SubmitHub – Page 150 – Queen City Sounds and Art

The Beautifully World Weary Title Track to Easy Jane’s New Album Play is Like a Conflicted Farewell to a Relationship Gone Awry

The title track to Easy Jane’s second album 2021’s Play has a complexity of emotional impact that might not be obvious from its gorgeously lush layers of sound and expansive dynamic. The mood is melancholic and pitched in tones that suggest resignation to the reality of one’s association with another and the need to let go. In an album that delves into the dark side of relationships and the ways in which we awaken to our involvement in them especially when it would behoove us to dissolve them or exit the situation as best we can. In “Play” the guitar traces an outward spiral of an atmospheric riff in the verses that is both bracing and sounds like the closing chapter of something with no sequel. The track is reminiscent of what Crime & the City Solution got up to circa Paradise Discotheque (1990) with its poetic lyrics and cinematic sound. Listen to “Play” on YouTube, check out the rest of Play on Bandcamp and connect with Easy Jane at the links provided below.

Easy Jane on Instagram

Easy Jane on Facebook

Iceage Puts in a Powerful Performance of its Post-Punk Glam Blues for Tapetown Sessions

Iceage in June 2018, photo by Tom Murphy

The Tapetown Session of Iceage displays a band in part studio environment and part live. But with this format the spontaneity and energy of the live show is preserved with the sonic fidelity that wouldn’t be possible in most concert environments. What also separates this footage from that admittedly excellent series of live sessions on KEXP is that the environment seems more gritty and like it could be in their own studio, perhaps, but is in fact the Tapetown Studio in Aarhus, Denmark. The band seems comfortable yet focused and performing a selection of seven songs from its two most recent albums Beyondless (2018) and Seek Shelter (2021). This set of songs has the Danish post-punk band in fine form performing a set of songs that showcase the breadth of its musical vision over the last few years having expanded well beyond the more angular post-punk of its early days into a fascinating amalgam of unvarnished punk waxing into forms that sprawl the sounds and the emotional expressions beyond any orthodoxy of style. This version of Iceage has as much in common with Stooges, New York Dolls and The Birthday Party as it does with hardcore and death rock mixing in elements of rockabilly, blues and country as well. Those hybrid impulses blended together could be a mess but here Iceage manages to synthesize it all with power and conviction for a music that because it can seem loose around the edges also conveys a sense of creative freedom and the ability to defy and grow beyond expectations set by its earlier music. Watch the Tapetown Sessions of Iceage on YouTube and connect with the band at the links provided.

iceagecopenhagen.eu

Iceage on Facebook

“Suspended In Blue” by Marigold Sun Articulates the Deep Sense of Peace and Awe at the Fingers of Sunlight of a Clear Sky On a Late Winter Morning

“Suspended In Blue” evokes the image of sunlight refracting in the sky and streaming down, sparkling now and then the way it seems to on a bright, late winter morning. Eric Li Harrison as Marigold Sun arranges the peaks of tones and fades of the track so that there is a continues flow of atmospherics so that the accents and lingering drones and gentle, subtle whorls of sound in the background stand out in with layers of sonic depth as though capturing that perfect moment when an icicle will catch the sunlight against a blue sky as well as the aforementioned streams of sunshine breaking the morning haze before the sun rises to the full power of its brightness in the sky. It’s a natural beauty that is difficult to express in words, as might be too obvious here, but it does have a restful and refreshing effect psychologically and the treatment of those feelings here is immediately affecting. It is reminiscent of some of the best library music of the 80s that are largely lost to time unless you have one of those great compilations of that music or you’re actively listening to the echoes of such in the work of Boards of Canada. Listen to “Suspended In Blue” on Soundcloud and connect with Marigold Sun at the links below.

marigold-sun.com

Marigold Sun on Instagram

“Feed Infinite” by London Jazz Group Binker & Moses is a Modal Act of Resistance to Today’s Spirit of Malaise

London jazz duo Binker & Moses brought in honorary third member Max Luthert to reassemble raw acoustic recordings of sax and drums in the studio. Saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer and composer Moses Boyd went in with no planned material and after Luthert’s treatments of the exercise in spontaneous composition the resulting track “Feed Infinite” (out now on Gearbox Records) comes off focused and fluid. It’s reminiscent of mid-60s post-bop, free jazz in the ways Boyd accents the beat and keeps the rhythm flowing with both contemplative minimalism and maximalist urgency later in the song. Golding brings a light touch to his tonal figures early in the piece as well before launching into elaborate and energetic modal passages with an expressive flourish to match Boyd’s pacing. It’s a beautifully synergistic piece that when assembled this way takes advantage of electronic touches and sounds that help bring out a contemplative mood that can turn quickly to a spirit of creative rebelliousness and resistance to the doldrums and resignation to mediocrity in life under late capitalism. The energy of the performance is the opposite of the malaise one might understandable feel these days. While tapping a bit into older jazz traditions the aesthetic is well placed in modern electronic music and the avant-garde with micro-dynamics that flow and evolve in a manner suggestive of free association. Listen to “Feed Infinite” on YouTube and connect with Binker & Moses at the links below.

gearboxrecords.com

Binker & Moses on Instagram

Binker & Moses on Facebook

Streaming Platform Links for Binker & Moses

Vague Lanes Manifest a Path Through the Dark Spirit Haunting the Zeitgeist on “Here :: Now.” From Its Debut EP Cassette

Vague Lanes create a sound that resonates with the decaying culture and political infrastructure of the USA with its 2021 track “Here :: Now.” Achieving a good deal of grit with two basses, one driving and grinding along with the insistent drum machine, the other carrying a bit of the melody in the upper registers. The vocals sound like they were recorded in a tunnel in a forgotten part of the city while the track itself produced and then mixed for effect in a similarly clandestine location for an effect that is cathartic and expansive even though a mood of oppression, dissolved for a few moments by the momentum of the music, can be felt and heard haunting every moment of the song. Fans of Comsat Angels or All Your Sisters will appreciate the way the vocals a expressively wide-ranging and reach deep into a place of desperation and a yearning for liberation from the ambient gloom that seems to have settled on the zeitgeist. Listen to “Here :: Now” on Spotify and perhaps buy a copy of the duo’s debut EP on Bandcamp titled Cassette as it is available on a limited run tape. Connect with Vague Lines at the links provided.

vaguelanes.com

Vague Lanes on Instagram

Jamie Rhodes Sagely Articulates the Need to Let Ego Give Way to Growth on “Bring The Wine”

Jamie Rhodes sounds like he’s composing a letter to a loved one or to himself to read later when he’s in a different emotional place when he delivers the vocals on “Bring The Wine.” The song has a slow, orchestral build that builds to a gloriously dramatic conclusion and fade out that is the perfect accompaniment to a song that seems to be about the realization of the impermanence of so many things in life and learning to let go of even cherished notions we maybe thought of as core to our identity. The simple refrain of “the answers, they come and go” points to those stages in life where we think we have things figured out but those answers don’t serve us for a lifetime. The pastoral pace and tenor of the song as well as Rhodes’ half spoken singing really enhance the impression of a person having learned not to hold on so strongly to cherished notions largely anchored on ego that aren’t as significant for a lifetime and to move on and not get so attached to aspects of our personality that we can come to see as integral to our existence when evolving into other modes of thinking, believing and being might be better for us as we learn and grow as people, embracing the fact that things change whether we’re ready or not. Certainly a poetic truth that more humans could learn. Listen to “Bring the Wine” on Spotify, listen to the rest of Rhodes’ 2021 album The Mighty Mighty Something on Bandcamp and connect with Rhodes at the links provided.

Jamie Rhodes on Instagram

Voluptuous Panic Reinterprets Marvin Gaye’s Psychedelic Holiday Classic “Purple Snowflakes” Into a Dream Pop Song For All Seasons

Voluptuous Panic, photo courtesy the artists

Holiday music can be insufferable starting right after Halloween. But Voluptuous Panic’s interpretation of Marvin Gaye’s 1965 psychedelic holiday song “Purple Snowflakes” puts the emphasis on the original song’s surreal and ethereal quality unusual for its time. Using electronic drums to keep a steady beat, steady sleigh bell and what sound like physical bells to trace the counter melody to Gretchen DeVault’s (frontwoman of The Icicles) brightly resonant vocals and Brian J. Bowe’s low, hushed backing vocals, this treatment of the song sounds less like a holiday classic and more like a mysterious almost retro dream pop song that wouldn’t be out of place on a Jim Jarmusch soundtrack. Listen to “Purple Snowflakes” on Bandcamp and connect with Voluptuous Panic at the links below.

Voluptuous Panic on Twitter

Voluptuous Panic on Facebook

Voluptuous Panic on Instagram

“Dawn Patrol” is The Square Community’s Musical Collage Hologram of a Tarnished Pastoral American Dream

Assembling “Dawn Patrol” from cassette loops, Johnny Gutenberger collages what sounds like some old freak folk like outtakes from a lost John Fahey session, decayed trumpet, faded strings and distorted ambient sounds to craft a fractured pop Americana overlaid with segments of harmonica as the reel ends. Its multiple reference points work well together to create a mood reflecting an imperfectly remembered moment of cultural nostalgia like degraded holograms overlaid on one another to make a uniquely haunting image. In that way it’s like the tarnished yet vaguely romantic American dream cast in pastoral moods in the musical equivalent of sepia tones. Listen to “Dawn Patrol” on Bandcamp where you can also explore the rest of the Words Are No Constellation album out now on No Pressure Records. And if you’d care to follow The Square Community and other Johnny Gutenberger projects, please click on the links provided.

eagletracks.net

No Pressure Records on Instagram

Eagle Tracks on Spacehey

Eagle Tracks on Twitter

Wrené Reaches Out For Connection From a Place of Disconnection From Self on the Orchestral Majesty of “White Walls”

Normally when an artist sounds like they’re putting distance between themselves and those that might encounter their work it can be off-putting. But with “White Walls” Wrené’s production invites a spirit of solidarity with feelings of isolation and the coping mechanism of emotional dissociation and a yearning to restore oneself to a more functional place in the heart and spirit. Her wide-ranging vocals brim with a strength of feeling even when it expresses a feeling of emptiness yet from a place of intuitively knowing that can’t and won’t last forever. The song starts of sounding a bit like Portishead broadcasting from space and later the orchestral swell of sounds and emotions is reminiscent of Chelsea Wolfe’s more folk and ambient work or that of Zola Jesus. Once the dramatic tension of the song peaks Wrené ends on a deeply melancholic and lingering note that doesn’t suggest that it’s easy to come back from a place where you feel like you’ve cut yourself off from the passionate drives of the heart you once knew. Surely a song that embodies a way of feeling and being many of us have experienced over the last few years. Listen to “White Walls” on YouTube and connect with Wrené on Spotify.

Jimmy Harry’s “Gummy” is Like an Alternative Soundtrack to Deckard’s Unicorn Dream

Jimmy Harry accomplishes some impressively nuanced depth of sound field on his song “Gummy.” In the foreground there is the minimal and impressionistically processional piano line ringing out while the sound of what seems to be cello lurking at the edges and touches of an otherworldly synth figure in the distance. Flares of distorted static occasionally crackles like you’re peaking in at the dreams of an ancient radio or those of Deckard as he dreams of the unicorn in that scene from Blade Runner. It’s a song that induces a spirit of reflection and cleansing of conscience to make room for a more peaceful emotional state once the mind is empty of the pressures to focus on the usual concerns. Though ambient it gently eases your mind into a different headspace in a welcome distraction from a mundane psychological mode. Fans of Harold Budd’s 1986 ambient classical masterpiece Lovely Thunder will certainly find much to like here. Listen to “Gummy” on YouTube and follow Jimmy Harry on Soundcloud and Spotify linked below.