Queen City Sounds and Art

Disaster Fantasy Casts a Tone of Hope in the Pits of Romantic Regret on the Moody Pop Single “Vows”

Disaster Fantasy has seemingly drawn some strands of more dark and moody 90s alternative rock for elements of “Vows.” The song is uplifting and energetic but the lyrics capture a complex emotional experience that might resonate with anyone that has made mistakes and said the wrong thing and feels a deep sense of regret with a significant relationship. Musically it recalls perhaps One Dove or the more pop end of Garbage including the strong production informed by electronic pop aesthetics. And in spite of really evoking the headspace of someone who seems somewhat lost and reaching for relief from a place of melancholic stasis the ebullient sweep of the song suggests triumphing over that low down moment is indeed possible. Listen to “Vows” on Spotify and follow Disaster Fantasy at the links below.

Disaster Fantasy on Bandcamp

Disaster Fantasy on Instagram

Disaster Fantasy LinkTree

Olivia D. Jones Crafts a Tone Poem of Resistance to Oppressive Social Conditioning on “:: virago ::”

Olivia D. Jones uses what sound like discordant drones to establish a sense of the otherworldly at the outset of “:: virago ::” shot through with spiraling, distorted bursts of electronic noise. When her voice comes in with a chorus of herself in various forms from melodic voicing and those not so harmonic it is in words about the determination of a woman in resisting traditional culture and the law when it attempts to circumscribe her will. It’s one of four songs on the new EP ::m x m:: which explores themes of identity, parenting, human rights and the role of women in communities. Fans of Laurel Halo and Pauline Oliveros will appreciate Jones’ creativity in the use of tone and composition to put the mind into a space open to reorienting established cognitive paradigms through unconventional songwriting. Listen to “:: virago ::” on Bandcamp and follow Jones at the link below.

Olivia D. Jones on Distrokid

Straight White Teeth’s Urgent Yet Tender Indiepop Ballad “yml” Glows With the Warmth of Heartfelt Affection

Straight White Teeth, photo courtesy the artist

Straight White Teeth brings to its song “yml” the kind of tender and earnest sensibility that graced some of the better underground indiepop of the 2000s like Microphones, Wolf Colonel and Transistor Radio Sound. The letters may or may not stand for the lyric “You’re my love” in the chorus but the use of those letters in the title is emblematic of the gentle quality of this song that’s a poignantly endearing declaration of affection for a loved one that is heartfelt and quietly passionate in a way that suggests maybe to make a bigger production would introduce a level of extravagant dishonesty that might embarrass. Within the song’s lyrics are words revealing a level of vulnerability and sensitivity that really anchors the sentiments and the lush yet spare arrangements. An energetic and at times borderline atonal piano melody runs throughout that works like a rhythmic feature over which the introspective vocals float and in the choruses echoes ever so slightly in a touch of reverb. It’s an exercise in songwriting economy without short changing what is clearly a sincere statement of love felt to the core. Listen to “yml” on Soundcloud and follow Straight White Teeth at the links provided.

Straight White Teeth on TikTok

Straight White Teeth on Bandcamp

Straight White Teeth on Instagram

The Instrumental Synth Pop of Ambicture’s “Lyudmi” Glows With an Introspective Hopefulness

Icy synths and a minimalist splash of percussion draws us into Ambicture’s single “Lyudmi” before ethereal guitar rings out through the soundscape. Hazy notes intone in the background and like lights in the fog. But the guitars come back in after fading out a moment with some fortifying distortion accompanied by a brief wave of gritty synth tone. There are no lyrics to give the song a narrative context but the moods it evokes are those of fond memories and warm yearning for a reunion with one’s beloved. It’s like a song one would expect to hear in one of the more recent existential, science fiction horror films like something from Brandon Cronenberg film or Anthony Scott Burns. And like some of the music from those movies there is a hopefulness in the introspective moods that has an instant emotional resonance. Listen to “Lyudmi” on Spotify and follow Ambicture on the project’s website.

Madebit’s Synth Pop Dance Song “Island Vibes” Creates a Sense of Those Special Vacation Times All the Time

Madebit’s use of expanding bubbles of tone and layers of sequenced melodies in Island Vibes initially gives “Island Vibes” a wistful tone like it suggests a feeling of missing some good times on an island and of saying goodbye for the season to a beachside resort, the kind that’s a little rustic and open to most people regularly because it’s not a tourist destination so much as just a cool place to which the people in a nearby community avail themselves to get away for a weekend or a holiday. The kind of low key relaxation offered is the energy that runs through the song. Musically it balances a pop song for a dance party and an experiment in establishing a mood with a blend of collaged electronic moods and a subtle rhythm track that nevertheless keeps up a brisk but not urgent pace. In the background we hear the sound of an occasional breeze and in the end the sounds of tides coming in. What is most interesting and unexpected overall is the sly borrowing of the staccato arpeggio of electronic melody from influential 1972 version of Gershon Kingsley’s synth song “Popcorn Song” as done by Hot Butter. Out of the typical context it just adds a layer of playfulness to the track that gives a tonal coloring to the line about “Island Vibes on another level now” so that the best of that feeling can go with you wherever and isn’t limited by the end of a season or vacation or some other temporal inconvenience. Listen to “Island Vibes” on YouTube and follow Madebit at the links below. The new Madebit album An Alien Among Us is due out later in 2023.

Madebit on TikTok

Madebit on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S2E36: Weird Al Qaida

Weird Al Qaida got off the ground in 2008/2009 when Eric Peterson and Ingvald Grunder formed the experimental project with the aim of being able to explore whatever musical ideas came to mind. Both had been in bands in and around the Denver music scene for years prior with Peterson having played in power pop/punk pop group The Barrys and Grunder having spent some time in Orbit Service. Weird Al Qaida doesn’t fit nicely into any Denver subscene not being quite noise enough for that world though elements of musique concrète, ambient and noise are elements of its songwriting and not quite psychedelic folk or jazz enough for a more mainstream version of that. But its fascinating body of recorded work including the 2011 seven inch Psychic Wizard, 2016’s Plastic Family and now the 2022 record The Dog & The Deer showcase imaginative soundscaping and arrangements that expand categories of what music can be while remaining essentially accessible.

Listen to our interview with Weird Al Qaida on Bandcamp and connect with the duo at its website linked below. Weird Al Qaida performs at Mutiny Information Café on Friday, February 17, 2023 from 8:30-9:30 pm and with any luck we’ll get further chances to catch the band in person now that live music is back to being more regular.

weirdalqaida.com

Queen City Sounds Podcast S2E35: Mark Bingham

Mark Bingham got an early start in the music business when he was signed with Elektra Records at the age of 17 in 1966 and released a single on Warner Bros. before returning to his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana to attend university. At the time he started Bar-B-Q Records and in 1975 he relocated to New York City and started the band Social Climbers but also got involved in recording some of the city’s more adventurous artists like Glenn Branca, MX-80 and in particular Bush Tetra’s 1980 single “Too Many Creeps.” Bingham moved to New Orleans in 1982 and started The Boiler Room recording studio and in 2001 opened Piety Street Recording but ended operations with the studio in 2013. Across his decades as a producer, musician (studio, live), composer and recording engineer, Bingham has worked with R.E.M., Ed Sanders, John Scholfield, Flat Duo Jets, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Faithfull, Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint, Korn, Dr. John, Pretty Lights, Dave Matthews and countless others but is perhaps less known for his eclectic and vast body of work that is his own music. So from 2022-2023 Nouveau Electric Records is releasing Bingham’s collected work in 22 albums. The series began with the release of Mushroom Crowd and Goo Seneck on Friday, November 18, 2022 with albums released every two months through September 2023 including the recently issues William Blake in Bakersfield.

Listen to our interview with Mark Bingham on Bandcamp and please visit Bingham’s own Bandcamp below for more information on the producer and the aforementioned series of releases.

Lucas Thijs Elicits a Sense of Breaking Mundane Life Limitations on “Waterhole Web”

Lucas Thijs evokes a sense of the cosmic from the very beginning of “Waterhole Web” before the song launches into its main piano melody splashed with a halo of sounds: side melodies that echo and fade, textural swells and glitches of white noise that serve as informal percussion and filigree of dramatic 80s rock guitar. But the song gives us some breathing room from the way it takes us in its embrace for passages that feel like what it must be like to be able to float into space through a column of starlight. Forget hardware, this technology as manifested in the music requires no equipment bur rather an unlocked inborn ability to transcend normal laws of physics and our own human limitations. And the song and its spiraling drift of blissful sounds embodies the impulse to that kind of liberation from everyday limitations. Listen to “Waterhole Web” on Spotify and follow Lucas Thijs at the links below.

Lucas Thijs on Instagram

Lucas Thijs LinkTree

Chromadescent’s “Saturate” is Like the Bright and Warm Sound of Summer in Winter

Chromadescent, photo courtesy the artist

Chromadescent’s “Saturate” is brimming with shimmery sounds that swirl together with bell tones giving it solidity and rhythm before the saturated synth, piano and more vivid rhythmic and textural elements enter and transform the song into something that has an expansive fluidity. But over halfway through the it drifts into the ether once again anchored by a distant piano melody, percussive accents and lingering notes like being immersed in a virtual world where EDM, IDM, flamenco co-inform each other in a fully synthesized style. It has an energy like a modern version of Balearic Beat – incredibly calming but stimulating to the imagination in elevated emotional resonances. It’s a song that sounds like summer in the winter. Listen to “Saturate” on Spotify and follow Chromadescent at the links provided.

Chromadescent on TikTok

Chromadescent on Facebook

Chromadescent YouTube

Chromadescent Instagram

Bad Flamingo’s “Devil and the Deep Blue” Channels Private Anxiety Into Moodily Transformative Americana Art Rock

Bad Flamingo, photo courtesy the artists

Bad Flamingo has crafted a typically unpredictable song with “Devil and the Deep Blue” beginning with a brooding bass line lead and the most minimal of guitar accents. Then the vocals come in sounding very focused within a narrow yet expressive range compared to some of the duo’s songs of years past but within the style of its more recent songs. It just makes it feel like the words are being given to us in confidence with a direct focus. Later in the song acoustic guitar and electric come in to give some sonic shading and detail with the electric ringing out like a briefly echoing thunderclap before the song returns to its simple, rhythmic elements that are more percussive than melodic giving the song a bit of a 1980s Tom Waits flavor circa the weirder end of Swordfishtrombones. It shouldn’t work but it does and breaks standard songwriting forms. At times the song is reminiscent of the sort of thing Barry Adamson was doing on his 1996 opus Oedipus Schmoedipus through inverting jazz tropes to make something that sounds like it isn’t beholden to anyone else’s established style while remaining accessible and with a vibe of hushed immediacy. The song seems to be about one of anxiety and urgency but coping through channeling the nervous energy away in almost tribal, ritualistic rhythms. Listen to “Devil and the Deep Blue” on Spotify and follow Bad Flamingo at the links below.