SubmitHub – Page 147 – Queen City Sounds and Art

MAYSUN Evokes a Sense of Organic Breakthrough in Creative Exploraiton on “An Opening”

“An Opening” is the second to last track of MAYSUN’s 2022 album Wanderlust II. One might expect an opening to be necessary for progress to begin but in the larger context of the composer’s work and of the album in particular, a great deal of exploration in the processing of everyday sounds into musical components to create an emotional resonance with that transformation and recontextualization it is often the experiments that produce new elements that lead to new realizations and understandings that wouldn’t have manifested so readily. In aggregate this very organic mode of learning through creative work often yields new vistas and plateau’s of aesthetic that aid in progressing one’s own growth as an artist. “An Opening” sounds like a journey through a passage to a new mode of exploration founded on the most recent round of exploring pure tone and methodology as a vehicle for self-comprehension and of the expanding possibilities of one’s art. Perhaps this is the meaning of the word “wanderlust” in the title—each iteration of delving into ideas and setting ideas into motion serving as phenomenon that sparks and lures one into the realms of creative work in an eternal dynamic in which boredom is not an option or really even part of the cognitive framework. Musically it shines as much as it evokes a mood and an effervescent texture. It is energetic whereas other tracks of the album really express the melancholy and mystery of the process and of expanding one’s mind on the personal and artistic level as a unified process. Listen to “An Opening” on Soundcloud and follow MAYSUN at the links provided.

maysun.ca

MAYSUN on Instagram

MAYSUN on YouTube

Aerial2k Reconstructs the Surreal and Soothing Vibe of the Myth of the Middle Class Suburb on “Max Normal”

“Max Normal” by Aerial2k employs multiple layers of synth and other electronic sounds to craft a song that sounds like the soundtrack to a time lapse construction across years of a suburban neighborhood. Is the title of the song meant to be someone’s name? An opinion/observation offered. Either way one can hear the steady pace of the percussion while tones carry on as if manifesting tiny bits of the buildings and other features of the neighborhood to be while highlighting how strange yet aspirational that sort of project might be while also calling into question how “normal” it is even though such communities are held up as the epitome of “normal” both in the positive sense and in the connotation more pejorative. The track itself, though, feels meditative like taking some time out to build an ideal community one can go back to in order for relaxation away from the hustle of work life, one’s own private haven and sanctuary, which was one of the goals of early suburbs and who can blame anyone for wanting that. These days it all doesn’t mean much with the changing ways people work and drastically increasing income inequality and the complete erosion of a meaningful middle class. So in some sense this song is a sort of sonic cultural archaeology that manifests a type of utopia and the best aspects of these strange social and economic phenomena of the suburb before the world definitely took a turn for the worse thus the source of its curiously soothing aesthetic. Listen to “Max Normal” on YouTube and follow Aerial2k at the links below.

Aerial2k on Instagram

Vessels to Motherland’s “shenandora” is like a One Act Play of Sonic Dialogue Written in the Language of Machine Intelligences

Vessels to Motherland, photo courtesy the artists

Vessels to Motherland tap into a similar creative and sonic space as Art of Noise did in the 80s with a pure blend of archaic, textural sounds and modern electronic and avant-garde aesthetics. With its track “shenandora,” Vessels to Motherland created what sounds like a dialogue, a play written for cybernetic organisms in their natural mode of communication. Percussive sounds establish patterns and electronic tones weave intricate call and response dynamics that by the end of the song sounds a bit like foreboding dance music that dissolves into calm, repeating resonances that pulse with the satiation that intelligences that do not suffer the limitations of analog, organic life and its cycle of processes into which fatigue and sleep are built. Yet machines and digital existences too must update, repair and replenish in the face of the variations of stimulus to their own environment just like us humans. Vessels to Motherland brilliantly gives expression to that very concept without a single word spoken or sung in the song with a title that suggests an individual name whether of a consciousness or a place or a collective, a corporate entity, which adds yet another dimension to the level of creative work going on with the song. Listen to “shenandora” on Soundcloud, follow Vessels to Motherland at the links below and look out for the NYC-based duo’s full length album Machine Lieder set for release in 2022.

vesselstomotherland.com

Vessels to Motherland on Bandcamp

Vessels to Motherland on Facebook

Vessels to Motherland on Instagram

Vessels to Motherland on YouTube

“Like A Daydream” by Trentemøller is a Soothing Shoegaze Passage Into a Nourishing and Healing State of Mind

Trentemøller came to prominence as a gifted purveyor of imaginative electronic music but since 2007 he’s been operating with a full band in manifesting his musical vision. The single “Like A Daydream” from the recently released album Memoria (out on the artist’s own label In My Room). The title of the song is exactly the mood and tonal architecture of the song as ethereal guitar both chimes and traces the trajectory of introspective thoughts as they are cast forth from Lisbet Fritze’s sublime vocals. There is a measured dynamic to the song that also allows for the deeply atmospheric guitar and synths to bloom like a rapid sunrise and flooding the soundscape with an uplifting energy that takes one from the melancholic mood that perhaps spawned the song to an emotional space out of the psychological shadows from which personal truths brew before ready to be brought to light and shared despite what some might think of as their imperfection. The image and concept of the daydream works well here because it’s one of the few times in life when you can be conscious and let your imagination and authentic self merge in ways that are nourishing and healing to the mind. Fans of Slowdive and Lush are encouraged to dive deep into the artist’s catalog and Memoria in particular. Watch the gorgeous and evocative music video for “Like A Daydream” on YouTube and follow Trentemøller at the links below.

Trentemøller on Apple Music

trentemoller.com

Trentemøller on Bandcamp

Trentemøller on Facebook

Trentemøller on Instagram

Wikka Encourages Society’s Unjustly Persecuted to Come out and Let Their Freak Flag Fly on “Creature Feature”

Wikka subversively plays upon the horror movie trope of the “creature feature” for the song of the same name. Setting the tale to an organic industrial beat and a variety of electronic sounds that bring a feel of the darkly mythological and fairy tale to the song akin to the sorts of moody, dramatic music of Switchblade Symphony in its heyday in the late 90s. But Wikka’s production gives the song an intimate feel like getting a peek into private thoughts that speak well to what it’s like to feel like someone out of step with mainstream society and ostracized as such when the source of this low key ostracizing is based on just being a little different which is too often enough for certain types of people to declare you a freak, a degenerate and whatever other othering language is available. But the subject of Wikka’s song is ready to come out of its place of hiding where it’s taken some time to heal from the hurtful verbiage and treatment ready to join others who are similarly different in a public world whether accepted by cultural conservative types or not because staying out of sight and mind is just not all that fulfilling especially when what you are is not inherently destructive to others. Listen to “Creature Feature” on Spotify and follow Wikka at the links below.

Wikka on Instagram

Wikka on TikTok

Wikka on YouTube

AJ Lambert’s Psychedelic Video For “When You’ve No Eyes” is an Imaginative Presentation of a Song About Cutting Through Our Collective Illusions

AJ Lambert isn’t exactly leaning on her lineage for her musical career as the daughter of Nancy Sinatra and granddaughter of Frank Sinatra. Not when you’re releasing a song called “When You’ve No Eyes” with a self-directed music video like something straight out of a low budget, psychedelic science fiction movie. Animated lightning strikes in the sky at the beginning and credits for the video roll like it’s the end part of a movie with aesthetics resonant with the 2017 film The Florida Project. Bubbles float through the sky, streaking bolts of fire, purple clusters of clouds, a bouncing red bit of fluid and a turning object like an interdimensional satellite floats as an observer over this human drama with no humans visible unless the remains of human civilization count along with the graffiti on walls. The song itself is a heartfelt pop Americana with Lambert’s impassioned, breathy, slightly husky vocals about the illusions people try to perpetrate on one another when dropping these pretenses are really necessary for life and indeed the world to move forward in a more valid direction that nourishes rather than evades being real and living in the here and now. Watch the video for “When You’ve No Eyes” on YouTube and connect with Lambert on Spotify.

Khazali’s “Dance on the Rain” is a Poetic Portrait of Acceptance of a Break-Up

The lush, pulsing, hazy melody of Khazali’s “Dance on the Rain” immediately takes you back to the early days of chillwave when that music was new and felt fresh and like something borrowed from a dream. But Khazali’s song has obviously learned from production methods and aesthetics that have come along since while embracing the sounds of analog synth in the mix as bright touches of a handful of notes cut through that haze and along with the staccato guitar work provide a framework within which the singer’s ghostly yet soulful vocals can drift along in an easy manner depicted in the evocative music video. It all sounds chill and introspective and it is but Khazali’s words in spare stanzas paint us the portrait of the end of the cycle of a break-up in unmistakable terms and where regret and pain has turned to acceptance but not without a touch of sadness. Watch the video for “Dance on the Rain” on YouTube and connect with Khazali on Instagram linked below.

Khazali on Instagram

First Frontier Strikes a Strong Chord of Romantic Heartache and Psychological Honesty on the Emotionally Raw “Insist”

First Frontier covers a lot of emotional territory on the single “Insist” from its forthcoming EP Just Matter (out March 18, 2022). Hailing from Birmingham, UK, First Frontier on this song sounds like a bit like an American indiepop band. The yearning tones of the guitar as the song begins may make you think you’re in for an indie rock song like many we’ve heard in recent years but it also has an unvarnished quality that feels more honest and earnest. And the lyrics tracing the contours of a relationship in which two people are intimately aware of their own shortcomings as articulated in poetic detail. The line “There’s a weakness in my head/More an enemy instead/And it takes me from the light/To the dark side/When I’m lonely in this bed/I see why some people let/Jagged whispers lead them straight to the wrong life” contains so much psychological insight, searing honesty and compassion it really makes the song a standout. But even when the song waxes more romantic it’s never, ever corny or hackneyed, it brims over with a heartbreaking poignancy that you don’t hear in nearly enough pop music and the spare instrumentation with the fragile male and female vocals giving the song a tender authenticity is hard to beat. Listen to “Insist” on Bandcamp and follow First Frontier at the links below.

firstfrontiermusic.com

First Frontier on Twitter

First Frontier on Facebook

First Frontier on Instagram

First Frontier on YouTube

Jori Larres’ “Counterpoints” is a Musical Analog to Interstellar Quantum Travel

Finnish composer Jori Larres uses rapidly shimmering, distorted synths to introduce us to his song “Counterpoints” as if a tonal transportation system to a higher dimension where the minimal percussion gives shape to passageways in the song once the ethereal effervescence clears away. The song feels like an elevated stroll with elongated notes lighting the path ahead in a world of pure light and benevolent, resonating energies that have a form emerging from the intersection of opposed elements of sound. A call and response dynamic that creates the vibration and interactions from which solidity forms. Later in the song we, the listners, emerge from the that busy yet comforting soundscape into a place of utter peace and silence. And in retrospect it feels like the musical analog of directly experiencing a future form of quantum travel that feels like a slow transcendence as we are converted to energy and then back into solid form not unlike the way the transporters on Star Trek effect their function. Probably not Larres’ inspiration for the track and yet it is a kind of nourishing array of sounds in which you are washed taking in their vibrations. Listen to “Counterpoints” on YouTube, connect with multimedia artist and musician Jori Larres at the links provided and give a listen to the recently released album Intervals from which the single was taken.

Jori Larres on Apple Music

Jori Larres on Facebook

Jori Larres on Instagram

BONG-747 Soundtracks the Life of a Futuristic Taxi Driver on the Present time mix of “Big Brother” as remixed by iY?

The Present time mix remixed by iY? of “Big Brother” puts the focus on rhythmic elements of the track and the more ethereal atmospheric elements where synth lines seem to streak by. Sonically it sounds like what it might be like to fly a vehicle in some future where hearing the ambient traffic chatter is a part of life for someone shuttling passengers to and from high rise buildings and distant home or recreational destinations. Samples of radio talk sit side by side bright but hazy melodies and a tonal percussive features that track the passage of time and lend a backdrop of urgency and low key menace. At points it comes off a bit like an unlikely but entirely possible collaboration between Brian Eno, The Crystal Method and Oneohtrix Point Never with the physicality and sense of texture of the first, the gift for dark yet playful moods of the second and the way the latter is able to craft emotional sonic vistas with layered movement. Listen to the track on YouTube and connect with BONG-747 at the links provided.

BONG-747 on Facebook