SubmitHub – Page 107 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Linebeck Deflects Shallow Romantic Foolishness With Expansive Dream Pop Single “Waste My Time”

Linebeck sure makes disappointment, disillusionment and a jaded attitude toward someone who doesn’t measure up sound so romantic on its single “Waste My Time.” Its slowly scintillating melody and emotionally expansive vocals speak to someone who lacks substance and has all these promises and empty gestures that are all surface and intended to be charming but obviously don’t measure up when it comes offering substance and not the shade of romantic love. It captures the kind of relationship or relationship to be in which one person is all overtures to seem exciting but at the end of the day that person wastes your time because you’re just another notch on the belt of their ego fulfillment and they move on once they feel like they’ve drawn you into their sphere but with no intention of even having the veneer of commitment because that would require actually having a connection with someone even if it’s not forever. And in the song we hear how forever isn’t necessarily wanted or needed but definitely not with someone whose affections are fleeting and shallow. That the song has an upbeat energy in exhilarating dream pop colors gives the song a depth that is more than the object of the song deserves. Fans of Blushing and Letting Up Despite Great Faults will appreciate the moods here. Watch the video for “Waste My Time” on YouTube and follow Linebeck at the links provided.

Linebeck on TikTok

Linebeck on Instagram

Linebeck on Twitch

“All Abord,” the Opening Track to Colin Stetson’s Score for The Menu is the Embodiment of the Playfully Humorous Side of the Dark Comedy Horror Film

Colin Stetson’s soundtrack scoring of recent years has garnered his gift for dynamic composition orchestrating sound rich elements great critical acclaim. And “All Aboard,” the lead track from his soundtrack to the recent dark comedy horror film The Menu starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hult, Hong Chau, Jane McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light and John Leguizamo has the hallmarks of a classic score of an earlier era of cinematic music. Stetson is rightly known for his avant-garde jazz work and he brings to bear here eclectic arrangements that intertwine with melody, texture and rhythm suggesting visual elements unfolding as the song progresses. Some strings seem to sketch in bold lines while others fill in some of the shading and synth gives it a rich color that flows with the pulse of the light, minimal percussion. It sounds like an organic, living landscape expressing itself in lush detail. Though The Menu is a horror movie the song has a jaunty quality that hints at the humor and self-awareness you’re about to find yourself witnessing in the rest of the film. Listen to “All Aboard” on YouTube and follow Stetson at the links below.

Colin Stetson on Facebook

Colin Stetson on Twitter

Colin Stetson on Instagram

Candy Cigarettes Delves Deep Into the Foundations of Identity and Aspirations on “Where To”

Lane Mueller’s Candy Cigarettes returns with its first album in six years with the September 23, 2022 release of Horse Lungs. As with the album overall, the single “Where To” is like a collage of experiences and sounds arranged in a pop format. Mueller’s vocals are widely expressive and introspective and ambient atmospherics flow into processed piano loops joined by synths that rise in hysterical arcs that amplify the melodrama of the poetic lyrics before the song drops into samples of a woman’s voice asking “Why was that?” “What for?” and “With who?” It’s a song that suggests that many people take on a role and interrogate others for not putting on a similar pose and pick them apart as an act of self esteem but of course that way of being is inherently fragile. Musically the song and all of Horse Lungs is reminiscent of The Legendary Pink Dots in terms of the eclectic arrangements and raw emotional expressions that delve deep into dreams and the roots of desire and motivation. Listen to “Where To” on Spotify and follow Candy Cigarettes at the links below.

Candy Cigarettes on TikTok

Candy Cigarettes on Facebook

Candy Cigarettes on Twitter

Candy Cigarettes on YouTube

Candy Cigarettes on Instagram

Syzygy’s Synth Pop Disco Song “Soothe” Transforms Abrupt Self-Awareness Into a Celebration of Self-Acceptance

Syzygy from Melbourne, Australia have tapped into a dark realm of synth pop that sounds like an extrapolation on where Ladytron was circa 604. But rather than take that electroclash foundation into shoegaze, this duo sounds like it listened to a great deal of 1980s Giorgio Moroder and found a musical language suited to exploring emotional habits through the kind of dance pop that makes a meaningful dive into foundational psychological spaces accessible and desirable. On its new album Anchor and Adjust (released October 14, 2022), Syzygy delves into the nature of power dynamics in relationships of all kinds and of dysfunction arising from getting stuck in ruts that can feel like instincts and a core of your personality when it’s merely how you’ve trained yourself how to navigate through life. Through its brooding synths and meditative rhythms the band comprised of Rebecca Maher and Gus Kenny formerly of synth punk band Spotting find paths of working through transforming habits by offering alternative outlooks. The song “Soothe” refers to the behaviors we all adopt without realizing it to untangle anxieties through self-soothing. Some self-medicate and self-soothing is related but can manifest in movements that give us a sense of control through an act of comforting even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else because it never has to, it need only distract ourselves from overwhelming discomfort. One might see that as a method of dissociation but it’s also a method of emotional survival in a period of extreme duress. The song goes into that subject in a way that is personal and demystifies it as something normal and not a source of shame and negative self-consciousness. Rather the songs fast pace and energetic and irresistible rhythm make this burst of awareness turn into acceptance. Listen to “Soothe” on YouTube and follow Syzygy at the links below. Anchor and Adjust is now available in a limited, transparent purple vinyl edition.

Syzygy on Instagram

Syzygy on Apple Music

“Seasons” by jman & the pigs is an Introspectively Poignant Experimental Pop Song Informed by Existential Humor

There is something comical about the music video for “Seasons” by jman & the pigs. The two musicians wear sweat bands while going out on a mountain hike with the beginning of the video on black and white until they discover a synth, an amp and other musical gear near a river. And they seem caught in a loop from Autumn to the snows of Winter then to the thaw and greening of Spring but all in color. Then when the song ends it’s back to black and white. It’s reminiscent of the way Secret Agent was black and white until the fifteen episode interlude that was the series The Prisoner and when the agent escapes The Village it’s back to the black and white of Secret Agent again. The pastoral sound of the music with drums and keyboards and introspective vocals is very serious and sincere with sentiments that are poignant about the passage of time in one’s life and life’s seasons passing by. It’s a layered level of meaning conveyed in this presentation of the song including how life has complexity and nuance and isn’t all one aspect or another and that poetic truth can coexist with a healthy sense of humor. Fans of the film work of Mark Duplass will definitely appreciate the video treatment. Watch the video for “Seasons” on YouTube and follow jman & the pigs at the links provided.

jman & the pigs on Facebook

jman & the pigs on Instagram

jmanandthepigs.com

Nicolas Snyder Summons a Benevolent Otherworldly Presence Through Ritualistic Percussion on “Toll Bell”

Nicolas Snyder, photo courtesy the artist

Nicolas Snyder has done scores for the Showtime documentary on Rick Rubin Shangri-La as well as various other cinematic projects. For his latest album Spell of Remembrance (available in full as of September 30, 2022) Snyder seems to explore memory, personal and collective, through crafting sound environments drawing upon field recordings of texture and tone complemented by his own sonic touches for a result that is not unlike editing a film but perhaps from a more sound design perspective. The single “Toll Bell” utilizes various bell sounds as drops of tonal percussion as atmospheric elements and as informal rhythm. Saxophone flutters in the background and in escalating arcs creates a sense of menace and mystery. Snyder left in the sound of air flowing and natural distortion lending the song a subtle textural element that grounds the whole as an almost tactile listening experience. It is immersive overall and when we hear water running in the middle distance and then the sound of a creature repeating a wordless phrase toward the end of the song one wonders what indeed the toll bell brought forth out of the cosmos. Listen to “Toll Bell” on YouTube and follow Nicolas Snyder at the links provided. Spell of Remembrance is now out on vinyl, cassette and as a digital download.

Nicolas Snyder on Instagram

Nicolas Snyder on Apple Music

Jovi Skyler Speaks to the Excitement and Exhaustion of a Tumultuous Relationship on the Fuzz Punk “Evergreen”

In “Evergreen” Jovi Skyler takes the format of a two minute, fuzzy punk song to make some comments on the kind of relationship that feels exciting and passionate but which because of its ups and downs becomes exhausting in the end. The music video deftly uses a wide range of colors and imagery and motion to depict how while there can be much motion it is essentially the same in the end. And sometimes when you don’t know that things can be different and you are able to somehow forget the low times it does seem new again when it’s at the high point and when you can feel like things are stable only to have that emotional carpet yanked out from underneath you yet again. It’s like a mantra of self-destruction, a habit of a narrative one repeats to oneself about how things are fine and that’s how all relationships go until you get to the breaking point and it’s that reality as well as capturing the dynamic that makes Skyler’s song so poignant. Fans of Dead Milkmen and Jay Reatard may find much to appreciate here. Watch the video for “Evergreen” on YouTube and connect with Skyler at the links below.

Jovi Skyler on Facebook

Jovi Skyler on Bandcamp

The Last Days of Our Past Creates a Sense of a Calm Shoreline at Sunset on “Timeless”

The Last Days of Our Past, photo courtesy the artist

There may be a bit of cheek in titling your song “Timeless” when your project is named The Last Days of Our Past. But this song uses a white noise like the sound of a distant wind blowing in as incandescent tones hover in sequence and a subtle trio of drones flow over one another. The imagery around the single are of tranquil views on or from the water and that lends the white noise another interpretation of tides coming into shore toward sunset. On hears what sounds like distant bird sounds toward the end giving this composition not just a vivid sense of place but of a specific emotional resonance for anyone fortunate enough to experience a time on the shoreline when the weather is calm and you can indulge whatever thoughts or feelings come to mind or to let go of those that have been intruding from having to be on task or distracted from your inner sense of being. The sounds of this song filter out the usual demands for your attention with a sound of cycles and natural processes that go back beyond a time of human reckoning. Listen to “Timeless” on Spotify where you can also listen to the rest of the album Cycles which was released on July 27, 2022. Connect with The Last Days of Our Past at the links below.

The Last Days of Our Past on YouTube

The Last Days of Our Past on Instagram

The Last Days of Our Past on Apple Music

“Sonny” by casey anthony is a Sludgy, Noisy Post-Rock Evocation and Exorcism of Personal Hell

“Sonny” by casey anthony has a grimy brutality reminiscent of mid-90s Unsane. But here the post-hardcore sound is infused with noisy electronics and even the slow pounding percussion sounds like it’s being put through some processing. In moments it has that borderline psychotic break quality one hears in Daughters circa Hell Songs but when that music is slow and surreal and here there is a sludgy quality that feels like being dragged through a personal nightmare. Within and on the edges of the song are sounds like if rapidly reverberating springs were captured and put through a pitch shifter to give them a mechanistic yet otherworldly tone and though the song has a monolithic vibe it is one seething with sonic and emotional detail. Listen to “Sonny” on YouTube and follow casey anthony from Los Angeles at the links below.

casey anthony on Instagram

casey anthony on Apple Music

Waves_On_Waves Taps ORAX and Crimewave For Darkwave Breakup Track “Stab Me In The Back”

Waves_On_Waves tapped 23 different producers for the album Synthony of Destruction (which released on October 21, 2022) so that each track has a distinctly different quality and character. ORAX and Crimewave worked on “Stab Me In The Back” and brought to it a sound that splices together aspects of 1980s synth disco, 1990s industrial dance music and modern darkwave. The result is glittery guitar work interweaving with layers of synth both atmospheric and orchestrated tonal arpeggios creating a dramatic backdrop haze for a song about a bad breakup either romantic or other partnership and the way a person who knows too much about you can betray you in specific ways and cause you social and psychological harm. In the song the vocals call for a clean break and not hold on in a co-dependent dynamic of manipulation with one person thriving off the negative attention that doesn’t serve them so well in the long term either even if it might seem thrilling and rewarding in the moment when just letting go would be a better use of time and energy. Fans of late 90s and early 2000s industrial rock will find something to like here though its flavor is more post-punk and vulnerable rather than aggressive in its approach to the subject matter. Listen to “Stab Me In The Back” on YouTube and follow Waves_On_Waves and ORAX and Crimewave at the links below.