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Double Wish Evokes the Desperate Dark Underbelly of Southern California Striving on Lo-Fi Synth Pop Song “Spirit Away”

There is something of a layered aesthetic to Double Wish’s single “Spirit Away.” It sounds lo-fi in its production and mix but maximalist in composition. The simple, even spare, percussion anchors the song to a forward progression and the smooth bass accents help to set that pace as well with the repetitive acoustic guitar riff almost like a sample that sets an unmistakable vibe and in this case like a noir set in one of the seedier pockets of early 2000s Los Angeles. Maybe a psychodrama about people grinding and striving to stay afloat and snatching small bits of joy where you can get it while holding on to some dream of creative or otherwise professional success but not quite knowing if it’s going to be there for you. It has a sound like a future Paul Thomas Anderson film set in that milieu where landlords don’t update the décor or the infrastructure to their rental properties since the 1970s or earlier. There is an AM radio feel to the song though the songwriting style probably wouldn’t quite have been possible until the early chillwave artists established and made successful the style to introduce then no longer au current sunny and hazy synth sound to an indie rock format that embraced and furthered experimental R&B styles. What sets this song apart from similarly mutant neo-Laurel Canyon sounding work is the way the soulful vocals sit and float amid gorgeously shimmering synth arpeggios that ascend seemingly endlessly like an escalator into the sky. When the song is on the outro we hear what sounds like a computer repeating the title of the song through a radio on in another room to give a mysterious touch to a song that already sounds like something from another era having emerged in modern times without the obviousness of retrofuturism. Listen to “Spirit Away” on Spotify and follow Double Wish on Instagram.

Woven Talon’s Video For “Guri” is an Entrancing Companion Piece to the Song’s Shamanic Sounds

The video treatment for Woven Talon’s single “Guri” by Katharina Jung, Chris Dahl-Bredine and composer Andrew Tumason weds the shamanic music with the image of a mystic communing with nature at dawn. She becomes one with the elements and the landscape, visualizing an abstract representation of a primal nature spirit depicted in shadow-darkened mosaic as hand drums keep a beat that can be kept by anyone, and chanting carries through the piece like a guiding set of principles one keeps in mind without having to focus on it with the linear aspect of the conscious mind. The song is from the album Hajiko (which released on June 21, 2022) and represents “Part III of the Kahu Takaya Story—A journey with Ruca, Grandfather Owl, deep into the Indigo Dunes.” Recorded in Byron Bay, Australia in a studio in the jungle near the ocean this song both captures a certain pan-indigenous sensibility and a cinematic aesthetic that isn’t sound design and soundtracking so much as suggestive of an experience of a world we don’t visit often but beside which we exist daily and in reorienting the mind to an awareness of this parallel world around us all the time the song is also a reminder of our connectedness to the natural world and our existence inseparable and indistinguishable from the contiguous aspect of the material and perhaps the spiritual world. Watch the video for “Guri” on YouTube and follow Woven Talon at the links provided.

Woven Talon on Instagram

Tunnel’s Angsty and Cathartic “Lemonhead” Turns the Myth of Love and Romance as the Fulfillment of Life on Its Head

The guitar breaks on Tunnel’s “Lemonhead” are so effective at conveying a switching frame of mind it’s like an update on the loud-quiet-loud dynamic of early Bostonian alternative rock. The song’s chain of couplets seem to describe being in a place in your mind where nothing satisfies you and you’ve been, yes, soured on the motivations of other people and no matter how much you know this general feeling of nearly physical disdain for what should give you comfort and good will is an artifact of a disaffected mind you can’t intellectualize it away and won’t take such prescriptions from other people. The chorus in the last half of the song of “Love is fine/Love is boring” speaks to how this thing that’s supposed to be the culmination of your young life is more nuanced and not the solution to everything and then what? The narratives of our culture in the end prove inadequate for real life and you’re forced to figure out what works for you. The hard hitting and expressive drumming provided by Fugazi’s Brendan Canty pair well with Natasha Janfaza’s somehow both winsome, introspective and forceful vocals. The use of bass chords as well as those for guitar and the dreamlike synth melody in the context of a song that feels angsty and cathartic really gives this song some compelling contrasts that make this song a great closing track for the debut album Vanilla and ending the record on a note that demands you revisit the whole thing. Watch the video for “Lemonhead” on YouTube, follow Tunnel at the links below and explore Vanilla further on Bandcamp or Spotify.

Tunnel on Facebook

Tunnel on Instagram

Chris Kyle’s Psychedelic Pop Song “Space Flower” is a Relaxing Passage Through the Infinite Drift of the Cosmos

Chris Kyle’s single “Space Flower” from his latest EP Stardust conveys a sense of infinite drift and flow with drawn out guitar work and his own hazy, slightly echoing vocals. The echoing riffs and use of musical space makes you feel like you’re hanging out there beyond the stratosphere with Jimi Hendrix and Bowie. Especially in the context of the music video in which a space bee lands on the technological space flower satellite after an astronaut observes the tranquil beauty of the earth from orbit. The languidly psychedelic song is an example of how Kyle, a guitarist in brilliantly eclectic R&B act Cautious Clay, is able to experiment outside his usual mode of songwriting with weaving together styles to create something unique and compelling and in this case playful music in which it’s easy to get lost for a few minutes. Watch the video for “Space Flower” on YouTube, follow Chris Kyle on Instagram and give a listen to the rest of the EP and other music by Kyle on Instagram.

Chris Kyle on Instagram

Mylo Choy’s “Intro: Not Yet” is a Poignantly Powerful Pop Song About the Subtle Connections to the World Around You

Mylo Choy brings together an array of simple elements to establish a hopeful warmth for “Intro: Not Yet,” the lead track on their new EP Summer Projects (Part 1). A simple synth figure performed by Choi and Guerilla Toss drummer Peter Negroponte who also performs the spare, tasteful percussion. The innocence of spirit and discovery that runs through the song is irresistible in grounding it in the concrete imagery and observations Choy offers us like the rustling in trees, of neighbors talking to them as they walk down the sidewalk, shaking blankets to find empty shoes, status as a loner in the past tense. These mundane yet significant details are the sorts of things that stick with us when we are no longer situated in a house or a city. Choy has lived in a variety of places but is apparently currently trying to see what it likes to be in a place like the Hudson Valley for more than a short spell. The most poetic and telling line though is the miniature chorus of “Life hasn’t deserted me yet” because it can feel like you’re disconnected from life when you don’t feel like you have a place where you’re living or staying or even visiting. Choy embraces this connection and articulates ways in which we might know we belong as well. Listen to “Intro: Not Yet” on Spotify, follow the songwriter at the links below and give the rest of the charmingly poignant EP on Spotify of Bandcamp.

Mylo Choy on Facebook

Mylo Choy on YouTube

Mylo Choy on Instagram

mylochoy.com

Wizard Death’s Ambient IDM track “hvn” Encourages Environmental Awareness and Mindfulness

Mckone Corkery’s video for Wizard Death’s “hvn” juxtaposes images of nature with the industry and development that threatens it along with the human occupation of said environment. The sky color is keyed out of blue into a hazy purple pink at times and the chill beat with ambient tonal swells, softened electronic percussion and melodic arpeggios of the song sets a hopeful tone suggesting our often too easy comfort with our impact on the world around us whether the natural environment or upon each other. The song and the video invite us to consider being attentive to subtle details that can affect our mood for the positive or otherwise. The awareness this pairing of imagery and music cultivates without being dramatic or overly intrusive is one way to encourage mindfulness without combativeness. Watch the video for “hvn” on YouTube and follow the Los Angeles-based electronic and ambient project at the links below.

Wizard Death on TikTok

Wizard Death on Facebook

Wizard Death on Instagram

The Soothing Expansiveness of green typewriters’ “europa” is an Oasis of Tranquil Cosmic Psychedelia

green typewriters in 2011, photo by Tom Murphy

The debut single by Denver-based psychedelic indiepop band green typewriters contains touchstone nods to other music but “europa” is so idiosyncratic and born of an individual vision that one hopes to encounter in the crowded world of the modern musical landscape. The music video for the song features vocalist Gioja (prononced “joya”) Lacy languishing playfully about contemplating cosmic imponderables as streams of animated starlight emanate from the box of imagery sitting on a field of stars. Her image is awash in purples and pinks and touches of warm colors to convey an unmistakable dreamlike quality. And musically one hears in its slowly undulating depths hints of early Bowie and the hauntingly languid pacing of T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer.” A touch of the compassionate moods of Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize?” And in this song there are sentiments of looking to the stars but really to powers and presences beyond the obvious of everyday life. The arrangements of brushed percussion, saxophone and trombone shouldn’t work but tied together with Lacey’s vocals and the way the song moves like a wave of lived memory, reliving a pleasant dream that’s a reminder that as challenging as things can be that there is a space of peace and possibility within you that you can tap into to weather those struggles and find some element of the magical at any point in your day. And like the aforementioned artists green typewriters seem to find a way to convey how we need not be completely defined by or trapped by the mundanity and drudgery of our immediate surroundings. Certainly the 1970s in the UK had more than its fair share of bland oppression and today you don’t have to look far to find something to find depressing and anxiety-inducing. But wallowing there endlessly serves no good purpose and music like this can be a thread out of the seemingly endless barrage of despair floating about. Watch the video for “europa” on YouTube. The track is the first song on the group’s new album The Solar Anus and you can listen to the rest of the long-awaited debut album by the duo on Bandcamp and to follow green typewriters visit its LinkTree below.

green typewriters LinkTree

AUS!Funkt Challenges Us to Choose Engagement in Life Over Wallowing in Jaded Acceptance of a Diminished World on “Turn To Rust”

A figure that looks corroded by life walks through the neon/LED sign and street light illuminated streets of a major city, at times at a casual stroll and then with more urgency, looking over his shoulder. What is this scene about in the music video for AUS!Funkt’s video for “Turn To Rust”? The industrial disco beat and the hushed vocals with the lightly distorted bass line is reminiscent of Nicolás Jaar’s “Space is Only Noise.” Except that this song has a more exuberant melody that gives an uplift at key points even though the lyrics seem to be about feeling eroded by the demands and travails of life and a world that seems to be falling into a similar level of disrepair and disuse. And the challenge to do something about it or any other aspect of life or just succumb to crumbling to rust and “Gathering dust.” The simple drive of the song suggests a favorable choice without spelling that out. Watch the Chris Cunningham-esque music video for “Turn To Rust,” the title track from AUS!Funkt’s new album, on YouTube and follow the Toronto-based post-punk band at the links provided.

AUS!Funkt on Facebook

AUS!Funkt on Instagram

Resolute Vibration Tap Into Neglected Parts of Your Brain to Evoke the Cosmic Wonder of the Universe on “The Stars Above”

Even as the members of Resolute Vibration reveal how the music is made in the performance video for “The Stars Above” it does nothing to detract the sublime tonal bath they produce. Surely it’s intentional in the composition and execution but it looks like Michael Garbett and Alex Price are simply intuitively in tune with each others’ processes and working in sync to produce the subtly in rhythm and frequencies elicited from Garbett’s vibraphone and Price’s guitar. There is no flash, there doesn’t need to be and would be out of place with music that seems aimed at eliciting a sense of wonder in moments of tranquility. Like maybe you get some time outside the haze of light pollution endemic to cities and catch a glimpse of the full night sky unencumbered by the sound and energy of civic life and are struck with the yes cosmic beauty of the universe that you will never likely get to visit but whose existence and presence speaks to something deep in the subconscious. Resolute Vibration taps into that often neglected part of the brain and creates that feeling all across this track. Watch the video on YouTube, connect with Resolute Vibration at the links provided and give a listen to the rest of the Resolute Vibration album Volume 4 which released on April 15, 2022.

Resolute Vibration on Facebook

Resolute Vibration on Instagram

Teenhood Upends the Logic of Patriarchal Parenting on the Starkly Urgent Post-punk Single “Same Mistakes”

Teenhood’s throbbing and urgent single “Single Mistakse” tackles the age old generation gap struggle in a way that initially seems like the usual callout of adult hypocrisy. But between the melancholic drive of the lead guitar and that of the bass and drum machines the vocals adopt the perspective of a parent so steeped in the worn out patriarchal perspective that tells all of us we need to be tough and strong in the neglectful and ineffective, unsustainable ways that have become the norm for too many for too long. Not the nurturing approach to being a parent but the “tough love” variety that doesn’t even take accountability for the consequences of the failure of that approach. Though mid-song there is a crack in tha presentation when mistakes made are admitted like a tacit admission that the guiding worldview doesn’t really work but also pushing responsibility for the lived legacy of a cultural feature that was never particularly viable even if it has often been common. In taking on that persona the song calls attention to the utter lack of reason and logic to that way of being and sets it to stark atmospheres and propulsive energy in the modern post-punk mode. Listen to “Same Mistakes” on Spotify and follow Teenhood at the links below.

Teenhood on TikTok

Teenhood on Instagram