SubmitHub – Page 129 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Gamblers featuring NOVA ONE Offer an Infectiously Charming, Synth Pop Science Fiction Existential Horror Song and Video With “Preach Your Love”

“Preach Your Love” by Gamblers featuring the infectiously melodic yet enigmatic vocals of NOVA ONE taken in the context of its most unusual video packs a lot of content into a 3:42 synth pop song. It’s sound is reminiscent of early chillwave but the spare production probably wouldn’t have been part of that movement of music. Not this way. Yes, the 1980s VHS instructional video aesthetics are there in perfect sync with the song’s gorgeously transporting flow of engrossing layers of saturated tones while making perfect use of space in the mix. But the lyrics sound like something an AI that doesn’t fully understand human language might use to express affection like the line “I’ll drink your blood to see you” and how that sounds like something some alien read about tribes eating parts of the bodies of the recently deceased to symbolically and not so symbolically reincorporate them into the community. All the while images of what seems to be a cognitive test scrolls on with multiple choice questions and delivered by the mysterious National Division of Metaphysical Expanse. That’s like something straight out of the Cronenberg universe and the video itself like a benevolent version of the videotape from The Ring. Who can say what the inspirations for this entrancing and charming track might be but its ethereal tones and light sonic touch is irresistible if you don’t get too caught up with its sinister yet well-intentioned lyrics. Watch the video for yourself on YouTube, look out for Gamblers’ debut album Small World out 9/25 via Symphonic and follow the project at the links provided.

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Sebastian Müller Generates Dreamlike Feelings of Hopeful Anticipation on the Brightly Ambient “Manor Farm / Finding Life”

Sebastian Müller, photo courtesy the artist

The mysterious moods evoked by Sebastian Müller’s “Manor Farm / Finding Life” is perfectly paired to footage of a night drive on a country highway with the foliage at the side of the road lit by headlights and passing by in a kind of blur like the details of a half remembered dream. The ambient synth and processed drone alongside field recordings of distant conversation and rain progresses along until brighter melodic sounds come into the field of hearing and more distinctive sounds carry you along even as the imagery in the video turns more abstract and blurred out into the infinity of the subconscious mind. There is a sense of hopefulness and low level excitement as though traveling toward something promising an elusive which is a quality one doesn’t hear enough in ambient music and the track fades out in a way that finally achieving one’s goal puts an end to the anticipation with one hopes is the payoff of one’s patience and rewarding of the anticipation. Watch the video for “Manor Farm / Finding Life” on YouTube and follow Sebastian Müller at the links below.

“Toothrot” is headboy’s Delicate Then Defiant Song of Solidarity With the Suffering of Friends

“Toothrot” by headboy begins with the vivid image of someone’s tooth falling out of their mouth onto a friend’s palm who picks it up and puts it away for another day. A whimsical and gentle guitar melody accompanies this almost spoken word part of the song before it escalates into distorted intensity as the lyrics bemoan how one can have toothrot and while doing what one can to prevent the continuing ailment. It’s a song about solidarity with daily life misfortunes and the injustice of a world where some people have to just deal with ailments while others can have them seen to without issue. It’s a song commenting on class issues without being so overt about them because at its core is a very roots level compassion for people on a human level even in situations that might draw judgment from people in the ways they’ve been conditioned to denigrate people for perceived carelessness. The dynamic shift from delicate melody to nearly blown out punk intensity is reminiscent of Butt Trumpet’s great 1993 song “I’m Ugly And I Don’t Know Why” though it’s fairly certain that old Los Angeles punk band isn’t in the mix of influences here but that irreverent spirit of defiance and not needing to fit in with a prevailing punk style resonates. Listen to “Toothrot” on Spotify (out now on Blitzcat) and follow the London-based DIY scene connected band headboy at the links below.

Heavy Feelings Gives Voice to a Frustration With Lack of Commitment on the Noisy Post-punk of “Light Contact”

Heavy Feelings, photo courtesy the artists

Heavy Feelings is a Bristol, UK-based collaborative musical project centered around guitarist Ben Shillabeer who is a bit of a veteran of the Bristol music scene as a contributor to, among other musical concerns, Soeza, The John Parish Band and Empty Pools. The single “Light Contact” features the commanding vocals of Nadia Garofalo of the great Chicago post-punk band Ganser. Its cycling guitar riff establishes a mood of impending disaster or dissolution while Garofalo’s voice, reminiscent of PJ Harvey circa Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, adds her own layer of grit to a song that sounds like harnessed menace and chaos. The song seems to be about, based partially on the title, the habit of many people to not commit to a course of action, a way of life, a project, relationships or much of anything hoping for the proper circumstances to come along that never really will in providing an auspicious time to take the dive into something that could be important even if for a short time. The song with its crackling and and intense energy seems to reflect an anxiety over an all too common misplaced lack of faith that can paralyze one’s effectiveness as a human or to even live a life that might be more fulfilling than playing it safe and being ready to bail when something requires more of you than casual interest. Listen to “Light Contact” on Spotify, follow Heavy Feelings at the links below and give a listen to the debut Heavy Feelings album Power⚡Reflection which released on June 3, 2022.

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“Pain” is Miss Torsion’s Playfully Realistic Ode to Chronic Health Conditions

Miss Torsion has crafted an ode to the “invisible ailment” of chronic pain on a song titled, simply and directly enough, “Pain.” In the lyrics she expresses the frustration with the whole process of dealing with such pain and its sources and how it can disrupt your entire psychology when it hits hardest and complicates anything resembling normal life functioning that people who don’t suffer from chronic pain take for granted like walking normally, or being able to sleep well or any physical activity requiring exertion, exercise and being able to have your brain work normally rather than focus on the pain when it’s there in full force or as a dull background annoyance threatening to crash in. The source of chronic pain is wide and different and too often you can suffer from more than one form. But whatever that might be, Miss Torsion’s playfully moody, post-punk pop song captures that experience in a way that is accessible and accurate including how your mind wants to find a way to fix what’s happening even though it can be a complicated ailment and may resist an easy treatment that lasts. It’s a rarity to hear this subject matter in any song and rather than express the anguish and dark thoughts, Miss Torsion presents it all as something that many people have to live and find a way to get through the worst times even if it’s something that may or may not be a thing of the past in one’s life. Listen to “Pain” on YouTube and follow Miss Torsion at the links below.

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Wellbeloved Evokes the World’s Collective Frustrations and Bad Communication Habits on the Psychedelic Blues of “The Values”

Wellbeloved, illustrated picture courtesy the artist

Wellbeloved brings together some seemingly disparate elements for its single “The Values” from its most recent album The Rusty. Distorted yet slightly shimmering guitar to psychedelic effect, splayed percussion tracing the edges of rhythm while also keeping the unconventional beat, Velvet Underground-esque guitar solos that burn over and through a drone of keyboards and bass holding the song together through force of while. It all sounds like its coming apart and colliding together elements that shouldn’t work but somehow do. David Wellbeloved lists a bevy of things going wrong in the world, all well familiar to anyone that has survived the past several years, and in listing them you get the feeling he is trying to make sense of these phenomena as well and all the angst that comes from having to deal with this flood of negative stimuli every day. But the line “Everybody’s yelling but nobody’s saying anything new” gets to the core of the collective psychological issue that is perhaps blocking actually dealing with the world as it is and with issues as they are and that is not questioning the dominant paradigms that seem to be running most people’s lives. The outsized faith in one’s own ideas and beliefs is a common shortcoming and maybe Wellbeloved isn’t suggesting he has the answers but there can be no doubting maybe taking some time off pointless self-assertion and taking the time to figure out if our stories make as much sense as we think is in order but with most people having to work too much to get by we’ll see if a more nurturing and sane world can emerge in spite of the failings of our crumbling worldwide civilization. Listen to the psychedelic blues punk of “The Values” on YouTube and follow Wellbeloved at the links provided.

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Nasim Khushnawaz Delivers a Bravura Rubab Performance on the Energetically Elegant “Sahargah”

Nasim Khushnawaz is a master of the Afghan rubab, one of the national instruments of Afghanistan. It’s a stringed instrument in a range of three sizes so that the smallest has 5 sympathetic strings, the medium has 19 strings and 13 sympathetic strings and the large has 21 strings with 15 sympathetic stings. It has a widely expressive range with a dazzling array of tonal, rhythmic and textural voicings that give the instrument its distinctive sound. Khushnawaz’s father is the late Ustad Rahim Khushnawaz who is considered one of the great players of the rubab and who helped to expose the West to the instrument and its music when ethnomusicologist John Bailey in the 1970s made recordings of Rubab of Herat, Afghanistan to an audience outside that country. The younger Khushnawaz recently put out his latest album of traditional Herati pieces and three classical Afghani including the lead track “Sahargah.” Captured with beautiful sonic detail and evocative power, one hears the musician’s technical prowess but also a masterful interpretive mastery with counter melody and rhythm switching effortlessly between single note syncopation and strumming utilizing drone and rapid arpeggios that give the music a fluidity and energy that is both inviting and immediately engaging even for listners who are unfamiliar with this style and form of music. The title means “Priceless” in English, a concept that should apply to one’s cultural heritage which Khushnawaz preserves ably here and across the entirety of the album Songs From The Pearl of Khorasan. Listen to “Sahargah” on Spotify and follow Nasim Khushnawaz at the links below.

Call in Dead Upends the Questionable Merits of Gender Norms on the Hardcore Ripper “Patriarchy”

Call In Dead, photo courtesy the artists

Unfortunately the really boring and narrow patriarchal mindset is so common in American society rendering many men and male identified people incapable of living a full human life. It’s beyond toxic masculinity though that is the extreme end of this cultural indoctrination. Orlando, Florida based punk band Call in Dead (why call in sick when you can, you know) uses the musical language of hardcore to land a thrilling and unabashed critique of that aspect of the culture on its single “Patriarchy.” Musically it’s reminiscent of Minor Threat’s “I Don’t Wanna Hear It” in terms of ferocity and the spirit of not having regressive behavior and it’s even shorter at 1:05 versus the Minor Threat song at 1:14. But it’s not just the patriarchy that Call in Dead takes to task but an entire set of gender norms that are entirely out of date and social conditioning that stunts one’s development as a person and finding amusement in how ridiculous it is to live your life like nothing can hurt you, like violence is the only answer and the way to asset your personal power as a display of a need for dominance and as though having connection with others and even feeling love is a weakness which is just absurd and in this life you’re going to need more capacities than the patriarchy and its culture has to offer and being able to understand oneself and others beyond simple, binary gender norms is always cooler and more liberating long term and more regularly than truncating one’s cognitive framework for the sake of holding onto a dubious value system just because it’s a story you’ve been encouraged to tell yourself your whole life. Listen to “Patriarchy” on Spotify and follow Call in Dead at the links below.

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100% Contemplate Power Relations in Society on the Retro-Futurist, Electronic Post-punk Song “Prisoner”

The shimmery, shining, repetitive synth line that runs through much of 100%’s “Prisoner” is like an analogous representation of a transmission through a landline. The other synth melodies sound like something that could have come about in 1985, 1995, 2005 or 2025. Which is fitting given the themes of the song and Lena Molnar’s vocals striking an inquisitive and low-key confrontational tone questioning the nature of power relations, justice, public safety and the habits of a society choosing to self-medicate rather than deal with serious social issues and how we deal with them or don’t in an adequate way. The song is a lo-fi, mostly electronic post-punk track but that fits these eternal themes that never seem to get resolved and though technology develops society finds a way to sweep problems that science and a current dominant form of economics, almost always in lock step with one another, doesn’t seem to be able to address to anyone’s satisfaction. Is this a song inquiring about the life of a prisoner? Who is the prisoner? Are we all of habits and ways of being and living? Does this song expand upon the meaning of “The Prisoner’s Dilemma”? This song invites the listener to contemplate these questions on a fundamental level. Fans of early Ladytron will appreciate how the song seems both retro and out of normal time. Listen to “Prisoner” on Spotify, give the rest of the album Clear Visions out on It Records now, and follow the Australian band 100% at the links below.

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WITXHES’ Post-punk Krautrock Track “A Part Ache” is a Harrowing Commentary on Aging

WITXHES launch us into “A Part Ache” with an urgent Motorik beat and an urgent, distorted synthesizer melody. Barely discernible but clearly troubled/conflicted vocals offer snapshots of what it means to be aging, if the introduction to the unusual video is any indication. The visuals are historical pictures in the daily life of children in a town in South Dakota during the Great Depression as shot by Ivan Besse and edited for the song by Emanuel Lundgren. The latter added color anomalies and warping and visual distortion as though turning old photographs into an old VHS tape image. The song is reminiscent of the bizarre and wonderful mashup of industrial, punk and psychedelic Krautrock that was early music by Pop. 1280 circa The Grid. It has a similar appealingly scuzzy aesthetic that lends the sentiments of the song an authenticity that a more pristine soundscape couldn’t really do justice. Aging is something that happens to us all if we’re lucky and the experience of it can feel like an accelerating process that stretches out memory that can hit most people like a feedback loop if they don’t take the time to put one’s experiences into perspective, a luxury many of us aren’t regularly afforded. And in the end these experiences and memories and direct connections with others really only matters to us and the people we know. A hundred years from now most of us won’t even be part of official history. The song reflects that phenomenon and realization well in all its confusion and moments of cognitive clarity. The track comes from the Swedish post-punk band’s June 3, 2022 album Bury your Witxhes and you can watch the video on YouTube, maybe check out the rest of the record on Bandcamp and otherwise connect with WITXHES at the links below.

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