Song Review – Page 58 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Astral Bakers Soothe the Angst and Trauma of Internalized Social Conformity on “Beautiful Everything”

Astral Bakers, photo courtesy the artists

The way the guitar tones unwind in Astral Bakers “Beautiful Everything” is redolent of Sonic Youth circa EVOL and Sister in a more drifty and wispy dynamic, daring to break from straight ahead notation in favor of expressive flourishes. The sound might be described as psych-noise-jangle. The layered rhythmic arrangements and finely accented melodies move with a gentle urgency. There is something spidery about the guitar work and fragile about the delicate percussion and a sensitive inflection to the vocals that reflects well a song that seems to be about someone who has tried so hard to do everything by the book to fit in with some mainstream image of success and acceptability and falling short repeats to themselves sentiments as those in the chours, “It’s a beautiful life, it’s a beautiful everything.” It’s an image that recalls Annette Bening’s character in 1999’s American Beauty where she’s so tightly wound and no one is fooled and she insists everything and everyone conform to her image of her life until little by little it can’t and the image is shattered and maybe she’d have been better off not trying to live up to unrealistic standards and images. This is a song about that. Living with immediacy and in acceptance of human frailty. In some regards the sentiments resonate with the sorts of things Jarvis Cocker was singing about on the 1995 Pulp album Different Class and how life would be so much easier if people could be real and not limited by internalized, arbitrary social conventions. It’s a subtle and poetic exploration of a complex emotional reality that many of us have experienced ourselves or witnessed in others. Watch road trip-themed performance video for “Beautiful Everything” on YouTube and follow French rock band Astral Bakers at the links below. The track comes from the group’s debut album The Whole Story set for release on February 9, 2024 via Sage Music.

Astral Bakers on Facbook

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Petruccio’s “Lektr” is Like a Ride on a Cybernetic Escape Skiff From the Prison Mines of an Alien World

The sounds of a pursuit in a cybernetic alien landscape is what emerges out of the sounds of strings/robotic sinews being stretched at the beginning of Petruccio’s “Lektr.” An urgent, dramatic melody cycles through while percussive sounds and flowing textures bubble along with pulses of distorted sound. The melody gives way to harmonic arpeggios that loop frantically at headlong pace toward a seemingly unknown destination but trusting that the path ahead won’t give out. The sound palette of the song evolves as it goes and in the last roughly third of the song all melody seems burned out and echoing metallic, scraping tones in a tunnel take its place yet the sense of motion persists though an unmistakably close up, almost claustrophobic feeling accompanies these noises that become a constant wail of squealing metal kicking up sparks of sound until the sudden end. We’ve been on a ride through harrowing spaces in the song in an place perilous and strange but you kind of want to get back on for that ride again. Listen to “Lektr” on Spotify and follow Petruccio on Bandcamp where you can listen to the rest of the Electrocephaliya album which released on October 10, 2023.

Springworks Explores the Perils of Technological Dystopia on Britpop Post-punk Single “Faraday Eyes”

Springworks takes a bit of a turn toward the retrofuturistic with “Faraday Eyes.” It’s a song about the ways sophisticated technology can at first seem like a convenience before it can become obviously a tool of control. When too much is in the control of a central authority or a corporation or two it becomes too easy to systematize oppression in a coordinated way that potentially affects all areas of life with network effects. Technology reporters including Corey Doctorow have reported extensively on aspects of how big tech through monopoly and monopsony have impacted so much of our daily lives and aim to stretch further at first to seem like a convenient boon but locking everyone into an economic pathway that isn’t necessarily in everyone’s best interest unless you’re the company profiting. The song itself and the music video make use of vintage yesteryear technology imagery to make this point, including referencing the godfather of electromagnetic science Michael Faraday in the title, with playful creativity and with sounds that one would normally hear in a more vintage psychedelic rock or pop song to comment on a modern problem with the aesthetics of a previous era. But this time the band sounds like its channeling 90s Britpop and psych garage at once into a modern New Wave and post-punk fusion, an apt sound for a song examining complex modern issues from a different angle. Watch the video for “Faraday Eyes” on YouTube and follow Springworks at the links provided.

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Ethan Larsh’s Gloriously Epic Rock and Roll Ballad “The Last Big Score” is a Tribute to at Least Going For One’s Modest Dreams

The suburban crime plot at the heart of Ethan Larsh’s “The Last Big Score” takes on the element of epic, self-deprecating farce in the music video. Larsh and band (assuming it’s his band) perform in a basement and the song is fine, like an 80s ballad in the vein of a power pop take on Bruce Springsteen about blue collar life. But this one is more like something out of a Cohen Brothers film or like the eye-rolling fantasies of delusional glory in the band practice scene in Sling Blade. But in this video Larsh waves about a sparkler like it’s a torch in the climax of the song brimming with dramatic saxophones and impassioned choruses. The imagery of stealing everything in sight and then evading police for the unalloyed thrill of making off with what might be as much as six thousand dollars at best like it’s the D.B. Cooper heist is admittedly hilarious but it suits the dryly absurd and melodramatic tone of this earnestly solidly written rock and roll fairy tale told in tribute to at least trying to pursue modest dreams. Watch the video for “The Last Big Score” on YouTube and follow Ethan Larsh at the links below.

Ethan Larsh on Instagram

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Ethan Larsh on Apple Music

Pallmer Explores the Quiet Joys of Living Present as a Human on Avant-Folk Single “Carbon”

The layered rhythms of Pallmer’s “Carbon” reflect the themes of the song around identity and humanity and recapturing the feeling of being alive rather than that of someone going through the motions of what it would look like to be a living person. The rapidly plucked cello figure that runs through much of the song as a loop is like being acutely aware of the flow of blood in the body while the bowed melody is like the warmth and wakefulness of conscious human existence, the cycling, bubbly tone a little like a focus on the pattern and sensation of breathing. Emily Kennedy’s vocals are reminiscent of an old folk and jazz style that lends itself well to expressing authentic human emotion and experience, at times even hearkening to a more folk-inflected Suzanne Vega song. In the music video directed by Jordan Anthony Greer we see Saint John-based dancer G.C. Grant moving about freely in a wintry forest landscape shot along the Nashwaak River but it’s not random, it seems more like a ritual designed to re-center and reconnect with oneself, to exult in the sensations of living in a body and in being present rather than living as a presentation. The latter being something we’ve come to internalize as normal in too many areas of life and the song explores the feeling of that imposed and adopted dissociation and a path back to actual normalcy. Watch the video for “Carbon” on YouTube and follow Pallmer from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, at the links below. Pallmer’s new album Swimming released on January 12, 2024.

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Eva Snyder’s Bids Farewell to Old Habits and Ways of Being in the Ethereally Melancholic “Dead to Me”

Eva Snyder leans into feelings of disappointment and hope in the expansive and moody “Dead to Me.” Using the word “maybe” to open so many lines of lyrics, Snyder envisions a better life, better habits, better ways of being and better ways of feeling throughout the song and aiming to leave behind who she was when she allowed herself to be hurt and manipulated by bad faith fools as you do when you’re someone who is more emotionally open and vulnerable and draw all sorts of types to you. In the song we also hear Snyder’s fears and insecurities like going back to her hometown because it wouldn’t be that bad and she wouldn’t feel like a failure who fell short of following her dreams. But in those moments of the song we pull for her and the backing vocals serve as a bit of a voice of her conscience and low key cheering on her more fortifying impulses like not being limited by memories of past behaviors even as the impulse to repeat past mistakes weighs heavy. The continually expansive tone of the song with its melancholic piano accents running alongside synths that swell and pass into the ether always in forward motion. Yet in the back and forth conversation with self it seems as though in Snyder’s expressive and winsome vocals we also hear the will to move beyond these moments of self-doubt as hinted by the title and how sometimes we have to think of phases of our lives in those terms. With the spare elements of the composition, Snyder is able to explore an uncomfortable and messy emotional complexity with clarity. Listen to “Dead to Me” on Spotify and follow Eva Snyder at the links provided. Look for Snyder’s debut album Seventeen set to release on May 3, 2024.

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“All My Life” is the Soulfully Evocative Debut Trip-Hop Single From the Collaborative Project of boerd and Boko Yout

Listening to “All My Life,” the lead single from the soulfully evocative debut collaborative EP Griot by Swedish producers and songwriters boerd and Boko Yout (out as of January 12, 2024 via boerd’s Blunda imprint) and its dusky atmospheric tones and textural downtempo rhythms you hear the kind of thing that might have happened had Tricky and Massive Attack worked together after the release of Mezzanine. It’s a song with themes of self-involvement and escapism and how in pursuing something that feels meaningful with your life’s work you can stay emotionally stunted by having to grind in performative fashion. As an artist that means you might lose yourself trying to please people through asserting your self importance in chasing perceived creative breakthroughs in trying to continually prove yourself. But in the song’s lyrics we hear the words of the narrator’s mother, and as it turns out that of Boko Youth aka Paul Adamah himself, advice to stay grounded and thus connected to your authentic self rather than one processed and filtered through fickle and shifting expectations. The spectral, lingering organ melody just below the accented percussion and expertly executed flourishes of vinyl scratching definitely hits that mode the founders of trip-hop hit that expresses so well a reflective mood conducive to releasing the angst of modern life. It’s a sound that helped to humanize electronic music and with the vocals here it’s a vibe that hits deep. With this collaboration that classic sound gets a subtle production and aesthetic update that feels fresh. Listen to “All My Life” on Spotify and follow boerd at the links below.

BODEGA’s Psychedelic Power Pop Art Punk Single “Tarkovski” is a Spirited Song About Breaking the Rules

BODEGA, photo from Bandcamp

“Tarkovski” is the lead single from BODEGA’s forthcoming album Our Brand Could Be Yr Life (due April 12, 2024 via Chrysalis Records). Of course the title is a reference to the great Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsy but also snow skiing. Guitarist and vocalist Ben Hozie noted that he was taken by Tarkovsky’s book Sculpting in Time and its rules and guidelines for filmmaking often broken by Tarkovsky in actual practice even while those principles are still useful. It’s a testament to how art is actually made and how any actually interesting artist has to reconcile inspiration and intuition with concepts and technique without being strictly limited by any of it. As the band has been playing the song live it has improvised the middle section with words selection considering their efficacy as a sound in the music more than the literal meaning. The song engages in a bit of genre and style time traveling as well with strong melodies in a fashion reminiscent of 1980s power pop and New Wave. The middle instrumental section sounds a bit like what might have happened if The Replacements did a cheeky, off the cuff tribute to both The Velvet Underground and The Clean with hypnotic, noisy, inexplicably beautiful and moving riffs. BODEGA as always finds a way to make a catchy song that goes off center into unpredictable territory and brings you along for the ride even if the person addressed in the song doesn’t really want to go on that ride despite asking to be taken to the zone whether as a deft reference to Tarkovsky’s deeply existential 1979 masterpiece Stalker and in the more cosmic sense or being in the area and headspace where the action happens or both. It’s a promising peek into the art punk heights BODEGA will take us to when the new record drops just over a week after Tarkovsky’s April 4 birthday. Watch the video for “Tarkovski,” a visual and thematic nod to the films of the director in a fog enshrouded forest, on YouTube and follow BODEGA at the links below.

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“Sleepless in Eugene” is Loic Moonmattress’ Poignantly Existential, Ambient Hip-Hop Shoegaze. Late Night Jazz Lounge Love Song

Loic Moonmattress, photo courtesy the artist

Loic Moonmattress sets the scene in subtle and power fashion at the beginning of “Sleepless in Eugene.” The sound of soft white noise like a breeze, warping tones like springs and strings being stretched beyond their bounds and then elegant guitar and the vocalist speaking words of contemplation of the moment and reflecting on the day prior. Gently strummed guitar accenting the lines over piano. Drones incandesce and fade. The lyrics weave a gorgeous and deeply thoughtful and observant narrative that vividly expresses emotional moments that sit well in the music. It leaves the impression of thoughts sketched out in a late night lounge but one where the regular customers are all gone and outside is the gentle splashing of the seashore, meditative and soothing. You have the place to yourself and the resonant space upon which to cast your thoughts and music. The words are spoken in measured passages that play well with the length of the meters so that the expression of the thoughts have an intuitive aspect to the way the poetry plays out, a fusion of prose and more structure poetic forms. It seems to be a love song to someone with whom one has a powerful, unique and creative connection but with none of the hackneyed conceits of other songs that might be similarly characterized. In combining concrete imagery of life and the world with existential observations the artist in this particular format with the deep mood music and informal, organic rhythms he invites the listener in to the intimate thoughts that speak to how it’s important to hold on to these moments of freedom from the rush and press of the world as usual and to hold onto the people who can share in similar dreams and sensibilities, who value a gentleness and vulnerability of spirit as it opens one up to the often hidden details of the world and the essence of humanity in others which is a key to living an enriching emotional life. It’s the kind of song that with repeated listens you pick up on an incredibly poignant turn of phrase that makes the whole piece resonant even more strongly. Is this an ambient song? Hip-hop? Cosmic, folk-jazz shoegaze? Whatever it is the song commands taking it in on its own terms. Fans of Shabazz Palaces and Flying Saucer Attack will truly appreciate what Loic Mooonmattress has crafted here. Listen to “Sleepless in Eugene” on Spotify and follow Loic Moonmattress on Instagram.

“Painthing” by shedde0d is the Haunted Sound of Hope in the Aftermath of the Current Wave of Climate and Political Disaster

There is a distinct feeling of accidentally tuning into a secret television station before everything went digital when shedde0d’s “Painthing” begins. Hazy white noise with an unmistakable background presence. Then the distorted archaic keyboard melody comes in breaking and going off any standard, recognizable progression in key. More impressionistic like a robot out of an old Asimov or Philip K. Dick story woke up in the ruins of an abandoned amusement park on a remote planet left behind during the expansion of a galactic empire with a vague notion of its original programmed mission but enough self awareness to explore outside of those parameters and in the absence of other beings to provide input, set about to make its own carnival orchestra piece completely unaware of how it’s “supposed” to sound. It’s refreshingly reminiscent, on pure vibes alone, of the mysterious and psychedelic quality of science fiction cinema of the 70s like Zardoz or Logan’s Run where the future wasn’t so readily predictable and we could imagine the collapse of civilization into small, sequestered Utopias that can go sideways while the rest of the world recovers with the remains of our former, quasi-advanced civilizations. This song sounds like what it would feel like to take that as a launching off point of speculation into the kinds of music that might have been made if your point of reference was 1980s post-apocalyptic cinema but set in the sprawling “development” of an expansive galactic civilization where niche interests could survive and be left alone to progress on its own after the priorities once injected into them have moved on. Larry Niven and David Brin picked up where the ideas of the Foundation series left off and this song is like a musical equivalent of imagining a time and place that isn’t too far off and isn’t set in what seems like the likely aftermath of catastrophic climate change and the impending disaster of rising, global authoritarianism and austerity. This song is the sound of the hope of there being survival well into humanity’s future where someone or something picks up the fragments of culture and makes something hauntingly beautiful out of it. Listen to “Painthing” on Bandcamp and follow Portuguese experimental project shedde0d at the links below. The full album The New Kid dropped on December 24, 2023 and is filled with similarly fantastical music creations.