Queen City Sounds and Art

Fotoform’s Gauzy Post-punk Single “If You Knew/Don’t You Worry, Baby” is a Gentle Reminder To Not Get Stuck On Past Mistakes

The ethereal drift of the guitar at the beginning of Fotoform’s “If You Knew/Don’t You Worry, Baby” feels like something you can get lost in for countless time. But the vocals bring you back to earth ever so slightly even though they too bloom into soaring melodies along with the guitar with all anchored gently by the almost textural bass lins and steady drumming. The song seems to be one pondering the human instinct to second guess our choices and to re-litigate moments of our lives we wish we could have done differently but can we ever fully know how things will play out if given that second chance? It’s easy to dissociate from the life you have if you spend too much time thinking about those sorts of scenarios. And this song with its airy spirit suggests that maybe it’s okay to trust in uncertainty because that in itself is a comfort if you are willing to accept that there are so many factors in the universe that affect everything and ourselves that we could never fully predict or control. And not as a passive act of complacency but as a way of having peace of mind and going with the moment and live in the present. Watch the mystical and hazy video for “If You Only Knew/Don’t You Worry, Baby” on YouTube and follow Seattle’s Fotoform at the links below. The band’s album Grief is a Garden is out April 18, 2025 on streaming, vinyl and digital download.

Fotoform on Twitter

Fotoform on Facebook

Fotoform on Instagram

Fotoform on Bandcamp

Cici Arthurt’s World Weary Jazz Pop Single “Way Through” is a Song About the Inspiration Deficit in a World Plagued With Marketing

Cici Arthur (L-R: Thom Gill, Joseph Shabason and Chris A. Cummings), photo courtesy the artists

The title track to Cici Arthur’s debut album Way Through (released via Western Vinyl on February 21, 2025) has an easy pace to it like some kind of lounge pop song from the 1960s. But the production and quality of sound is more modern even if the sensibilities of the song suggest something more resonant across time. It’s a song written from the perspective of someone who has had a lot of life experience and is used to finding inspiration and creative stimulation just going through life and stumbling into it. Which is a function of being new to all kinds of experiences. But the song’s lyrics suggest a more deep world weariness and one that hangs heavy on most people now as so many things that are shallow and hyper marketed compete for and in fact are pushed into our attention and thus consciousness. But we have an underlying sense of it being utter nonsense. At least if you’re a thoughtful person that craves deeper experiences at least once in awhile. But when so much pressure is put upon to create fluffy content that has no real depth of thought or feeling much less creativity behind it, the cultural creations to which we have access can be watered down and when we’re being manipulated to be distracted and unsatisfied and or satisfied with a temporary dopamine hit the world can seem flat and low key hopeless. The songwriters seem aware of this phenomenon of modern life on a profound level and yearn for a path through this period and this haze that is weighing down the ambient human energy level. The song also hints at a personal revelation that often what we expect can warp our perception of how things are and may blind us to something we’re actually looking for but our ways of seeking are outmoded and the way we’ve conditioned ourselves might be ditched in favor of newer ways of being and seeing. And yet it’s hard to start over and this song’s tone in its downtempo fashion in a classic pop mode honors the humanity of wanting to find something to stir the imagination without having to toss out what you’ve already built up in your mind. Watch the video for “Way Through” with its vintage landscapes, human and otherwise, on YouTube and follow the members of Cici Arthur on their social media accounts linked below as well as find ordering information for the record on Western Vinyl’s website also linked.

Cici Arthur on Western Vinyl

Chris A. Cummings on Twitter

Joseph Shabason on Instagram

Thom Gill on Bandcamp

Ceremony Shadows’ Darkwave Dance Single “Prey” is a Song of Solidarity Against Sociopathy

Ceremony Shadows, photo courtesy the artists

Ceremony Shadows employ short lines like mantras on the song “Prey” so that it has almost a hypnotic quality on its own as it sketches the portrait of a social dynamic many if not most of us recognize. The percussive quality of the rhythmic synths accents the song in echoes while the minimal percussion carries the song along in a processional cadence. The words describe how the predators of human society find the cracks in society and take advantage of people who may not already have had to defend themselves from sociopathic types that look for “weakness” in others that are simply normal, human vulnerabilities that make it possible to function in a healthy way. But as we’ve seen in society in dramatic fashion over the past several years and weaponized as movements in the past couple of decades (but really nothing new for people who have been on the receiving end for however far back you’d care to look) something that seems simply a personal problem that you have to “deal with” is a feature of our culture itself. The song seems like a more compassionate take on a way to take oneself out of that dynamic through changing one’s consciousness and not let the poison of the predator personality break you or turn against others. It is a song in essence of solidarity and with its strong beats it’s reminiscent of the more accessible end of Skinny Puppy that fans of Chris & Cosey, Buzz Kull and S. Product may appreciate as well. Listen to “Prey” on Spotify and follow Portland’s Ceremony Shadows at the links provided. The band released its nw album Ascension on March 20, 2025 and available now for streaming and digital download.

Ceremony Shadows on Facebook

Ceremony Shadows on Instagram

Ceremony Shadows on Bandcamp

Ceremony Shadows on YouTube

AUS!Funkt’s “Reincarnation Blues” is an Industrial Punk Song About the Constant Need For Reinvention in the Work of Resistance

AUS!Funkt’s “Reincarnation Blues” is pulsing with driving industrial punk sounds befitting its themes of constantly needing to reinvent and revisit the ideas and practices of resistance because the forces of oppression adapt and appropriate language and symbols as well. When the wild sax riff comes in over the steady electronic drums it’s like the surprise element that pushes the deadpan vocals into clearer focus which being part of the messaging itself of throwing in fun surprises to switch up the dynamic. The animated music video is a Dada-esque collage of imagery subverting gender representation and blurring the lines between human and machine, a gallery of eyes surrounding the figure in the foreground with its head replaced by one of those eyes in moments. The lyrics mention how there’s always something better coming up and something ending and it’s best to roll with the changes to keep ahead of the forces of repression even if it can get occasionally get tiring having to regularly reinvent oneself and one’s outlook. It’s a song against getting too comfortable. Watch the video for “Reincarnation Blues” on YouTube and follow Canada’s AUS!Funkt at the links below.

AUS!Funkt on Facebook

AUS!Funkt on Instagram

AUS!Funkt on Bandcamp

Cleopatrick’s Bitcrushed, Lo-Fi Single “BAD GUY” is an Anthem Against Being Villainized

Canadian rock duo cleopatrick released its new album FAKE MOON on March 14, 2025. The video for “BAD GUY” looks a little like something out of a Dash Shaw film but done with graphics straight out of a 16-bit video game. With an unusual plot to go with the video including escaping the situation and the world through a trip on a craft that looks like the moon. Which fits how glitchy the production is on the track with the vocals and other sounds bit-crushed ever so slightly. The effect creates a sense of vulnerability and as the song progresses a lo-fi psychedelic sound. The song seems to be about the feeling of being made to feel like the villain in the life story of someone yet again in some psychodrama that gets really old. The song is almost diametrically the opposite in sound and tone from the music on the group’s outstanding 2021 debut album BUMMER but it also expands upon how Luke Gruntz and Ian Fraser have essentially mixed and matched aesthetics within their music that overtly taps into 90s alternative rock with some urgency and aggression but also electronic music and hip-hop production techniques. This song is even a step removed from that fusion and its admittedly grimy and gritty charm. Like the rest of FAKE MOON the vibe is gentler but no less connected to raw feelings and emotional honesty. Watch the video for “BAD GUY” on YouTube and follow the Canadian band at the links below.

cleopatrick.com

cleopatrick on Facebook

cleopatrick on Instagram

Robert Ascroft’s “Dorian Gray” is an Existential Dream Pop Song About Embracing Our Lifelong Becoming

Robert Ascroft, photo courtesy the artist

Robert Ascroft fully incorporates his experience as a photographer and director in Hollywood and songwriting in the beautifully haunting video for his song “Dorian Gray.” With ethereal vocals from Ora Cogan the song is a processional of recursive, dream pop streams of guitar and gently accented percussion with shimmery strings gilding the edges of melody. It’s a song that appears to be about people preserving a memory of each other as they once were in a good time of life with impressions that resonate across years even as we change with age though the emotional attachments remain though those evolve and grow with us with the people with whom we share a special bond. The video shows two marionettes looking into funhouse mirrors and accept the distortions as one aspect of perception and how we perceive ourselves in a particular moment isn’t the full truth nor the one most enduring, certainly not in the minds of others. The song seems to suggest that we can accept the impermanence of life and ourselves and embrace the changes as part of a bigger picture, a lifelong process of becoming who we will be and learning along the way. Fans of Slowdive will appreciate the languid sweeps of gossamer tone in slow motion and the rosettes of guitar tone that blossom and fade into the backdrop of swirling tones that keep the song in a comforting and dreamlike state. Ascroft’s latest album Echo Still Remains released on February 14, 2025 via Hand Drawn Dracula. Watch the video for “Dorian Gray,” directed and shot by Ascroft as well, on YouTube and follow the artist at the links provided.

robertascroft.com

Robert Ascroft on Twitter

Robert Ascroft on Facebook

Robert Ascroft on Instagram

Laurel Smith Takes Down the False Strength of Tough Guy Antics on Lushly Energetic Hip-Hop Single “pink gun”

Laurel Smith’s energetic flow of words on “pink gun” pairs well with a string sample like a sanshin riff over a pulsing electronic bass line and boom bap rhythms and percussion. It’s like if a downtempo song had some scrappy attitude. That suits well a song taking aim at the type of insecure man that dismisses women that don’t fit some narrow and problematic view of how women are supposed to be like women are a product they’re ordering online. Smith in the song becomes a nightmare for that kind of man and the song has the type of attitude that turns the dismissive attitude back on the one who is used to dealing it out but with interest. In the end the song also unmasks that “meninist” or incel prose as some laughable tough guy thing when really the lack of sensitivity and vulnerability diminishes your humanity, that thinking of gender roles and relationships in a twisted version of even traditional senses is at best odd and leads to self-destructive behavior. The lush production and low key sense of menace and not so understate confidence makes the song appealing from its first moments and carries through to the end. Listen to “pink gun” on Spotify and visit Laurel Smith’s LinkTree for connections to her online presence.

Laurel Smith LinkTree

Emily Kinski’s Dead’s Darkwave Pop Single “Black Light District” is a Celebration of Subculture

Emily Kinski’s Dead, photo courtesy the artists

The zombie film aesthetic of the video for Emily Kinski’s Dead’s single “Black Light District” serves as a kind of metaphor for the song. The industrial darkwave song is an homage to underground culture and how the environs, music and style of a particular subculture might put off plenty of people but it’s a place where you can feel like you belong and be yourself. And horror cinema and its own creative heights can be off-putting to a certain type of person but the charms of which seem obvious to others and can be cathartic for the kinds of real life fears and trauma we experience. And it’s fine that not everyone is into that and the kind of distorted vocals one hears on this track because it’s “spooky” but they’re missing out on its beautifully haunting and urgent melody clearly expertly crafted dance beat. But people who appreciate a synth pop with a dark edge without the future pop aftertaste will love it. Watch the video for “Black Light District” on YouTube and follow Emily Kinski’s Dead at the links below.

Emily Kinski’s Dead on Instagram

A Place To Bury Strangers Rejects the Emptiness of Dystopian Despair on “Plastic Future”

A Place To Bury Strangers, photo by Ebry Yildiz

A Place To Bury Strangers isn’t a band one often associates with social commentary yet those ideas have long been in the music cast often in terms more personal. But “Plastic Future” and especially with the music video directed and edited by Dylan Mars Greenberg the words and visuals point to how in life as we’ve been having to live it if we’re even trying to keep up with the way things are in a functional way our attention is pulled in all directions and our time and energy segmented and chiseled off of us in a way and we can feel atomized by this thing that at one time might be described as “the future” but is really just an overly marketed and imposed way of being and living no one really asked for and which encourages us to abandon normal, analog humanity in pursuit of what? Elusive and ephemeral rewards in the world of social media? Jobs that demand all and give little while under the distant boot of some tech oligarch and their trickle down control or every moment of your life? The shock and awe and outage cycle of modern politics as fascism rises against feckless “opposition” and undermined institutions? It’s all a lot and it can overwhelm you. But in the line “I won’t let love go/As I let go of the future” Oliver Ackermann has identified that a central hope lies in our essential humanity and the capacity to feel something more appealing and powerful than fear, hatred, greed, anxiety and despair. Musically it’s a bit different with the emphasis on the rhythms and less so on the divinely noisy and scorching guitar work that has been the hallmark of the group’s sound but it’s latest album Synthesizer (2024) isn’t short on new directions for A Place To Bury Strangers. Watch the video for “Plastic Future” on YouTube and follow the new york band at the links below.

A Place To Bury Strangers on Twitter

A Place To Bury Strangers on Facebook

A Place To Bury Strangers on Instagram

A Place To Bury Strangers on Bandcamp

Waves_On_Waves’ Tragically Romantic Single “Bloody Valentine” is a Melodic Earworm of Darkwave Post-Punk

Waves_On_Waves, photo courtesy the artist

Listening purely musically to “Bloody Valentine” Waves_On_Waves (with Crimewave and Waves On Waves After Dark) one hears the chimy, lingering guitar work and pulsing synth and rhythms of an updated synth pop song. Mark Christopher Sevier’s expressive vocals match the unconventional melodic progression of the song all while he creates the image of the kind of tragic romance he may have witnessed, experienced and was involved in while part of the Goth scenes of Los Angeles and New York of recent years or at least the myth of it and the ways people find solace in and relief from their psychic anguish whether in relationships, creative transmutation of personal turmoil or self-destructive acts that distract at least for a little while and maybe carry you through the times when things seem to press so hard against your emotional state. Whatever the inspiration, the songwriters and producers for the track have crafted an earworm of a darkwave flavored post-punk track with an elegant flair and sensitivity with the subject matter. Watch the video for “Bloody Valentine” on YouTube and follow Waves_On_Waves at the links below.