The Abnorm Speaks to the Natural Human Capacity for Snooping Out Society’s Negative Nonsense on “Innocence”

TheAbnorm5_sm
The Abnorm, photo courtesy the artist

“Innocence” by The Abnorm begins with a clever bit of wordplay in talking about how we all have six senses, the sixth being innocence. The rap then goes on to discuss the ways we compromise our lives in trying to fit into a rigged game we have no choice but to play because the world we’re born into is what it is and to survive you have to navigate the world, to some extent, by the rules that exist. But the song suggests that in holding on to that sixth sense mentioned in the beginning of the song we can hold on to that part of ourselves that isn’t a part of a world of depraved values and warped priorities aimed at propping up a perpetual ruling class and in doing so preserve our inherent dignity. Play the game but know it for what it is and remember what really matters even if you can never overturn the order of things. But that in your heart it’s best to know the difference between what you’re presented than what your real interests may be and not hedge your bets and be on the fence like Vega from Street Fighter who is a henchman for The Man. The Abnorm suggests that within each of us the natural capacity for detecting bullshit that goes against our best interests. Watch the animated lyric video for “Innocence” on YouTube and follow The Abnorm at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/abnormalx
twitter.com/TheAbnorm
facebook.com/The-Abnorm-109930092395608
instagram.com/theabnorm

Skinjobs Torches the Hypocrisy of Traditional Sexual Mores on New Single “Breathe”

Skinjobs2_sm
Skinjobs, photo courtesy the artists

On its new single “Breathe,” Helsinki’s Skinjobs injects some more grit into its bright, atmospheric melodies. Fitting for a song that explores the nature of a relationship with complicated dynamics that go beyond the boundaries of the traditional relationship and traditional conceptualizations of what relationships should be. Katja Laaksonen’s vocals are commanding and controlled, directed and pointed in deflating the hypocrisy of conventional sexual mores through highlighting how people often really live while articulating the rawness and undeniability of attraction. It’s a subject often written about in rock music but rarely so candidly and unapologetically. The fiery music bursting about the words and raw noise searing the edges of the song are the perfect manifestation of the lyrics. Listen to “Breathe” on Soundcloud, watch the lyric video on YouTube and follow Skinjobs at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/skinjobsband
skinjobs2019.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/skinjobs2019

“5 AM” by KYENORD is a Luminously Chill Song Outlining the Late Night Contemplation of The Signs That the Relationship Was Over Before it Started

KYENORD1_sm
KYENORD, photo courtesy the artists

The dusky, downtempo synth melody on “5 AM” that is the backdrop to KYENORD’s Linn Östlund’s resigned vocals evokes that feeling when you’ve been up all night thinking too much about a tough decision long considered to end a relationship. The sense impressions are vivid with words about how the lover in question is always cold because their circulation is worse than that of the narrator and that they’re “holding me but it never helps.” The sample of raindrops and the way the tones steam into the fog of night before the dawn can interrupt the introspective and mournful but weary mood that has paradoxically allowed a moment of emotional clarity to become undeniable. The experience depicted seems so specific in the details but perhaps relatable to anyone who has been in a long term relationship that seems to no longer make sense and all of the things that should have been warning signs that it wouldn’t work out drift into your psyche one night making your soul restless deep into the night. “5 AM” is the first track from the new KYENORD EP Mellow Drama and you can listen to the song on Soundcloud and the rest of the EP on Spotify.

Mingo Orchestrates the Musical Analogs of Deep Space Cosmic Forces on “Quasar”

Mingo1_sm
Mingo, photo courtesy the artist

A cosmic wind as white noise pitched to have an abstractly tonal quality ushers in the intertwining lines of distorted, textural synth and phasing melody of “Quasar” by Mingo. The oscillating undertones suggest a trip through the depths of space with bright objects giving off even repeating signals that intersect with other signals like an intergalactic symphony. Utilizing a similar structure and dynamic as mid-70s Tangerine Dream, Mingo uses loops and sequencing and adding effects in real time to take the raw material of electronic sounds and using the processing end as a compositional tool. Did he take a mathematical model of an actual quasar and use it to craft an element of the music like the rhythmic, gritty synth part? Maybe not, but it sounds as though Mingo modeled various phenomena in space and orchestrated their character together for this transporting and playful track. Listen to “Quasar” on Soundcloud and follow Mingo, a contributor to NPR music programs Hearts of Space and Star’s End, at the links below.

soundcloud.com/mingo-sphere
youtube.com/user/sonarwebnet
twitter.com/mingosfear
instagram.com/mingosphere

Will Samson’s “Ochre Alps” and its Music Video Depict the Transcending of Deep Anguish Through Forcing Your Mind Down Alternate Pathways

WillSamson1_sm
Will Samson, photo courtesy the artist

Will Samson’s album Paralanguage, due out December 6 through Wichita/PIAS, was inspired by his first and only experiment with microdosing psilocybin in the wake of his father’s death in 2012. The songwriter fell into a long spell of despair and psychic unmoorment and having learned about the controversial use of psilocybin as a treatment for persistent psychological trauma he underwent a program of taking in the substance under controlled conditions. The lead single from the album “Ochre Alps” features nearly falsetto vocals and strings that are at once doleful and soothing as if releasing pain through the musical equivalent of sublimation. It sounds like motes of early morning sunlight and waking feeling lighter than you did the night before. Musically it sits at the intersections of folk, modern classical and indie pop. The accompanying music video features two blindfolded figures that are figuring out how to interact with their environment with a new set of parameters with which to do so. It is symbolic, perhaps, of Samson’s own experience with his wife in learning to reconnect with the world on different terms with some of the anguish of his loss evaporated in the light of a new kind of mental clarity. Listen to “Ochre Alps” on Soundcloud, watch the poetic video on YouTube and follow Will Samson at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/6VBJxxPZ84ty9nR1nFkNNx
facebook.com/willsamsonmusic
instagram.com/will.samson

The Unconventional Structure and Subject Matter of State Park Ranger’s “The Will (feat. Cowbaby)” Makes it the Rare Strikingly Original Indie Folk Song

StateParkRanger1_crop
State Park Ranger, photo courtesy the artists

The pacing of State Park Ranger’s “The Will (featuring Cowbaby)” feels like an evolving sketch with details added as the picture and melody develop organically. It sounds almost as though we’re hearing the song being written as it goes, guided by an intuitive process and deep listening between the artists. It’s an impressionistic compositional style that subverts most current trends of songwriting in the realm of folk or indie alternative. There is no verse chorus interchange, rather the song’s progress travels in one direction exploring the Nietzschean concept of “the will” in the words but fleshing it out musically in an abstract form of indie pop like an even more subdued and introspective Neutral Milk Hotel. We hear familiar sounds but employed and set out in a way that dares not to follow the same musical paths we’ve been conditioned to hearing when that palette of sounds is utilized. That alone makes this song a fascinating listen as it does end and concludes but doesn’t resolve in a conventional sense making it similar in a way to some of Nietzsche’s enigmatic epigrams. Listen to the song on Spotify and follow State Park Rangers at the links provided.

music.apple.com/us/artist/state-park-ranger/1450085997
soundcloud.com/user-296456870
open.spotify.com/artist/30v98RhkhDjmCBleTisCG3
stateparkranger.bandcamp.com

“Stand Your Ground” is the Triumphant Anthem For an Indie Comedy Nerd Action Hero Movie Yet to Be

PeterArvidson1_crop
Peter Arvidson, photo courtesy the artist

Peter Arvidson’s “Stand Your Ground” sounds like a mixture of 80s popular music weaving together jangle/college rock, synth pop and anthemic New Wave. Some unusual mix of The Smithereens, Let’s Active and A Flock of Seagulls. Its electronics bring together chiptune elements with more vintage synths melodies to give it a retro-modern vibe so that it would be difficult to identify its musical era except for the fact that pretty much no one was mixing all those styles in songwriting until recent years. And yet, the song doesn’t feel kitschy, its message about self-empowerment and staying focused on our goals in the face of challenges sincere. One imagines this song in a current independent cinema comedy story about heroic nerds in an unironic fashion the way the music of Survivor was employed in a 1980s Sylvester Stallone vehicle. Listen to “Stand Your Ground” on Spotify and follow Peter Arvidson at the links below.

musicsubmit.com/peterarvidson
open.spotify.com/artist/0jnQgLNVrTnOzcXIpK65v1

“Body Origami” by paintbrush Could Be the Love Song Theme Music For a Futuristic New Age Holistic Health Spa

paintbrush2_sm
painbrush, photo courtesy the artists

“Body Origami” by the duo paintbrush sounds like the theme music for a spa in some alternate universe where one’s health is treated holistically with an integrated physical and emotional approach. Perfect for a song from an EP called Wellness Package. When you walk in, soft lighting and calming, hazy melodies and lush beats float through the air conveying a sense of non-invasive intimacy. The main music-making instrument for the song is the Synplant which is a soft synth that is designed to allow your musical ideas evolve in natural directions suggested by your composition. The song is a frank but tender and delicate love song that uses the metaphor of origami for the art of consensual love in the physical and emotional sense. In an era where comedian Robert Klein joked there is no double entendre, just entendre, there is a classiness in paintbrush’s charming take on the subject matter. You can to “Body Origami” on Soundcloud and follow paintbrush at any of the links below where you will find a route to check out more of Wellness Package.

paintbrushsounds.com
soundcloud.com/paintbrushsounds
open.spotify.com/artist/23su79hPZkXGzG366yTJNr
facebook.com/paintbrushsounds
instagram.com/paintbrushsounds

Aino & Miihkali’s Entrancing New Single “Tähtitarha” is an Alchemical Synthesis of Progressive Jazz and Finnish and West African Folk

AinoAndMiihkali1_sm
Aino & Miihkali, photo courtesy the artists

Aino & Miihkali borrowed the lyrics to its latest single “Tähtitarha” from the Finnish poet Eino Leino who lived from 1878 and 1926 and who is considered one of the modern pioneers of that nation’s poetry. Leino’s style reflected the influence of folk music and of the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland and Karelia compiled in the Nineteenth Century. Which is significant for Aino & Miikhali as the two have roots in North Karelia, a region of northern Europe that encompasses parts of Finland, Russia and Sweden. The title of the song and poem means translates roughly to “star garden” and the songwriting began when Aino started with a piece written on a West African stringed instrument called the kamalén n’goni while she was living in Ghana. The song was fleshed out with kantele, a Finnish instrument in the zither family, loop, vocal harmonies and Miihkali’s elegant guitar finger picking.

Aino Ruotanen has already established herself as a lead practitioner of progressive folk with the group Unirukki and Miihkali honed his performance and compositional skills at Berklee College of Music but there is a freshness and spontaneity to this song that is immediately striking. The intricacy of the interplay of stringed instruments and vocals has a jaunty playfulness that catches the ear with an organic blend of jazz, northern European folk and African rhythms. Its rich tapestry of melodies and textures transcends a simple and specific folk context as its structure utilizing compound time is hypnotic and invites your mind into the realm of the unconscious where various traditions of folk music and folklore intermingle and resonate with an expanded sense of human connection. The song is in Finnish but its cross-cultural appeal and message is strongly conveyed in its composition. Listen to “Tähtitarha” on Spotify and follow the project on its website (linked below) where you can also further explore the debut, self-titled full length album.

ainomiihkali.com

Sonny Ratcliff’s Video For Georgia Weber and The Sleeved Hearts’ “Parachute” Single Highlights the Song’s Message of Gentleness in Honest Self-Reflection

GeorgiaWeberAndTheSleevedHearts1_lg
Georgia Weber and The Sleeved Hearts, photo courtesy the artists

The translucent imagery of Georgia Weber and The Sleeved Hearts in Sonny Ratcliff’s video for the band’s new single “Parachute” is the perfect visual analogue to the song and its themes. Going from ethereal introspection to strong rhythms and a more determined pace “Parachute” is a song about learning to build your own means of keeping from going into your own life’s freefall. It’s about being transparent with yourself and honest, observing the layers of distance you make for yourself and your own truth and then being willing to reach within for the capacity to not just float with the currents but to weather them and steer your own path. Weber talks about visualizing this path and making a conscious choice to make the life you want rather than the one that most readily and easily presents itself. The intricate melodies and classical sensibility accomplished with bandmates Kenji Herbert on guitar and Nathan Ellman Bell on drums finds Weber striking a tricky balance of delicate yet directed and compassionate rather than self-coddling. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Georgia Weber and The Sleeved Hearts at the links provided. Also look out for the group’s debut full length Keeping It Real due out October 4, 2019.

georgiawebermusic.com
soundcloud.com/georgiaweberbass
open.spotify.com/artist/3jNVXgSbElAWKxzfFnUvq4
youtube.com/georgiaweberbass
twitter.com/georgiaweberbas
facebook.com/georgiaweberbass
instagram.com/georgiaweberbass