Song Post – Page 6 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Solbore’s Organic Ambient Single “We Forget” and Its Deeply Resonant Music Video Evoke a Sense of the Long Cycles of Human Civilization

Solbore’s release of the ambient single “We Forget” (from the November 3, 2023 album Never Alone, Often Lonely) found the composer collaborating with Michael Gasco (Badieh, Orontes) who filmed the music video in the Iranian province of Khorasan Razavi where one finds Iran’s second-largest city Mashhad where you can find countless ruins of abandoned villages, some for decades due to modernization or lack of water. The juxtaposition of urban landscapes with those left behind and shots of nearby nature pairs well with a track that weaves together synth drones, Afghan rabab from Lachlan R. (Hashshashin) and choral contributions from Becki Whitton (Aphir). But it all evokes the grandeur of the visuals and how human civilizations will build collective settlements in various locales that serve a purpose at a time that can become forgotten and no longer rendered sustainable with the march of development and changes in the environment. The use of organic sounds as they come and as processed to lend a circular dynamic with the flowing of abstract tones suggests the cyclical nature of human engagement with our surroundings and large patterns we don’t or refuse to recognize even when the impacts are obvious to anyone without an investment into the status quo imposed on perceived human need. The song communicates a sense of long time the way the Mayans and other civilizations considered a long calendar through recognizing trends that often seem beyond the perception of many people steeped in the cognitive framing of the exigencies of modern economic systems. The title of the song speaks to this disconnect with simple poetry. Watch the video for “We Forget” on YouTube and listen to more Solbore on Spotify linked below.

The First Eloi’s Shoegaze Song “Last Days of Summer” is the Sound of the Mind’s Transition From a Time of Adventures to a Season of Reflection

The First Eloi, photo courtesy the artists

The First Eloi’s single “Last Days of Summer” resonates with that feeling that many of us recognize as the long days of the late spring and summer and the hot days and warm nights transition to sunny days and cooler evenings. It’s a mood that for can trigger memories of summer vacations being over and being back in school whether elementary or secondary or university and a time of adventures and good times give way to getting into the swing of regular life and colder temperatures, a shift into introspective moods and taking stock and getting the work of life done. But for a brief time those recent memories are so vivid even if they seem to be so recently far into the past and beyond reach except as moments to warm your mind when they come back to you. The wintry guitar tones and ethereal vocals along with the more textured riff give these feelings an almost tactile quality in the song like a resurrection of what energy My Bloody Valentine tapped into and embodied when Loveless dropped in November of 1991 and seemed to infuse the season with a dense layers and dreamlike atmospheres. The First Eloi tends to wax a little more dream pop than that but “Last Days of Summer” and a good deal of the rest of the Low Glow the group released on September 13, 2023 is reminiscent of the early shoegaze classic and its true fusion of texture, tone and organic rhythms. Listen to “Last Days of Summer” on Spotify and follow The First Eloi at the links below.

The First Eloi on YouTube

The First Eloi on Bandcamp

The First El oi on Instagram

Beryl’s Post-punk Single “Bad Joke” is a Mantra of Reclaiming Your Time From Dwelling on Regrets

Beryl tangles with personal regrets with one’s life choices and choices in relationships in “Bad Joke.” The song begins with a spacious and open sound, percussive guitar chiming and with an impressive subtlety of layering and shifting dynamics the song progresses into a more full sound as the lyrics get to thoughts of feeling trapped by a flood of thoughts and memories in a way that will happen to you when the crush of your regrets pile up in your mind and the realization of all the wasted time you wish you could get back from pursuing things and people that didn’t make your life more fulfilling but rather left you feeling empty and confused in the end. At the end of the song the vocals repeat “Take it back” in rapid succession amid a wave of distorted sounds in a recursive loop like a mantra to oneself to not be defeated so much by your ghosts but cast them aside and reclaim the time you have left rather than give it away to the things you regret and spend it on experiences and situations that nurture your spirit. Beryl released its new EP Paint the Walls on October 25, 2023.

Beryl on TikTok

Beryl on Facebook

Beryl on Instagram

Patrick Shiroishi’s Saxophone-Driven Ambient Composition “how will we get back to life again?” is a Zen-like Meditation on the Eternally Resonant Mysteries and Allure of Nature

Patrick Shiroishi, photo by Vincent Guilbert

In the music video for Patrick Shiroishi’s “how will we get back to life again?” directed by Nancy Kwon we see a cloudscape of whites, shades of gray and blue sky in the elegant, flowing dynamism of weather patterns. It parallels Shiroishi’s composition of his new album I was too young to hear silence (which dropped November 10, 2023 on streaming, digital and vinyl) in which he employs the Japanese concept of Ma or negative space or the spaces in between as a positive entity rather than simple absence, giving the composition an effective balance. Recording the album with his signature saxophone, a glockenspiel, two microphones and a Zoom digital recorder in a parking structure below a hot pot restaurant in Monterey Park around 1:30 am, Shiroishi made use of the natural reverb to assemble a truly unique type of ambient album. We hear the ebb and flow of his improvisational and intuitive rhythms and textures across the record and for “how will we get back to life again?” in particular the a kind of natural distortion that amplifies an expression of the interactions between clouds and how haunting and moving simply observing the eternal movements of natural patterns largely beyond our ability to control with its endless variations and which offer no inherent meaning the way a work of art might. But that emotional resonance in witnessing these phenomena Shiroishi seems to capture so articulately though not bearing witness to these events in the video in real time making the pairing inspired in how one form of art can find a cognate in another through the power of imagination. Fans of Philip Glass’s collaborations with Godfrey Reggio and Ron Fricke will appreciate what Shiroishi has accomplished here. Watch the video for “how will we get back to life again?” on YouTube and follow Patrick Shiroishi at the links below.

Patrick Shiroishi on Instagram

Guava’s Lush and Hazy Dream Pop Single “Universal Angel” Fuses the Tranquil and Transporting Tonalities of Chillwave and Deep House

“Universal Angel” and its soft textures and hazy melodies is reminiscent of a period in music when early chillwave artists existed at the same time as some of the more creative deep house producers but never really collaborated. But Guava with this track taps into the meditative and transporting sounds of that time and fuses the styles perfectly here. The song featuring the introspective and warm vocals of Maddie Ashman considers the nature of genuine love and how it is only fully possible when both parties are free to connect without mitigating burdens. Whatever one’s own specific perspective on that subject might be the song’s lushly enveloping production and hypnotically measured rhythms is truly entrancing. Listen to “Universal Angel” on Spotify and follow Berlin-based, British producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Guava aka Bradley Hutchings at the links below. The latest Guava album Out of Nowhere released on October 27, 2023 via Hutchings’ own label Guava Noise.

Guava on Facebook

Guava on Instagram

UK Noise Rock Duo Modern Technology Lay Into Global Inaction on Climate Change With the Colossal “Dead Air”

Modern Technology, photo by Jose Caamaño

You get a roughly 20 seconds of prelude before Modern Technology lays into “Dead Air.” The driving bass line and splayed accents on the drums early in the song are an apt vehicle for a song that about the climate disaster we’re experiencing in real time that we were told by officialdom was decades off and then recently 10-20 years as if that would placate anyone actually paying attention and living with the immediate effects. The distorted bass and vocals rip through that facade with images of an outdoors where the air is thick with pollution and “heat dome” effects in various parts of the planet. Noise rock, modern hardcore and extreme metal have been great vehicles for expressing the spirit of a time of multiple crises and London’s Modern Technology does so here with a colossal heft and yet leaves the song on a note of faint hope about how our civilization could change course and lessen the crushing impact of climate change even if we’ve seen no political global will on the part of the powers that be yet. Watch the video for “Dead Air” on YouTube and follow Modern Technology at the links below. The full-length album Conditions of Worth is out now including a limited vinyl edition via Human Worth with 10% of sales proceeds donated to the charity Choose Love.

Modern Technology on Facebook

Modern Technology on Instagram

Lily Mae Harrington Channels the Righteous Angst of Her Inner Psychedelic Alanis Morrissette on the Spirited Single “Salty”

Lily Mae Harrington, photo courtesy the artist

Lily Mae Harrington leans into her “psychedelic Alanis Morrissette side” on “Salty.” The spirited, punk-y pop song relates a tale of an ex who conveniently has a new lover so soon after the breakup that he’s showing off on his Instagram account including photos with his family. She’s wearing Harrington’s shirt that he stole too. The lame indignities are a dozen and more with this guy. But Harrington gets graphic about how they met and how he’s up to the same moves with his new girlfriend that he did with Harrington because of course he is. Typical. Harrington’s line “And I’m mad that you’re happy” is delivered with such cathartic zeal even in the end when she near whispers it just owns the anger and outrage while letting it go at least a little. Many of us have been there and Harrington gives a righteous fury and infectious melody to those heated emotions. Watch the video for “Salty” on YouTube and follow Lily Mae Harrington at the links provided. Her 2023 EP The Sun is My Lover is out now.

Lily Mae Harrington on TikTok

Lily Mae Harrington on Facebook

Lily Mae Harrington on Instagram

Moth Traps’ “Damaged Utensils” is a Warped Synth Pop Song For Fans of The Residents

“Damaged Utensils” begins with sounds like cars racing by on a nearby speedway. But Moth Traps has something much stranger in store for us as the soundscape transitions to what might be described as a synth pop song that mutates outside expected melodic shapes and rhythms. The vocals are mix of those that sound slightly slowed own and those that sound sped up like something one might hear on one of those strange albums The Residents were doing throughout the 90s and early 2000s. And the lyrics are also similarly surreal that make sense taken on their own logic. After all what is one to make of a chorus like “In this house we eat with damaged utensils/Always when we die now we use broken crockery”? That’s an interpretation best left to the individual listener given the rest of the lyrics but all arrows seem to point to a commentary on freeing oneself of the limits of preconceived notions of our cognitive framing of the world around us. It’s a bizarre song but one that is indisputably catchy and will strangely get stuck in your head. Listen to “Damaged Utensils” on Spotify and follow Moth Traps at the links below. The full album Atrophy Myths is out now on Exposed Code Records.

Moth Traps on TikTok

Moth Traps on Twitter

Moth Traps on Bandcamp

Moth Traps on Instagram

Haley’s Transcendent Pop Single “Walk Among the Dead” Dives Into the Complex Nuances of a Deep Love

On “Walk Among the Dead” Haley sounds like she’s singing to us from a spot high on a hilltop at a sky full of stars reflecting on the highlights and not so peak moments of a relationship. The shuffling beat sets a tangible foundation for the song as ethereal drones cast tonal colors in the background and a spare piano melody adds another moody dimension to the song to buoy up the clear and commanding vocals. The song feels like somewhere between a dream pop track and cosmic country or folk with lyrics that cast the challenges of the relationship about which Haley is singing in terms of accepting its challenges and its beautiful aspects in an adult way that values the connection even when it feels like it might sometimes hurt too much to sustain. In that way Haley makes even doubts seem like an aspect of any romance with actual depth of feeling to it. Listen to “Walk Among the Dead” on Spotify and follow Haley at the links below.

Haley on Facebook

Haley on Twitter

Haley on Instagram

Garage Sale’s Shoegaze Single “Blank Again” Washes Away Emotional Overload With an Alternately Raw Delicacy and Sonic Catharsis

Garage Sale sets a mood of delicate introspection at the beginning of “Blank Again” with a guitar riff that lets all the details of the chord shine through. The lyrics seem to be written from the perspective of someone who has been through a period of great psychological duress and trauma and recovering from a period of emotional exhaustion when you feel like you have nothing left. The rhythm feels like a tentative taking of steps into an unfamiliar way of being but wanting to get back to a place of being able to trust your feelings again and how your brain works rather than the mode its’ been in for too long of tangling with too much and not enough the way maybe things felt for a lot of people during the early pandemic period. Later in the song the gorgeously warped, melodic maelstrom of guitar and syncopated percussion and bass washes over you like its flooding in and taking away some of the doubt and anxiety that simmers below the surface of the song’s more tranquil moments. It’s a new chapter of experimentation in songwriting for the band based in Melbourne, Australia, and it showcases the group’s ability to genre bend in favor of more widely expressive songwriting. Listen to “Blank Again” on Soundcloud and follow Garage Sale at the links below.