Queen City Sounds and Art

WRENN’s Powerfully Expressive Vocals and Dynamic Range Are on Full Display on the Introspective and Cathartic “Craigslist Personals”

WRENN_CraigslistPersonals2_crop — WRENN “Craigslist Personals” cover (cropped)

WRENN’s vocals on “Craigslist Personals” demonstrates great range and versatility in tone and texture from the delicate on the border of fragmenting to the expansively vibrant. The songwriting matches her vocal line perfectly going from minimal, ghostly synth and spare guitar to bombastic guitar riff flourishes and pounding drums as if shifting from contemplative, hopeful musings to the intensity of disappointed emotions finally purged after finally processing and identifying the complexities of a relationship and boiling them down to the essential grievances. But WRENN somehow conveys those feelings without pointed blaming. Rather, she is deft at expressing the hurt and the healing that comes from being able to sing about the situation with honesty and conviction. Listen to “Craigslist Personals” on Soundcloud.

The Gritty and Soulful “Don’t Wait Up” by Oh He Dead is a Vivid Emotional Portrait of Life on the Edge

OhHeDead1_sm — Oh He Dead, photo courtesy the artists

“Don’t wait up on me, I won’t be going home,” is an ominous opening line but “Don’t Wait Up” by Oh He Dead goes to even darker places from there. The minimal guitar line is like a gentle companion to the grittily soulful vocals as synths swell ominously yet dolefully in the background like an ill wind. It’s a song about a person who can’t live within the restrictive standards of a puritanical culture and imposed limitations designed to reign in someone’s effusive spirit. As the song goes on that struggle and self-accountability clash as the narrator comes to terms with consequences and her own awareness of her own boundaries and the limits of her own capacity to sustain a lifestyle that seems part of her identity. The vulnerable tenor of the beginning of the song blooms into howling, bluesy rock that rages as the chorus urges for its intended listener to not wait up for the narrator who is certain of only one thing and that’s the uncertainty of where the train of a life on the edge will end up day to day. Listen to “Don’t Wait Up” on Spotify and follow Oh He Dead at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/ohhedead
instagram.com/ohhedead

Greatfruit’s Luminous and Nostalgic “Arcade Love” Contains the Purity of Cherished Childhood Memories Manifested in the Present

Greatfruit2_sm — Greatfruit, photo courtesy the artists

Greatfruit engages in a bit of musical retrofuturism on “Arcade Love.” That’s not to merely point out this lushly beautiful and romantic synth pop song is steeped in the sounds of another time because a lot of the sounds and musical ideas weren’t quite possible in the 1980s referenced in the lyrics of falling in love with seeing someone by chance at the arcade in the mall. Rather it captures the vibe of a time and a milieu that seems less cynical, calculated and artificial than the way people often meet each other these days and couched in sentiments running through much of 80s pop. It freely cross references cultural phenomena while having a clarity of sonic line that embraces the almost gaudy production of 80s pop by making a virtue of its inherent limitations compared to all the options available to electronic musicians today. It has the purity of a childhood memory of an era that is easy to romanticize for what it represents in your life today and because of that it sidesteps mere nostalgia mining through writing something that feels like it’s coming from a genuine place. Listen to “Arcade Love” on YouTube.

“Lost like Teardrops in Rain” is Like Jack Cleary’s Homage to Vangelis and the Inspiration of Works of Deep Creative Imagination

JackCleary1_sm — Jack Cleary, photo courtesy the artist

Giving the song the title “Lost like Teardrops in Rain,” Jack Cleary is more than hinting at part of the inspiration for the composition. The streaming synth suggests enigmatically alluring vistas after the fashion of Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner. But in its gently roiling dynamic one hears the sound of a warm summer night by the ocean with moonlight on the water, its reflection interrupted with the ripples of raindrops stirring in your own mind a contemplation of your own place in the world and in your own life. In the context of the album Gemini, which Cleary released on November 21, 2019, it is a vivid passage of reverie, an homage even to treasured memories of immersion in works of deep creative imagination, on a sonic journey of exploration that takes you through dark and foggy places before emerging into a musical and emotional place of clarity. Listen to “Lost like Teardrops in Rain” on Bandcamp (where you can also listen to, perchance purchase, Gemini in its entirety) and follow Cleary at the links below.

jackclearymusic.com
jackcleary.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/JackClearyMusic
instagram.com/jackclearymusic

Adam Melchor Takes the Concept of the Melodramatic Love Song and Makes it Endearingly Eccentric on “I Choose You”

AdamMelchor2_sm — Adam Melchor, photo courtesy the artist

Adam Melchor declares on “I Choose You” that if he was going to be stranded on a desert island, instead of something practical, essential or even one of those records that gets bandied about, he chooses a particular person. It is an unorthodox love song making such a statement of devotion but the song itself is a bit unconventional for a pop song. The spacey sounds and bizarre voices in the background of the simple guitar melody already sets your expectations outside the realm of the normal. Melchor’s voice contains the conviction inside a playfully imaginative song in which he indulges moments of fantastical statements like “Out of billions of people I’ve got it down to two, I choose you” to mince no words about his intentions. In doing so, Melchor takes the oftentimes hackneyed premise of a melodramatic love song and turns it into something endearingly strange and otherworldly to match the premise. Listen to “I Choose You” on Soundcloud and follow Melchor at the links below.

soundcloud.com/adammelchor
twitter.com/AdamMelchor
facebook.com/adammelchor
instagram.com/adammelchor

Alex Wilcox Captures a Sense of Hurried Anxiety and its Catharsis on “Sleep Paralysis”

AlexWilcox_PressPhotoChair_sm — Alex Wilcox, photo courtesy the artist

Detroit-based producer Alex Wilcox sounds like he took the challenge of making a track that would work as a soundtrack for a harder, faster, more frantic and intense sequel to Run Lola Run in writing “Sleep Paralysis.” The song wastes no time going headlong with pounding beats, an echoing pulse, alien voices warping through reverb, textured electronic percussion and expertly timed dynamic shifts that are themselves processed as if through a tiny bit of phasing so that you get the impression of hurtling through a bendy maze of dark walls and flickering neon colors toward a mysterious destination at a desperate run. Like actual sleep paralysis the song has that hyper real, disoriented feeling with your heart pounding and the world around you moving at seemingly breakneck speeds relative to your inability to move or interact, rather, you mind races in a near or full panic. Not as terrifying as that feeling, the song nevertheless captures some of that anxiety and a sustained, harried feeling. Listen to “Sleep Paralysis” on Soundcloud and follow Alex Wilcox at the links below.

soundcloud.com/alexwilcoxx
instagram.com/alexwilcoxx

Limón Limón’s “Believing in Yesterday” Perfectly Balances Nostalgia With Immediacy

LimonLimon_BelievingInYesterday_cover_crop — Limón Limón, “Believing In Yesterday” cover (cropped)

Los Angeles-based duo Limón Limón recently released its debut EP Believing In Yesterday. If the title track is any indication, it sounds as though the band absorbed the spirit and aesthetic of yacht rock and channeled it forward through the vocabulary of modern synth pop. Its relaxed vibe is able to wax nostalgic without crossing over into the maudlin. The song seems to be able two people who may be going through a troubled time in their relationship but the narrator asks the other to remember when things were good and what brought them together and to write another “chapter” of something good that came apart for reasons that don’t seem to matter now. What sets this song apart from music in a similar vein is the use of what sounds like live bass and drums to ground an otherwise well crafted set of airy melodies. It gives your ears an anchoring point without drawing attention away from the words and the mood, which is a solid choice and not often so well executed. Listen to “Believing in Yesterday” on Soundcloud and follow Limón Limón at their website linked below.

limonlimonmusic.com

As Winter Takes Hold, “Katie, my Queen” by Cold, cold heart is the Soundtrack to the Season’s Tranquil Contemplation Dreams for Future Fulfillment

ColdColdHeat2_Crop — Cold, cold heart, image courtesy the artists

Cold, cold heart weaves together piano, cello and modular synth to craft “Katie, my Queen” as if from frosty, blizzard winds and the night time fogs of deep winter. It feels like looking out into the forbidding weather from a place of warmth and comfort and instead of finding despair atthe obvious limitations it will impose, it engenders a reflective mood born of having the luxury of being able to wait out the worst and the spirit to enjoy the moment and take in the imposed tranquility and inactivity to fuel dreams and plans for the time when the natural world will support carrying them out. Piano and cello sketch out this dream territory and the broad vista drone of synths are like the winds that stir them to life through winter’s hibernation, contemplation and plotting and into the warmer weather of execution. Composed by English musicians Chris Daniel, Robert Manning, Gareth Jones and Alex Wilson, “Katie, my Queen” was passed for post-production work to mixing and mastering engineer Francesco Donadello who is most well known for his work on ambient and post-rock music with the likes of A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Michael Price and Eluvium. The results are a thoroughly evocative and captivating listen. Witness the results for yourself on Soundcloud.

Join Lady Moon & The Eclipse on the Path to a Loving, Nurturing and Inclusive Future on “Le Petit Prince”

LadyMoonAndTheEclipse_LePetitPrince_cover1_crop — Lady Moon & The Eclipse “Le Petit Prince” cover (cropped)

Written in the wake of the passing of the Purple One, “Le Petit Prince” by Lady Moon & The Eclipse (from the band’s forthcoming debut album Journey to the Cosmic Soul) is swimming in luminous tones and lush, downtempo funk rhythms as the vocals take us on a journey to an outer space destnation where we can become self-actualized beings. If Parliament and Funkadelic were early examples of Afrofuturism in music, this band and song is a modern manifestation of the same much as is Janelle Monáe. It’s not hokey science fiction stuff here, it’s a beautiful vision of an expanded, enhanced vision of the future of humanity and ourselves. Not dystopian, not technocratic but a future that is also informed by a spirituality rooted in cultivating our best selves and instincts and aspirations. Whatever this future depicted in the video for “Le Petite Prince” might represent it’s a place you want to be with a music that is as soothing as it is challenging you to reach within to shake off the cynicism and angst that limits your personal growth even if you can only do that a little at a time. It’s not an aggressive challenge but one that encourages from a nurturing place, which is something the world needs much more of these days. Listen to “The Petit Prince” on Soundcloud, watch the music video on YouTube, follow Lady Moon & The Eclipse at the links provided and look out for Journey to the Cosmic Soul in 2020.

ladymoonandtheeclipse.com
instagram.com/ladymoonandtheeclipse
facebook.com/ladymoonandtheeclipse
twitter.com/lmelove
soundcloud.com/ladymoonandtheeclipse
youtube.com/user/ladymoontheeclipse

Take a Trip to the Hopeful End of the Low Mood Pool With adult daughter on “blueberry”

AdultDaughter_AllGoodThings_cover_sm — adult daughter *all good things* cover

A lot of people don’t know what it’s like to feel like you’ve hit the absolute bottom of your life only to find further layers down so even trying to explain that to them is a complete waste of time. Like trying to explain to people with little or no imagination the ecstasy of a creative or intellectual breakthrough or why what is most popular in creative work is not necessarily what determines what is the most significant and interesting. On the song “blueberry,” adult daughter gives a glimpse of what it’s like to hit the darkest end of psychological abyss and float back enough to want to reach for the glimmer of life and hope that we all tend to take for granted. The welling, melodic shimmer that swirls in luminous circles around the ethereal vocals and through the fuzzy backdrop drone is complimentary counterpoint to the minimal beat, floating the song like a slow eddy of sound. Listen to “blueberry” (and the rest of the all good things album) on Bandcamp and follow adult daughter at the links provided.

adultdaughter.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/adult.daughter