Song Review – Page 61 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Freedom Fry’s Electro Funk Pop Single “Midnight Serenade” is a Celebration of Memorable Chance Romantic Encounters After Dark

Freedom Fry hit some nostalgic notes with its new single “Midnight Serenade.” In the beginning the wordless vocal phrase, repeated later as a kind of chorus, and mood of the song is reminiscent of Suzanne Vega’s 1987 hit song “Tom’s Diner.” This resonance feeds into how the song has the sound of a time of day more than suggested by the title. And the lyrics of thoughts looking back on a chance potentia romantic encounter with a stranger that in retrospect feels like it could have come from a dream. Then to subsequently entertaining fantasies of what could have been and might still be after our narrator sobers up and can’t stop thinking about “our midnight serenade.” The funk guitar riff and sweeping synth melodies soaring over and under the vocals and weaving throughout the song all accented by a nicely subtle rhythm lingers long after the song is over too, the mark of we well crafted pop song as is usual for the duo. Listen to “Midnight Serenade” on Spotify and follow Freedom Fry at the links below.

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OTOTOMY Hurls Free Associating Rhythmic Glitches, Digitally Mutated Vocals and Caustic Textures Together for the Psychedelic Noise Piece “Chairs”

The curiously titled “Chairs” by Finnish noise project OTOTOMY is a collision of power electronics, nightmarish vocal processing, jagged, lo-fi industrial beats and high-pitched distortion. Its disorienting roars have an odd organic logic like if you had to be a computer sorting through the recycling bin of an editing bay and attempt to make sense of the world by threading together the disconnected digital detritus of weeks of frantic work. In that roiling haze of sounds we hear fractured percussion and frayed waves of white noise constantly cresting like a video signal perpetually glitching out and repeating in a harrowing stutter before sputtering into nothingness. And that’s how the piece ends: abruptly and without any hint of a finished theme thus completing the proposed aesthetic above of the way we casually disregard of edits of our digital works splicing them off from more desirable content. With what we have left the mind imposes informal meaning and order and thus that is part of the appeal of the track as it invites interpretation with its furious soundscaping and relentless, rhythmic textures. Like if Butthole Surfers had emerged in the 2000s and didn’t bother with even the attempt at conventional song structure as a baseline before heading off into pure weirdo territory. Listen to “Chairs” on Spotify and follow OTOTOMY at the links below. The project’s new album FAILURE released March 16, 2024.

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OTOTOMY on Bandcamp

OTOTOMY on YouTube

TV FACE Presents a Stark and Brutal Portrait of Disablism in the Video for Seething Post-punk Single “Black Bag”

Six months after the release of its debut full length Tide of Men, Lancaster, UK’s TV FACE released the video for its song “Black Bag,” directed and edited by guitarist and vocalist Steve McWade The black and white footage seemingly shot in the basement of an old asylum is as grim as the subject matter of the song. Very few bands would write a song about disablism and the neglect, disregard and institutional brutality visited upon those deemed disabled either in body or psychology (and of course the interlinked nexus of the two). The song has the band’s signature sharp edges and angular rhythms with spirited vocals and a knack for crafting a sound that in its surging and frantic paces embodies a righteous frustration and outrage that has not nearly enough outlets for catharsis. Except that TV FACE always seems to have its attention on often neglected aspects of society and humanizes the situations with a vivid and energetic presentation and creativity. Watch the video for “Black Bag” on YouTube and follow TV FACE at the links provided. Tide of Men is out now on limited edition 180g yellow vinyl, CD and of course digital download and streaming.

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Strange Men Subvert Prevailing Paradigms of Normality on Fuzzy Garage Punk Single “Do What the Boys Do”

Strange Men’s single “Do What the Boys Do” was written amidst a mental health and overdose epidemic and its splintered guitar buzz is the perfect embodiment of fractured and fraught emotions, psyches and lives but also as a mirror image of the more tranquil passages. And the rest of the song with the melodic vocals transitioning to those more desperate and feral trace a path that seems to be a part of daily life in the world now. The all too common cultural narrative of the fiction that the truly valid people have it all together and anyone experiencing a breakdown of any aspect of their life is probably a degenerate and worthy of judgment or pity at best and persecution and deprivation at worst is discarded here. Strange Men’s song rages against this mindset with compassion and a raw honesty fusing fuzzy garage rock and punk spirit. The music video is too a subversion of aesthetics. Co-directors George S. Rosenthal and Panda Duke (aka Kyle Casey Chu) attemped to shot and edit live in a single take with the band running between marks while eight cameras were running. The footage was slowed down and fed into AI programs to simulate missing frames and upend the usual use of the technology to create something intentionally unsettling and surreal. It is a perfect collaboration and synthesis of aesthetics and concept. Watch the video for “Do What the Boys Do” on YouTube and follow Strange Men at the links below.

Strange Men on Instagram

Montanus’ Cosmic Psychedelic Folk Single “Take Me Forest” is a Song About Shedding Ego in Favor of Connecting With the Mysterious Glory of Nature

There is a sense of something mysterious and glorious from the beginning of Montanus’ “Take Me Forest.” The song builds from acoustic guitar progressions that veer off into evocatively unpredictable directions into a climax of distorted guitar before settling down into a more tranquil outro. The arc of music parallels the lyrics that express a kind of surrender to benevolent forces larger than oneself and to subsume the ego to something more significant and meaningful than the limited perspective of ego assertion. The synth backdrop adds a subtle layer of the cosmic that the warping psychedelia of the electric guitars bring seem to build off of as they soar with big splashes of percussion that in moments feel like the ego expressing itself before dissolving into the great beyond. In structure and emotional impact its reminiscent of one of those hits by The Call but rooted more in psychedelic folk yet imbued with an anthemic spirit. Listen to “Take Me Forest” on Spotify and follow Montanus on Instagram.

Hang Linton Perfectly Embodies the Surreal Desperation of Trying to Afford Living Under Late Capitalism in the Face of Climate Collapse in Post-Punk Performance Art Single “Radiator”

There is a surreal urgency that courses through the entirety of Hang Linton’s single “Radiator.” Utilizing the image of the radiator as a symbol for the escalating cost of living in the chorus of “Can you feel the heat?” Gorillaz bassist Seye Adelekan adds both a steady pulse and an understated yet heady insistence that accents the song perfectly as it goes from contemplating crisis to seeming to become unraveled by it all. Linton’s vocals are both delivered in spoken word fashion and psychedelic as he evokes both desperation and the attempt to keep calm in a time of multiple challenges to simply afford living. The song hits as both an intensively creative and thought-provoking post-punk song and a performance art piece that expresses perfectly the amplified anxieties that are ambient in the world in this moment and the will to hold it together with a little unleashing of those energies through creative acts. Fans of early 80s No Wave art funk and the work of Reggie Watts will appreciate the sonic heights and emotional nuances Linton and his collaborators achieve here. Listen to “Radiator” on Spotify and follow Hang Linton at the links below.

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Hang Linton on Bandcamp

Azalia Snail Resets Your Brain From the Conditioned Conformity of Modern Life With the Lo-Fi Psychedelic Electronic Pop Song “Zap You of That Hate”

The “Queen of Lo-Fi” Azalia Snail returns with her fifteenth album titled POWERLOVER (released April 5 via Cloud Recordings). The featured single from the album “Zap You of That Hate” includes contributions from Alan Sparhawk of Low and an entrancing music video that looks like something that one might more expect to see from an old website from the 90s except with much better image quality. Maybe it’s Omnichord melodies forward, minimal percussion and an evolving backdrop of drones and other synths that reset your mind from the present and into the more colorful and analog aesthetic of the music video with images of nature enhanced by collage art animation and flashing lights. Like the song and the visuals together are aiming to hypnotize you into a better and more benevolent state of mind with the artist speaking the title of the song in the end to punctuate what has been a wonderful sonic journey beyond the highly produced music of the modern era by demonstrating how something that embodies being accepted on its own terms can be a way of life that can grow as much as systematized conformity. Watch the video for “Zap You of That Hate” on YouTube and follow the pioneering lo-fi, experimental pop artist Azalia Snail at the links provided.

Azalia Snail on Instagram

Springworks Playfully Deconstruct the Insidiously Pervasive Presence of Marketing Culture in Society on New Wave Garage Pop Single “Snake Oil Salesman”

There is a vividness to the production on Springworks’ latest single “Snake Oil Salesman.” It’s a nice touch for a song about the kind of people who try to fool people into believing in something that is patently untrue but profitable for the person peddling misleading claims. We see this all the time in politics, in the way our economic systems are run and the ways in which people have been tricked into a way of living that involves constantly having to market yourself for clout because there are social incentives for building clout even if it really amounts to very little. Musically the song is like a weird mix of garage rock and New Wave with some buzzy guitar work and atmospheric vocals in the chorus. But underlying the music are currents of Flying Lizards’ cover of “Money (That’s What I Want)” and a deft allusion to Pete Shelley’s 1981 hit “Homosapien.” The scratchy guitar riff that runs throughout sounds like a sound effect for a frazzled end wire that is sparking on and off electricity like the way electronic signals in binary fashion communicate but in the song it has the effect of embodying a disconnect with oneself and the world around you yet it has its own catchy appeal like the touch of psychedelic melody that is at the core of the song. Overall it’s a layered commentary on how we have come to accept the dynamic of being lied to and the incredibly pervasive presence of marketing culture on all levels of actual culture while also playfully suggesting we can unplug from that way of being and to pull back the curtain on the charlatans that plague us. The title alone highlights how what can seem new now in society has in fact been a part of public life since as long as we can remember with figures of speech that capture the phenomenon perfectly. Watch the video for “Snake Oil Salesman” on YouTube and follow Springworks at the links below.

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K C Q’s Gritty and Urgent Trip Hop Single “If You Can Make It” is Like a Mantra on Persistence and Self Patience

K C Q strikes defiant yet vulnerable tones on the single “If You Can Make It” from her Former Teen Model EP (released on March 5, 2024). The song has an emotional urgency in both word and music. An echoing tone over syncopated rhythms as the vocalist drops alternately rhyming couplets and free verse statements of observation and intent. K C Q’s portraits of striving for a good and vital life are not mere bravado. Not with lines like “daily struggle comes with daily pain.” The song has a dreaminess and heavy rhythm like a trip hop song but there is an aspect of noisy industrial beats that gives the song as well as the other tracks on the EP a compelling intensity, darkness and grittiness that draws you into the songs because it feels like something vital, raw and new. It speaks to persistent everyday frustrations and the pressure to constantly prove yourself while remind oneself to believe in yourself and the knowledge that if you get through these most trying of times maybe you’ll attain the level of success and achievement that will make what you’ve endured worth it. Listen to “If You Can Make It” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the EP as well.

Boko Yout and boerd Deliver “Sooky Sooky” a Downtempo Hip-Hop Song About Heartbreak, Affection and Compassion

Boko Yout and boerd (R-L), photo courtesy the artists

Boko Yout and boerd team up again for “Sooky Sooky,” a downtempo hip-hop song that expresses a nuanced and emotional complexity in word and its deeply evocative music. Boko Yout’s distinctive soulful vocals shift in and out of various styles of processing that lend shadings of resonance that complement the vocalist’s already rich tonal range as he seems to experience the feelings in real time of heartbreak and trying to understand what happened in a relationship that is experiencing some turmoil. The line “Sooky Sooky let me down/never let me go” gets to that place in your heart where you would rather someone let you down because that’s human and everyone does it but wanting to keep a special connection going. In the rest of the song we hear a voice weary of misunderstandings and conflict and of being sad but left with feelings of compassion and affection that remain. Throughout the song there is a spare guitar line and a touch of piano that closes out the song on a hopeful, upward note. Listen to “Sooky Sooky” on Spotify and follow the multi-faceted songwriter and singer Boko Yout at the links below. The new Boko Yout and boerd EP Griot released on March 15, 2024.

Boko Yout on TikTok

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