SubmitHub – Page 169 – Queen City Sounds and Art

The Upsweeping Arc Into Infinity of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “Expanding Electricity” is an Alchemical Blend of New Age Ambient and World Music

KaitlynAureliaSmith_ExpandingElectricity1_Crop — Kaitlin Aurelia Smith “Expanding Electricity” cover

The blend of musical ideas, textures, tones and rhythms of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “Expanding Electricity” from her forthcoming album The Mosaic of Transformation is as richly conceived as it is transporting. Electronic xylophone sets a brisk pace, ethereal, plaintive vocals, electronic dulcimer-esque sounds and bright, sometimes hazy synth melodies swirl and envelop you in an realm of expansive moods in its perfect blend of new age and world music. Except one that contains hints of The Knife, Alice Coltrane, Laurel Halo and Laurie Anderson. It is structured in organic movements in its more then ten minutes of seamless sound collage and always seems to be on an upsweeping arc into infinity. Listen to “Expanding Electricity” on Soundcloud and connect with the west coast composer at the links provided.

twitter.com/kaitlynaurelia
facebook.com/kaitlynaurelia
instagram.com/kaitlynaurelia

Justin Robinson Steps Away From Synths to Guitar Drones on “Last Chance” to Craft an Ever Evolving Tension Easing Drone

JustinRobinson_LastChance1_sm — Justin Robinson, photo courtesy the artist

Justin Robinson took a step away from his usual use of synthesizers in crafting the meditative drones of “Last Chance.” The descending progression is like watching late afternoon rain on a gray day through a window while clearing your mind to be open to having something worth saying or to the unraveling anxieties and mental stumbling blocks around resolving an issue or mystery that’s been plaguing your mind. The progression repeats for the just over two minutes of the track but that you can’t tell that it’s a guitar unless you’re familiar with the creative and innovative ways one can use a guitar to create streaming soundscapes is a testament to Robinson’s imaginative technique. Combining both the use of an e-bow to create that specific string resonance and reverb and maybe some delay and volume control to sculpt a flow of sound like the shifting colors of the Aurora Borealis is a level of craft that you will never learn in a conventional guitar lesson. Maybe watching a YouTube video where someone tries to use guitar to mimic a Fennesz composition or a Brian Eno song. But it’s not the technique so much that matters as how Robinson has crafted an emotional space and experience of sublime tranquility and quiet grace that transcends the conventional song format, defying easy analysis of structure and tonal choice. The song is both atmosphere and texture by suggesting both in a way ethereal and organic. Listen to “Last Chance” on Spotify.

Craig Shipman’s collaboration with Dud “The Demons” is a Harrowing Depiction of the Dark Places Your Mind Goes When You Grow Up With an Addict

CraigShipmanXDud_TheDemons_cover_crop — Craig Shipman x Dud *The Demons* EP cover

The reverse swells that bring us into Craig Shipman’s collaboration with Dud “The Demons” is symbolic of the song’s retrospective vibe into the roots of one’s own current dysfunctional psychology. The unflinching words about how dad cared more about alcohol than his kids and being left with no parental anchor with mom not able to be around as much hit hard. The turn of the vocals into unexpected bends in tone hinting at the weight of the words and the memory and how these experiences sit in your mind like an experience you’d rather forget the way the dad in the song used alcohol to numb his own pain. Who can’t relate to the piercing words about feeling like an accident in a dysfunctional family unless you’re fortunate enough to not come from one? Then the song goes into how that background colors your outlook on the world and warps your sense of self and makes it more challenging to get to a place where you can feel like you’re not holding yourself back. And yet the song is ultimately about facing these harrowing personal truths and in that is a way to express that pain rather than repress it the way you’re taught to when someone in your early life is an addict and you have no real emotional bedrock from which to uplift yourself except for one you make for yourself. Listen to “The Demons” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of The Demons EP.

Jäverling ◇ von Euler’s “Stigande luft” is like Music from a Late Night New Age Jazz and Ambient Lounge

JaverlingXVonEuler_StigandeLuft1_crop — Jäverling ◇ von Euler *Musik för trädgårdar* cover

“Stigande luft” (Ascending Air) is the first track from Jäverling ◇ von Euler’s upcoming album Musik för trädgårdar (Music for gardens). It draws us in by establishing a percussive tone as a beat as shimmering splashes of synth come in and the melody and textural elements blossom into a dynamic soundscape of interweaving rhythms and melody. It’s like a fusion of New Age jazz and ambient composition. Though having a bit of the vibe of an after hours techno lounge, the overall effect uplifts the mood with the sense of illumination and energy. Rickard Jäverling and Henrik von Euler have worked together on previous albums as the ambient duo Dödens Dal and this newer collaborative material emphasizes a synthesis of the organic and electronic. Listen to “Stigande luft” on Spotify and look for the project’s new album out on the Flora & Fauna imprint.

The Vitality and Grit of 100’s “Special Vision” is a Pointed Commentary on the Empty Promises of Organized Religion

100_SpecialVision2_sm — 100, photo courtesy the artists

Rowen Tucker of Australian post-punk band 100 took inspiration for the writing of “Special Vision” watching from Sydney’s Hyde Park workers retiling the roof of St. Mary’s Cathedral. All that toil and outlay of resources and for what? The expansive urgency of the song charges its words with a paradoxically melancholic and angsty energy both raw and pointed and atmospheric. Its chords cut and highlight literate and thoughtful observations and introspective examinations of one’s own relationship to what some might think of as the larger issues of existence. Except that Tucker grounds it in a spirituality rooted in life experience rather than empty promises of reward in the great beyond. The line “Sacred space for the chosen few” skewers the aspect of religious faith that reinforces class differences and linking poverty with lack of morality. In singing “Spend my life making bad decisions, I do it clean because I’ve got no religion” points to a personal morality in which one acknowledges one’s own mistakes and their consequences with no need for guilt or eternal punishment for “crimes” and “transgressions” that mean little outside a religious context. The chorus, and the source of the title of the song, “No special vision” is like a non-religious chant rejecting that post-Manichaean ethos of judgment and guilt necessary in most modern Christian sects. No need for thinking you’re special and above others because of one’s special relationship with god. The immediacy and grit of the song is palpable and fans of New Model Army and Pile will find much to like about the band’s inventive guitar work and pointed poetics. Listen to “Special Vision” on Spotify, connect with 100 at the links below and look for the group’s new EP out later in 2020.

open.spotify.com/artist/34CBZlqmK3KCxHeAcgQHTH
triplejunearthed.com/artist/100-0
soundcloud.com/100its100
facebook.com/100its100

Stellie Peels Back the Layers of Internalized Superficiality on Her Downtempo, R&B Pop Song “How Do We Look So Good?”

Stellie_JacksonThornbury1_sm — Stellie, photo by Jackson Thornbury

Stellie strikes some deeply resonant places in the hear with her single “How Do We Look So Good?” The shining synth line, shuffling, downtempo percussion and sinuous bass line are perfect framing music for her wide-ranging, soulful vocals. We’ve heard a lot of songs about romantic regrets but Stellie sets both a vivid settings to anchor the emotional memories and poetic explorations of working through the processing of her feelings and rethinking her own instincts before experience forced her to reconsider what she wants, why she wants it, what her attractions might be and whether they’re her own or more social and media conditioning. Throughout the song Stellie dives peels back these layers to get to the core of what feels vital and genuine while not dishonoring the path to get there. We all come to believe and value things that may have been valid or useful for a limited time and if not, life is a process of learning. Sometimes those lessons are hard and sometimes they hit us in a way that makes us reel for a moment or for years. The line “I can’t afford you at that price, I can’t afford to compromise” speaks to the way we buy into fantasies of our own construction or through internalized values we haven’t yet fully examined but in the end we come to know isn’t worth the personal cost or the deals necessary to take on something or someone that in the end erodes our insides. The title of the song, from one of the lyrics, reinforces the message by asking simply how we can look good when inside we’ve let go what we truly value in order to seem good to a culture, a social context or a world that wants us to reorient an authentic and healthy system of values and identity by rewarding compliance with a false and unrealistic standard. Listen to “How Do We Look So Good?” on Spotify.

Glutenhead’s Synthesis of Darkwave, Indie Pop and Punk on “Naked in Toronto” Embodies Today’s Spirit of Desperation and Tenuous Hopes

Glutenhead_NakedInToronto2_sm — Glutenhead, photo courtesy the artists

Glutenhead’s “Naked in Toronto” places the band’s music outside any obvious current context. Its creeping atmospheric opening section, the emotionally fragmented bluster of the second act, the off-kilter acoustic slacker playfulness of the third act and the dark psychedelic emo of the fourth act that brings together the song’s varied impulses perfectly makes you wonder who this music might be for while at the same time loving the way it takes you through an emotional gauntlet that expunges the deeply embedded angst and personal darkness and the amplifies the handful of joys that make everything somehow still worth holding onto. Its almost free verse poetry with lines like “I had a winterlong daydream of the summertime smokescreen” speaks so powerfully to how we can be fooled by our own hopes into assuming everything is going to be alright when often it won’t be, at least not in the ways we anticipate. The nearly screamed chorus of “I hate my life” and the line “I’m trying my best but it’s not working out” comes from that place many of us reach of abject desperation and despair after putting in so much effort into conducting our lives with honesty and integrity or at least in the ways we’ve been told are valid only to have life in a society often warped by values antithetical to normal human life and the cultivation of a sustainably good and rewarding existence, subsuming it in the interest of some cruel abstract like “the market” and “the economy” without examining what that might be and how those things might better serve us as a collective whole. At one point the song discusses not wanting to see friends die and being afraid of the prospect of one’s own death—heavy thoughts in a raw and real way in an era when such sentiments are given a few steps removed from it being a real and immediate concern. The song is simultaneously punk, indie pop in the vein picked up by the Bright Eyes in the earlier period of unvarnished emotionalism and brooding darkwave. It’s unlike much of anything you’ll hear this year and given how it so poetically and fiercely encapsulates the current mood of most of us at this moment makes the song particularly gripping and evocative. Listen to “Naked in Toronto” on Spotify and connect with Glutenhead at the links below.

youtube.com/channel/UCHcdxScHwQYeW33z4YrXknw
glutenhead.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/glutenheadmusic
instagram.com/glutenheadhead

Dissolve in Sepia’s “Between Violet and Green” is a Tonal and Tactile Swim Into Ambient Soundcape Bliss

DissolveInSepia_MysteryCirclesCompVol1_crop — Dissolve in Sepia *Mystery Circles Compilation Vol. 1* cover

“Between Violet and Green” by Dissolve in Sepia is the closing track of the new vinyl compilation Mystery Circles Compilation Vol. 1 released by the Mystery Circles Imprint. Dissolve in Sepia is the project of Brazilian composer and producer Ramon Fassina who used a Eurorack modular synthesizers, piano and other acoustic instruments to create a beatless, ambient foray into a realm of sound that feels like swimming through subtropical waters in the Pacific Ocean in late spring. The combination of pure tones swirling, bubbling around you provides the tactile sensation of being enveloped in warm, flowing waters, while, interestingly, the acoustic instruments convey the ambiance, tranquility and sense of wonder by streaming off into the horizon even after striking the notes and giving the song a natural and intuitive sense of rhythm. It is a beautiful analog of an environmental experience that fans of New Age, ambient and modern classical music will appreciate. Listen to “Between Violet and Green” on Soundcloud, connect with Dissolve in Sepia at the links below and look out for the debut album Ocean Memories on all streaming platforms mid-September 2020 as well as a limited edition cassette on Mystery Circles.

open.spotify.com/artist/2YSltAufOj6E59LMwUW1hA
mysterycircles.com/dissolveinsepia
soundcloud.com/dissolveinsepia
dissolveinsepia.bandcamp.com/releases
instagram.com/dissolveinsepia

OLI Delivers a Message of Authentic and Gentle Love in the Ethereal R&B of “Happy”

OLI_Happy1_crop — OLI, photo courtesy the artist

The radio edit of “Happy” by OLI sounds like a modern, lo-fi take on an R&B pop love song. The accompanying music video has a sheen of haze as OLI walks down streets in spring interspersed with shots of blooming flowers, a cute chihuahua, people frolicking about and engaged in what brings them uncomplicated joy. Echoing sax, finger snaps, subtle piano figures, wordless vocals like spring sun breaking through clouds all come together with OLI’s soulful vocals to help convey an undeniable spirit of love and goodwill toward a loved one who seems stuck in a funk. Without hitting us over the head with melodramatic professions of love forever and hackneyed, overly sentimental imagery, OLI and her collaborators on the song and video craft an emotional space that, as the song says, make it seem easy to step into the kind of happiness one can have if you’re willing to accept it. It speaks to the kind of love that’s open, welcoming and understanding rather than insisting that one loses oneself and gives up a portion of one’s identity in a conditional way. It is the rare love song that seems genuine rather than offering saccharine platitudes as meaningful. Watch the video for “Happy” on YouTube and connect with OLI at the links below.

backl.ink/120067809
twitter.com/OliMasek
facebook.com/olimasek
instagram.com/olimasek

“(All) Tied Up” by SamXVI is a Trip Across Time and Space to a the Trance and Deep House Rave That Should Someday Be

SamXVI_AllTiedUp1_crop — SamXVI “(All) Tied Up” cover

SamXVI and Hennesy are working on a year long project to integrate photography and music with twelve pieces overall. The second of those is “(All) Tied Up.” It’s like a walk back the mid-90s and early 2000s with its blend of breakbeat, IDM and the more experimental end of trance. Vocals function as another musical component alongside the others like a processed sample to give the track an ethereal connective tissue within which seething, lightly distorted synth gyrations flow, bouncing yet clipped blips keep time alongside the shuffling percussion and sonic features streak through the track or sit in the background to suggest a sense of space and time in one’s memory but one that is coming to you from a dream. If one could go to simultaneously an acid house night late in the era of that movement at a secluded club and a deep house warehouse rave instigated by Gregg Araki, that would be the vibe of this enigmatic and engrossing song. Listen to “(All) Tied Up” on Spotify and connect with SamXVI at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/1pocyDfe82rxceFbiEf8ux
samxvi.com
soundcloud.com/samxvi