There is an odd quality to Ronni Mardor’s single “After May.” It sounds like a sort of folk pop song with expressive vocals and maybe we’re in for a song of heartbreak of some kind. And maybe we ultimately we are. But “after all I had to go to let my house catch fire, before you know I’ll be back home no flower leaves to die” is a bit reminiscent of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?” Except the tone isn’t detached so much as the attitude. But in the case of Mardor’s song it’s one celebrating a landmark anniversary of a relationship but without setting the bar too high, “We made it, honey, it’s after May.” It sounds as though Mardor is letting go of her attitudes about relationships and her identity in them as not serving her heart well in an era of casual attitudes toward being together. The lilting melody and start and stop cadence reflects taking those moments to consider where you head really is and if you are letting yourself get caught up in the same old habits. Listen to “After May” on Spotify and follow Mardor on her website (linked below).
Robo Dukun’s new single “I Want My Dinner” has a demented, cartoonishly funky vibe satirizing low rent entitled attitudes. In some ways it’s reminiscent of MC 900 Ft. Jesus’ “Adventures in Failure.” Just the sardonic tone and sense of irony and send-up of the way some people make the most mundane demands seem much more important and significant than they could ever really be. The tone bends and mixture of odd, blippy synth swells and lightly flangered and wah-inflected guitar and bass melody bring to the track an air of taking the piss out of misplaced values and a classic warped view of the world that is blind to the consequences and costs of your way of life. But more than anything it’s a fun and goofy song with some creative musical flow and detail that you can take as choice snark or surreal humor. Listen to “I Want My Dinner” on YouTube and follow Robo Dukun at the link below.
Wish Master challenges himself and everyone to be prepared for the change that comes for us all eventually whether we’re ready or not on his new single “The Wave’s Coming.” But it’s not menacing so much, his tone is hopeful as in the inevitable flood of energy and events that bring about the forces in our life that we may not recognize as beneficial and which may not be 100% fun in the beginning but which forces out complacency and the norms we’ve come to lean on oftentimes when it is a detriment to our growth. Wish Master celebrates that growth as necessary to personal development. Joined by Buggsy and Tac, Wish Master’s song and its free-flow-y breezy sample beat awash in jazz beats and bits of song processed to give an expansive dynamic is a promise of better times ahead. It is an aspirational song with none of the overblown swagger, it instead highlights the benefits of building something and taking advantage of opportunities that come your way no matter what they look like rather than waiting for a miracle or savior. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Wish Master at the links provided.
Point Lobo, drummer for hip-hop legends The Pharcyde, initially envisioned “Dolphin Hotel” as the soundtrack to some video shorts in development. Its use of tones in reverse delay on top of sultry beats conveys a feeling of being outside normal time. Which is what gives the song a quality that transcends genre as well. The synth work is reminiscent of something out of a high production 80s pop song but inserted into a more modern context and sound design style. The effect is a song that has the lushness nostalgic tone of, say, Donald Fagen’s “New Frontier” but a more later art rock flavor like if 1980s Yes hooked up with William Orbit. The dynamic of the song takes the listener on a journey that stretches your mind to take in its beautifully resolving bend of a tonal shift throughout. Listen to “Dolphin Hotel” on Soundcloud and follow Point Lobo at the links below.
Carson C. Lee, “Cubanos” still, image courtesy the artist
Carson C. Lee has written a modern take on the sound of Havana on his new single “Cubanos.” Mixing traditional Cuban instrumentation with downtempo electronic production, Lee captures a certain sense of melancholy, acceptance and peace. The horns provide an uplifting dynamic amid lingering electronic tones and lightly strummed guitar and electro-organic percussion in a relaxed calypso style. Given the companion music video, it seems as though Lee sought to capture the more leisurely pace of life he experienced in Cuba, it’s almost poetic cadence, and the sense of history and its mix of tragedy and romance. Lee captures it all in a modern interpretation of a classic sound. Listen to “Cubanos” on Spotify, watch the music video which includes footage from Cuba and follow Carson C. Lee at the various links out from the URL provided.
“Keep Me Safe,” the debut single from talker’s new EP puts a calm face on a place of deep uncertainty and anxiety. The song begins with a gentle melody and transitions to a moment of intense tranquility like the calm before one’s own storm, and back before the song erupts into fiery passages in which the fears blossom and the root of those fears manifests strongly—the painful recognition of inevitable change and the terror of being cast adrift. It’s something we’ve all experienced, the important relationships in our lives changing or ending for whatever reason they do and even in relationships with a complex dynamic we adapt to the situation and it represents the stability in our lives upon which we build the rest. The contrast with the first two thirds of the song and the final third or so is dramatic and breaks with standard song structure in a way that really amplifies the emotional impact of the song by also showing how allowing ourselves to feel and articulate that fear and pain can be cathartic and essential to our ability to cope and move on from that moment. Listen to “Keep Me Safe” on Soundcloud, watch the music video and follow talker at the links provided.
“Funeral Pop” duo MXMS (aka Me and My Shadow) display a gift for genre bending on its new single “Death Row.” The dark soundscape with samples, vocals delivered with an almost brash attitude, swagger even, is reminiscent of the way that, in another era, Curve or more contemporaneously Sleigh Bells mixed hip-hop and downtempo production with an industrial sound palette. It’s brooding yet upbeat, menacing yet enticing. The character in the song presents a tough stance steeped in bravado with a casual disregard for personal safety. The chorus of “Death row, motherfucker, and I’m wild and free” says it all in this story as the narrator catalogs her nihilistic exploits. The song doesn’t celebrate these adventures so much as provide a character study of a fun character the way an actor relishes playing a complex or at least colorful villain. You can listen to “Death Row” on Soundcloud and follow MXMS at the links below.
What:Church Fire When: Thursday, 11.14, 6:30 p.m. Where: Ross-Broadway Library Why: Denver-based synth-noise-pop doom darlings Church Fire are playing this event sponsored by Titwrench as part of its Surfacing series highlighting female and LGBTQ underground and experimental artists. It’s after hours at the library in the Baker District and free.
What:Roller Disco 3 When: Thursday, 11.14, 9 p.m. – 2 a.m. Where: Roller City
What:Whipporwill w/Courtney Hartman When: Friday, 11.15, 6 p.m. Where: Washington’s (Fort Collins) Why: Fort Collins based alternative folk band Whippoorwill distilled its past few years of experiencing the turmoil of the land and the culture into its new album The Nature of Storms. On its 2017 tour the band experienced tornadoes, floods, forest fires, blizzards and the destructive nature of the Trump presidency itself and the polarized social and political climate surrounding it. With the personal lives of its members in disarray as well the trio pulled together and crafted one of the most affecting releases of the year that exceeds expectations for terms like “alternative folk” as the band seems to be channeling the pain and agony of the times into songs that if not exactly exorcising those emotions, brings a compassionate energy to the proceedings. This show celebrates the release of that record and hopefully soon the band will play regional shows in support followed by a tour soon enough.
What:Entrancer LP release Downgrade, Lone Dancer, Techno Allah, Felix Fast4ward, DJ ilind When: Friday, 11.15, 9:30 p.m. Where: Rhinoceropolis Why: It’s been a couple of years or since Denver-based analog synth/techno composer Entrancer has released an album but his latest release on Multidim Records, Downgrade, shows where deep house could go if it followed a more conceptual pathway with a spirit of playfulness.
What:Noise Vs. Doom IV When: Friday, 11.15, 7 p.m. Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: This is the fourth edition of the Noise Vs. Doom event featuring bands that fall loosely into either category. Tonight’s lineup includes Denver noise legends Page 27, doom collective Ice Troll and avant-garde composer Victoria Lundy. Schedule below.
Clark Nova 6-615
Ice Troll 6:30 -6:50
minus X 7:00 – 7:20
Prayer Hands 7:30 -7:50
Haunted Sound Lab 8pm -8:20
Distance Research 8:30-9:00pm
9:15-9:45 Victoria Lundy
10-10:20 Page 27
10:30-11pm Deer Creek
DJ sets PterrorFranklin Soundsystem
(Frank Bell / James Jewkes )
Action Friend circa August 2006, photo by Tom Murphy
What:No Swoon, Kissing Party and Voight When: Saturday, 11.16, 7 p.m. Where: Rhinoceropolis Why: No Swoon’s recently released self-titled full length is an example of how 2010s darkwave as evolved beyond the obvious classic reference points into the realm of sophisticated pop songcraft. Its vibrant tones and sense of sonic space is reminiscent of Chromatics but not tapping into feelings of nostalgia as much as a reflective yearning and introspection. Kissing Party is an indie pop band from Denver that has reliably been releasing quality material since the mid-2000s seeming to perpetually be able to draw on a sense of youthful romance and ideal love. Voight has been performing its brand of industrial post-punk noise-gaze since 2015 and is in the process of completing its new album due out in 2020.
What:GYES: Lady Gang, Preparation and Gothsta When: Saturday, 11.16, 8 p.m. Where: The People’s Building Why: The final Get Your Ears Swoll at the People’s Building in Aurora featuring experimental loop and psychedelic folk artist/one-woman band Lady Gang and Gothsta who plays truly unusual covers in a playful style that lives up to the name. The latter is organizer Claudia Woodman who will rename the event for the same location on a different day of the month in 2020.
What:Hi-Dive 16th (and 7th) anniversary w/Wobbles, Rattlesnake Milk, Zebroids, George Cessna, Permanent Boner and DJ Marika When: Saturday, 11.16, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Hard to believe the H-Dive has been around for sixteen years at this point but it remains a place to see some of Denver’s best underground bands and up and coming artists from around the world. This show brings together stalwarts of the club including Zebroids who are more an obnoxious collective of yobs than strictly a ridiculous but oddly good punk band and George Cessna whose sonically inventive songwriting blows expectations of the son of Slim Cessna in a great way.
What:Noise vs. Doom IV When: Saturday, 11.16, 8 p.m. Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: Second night of Noise Vs. Doom with performances from vinyl-collage sound processor Atari, ambient noise sculptor Blank Human and experimental noise rock prog punk band Action Friend from Los Angeles, formerly from Denver. This evening’s schedule below.
6pm-6:20 Jochanaan
6:30 -6:50 Mismo
7-7:30 Mautam
7:45 -8:05 Atari
8:15- 8:35 Flood Ov Blood
8:45 -8:55 – DJ Yeldarb Franklin
9-9:20 Clutch Plague
9:30-9:50 Voideater
10-10:20 Blank Human
10:30 -10:50 Cosmic Abyss
11pm Action Friend (Los Angeles CA)
DJ sets Mudwulf + Dj Zombie
What:DBUK When: Saturday, 11.16, 7 p.m. Where: Tuft Theater at Swallow Hill
Sunday | November 17
Vetiver, photo by Alissa Anderson
What:Vetiver w/Joe Sampson When: Saturday, 11.16, 8 p.m. Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soap Box Why: Before it became very much a part of the current stream of “indie” music, Andy Cabic was crafting exquisite psych folk songs that incorporated electronic elements in a fully integrated way. His 2019 album Up On High is a fairly stripped down affair but the delicately intricate rhythms and textures with Cabic’s expressive vocals are still there creating an unconventionally atmospheric quality akin to something one might have heard on a Byrds or early Dead record. Maybe something Mitch Easter would have produced in the 80s. But the sensibility is very modern and its emotional immediacy is immediately compelling. Opening the show is Joe Sampson, one of Denver’s most gifted songwriters who some may remember from his days in A Dog Paloma but in the last decade plus he’s been woodshedding his own material while also having played in Bad Weather California.
What: A$AP Ferg and Ski Mask the Slump God w/Murda Beatz, MadeinTYO, Pouya, Danny Towers, DJ Scheme When: Monday, 11.18, 6 p.m. Where: Mission Ballroom Why: A$AP Ferg is one of the most influential and creative artists in the world of trap and Ski Mask the Slump God is one of the great innovators in that genre but one who incorporates even more elements of punk and metal into his animated material and performances. Sometimes live rap shows are disappointing but this should very much be an exception.
Tuesday | November 19
Nots circa 2015, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Nots, Slugger and Dearborn When: Tuesday, 11.19, 8 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Nots is the noise punk band from Memphis, Tennessee that is currently touring in support of its new album 3 out on Goner Records. Guitarist and singer Natalie Hoffman was once the bass player of Ex-Cult where she stood out as a charismatic performer with wiry energy in a band not short on those qualities.
Helmet, photo by Jacob Blickenstaff, copyright earMUSIC
What:An Evening With Helmet When: Wednesday, 11.20, 7 p.m. Where: Summit Music Hall Why: Helmet is the legendary noise rock/posthardcore band from New York whose 1992 album Meantime yielded a hit single “Unsung” during that period when anything a little different stood a chance of making it to the radio. The group’s blunt and angular riffs and aggressive groove has proven influential on a certain segment of heavy music since.
SONICONOCLASM starts off its new single “Dead Air Zone,” the third from its forthcoming album, with sentiments of disassociation and references to different aspects of oneself in the third person and of being a fainting memory, repeated , as though convincing oneself to stay emotionally paralyzed. The vocals at times almost synthesized as befitting the aforementioned but also expressively emotional like the voice resisting the feelings of depersonalization like the side of your brain that isn’t stuck but has empathy for the side that is. Musically its within the realm of downtempo with the beautiful low end tones, brooding pace and sense of echoing space and motion. But it’s sonic lines are a little too clear and stark to be trip-hop. Though moody and brimming with emotional murk there is a clarity of tempo and tonality and even though the song doesn’t come to clean cut conclusions there is a sense that a will to go somewhere out of the mental stasis suggested in the song is very much present and gives the piece its languid momentum. Listen to “Dead Air Zone,” an apt title for a song if ever there was one to suggest a sense of stasis and stark dissatisfaction, on Soundcloud and follow SONICONOCLASM at the links below.
On his new single “Saltwater” Salt Lake City based hip-hop artist Heather Grey recruited Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated peoples to rap and therein there are references to Bob Ross and Skin Walker Ranch in lyrics that sound like musings offered during a stroll through the neighborhood, reflecting on recent journeys to the coast with the concept of salt water as a trigger for memory and reflection, something tangible that can take you out of a moment or transport you to another. The song with its offhand delivery speaks to the things in our everyday lives that keep us inspired and nourish our imaginations. The shifting tones of Heather Grey’s production and Rakaa’s cadence are at times reminiscent of Cannibal Ox but the mood and vibe are hazier and dreamy perhaps hinting at the melding of styles with DJ Juggy throwing some scratching for texture on the edges. West Coast imagery alongside SLC references give the track a unique flavor that is chill but not lacking in a casual swagger. The music video features choice graffiti that seem to obliquely narrate the journey outlined in the song and enhances a sense of complimentary aesthetic between Rakaa’s Los Angeles roots and Heather Grey’s own from the middle of the country. Listen to the song and check out the video on YouTube and follow Heather Grey at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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