Song Review – Queen City Sounds and Art

“After the Masquerade (Refashioned)” Casts Shaela Miller’s Americana Synth Pop Original Into a Vibrant Dark Wave Mode

The remix of Shaela Miller’s “After the Masquerade (Refashioned)” (the title track of her 2024 album) re-imagines the more synth pop song in a darker, almost industrial mode. The beats hit heavier, the vocals echo into more open spaces. Swirls of drone spiral out in slow motion giving a touch of menace to the song but preserved is how Miller’s melodic vocals shine through the cinematic layers of sound. The music video is like a dark cabaret in a cyberpunk future with warm and cool colored layered to dramatic effect book-ended with a clear image of Miller cleaning up the aftermath of a celebration like the messes and only half regrets of one’s life while still being able to look back with a certain romantic fondness for a time despite its mix of memories. If the original was a step toward dark wave from the Americana of her earlier work, this remix even more so. Watch the video for “After the Masquerade” on YouTube and follow Shaela Miller at the links provided. The song is from Refashioned Selex, a five-song remix EP out May 14, 2026 with tracks originally released on the 2024 album After the Masquerade.

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Shaela Miller on Facebook

Shaela Miller on Instagram

“Behold!” by Radium88 is Like the Avant-Garde Synthpop Soundtrack to a Retro-Futurist Dystopian Novel

“Behold!” the opening track of Radium88’s new album Beauty is Lies (released April 4, 2026) feels like a trip back to an alternative dimension where turn of the 80s Hawkwind, early Eurhythmics and Legendary Pink Dots are the soundtrack to children’s shows and public television documentaries. The song brings together analog percussion sounds, bell tones, measured drum machine rhythms and dream like synth drone melodies in a manner that is transporting and soothing to the mind. The vocals are like a spoken piece from book of poetry crafted for a lost classic of retro-futurist science fiction. The song indeed feels like the intro to music for such a work that would bear comparison to the output of Alan Moore and Gene Wolf. In general the song hits like finding a time capsule with a message for the future during a time of oppression and widespread, imposed austerity. The rest of the album does not disappoint in the richness of tone and a sustained sense of wonder. Listen to “Behold!” on YouTube and follow Nottingham, UK’s Radium88 at the links below.

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Unwed Sailor’s Instrumental Post-Rock Single “Don’t Let Go” is a Buoyant Celebration of Personal Connection

Unwed Sailor, photo by Alejandro Martinez

In the music video for Unwed Sailor’s “Don’t Let Go” we see images of hands being drawn and hands in action through what appears to be the filter of an old VHS tape with the visual glitches like the video equivalent of developing old film or a series of Polaroids that have had some time to age into the images looking like an artifact from another era. The song itself has a joyous and upbeat mood with an expansive melody that feels like a spirit of anticipation and hopefulness. Sometimes the band’s music can seem introspective and this is not the opposite so much in that what reflection one can hear in this song is projected forward to what lies ahead and the celebration of the personal connection inherent to the song title. Watch the video for “Don’t Let Go” on YouTube and follow Unwed Sailor at the links provided below. The new Unwed Sailor album Heavy Age released on May 3, 2026.

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Forever Factory’s Darkly Humorous and Surreal Post-Punk Single “Never Boring” Weighs the Options of Social Activities and Self-Isolating

Forever Factory, photo courtesy the artist

Forever Factory sounds like a long lost, experimental post-punk band from Scotland on the “Never Boring” single. It has a downcast and surreal energy that nevertheless draws you in. Its hypnotic beat is akin to something out of mid-80s The Fall and its gloomy guitar melody and spoken, almost whispered vocals have the intensity of a repeated mantra. The intro to the song going into the song proper brings to mind a bizarre mix of The Residents, Cabaret Voltaire and a minimalistic, spooky Viagra Boys. The lyrics sound like the words of a self-isolating person of misanthropic tendencies contemplating coming out of the comfortable confines of his own sanctum sanctorum because that’s what you’re supposed to do on a Saturday night even if you don’t really want to be in artificial social situations with the deep potential of dull interactions. Why bother when you can stay home where it’s, apparently, never boring. The song’s menace suggests a self-spiraling habit of isolating oneself and finding justifications for how not having at least some stimulation and human contact is not boring, “not if you have something to do it with.” The track is a rare modern post-punk song that doesn’t rely on trendy sounds and dares to go off the deep end into uncommon subject matter with honesty and a touch of dark humor. Listen to “Never Boring” on Spotify and follow Forever Factory at the links provided. Forever Factory’s debut EP Violence Is Everywhere But Not Here released March 27, 2026.

Forever Factory on Instagram

Lukka Celebrates the Multitudes Within Each of Us on Psychedelic Synth Pop Single “Tomboi”

Lukka perfectly accents the rhythms of synth pop single “Tomboi.” The melodious and breathy vocals seem to invoke the embrace of different sides of oneself within and the virtues and unique qualities attendant to them. In particular the unification of masculine and feminine inside everyone as a product of superficially disparate elements coming together to produce a new human entity. The song’s effervescent and vibrant energy feels like a celebration of that acknowledgment and acceptance of how each of us contains multitudes that conventional culture conditions us to separate out as if that’s even possible without great effort at suppressing the manifest truth that need not be resisted. The song has some cool funk beats while fully psychedelic in its crafting experimental sounds into a pop song that makes its heady ideas accessible. Listen to “Tomboi” on Spotify and follow Lukka at the links provided.

Madrid Exit’s Dark R&B Pop Single “July” (ft. Delachute) is Like Deep Mood Music For an Elevated Found Footage Horror Film

Delachute and Madrid Exit (L-R), photo by Orhan Aydin

The music video for Madrid Exit’s “July” (featuring Delachute, courtesy videographer Orhan Aydin) is a little like watching a strange found footage horror short. The song itself his ethereal and hazy yet beat driven. A human figure (Madrid Exit) is in the first part of the video and when he walks off screen we see another with some kind of white mask and what looks like a baseball bat (this is Delachute in the usual garb). Both are walking along a path flanked by lush greenery and the song with elements of background drone and slow, heavy processed percussion is simultaneously haunting and soothing. Think pop music for a Curry Baker film. Watch the video for “July” on YouTube and follow Madrid Exit at the links below. Look out for his debut album out in Fall 2026.

Madrid Exit on Instagram

Kid Sistr Makes an Exuberant Case for Dropping the Egotistical Gaslighter Out of Your Life on Epic Grunge Folk Single “Maniac”

Kid Sistr look exuberant in the music video for “Maniac.” And the song itself has that kind of cathartic energy that feels like a cause for celebration. While the band sings and plays in a field and play about in the shade of a graffiti-covered underpass it’s instantly easy to get caught up in the song’s infectious, fuzzy melody. The lyrics are about finally breaking it off with the person that seems to gaslight you every chance they get initially drawing you in with flattering words but repelling you with emotionally abusive and manipulative behavior and when you have a normal if dramatic response you get to be the “crazy” person and the villain in their story. And that’s what it too often is, you’re a character in their story and not someone whose own feelings actually matter. Fans of Bully and Weakened Friends will appreciate how Kid Sistr draws from both 90s grunge and emo. Watch the video for “Maniac” on YouTube and follow Kid Sistr at the links below. The trio’s new EP American Teenage Prophecy is due May 13, 2026 via Giant Music.

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Macro/micro Taps Into the Dark IDM and Thriller Soundtracks for the Beat-Driven Menace of “Paperclip Maximizer”

Macro/mico has a new album A.fter I.ntelligence out June 23, 2026. Ahead of the occasion of its release you can give a listen to “Paperclip Maximizer.” The title alone might resonate widely in meaning and references with various listeners. The song itself sounds like the soundtrack to a retro, dystopian science fiction thriller. Its deeply textural beat with mechanical sounds, layered percussive sounds and what hits the ears like cybernetic beings communicating with one another in rapid bursts and echoing in a giant, darkened space whether in dimensions humans can experience directly or those of digital networks connecting. There is just a palpable sense of menace that in the brain unites the feelings one got from watching the intro credits to Seven and a darker Squarepusher track. Listen to “Paperclip Maximizer” on YouTube and follow Macro/micro at the links below.

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La Sécurité’s Playful No-Wave Pop Single “Snack City” is an Upbeat Song About How Bread and Circuses is No Longer Enough

La Sécurité’s video for new single “Snack City” looks like a fast-paced collage of the kind of food one might pick up at a convenience store or sneak away from a buffet or leftovers from a dinner or lunch from earlier in the week. The urgency of the bass line is infectious and the spidery guitar paired with the almost anxiety-inducing synth sounds enhances the mood of the song with vocals that rapidly sketches situations in which snacks cleverly symbolize various forms of personal and economic exploitation with end lyrics en Français that mentions often being hungry and being hungry all the time. Because so much of life under late capitalism leaves one unsatisfied in a way that descends to so many areas of life. When the elite are given everything and far more and everyone else has to settle for what they can get there is a generalized anxiety that leads to revolution. This song is just a fun and playful way to put out there that bread and circuses isn’t enough anymore. Watch the video for “Snack City” on YouTube and follow La Sécurité at the links provided.
The band’s new album Bingo! is due out June 12, 2026 via Mothland (CA, US) and Bella Union (Rest of the World) on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

La Sécurité on Facebook

La Sécurité on Instagram

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Susurrus Station’s Cosmic Pastoral Pop Single “Meshes of the Afterlife” is a Peak Into a More Tranquil and Nurturing Future

Susurrus Station, photo courtesy the artists

The title of Susurrus Station’s “Meshes of the Afterlife” is a nod to Maya Derren’s 1943 short experimental/psychological film Meshes of the Afternoon. While not the proto noir of Deren’s film, the music video for the song involves masked figures reminiscent of a mix of the masks worn by the Brutal Exterminators in Zardoz and Japanese classical theater masks. The song itself has a playful energy rooted in rhythms and textures lending its melodies an otherworldly feel at times as the song explores themes of mortality and struggle and taking a chance on doing something with your time that brings you some joy and psychological freedom from the heaviness of the times we’re living through right now that no one asked for but psychotic greed and power mongers are imposing on us all at great cost to human society, psychology and the rest of the world, often dismissed as incidental to human experience, with it. Susurrus Station leans into the whimsy without losing sight of the reality that makes that more necessary than ever to indulge. While the elements of songwriting and its tools for effecting its unique sound the mood is reminiscent of late 2000s Deerhunter but more utilizing synth and piano more than guitar to achieve a dreamlike quality that draws out one’s capacity to connect with a realm of the imagination and dreams where more seems possible and nurturing rather than limiting and destructive. In that way the song, perhaps hinting with the title at seeing a future free from mundane mortal existence, fees like a gateway to a better time. Watch the video for “Meshes of the Afterlife” on YouTube and follow Susurrus Station at the links below. Look out for the group’s new album Mythomania due out later in 2026.

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