Tymoxx’s effervescent single “Train” starts off with a crystalline, synth tone figure like a blowing swirl of sparkling snow on a sunny winter day. And from there Kahiti’s vocals pair well with a finely accented, distorted electronic bass line as both wind through layers of melody like a slow ride on the titular vehicle toward a fateful destination, departing from a life of needing to keep a love secret from people in the lives of the subject of the story and the person being addressed. But not only the freedom of being out in the open free from judgment but of a social setting that limits one’s horizons for personal development with the temptation of falling back in line of expected roles to fulfill that no longer suit you. The melancholic yet expansive final third of the song is the sound of having already left on that train to a better life with your insecurities and worries dissolving into the rearview. Listen to “Train” on Soundcloud and follow Tymoxx at the links below.
Using Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” as the instrumental, piano baseline for “Not All Bright Women Live in Bed,” Elodie Rêverie establishes a somber mood for a song about some weighty topics. It’s not unlike, in a completely different musical context, the way Lingua Ignota used elements of Henry Purcell’s Music For the Funeral of Queen Mary in her song “BUTCHER OF THE WORLD” from the 2019 album Caligula. Both utilize classical structure and musical allusion to make a statement on an age old and persistent ill of the world. Lingua Ignota comments on the violence inflicted on everyone by patriarchal culture, Rêverie on the diminished expectations due to diminished horizons by virtue of the fact of sexism permeating culture down to internalized oppression. Rêverie sings lines like “Life’s too big to watch it through a window,” “I don’t have to go to college, I don’t have to know,” and a lyric that contains the song title “Not all bright women live in bed but some do, and I have but I won’t today.” Which are heavy words to sing but it also points to an acute awareness of one’s internal process and a desire to not be in that state of mind. By externalizing these thoughts in song it’s like a mirror for anyone who might have similar thoughts and being able to articulate them gives one some control over how to process and perhaps overcome them. Rêverie’s jazz style vocals blended with the classical sensibility gives the whole song an unconventional dimensionality that refreshingly transcends that of a pop song or any genre consideration. Listen to “Not All Bright Women Live in Bed” on Soundcloud.
Assembled from field recordings and a , according to the artist, “digital, mostly algorithmic synth patch,” PRO424’s “Blueprint” sounds like what it might be like to sit out on a clear, summer night in mid-spring or fall when there is a bit of a chill so you have a campfire going that casts the vast field of stars in only the slightest of orange hazes. But you’ve hiked to the middle of nowhere away from the ambient orange of a nearby metropolis and you can hear the gentle breeze blowing through the grass and trees, carrying motes into the sky while you lay back and take in the firmaments of the heavens, noting the occasional satellite and aircraft while considering this experience is one someone might have had ten thousand years ago before the discovery of steel and wondered, even then, at the underlying patterns of the movements of stars and the moon and its connection to the design that guides the landscape and life of your own world. In the present tense, you imagine the master blueprint for the universe that one might glean from the smallest part of it the way the Buddha said one could extrapolate all of existence from a single blade of grass. The song in layering organic and digital sounds in a way that sounds like a product of nature brings out these sorts of cosmic notions as you take it in and the sounds flow through you. Listen to “Blueprint” on Spotify and follow PRO424 on Soundcloud linked below.
“Love Lies When Lust Dies” finds ZEDSU exploring dynamic contrasts in capturing the ebbs and flows of emotion in a relationship that has collapsed leaving echoes of pain in its wake. On the surface level ZEDSU uses a trap approach to production but within that loose framework he adjusts the speed and saturation of sound to match the peaks and valleys of personal anguish revisiting endlessly the feelings of desolation and confusion as one often does when it’s all over and you’re trying to figure out why and letting out that hurt by going through it in your mind until it doesn’t hurt as bad or your emotions toward the situation are exhausted. Inside the expression of those dynamics in the confines of a just under four minute song, ZEDSU richly articulates the sense of being set emotionally adrift and alone, of the aforementioned psychic torment and the letting go. Appropriate it sounds like the stages of mourning with the bargaining and pleading with an implied acceptance in the echoing of the vocals. Listen to “Love Lies When Lust Dies” on Soundcloud and follow ZEDSU at the links provided.
Rip Florence’s debut single “Mumbling Rita” has all the gloriously loose dynamics of a musical collision of Camper Van Beethoven and Jay Reatard. The vocals are on the verge of cracking but somehow hold it together and manage to be intensely catchy. The piano work in the song is exuberant but also conventionally well crafted. The guitar sounds like a roller coaster of emotions that end in hanging chords off which the lyrics nearly run off the rails. The soaring synth work and bouncy bass lines anchor the song in an unconventional way before giving way during the break down section mid-song where the whole thing seems to be floating through space before landing again on those rails the song has sailed off of and we’re brought back into the hyper real situations that drive the headlong pace of the song, a litany of life’s joys, absurd moments and challenges—some all at once. And then the song ends before you’re ready yet concludes on a satisfying note. Instantly 10/10 would listen again. Check it out for yourself on Soundcloud and follow Rip Florence, who was once a guitarist for outsider pop genius Daniel Johnston, on the project’s website linked below.
of library music to BYAS’ single “Eagle” in that it’s a layered, sonically complex techno track but its natural and dynamic progression is expansive and suggestive of being paired with a visual component. Its tones are bright and warm and the arc of its melody and synth progression glides upward. There is also a tranquil gracious tone to the piece like the flight of its namesake. The twin synth lines soar over the shuffling beat and it would in fact be a great song for a documentary on the bird but also the presentation of information meant to keep you engaged by stimulating your ears and mind. There are hints of the influence of Kraftwerk and its clean tonal lines as well as the playfulness and focus of Giorgio Moroder but it’s that BYAS employs multiple streams of sound and texture as well as the sample of birds that enriches its aural spectrum and sets it apart from a lot of other techno out there that keeps things to essentials. One might think of this as a kind of maximalist techno song rather than the trend toward the minimal. Listen to “Eagle” on Spotify and follow BYAS at the links provided.
The layered streams of sound on “Garden of Dreams” by Esorabla could be interpreted as an analogue of the lyrics in which the being singing is inviting others to take a walk inside her inner world and that “There’s a labyrinth inside me that leads you to a garden of dreams.” A piano melody is a through line as well as lilting, accented vocals but the shimmering keyboard part functions as almost a portal between worlds musical and in the context of the song between inner and outer worlds. “It’s a lucid dream, you’ll never come out” hints at the concept of creative visualization with the later line “can you see what you’ll become.” Through interweaving sounds including strings Esorabla mirrors how a rich inner life cultivated by the imagination offers us a place to escape to and from which to draw inspiration in making the outer life wondrous as well. But you could easily interpret in numerous ways even as something like a fantastical being inviting visitors to a pocket universe of delights and discovery of personal truths and transformative experiences. Maybe something along the lines of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman universe and the various dimensions existing therein. Fans of Amanda Palmer and Bread and Jam for Frances-period Switchblade Symphony will find much to like in the songwriting and performance here as well as the air of the mystical. “Garden of Dreams” comes from Esorabla’s {G O D} EP and you can listen to the track, and the rest of the release, on Spotify.
Hiromonra’s “You and Me” was conceived as a sort of musical short story. The music video with the illustration and minimal animation, a star twinkling in the background and the figures in the foreground moving in time with the looping keyboard figure. A steady drum beat and sonorous vocals accented by what sounds like record scratching faintly in the background giving the soundscape a texture as a spare guitar melody traces the contours of the song. The image is one of a person feeding a bird in a park at some impossible time of the day with a bright blue sky as the star shines visibly. Too light to be dusk or night, though maybe early morning. But these real life temporal considerations don’t matter as the song and its soulful vocals resting ethereally in an introspective downtempo composition is not tied to a specific musical decade or style either. Rather, it asks for and is easily accepted on its own terms as the dream of a pleasant memory in your mind. Like a great short story it doesn’t try to do too much and is brilliant in its economy and expressing more than seems obvious on your first iteration going through it. Watch the video for and listen to “You and Me” on YouTube.
What:Day of Jubilee: Sliver and Marcus Church When: Friday, 2.07, 5-9 p.m. Where: The People’s Building Why: Marcus Church is a Denver-based power pop trio. Its gently jangle-y and fuzzy melodies sound like singer/guitarist Dustin Habel spent a whole lot of time obsessively listening to only records produced by Mitch Easter and the complete discographies of Teenage Fanclub and Big Star. That also means there’s a tender earnestness to the songwriting imbued with an uncommon tenderness and humanity. Sliver bypassed the 90s grunge nostalgia wave of recent years by making no bones about its musical roots in its hard driving, explosively emotional guitar rock. Mudhoney influence aside, its aesthetic is most informed by both the self-effacing, sensitive, introspective side of Pacific Northwest noise punk and the wiry, politically conscious end of DC hardcore.
What:Mainland Break w/Panther Martin, Mystic Wool and The New Creep When: Friday, 2.07, 9 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Denver power pop band Mainland Break is releasing its video for “Gun Without Hire” at this show. The five piece band sounds like it listened to a whole lot of bands on the Flying Nun imprint in the 80s, some Swell Maps and The Feelies while forming and distilled that influence into upbeat pop songs.
What: Wolf Parade w/Land of Talk gothictheatre.com/events/detail/386833 When: Saturday, 2.08, 8 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why: CanadianWolf Parade returns touring in support of its new record Thin Mind. Its blend of post-punk and power pop has helped define the aesthetic of modern indie rock as sonically eclectic with thoughtful lyrics.
What:Courtney Barnett When: Saturday, 2.08, 7:30 p.m. Where: The Stanley Hotel Why: Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett has written some of the most personally insightful lyrics of the past two decades paired with emotionally vibrant guitar work and songwriting. She will perform solo for this rare, intimate show at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.
What:Miniature Tigers w/Katzú Oso When: Sunday, 2.09, 7 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: Miniature Tigers’ 2019 album Vampires of Daylight is an exploration of singer/songwriter Charlie Brand’s painful breakup and his return to writing and performing music after going through agonizing experiences that had him over the edge and art therapy through painting instead of music. The result is a raw yet tender album of deeply emotional songs about loss and the confused and tortured feelings that run you through the wringer.
What:The Paranoyds w/Spendtime Palace and Princess Dewclaw When: Wednesday, 2.12, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: The Paranoyds’ psychedelic fuzz pop is a spirited and surreal take on noisy post-punk. Like The Raincoats having come up in Southern California on pop punk and American pop music with a similarly splintery aesthetic and exuberant live performances. Currently touring again in support of its excellent 2019 album Carnage Bargain.
Barcelona artist Rubén de Madame’s pulsating techno track “Fuck Police” and its music video is a playful yet direct dig at the police and the role law enforcement too often takes on in society. No words of analysis are offered just the simple statement of the title interspersed throughout a hypnotic beat like the soundtrack to evading and keeping the cops at bay. In the video there is imagery of police in riot gear serving as soldiers to keep order but for who? In the 1989 film Roger & Me a deputy sheriff evicts a family on Christmas Eve, protesters throughout the world are killed by agents of the government under the auspices of restoring order, officers of the law carry out extra-judicial killings with often no real consequences and the list goes on. Then the concept of the police state which is a way to permeate a mindset throughout society and a kind of informal or formal Panopticon in which personal liberties and the exercise thereof is a threat to authoritarianism including creative expression and activities that exist harmlessly outside the bounds of official sanction. This song is a cheeky middle finger to authoritarianism as embodied by the role police symbolize for so many people whether they know it or not and to the internalized cop that oppresses you from within. Even if you’re not into the implied political content, it is a slamming dance track. Listen to “Fuck Police” on Soundcloud, watch the video on YouTube and follow Rubén de Madame at the links provided.
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