Song Review – Page 43 – Queen City Sounds and Art

KapTep’s “Longlat” is an Transcendent Journey Immersed in Luminous Ambient Fog and Harmonic Drones

KapTep’s “Longlat” begins with a harmonic drone like a luminous fog that surrounds what sounds like human activity and the operation of radio equipment in the middle distance. The sense of drift brings to mind the sensation of being on a boat gliding through tranquil waters in an evening fog faintly lit by moonlight and starshine. It’s the kind of music one heard in Werner Herzog’s more existential films of the 70s and early 80s that suggest entering a zone or a liminal moment where the extraordinary and significant is unfolding around you like a spiritually resonant dream state. As the song progresses the harmonic drone shifts almost imperceptibly into higher registers and the touches of abstract strings emerge and give way to the noises of a signal transmission to the end of the piece. The song is an adventure the same way perhaps films like Beyond the Black Rainbow or Monsters were beyond the action sequences to the way the mood of the film shifts reflecting a change in the essence of the characters in modes subtle but deep and difficult to articulate if sensed with clarity. Listen to “Longlat” on Spotify where you can listen to the new KapTep album Latitude Longitude which dropped June 7, 2024 also available for digital download on Bandcamp.

The Psychedelic Folk Pop of Pearl Charles’ “Smoke In The Limousine” Evokes Feelings of Nostalgia While Living in the Present

Pearl Charles, photo courtesy the artist

Pearl Charles evokes future, past and present overlapping in “Smoke In The Limousine.” Her vocals echo ever so slightly with a touch of reverb in unconventional melodies. A simple guitar figure runs through the song paired with a minimal string arrangement to add a melancholic wistfulness to a song about how we spend our time and how easy it is to live with regret when we don’t live and act in the moment and how that can weigh us down with the memory of what we wish we’d done. To this point Charles sings “There’s a world over your shoulder/And each day you’re getting older/Don’t get left behind” as if to remind you that the weight of your own history is always going to be there but it’s best to do something now and not to let that legacy and habit keep you from being present and making the memories you’d prefer rather than sepia-tinged perceptions of “the good old days” when there are plenty more to be had that needn’t be beholden to where you’ve already been. Charles brings to the song a dream-like psychedelic sheen that conveys feelings of nostalgia with a yearning what’s yet to come which is particularly effective way to tap into the kind of Laurel Canyon cosmic folk that is a clear inspiration to Charles’ songwriting here. Listen to “Smoke In The Limousine” on Spotify and follow Pearl Charles at the links below.

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Las Nubes’ Gloriously Brash Single “Enredados – Misty’s Mix” is the Noisy Garage Punk Anthem of the Summer

Las Nubes dropped its latest record Tormentas Malsanas on June 14, 2024 (digital download, streaming, limited edition colored vinyl) and its blend of fantastic vocal harmonies and fuzzy, noisy garage pop. Throughout the record the band reveals a gift for shifting between dreamy, gentle, atmospheric melodies swiftly and easily into soaring, bombastic anthemic rock. The single “Enredados – Misty’s Mix” is reminiscent simultaneously of Pixies and Skating Polly. The band lead by Ale Campos (who is a film photographer and guitarist in Iggy Pop’s band) and Emile Milgrim (drummer for Mr. Entertainment & The Pookiesmackers as well as sound designer and head of the Other Electricities label in addition to co-founding Miami Girls Rock Camp) has found a sweet spot between the blistering and the transcendent, the intense and the playful with songs that have an undeniable momentum in which it is easy to get swept up and, yes, tangled, but in the way you’d want to be, as the title of the song suggests. Listen to “Enredados – Misty’s Mix” on Spotify and follow South Florida’s Las Nubes at the links provided.

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Last Wars’ “Attrition” is a Retrofuturist Analog Synth Rebel Anthem

The artwork for the forthcoming Last Wars album Escaper has that brutalist architecture style that you would expect to see in an update of the Duke Nuke ‘Em video game or an even more dystopian Grand Theft Auto game set in the future anticipated by Escape From New York or The Terminator. Lead single “Attrition” has a menacing urgency with distorted synths and Vocoder, fantastic electronic bass and an almost impressionistic melody like bursts of joy escaping in through the emotion dampening fields imposed by a technocratic oligarchy to maximize labor efficiency. Musically it makes one think about what might happen if Trans Am and Chrome collaborated on a piece of music to give it a retrofuturist flavor imbued with a spirit of rebellion. The song makes you want to see the movie or read the graphic novel that could have spawned it. Listen to “Attrition” on Spotify and follow Last Wars at the links below. Escaper releases on September 15, 2024 on digital download, streaming and as a limited edition vinyl LP.

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Mary Ocher’s Cosmic Pop Single “The Rubaiyat Medley” Free Associates High Concept Musical and Creative Ideas Across Centuries

Mary Ocher seems to be in a space out of regular time in the video for “The Rubaiyat Medley” playing a harp with fruit hanging from strings around her as she sings bits of the famous “The Rubaiyat” of Persian poet and polymath Omar Khayyam (1048-1131 CE), one of the classics of Islamic and world literature. The video also seems to be arranged like a silent movie with scene and title cards. Nearly three minutes in the classical instrumentation shifts into something more like funk with a solid back beat. All this with Ocher’s dramatic and highly expressive vocals providing the commentary as comedic scenes unfold in the first half of the song. But this particular song borrowing from variations on Dorothy Ashby’s 1970s compositions of the aforementioned poem and the movements across its ten minute thirty-eight seconds run time evolve into other musical realms as well as what might be described as cosmic downtempo during a period in which it appears the richness of fruit is featured and celebrated. In the “Epilogue” section Ocher’s voice is treated with a Vocoder briefly before the song picks up tempo again for “The Betrayal” portion that has a Bernie Worrell-esque electro funk that slinks along as we see images of people wearing sheep masks being annointed with the pulp of pomegranate from a bowl by a priestly figure. The end. What did we just see? Ocher directed the video with help from collaborators but it felt like a more playful and cosmic Pier Paolo Pasolini or Abbas Kiarostami film setting it apart from most music videos in recent memory. Watch the video for “The Rubaiyat Melody (feat. Your Government)” on YouTube and follow Mary Ocher at the links below. Her new album Your Guide to Revolution released in Europe on June 14, 2024 on vinyl, digital download and streaming with a physical release set to be made available more widely in the rest of the world on July 19.

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The Noisy Outbursts of Too Many Suns’ Unraveling Post-punk Single “Kim Gordon” is a Cathartic Purge of the Anxieties of Modern Life

Too Many Suns, photo courtesy the artists

“Kim Gordon” is bit of a different style of song from Lisbon, Portugal’s Too Many Suns’ new album Reverie (released May 24, 2024 on the band’s own Reverie Records). Whereas a good deal of the rest of the album is in the realm of psychedelic pop, “Kim Gordon” is brash and noisy and seems to be inspired by one of those songs Kim Gordon herself would write about the life of a person struggling with personal demons and an oppressive culture that inspires what some might see as an extreme reaction to internal and external pressures but given Gordon’s delivery and emotional nuance reveals those responses as simply normal human reactions to heightened anxiety in the face of dysfunctional forces. The band ties the noisy riffs and emotional outbursts as vocals to a groove but in the end just lets the self-deconstructing song be what it tranquilly settles into. Listen to “Kim Gordon” on Spotify and follow Too Many Suns at the links provided.

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Three Lefts And A Right Infuse “Opened Up My Eyes” With an Exuberant Jangle Pop Spirit Encouraging One to Seize Upon Life’s Opportunities in the Now

Three Lefts And A Right, photo courtesy Dan Ruprecht

Three Lefts And A Right sounds like it walked right out of The Paisley Underground on “Opened Up My Eyes” with its kaleidoscopic, jangle guitar driven psychedelia. But its raw exuberance grounds it in the present as do its words of looking forward and not getting stuck on notions of the past and the future when there is plenty in life right in front of you right now to enjoy and to act upon whether one’s life adventure or romantic possibilities that can come and go in an instant if you let them pass you by. Musically it’s also reminiscent a bit of early XTC, The Smithereens and REM but through the lens of musicians who rediscovered that music after coming up in punk. Listen to “Opened Up My Eyes” on Spotify and follow Three Lefts And A Right and band leader Dan Ruprecht at the links below.

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Samuel Nicholson’s Reimagined “Black Dog Funeral” is Like a Bedroom Dub Indie Pop Daydream

Samuel Nicholson is about to release the Further Listening EP on July 10. The latter is a companion piece to the 2023 full-length Birthday Suit with songs that didn’t quite make the final album and others reworked to give them a distinctly different flavor. “Black Dog Funeral – Alt” takes the robust and expansive indie rock of the original with its giant hooks and boosts the low end so it has a dub-like feel but with Nicholson’s vocals standing clear in the warm yet enigmatic soundscape. Fans of Smog and Bill Callahan in general will appreciate this musical transformation and how the reverse delay gives some of the tones an otherworldly quality while the slightly blown out distortion adds a unique texture that feels wonderfully rough around the edges. It all makes the song have a more intimate feel like this was how the song hit before filters and editing were added to give it the kind of clarity one generally wants on a record released to a general public yet sometimes you prefer the raw and real deal in art. Listen to “Black Dog Funeral – Alt” on Spotify and follow Samuel Nicholson at the links below.

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Gabriel Abedi’s Cinematic “Ekewo” Combines Modern Classical Music and Traditional Ewe Polyrhythmic Textures to Create a Sense of Something Greater on the Horizon

Gabriel Abedi, photo courtesy the artist

Gabriel Abedi’s song “Ekewo” is immediately striking with a cinematic resonance with its sonic richness and depth. It’s like music for a movie you wish existed about some kind of near future thriller drama or historical epic set in Africa. The title refers to an Ewe word that can be taken to mean “roots” in English in the sense of one’s origins and the cultural heritage that has helped to shape you and your perspectives and sensibilities. The dynamic song layers modern classical composition with the percussive and polyrhythmic textures of the Ewe music of Ghana and draws inspiration from a time in the nation’s history when the Ewe people escaped the rule of the dictator Togbe Agorkoli centuries ago. The piano melodies, the hushed but commanding vocals and the intricate yet evocative percussion conveys a sense of historical sweep and anticipation of something promising on the horizon. Listen to “Ekewo” on Spotify and follow Gabriel Abedi at the links provided.

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Reykjavik Kids’ Big Beat Synthpop Single “Sanctimony” is a Triumphant Shaking Off of Anonymous Judgment

Reykjavik Kids, photo courtesy the artists

With the breakbeats and 8-bit style synth tones sprinkled in Reykjavik Kids’ “Sanctimony” has a massive sound like a fusion of 90s electro-Britpop and 2010s indie electronic pop circa Crystal Castles and M83. Except this band with this song has a triumphant spirit even with the even keeled and clear-eyed lead vocals and the call and response harmonies. The rich tonality in the production makes the song a standout even if its subject matter seems to be about anonymous and vicious judgment that can come at you out of nowhere in great numbers in the social media environment. The song feels like a shaking off of that mood. Listen to “Sanctimony” on Spotify and follow the UK band based in Newcastle upon Tyne at the links below.