Song Post – Page 184 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Guidon Bear’s “Magellanic Cloud” is About Transcending One’s Sense of Existential Claustrophobia

GuidonBear1_crop — Guidon Bear, photo courtesy the artists

The vulnerability and heart you hear in “Magellanic Cloud” by Guidon Bear engages you immediately. Plaintive vocals accented by luminous Fender Rhodes and dynamically expressive drums tell the story of feeling emotionally crowded or smothered by your surroundings when you desperately need a place where you can have a space to yourself to decompress and process. Cleverly titled after the dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way the song speaks metaphorically to small town life and the social dynamics thereof, the power of gossip and how in some locales it can seem like the whole universe since it’s so near at hand and significant in your existence. But, really, it’s a small part of a large galactic cluster in a whole universe. It’s a melancholic song about keeping perspective without any heavy handed sentiments and condescension. The band consists of Mary Water of Little Red Car Wreck, drummer and multi-instrumentalist Pat Maley of Lois and Courtney Love (the band also including Lois Maffeo) and synth-player E. Michael Bradley. All names that may not come readily to mind to everyone but certainly significant artists out of the American Pacific Northwest who have been honing their pop songcraft in unconventional ways for years. Recently the group released its full-length Downwardly Mobile: Steel Accelerator (on Antiquated Future Records), an album full of thoughtful, emotionally vibrant and warm indie pop for fans of Rainer Maria, Danielson and Mirah. Listen below and explore further the wonderful world of Guidon Bear at the links provided.

antiquatedfuture.bandcamp.com/album/downwardly-mobile-steel-accelerator
facebook.com/Guidon-Bear-183171818368245

FEVRMOON’s “Mountain of Dreams” Is Experimental Pop Operating With the Logic of the Hypnogogic State

FEVRMOON2_sm_crop — FEVRMOON, image courtesy the artists

The distorted synth and voice like a television tuned to a dead channel (and other Neuromancer references) at the beginning of “Mountain of Dreams” by FEVRMOON gives way to the hypnotic flow of a long piano figure playing out to infinity and disembodied vocals floating above, strings giving a sense of yesteryear when they come in, and an echoing sonar blip that marks the time out of time evoked by this song. Splashes of water and wind chimes later in the song as the voice let’s out a cry in processed stutter gives a sense of the otherworldliness of inner space before the song cuts off, as so many dreams do, before they make logical sense to our conscious minds while seeming so significant and perfectly sensible while we’re having them. There’s no convenient genre tag for this kind of song beyond something like experimental electronic pop but that wouldn’t do justice to how beautiful and strange it really is. Listen below and follow FEVRMOON’s journey at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/7DO2sQCAkO7DwDpXGIhEAU
youtube.com/channel/UCMFqtPK-HkcQIeFKC57X_5g
fevrmoon.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/fevrmoon
instagram.com/fevrmoon

Greta Stanley Overcomes Early Morning Anxiety in “Follow Suit” and So Can You

Greta Stanley’s voice sits in flow of melodic rosettes of sound and impressionistic guitar picking at the beginning of “Follow Suit” as she considers the state of her life and the day ahead. The ethereal gives way to distorted guitar and a more direct flow of ideas and shifting back and forth between doubts and certainties about getting up and making something of the day instead of being paralyzed by the possibilities before actually rising out of bed and following if not a plan of action on the knowledge that it’ll all sort itself out whether you know for certain what faces you because no one fully does even if most people’s lives have some element of necessary and healthy predictability. Maybe the song isn’t rooted in the experience of anxiety but if not, Stanley has captured that feeling perfectly as well as the moment when your brain is in gear and and over that initial bump in the road of your day. Follow Stanley and her music at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/3lkwqHO5vO9jUlmJd0N5aC
facebook.com/gretastanleymusic
instagram.com/gretastanley

Origami Ghosts Subvert the Folk Pop Paradigm With Its Inventive Rhythms On “Lost and Proud”

OrigamiGhosts1_crop — Origami Ghosts, image courtesy the artists

There’s been a bit of a glut of folk rock in the past decade and a half with the success of various artists. But Origami Ghosts distinguishes itself from the pack on “Lost and Proud” with not just an expansive and upbeat melody incorporating a diverse instrumentation, but because there’s something a little subversive in its songwriting. Rhythms intersect as through two or more streams of the music are in a dance together, a method akin to what Camper Van Beethoven and Meat Puppets did on their early records as they inverted punk and mixed it with non-Western musical ideas and folk in the case of the former, and psychedelic rock and country with the latter. And there is an affectionate tone and exuberance for life in the song that is irresistible. The group will soon release its album Healthy Travel Potions on July 12 but for now listen below and follow the band at the links provided.

origamighosts.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/origamighosts

Elliot James’ “Smooth” Is a Brazen Yet Sardonic and Melancholic Ode to a Shady Ex-Lover

ElliotJames2_crop — Elliot James, photo courtesy the artist

Elliot James’ new album Always Lately dropped on June 12 and the single “Smooth” showcases how the songwriter brings to bear an eclectic aesthetic to what might otherwise be simply energetic indie rock. The descending piano figure seems so elegant in the background of the bright main melody that along with the ethereal synth swells are a reminder that even though the song is a bit sardonic and the bass line urgent to match the swagger of the vocals that this is at heart a reflective and melancholic song. Both add a delicacy to the track that gives it a dimensonality that it might have succeeded as a song without but that expanded emotional depth is one of the key elements that sets James’ songwriting apart from someone attempting just to write a banger pop song for the summer. Listen below and follow James at the links provided.

elliotjames.co
open.spotify.com/artist/4q2ufFI2PXPNBor8C4NLd4
twitter.com/elliotjames
facebook.com/ElliotJamesOfficial
instagram.com/elliotjames

The Raw Emotional Journey of Sreym Hctim’s Split Ends, Split Head Makes it a Dark Psych/Indie Pop Masterpiece

SreymHctim1_crop — Sreym Hctim, photo courtesy the artist

Reversing his name to the project moniker Sreym Mctim, Mitch Myers released his latest album Split Ends, Split Head. Often his vocals are nearly whispered just shy of sotto voce, like he’s needing to keep a secret lost in a toy store of devices that make the various sounds in each song. It’s a record that may remind some in an oblique way of a combination of 2000s Legendary Pink Dots records and late 90s indie pop where, in the latter, the artists thought nothing of including straight ahead sounds and noise on the albums as part of demolishing convention even as they wrote some of the most exquisite pop songs of the last thirty years but on their terms and with the former through purely aiming to express a mood and a psychological space with whatever tools can most closely approximate it. There is a sense of darkness, isolation and disorientation that runs through each track and one envisions a hall of mirrors that challenge Myers’ narrator with aspects of his life that he has chosen thus far to ignore or see as suited his personal life agenda and ego at the time. By the end and the track “Old Flame” the narrator has been shorn of his erroneous notions and the false foundation that was the bedrock of his life, left vulnerable but able to rebuild from a more honest place. The amalgam of dark psychedelia and organic indie pop is fascinating across the album but it’s one for those with a taste for psychologically raw songwriting. Definitely for fans of Orbit Service. Listen below and follow Sreym Hctim on Facebook.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0eQluGEj8ptUF7gAvzafEK https://sreymhctim.bandcamp.com/album/split-ends-split-head
facebook.com/sreymhctim

“Horoscopic (Saturn Returns)” is a Psychedelic Prog Song With Tropical Flavors and a Political Edge

Indianizer4_cropped — Indianizer, photo courtesy the artists

For a few moments “Horoscopic (Saturn Returns)” by Indianizer sounds like it’s going to break into Journey’s “Wheel In the Sky” or “Tough Enough” by The Fabulous Thunderbirds but then it shifts into a brisk Talking Head-esque African/Middle Eastern psych pop in compound time. The Talking Heads impression continues with Bernie Worrell-like synth work, especially in the low end. But on top of this wave of sounds are vocal samples and gang choruses with guitar that guide the momentum along. It’s a tropical flavored psychedelia with a great, driving energy that spirals up into the ether in the end. Expect the band’s new full length in October 2019 but for now watch the video and appreciate how what could be a party song has a political dimension with a critique of oligarchic imperialism. Below are links to follow this group from Turin, Italy.

dexmusicagency.com/en/artiesten/indianizer-2
soundcloud.com/indianizer
open.spotify.com/artist/1zfrSl1G9vwwG0fTBhvpXp
facebook.com/indianizer
instagram.com/weareindianizer

“Undone” is Ryan K. Bishop’s Beautiful But Anguished Cleansing of the Memories of a Relationship Too Intense to Bear or Forget

RyanKBishop_lg — Ryan K. Bishop, photo courtesy the artist

The Fahey-esque opening chords of Ryan K. Bishop’s “Undone” just about sets you up for the leftward turn of the lyrics into a love lost and the ghosts of cherished memories. The world-weary pace is like the reeling emotions of the dissolution of a strong bond that might be a little too intense to bear at times yet too devastating to lose. As folk-y guitar is joined by electronic beats a third of the way through the song the pain in Bishop’s voice, so sincere and powerful throughout, is given a new context of sound as the vivid imagery and sense of being ground under by one’s own clinging to what is no more float in ethereal electronic tones that brighten and fade out washing away just enough of the mired emotions to begin to be free of their anchoring you to the past.

Mirror Trash Transforms Angst Into Triumphant Pop Melodies On “Blank”

MirrorTrash1_lg — Mirror Trash, image courtesy the artist

Mirror Trash’s “Blank” is a regretful and conflicted song about some kind of relationship that has fragmented into the past tense. It brims with anger and betrayal tempered with some self-reflection. Musically, though, it’s upbeat, even energetic, like those hurt feelings have been channeled into something more productive. The recording is lo-fi which may not be for everyone but in the fact of that, it has a rawness that suits the song perfectly and the indie pop/post-punk style of the songwriting is reminiscent of early Beach Fossils in how the riffing borders on jangle-y and surf-y but is just really detailed arpeggiated lines and reverb that work well at getting out nervous energy. The song is from the 2019 Reform EP and you can listen to “Blank” below and delve further into the Mirror Trash catalog and goings on at the links following.

open.spotify.com/artist/52im9jGpJOOPubaHGb6D9u
youtube.com/channel/UCRD7-mexy4Z2MTWKzgs8Uew
mirrortrash.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/MIRRORTRASHBAND
facebook.com/MIRRORTRASH
instagram.com/mirrortrashband

Port Lucian’s Command of Tonal Flow and Mood on “Lucid Dreaming” is Breathtaking

PortLucian1_lg — Port Lucian, photo courtesy the artist

The creamy roil of melody, the drawn out guitar strum shimmer, ghostly harmonic synth drone and warm but distant vocals—all of that sets Port Lucian’s “Lucid Dreaming II” apart from most lo-fi bedroom shoegazers. The way Portia Maidment arranges the layers to mutually enhance while drawing you into the experience evoked by the song is remarkable. It’s tempting to compare her music to that of the likes of Flying Saucer Attack, Grouper, Midwife and Mojave 3 because of the expert use of space and dynamics with an intuitive knack for natural rhythms suggested by the flow of sounds. That and the use of guitar as both a textural and almost purely tonal instrument like another synth. Listen on Spotify and follow Port Lucian at the links below.

youtube.com/channel/UCg5UkmvWYsnj7U9JilYKiww
twitter.com/portlucian
facebook.com/portlucian
instagram.com/portlucian