and wonder perfectly. Listen below below and take in the meditative passages of “Satellite (First Orbit).”

Siv Disa’s Downtempo “Rooms” Evokes Late Night New Wave Jazz Lounges of the Near Future

SivDisa3_sm — Siv Disa, photo courtesy the artist

Siv Disa released her Waltzes EP in the fall of 2018 but is now re-releasing it as a visual album. The single “Rooms” is a downtempo, melancholic number that conjures images of the mythical late night jazz lounge. Except that its drones and tonal details like candlelight and twinkling crystal make it sound like a New Wave torch song. One gets the impression that you’re sitting with Siv Disa in an antiquated simulation of that jazz lounge like the Elvis simulation from Bladerunner 2049 that K experiences in post-industrial-collapse-abandoned Vegas—so compelling and yet surreal, haunting yet comforting. That is until the end of the song when the pounding drums and accelerated pace hit and you wake from the reverie in panic at the possibility of missing the last shuttle home from the platform with access to the all but abandoned nostalgia theme park that fell out of vogue in a future when most of humanity has entered into a period of galactic diaspora looking outward with little time for recycling or revisiting past popular culture. “Rooms” has the romance of a classic piano ballad and synthesizes a sense of the past with an ineffably futuristic sensibility and a nod to the fact that good songwriting has a timelessness that transcends trends. It is a perfect blending of sounds and aesthetics that provoke reflection as well as relaxation. Listen to “Rooms” and the rest of Waltzes on Spotify and follow Siv Disa at the links below.

sivdisa.com
open.spotify.com/artist/1DMhuX8DGsngDnjpNECYSm
instagram.com/sivdisa

The Lizards Take a Kaleidoscopic Trip Across Space and Time on “Astroboy”

TheLizards1_crop — The Lizards, photo courtesy the artists

“Astroboy” finds Birmingham, UK band The Lizards taking us on a trip down a worm hole of winding passages of color and hypnotic imagery. The bright synths glitter and seethe in and out of hearing as our guides carry us across a kaleidoscopic starscape of pleasantly disorienting melody in which its easy to get lost and hope back on for the ride to who knows where. To simply call this psychedelic rock does an injustice to how it has musical roots in stuff like Ozric Tentacles and its own beautifully bizarre mixture of folk, psychedelia, electronic music and prog. But The Lizards reign things in a bit on the sprawl out into musical outer space and ultimately don’t sound like much of anyone else while bringing together sonic elements that resonate with the mind-altering aesthetic of early Black Moth Super Rainbow and a more space rock “Madchester” band. However one might pick apart the song it will take you places if you let it and there isn’t nearly enough music that does so. Listen below and follow The Lizards at the links provided.

twitter.com/TheLizzzards
facebook.com/thelizzzards
instagram.com/thelizzzards

Theo Bard’s “Forget” is a Disaffected Song About a Love Lost

TheoBard_Forget_cover_crop — Theo Bard, “Forget” cover (cropped)

Theo Bard used ice and snow to make the textural sounds heard on “Forget” instead of the usual percussion. At first it sounds like white noise but it has a little too much physicality and it’s a nice, subtle contrast with the staccato melody struck by the synth and the wash of droning sounds in the background. Bard sounds like he’s getting lost in the soundscape to soothe the pain of the realization that a relationship he wasn’t over has no chance of rekindling because the other party has obviously moved on to other people. The vocals express a wish to forget but the repetition as almost a mantra doesn’t necessarily manifest in the psyche. There isn’t anguish in the vocals, but a kind of disaffected, almost numb quality that people take on when they don’t want to believe something is true even though it’s before them and that the time to accept the truth was extended enough and the compartmentalizing of the pain to take in doses one can handle may be another process yet. Listen to “Forget” on Soundcloud and follow Theo Bard at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/theobard
open.spotify.com/artist/5agEEmWLm4t3O6Ra6pkMm6
twitter.com/theobard
facebook.com/theobardmusic
instagram.com/theobard

“Coast to Coast” by Coral Moon is a Loving Homage to Friendship and a Mutual Love of Esoteric Knowledge

CoralMoon2_cropped — Coral Moon, photo courtesy the artists

“Coast to Coast” is an loving homage to cross country late night driving and listening to the arcane lore broadcast on AM radio and hosted now by George Noory and George Knapp from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Eastern but famously headed by its creator Art Bell. It’s a fitting song for a band of friends collaborated remotely from Austin, Texas, Louisville, Kentucky and Water Valley, Mississippi, calling themselves Coral Moon. Because Coast to Coast is syndicated its unusual stories of the paranormal and the unexplained serve as a kind of bond between fans of the program. Musically, the soft and playful pop song is reminiscent of a Jamboree-period Beat Happening song or something by Magnetic Fields circa Get Lost. Jangle-y guitar, violin cutting a figure over the proceedings and bleeps and bloops to represent switching stations to catch the aforementioned broadcast has the sound of like-minded friends getting together to talk about wild imaginative ideas late into the night. Coral Moon recently released its self-titled album and you can listen to “Coast to Coast” on YouTube as well as exploring the band’s catalog further at the links below.

earthlibraries.com/coral-moon
soundcloud.com/earthlibraries/coral-moon-dave/s-bjuw6

Ava Heatley’s “Shitty Tattoo” is a Cathartic Piano Ballad About the Ill-Advised Decisions We Later Regret But Can’t Fix

AvaHeatley1_sm — Ava Heatley, photo courtesy the artist

Anyone that’s ever felt like they get stuck emotionally and embarrassed by their own emotional stubbornness, perhaps born of some bit of arrested personal development, and acted out will relate deeply to Ava Heatley’s “Shitty Tattoo.” The song starts out simply enough with piano and voice outlining several times in life where everything feels raw and too real and you want to travel back to a time to fix the mistakes you made when you didn’t have adult responsibilities and maybe throwing a tantrum over much of anything wouldn’t be so consequential. The quiet part of contemplation escalates from the introspective yet dramatic self-loathing to an examination of repeating patterns of not wanting to deal with frustrating situations and poor life decisions. Even decisions as minor but so symbolic as an awful tattoo that one got thinking in the moment it would be something you wanted to commit to for the rest of your life because everything seems so significant to you in your tumultuous teen years and twenties when, really, as you get older you realize they didn’t matter that much—the relationships, the impulsive behavior in a moment of peak feeling, the angst over relatively minor matters. Guitar and drums come in to give voice to that cacophony in your head as every thing you think you fucked up and ruined come crashing in. If you live past thirty-five it’s safe to say you’ve been there and if not you probably are either in denial or have lead a boring life both outwardly and inwardly. Listen to “Shitty Tattoo” on Soundcloud and follow Heatley at the link below. Her new EP Beautiful/Terrifying is due for release on November 2 and she recently debuted “Shitty Tattoo” at The Bitter End in New York City on July 6.

soundcloud.com/user-949113108