SubmitHub – Page 163 – Queen City Sounds and Art

The Dynamic Fluidity of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “The Steady Heart” Engenders a Flexibility of Mind

Kaitlin Aurelia Smith, The Mosaic of Transformation cover

The melody and soundcapes of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “The Steady Heart” seem to follow a pattern that evolves and expands organically in a kind of recursive drift of reflective emotional tides. The music video employs images of Smith in poses replicated in quadrants, the visuals created by Sean Hellfritsch and resonant with the work of the artist Thomas Scharfenberg. The glimmering tones and mantra-like vocals interweave with a simple, textural rhythm for an effect like a multidimensional drone made to put your mind in a state where you can cast off the usual distractions and, for a few moments anyway, swim out of the anxieties that seem to be compounding with the rapid succession of crises that have dropped on to us the last few years. The dynamics of the song has a fluidity that engenders a flexibility of mind that helps to get you unstuck from static habits. Watch the video for “The Steady Heart” on YouTube and connect with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith at the links below where you can find more information on her recently released album The Mosaic of Transformation out on Ghostly International.

https://twitter.com/kaitlynaurelia
https://www.facebook.com/kaitlynaurelia
https://www.instagram.com/kaitlynaurelia

Vinyl Williams Takes Us on a Trip We Didn’t Know We Needed to Make to Our Own Personal Utopia on “LA Egypt”

Vinyl Williams, photo courtesy the artist

On “LA Egypt” Vinyl Williams invokes the blend of classic pop, lounge and psychedelia as embodied by The Free Design (which the somewhat like-minded Stereolab invoked on its own song of the same name from 1999’s Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night) and Brazilian Bossa Nova, jazz funk legend Arthur Verocai. The colorful and hypnotic video parallels the hazy, layered aesthetic that hits you gently but is simultaneously rich in content. It offers a view into an imaginative alternative reality in which shifting between inner and outer space is effortless and offers a path to creating a kind of non-invasive Utopia that anyone can access at will. What makes the track remarkable is that while it is very rooted in a way to previous forms of music and established styles it is not trapped by their conventions. It is equally informed by the well-crafted chill of the previously mentioned artists as it is by the recent wave of psychedelia and dream pop. But you don’t hear it and immediately think it’s basically a decent imitation of Tame Impala or Sound of Ceres. The guitars swirl perfectly into the stream of keyboards, synth and ethereal vocals. There is a at times a disciplined, Krautrock-esque rhythm but one that gives way to an abstract flow into infinite horizons. It is also a fine introduction to Vinyl Williams’ latest album Azure LP which released June 5, 2020 on Requiem Pour Un Twister as Williams once again takes us on an aural journey we didn’t know we needed but glad we undertook. For the album art Williams combined over twenty-five paintings as a cognate of the attention to detail and focused creativity that went into composing the music within. Watch the video for “LA Egypt” on YouTube and connect with Vinyl Williams at the links provided include that for the interactive version of the video.

Interactive version of LA Egypt here: https://laegypt.vinylwilliams.com

https://vinylwilliams.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/vinylwilliams

https://www.instagram.com/vinylwilliams

MOLI Goes Deep On the Toxic and Warping Effects of Social Media on Our Psyches and Relationships With Each Other on “So Jealous”

MOLI goes deep on the way social media has warped our culture through impacting the way many of us present ourselves online and the way we perceive others. The previously unimaginable and, it turns out, unhealthy level of access we have to each other these days minus the contexts that ground our experiences. MOLI casts that dynamic in a song about someone who sees the popularity of someone she doesn’t know who now has the attention of an ex and the psychological twists and turns that engender feelings of, as one might guess from the song title, jealousy, inadequacy, isolation, self-doubt and the projection of one’s insecurities on situations that have little to do with you. The effervescent melody and sweeping dynamics almost give the song a hopeful quality though it also mirrors the heightened sense of personal drama as well. Though the song gives an example of the toxic nature of the mediated experience of human interaction in social media it is a snapshot of the phenomenon overall and how that much access, albeit incomplete while giving a sense of totality, to others can turn everyone into a bit of a performative content creator for a data corporation and marketing tools—a sentient input to a feedback loop that rewards participation in a network with a shot of dopamine whether the quanta of experiences are positive or negative for you. MOLI, though, suggests that pulling back from being reduced in aggregate to a binary derivative of some kind might be necessary for our collective mental health. Watch the video for “So Jealous” on YouTube and connect with Moli at the links provided. https://www.youtube.com/embed/hc5PF8fWWwc

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UytzAp8ZnC60ZAMBROqW6
https://soundcloud.com/whoismoli
https://www.instagram.com/whoismoli

AFAR Lures You Into a Brooding, Downtempo Journey Into Slow Burn Emotional Catharsis on “Lulled and Fake”

There is a sultry darkness to AFAR’s single “Lulled and Fake.” The distorted, electronic bass pulses along with a brooding menace while electric bass traces the outlines of a melody that runs through the song as a compliment to the dynamic and rich vocals like one of the more dub-inspired tracks by 90s downtempo groups that crafted songs using something of a production songwriting palette and a seamless mix of electronic and electric instruments like Massive Attack and Portishead. Except that on “Lulled and Fake,” AFAR is especially reminiscent of Curve in the vocals and the way Curve could sustain a slow burn intensity without having to resort to a blowout denouement to leave a lasting impression Listen to “Lulled and Fake” on Soundcloud where you can also follow the band’s further exploits.

Grace Joyner Illuminates the Foggy Corners of Doubt and Confusion in a Troubled Relationship on “Hung The Moon”

Grace Joyner’s second single from her album Settle In, “Hung The Moon,” attempts to map out the fraught emotional territory of connecting with someone you love. The layers of atmospheric dynamics parallel the varying levels of emotional intensity that come from being involved with someone who seems to be behaving in inconsistent and confusing ways. Are you being tested? Is being tested even really acceptable? Are you overwhelming your loved one and they don’t know how to tell you its too much right now? Joyner conveys this feeling of emotional suspension through contrasting music that sounds simultaneously melancholic, wistful and hopeful. The chorus “You’ve got me pulled in so many directions, baby/I started to think that’s what you wanted maybe/But now I am weak and I’ve got to change my tune/I thought you hung the moon” says much about how love is rarely if ever some simple process where you mix the right ingredients and always have the same results. And the subtext would seem to be that fundamental breakdowns in communication always leave everyone involved with an uncertainty that jeopardizes the relationship, sometimes beyond reconciliation. Since the song has the hallmarks of a sultry synth pop song with a soft but finely accented bass line and the intimate immediacy of Joyner’s vocals one comes away with a sense that this is a moment of doubt looming into the heart going a different direction than back toward the loved one that in singing out these thoughts maybe these wrinkles can be smoothed out in the end. Listen to “Hung The Moon” on Soundcloud and connect with Joyner at the links provided.

https://www.facebook.com/gracejoynermusic

https://www.instagram.com/gracejoyner

Ravenstorm Beautifully Weds the Epic Melodrama of Progressive Death Metal With Classic Romantic Literature on “Erlkönig”

Italian melodic metal band Ravenstorm combine metal with opera in its song “Erlkönig.” The latter is a ballad written by early Romantic writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1782 and one which evidently lends itself well to the high drama of progressive death metal. The animated music video for the song tells the tale of a child who claims that he is being assailed by the titular “Elf King” but his father not being able to see the supernatural creature comforts his son with more prosaic explanations for his perceptions of this creature of faerie. The father rushes off with his son presumably to seek earthly aid only to find his child has been taken from him either by a natural ailment or through preternatural means by the aforementioned Erlkönig. The animalistic vocals suit well the narrative and the epic gallop of the music in that grand tradition that one often hears in the Gothenburg style an apt emotional soundscape for the story unfolding as well as the tragic ending. Franz Schubert set the Goethe ballad to music in his time, Ravenstorm just gave it a beautiful modern interpretation worthy of the spirit of the original ballad by one of the godfathers of melodramatic theater. Watch the video for “Erlkönig” on YouTube and connect with Ravenstorm at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2HwkKXjcwlmQlZ71LKyhVX
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwprwYTO8LewO1AwCLQrOBw
https://www.facebook.com/ravenstormmmetal
https://www.instagram.com/ravenstorm_official

“Grain Barge” by From Apes to Angels Takes Us on a Journey From Exalted Illumination to a Blissful Endless Summer

From Apes to Angels, photo courtesy the artists

Millie Gaum and Andrew Brassleay bridge the worlds of IDM, modern synthwave and dream pop with their project From Apes to Angels and the new album Let the Light In. The single “Grain Barge” begins with what feel like the thoughts of immortals floating in a stream of the ambient energy that permeates the universe moving in slow arcing waves of distorted quanta. When the wind passes we find ourselves bathed in ethereal vocals that sing of someone becoming divine. And it is then that the percussion comes in with an urgent piano line that what began as the expression of universal beings congeals into a pop song of luminous but those grounded in energies and experiences that have a human immediacy. It’s an interesting reverse of the progression of many pop songs that begin with the earthbound human experience and aim for more elevated realms of expression. But not once does the song lack for an emotionally cleansing quality that leaves you uplifted at the end. Listen to “Grain Barge” on Soundcloud and connect with From Apes to Angels at the links provided.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/18bQ9mHwuOqLsppbBFVAtq?si=XiEhKLh1R8WDH4b0McYXBg
https://soundcloud.com/fromapestoangels
https://twitter.com/apestoangels
https://www.facebook.com/fromapestoangels
https://www.instagram.com/fromapestoangels
https://fata.bandcamp.com

Telestation Alpha Articulates the Mysterious Draw of the Possibilities of Unknown Spaces on “Underwater Creatures”

Telestation Alpha “Underwater Creatures” cover (cropped)

Telestation Alpha brings you directly into alien environments on its track “Underwater Creatures.” The layers of analog synth establish a streaming, abstract melody in the distance with a slow pulse of distorted tone like a slow cycling pulsar, a lighthouse or a new kind of sonar that gives you nearby imagery with intermittent accuracy. But in this journey, nothing. Just empty vistas of underwater landscape. All the while you are drawn further into the deep, further into spaces that are largely dark to the naked eye but which the extension of sensory capabilities thanks to technology bring within reach of exploration. The song articulates the draw of the unknown and the possibility of discovery of worlds and unhitherto unknown geographies and, with any luck, civilizations hidden from us by time and space. Listen to “Underwater Creatures” on Spotify and connect with Danish ambient and drone project Telestation Alpha at the the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5mSjb1ECyYlkvyGUiKsNtD
https://telestationalpha.com/index.html
https://telestationalpha.bandcamp.com/album/transmission-started
https://twitter.com/CodeElektrohttps://www.instagram.com/code_elektro

frogi Sings With Gentle Immediacy of a Love That Transcends Time and Space on “til i turn blue”

The way frogi arranges her atmospheric melodies has always given her songs a strong emotional resonance. They craft a sense of intimacy with the listener with a gentle immediacy. Her song “til i turn blue” catches us up in drifting with a nearly impressionistic piano melody and frogi’s contemplating the nature of the strong love bond and how it changes and evolves across years. How some people seem to be able to pull at our heartstrings because somehow we understand or have a natural empathy for what they’re going through and even if we drift apart for a time or forever that emotional dynamic somehow remains. Sometimes we struggle against it but frogi’s song speaks of an acceptance of that bond of love even if it can’t be the same as it once was because even if our lives change because we evolve as people it’s not so difficult to understand that our relationship to the bond can evolve as well if we don’t cling to the demands of ego’s insistence on the linear and the now. It’s a song about love in the spiritual and worldly sense but one that is imbued with a comprehension of the overlap. In a time of great conflict it’s a strong reminder of greater possibilities in our relationships with each other. Listen to “til i turn blue” on Soundcloud and connect with frogi at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/0frlcBV9pFq0Ip624rdUen
instagram.com/frogimakesmusic

Holden Laurence’s “Sometimes Laughter” Plumbs the Depths of Personal Darkness With a Tenuous Sense of Hope

Holden Laurence, photo courtesy the artist

Opening with a melodic bass line, steady tom rolls and hi-hat tapping with a ghostly synth haunting the background, Holden Laurence’s “Sometimes Laughter” immediately recalls Joy Division’s “Decades.” But when the vocals come in the keyboards soar into a more uplifting dynamic while somehow remaining melancholic, guitar melody gloomily bending in flanger. Laurence’s vocals imbue a story of tragedy and heartache with a sense of romance and humor at the absurdity of some of the situations life throws at you. Laurence played all the instruments on the track minus the drums performed by Michael O’Brien of The Modern Electric and there is a coherent and balanced aesthetic.The fiery, rhythmic guitar solo at the end of the song paired with ethereal keyboard work isn’t just reminiscent of Joy Division, but also of The Sound and the way the band could sound so hopeful while plumbing the depths of personal darkness trying to find there some revelatory and illuminating emotional truth. Listen to “Sometimes Laughter” on Soundcloud and connect with Holden Laurence at the links provided.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ni612NB9KFU963TGqohXX
https://holdenlaurence.com
https://soundcloud.com/holdenlaurence
https://holdenlaurence.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/holdenlaurence
https://www.facebook.com/HoldenLaurence
https://www.instagram.com/holdenlaurence