Queen City Sounds and Art

Relentlessly Playful and Inventive, Shwesmo’s “Concerto for Guitar and Computer” is the Sound of the 8-bit, Technical Metal, Glitchcore Evolution Revolution

Shwesmo_ConcertoForGuitarAndComputer_cover_lg — Shwesmo, “Concerto for Guitar and Computer” cover

The compound time and grinding, bit-crushed sound of the beginning of Shwesmo’s noise/fusion/death/thrash song “Concerto for Guitar and Computer” is like John Zorn infused with 8-bit DNA and a penchant for some choice computer cutting and reassembling. Is it tech metal + EDM + glitchcore? Are such distinctions useful in parsing out a song like this? The cover art for the single shows a cyberpunk ape wielding a part bass/guitar and a MIDI controller for samples and visuals. Which is perfect because the song turns on a dime into interesting territory. It might be busy for some people but it never gets too busy to follow and it’s relentlessly playful and inventive beginning to end. If all the 8-bit artists of five to seven years ago moved on to a higher degree of sophistication and synthesis of musical styles some of them would have ended up in the realm of what Shwesmo has accomplished with this song. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Shwesmo at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/3oJve5kEy2Ds8329L596Ts
shwesmo.bandcamp.com/releases
facebook.com/shwesmo.music
instagram.com/shwesmo

Bels Lontano’s “Hope” Has All the Beauty and Grace of a Benevolent Cryptid in Flight

BelsLontano1_crop — Bels Lontano, photo courtesy the artist

The Bels Lontano track “Hope” takes some time getting off the ground but like a plane or a baby bird when it does take flight its potential is obvious. Buzzy yet melodic pulses drive the song while ethereal tones flutter and hold alongside the almost clop clop horse hoof percussion as the song comes into full focus and volume and its sonic features engulfing. Textures, claps, a contemplative second melody breezes through the middle of the song. The effect is a bit like what it would be like to see a great, bird or insect approaching and as it float near you benevolent and curious, you can marvel at its grace and parts moving together with a dazzling efficiency before it flies off to parts unknown. And by its very existence it fills you with hope for a present and future in which there are still things to discover and plenty of unknown that the technocratic oligarchy hasn’t fully exploited. Listen to “Hope” on YouTube and follow Bels Lontano at the links below.

soundcloud.com/belslontano
open.spotify.com/artist/2wDdIIdpp8cL7WKAQAcdJP
twitter.com/belslontano
facebook.com/belslontano

Lune Rose’s Downtempo and Murkily Melodic “Can’t Be Sure” Uncertainties and Insecurities of Relationships in the Era of Social Media and Texting

“Can’t Be Sure” by Lune Rose speaks to the uncertainties and misapprehensions that have sprung up in new ways in the era of social media and text-only forms of communication with which you don’t get solid hints of tone, inflection and body language. One’s insecurities can run rampant in the imagination and haunt your conscious thoughts like a cloak of darkness. The sinuous flow of the murky synths and the pulsing tones reflect the way you can almost hypnotize yourself into revisiting your worst fears and how social media algorithms seem to reinforce a sense of disconnect from what’s real and thus your own emotions and your actual relationships with others. That the song is in part about the threat of these things on a long distance relationship is worth noting but if we’re to be honest with ourselves, similar emotional and social phenomena happens even when our loved one doesn’t live far away as the technologies that are meant to bring us closer together at a distance often serve to do the opposite.

Xoller’s Gertrude Stein Inspired “A Rose” is a Meditation on the Cyclical Nature of Human Life and Love

Xoller_ARose_art_crop — Xoller, photo courtesy the artist

Inspired by Gertrude Stein’s 1913 poem “Sacred Emily,” Xoller’s “A Rose” quotes the famous line “a rose is a rose is a rose” as a symbol for the cyclical nature of our lives and of time and how it ultimately warps and makes indistinct our memories. Experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage once pointed out how Stein’s use of those words suggested a circular shape and how that visual language influenced his approach to his own work and Xoller’s wistful and nostalgic melody seems similarly impacted in connecting the repetition of chorus and verse with the all too familiar patterns of life and human behavior that she poetically outlines in the song’s lyrics. The hope, as in all patterns and cycles, is that even though we tend to be consistent in our long term behaviors that we can be cognizant of the patterns that no longer fully serve us well. Listen to “A Rose” on Soundcloud and follow Xoller at the links provided.

twitter.com/_xoller
facebook.com/xollersounds
instagram.com/__xoller

Juhan Ongbrian’s “Idling” featuring Ricky Gartell and Sly Chong Evokes the Late Night Life of Service Industry Workers Before the Dawn

JuhanOngbrian1_crop — Juhan Ongbrian, image courtesy the artist

There is an incandescent quality to the keyboard work on Juhan Onbrian’s “Idling” like something written for a restaurant lounge where the night staff is hanging out after operations have been shut down for the night hanging out with the band. Ricky Gartell’s saxophone figures curl upward like tendrils of cigarette smoke shared on the balcony and talking about the future as the moon rises.Sly Chong’s bass sits like an unmistakable presence keeping the song afloat when it’s not drifting, guiding the proceedings into the proper channels. It captures those hours when most normal people are already asleep but everyone who has worked a service job knows well when you are getting things ready for the next day and going home and maybe watch whatever movie might be on TV at three or four in the morning and to bed by sunrise. There’s a tranquility to the track that evokes the kind of exhausted sleep one gets after working hard and dealing with demanding people all night and enjoying that small bit of joy before waking in the late morning or early afternoon and running some errands before starting all over again. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Juhan Onbrian’s projects at the links below.

soundcloud.com/juhanongbrian
open.spotify.com/artist/7mEJxWdf21g1dRVwNDaLq8
instagram.com/juhanongbrian

Eamonn Watt’s “Laputa” Resonates With a Sense of Cosmic Wonder

EamonnWatt-Dopamine_cover_crop — Eamonn Watt, *Dopamine* cover (cropped)

The melodic, watery sounds of Eamonn Watt’s “Laputa,” as well as other tracks on the new album Dopamine, were inspired by the fantastic worlds of 1980s television and cinema. Without reference specifically to the soundtracks to any of those films, “Laputa” nevertheless resonates with the imagery and mood of films like Labyrinth and The Neverending Story and, of course, Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 masterpiece Laputa: Castle in the Sky—the presumed source of the song’s title. Soft synth tones while around each other and shimmer out into a sonic cloudscape while a lead tonal figure cuts through the dreamlike haze and illuminates a solid musical line through the song. Though not fantasy, the song is like the moodier cousin of the ending music of American public television’s astronomy program Star Gazers (known to many in its earlier and equally defunct incarnation as Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler). It works similar major scale progressions and conveys a similar sense of wonder at the workings of cosmic phenomena. Listen to “Laputa” on Spotify and follow Eamonn Watt at any of the links below.

soundcloud.com/eamonnwatt
thevirtualconductor.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/VirtuallyConducted

Moudy Afifi’s Remix of The Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition” Transforms the Song Into an Ambient New Wave Dance Track

MoudyAfifi1_sm — Moudy Afifi, photo courtesy the artist

Moudy Afifi’s remix of The Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition” places the emphasis on its potential as a more abstract and ambient dance track. The falsetto vocals of the original take on a more processed sound here as though put through a vocoder. In basically doubling the length of the song Afifi is able to explore the tonal qualities of the song even more as he is able to slow down the pace and all but remove the organic drums and guitar and replace them with electronic elements (or a highly processed version of the original percussion) occupying the same sonic and thematic space. The effect is almost like a deep house version of an Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark song. Afifi in effect does what one would hope a remix would do with a song and basically make it anew while preserving something of the song’s core appeal. Listen to the remix on Soundcloud and follow Moudy Afifi at the links below.

disclosedrecords.net/moudyafifi
soundcloud.com/moudyafifi
twitter.com/MoudyAfifi
facebook.com/moudyafifi
instagram.com/moudyafifi

“Away we go” by Noukko is an Invitation to Following Serendipity Into a More Fun and Fulfilling Life

Noukko1_sm — Noukko, photo courtesy the artist

“Away we go” by Noukko is initially a summery, light pop saunter into serendipitous encounters and experiences. And its rhythmic structure is similarly loose yet coherent as is the melody. It feels very spontaneous and off the cuff and that’s what draws you in aside from the chill melody and Noukko’s bright and breathily soulful vocals. The mix of organic sounds and the electronic give the song a sound like it could have been made forty years ago or in someone’s bedroom studio today. There is a bit of library music vibe here too like it’s a song made for other potential uses whether for a soundtrack, a business seminar, a hipper than average commercial. When the song speeds up a little after the two minute mark it feels as though you enter into a fast forward mode too as the rest of the song trained your ear for its languid pace. All in all it’s an unconventional pop song with the trappings of a downtempo lounge composition. Throughout the song there seems to be an implied suggestion to set aside the logical mind and embrace the spontaneity most people lose when they reach adulthood. It is the musical equivalent of Melanie Griffith’s character in Something Wild. Watch the video below on YouTube and follow Noukko at the links provided.

noukko.com
soundcloud.com/user-600686401
open.spotify.com/artist/1tSC2akd29inEOKNBcfHun
youtube.com/watch

T-Shirt Dream Party Reconciles the Melancholic and the Exuberant, the Resigned and the Triumphant on “Bookends (Sunrise)”

T-ShirtDreamParty1_crop — T-Shirt Dream Party, image courtesy the artists

T-shirt Dream Party introduces its song “Bookends (Sunrise)” with ghostly, introspective vocals before the pace picks up and the song’s atmospherics seem to collide together before dissolving into the ether from before. The synth accents in the song give it a paradoxically melancholic frisson the likes of which you might hear in a The Twilight Sad song. The falsetto vocals and the sweeping musical passages are both bracing and thrilling even as the song sets you down for a moment of reflection and tranquility before carrying you off into a moment of scintillating sound just before the melodic fadeout and to some extent thus the title of the song. Listen to “Bookends (Sunrise)” below and follow T-Shirt Dream Party at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/tshirtdreamparty
open.spotify.com/artist/1cefQY0A8X8IQ7RXhqy6K7
facebook.com/tshirtdreamparty
instagram.com/tshirtdreamparty

Bootleg Rascal’s “Tryin’ to Run” is the Sound of Dangerously Fun Hijinks in the Offing

BootlegRascal1_sm — Bootleg Rascal, photo courtesy the artists

Bootleg Rascal’s music is a rowdy and eclectic mix of styles that stretches the boundaries of what hip-hop might sound like. On its single “Tryin’ to Run” the band brings in some tasty, hot guitar licks and its vocals are more like conventional singing than spitting bars though laid out like the latter. The song gives the impression of hijinks in the offing like the introduction to a Judd Apatow movie or a Zach Galifianakis vehicle. Or like a more funk-oriented LMFAO. It is a party anthem but one that has an element of the subversive in the lyrics. After all, one of the lines is “tryin’ to run while tying the noose” and a reference to coming back from the ICU. For a song that seems so carefree and headlong there’s some skullduggery and danger to give it a bit of an edge. And who doesn’t appreciate that in what is otherwise a rousing pop song for the summer? Listen to “Tryin’ to Run” on Soundcloud and follow Bootleg Rascal at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/bootleg-rascal
open.spotify.com/artist/2cScEQkwCAObAfeFX4CYr4