Queen City Sounds and Art

“Coast to Coast” by Coral Moon is a Loving Homage to Friendship and a Mutual Love of Esoteric Knowledge

CoralMoon2_cropped — Coral Moon, photo courtesy the artists

“Coast to Coast” is an loving homage to cross country late night driving and listening to the arcane lore broadcast on AM radio and hosted now by George Noory and George Knapp from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Eastern but famously headed by its creator Art Bell. It’s a fitting song for a band of friends collaborated remotely from Austin, Texas, Louisville, Kentucky and Water Valley, Mississippi, calling themselves Coral Moon. Because Coast to Coast is syndicated its unusual stories of the paranormal and the unexplained serve as a kind of bond between fans of the program. Musically, the soft and playful pop song is reminiscent of a Jamboree-period Beat Happening song or something by Magnetic Fields circa Get Lost. Jangle-y guitar, violin cutting a figure over the proceedings and bleeps and bloops to represent switching stations to catch the aforementioned broadcast has the sound of like-minded friends getting together to talk about wild imaginative ideas late into the night. Coral Moon recently released its self-titled album and you can listen to “Coast to Coast” on YouTube as well as exploring the band’s catalog further at the links below.

earthlibraries.com/coral-moon
soundcloud.com/earthlibraries/coral-moon-dave/s-bjuw6

Ava Heatley’s “Shitty Tattoo” is a Cathartic Piano Ballad About the Ill-Advised Decisions We Later Regret But Can’t Fix

AvaHeatley1_sm — Ava Heatley, photo courtesy the artist

Anyone that’s ever felt like they get stuck emotionally and embarrassed by their own emotional stubbornness, perhaps born of some bit of arrested personal development, and acted out will relate deeply to Ava Heatley’s “Shitty Tattoo.” The song starts out simply enough with piano and voice outlining several times in life where everything feels raw and too real and you want to travel back to a time to fix the mistakes you made when you didn’t have adult responsibilities and maybe throwing a tantrum over much of anything wouldn’t be so consequential. The quiet part of contemplation escalates from the introspective yet dramatic self-loathing to an examination of repeating patterns of not wanting to deal with frustrating situations and poor life decisions. Even decisions as minor but so symbolic as an awful tattoo that one got thinking in the moment it would be something you wanted to commit to for the rest of your life because everything seems so significant to you in your tumultuous teen years and twenties when, really, as you get older you realize they didn’t matter that much—the relationships, the impulsive behavior in a moment of peak feeling, the angst over relatively minor matters. Guitar and drums come in to give voice to that cacophony in your head as every thing you think you fucked up and ruined come crashing in. If you live past thirty-five it’s safe to say you’ve been there and if not you probably are either in denial or have lead a boring life both outwardly and inwardly. Listen to “Shitty Tattoo” on Soundcloud and follow Heatley at the link below. Her new EP Beautiful/Terrifying is due for release on November 2 and she recently debuted “Shitty Tattoo” at The Bitter End in New York City on July 6.

soundcloud.com/user-949113108

Omer Gronich Dives Deep Into the Cycles of Life and Love on His Experimental Pop Gem “Azure”

OmerGronich2_crop — Omer Gronich, image courtesy the artist

“Azure,” Omer Gronich’s latest single, fades in with a warble of atmospherics before his vocals come in, slightly processed to have an otherworldly feel like you might hear on an early Peter Gabriel solo song. The repeating, simple guitar figure evolves subtly, floating through the song as a companion to the background vocals. But then in the last roughly third of the song synth beeps poke through what was the dreamy fog of the earlier part of the song and like waking up from a weird, troubling dream in which one relives the cycle of a love beginning and ending as a symbol for larger patterns in our lives whether birth to death and all the experience in between or in specific realms like the natural cycles of a career or creative path and how they interconnect and inform each other. By diving deep into these themes, Gronich untangles them a bit and makes them more discernible by connecting them to sounds in a song that doesn’t have to be fully understood on a conscious, logical level. Listen to “Azure” on Spotify and follow Gronich on his website linked below. Also, look out for his forthcoming album The Art of Sinking.

omergronichmusic.com

Julia And The Basement Tapes Will Put You In a Contemplative Mood With The Bluesy and Arresting “Something More”

JuliaAndTheBasementTapes1_sm — Julia And The Basement Tapes, photo courtesy the artists

Julia And The Basement Tapes employ some evocatively melancholic chords throughout its “Something More” single. It is reminiscent at times of Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and, curiously, Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World.” The shimmer around the gentle guitar work and the warm vocals, the piano accents and the tasteful pedal steel flourishes gives the track an expansive lushness and grace it’s easy to forget it’s firmly rooted in blues music. When the guitar takes a lead toward the end of the song it feels more like the climax of the piece and not merely an excuse to show off chops. And that’s it, all elements of this song showcase a band that writes to further the song and its impact rather than a display of individual ego. It’s an affecting song that puts you in a contemplative mood. Listen to “Something More” on Spotify and follow Julia And The Basement Tapes at the links below. Apparently “Something More” is the lead single on the group’s forthcoming album due out later in the year.

soundcloud.com/jatbt
open.spotify.com/artist/7fjf6EaZ9Dnmxh9FTAIDcE

Discrete’s Video for “In My Room” is an Urban Subterranean Science Fiction Horror Story

Discrete1_crop — Discrete, photo courtesy the artist

Working with Colin Greenwood, Toronto’s Kyle Yip has created a song and video called “In My Room” that sonically and visually feels like clandestine and arcane work in hidden places. The single bell tone marking time, the collage of metronomic percussion and tones, the nearly whispered vocals—all contributing to an evolving narrative wherein our usual rational methods of measure and assessing our reality come up wanting as we encounter higher or unhitherto known aspects of the universe around us. The video is like a David Cronenberg and Chris Cunningham science fiction/horror mash-up, the music like Aphex Twin gone minimal and mutated directly by aesthetics of free jazz. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Discrete at the links below including that of his music imprint Savvy Records.

savvyrecords.biz
soundcloud.com/discrete
twitter.com/_Discrete
facebook.com/DJDiscrete
instagram.com/kylepyip

Megan Dixon-Hood Evokes the Stark Beauty of Being Alone in a Snow Cloaked Home on a Mountain After a Blizzard on “Sea of Ice”

MeganDixon-Hood1_sm — Megan Dixon-Hood, photo courtesy the artist

Megan Dixon-Hood’s acoustic piano version of “Sea of Ice” sounds like it was written in a house on a mountainside looking down into white valleys after a quiet but powerful snowstorm. She sings of a sense of desolation but one that affords a climate where turning inward in meditative contemplation waiting by the fire is the only way to weather the chill alone. Dixon-Hood’s breathy, melodious voice and the spare piano work brings an elevated tone to what might otherwise be a purely melancholic and introspective piece. It’s not a contrasting quality so much as complimentary. It’s rare in the modern world that we are afforded such experiences without intentionally seeking them out. This song captures what might be magical about a situation that many would dread and find boring. Dixon-Hood draws out the harsh and stark beauty of having no options but patience and no companion but your own memories and imagination. Listen to “Sea of Ice” on Spotify and explore more of Megan Dixon-Hood’s new collection of singles comprising acoustic versions of her older material at the links below.

megandixonhood.com
soundcloud.com/megan-dixon-hood
open.spotify.com/artist/2Qy6aryNaJ4LJD0RiLMcpt
youtube.com/channel/UCoXnNcqFyASQ0YzxDG-4Wuw
twitter.com/MegDHmusic
facebook.com/megandixonhood
instagram.com/megdixonhood

sub sequence Evokes a Sense of the Mystical, the Mythic and the Primordial on “seize release”

SubSequence1_Crop — sub sequence, photo courtesy the artist

There is a sense of deep ocean and a dreamlike state on “seize release” by sub sequence. The chimes and bell tones amid a steady beat and organ resonating in stereo as female vocals intone in something like a chant suggest a subterranean journey of some kind to a place deep in the earth or deep in the heart, to a cthonic shrine where fiery coals burn with an incense designed to cleanse the brain of personal darkness. Fans of the more mystical side of William Orbit’s 1993 Strange Cargo III, in particular “The Monkey King” will appreciate the way the track engulfs you in a sense of the otherworldly and mythical with an expert use of depth of sonic field where low end is strong but of soft impact and the percussion tribal and hypnotic in counterpoint to the synth swells that exert their own trance-inducing effect. Listen to “seize release” on Soundcloud and follow sub sequence at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/subsequenz
subsequence.bandcamp.com

Joel Ansett’s “Slow Down” is a Rejection of the Modern Rat Race

JoelAnsett_SlowDown_cover_crop — Joel Ansett, “Slow Down” cover (cropped)

Joel Ansett was inspired by a Dallas Willard quote in writing “Slow Down”: “you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” In America where being a workaholic is praised and bravado about how hard one can work and always being on it’s easy to forget how that’s a pathological and unhealthy mindset that burns people out and causes early deaths through a variety of means. It also engenders a society where people don’t take time to assess and consider what it is they’re doing and why they’re doing it, what they say and why they’re saying it—in short, no time to be reflective when you’re always scrambling. The downtempo song with a robust low end, thick, textural atmospheres and Ansett’s vocals outlines how making ourselves performative creatures has warped our individual and collective psyches when we’d be better off with a more organic and human pace to life and creating and not expecting others to always be on and at our beck and call because of what? Money? Status? Ansett more than suggests our lives are worth more than a rat race to appease commerce and social pressure. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Ansett at the links below.

joelansett.com
soundcloud.com/joel-ansett
youtube.com/joelansett
twitter.com/joelansett
facebook.com/JoelAnsettMusic
instagram.com/joelansett

tummyache’s “In Between” Captures the State Between Bouts of Anxiety With Melancholic and Melodic Perfection

On “In Between,” Soren Bryce as tummyache really dives deep into what it feels like to be at the bottom end of your life and feeling helpless and lacking in the willpower to make it better and to help your friends. So you have to start with feeling better and hope that’s a rung on the ladder to better days. The swirl of guitar sparkling and humming to life is like the static and fog of emotions that are wrapped around you and they fade out for moments of clarity embodied by Bryce’s vivid vocals in which she confesses to being in a place of weakness and remorseful for having behaved badly and any acting out though unable to help herself at the time. The feeling of anxiety is so well articulated in the sense of being crushed and trapped by that feeling and not having control but yearning to transcend it because you have known a time in your life when it didn’t seem like your psyche was being smothered and wracked by an internal self-torturer. Bryce conveys perfectly how when suffering through those periods you have to snatch moments of feeling okay or comforted by small things because simply overcoming anxiety long term seems insurmountable and the work to get there overwhelming. It’s a song for soothing and exorcising those feelings with a wash of beautifully melancholic atmospheres and Bryce’s ability to demonstrate she’s been there and understands the crippling angst and emotional paralysis well.

The Maximalist Approach to Minimal Techno on Israel Kimchi’s “Live DJ FilmSet #1” Gives it Riveting Diversity and Depth

IsraelKimchi1_crop — Israel Kimchi, photo courtesy the artist

Israel Kimchi meticulously crafts a short set on the video for “Live DJ FilmSet #1.” Bringing in echoing tones, pulsing electronic bass, a driving cadre of percussion (electronic and acoustic—much of which he performs live) brought to bear creatively throughout and a progressive house compositional sensibility that centers the sounds and keeps a focus even as seemingly endless layers of sound are brought in without crowding the sonic field as Kimchi expertly adds and removes layers with a seamless precision. He brings in elements of the exotic in the percussion and samples and his builds dropping off into space are masterful rather than predictable. This track may be “Minimal Techno House” but Kimchi’s approach is maximalist in the sound palette and judiciously employed throughout the song’s more than sixteen minutes in a way that holds your attention with enough both variety and consistency. The pace is consistent but the use of dynamics in conjunction with bringing in sounds and themes gives the song a wonderfully colorful quality beginning to end. Including in the last third of the song where there’s a great use of samples of “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Israel Kimchi at the links provided.

israelkimchi.com
soundcloud.com/israelkimchi
youtube.com/IsraelkimchiOfficial
facebook.com/IsraelKimchiOfficial
instagram.com/israelkimchi