Song Post – Page 185 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Equateur Evokes Tranquil Summer Evenings In The Song and Video “Pelican”

Equateur2_sm — Equateur, photo courtesy the artist

The finely accented acoustic guitar at the beginning of “Pelican” by Equateur suggests a tropical flavor to the song already. And the video for the song supports this impression taking place in a jungle of plants and animals cast in origami configurations although an animation short. The protagonist travels through desert and mountains to reach this land of jungle and a waterfall cave reflecting the rainbow hues around it. The song is perfect blend of an especially lush, French style synth pop and elements of flamenco and arriving in time for relaxing summer evenings or whatever passes for summer these days where you live. Watch the video below and follow Equateur’s colorfully luminous synth pop at the links provided.

equateurofficial.com
soundcloud.com/equateur
youtu.be/myzMZ05p80o
facebook.com/EquateurOfficial
instagram.com/equateurofficial

Instupendo’s “Pinch” is the Sound of Endless Possibilities With Ample Leisure Time in a More Nurturing Future Society

Instupendo1_crop — Instupendo, photo courtesy the artist

“Pinch” operates on a wide aural field with atmospheres stretching to the horizon as melodies and percussion emerge and fade or travel away in dopplering resonance, the sounds of strings ping-ponging in rapid succession like a record player stylus bouncing along grooves. Instupendo is no stranger to this style of composition that uses textures, percussion, processed tones and layers of atmosphere and simple melodies to craft a a sophisticated beat that establishes an distinct emotional space. On “Pinch” it’s one where you feel like you’ve traveled ahead to a future where no one works more than a few hours a week but everything gets taken care of and you’ve just put in your time and you have ample time to just ponder what you’d like to do with the days ahead with the sense of freedom you have without the Sword of Damocles of our currently dystopian world system and its demands hanging over you. Listen below and follow Instupendo’s other journeys into chill downtempo at the links provided.

instupendo.com
soundcloud.com/instupendo
open.spotify.com/artist/3ctnkEZGtVBTxS7IMin8nC
youtube.com/instupendo
twitter.com/instupendo
facebook.com/instupendo

The Hazy Psychedelic Drift of Miynt’s “Peaches” Will Coax You Into Daydreamy Reverie

MIYNT_Linn Koch-Emmery_sm — Miynt, photo by Linn Koch-Emmery

The hazy layers of melody on Miynt’s new single “Peaches” suggests the soft lighting of a dream sequence. The breathy vocals swimming in distorted synth washes, arpeggiated bell tones, warp-y/melt-y strings and anchored by soft percussion and bass accents has the hallmarks of a kinship with 70s independent cinema with its own internal logic that draws you in to accepting its unusual dynamics as they are and going along for the ride. It also has the sound of the kind of song that would fit on a Sophia Coppola soundtrack where idiosyncratic, moodily atmospheric music always seems welcome. But this would be for a film Coppola might make about a Drop City-esque art collective in the 1990s. Hypnotic and alluring, “Peaches” will take you out of your everyday mundane zone. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Miynt’s further explorations of inner space at the links below.

https://miynt.lnk.to/StayOnYourMind
facebook.com/miynt
https://instagram.com/itsmiynt

Three Years on From Its Initial Release “Detroit” by Pink Milk Renders the Mysterious and Intimate Into the Massive and Epic

PinkMilk3_sm — Pink Milk, photo courtesy the artists

Originally released in 2016 the “Detroit” single by Swedish rock band Pink Milk has a kind of lo-fi quality but with the sonic architecture of something recorded live in a room capable of offering massive natural reverb like a place used for refitting ships or The TANK Center for Sonic Arts in Rangely, Colorado. At times this quality blurs the tonal lines a bit but that contributes to a sense of the song being difficult to place in a time or context. Its guitar work is sort of surf-psych, it’s atmospherics like 80s dream pop and its mist cloaked melody and echoing vocals like something out of the non-existent post-punk wing of the Siltbreeze roster and that mysterious yet intimate aesthetic that seemed part of all the artists on the imprint. Listen below and follow the band at the links provided.

FYI: For those in the area, you can catch Pink Milk at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg which runs September 18-21, 2019 with exact date(s) and time(s) announced closer to the event.

pinkmilkmusic.com
soundcloud.com/pinkmilktheband
open.spotify.com/artist/6pfkVhn2nBIYUEu9nKHdLV
youtube.com/pinkmilk
twitter.com/pm_theband
facebook.com/pinkmilkmusic
instagram.com/pinkmilkmusic

The Video For “Empty” By Denis First & Reznikov Is a Synthwave Urban Science Fiction Buddy Action Hero Epic In Miniature

DenisFirst_Reznikov_KamilKwiatkowski_sm — Denis First & Reznikov, photo by Kamil Kwiatkowski

For the video of their collaborative song “Empty,” Denis First & Reznikov approved some footage that suggests the banger aesthetic in the form of some action duo road trip video game. Like a demo for some futuristic urban noir mash-up of Duke Nuke ‘Em 3D and The Venture Bros.. The song sounds like it could be for the intro of such a show but without all the pesky telling the story of the show in the lyrics. The beat is urgent and progressive yet gritty like a more pop version of Perturbator or Kavinsky. But this is more clearly a dance song with builds that drop off into space rather than with bass wobble. It’s pulsing melody under gently auto-tuned vocals and contemplative passages gives the song a dynamic quality that would seem to work on the smaller stage or amphitheaters. Watch below and follow the artists at their respective links provided.

https://facebook.com/iamdenisfirst
https://soundcloud.com/denisfirstmusic
https://twitter.com/denisfirst
https://instagram.com/denisfirst

https://instagram.com/vladlenreznikov

Zaydo Takes Us On a Journey of Reaching Creative Focus on “Back In The Mix”

Zaydo1_crop — Zaydo, photo courtesy the artist

Gradients of tone and texture swirl in at the beginning of Zaydo’s “Back In The Mix” as though brought in with the breeze. Warping melodies flutter, bubble up and come in and out of focus as his flow of words anchor the ethereal beat and ghostly backing vocals in a story of grinding in the world juggling priorities and struggling with relationships and situations that undermine your time for your creative work. It’s a song to remind himself and us to not lose sight of our goals and what’s important without needing to couch it in misplaced tough-minded bravado. At just under three minutes the emotional journey of the song subtly runs deep with a soundscape that so vividly expresses a time and place in your life when you need to assess the state of things without getting distracted. The sounds almost representing city sights distant and near while driving or walking about and reflecting on your life and sorting through it all in your head until you reach clarity of focus. In doing so, the song is that process of sorting out but giving it a dreamlike quality that makes it creative rather than simply self-therapy. Listen below.

Nikita Afonso’s “Good Morning, Sunshine” is a Refreshing Breath of Sunrise to Start Off Your Day

NikitaAfonso_HolyMyHeart_sm — Nikita Afonso, cover of *Holy My Heart* (cropped)

Nikita Afonso’s breathy vocals sound imbued with inner motes of light that hang on the tiny bit of distortion at the edges of her singing. And that quality is appropriately well in place on her new single “Good Morning, Sunshine.” It’s a simple yet poetic love song in the classic mold but transcends tropes through the aforementioned as well as some beautifully orchestrated guitar and electronic elements including a bit here and there near the beginning of the song ascending like the musical approximation of smelling the morning coffee as the sun rises. Think Tangerine Dream’s work for the soundtrack of Risky Business but a more gently exuberant daytime coming out of sleep instead of late night ready to lay down for the night. Listen for yourself on Soundcloud and follow Afonso’s further adventures in songwriting at the links below.

Update: Here is also the new music video for “Good Morning, Sunshine.”

nikitaafonso.com
soundcloud.com/nikita-afonso-385720198
twitter.com/NikitaAfonso
facebook.com/NikitaAfonsoMusic
instagram.com/nikitaafonso

“…In The Way You Disappeared” by Fairies! No Mercenaries is a Harrowing Meditation on the Despair of Losing a Loved One

FairiesNoMercenaries_InTheWayYouDisappeared_cover-lg — Fairies! No Mercenaries, image courtesy the artist

Theomar C. Francois of Fairies! No Mercenaries has been using the project as an outlet to transform harrowing experiences and emotional darkness into music that doesn’t downplay any of it but might help others to process their own trauma and emotional stasis. The latest single “…In The Way You Disappeared” sounds like an emo band discovered synthwave and deathrock and mulched it all to produce something that sounds like a true amalgamation and not a clumsy co-opting of styles to fit into a favored aesthetic. Driving distorted guitar gives way to synth leads as Francois’ melancholic vocals tell the heartbreaking tale of a loved one lost and how that pain may recede over time but how the haunting never completely goes away. One wonders if James O’Barr’s original graphic novel of The Crow was in any part an inspiration because it has the same sense of loving despair that strikes deep. But whatever the root spark of the song it’s a fascinating genre hybrid that remains with you long after listening. Listen to the track from the album Eurydice on Bandcamp and follow the artist at the links following.

https://fairiesnomercenaries.bandcamp.com/track/in-the-way-you-disappeared

open.spotify.com/artist/1xxCCT8CqMnPRBbPorH1Br
fairiesnomercenaries.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/fairiesnomercenaries

“Backtrack” is Halen Sykes’ Bittersweet Ode to an On Again Off Again Relationship in a Small Town

HalenSykes1_artwork_cropped — Halen Sykes, image courtesy the artist

Halen Sykes’ “Backtrack” hits you by surprise if you’re a reflective person who has been around a certain locale for any period of time to see things change and how your life intersects with those changes and the relationships and connections to time and place that ground you. And how that can trap you in a revisiting of the familiar and putting you back into situations that no longer serve the person you are now even if they feel comfortable and aren’t inherently negative. But the sense of stasis and how we self-reinforce our patterns that are both healthy and lead people down the path of the mid-life crisis where you wonder what your life could have been. And yet the crisis isn’t in the song, it’s a wistful yet knowing take on an on again, off again relationship cast in beautifully gentle and upsweeping melodies over a meditative but expressive performance on percussion

“Yellow Hearts” by Enjune is a Song to Soothe the Soul of Anyone Suffering From the Pangs of a Clandestine Love

Enjune4_crop — Enjune, photo courtesy the artist

Enjune’s new single off the forthcoming Teal Dreams EP (due June 28), “Yellow Hearts,” is brimming with suppressed feelings clandestinely expressed in the form of a song that could be said to be fiction or about someone else if the object of those feelings asks. You feel for songwriter Jake Goble as it’s not a misplaced or dark wave of emotion that informs the songwriting but a sense of connection for someone special whose personality and the way they carry themselves moves and inspires you beyond some fleeting attraction. Written in the style of R&B-inflected chillwave, it’s a downtempo beat and dreamily melancholic vibe sounds like Goble is trying to make the feelings go down easier for him and anyone who might relate to the song in their own lives. Listen below and follow Enjune at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/enjunemusic
open.spotify.com/artist/0Q5H7S50NYFVJi7fewkoJs
youtube.com/channel/UC2CzudcS40scL801K8Tk1mw
twitter.com/EnjuneMusic
facebook.com/enjunemusic
instagram.com/enjune.music