Queen City Sounds and Art

Travel Through a Quantum Door to Yesteryear With Whettman Chelmets’ “recall (outro) / The Swimming Hole”

WhettmanChelmets2_sm — Whettman Chelmets, photo courtesy the artist

Whettman Chelmets wrote a layered, textured ambient track “recall (outro) / The Swimming Hole” around some twenty year old four-track tape “experiments.” This act of creative excavation initially gives the impression of traveling through a quantum wormhole into memory bounded by echoing white noise of the energy fields involved in effecting that trip. It’s been said that when creatures are traveling from parallel dimensions that the sound of rushing wind, like a dozen jet engines from far away, can be heard at low volume before shutting off when that “door” between worlds closes. The sound on this composition isn’t so melodramatic and the place it takes you is the languid and peaceful memory from childhood of an oasis where you felt free and your imagination could roam where it will without the demands of everyday life weighing you down. How did Chelmets make these sounds, how did he mix it together? It matters much less than the emotional and experiential quality of the piece. Close your eyes and give the song a listen, perchance to later explore Chelmets’ fascinating work including the excellent Doesn’t Matter album from which the song is drawn further at the links below.

soundcloud.com/chelmets
open.spotify.com/artist/4uHXYKxoGDvb8f1GLWlyOC
twitter.com/wc_helmets
instagram.com/whettmanchelmets

IVATU’s “Haunt” is a Chilling Trip Into Personal Nightmare

IVATU5_sm — IVATU, photo courtesy the artists

Eava Tuevskaya’s vocals on the IVATU single “Haunt” (from its recent Enormous and Mild EP) recall those of Karin Dreijer of The Knife in sounding distinct but mysterious. But the music is an entrancing blend of downtempo, Goblin-esque synth screams and dark neofolk. The title suits a song that is about the existential fears and insecurities that come to erode one’s confidence and hope like the ghost of a vampire come to drain your emotional and spiritual energy. The fog-enshrouded melody and the way the percussion beats in the distance like the clack of the last train out of a land about to be overtaken by the worst blizzard in three hundred years is downright chilling. It is perhaps the sound of the personal nightmare you can’t escape but must. Fans of the star and gorgeous soundscapes and vocal heft of artists like Jenny Hval, Chelsea Wolfe and Marissa Nadler would do well to seek out Moscow’s IVATU. Sample the track and follow the band at the links below.

https://ivatu.bandcamp.com/track/haunt
ivatu.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/ivatu.msc

“Molly” by Velcro Mary is a Tender Ballad to a Relationship Gone Awry

velcro_mary_cbg_sm — Velcro Mary, photo courtesy the artist

Velcroy Mary may be “the only band in North Carolina that did not record their last album with Mitch Easter at The Fidelitorium” but maybe it’s single “Molly” was recorded with Chris Schultz at Wavelab Studios in Arizona because it’s melancholic anthem is reminiscent of DeVotchKa circa How It Ends. The doleful accordion melody and the words of resignation and yearning bracketed by gently strummed guitar spells out a message meant to offer comfort and reassurance to someone who might be going through a period in life fraught with insecurity and emotional fragility. Tender and touching it’s simple structure and graceful performance makes what is hinted at by “this time apart’s supposed to help us grow” and “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” and a troubled relationship that has all but drifted apart for good. Listen below and follow Velcro Mary’s excellent string of singles at the links following.

VelcroMaryMusic.com
soundcloud.com/velcromary
velcromary.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/VelcroMary
facebook.com/velcromary

cityGirl’s Poignant “Curled” Embodies the Concept of Saudade

cityGirl_crop — cityGirl, artwork, cropped

Although the main melodic line is a bright toned keyboard figure on cityGirl’s “Curled,” one gets the distinct impression of this song coming from a place of pain. Maybe not anguish or the sharp kind that comes from losing someone forever. But the kind where someone who made a strong impression on you who helped define an important period in your life in a way only someone with whom you’re spending a great deal of time can. And when that person exits from your circle of relationships, for whatever reason, instead of being angry you can only feel sad and a little confused as your affection for that person would be dishonored with unworthy and aggressive emotions. In Portugese there’s a word “saudade” that means, according to Wikipedia, “a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves.” The mood of the song conveys well a bittersweet sensibility that expresses the good times not forgotten but overshadowed in the moment by the feelings of loss. It is kind of a simple pop song but given all the elements it expresses a complex state of mind and being that is often challenging to articulate. Give the song a listen and follow cityGirl at the links following.

soundcloud.com/citygirl-2
artists.spotify.com/c/artist/2XkJtfRO0ldQw3CjNGZ5hN/profile

D.D. Island’s Manifestation of the Halcyon Days of a New Love on “Sawtooth Sunshine”

DDIsland_LostDog_sm — D.D. Island *Los Dog* cover

“Sawtooth Sunshine” by D.D. Island is something best heard in headphones to take in the full range of the sounds of the song. It’s main guitar melody, reminiscent of “Carolyn’s Fingers” by Cocteau Twins, and the texture of the acoustic strum, electronic drums and Brandon Rhodes’ wistful vocals sketch out the emotional image of the early, fresh stages of a new love when everything feels good and right. In the context of the new full length Lost Dog (released June 8) it’s part of a natural arc of the human experience and not a place to get stuck and hung up on like your lowest points. And yet one to enjoy and savor for as long as it lasts. Listen to the track and explore D.D. Island’s work further at the links below. Also, look out for the band live around the USA in 2019.

open.spotify.com/artist/3vuZryGDMqcVxiAiBvNi5X
https://ddisland.bandcamp.com/album/lost-dog
facebook.com/d.d.island.music
instagram.com/d.d._island

“TIIMALASI” by Roca. is Evocative of Urban Isolation and a Yearning for Connection

Roca1-lg — Roca., photo courtesy the artists

Roca.’s latest music video for “TIIMALASI,” with clear visual references to Georges Méliès’ 1902 landmark film Le Voyage dans la lune, is a surreal collage of colors, imagery about time and the rushing about of humanity in groups rushing about but emotionally and socially isolated from one another. There is a bit of the aesthetic of the mediated experience one sees in the horror films of Koji Shiraishi and Norio Tsuruta and that gives the experience of the song an unsettling, haunted quality. Musically it echoes a bit of mid-80s Kate Bush minimalism and evokes the emotional isolation depicted perfectly. The incandescent bell tones, ambient washes of sound, warm keyboard drones and high and low arc of the vocals is the sound of modern urban life in Twenty-First Century oligarchy in which true connection to others is discouraged but now more necessary than ever. You can explore more from the Tokyo-based duo and its recently released Gene EP at the links below following the video.

rocabandinfo.wixsite.com/rocaband
soundcloud.com/rocaband

“Vacuum Weels” by Gaëtan Vigier is the Perfect Music for the Next Grand Theft Auto Game

Gaëtan Vigier aka Chrono Triggers has been producing some lively and gritty electro dance industrial/synthwave music under his real name including the single “Vacuum Weels.” The video with artwork reminiscent of Charles Burns gone more abstract and Métal Hurlant-period Nicole Claveloux (but with art by Clémentine Giraud – any relation to Jean aka Moebius? [she probably gets asked that all the time] – and motion design by Sophie Pastorello) is like an expressionist road adventure video game. The music is also driving, throbbing and imbued with great, headlong momentum and fire. It’s the kind of music with distorted tones and escalating progressions that the bad guys in Mad Max would be listening to if they wanted to chill out some and enjoy life a little.

gaetan-vigier.com
soundcloud.com/gaetan-vigier

Obstacle’s “Unknown Number” is a Free Flowing Puzzle of Ambient, IDM, No Wave Funk Noise

Obstacle1_sm — Obstacle, photo courtesy the artist

On “Unknown Number,” instrumental trio Obstacle brings to bear technical chops both in performance and in post-and-live processing of sound to create this brilliantly strange and always evolving track that one wants to call ambient, post-rock, IDM and No Wave funk. And it’s all of that with the finely processed and reassembled bits of sonic texture and architecture. Each fragment of sound is vivid and intersecting with what sounds like a natural rhythm with every other and placed expertly in the mix. In that way it is somewhat reminiscent of Sirens-period Nicolas Jaar minus vocals—where even the most outré sound is intentional and helps to draw you into the songs specific experiential world. What Obstacle is doing here straddles the world of musique concrète, noise and experimental electronica with an exquisite compositional balance. Listen for yourself and follow Obstacles further adventures into the artful assembling of sound at the links below.

obstaclemusic.com
open.spotify.com/artist/4Jf2iLfFvViJO0ApXPDqJ5
obstaclemusic.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/obstaclemusic

“As Yet” by In Sonitus Lux is Like an Ambient Jazz Expedition into Jon Hassell’s Fourth World

InSonitusLux_AsYet_crop — In Sonitus Lux, As Yet cover (cropped)

When “As Yet” by In Sonitus Lux starts out and gets going I couldn’t help but think of “Delta Rain Dream” by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno from Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics. Similar processed horns in the distance but with the Hang (a steel percussion instrument) giving a steady texture as distorted synth swells echo out and stretch into mysterious shapes and fade out like a blast of gas fire from the local oil refinery towers. Science fiction writers Lucius Shepard and Ian McDonald write about the kinds of worlds this music would suit well: those where technology didn’t turn out to be a Utopian panacea to solve all human problems but had the usual unintended consequences well have to live with yet it didn’t all turn into cyberpunk-esque dystopia or life under Skynet. Where corporate and military science backfired and space exploration created not the world of Star Trek but a string of human settlements with their own cultures and subcultures because that’s what humans do better than anything else when adapting to new environments. It’s music for a synthesis of ideas and society while capturing the spirit of that path into a future we never really could have predicted. Listen below and then feel free to delve further into this project’s interesting body of work at the link provided.

soundcloud.com/serson-brannen

“We Will All Die” by MIRRORS is the Sound of Urban Pre-Gentrification Apocalypse

Mirrors1-sm — Mirrors, photo courtesy the artist

The cycling sequence of bright tones transitioning to more distorted yet still melodic sounds and vocoder is a familiar element in modern electronic music of a certain stripe that taps into 80s synthesizer music. What MIRRORS does on “We All Will Die,” though, is bring in some sequenced rhythms that work in counterpoint to the main progression giving the track a subtle weightiness that anchors the song into a lived experience like memories of living in a warehouse district and waking up earlier than you might otherwise and seeing the dawn start to break and the city coming back to life. Granted, such imagery is more or less long gone from Seattle where Sean Goldie of MIRRORS calls home by a decade, the song captures that cusp of a time when American cities of some size still had plenty of urban decay and creative people could find a place to flourish before rampant gentrification came and poached virtually every space. The song is the sound of pre-Apocalypse where everything feels normal and that it could go on for years but part of you knows it will come to an end sooner than you’re ready. Give “We Will All Die” or the new MIRRORS EP Homesick in its entirety a listen and follow Goldie’s further exploits at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/3eT4n27PpZJh2h0sJXUKPy
youtube.com/channel/UCSMaj_d8gadS1OECBwQDKzA
twitter.com/iammirrors
instagram.com/mirrors