American Watercolor Movement Launches Into Its Epic Science Fiction Concept Album The Odyssey of Captain Vivian Ribbons With Propulsive Lead Single “Onward the Night”

American Watercolor Movement, photo courtesy the artists

American Watercolor Movement is a New Jersey band that has taken forays into concepts for previous albums going back to its earliest releases in the late 90s. And its latest album The Odyssey of Captain Vivian Ribbons (which released on February 17, 2023) is the story of a future earth struggling to survive as it sends Captain Vivian Ribbons out into the cosmos to find a habitable planet necessitating transcending the usual mortal human limits of space and time and thus standard physical existence. It sounds like a story out of some universe Hayao Miyazaki might have concocted in the 80s and the the music is a glorious mix of soundtrack pieces, art rock, synth pop, post-punk and various other styles serving the the place in the grand narrative. The single “Onward the Night” is about the Captain leaving earth on the aforementioned mission of hope against hope and the irresistible, driving bass line is motorik in the precision of its rhythms allowing for the rest of the music to anchor off of it. The song stands alone separate from the concept as just an exciting, epic song whose textural detail and great momentum traced in psychedelic tones bring you along for a ride like a song that might have been in that 1980s Transformers movie minus the cheese. The music video is equal parts 1980s anime, Dash Shaw and something one might expect out of a The Flaming Lips production and thoroughly enjoyable beginning to end. Watch the video on YouTube and follow American Watercolor Movement at the links below.

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Laveda’s “Clean” is a Heartbreaking Lament of Feeling Adrift From the Things You’ve Lost

Laveda, photo courtesy the artists

The setting for the Laveda single “Clean” is a beach town in the off season and how those places can seem both incredibly lonely but also free of distraction and a good place to gain clarity and space for your psyche. The song itself is full of open spaces and nearly whispered vocals wandering amid gently strummed guitar and the hint of a background drone. The scene begins at dusk and the female lead, presumably Laveda singer Ali Genevich, journeys through the dark of night and the incoming tide, having a drink on a blanket and unwinding with running and dancing in the sand while offering poetic images of what it’s like to be well into adulthood and coming to terms with how things have changed in life and a desire to return to your roots to make some sense of your present but knowing that you just can’t because it’s largely gone and memories of how it wasn’t always so great and even if your current mindset isn’t some portrait of someone’s ideal or your own that you would rather not go back to a time in life when you didn’t know better, as appealing as it can seem in moments of vulnerability and melancholic reverie. It’s a heartbreaking song in a gentle way that poignantly captures what it feels like to be deeply ambivalent, adrift and needing to trust in where the seemingly aimless flow of your life will take you. Watch the video for “Clean” on YouTube and connect with Laveda at the links below. The group’s new album A Place You Grew Up in drops on April 14, 2023.

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Sasha Scott Invites Us to Experience the Shifting and Flowing Dynamism of a Complex System on “Swarm”

Sasha Scott “Swarm,” image by Julia Soboleva

The cycling, distorted, sparkling tone that fades in and out that draws us in to Sasha Scott’s “Swarm” has a structure not unlike that of a swarm of insects. Composed of individual resonances that become vivid and coherent then diffused in its ever evolving dynamic, Scott seems to chart what on some level has to be a complex mathematical construct that doesn’t operate according to any distinct logic but its own organic arrangements. Into that cloud of distorted tones Scott extrapolates a physicality that she orchestrates in ascending volumes and into a slow wave that slow ripples in a create use of stereo processing so that we feel like we’re within the swarm as well and finding a strange comfort in its enveloping energy. Listen to “Swarm” on Spotify and follow Sasha Scott at the links provided.

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Business Cashmere’s “Like A Ghost” is Like the End of a Long Dream of Emotional and Social Isolation

Business Cashmere, photo by the band

Business Cashmere’s “Like a Ghost” (as in living like one) has an ethereal, slow roiling sound that brings to mind a pace like an icicle melting in sunlight. Its descending guitar line and background bass drone and a vocal that sounds like someone emerging from an extended slumber makes it difficult to pigeonhole for a genre. The lyrics paint a portrait of social disconnect and personal alienation but running through with a yearning for connection, for emotional intimacy against the habit and comfort of social isolation in which you risk nothing of yourself and can tell yourself how independent you are until your memory of what life can be when it’s not just being cloaked in a hermetic psychological zone. It’s a song about becoming vulnerable against your will and with great reluctance but as an impetus from a corner of your psyche that recognizes that the limitations you’ve imposed on yourself to prevent the kind of heartbreak and disappointment that happens during the course of a normal human existence. It’s a dreamy song for waking from a dream that served its purpose but like all dreams has to come to an end whether you will it or not. Watch the psychedelic and hypnotic video for “Like A Ghost” directed by George Till and Christine Makowski on YouTube and connect with the Denver-based Business Cashmere at the links below.

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The Quiet Project’s Video For “Three Thousand” is the Perfect Fusion of Stop Motion Aesthetics and Musical Minimalism

The video for the Antarctica-based The Quiet Project’s “Three Thousand” pairs well with the intricate and rapid piano arpeggios and almost pointillist percussion. Like what appears to be a video made with stop motion style using PhotoShop to craft a short animated film with hundreds or even thousands of stills had a parallel with the composition of the song. Tiny bits of sound and progressions arranged and synced with the imagery until the end when a single flower in sunlight after the rapid succession of images across the sunny part of the day seems to encompass the complete wonder of nature and its multifarious expressions to which we were treated on the rest of the track. Watch the video for “Three Thousand,” which may be the number of stills involved in the crafting of the visual element, on YouTube and connect with The Quiet Project at the links below.

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Charlie Havenick’s “Sprinkler Song” is an Ethereal Slowcore Pop Song Striking for Its Profound Sensitivity and Psychological Insight

Charlie Havernick, photo courtesy the artist

Charlie Havenick’s “Sprinkler Song” employs a spare rhythm guitar riff through the first half of the song like an introspective mantra as slide guitar swells gently in the background as the backdrop to what sounds like part short story and diary entry. Havenick’s gentle vocals and lyrics establish a deep sense of place physically and in the mind. The given details of “a dog that barks when only I ride by” and “The sun stays out til I’m cloaked in the night” are subtly poetic in getting to the climax of the song when the guitar becomes distorted and all the sounds soar dramatically for a few moments before settling back into the more vulnerable and contemplative mood. It is at that point where Havenick reveals its a song that may be about conflicted and ambivalent feelings about loving someone with a self-awareness of her own that is mindful of how there are parts of your psychology that can be transformed for the worse when someone isn’t careful with your heart in the pursuit of a selfish emotional agenda. “I don’t want to hurt you. The kid with the wind in her sails” in the last two lines of the song is so sweet and tender and revealing that it’s easy to forget that Havenick’s song defies easy genre categorization and that it outros with ethereal piano work and you’re struck with the profound level of sensitivity and personal insight the songwriter brings to bear throughout what you’ve been hearing. Listen to “Sprinkler Song” on Spotify and follow Charlie Havenick on her website.

Free Refills Purges the Disappointment of Rejection With the Fractured Swagger of No Wave Post-punk Funk Song “Grounded”

Balancing a pop/slap bass line with a broken angular guitar riff Free Refills’ “Grounded” sounds anything but. It has a frantic spirit with a herky jerky rhythm that seems perfect for a song about someone who is maybe a little rough around the edges herself but who isn’t dealing so philosophically with being rejected by someone she’s into. The stuttering keyboard sound and the No Wave funk rhythmic structure is reminiscent of the borderline collapsing yet charming sound of early The Rapture and the more hectic end of Parquet Courts or Erase Errata with a vocalist who sounds very together but depicting a head space that isn’t yet there is an element of swagger that makes the song a bit of a benevolent diss track. Listen to “Grounded” on Spotify and follow Free Refills at the links provided.

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Hypnogogic Ambient Track “svæpha” by Swedish Experimental Electronic Project oplen Has the Warm Haze of Music From a Dream

“svæpha” by Swedish experimental electronic project oplen combines saturated melodic synth melodies with white noise to create a flowing mood with texture. Like listening to a found cassette in an old studio run by a lost composer of library music. The track is upbeat yet often drifts outside a conventional rhythm structure for an effect that gives it a spontaneous energy with the beautiful non-pristine sound of an analog recording conducted under less than ideal recording conditions with gear not designed to deliver a sanitized sonic imprint. This is what gives the song an emotional resonance like something remembered right after waking from a dream but with the ability to return to that feeling freely. Listen to “svæpha” on Spotify and follow oplen at the links below.

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MP Shaw and Nick Andre Craft an Urgent Atmosphere of Dark Mystery on IDM/Ambient Track “Electric Company”

MP Shaw and Nick Andre teamed up to create the sort of techno track with “Electric Company” that was written for the soundtrack of the short film “Return of the Sleepwalker” but wouldn’t be out of place in a Michael Mann or William Friedkin film. It has an enigmatic duskiness and strong tonal pulses and an urgent rhythm that contains a hint of menace or at least focused purpose. A melodic line will trace a short arpeggio and burst into a short echo as the song pushes forward. One hears the touch of the influence of Giorgio Moroder and late night video game play reaching to finish an important section of a horror or thriller RPG you wish existed and may yet be. Listen to “Electric Company” on Spotify where you can listen to other tracks including Shaw’s excellent and evocative cover of Brian Eno’s “Deep Blue Day.”

Erik Hall’s Interpretation of Simeon ten Hold’s “Canto Ostinato Sections 74-87” Adds Soothing Textures to the Entrancing Minimalism and Energy of the Original

Erik Hall, photo courtesy the artist

Erik Hall’s interpretation of Simeon ten Holt’s “Canto Ostinato Sections 74-87” has a very live and spontaneous sound. The original Canto Ostinato was written for four pianos from 1976 to 1979 has a certain lively energy that runs through the marathon composition. It is a fine example of Twentieth Century minimalism with the shifting tonal harmonies but without the the slide into dissonance. Hall captures the easy yet irresistible pace and seemingly over the top of the relaxing sounds of a flowing creek to give what might be an ethereal work of richly details sonics playing out in an ever-evolving manner as per the aesthetics of minimalism. Listen to “Canto Ostinato Sections 74-87” on YouTube and follow Erik Hall at the links below. Hall’s full treatment of Canto Ostinato released on February 24, 2023 on Western Vinyl available on multiple formats on Bandcamp linked below as well.

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