SubmitHub – Page 207 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Annika Grace Calls Out Obsolete, Judgmental Habits on “Crazy Stupid Bitch”

AnnikaGrace_CrazyStupidBitch_cover_crop — Annika Grace, “Crazy Stupid Bitch” cover (cropped)

One might be excused for thinking a song called “Crazy Stupid Bitch” is an example of internalized misogyny when written by a woman. But Annika Grace calls to attention in her song the ways people tear each other down in myriad ways, dehumanizing each other across a spectrum of criteria by which we’d never want to be judged. If we want something for ourselves, we’re selfish. If we have sex outside traditional relationships and for pure curiosity or enjoyment of course one must be a person of low character. Whatever transgresses arbitrary norms that don’t really match most people’s actual experiences and against which many if not most of us will find ourselves failing to meet if we’re frankly honest with ourselves. Grace, in identifying this crassly judgmental and destructive mentality and put it into language that is plainly absurd and lacking in creativity both critiques and diminishes the power of that way of relating to people. That she chose to do so in a simple, succinct pop song with spare production and lightly processed vocals is a way to present a complex and nuanced social issue in a highly accessible and direct way. Listen to “Crazy Stupid Bitch” on Soundcloud and follow Annika Grace at the links below.

soundcloud.com/annikagrace
open.spotify.com/artist/0GDGlBEVKIishPVmrI8xkX
twitter.com/AnniGraceMusic
facebook.com/Annikagracemusic
instagram.com/annikagracemusic

TROVA’s Enigmatic New Single “Littelwaf Linden” Puts Your Mind in Contemplation of the Long Arcs of Your Life and of Human Civilization Generally

TROVA_Oct1_crop — TROVA, photo courtesy the artist

“Littelwaf Linden” finds TROVA exploring the use of textures and phasing as methods of conveying depth of audio field. The track creates a sense of space in your mind like driving through a part of a future city where the windmills are running slowly in the middle of a warm, midspring night, the blades of the windmills turning slowly as you edge past them, lights blinking at intervals up to their heights to signal aircraft, all but silently providing providing power with a mechanistic grace and efficiency. As you pass a field of them on your way to your destination to meet a friend for drinks and to hang out and discuss plans for the future, the windmills strike you as a constant presence that we will all come to take for granted as a means of a stable energy future that impinges little on our environment compared to the way our civilization now goes about things. Almost like the benefits of an old civilization that for a moment took the time to plan for a more sustainable future. Listening to the track in the present tense it puts you in a contemplative mood pondering how we might put in place new ways of being and living that would afford us the luxury of not always needing to work ourselves to the bone and have the time to ponder longer arcs of human civilization and our own lives as embodied by some of the great, large public works of the past that lasted decades or centuries for the benefit for those beyond the immediate generations of their establishment. Listen to “Littelwaf Linden” on Soundcloud and follow TROVA at the links provided.

music.apple.com/us/artist/trova/59287114
soundcloud.com/user-487741800
open.spotify.com/artist/5pOnm9kSmgcipVGbvyVknv
twitter.com/TROVAOfficial
facebook.com/TROVA.Ambient
instagram.com/trova.official

Mending’s Single “Emma’s Morning” is a Pastoral Contemplation of the Sprawling Family Song Cycle Album We Gathered at Wakerobin Hollow

Mending1_crop — Mending, image courtesy the artists

The gentle oscillating tone at the beginning of Mending’s “Emma’s Morning” sounds like the first rays of dawn trickling through your window. And when the piano comes in, like waking up at your leisure. Then the story in the lyrics takes us into a slice of the life of a woman who takes stock of her life and ponders her existence in the context of her family history and the events that have shaped the direction of her life. It begins like a more conventional folk song but then that convention breaks down into interrupted melodies like a digital TV signal glitching out not unlike the way one’s direct connections to the people and the experiences of our past may distort as we proceed into the next chapters of our lives. It’s a fascinating approach to songwriting and it’s one part of the sprawling, conceptual album We Gathered at Wakerobin Hollow, a four hour, forty song “speculative narrative song cycle” released in nine chapters over eighteen months, using drone, noise, songwriting and tracing “the lives of a family and friends over a 40 year period in a series of connected vignettes.” The story is set in motion by a fire at an oil refinery in Odena, Alabama and follows the diaspora of those connected to the incident throughout the country. The project launched in August 2018 and concludes in January 2020. As a piece of art its reminiscent of some of Jeff Lemire’s poignant graphic novels about life in what might consider mundane places where he finds what is most interesting under the veneer of normalcy and brings it to life in a riveting fashion as he did in his also sprawling Essex County Trilogy and Roughneck. Engrossing and sonically daring, “Emma’s Morning” hints at what promises to be a revelatory story arc of a series of songs. Listen to the track on Soundcloud and follow Mending at the links below.

mendingband.tumblr.com
soundcloud.com/mending
mendingband.bandcamp.com

Cubgod and KingPup Take Us on a Short, Free Verse Time Travel Trip on Miniature Darkwave Hip-Hop Opus “Little Butt”

CubgodAndKingPup1_sm — Cubgod and KingPup, image courtesy the artists

In some near future Cubgod and KingPup’s song “Little Butt” is a classic of not just IDM/Industrial-inflected hip-hop but of free verse cultural reference poetry. The opening line sounds like a a sample coming to us from the past via a time traveler recording a secret message made on a 78 record, grainy, mysterious and initially seeming sinister but ultimately a surreal swagger delivered in a way that subverts the aggression. Something like Danny Brown gone not cyberpunk but steampunk. The lyrics extol the virtues of everyday joys like you would hope for at a minimum in a good hip-hop song but the wordplay is so well structured and evocative, so vivid in its imagery, so poignant in its crafting of emotional memories that it’s almost easy to miss how in just over three minutes the duo has taken us deep into a slice of life that weaves together the painful experiences of childhood as overlapped with resonances with adulthood and the oppression many of us experience in another form and how we manage to get a little fun out of life with the thrill of exorcising some of that angst through a creative outlet that embodies and honors those experiences and thus releasing some of that tension. And on “Little Butt” Cubgod and KingPup do so with a playful creativity with a beat that is not simply the sampling of a tried and tested aesthetic, rather, a collage of sounds that serve as a direct analogue of the internal emotional experience of a dystopian present projected onto the future in order to escape it. Maybe that’s overthinking a simple song but the unpacking its complexity and sophistication is a rewarding endeavor. Listen to “Little Butt” on Soundcloud and follow Cubgod further there as well.

soundcloud.com/cubgod

Wolf & Moon’s “Situations” Encourages Us to Have Faith In Ourselves and Our Lives in Moments When We Feel Stagnant

WolfAndMoon2017_1_sm — Wolf & Moon, photo courtesy the artists

On their new single “Situations” Wolf & Moon seem to sing to us or to themselves a song of hope and encouragement. The trading vocal leads and harmonies give the song an almost informal dynamic that gives it an emotional momentum that the songwriters seem to want to project to the listener to achieve their hopes and dreams despite whatever situation we may find ourselves in by imagining an opportunity for us to take out of a feeling of stasis and stagnation. The accented bass line that grounds the song and gives it a steady but upbeat quality is the fulcrum of that momentum, the consistent presence that drives the song forward. We’ve all been in a place in our lives where everything feels like you can’t catch a break and you get stuck and we need something to happen that we couldn’t have predicted which Wolf & The Moon articulate with the final full line, “You’re going to make an impossible move out of this situation.” The song and its spare, spacious melody, encourages the listener to have some faith in forces in your own mind and in your life that operate beyond your conscious thinking and to accept that unexpected inspiration and chance when it comes. Listen to “Situations” on Soundcloud and follow Wolf & Moon at the links below.

soundcloud.com/wolfandmoonmusic
facebook.com/WolfAndMoonMusic

Sulkin’ Raven’s Sprawling Un-Pop Synth Pop Song is an Engine For Turning Anxiety Into Melancholic Beauty

SulkinRaven1_sm — Sulkin’ Raven, photo courtesy the artist

Sulkin’ Raven’s “Run” has a melodic progression that turns on a fine emotional line like you’re moving headlong forward while scenes and experiences stream by you as though you’re the one doing the running from awkward situations and failures. The chiptune synths toward the end of the song mixed with the dreamlike tone of the composition is reminiscent of something Depreciation Guild might have done and with the same melancholic and surreal overtones but darker in a way. The song feels like the soundtrack to a new Inio Asano graphic novel but one that ends inconclusively rather than in the sinister places Asano sometimes takes his work. Even though the beat is consistent throughout with an even pace it serves as the song’s anchor and the dynamic qualities are found in the expressive guitar work in sync with dispassionate but introspective vocals and beautifully composed synth lines that take you to an otherworldly place that you’d rather be than trapped in a place in your head that seems to make everything impossible. In the end the song strikes one as a vehicle for using imagination and creativity to transform the energy of emotional paralysis and self-loathing into something productive. Listen to “Run” on Soundcloud and follow Sulkin’ Raven at the links below.

twitch.tv/sulkin_raven
soundcloud.com/sulkin_raven
open.spotify.com/artist/6VnwwmueJBAA0YAEeuE564
sulkinraven.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/sulkin_raven

Stand Up And Say No Rejects the Nihilism of Self-Involved Defeatism in the Face of Modern Fascism on “Daily Reminders”

StandUpAndSayNo3_sm — Stand Up And Say No, photo courtesy the artist

Stand Up And Say No’s Andre Nault takes an interesting approach to world events on “Daily Reminders.” Rather than directly prescribing solutions, he asks questions of himself, of others and the world. He gives voice to a natural impulse to need to shield oneself from the seemingly endless barrage of bad news and overwhelming developments of late and not be subjected to the ruthless scrutiny that seems to have been projected at everyone in public life of late. He implores, albeit it offhandedly, to “ let me know when it’s over” and asking “Does it really work out? Can the good guys win?” The latter because seemingly anywhere and everywhere the forces of authoritarianism generally, fascism in particular, have seized the reigns of power and poisoned civil society. And yet, in his questioning, Nault suggests we have the power to turn back that tide if we’re willing to make the effort and not simply surrender to the type of despair and nihilism born of being overwhelmed by the wave of nonsense but that maybe we can take a break from taking it all in so that we can more ably stand against the erosion of our own quality of life and be part of a ripple effect that will ensure a better, or at least a slightly more fulfilling future. Cast in scintillating synth melodies, fluid yet angular bass lines and vocals that sound both disaffected and defiant, “Daily Reminders” is the sound of a songwriter who has found his voice again with more conviction behind it minus the unrealistic expectations of youth. Listen to the song on Soundcloud and follow Stand Up And Say No at the links below.

standupandsayno.com
soundcloud.com/standupandsayno
twitter.com/standupandsayno
facebook.com/musicstandupandsayno
instagram.com/musicstandupandsayno

Slut Magic’s Multi-Genre Love Song “Rainbow Eyes” Takes Aim at Conformist Cultural Narratives

SlutMagic_RainbowEyes_cover2_crop — Slut Magic “Rainbow Eyes” cover (cropped)

Slut Magic’s collaboration with Gud Babu on “Rainbow Eyes” brings together a broad spectrum of musical elements from live instruments, samples, politically charged raps, melancholic vocals and downtempo structure. The song progresses as a succession of layers of emotional intensity before dropping off into the sound of engines with a doleful violin over the top. The whole song is crafted in a way to give it multiple dynamics that somehow sync up in the overall architecture of a song that refuses to sit comfortably in a single genre. It’s a hybrid of hip-hop, darkwave and indie rock without sounding like its trying too hard to make those instincts work together. The narrative of a love song overlaps with social criticism in a way that we don’t hear often enough. Supposedly this group tours in flamboyant outfits and and the “Deep South” can expect a tour from the group in its “Slut Magic School Bus” in support of its new album whose title is as yet secret and the color of its vinyl similarly under wraps. Listen to “Rainbow Eyes” on Soundcloud and follow the band at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/slutmagic
open.spotify.com/artist/2jk2rYTZiFlmgzbR0MwL6i
slutmagicmusic.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/slutmagicmusic

“A Safe Warm Space at The End of The World” by Ambient Duo Pink Sky is the Sound of a Zen-like Acceptance of the Last Chapter of the Story of the Cosmos as We Know It

PinkSky1_sm — Pink Sky, photo courtesy the artists

“A Safe Warm Space at The End of The World” by Pink Sky sounds not like a mournful end of the world. It is not the dark, claustrophobic vision like William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land, it is not the destructive end of an apocalypse. It is more like the closing chapter of a beloved story. It is a coming together of the strands of existence and meeting with your loved ones one last time before the world as you know it comes to its end or transitions into something else. During its more than thirteen minutes of hazy but bright drones, bubbling tones, oscillating melodies, shimmering high notes and other streams of sound mixing together, “A Safe Warm Space at The End of The World” feels like more an acceptance of the end rather than fear. There is a sense of trust in what comes next even if you can’t know what it will be or if your formal existence will be part of the next world. In the last story of Clifford D. Simak’s 1952 science fiction classic City wherein a sentient mutant observes the triumph of the ants over the earth and rather than seek to wipe them out he accepts their path and chooses to find his own fate in the rest of the universe. A bit of that benevolent resignation is in the essence of this song. There’s something to be said for reaching periods of denouement in your life, Pink Sky have just managed to articulate that in a soothing beautiful way with this track. Listen to the song on Soundcloud and follow Pink Sky at the links below where you can listen to the rest of the band’s new LP meditations.

pinkskymusic.com/epk
soundcloud.com/pinkskymusic/sets/meditations/s-hMtMe
pinksky.bandcamp.com

Maren Hill Flips the Script on Self-Sabotage in Her Jazzy New Single “Reset”

MarenHill1_lg — Maren Hill, photo courtesy the artist

“Reset” finds Maren Hill setting a scene for us, one that she has known well, one to which she hopes to never return. And that is a place in your head when you’re in a cycle of reliving self-sabotaging scripts born of narratives of unproductive self-criticism and second guessing and the habits that reinforce that circuit of behavior until you discover that it is possible to break that chain when you can say to yourself about those habits, by externalizing them as a kind of character in your life and leaving them, “you’re no good for me.” The swell of horns and and percussion reflect that struggle with the overwhelming sounds clashing in your brain until they subside with Hill singing the outro, “Never going back.” The song never fully goes to some dire place musically while expressing those places so eloquently showcasing how Hill deftly points out to herself and others that these seemingly insurmountable self-stumbling blocks are in fact not so difficult to overcome if you keep trying and remain in better practices to replace your bad habits. Listen to Hill’s richly jazz-inflected R&B song “Reset” on YouTube. Fans of Amy Winehouse will find much to like with Hill’s vocal flair and attitude.