Song Review – Page 57 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Shadow Sides Brings and Uplifting Energy to Coming to Terms With Childhood Trauma on the Shoegaze Tinged “no going home”

Shadow Sides’ new single from its forthcoming album Dissolve the Frame “no going home” is stylistically divergent from the brooding darkwave of “heroine with meaning.” The sparkling guitar work is more reminiscent of the expansive, ethereal sounds of 80s post-punk band The Chameleons. Chords hang and dissolve over an understated, driving bass line and drums, the riffs shimmer and burn with an urgency in moments reflecting the lyrics that hint at an adulthood coming to terms with childhood traumas. Lines like “Buried in youth” after “Uncovering half truths” points to the kind of information that sometimes hits you out of the blue and rattles your psyche for a moment because you’ve had to dissociate at those earlier points in your life to emotionally survive and the memories had stayed hidden and all but forgotten. Though the song is upbeat it is an expression of the kind of energy you have to muster to not be sunk with finally coming to deal with dark moments of your personal history that inspire thoughts like “Nothing stays the same, there’s no going home” because it’s abundantly clear why that isn’t even a desirable option. Without softening the impact of experiences like the song outlines that many people can find relatable it kindly expresses the sentiments indirectly, resonating with the emotional truth over relating graphic details, and pairs it with the kind of uplifting melancholia that The Chameleons and bands it influenced like Kitchens of Distinction and Slowdive manifested so well in their own foundational work to the kind of song Shadow Sides offers here. Listen to “no going home” on Spotify and follow Shadow Sides at the links below.

Shadow Sides on Facebook

Shadow Sides on Instagram

Dionisaf’s “Tantric Cat” is an Epic Ambient Journey Through Meditative Inner Space to the Tranquil Outer Reaches

“Tantric Cat” is the epic 30:03 track that opens the new Dionisaf album Healing Music (released January 12, 2024). It begins with the sound of purring before the tones of an enveloping cosmic soundscape drift into the distance. What sounds like a campfire or rain falling into a lake layers through the spectral haze. After three minutes voices echo through like ancient radio transmissions captured and rendered audible by an alien technology or organism or a blend of the two. The streaming, luminescent tones increase in speed like tail of a comet and we hear the sound of those streaking lights a harmonic, evolcing drone embodies the brightest end of that movement. Perhaps the music is an interpretation of the title and the said cat rather than that of the Schrödinger variety is taking a journey through time and space via a discipline enabling a type of astral projection and able to translate this experience as a sound that conjures visual images while the cat is warmed by a fire that grounds the ethereal and heavenly flow of noises inducing a sense of deep calm and connection with a larger universe and spaces and energies we will likely never know directly except through such creative expressions. More voices leak through the shimmering vistas of drone over a third of the way through the piece sounding ever so much like the chatter of astronauts adrift in space from decades past and rather than being haunting it curiously has a quality of comfort through familiarity in the abstraction of the ambient soundstream. In the last third of the composition the dense drone clears away as though we’ve entered a primordial cavern with textural sounds, rattles and the sound of rain replacing the drones of earlier, it’s a cleansing sound, tranquil in its fashion rooted in tactile experiences yet with the beacon of pulses of melodic tones discernible in the far distance. As the song comes to a close the chatter of humans returns as the rain diminishes and a sense of being gentle set down in regular reality sets in while all sounds fade to silence. It feels like a real journey and that it can’t possible have been around a half hour in total. Listen to “Tantric Cat” on Spotify and follow Dionisaf at the links provided.

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Dionisaf on YouTube

Dionisaf on Apple Music

Yify Zhang’s Sweepingly Orchestral Synthpop Single “This Is The Year” Encourages All of Us to Live Our Dreams Sooner Than Later

Yify Zhang offers a different vision of a song of self-affirmation with “This Is The Year.” In the beginning she acknowledges how in times past she put her energy and effort into someone else’s concept for who she is and what she should strive for, in effect trying to live out a prescribed role and striving for aspirations handed to her rather than her own. With hushed, introspective vocals Zhang course upward as the song’s orchestral melodies saturate from a dreamlike spaciousness to something more concrete and full like the intentionality in realizing a new vision for self that Zhang articulates in the song’s lyrics of leaving behind her previous was of being and learning to trust herself and follow her passion and guiding the course of her life by plugging directly into that living her authentic dreams for herself. Most of us have spent a lot of our lives fortifying the fortunes of others and often not that of even the people we care about and who enrich our lives directly without questioning it and in Zhang’s song she breaks a bit of this cycle for herself and a reminder to others they can do so as well. The song’s cinematic scope simply reinforces the sense of that possibility in sweeping synth pop flourishes. Listen to “This Is The Year” on Spotify and follow Yify Zhang at the links below.

Yify Zhang on Facebook

Yify Zhang on Instagram

Elea Calvet’s Cabaret Chamber Pop Single “Sinuous Ways” is Like a Poetic Examination of a Complicated Relationship With Oneself

Elea Calvet’s title to the song “Sinuous Ways” suggests in its very language the way life can be like walking a tightrope in navigating tensions and precarious situations. Also the imagery of the lyrics highlights the interconnections of the various aspects of our lives and how it’s held together like the connective tissues of living. The music cast in strings, piano and Calvet’s near whispered vocals like a jazz singer who maybe took in a little influence from Edith Piaf’s cadence and Jarvis Cocker’s phrasing conveys a mood like a late night cabaret act performing in a darkened club in Paris or Berlin. The words can at times seem to describe obliquely a complicated relationship but one that is more like coming to terms with that relationship with oneself and grappling with one’s own existential angst. Listen to “Sinuous Ways” on Spotify and follow Elea Calvet at the links provided.

eleacalvet.com

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Amie Hayes’ Darkly Folkloric Slowcore Single “Wicked Woman” Lingers Long in the Mind

Amie Hayes, photo by William Creek Creations

The spacious and finely textured guitar loop that runs through Amie Hayes’ single “Wicked Woman” sets a mood as dark, stark and brooding as the subject matter of the song. Hayes’ vocals sound slightly doubled to give the words a deep resonance even as they’re delicate and introspective in tone. But there’s an undeniable edge to the song the whole way through as Hayes sings the tale of someone who can’t handle the narrator’s intensity of feeling and personal strength and likes to see her bowed and subservient even if that’s not her nature and lacking that keeping her at a distance so that none of that thorny humanity and grimy emotions rub off and complicate matters. The narrative thus hits like a modern bit of folklore. Musically it’s like a dark, slowcore piece reminiscent of maybe some of Chelsea Wolfe’s more dusky folk compositions and its labyrinthine melodies gets under your skin a little in a way that invites repeated listens. Listen to “Wicked Woman” on Spotify.

Boy of Sleep Convey the Subtle Elegance and Magic of Summer Arboreal Green Transitioning to Autumnal Gold on “Retonsel”

A gentle oscillating shimmer of drone runs in the background of Boy of Sleep’s “Retonsel.” It has an effect like a touch of light against dark while a synth melody rolls through in a resonant, sequenced loop. It feels like a modern classical piece composed for an art installation featuring early fall foliage transitioning from green to golden. Partway through a second melody eases in between the background and foreground loop which in its crisp, and clear if slightly echoing resonance seems more in focus while the middle musical figure is rimmed with a haze like a fog drifting through the aforementioned imagery. There’s something uplifting and calming about all three sets of sounds working together that also captures a certain magic of the impossible moments to witness as summer transitions to fall in a forest and rather than seem melancholic or nostalgic conveys a mood of acceptance. Listen to “Retonsel” on YouTube and follow Boy of Sleep at the links below.

Boy of Sleep on Apple Music

Boy of Sleep on Instagram

“Stars in the Riptide” by Micah Pick and Analise Hausmann Charts the Life Cycle of a Wave From Formation to Crashing Into Shore in Ambient Drones

If you close your eyes and listen to Micah Pick’s and Analise Hausmann’s ambient piece “Stars in the Riptide” you can picture the heavens reflected off the waters as they rush into a rocky inlet, shimmering and endless fragments of glinting light. The song begins with a distant sound like a slow swelling wind, the waveform building in the ocean headed to shore then splashes and rushes as the tide rises. White noises as the crest of the waves ripple through the scintillating melody into a slow cascading frisson of tones that peaks and fades. In the extended version of the song we get to savor that heady anticipation early in the song as it evolves with seeming subtlety into a flood of activity but we hear the simulated sounds of sea birds on the edges of the soundscape much more distinctly and the resonating tones toward the end and apex of the song stretch out like an elongated vortex that breaks and dissolves abruptly into infinity. Listen to both versions of “Stars in the Riptide” on Spotify and follow Micah Pick on Bandcamp.

Dead Boyfriend’s Grounding Yet Transporting Dream Folk Single “heaven to you” Soothes the Spirit

Dead Boyfriend, photo courtesy the artist

The acoustic guitar strums keep “heaven to you” by Dead Boyfriend centered like a looped mantra giving its fluid melodies a kind of outline and structure. Violin hovers at the edges of the song like a hummingbird. The spectral keyboard tones flow about in cool colors adding melancholic and introspective hues to a spare soundscape. All while the vocals seem to convey impressionistic images of sense memories attached to feelings shared with the smallest of circles. Listening to the song feels like getting a glimpse into a secret, deeply personal world with vulnerabilities laid bare in safety. Something about its combination of textural rhythms and ethereal tones works itself into your mind with a spirit of therapeutic calm that lingers with you long after the song’s conclusion. Listen to “heaven to you” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the it’s just bad news EP and follow Dead Boyfriend at the links below.

ashleynova.com

Dead Boyfriend on Instagram

The Voice of KAA Channels the Frequencies of a Horrific Future in the Industrial Ambient Psychedelia of “Through Thorns to Fear”

Spectral shimmers of faint melody haunt the background of “Сквозь Тернии к Страху” (“Through Thorns to Fear” in English) by Голос КАА (The Voice of KAA). Like ghosts of former human activity in abandoned buildings just out of sight. When the vocals come in its like firmly whispered commentary on the state of things like a narrator for the Russian equivalent of The Twilight Zone. But the hovering buzzing sounds that zip in and out of the soundscape and swells of icy sounds lend it an aspect of a more supernatural science fiction especially when the vocals become distorted and mutated going into a more darkly ethereal passage as if we’re hearing mourning for a better time that will never be again. Musically it’s reminiscent of an especially spooky part of a song by The Legendary Pink Dots had the band been tapped to score Brandon Cronenberg film in its shadowy, industrial, ambient psychedelia. Listen to “Through Thorns to Fear” and follow the now Singapore-based experimental artist with roots in Saint Petersburg The Voice of KAA at the links below.

The Voice of KAA on TikTok

The Voice of KAA on Instagram

Daraa Tribes Evoke the Vitality of North African Pastoral Life in the Traditional and Saharan Blues Fusion of “Bshara”

Daraa Tribes, photo courtesy the artists

Daraa Tribes is a musical troupe from the oasis town of Tangounite in the Daraa River Valley of Morocco, each member hailing from a different tribe but all bring together various musical traditions of ancestral tribal sounds. It’s single “Bshara” (meaning “Good News” in English) is an energetic and intricate flow of strings, percussion and voices in panoramic choruses and lively solo performance orchestrated as a celebration of pastoral living and community with imagery perhaps drawn from Bedouin culture and daily practices that give context and continuity to existence and identity. The richness of detail in the song though one that feels so foundational and organic in execution is entrancing and hypnotic in the way of a great deal of Arabic music rooted in traditional forms. Yet the song has the spontaneous flavorings of Saharan Blues giving it an undeniably modern resonance. Watch the lyric video for “Bshara” on YouTube and connect with Daraa Tribes at the links provided.