“Kandaka” by Eastern Foreigner is proof of the inevitable synthesis of multiple musical styles that’s been happening for years anyway. The production is hip hop, the structure and percussion too but the overall sound palette is more like darkwave industrial and the vocals somewhere between and uniting the two. It’s a moody and menacing song whose hard beats and cold shimmers frame the story of a person who has had to survive in a world where everything and everyone is compromised, a dystopian near future that is really a story about today projected into a more futuristic vision. But it is also a song that suggests a place that so far is free from that compromise if you can manage to not let a broken world colonize every aspect of your life down to your subconscious and warp the roots of what you want out of life. It’s probably impossible to fully escape that conditioning without some work but the story of the song points to how your dreams, operating outside the usual boundaries of conscious and logical thought, operates outside easily controllable systems of social control, can be a place of freedom and purity and by extension, your imagination too. It is the place where positive change can happen first most easily, in your own mind, and where it is possible to envision something better even if life and the world around will always be a work in progress. It’s not a song about revolution but one that suggests that personal revolution begins in your mind and spreads by sharing and evolving ideas and ways of living and being that can be suppressed but not taken away. Cyberpunk came to be about gadgets and clandestine affairs when the early work, and the best work later, was about ideas and freedom and resistance to dehumanization this song is like a soundtrack to that aspect of science fiction. Listen to “Kandaka” on Soundcloud and follow Eastern Foreigner at the links below.
“I Don’t Wanna Be Your Friend” is a bit of a departure for Philippino songwriter Eyedress. His unusual pop songs, so fully expressed on the fantastic 2018 album Sensitive G, often have an upbeat vibe even when he sings about gritty real life situations. But this new single about the duplicitous people in your life who seem to thrive on sowing chaos and drama in their social circles. With the simple statement of the title, Eyedress calls out these people and suggests “You better say that shit to my face” instead of the way those toxic people can talk smack about people behind their backs to manipulate their associates and sometimes trying to pit them against each other. The dispassionate vocals processed ever so slightly over a mechanical beat and a bass line that sounds like it’s been put through flanger to give it an odd fluid quality like the disappointed feelings bubbling through a sense of being weary about dealing with the passive aggressive dynamic yet again. Musically it’s reminiscent of early Blank Dogs and that kind of lo-fi post-punk but not much in the world of music sounds like Eyedress and his almost outsider pop sensibilities. Listen to “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Friend” on Spotify and follow Eyedress at the links provided.
Bathe’s debut single “The Silence” was performed entirely by songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Bailey Crone. That creative insularity is reflected in some senses by the quality of song that is introspective and contemplative. It’s the kind of song designed to sooth the mind when you’re left alone with your thoughts as those can sometimes wend toward places that make you question everything you’re doing and all the people you’ve lost and what is the point of anything. Its actively melodic keyboard part paralleled by a bright, harmonic drone and Crone’s breathy vocals recall the way Chromatics seemingly taps into the subconscious parts of your mind that allow the stuck parts of your memories and emotions to unclench and perhaps resolve some into a strong but tolerable mood rather than wrenching angst and agony. Listen to “The Silence” on Spotify, follow Bathe at the links below and look for the project’s debut album Last Looks in 2020.
Untitled Social Experiment (aka USE) uses an apt metaphor in its single “Sugar Rush” for the questionable appeal of party culture. The references are the world of after hours or not so after hours parties in Los Angeles in mansions rented in the name of hedonistic fun but often ended up being the kind of dystopian social milieu straight out of an early Bret Easton Ellis novel. That world seems especially surreal to anyone not indulging in the plethora of substances to be had that make such odd situations seem enjoyable to many people. The song, a downtempo, brooding pop song captures that sense of not knowing why anyone would spend their lives in such empty pleasures endlessly seeking them out for a cheap thrill, a fake rush that isn’t cathartic but purely sensorial. The song questions these experiences and situations that are supposed to be sweet but like pure sugar has empty calories and provides minimal actual nourishment for the body much less any other aspect of one’s humanity. The performative aspect of that ersatz fun that is insisted upon gets dished on with style on the song and its lushly dark melody and spaciousness are an analog of the poisonously dreamlike quality of being in that moment of disaffected wonderment. Listen to “Sugar Rush” on Soundcloud and follow USE there as well.
Somewhere between late 80s New Order and L.A. Vampires is Glass Spells’ single “Mirrors.” The bouncing melody along with the fuzzy synth pulse and Tania Costello’s well-accented vocals are reminiscent of turn of the century electroclash (think early Ladytron). Too bright and upbeat to be considered darkwave the track nevertheless has that sort of appeal as does the band’s cool, subterranean dance club aesthetic. The higher toned synth figure that runs through the song is like a fluttering mythological creature that comes to sprinkle some joy on the darker low end melody in what is already a nicely layered track. In the last third of the song or it transitions to a different dynamic for a passage or two giving anyone dancing along some breathing room before going back to the song’s dynamic drive. Listen to “Mirrors” on Soundcloud and follow Glass Spells at the links below.
What:Zeta (Venezuela), Clarion Void, Disposal Notice, Its Just Bugs When: Thursday, 11.21, 9 p.m. Where: Rhinoceropolis Why: Venezuelan band Zeta has been developing its experimental hardcore sound since 2003. It’s sound is a parts progressive rock and punk but in a way that’s expressive and moody while not sacrificing the intensity. Currently touring in support of its 2019 album Mochima.
What:Mt. Joy w/Wilderado and Adam Melchor When: Thursday, 11.21, 7 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Wilderado’s new single “Surefire” sounds wistful and nostalgic in a way that allows for words to develop into an introspective narrative that blooms into an expansive melody alongside the story. Reminiscent of the way The War On Drugs echoes some of the vibe of Bruce Springsteen’s reflective, diary-like lyrics, this offering from the band builds on the atmospheric experiments of its 2018 EP Favors with more electric instrumentation and a more immersive sound without compromising the group’s use of space as a canvass for its emotional colorings.
Friday | November 22
Married a Dead Man, photo by Ana Irene Valdes-Behrens
What:Married a Dead Man w/False Report, Dead Characters When: Friday, 11.22, 8 p.m. Where: Goosetown Tavern Why: Denver’s Married a Dead Man is releasing its second album Awakening this night. The group’s sound might be described as somewhere between Xmal Deutschland’s wiry, urgent, dark atmospherics and modern pop melodies. The new set of songs, no doubt honed from live performances, are not just bandwagon new post-punk revival and darkwave. At times Megan Kelley’s performance and songwriting chops from her time as a solo artist infuse the songs with a warmth and coherence that gives the music a broader range than the genre of late can sometimes have with songs like “Burn” having a massive, expansive, dramatic dynamic that stretches the boundaries of what one might this band is capable of at first blush. Worth delving into beyond a casual listen.
What:Wildermiss w/Slow Caves When: Friday, 11.22, 8 p.m. Where: Bluebird Theater Why: Wildermiss is a Denver-based indie rock band that is probably on the verge of much wider circles than simply relatively successful local band status. Its new EP In My Mind captures the spirit of our time now of great contrasts of emotional states and expectations, a mixture of fear and hopefulness that most people are experiencing due to the state of the planet, politics, culture and economics. We stand on the precipice of disaster and promise of a better future if we do not lack the will to make it happen. In My Mind expresses that tension well across its length.
What:Briffaut, Down Time and Inaiah Lujan When: Friday, 11.22, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Briffaut’s new album A Maritime Odyssey: Heaven is Only a Boat Race Away is a nice capsule of this band’s idiosyncratic songwriting. Fans of both King Krule and Deerhunter will find something to love about the band’s lush and unpredictable song structures and raw, emotional swells of tone and a disregard for whether a song or style or performance fits in with some established aesthetic outside its own. Too much music in the indie world is boringly predictable. Not just the indie world. Imitators of milquetoast artists and already successful formulas are rife in music now as at all times since popular music has been a thing. Thankfully Briffaut and its willingness to embrace its own weirdness has been intact since the beginning and gloriously so on the new album of imaginative soundscapes, completely unconventional songwriting and the ability to utterly transport us outside our usual frames of musical reference.
What:Blood Incantation w/Vermin Womb, Dreadnought and Superstition When: Saturday, 11.23, 8 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Blood Incantation recently released its new album Hidden History of the Human Race. The Denver-based death metal band is a big of an enigma in that it has been slowly building a cult following for years and playing few local shows. But its songs, especially live, come across as larger than life, psychedelic although imbued with the technical precision of the best death metal, and as oddly accessible as the genre has ever been. The record is a science fiction concept album but one that has a cover designed by Bruce Pennington who did cover art for A Canticle For Leibowitz and the Dune books after the initial novel. Plus the guy did the iconic cover for Gene Wolfe’s landmark science fiction fantasy book The Shadow of the Torturer. Fine stuff for an album that is a thrilling reminder that death metal can still be fun and not a forbidding drag.
What:Black Star Gang ft. Yasiin Bey, Talib Kweli, DJ Premier w/Brother Ali, Evidence and The ReMINDers When: Saturday, 11.23, 7:30 p.m. Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Black Star is a hip hop duo comprised of Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), two of the sharpest critics of American culture and innovators in the genre themselves. The project only has one album up to now, 1998’s Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, but rumor has it they have another in the works produced by Madlib. So if you’ve caught the recent live performances maybe you’ve heard some of the new material and it seems likely it’ll be on display for this show.
What:Lisa Prank w/The Tangles (fka The Tickles) and Horse Girl When: Sunday, 11.24, 7 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Lisa Prank has established refined and thoughtful emo pop songs as a national artist since starting the project in Denver several years back. Her new record Perfect Love Song is a a little fuzzier, more confident but just as wise and as insightful.
What:Shibui Denver #8: Dead Orchids and The Shift When: Sunday, 11.24, 6:30 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: For this edition of Shibui Denver we will have two bands that don’t get nearly the attention they deserve. The Shift is an improvisational, experimental progressive rock band and includes Esmé Patterson and former Bad Weather California bassist Jeremy Averitt. Dead Orchids’ dark, brooding songs are a vital mix of post-punk and Americana but without the trendy habits that often mar bands trying their hand at either.
What:Vérité and YaSi When: Sunday, 11.24, 7 p.m. Where: Lost Lake
What:Midwife w/Hogwaller When: Monday, 11.25, 7 p.m. Where: Forest Room 5 Why: Midwife is an ambient folk artist of the highest order who was recently tapped to perform at The Flenser showcase at the Roadburn Festival in 2020 with her debut album on that record label later in the year. See her at these small rooms while you still can.
Tuesday | November 26
HIDE circa 2016, photo by Tom Murphy
What:HIDE w/Echo Beds, Church Fire and Cau5er When: Tuesday, 11.26, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Confrontational, performance art-oriented industrial band HIDE is the urban dystopian futurist ritual catharsis we need now to burn off the darkness of the modern world. Its new album Hell is Here is a searing, discordant exorcism of the demons that plague the body politic.
What:Pigface w/eHpH, DJ N810, DJ Mudwulf When: Wednesday, 11.27, 7 p.m. Where: Summit Music Hall Why: Pigface is the long-standing industrial supergroup with roots going back to the 80s with members of Ministry, KMFDM and other industrial luminaries. EhpH is a Denver-based duo whose mix of EBM and industrial rock is actually compelling and cathartic and doesn’t come off like its members’ musical imagination got stuck in the early 2000s.
What:Shark Dreams w/Nuancer, The Milk Blossoms and GhostPulse When: Wednesday, 11.27, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Best local dream pop line-up in more than a minute with some of Denver’s best. Shark Dreams is more the kind of drifty indie pop with a leg in glittery, slowcore dynamic. Nuancer is as informed by experimental electronic music as pop. The Milk Blossoms are a hip-hop trio disguised as a heartfelt, hyper sincere, experimental indie pop group with a sense of humor and humanity. GhostPulse weaves together downtempo beats, unconventional instrumentation and luminously cloudy atmospherics.
What:The Hu w/Crown Land When: Wednesday, 11.27, 6 p.m. Where: The Black Sheep Why: The Hu is a rock band from Mongolia that performs with traditional instruments, uses throat singing and yet its songs are an exquisite hybrid of Mongolian folk music and heavy metal. Could be corny but it is not, it is powerful, stirring stuff. Fans of Laibach will enjoy the sound of this band even though the styles are so different. Around since 2016 The Hu recently released its debut album The Gereg on Eleven Seven Records.
The Afro Nick’s video for his single “Get There Before Noon” seems dreamlike and symbolic with the figures and instruments in a luminous, white room that seems separate from waking reality. The song sounds like it’s about being defined by others in every way down to being on someone else’s schedule. Those boundaries are represented by the chains placed on him by the more menacing figures. And in the logic of dreams another stranger helps free him with a hacksaw. The song mixes evocative synth swells with dramatic guitar work that comes in the moments where the narrative goes into the mode of breaking free of imposed and imagined limitations on one’s identity and aspirations. If at some point The Afro Nick was steeped in blues and psychedelic rock this song transcends that in a creative way that synthesizes all obvious influences. Thematically it also speaks to the power of the imagination to serve as a liberating force in our lives even if it manifests in our minds as odd, symbolic dreams like something out of a mid-80s Robert Palmer video. Perhaps the artist’s childhood in Crete and now living in Los Angeles accounts for the unusual aesthetic but it works. Watch for yourself at YouTube below and follow The Afro Nick at the links provided.
Will Samson, “Ochre Alps” cover, image courtesy the artist
The pastoral quality of Will Samson’s “Flowerbed” sounds like the echo of a memory of a dream of a place where the pains and concerns of life are lifted along with the normal limitations of your cognitive framework and intellect. Where broad vistas and gentle breezes and hazy mornings and evenings are the norm. It is there that the painful and frustrating mysteries of your life open up and unravel in your mind. Not as answers given to you but because your mind is able to comprehend for itself those things we can’t accept or otherwise reconcile in our minds and hearts with the world we want. Its effervescent middle section is like the sound of the ego dissolving of its own accord and coming to terms with those knots in our psyche that we can never seem to work through and even if the resolution brings pain we come to accept the pain of loss in a way that doesn’t feel stuck. The song, and the album Paralanguage (due out December 6 on Wichita/PIAS) was written to reflect a time in Samson’s life when, in the wake of the sudden death of his father and his own subsequent PTSD as a result thereof, he decided after some consideration and research to experiment with psilocybin as a form of treating his condition. One day he and his girlfriend went to the countryside and the music is his attempt to express his experience of that time. Impossible to say what the long term results have been but if “Flowerbed” is any indication, Samson found a place of peace in his mind after years of his own psychological hell. Watch the music video for “Flowerbed” on YouTube and follow Samson at the links provided.
The new Seaker track “You” feels so stark and vulnerable it commands immediate attention. It sounds like you’re in the room with Kiran Hungin and sharing with her a moment of pure emotion bathed in a swirl of melody and delicate textures, her versatile and evocative voice stirring your spirit. Though lush yet minimal the song feels like you’re getting to the core of what you have to cling to to get through troubled times and that being a sense of hope but even more so a sense of compassion for yourself and your struggles alongside those of other people. The sound sounds a little introspective but her words are outwardly aimed seeing the humanity around her and being open to her fellow people and that shared experience, the recognition of such, a foundation for hope and when brought together with love its a subtle but unmistakable strength that can can help everyone endure if they tap into it. This song feels like it’s coming from a very personal place but Hungin’s songwriting is such that it can be heard in a more universal sense as its spaciousness leaves room for multiple interpretations and like the spirit of the song itself, inclusive and warm. Listen to “You” on Soundcloud and follow Seaker at the links provided.
Nia the Rapper is a seven-year-old artist from Florida and her second single “Hugs” is hopefully an indication of a bright future for Nia. Her message of giving bullies hugs and references to hugging bullies on the playground could only come from a kid. But the sentiment while simple and would be simplistic coming from an adult actually resonates in context. In the song Nia raps about how these bullies never got the love that everyone wants as a kid no matter their background. Rather than cast the bullies as monsters, Nia sees the hurting human in them and wants to give them what they need whether they know it or not and thus “turning hate into love.” Her delivery is strong and the beat built on minimal, accented piano and percussion and well-sculpted bass is spare but perfect. Listen to “Hugs” on Spotify and follow Nia the Rapper at the links below where you can also check out her debut single “Summer.”
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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