SubmitHub – Page 127 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Belief’s Layered Minimal Techno Track “WOT” Brims With Zen-like Swagger

Stella Mozgawa and Boom Bip as Belief offer the fast-pace techno piece “WOT” as an example of the artists stretching beyond the boundaries of the music for which they’re most well known (Mozgawa as a member of Warpaint but also contributing to recordings by Kurt Vile, Cate Le Bon, Courtney Barnett, Sharon Van Etten and Kim Gordon, Boom Bip for his work with Neon Neon). The track is composed of modulated beats in the minimal techno style but layered to give that simplicity of style a dimensionality that draws you in. The first section sounds like its in an unorthodox compound time, with a break for a vocal that simply says “Wot” as though giving voice to an implied character that is vibing to herself along with the beat, walking through her neighborhood with the ambient urban noise of vehicle whooshing by, the buzzing of streetlights all seeming to affirm an inner pace with accented beats echoing enough to bring a sense of open space and a sense of freedom. If one were to create this emotional and psychological space in one’s head taking in the surrounding area with a Zen-like peace, awareness and mindfulness until someone interrupts your headspace in the music and being one with the world with some mundane foolishness and you dismiss their frivolous demand for attention with a simple, monosyllabic “Wot” and then move on. Without being explicit the song implies swagger and attitude in a more abstract and creative way. Listen to “WOT” on YouTube and follow Belief at the links below.

Belief on Instagram

Wild Arrows’ “Reasoning with the Guards” Bursts Darkwave Tropes and Encourages a Deprogramming of Deeply Ingrained, Ritualistic Habits of Mind

Wild Arrows’ single “Reasoning with the Guards” is emblematic of the genre blending and warping experiments to be heard on its new album Loving the Void which released on June 17, 2022. There is an edginess to the vocals with male and either female sounds delivering the lyrics in tandem with a touch of desperation. The pace of the song and an underlying use of frequencies give the track an air of unease and tension that isn’t off putting so much as imbues the music with a sense of anticipation that runs the entire run time of four and a half minutes. Guitar and synth lines blare out and warp into different melodic shapes over the insistent beat and the effect is something that feels like chaos and catharsis switching then into passages of introspective transcendence like the lyrics in the song will progress from being in a state of flux and resolve: “I’m not a prisoner or the guard” or “Pursued by the riders, the riders pursue.” And it never fully does yet the song is a thrilling journey through existential uncertainty and identity. The music video rected by Steven Ungureanu shows a figure being confronted by and also confronting shadows in an array of illuminated squares like windows into the possibilities of one’s own soul and suggesting maybe what we think we want is not unlike Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and we confuse our ego driven actions in the moment for the truth of our lives. Maybe that’s not what the video is expressing in creative abstract but when the actions of the figure we see making movement do not directly correlate with the movements of the shadow it’s a subtle effect but one that’s also striking. With the repetition in the lyrics and this visual aspect of the song it seems certain that it is commenting on our habits of mind and our ritualistic behaviors that reinforce what we might think of as our fate and in recognize this we can perhaps break with patterns that no longer serve us well. Heady stuff for a song that sounds like a strange and decidedly not standard experimental post-punk and industrial song but it’s that kind of creative thinking that informs the album as a whole. Watch the video for “Reasoning with the Guards” and follow Wild Arrows at the links below.

Dude Reppin Knowhere’s Anti-Banger “Airplane Mode” is a Subversive Deconstruction of Popular Culture and Electronic Dance Music

Dude Reppin Knowhere really turns the whole concept of going viral and self-promotional obsession and maintaining active social media engagement as a replacement for actual activity that helps one’s self-esteem on its head with “Airplane Mode.” The title of the song and the project name alone more than cleverly hint at the vibe he’s going for with the song where the vocals seem tuned down a little, maybe slowed down or with effect to give it that tonal warp. Every hip-hop artist and those adjacent is reppin’ some geographical zone like its really an identity for a lot of people and Dude Reppin Knowhere isn’t into that so much. The track is an anti-banger and yet is also oddly catchy so there is a healthy amount of subversive spirit to what this song that is part ambient and part the kind of playful production aim that is a part of what Aphex Twin does when he’s in a mood to take tropes and do something more creative with them. The music video shows a guy who looks like an EDM/rapper/influencer type frolicking in various locales except the music is what hype might sound like if it had already collapsed under its own hubris and had slid into the electronic music equivalent of broken machine mode. The video and the song might even be purely funny if it wasn’t also oddly inventive and offering a lateral thinking take on deconstructing popular culture and style. Watch the video for “Airplane Mode” on YouTube and follow Dude Reppin Knowhere at the links below.

Dude Reppin Knowhere on Instagram

Dude Reppin Knowhere on Facebook

Parallel Perfectly Conveys the Elusive, Bittersweet Moods of Moving Forward From a Cherished Time of Life on “Drench”

The gently cascading guitar riffs of Parallel’s single “Drench” from its 2022 self-titled album hits the ear with shades of Slowdive and A Shoreline Dream with a hint of more lo-fi production. Its drifty structure and dual vocal melodies are at times reminiscent of The Prids or Molchat Doma especially in the way the performances feel elegant and intuitive. Guitar melodies strike high and descend to land in a hypnotic loop that carries you through a bittersweet memory that haunts you from a significant and transitional point in your life when memories made have real resonance and endurance for the long term and become part of your identity. There’s something about these kinds of memories that feel special and significant in often elusive ways yet Parallel captures the emotional energy of them well. Listen to “Drench” on YouTube and follow the Oakland-based band at the links below.

Parallel on Instagram

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.