“Hana Mash Hu Al Yaman” by A-WA and its music video may speak specifically to the experience of Yemenite immigrants to Israel but its presentation deftly humanizes the plight of so many immigrants around the world. With an eclectic sound that combines the beat-making of hip-hop with traditional Yemenite music and its lively chordal structures and compound time. The video and song was inspired by the story of the trio’s great grandmother who was brought to Israel in 1949 during Operation Magic Carpet. The group (Tair, Liron and Tagel Haim) took the story and cast in call and response fashion as with “America” from West Side Story which itself humanized real tension and conflict using creativity and ace dance moves. A-WA made a big splash with its song “Habib Galbi” in 2016 (from the album of the same name) which is the first song in Arabic to ever reach number one in the Israeli pop charts. On May 31, 2019 the group released its sophomore album BAYTI FI RASI and you can give a listen to that here.
“Ember” From Bahraini Songwriter Ala Ghawas is a Masterpiece of Elegance and Restraint
Ala Ghawas is a prolific and acclaimed songwriter in his home country of Bahrain. Rather than perhaps more traditional Bahraini music, Ghawas has garnered attention for his finely crafted indie folk. With his latest series of singles, the Ghawas has been exploring the use of dissonance and well-placed minor progressions in a style of music that tends to play it a little safer. “Ember,” reminiscent of Our Endless Numbered Days-period Iron & Wine. Ghawas’ use of minimalist elements to orchestrate an emotional musical figure is similarly sophisticated and his turns of phrase poetic and vivid. At first listen you might think it’s like some other chamber folk songs you’ve heard and it is in many ways but repeated listens reveal layers of composition that reward your attention with the details and emotional coloring. Listen below to “Ember” and more.
Luke & Sarah-Rose’s “F*ck You” is a Chant to Purge Personal Darkness
Australian duo Luke & Sarah-Rose are on the verge of releasing their new album and the single “Fuck You” gives you a taste of the way the songwriters are able to turn deep personal pain and frustration into a luminous and quietly cathartic melody that shimmers with an inner light. It sounds like Sarah-Rose is setting the demons that haunt her mind loose upon the water like lantern-motes of the psyche and bidding them goodbye. Rather than a simple resolution this aspect of the song and its flower-like rosette of a chant-like structure suggests an intentional process that draws upon the intuition to guide it. At times in this way it recalls the emotional delicacy and power of Tori Amos because the latter doesn’t dishonor her own life and struggles nor those of her listeners with glib pseudo-wisdom. At others like The Kills without the hard rock but the psychological insight and intensity well in place.
Take a Late Night Journey with “Cause I Grew Up” by biskuwi
“Cause I Grew Up” from Swedish deep house/techno artist biskuwi sounds like a new take on the late night chill vibe of Tangerine Dream’s “Love on a Real Train.” The suggestion of movement and a dream-like tranquility permeates the track with tones pulsing and fading like the lights of the train, of empty stations lit by the green-white light passing by giving the mind a hypnotic environment in which one’s imagination can roam to where it will. Halfway through the song tones become stronger as the journey intensifies and your anticipation of reaching your destination increases as well and the smooth, metronomic beat rouses you from your reverie into a fresh state of mind. Take some more musical journeys with biskuwi at the links below after listening to “Cause I Grew Up” for yourself.
soundcloud.com/biskuwi
open.spotify.com/artist/2wdY7YDYVddKtVbbgh1fCT
facebook.com/biskuwi.official
“Miranda” is Lesibu Grand’s Retro-Futurist Pop Song About Navigating Self-Doubt and Our Over-Connected World
“Miranda” by Atlanta’s Lesibu Grand (pronounced Le-SEE-boo Grand) makes no bones about taking its sonic cues from Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde-period Pixies. Its distorted guitar lead surfing along a melodic wave when not accenting the rhythm with a tasty, crunchy riff may remind some listeners of another alternative rock era contemporary, Liz Phair. The song employs tones of nostalgia conjuring that mythical America of innocence and middle class normalcy that ended on television with The Brady Bunch but it’s a nice contrast to a song about personal uncertainty and navigating the modern world where it’s too easy to snoop in on everyone’s lives and the effect that has on you policing yourself in situations where it stifles your natural self and opt for being some mediated version of self all the time and how that impacts having real relationships with people and leading an authentic life. With synths bubbling outward from the song and the melody expanding into outer space, “Miranda” sounds retro-futurist in a wonderfully unconventional way as the B-52’s did a few decades back. Tyler-Simone Molton’s vocals strike the perfect balance of wistful and soulful and helps turn what might be considered by some a kitschy throwback song of a sort into something compellingly thoughtful. Listen to the song below and to delve further into the group’s background and material check out the links provided afterward.
open.spotify.com/artist/143g7Fw0exfVHhk6arwjgN
facebook.com/lesibugrandmusic
instagram.com/lesibugrand
Plastic Mermaids’ Claymation Video for “Taxonomy” Is a Symbol for Adaptation and Resistance in Authoritarian Times
The claymation video for Plastic Mermaids’ “Taxonomy” is a nice touch for a song about the ways in which cultural forces try to shape our identities completely through the categories that grease the wheels of commerce and social control and get us to accept a load of, well, shit as what what we desire because it’s what offered. You know, try to fit your personality and hopes and dreams into an easily filed away set of parameters that serve your masters and take what you’re given and like it. Heady stuff for a triumphant-sounding pop song but it seems as though the subtext of the song is one of exploding the myth of meaningful choices in all aspects of our lives as defined by the dictates of the dull and uninspired market economy that’s been turning the world to a trash heap for decades. Using the claymation format is brilliant as clay will fit into wherever it’s pushed but it can also take on whatever form suits it. It is not a rebel song, it is “Taxonomy” from the band’s latest album Suddenly Everyone Explodes. Check out the band’s other imaginative music videos for songs of other evocative flavors and degrees of cheek at any of the links following the video for “Taxonomy.”
http://www.plasticmermaids.com/
http://www.facebook.com/plasticmermaids
Trentemøller’s “Sleeper” is Music For Spaceports
On “Sleeper,” Trentemøller has crafted a soundtrack for what feels like dream gliding on waves of clouds away from the sunset over the ocean in twilight. The gentle pulsing tones in the beginning launch your mind into a state of tranquility and away from the demands and distractions of modern life into a realm of contemplation of enjoying being and not have to answer for anything for the duration of the song as ethereal swells of luminous tones draw your attention toward an elevated state of emotion and then set down in soothing well of calming white noise like the wind of your consciousness attaining the deepest rest. The artist’s most recent album was a fantastic example of how post-punk can evolve into something more experimental, “Sleeper” is an expansion on his earlier, purely electronic work and one of the more truly emotionally transporting pieces of music I’ve heard this year. Eno wrote Music For Airports and brilliantly captured the unreality of those places. This is music for spaceports.
trentemoller.com
open.spotify.com/artist/4O71i7ke5iIBX6RNSFoZbS
trentemoller.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/trentemoller
instagram.com/trentemoeller
With “Feeling You” Adesha Shows How You Can Remain Cool In the Face of Relationship Uncertainty
“Feeling You” by Adesha from her latest EP Things to Consider is the rare kind of love song that expresses the complexities of daring to love, the yearning, the doubts and the fear that the same depth of feeling isn’t reciprocated with the poetry and assurance of someone who knows herself well. The bright, lush tone of the beat with the detailed but subtle percussion and finely accented synth swells bring to the song a smooth nostalgic tone like a 90s hip-hop and soul artist like Erykah Badu with a more Dilla style lo-fi ambient production. It’s the kind of song to make you feel comfotable with your uncertainties, to quell the anxiety that can botch good decision-making and to enjoy the moment even if you don’t know where everything in a relationship is going to go because you’ll land okay. Listen for yourself below and follow Adesha’s goings on at the links provided.
soundcloud.com/adeshamusic
twitter.com/Adeshamusic
instagram.com/adeshamusic
Best Shows in Denver and Beyond 06/06/19 – 06/12/19
Thursday | June 6
What: Reverend Dead Eye w/Vic N’ The Narwhals and DJ Rett Rogers
When: Thursday, 06.06, 8 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Reverend Dead Eye now lives in Switzerland and mostly tours Europe but on occasion he graces his old stomping grounds (literally and figuratively) of Denver and treats us to a set of wild-eyed gospel blues post-punk. He will be joined this evening by rock and roll band Vic N’ The Narwhals with a DJ set from Blue Rider and Bad Licks guitarist Rett Rogers.
What: Honduh Daze, Moon Pussy and Demoncassettecult & Junior Deer duo
When: Thursday, 06.06, 8:30 p.m.
Where: Lion’s Lair
Why: Vachco Before Horses is celebrating his birthday doing a duo set as Demoncassettecult and Junior Deer so it’ll be a bit of weirdo hip-hop and ambient soul. Moon Pussy is like Denver’s industrial-esque equivalent of a noise rock band like Shellac but with some on board guitar processing to help sculpt those sounds into the bands already eruptive, angular and cathartic groove.
What: Talib Kweli w/Voz 11, 1-natVson-1 and Time
When: Thursday, 06.06, 8:30 p.m.
Where: Fox Theatre
Why: Talib Kweli is one of the reigning poet laureates of hip-hop, politically charged as his is and otherwise. Check in anywhere in his catalog and you’ll find something vital and thought-provoking and outright compelling whether that’s records under his own name or projects like Black Star. As usual the opening acts for one of his shows is quality including Time whose fusion of underground/experimental hip-hop, humorous and organically intellectual wordplay and socio-political insight is never less than mind-expanding and fun. Voz 11 is kind of an industrial rap artist who will be joined for this show by Wesley Davis of Symbolic Insight Records and ambient solo project Bios+a+ic.
Friday | June 7
What: Michael Franti and Spearhead w/Snarky Puppy and Victoria Canal
When: Friday, 06.07, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Red Rocks
Why: Whether you prefer his time in industrial rap groups The Beatnigs and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy or his current work in conscious reggae fusion folk band Spearhead, Michael Franti has been aiming his creative compass toward critiquing the dominant paradigm with the goal of creating a better, more nurturing and healthier world. As per usual, prior to the concert proper there will be a yoga session at Red Rocks starting at 4:30 p.m.. May seem quaint to some but at least Franti isn’t giving mere lip service to self-improvement. The band is currently touring in support of Stay Human, Vol. II which came out in January. Also on the bill are jazz fusion prog stars Snarky Puppy.
What: Instant Empire w/Anthony Ruptak and Post Paradise
When: Friday, 06.07, 8 p.m.
Where: Syntax Physic Opera
Why: It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from Instant Empire. The indie rock band has been through some changes but has endured to give us Cathedral, a set of the usual thoughtful songwriting and evocative music from the band. Read our interview with Scotty Saunders from the band soon.
What: Amygdala, Caffeine, Euth, Sore Eyes and Herse
When: Friday, 06.07, 7 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: A show that proves that current hardcore is not all the same or trying to mimic the sound or style from something 35+ years ago while not skimping on the energy and sense of danger that made that music exciting in the first place.
What: Pete Tong
When: Friday, 06.07, 9 p.m.
Where: Bar Standard
Why: Pete Tong is an influential figure in modern electronic music and EDM. Early in life he was something of a soul music DJ on radio in the UK and then as the 80s moved on, a pioneering DJ of Acid House and the Balearic beat that his friend Paul Oakenfold helped to popularize. Oakenfold, joking, coined the expression “It’s all gone Pete Tong” in 1987 to indicate things have gone a bit wrong. Through his ongoing electronic music shows at the BBC (Essential Selection and It’s All Gone Pete Tong) and his efforts at curating and making accessible electronic dance music in the USA. Tong has done big shows in Ibiza and all around the world but this night he’s doing his thing at a small club like Bar Standard.
What: My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult w/Curse Mackey and Church Fire
When: Friday, 06.07, 7 p.m.
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult is not just the horror carny pioneering industrial dance band but also, on most nights, one of the greatest, most fun live bands of all time. Denver’s Church Fire is not nearly as camp but there is an element of playful theatricality to its performances of its own brand of industrial music that is really more a kind of politically-informed synth pop. No down side.
Saturday | June 8
What: Out There Arts Fest with Blackcell, Church Fire, DJ Mudwulf, Raw Form, Vahco, DJ Spinshits
When: Saturday, 06.08, 8 p.m.
Where: Grace
Why: This is an event to showcase the art space Grace and includes live performances from the above as well as visual/conceptual art and artists, workshops, food and outdoor murals.
What: Altas w/Plume Varia and Voight
When: Saturday, 06.08, 7 p.m.
Where: Rhinoceropolis
Why: With its new album All I Ever Wanted Was, Denver-based instrumental rock band incorporated the electronic/synth side of the band more completely with keyboard player Meghan Lillis contributing full in the songwriting and arranging process with the core and founding trio of Enrique Jimenez, Israel Jimenez and Juan Carlos Flores. The group’s 2014 album Epoca De Bestias lived up to its name and the cinematic scope the band has always conjured with its songwriting. But there is an even greater cohesion and focus this time out with some tongue in cheek titles from a band whose membership has always been on point with the humor. “Cosas Nunca Dichas” is Spanish for “Things Never Said.” The dual meaning including the fact that there are no lyrics in an Altas song is pretty good. “Glasgow Smile”? Surely a significance beyond suggesting it’s a nod to Mogwai exists but that’s also pretty choice as Mogwai use plenty of inside jokes and humor for songs that need no spelling out of meaning. “Valentin Trujillo (An Unsung Hero)” is presumably a reference to the famous Mexican actor who was a major star in the 1980s and whose films often dared to make thoughtful commentary on the politics and culture of his home country and beyond. The final song on the album “Rattenkönig,” or “Rat King” in German. There’s got to be a story there and we hope to bring that to you at some point. The more you delve into the new record and its gorgeously expanded dynamic and sonic palette the more there is to discover as with all great albums. And hey, you get to see the great dream pop band Plume Varia and industrial post-punk soundscapers Voight while you’re at it.
What: Get Your Ears Swoll 7: Sliver, Married a Dead Man and Hate Minor
When: Saturday, 06.08, 8:30 p.m.
Where: The People’s Building
Why: Hate Minor is an artsy prog duo with former Nightshark and Aenka saxophonist Becca Mhalek on drums. Married a Dead Man is a death rock/post-pun/darkwave four-piece that came out of hardcore. Sliver, how a band that mapped out and deconstructed and reconstructed “Break Stuff” as inspiration for all their songs is on a bill like this it’s difficult to say. Good thing singer/guitarist Chris Mercer’s bandmates are patient, understanding, indulgent people and when he, as promised, he gets around to writing the next album around “Sick of Life” because it “nearly got [him] to join the Navy, dude,” some people can join in on the intervention.
What: Gun Street Ghost album release w/Jeff Cramer and New Mexican hi-dive.com/event/1855201-gun-street-ghost-album-release-denver
When: Saturday, 06.08, 8 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: In calling the new Gun Street Ghost album Battles it seems as though the band is preparing us for a record brimming with great stories of the struggles we’d rather avoid or skip but which we fight every day without knowing it. Thinking person’s pop written in the language of honky tonk Americana.
What: Johnnascus, Karhlyle, Causer, Kid Mask, HXCMIDI and Henny Graves
When: Saturday, 06.08, 8 p.m.
Where: Thought//Forms Gallery
Why: Austin’s Johnnascus is an industrial rap artist whose videos are not only interesting but borderline scary in the way Creepy Pasta videos can be. It’ll be a good pairing with Detroit’s Karhlyle and his downtempo techno/hip-hop, Kid Mask’s own genre bending noise/industrial hip-hop beatmaking and the electronic/breakcore hardcore of HXCMIDI.
What: Neckbeard Deathcamp, Theories, Dryad and Malevich
When: Saturday, 06.08, 8 p.m.
Where: Bar-K (Colorado Springs)
Why: Neckbeard Deathcamp is the parody black metal/noise industrial band that put out the gloriously titled White Nationalism is for Basement Dwelling Losers in July 2018. Brilliant send-up and the music is oddly legit as well.
Sunday | June 8
What: Bobcat Goldthwait and Dana Gould gothictheatre.com/events/detail/372302
When: Sunday, 06.09, 7 p.m.
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: A lot of people probably remember Bobcat Goldthwait as that crazy guy with the piercing whine from the Police Academy movies. But he never would have got there if not for his brilliant work as an alternative comedian in the 1980s when he would pierce hypocritical pieties with confessional and surrealistic observations and bits that helped to push comedy in a more interesting direction at arguably the early peak of the popularity of stand-up. He has gone on to be a noteworthy filmmaker whose movies (e.g. Shakes the Clown, God Bless America and World’s Greatest Dad) not just darkly humorous but which shine a light on aspects of our culture that are often ignored and if we stopped doing so we might have a healthier society. Dana Gould has been performing his own brand of borderline surreal comedy since the early 80s as well and coming to be known by a more mainstream audience though a comedian of choice for those with a taste for left field humor for decades.
What: Fuck Your Birthday w/Those Darn Gnomes, Narcissa and Galleries
When: Sunday, 06.09, 7 p.m.
Where: Thought//Forms Gallery
Why: Fuck Your Birthday is an American and Chinese, noisy math/garage rock band. That means it has elements of early 90s emo and harder-edged garage rock but doesn’t really fit in with either to well. More like Rainer Maria or Japandroids than some post-hardcore or screamo band. Those Darn Gnomes are somewhere betwixt a free jazz performance art band, grindcore and art folk. Narcissa is a like-minded band from Denver and Galleries is sort of a psychedelic hard rock band.
What: Slugger w/Possum, After the Carnival and more
When: Sunday, 06.09, 7 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Toronto’s Possum is a fuzz-toned, heavy psych band. And while that sound is basically old hat at this point except to later comers to modern psychedelia, Possum’s version of that is not the kind that comes off like neo-Laurel Canyon vibe worshipping indie rockers discovering the use of a Memoryman and a Big Muff with a tiny bit of wah. It’s mind-melting epics take a deep dive into drawn out melodic grooves that take some chops and commitment to sonic exploration to craft. Also the band has a song called “Wizard Beard” so it’s not all without a sense of humor. Sharing the bill is a band with a tentacle or two in 70s hard rock and psychedelia with Slugger. But as with Possum, Slugger’s strength is in the songwriting and being of that world rather than wearing it like a trendy outfit.
Tuesday | June 11
What: MONO w/Emma Ruth Rundle
When: Tuesday, 06.11, 7 p.m.
Where: The Marquis Theaterthos
Why: Tokyo’s MONO makes post-rock with a classical music sensibility that makes a lot of other bands working in that realm of music seem safe and quaint. Emma Ruth Rundle’s heavy, dark, doom folk is somehow both intimate and majestic. Her latest album On Dark Horses is a trip to, as the title suggests, the shadowy places of the psyche in search of an inner truth that can be elusive unless you’re willing to go all in and face the buried pain and your dark side with compassion and acceptance. It’s her heaviest record to date and her most daring to date.
Jeremy Winter’s “Construct” Encourages Us to Make a Room Of Our Own in Our Lives to Blossom and Thrive
The shimmering Casio-esque synths in Jeremy Winter’s “Construct” strike a nostalgic, melancholy tone as buoyed gently by accented low end. But the romance of the song is in the honoring of the very real need of all people to have an emotional, often physical as well, space in order to be able to develop in a healthy way undistracted by the pull of others on your psyche and a world that demands you be on for machinations that have little to do with your internal life and identity. We’re encouraged to construct our lives to adapt to arbitrary standards all the time and in this song Winter encourages himself and others to awaken to what we really want and need and to make the space to discover what that is and in doing so maybe it’s possible to have genuine and positive relationships and engagements with the world on mutual terms without burying ourselves in the process. For fans of Neon Indian, Future Islands and John Maus. Listen below and follow Winter’s work further at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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