Song Post – Page 187 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“scifiFANTASY” by joswayah is a Psych-Noir Downtempo Chillout Track

joswayah1_crop — joswayah, photo courtesy the artist

Joshua Trimmell has done a bit of musical time traveling on his new single “scifiFANTASY” under the moniker joswayah. The repeating ethereal guitar figure sets the pace and backdrop of haunted horns (sax, maybe a bassoon) processed to give them futuristic feel if you were standing in 1974 London hanging out with members of Roxy Music and Hawkwind and, of course, Michael Moorcock, discussing doing some kind of mellow “folk” record based on a more low key episode in one of the author’s “Eternal Champion” yarns. Of course they would have put reverse delays on parts of the recording so it’s even more tripped out than merely delays and other processing on organic instruments. In getting it done they would let the avant-psych jam go and then cut the tape before things got too out of hand. Safe to say Trimmell doesn’t have a time machine he’s telling us about but his weaving together so many sounds that seem specific to certain contexts across space and time makes the title of the song entirely appropriate. Take that trip below and follow joswayah at the link provided.

just666.bandcamp.com

Sky Civilian’s Single “Let’s Be Easy” is a Glimpse Into a Kinder, Gentler, More Colorful Future

SkyCivilian1_cropped — Sky Civilian, image courtesy the artist

Sky Civilian’s “Let’s Be Easy” trickles in tones into an evolving flow of sound until Maggie Thornton’s vocals drift in with the layers of minimal percussion and horn. Its downtempo but progressive tempo is the kind of music you’d want to hear someday if and when someone builds one of those space elevators theorized by scientists since the late Nineteenth Century and by science fiction writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Kim Stanley Robinson and Joan Slonczewski. It would be the kind of chillout song to make going above and beyond the world as we know it on that journey between planets and space stations easier to take on and to enjoy. And it’s just one of a few tracks from Sky Civilian’s new EP Open Door. The whole EP is the sound of looking forward and stepping into the future not with aggression but with an open attitude and a calmness of spirit. This isn’t the dystopian cyberpunk future but one more likely and one we’d all rather experience of more nurturing societies and mutually fulfilling lives. Thornton is one of the minds behind artist collective Meow Wolf’s truly mind-bending, multi-dimensional funhouse of art installations House of Eternal Return and the depth of creativity and attention to detail that she and the other members of the collective brought to that undertaking can be heard echoed on Open Door as well.

soundcloud.com/sky-civilian
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Sal Dulu and StaHHr Spin Ambient Hip-Hop Gold With “Buzzcut”

Dulu_Buzzcut_crop — Sal Dulu “Buzzcut” cover (cropped)

In the beginning of “Buzzcut” by Sal Dulu we hear a layer of samples and a hazy dreamlike melody that give the impression of waking up mid-morning while people around you taking in various media and it somehow forms a collage of noises like an abstract impressionist tone poem. Then StaHHr comes in with a stream of words in short bursts throughout the song in her inimical style that sketches creative intentions and aspirations while making poetic commentary on everyday experiences and rendering them urban mythical with colorful interpretations of these seemingly mundane events. If one were to make an immediate comparison it would be to cLOUDDEAD circa Ten or some of Doseone’s solo pre and post cLOUDDEAD. That’s to say in the creative contextualization of words and the weaving of an evocative backdrop of sound like a multimedia experience in an audio track. Listen below and follow Sal Dulu at the links provided.

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“Mi Alma” By Joel Phil is a Cinematic Ballad, an Entrancing Blend of the Exotic and the Familiar

JoelPhil1_sm — Joel Phil, photo courtesy the artist

Joel Phil strikes an air of mystery on the title track of his new album Mi Alma. Guitar accents and swirls up vocal melody like a flowering vine. One imagines Phil, Jonathan Richman style circa Something About Mary, strolling down a boardwalk singing this song and wryly observing people playing out their designs with each other. The soulful song, a blend of styles (perhaps tango, perhaps barchata, perhaps American folk) lends itself to cinematic expression. Like something you’d see in a club scene in an Almodóvar or something from Jim Jarmusch and their international sensibilities. Both exotic and familiar, “Mi Alma” is entrancing whether or not you speak Spanish. Listen to the track and the rest of Mi Alma below and follow Joel Phil at the links provided.

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“Like It Is” by Norway’s Saint Kodiak is a Left Field Post-Punk Song About Shaken Up to the Reality of Your Life

SaintKodiak1_sm — Saint Kodiak, photo courtesy the artist

Saint Kodiak’s “Like It Is” is inexplicably a bit like a Remote Luxury-period song by The Church and Beat Happening. In that the musical palette is that melodically expansive and contemplative sound The Church has projected across its entire career but especially so that early on. But it’s also a little rough around the edges with a fairly idiosyncratic vocal style and some unusual song dynamics that don’t scream out that it’s a little weird. Even though it sounds like it could be an indie power pop ballad there’s a certain left field quality to the track that keeps it interesting not to mention the gently scintillating lead guitar. A lot of bands tapping into the 80s for inspiration end up trying to sound like something more obvious and frequently referenced and Saint Kodiak here sounds more like it was inspired more by the artists mentioned above as well as the likes of Soft Boys and The The. That such a charming, beautiful song is about getting shaken into being awake to the reality of your life is a bonus in realm of music that’s often about retreating from such.

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“Golden Hour” is the Downtempo Jazz Chillout Track Extraordinaire from Tieran’s Dreamy New Album Sunday

Tieran4_sm — Tieran, photo courtesy the artist

Columbus-based rapper and producer Tieran recently released his album Sunday. The warm tones and hazy drones framed with nearly meditative percussion and minimal guitar is like a twenty-first century, sample-based bit of library music composition. The titles of other tracks on the record like “TV,” “Wonder,” “Raindrops,” “Daydream,” “Video Games,” “Reminisce” and “Sleep” suggest music written for gloomy midwestern months where every day seems to tick by and to get through it you find a way to turn the doldrums into not desperation but contemplative art through a productive outlet and companion music to more chill, quiet activities when rain and snow keep make getting out and maybe getting into trouble seem like more of a hassle than it’s worth. Though Columbus is likely undergoing the same process of gentrification of any city of size these days, it also seems to be a place where urban decay still exists and where you can still project your dreams into spaces, emotional and otherwise, and have them manifest and be accepted and even embraced. That’s the vibe of the single “Golden Hour” and of Sunday generally. Clearly a sonic descendant of the likes of Boards of Canada, Dilla and cLOUDDEAD, Tieran’s Sunday stimulates the same places in the brain as the aforementioned. Listen below and follow Tieran at the links provided.

tieranofficial.com
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Lyrah’s Stripped Down Version of “Down Low” Gives a Deeper Shade of Meaning to its Thoughtful Lyrics

Lyrah1_cropped — Lyrah, photo courtesy the artist

Lyrah’s vocals on “Down Low” sound like a close focus on the situation about which she’s singing with the music, as step away yet framing and accenting the melody with moody atmospherics and texture. As a stripped down version of the original from Lyrah’s Chemicals EP, it feels like a complete re-imagining of the song besides the lyrics. Where the original has more processed vocals and more electronics and texture, this version of the song with its moodiness and more expansive feel fits the theme of the song even further of a commentary on a clingy and possessive lover in what was understood to be a casual, even short term relationship with someone essentially incompatible. Whatever the exact circumstances, Lyrah’s vocals and songwriting demonstrate a command of dynamics and melody that allow for a broad range of expression in the context of a pop song. The interesting juxtaposition of subtle focal elements in the track for this version of the song also shows Lyrah’s versatile talent as a songsmith capable of reworking the tone of a song to suit a mood.

soundcloud.com/lyrah
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ROOM8 Brings Its Signature Gift for Retronoir Synth Pop Soul to New Single “West (ft. Mavrick)”

ROOM8_West_art_cropped — ROOM8, “West (ft. Mavrick)” single cover (cropped)

ROOM8, the Stockholm-based production duo, always gets compared to the soundtrack to Drive. But it’s really the quality of that sound that resonates. That sense of time and place that blurred the line between an 80s synth pop sensibility with the R&B inflection favored by many of the groups from the UK and modern electrosoul compositional style made its songwriting ideal for a film with the aesthetics of Drive. Its new single “West (ft. Maverick)” has a similar vibe with bright tones and synth swells coupled with gently soulful vocals. A bit like a cross between Foreigner on “Waiting For a Girl Like You” and Giorgio Moroder’s “Scarface (Push It to the Limit).” A midpoint between the urgency of the latter and the languid pace of the former but that dreamlike quality of both and the vibrancy of sound placing it in a similarly compellingly liminal emotional space. Fun fact: Ezra Reich’s father is legendary avant-garde composer Steve Reich.

soundcloud.com/room8-official

Shawnee’s “Ur the Only One” Evokes a Powerful Sense of Loving Devotion

Shawnee1_sm — Shawnee, photo courtesy the artist

Two Spirit singer-songwriter Shawnee has written a luminously soulful ballad in “Ur the Only One.” With multiple vocal styles woven deftly into one song the love song has a level of emotional and sonic depth that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Off of Shawnee’s ethereal yet warm vocals tones of guitar and synth dribble off and float away like embers from a campfire. While it’s a solid downtempo, R&B-inflected pop song some of the songwriting and production is reminiscent of something Radiohead might do with the attention to detail in the sound design from the dynamics of atmosphere to the processing of all elements of the track. It’s a strikingly gorgeous track that also powerfully evokes a sense of loving devotion. Listen below and follow Shawnee at the links provided.

shawneemusic.com
soundcloud.com/shawneemusic
open.spotify.com/artist/3Xs0Bqgw4Ckj96TjcLmp8v
youtube.com/officialshawnee
twitter.com/shawneemusic
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instagram.com/thisisshawnee

MAGUIRE’s “Strangers” Examines Our Relationship Between Fantasy and Reality

The shifting moods of the piano work on “Strangers” by MAGUIRE paired with vocals that one imagines singing out a window into a dark, rainy night by candlelight perfectly suits the contemplative lyrics and story of the song. The narrator projects hopes and dreams of personal fulfillment on a stranger she has seen in public, imagining the possibilities she’s pinning on a stranger who she doesn’t know and doesn’t have to know in order for the fantasy to serve as a beacon of hope in the loneliest of moments. It’s a safe if somewhat unhealthy fixation but one most people can relate to, feeling unfulfilled and needing something or someone to pull them out of their funk and the romance of it even if it’s completely in one’s imagination. When the vocals echo and the music effervesces toward the end and the fantasy ends it is a bit like coming out of that moment of reverie yet taking pleasure in those moments of whimsy never acted upon. The song cautions against the act of romanticizing a person or a situation by embodying the ways in which we seduce ourselves into imposing what we desire onto people and things they may not be. “Strangers” is from the new EP Préludes and you can listen below and follow MAGUIRE at the links provided.

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