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.
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.
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.
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.
What:Turvy Organ album release w/Panther Martin, Sour Boy Bitter Girl When: Thursday, 06.13, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why:The Ghost at the Feast is Denver indie rock band Turvy Organ’s new record. What has always set the group apart from the oft-necessary but lazy “indie rock” overarching term is that it most certainly is not operating to jump on some trendy sound or bandwagon. Yes, you’ll hear the echoes of Modest Mouse in some of Ilya Litoshik’s vocals but from there the dynamics of the music and the songwriting is too idiosyncratic to fit into the mold of anyone else. The new album has what sounds like a story arch trying to make sense of a deep yearning for place and identity and coming to accept things as they are. Very Zen. But that journey is one worth taking with the band. There isn’t a single sonic flavor Turvy Organ employs across the album except for maybe some tasty, energetic melodic bass lines. That may even be how the record ties together outside of Litoshik’s highly charged and wide-ranging vocals. Splicing together post-punk moodiness and wiry energy with the frayed musical and emotional edges of 90s lo-fi rock, Turvy Organ has not just come to terms with what it’s about as a band The Ghost at the Feast but with what it’s like to be an underground rock band at this juncture in our culture where if you’re not doing it for the right reasons you’ll undermine your goals by not seeming honest.
What:TOKiMONSTA w/Holly and Blackbird Blackbird When: Thursday, 06.13, 9 p.m. Where: Club Vinyl Why: TOKiMONSTA garnered a name for herself for crafting imaginative and lush downtempo beats that wouldn’t be out of place in the body of work of some of the more melancholy artists on the Warp and Stones Throw roster. She has a real gift for expansive, complimentary synth lines and multiple layers of percussion to accent the tempo of her songs. As a DJ TOKiMONSTA mixes in plenty of material from across a broad spectrum of modern electronic music.
Friday | June 14
Thou, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Electric Funeral Fest Night 1 When: Friday, 06.14, 3 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive/3 Kings Why: This is the fourth edition of Electric Funeral Fest which features some of the most interesting acts in underground “extreme” and experimental metal. Tonight’s programme is as follows:
What:Anderson .Paak w/Earl Sweatshirt and Thundercat When: Friday, 06.14, 6 p.m. Where: Red Rocks Why: Three of the most creatively brilliant artists of modern hip-hop on one bill anywhere would be noteworthy, at Red Rocks it would be deserving of the word epic.
What:Sympathy F When: Friday, 06.14, 9 p.m. Where: Goosetown Tavern Why: Formed in 1991, Sympathy F is one of the few, if not only, still active bands from Denver’s alternative rock era whose melancholic, jazz-inflected, dream pop reflects an era in Denver where the city felt dark, neglected and wide open. When creative weirdos could rent a warehouse on the relatively cheap and hang out with each other and converse and mutually inspire and otherwise have their own subculture that was vibrant and not well known by the world outside the Mile High City. When downtown had viaducts (Fifteenth and Twentieth Streets) that went from downtown proper to a now long gone warehouse district, where the old Montgomery Wards build stood west of downtown like the abandoned monolithic structure from a bygone era. That the band’s songs are emotionally powerful and moving and intense yet luminous doesn’t hurt because it has been written from a place of nostalgia, but at its heart is a shard of that unique time and place in Denver’s history and it shines forth from the band’s entrancing performances.
What:Daikaiju When: Friday, 06.14, 7 p.m. Where: Tennyson’s Tap Why: Writing about Daikaiju seems folly at this moment so here’s a video that gets at some of the chaotic glory of the weirdo surf band from Alabama.
What:Lazarus Horse, Mt. Illimani, Enji and Sam Morris When: Friday, 06.14, 8 p.m. Where: Mutiny Information Café Why: Maybe Eddie Durkin shoulda zigged when he shoulda zagged here and there in life. But haven’t we all? His old band Sparkler Bombs was pushing punk and noise rock and modern proto-psychedelia in interesting directions. But nearly a decade hence, Durkin has been writing songs under various project names including Lazarus Horse. Imagine if someone somehow bought Rainwater Cassette Exchange, The Glow Pt. 2 and a few Julianna Barwick and Grouper records pluse The Velvet Underground & Nico and got sent off with their parents to scientific station duty at Edinburgh of the Seven Seas with spotty internet but a good instruments and pedals and some recording equipment. That’s basically what Lazarus Horse sounds like—drawing on the weirdo rock familiar while sounding ineffably different from even that.
Saturday | June 15
Paranoyds, photo by Tony Accosta
What:Tacocat and The Paranoyds w/Princess Dewclaw When: Saturday, 06.15, 8 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Seattle’s Tacocat and L.A.’s The Paranoyds are making thought-provoking and emotionally nuanced fuzzy post-surf-punk pop with a refreshing level of depth and spirited energy. Although Tacocat has been associated with the sort of surf punk thing the past decade it’s always been different from all of that because its songwriting has been brimming with irreverent humor, playfulness and a surreal and colorful aesthetic. The cover of its new album This Mess is a Place is striking when you see it at the record store and draws you in with its inviting, retrofuturistic collage style promising something within that will offer interesting stories and perspectives that aren’t trend hopping or trite blandishments about love or needing to always center all content on what’s topical. In that way Tacocat offer a view of a more interesting and vital future for all of us. Paranoyds can be reminiscent of The Raincoats if that band came from southern California instead of London with the wonderful, unconventional choruses and noisy guitar. Watch out for the group’s new 7-inch “Hungry Sam”/”Trade Our Sins” out on Suicide Squeeze July 12.
Chrome Waves, photo by Melissa Atwood
What:Electric Funeral Fest IV When: Saturday, 06.15, 3 p.m. Where: Red Rocks Why: See above for Electric Funeral Fest IV. Here is this night’s programme of performances:
Hi-Dive Stage:
4:40 – 5:20 Casket Huffer
5:40 – 6:20 Sun Voyager
6:40 – 7:20 Trapped Within Burning Machinery
7:40 – 8:20 The Munsens
8:40 – 9:20 Fotocrime
9:40 – 10:20 Call of The Void
10:40 – 11:25 Dead Meadow
Afterparty
12:45 – 1:25 Bummer
Mutiny Information Cafe Stage:
3:00 – 3:40 Red Mesa
4:00 – 4:40 Upon a Fields Whisper
5:00 – 5:40 Horseneck
6:00 – 6:40 Dizz Brew
7:00 – 7:40 Dysphotic
Jamila Woods, photo by Bradley Murray
What:Jamila Woods w/Duendita When: Saturday, 06.15, 7 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Jamila Woods recently released Legacy! Legacy! with song titles drawn from names of some of the greatest artists, writers and thinkers of color from America and beyond. Rarely do musicians name check the likes of Zora Neale Hurston, Frida Kahlo, Eartha Kitt, Sun Ra, Octavia Butler, James Baldwin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters and others of similar cachet at all much less with such style and soulfulness. Woods’ voice is commanding and wise and one gets the sense you’re learning something about the human beings named as they impacted Woods as a person and an artist in her own right. She doesn’t pretend to speak for them but reflect their deep influence through her own lens and how their work has inspired her to do what she hopes is interesting and worthy in her own right. It’s a deep record worth repeated listens. Fans of Nina Simone and Erykah Badu should give Woods a listen.
Sunday | June 16
Bert Olsen, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Natural Velvet, Church Fire, Rabbit Fighter and Bert Olsen When: Sunday, 06.16, 8 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Natural Velvet bassist/singer Corynne Ostermann told the Baltimore Sun in 2016 “’Basically, we aim to be a “Sailor Moon” villainess.’” And who wouldn’t want to see that band? Apparently a post-punk band it sure has some nefarious punk energy but the fun kind like what you might imagine a raccoon is thinking. A good fit with Denver’s industrial dance pop powerhouse trio Church Fire whose subversive and politically charged music is not just cathartic but deeply emotional on multiple levels. This is the last show post-punk/dream pop duo Bert Olsen is playing under that name. The group recently lost its drummer and is changing to maybe using a drum machine and changing focus a bit and taking on the name Gila Teen. But it’ll still be Hunter Woods and Aidan Bettis on vocals/guitar and bass respectively so the same luminously evocative songwriting will remain.
Tuesday | June 18
Operators, photo by Britt Kubat
What:Pile w/State Champion and Warring Parties When: Tuesday, 06.18, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Pile has long been making the kind of post-punk/noise punk/lo-fi music that never really sounds like anyone else. Its new record Green and Gray is filled with the band’s signature, and always interesting, counter-point guitar riffing and richly varied song dynamics. The group switches up the pace in a song, conveying the way a mood will pass through your mind as you’re working through memories and contemplating what your life should be about and diving deep into how it really is. All their records are worth a listen and the latest one may be their best.
What:Charly Bliss w/Emily Reo When: Tuesday, 06.18, 7 p.m. Where: The Marquis Theater Why: On 2017’s Guppy, Charly Bliss sounded a bit like other bands mining the 90s, fuzzy alternative pop bands for inspiration but with great energy and Eva Hendricks’ ebullient vocals. With Young Enough the group’s emotional palette seems to have grown exponentially and its sound evolved into a kind of atmospheric power pop but somehow without losing the verve that powered its full-length debut.
What:Lavender Fest Denver: Where in the Hell is Lavender House? The Longmont Potion Castle Story (screening) When: Tuesday, 06.18, 6:30 p.m. Where: Oriental Theater Why: Longmont Potion Castle is the phone prank wizard extraordinaire of all time. His early use of odd sound processing methods for prank calling in the 80s and early 90s went above and beyond other, perhaps more well-known prank call “comedians.” Still mysterious after all these years someone finally made a documentary about his exploits and it’s screening tonight at the Oriental.
What:Operators w/Doomsquad When: Tuesday, 06.18, 7 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Dan Boeckner is best known for being in some of the most interesting rock bands of the past two decades including Wolf Parade and Divine Fits. But in the past five years and more he’s been in a band that now includes Devojka, Sam Brown and Dustin Hawthorne that has been exploring the use of analog synths to write the kind of bright, brooding pop songs that wouldn’t sound out of place at some weird “New Wave” in the early 80s that hosted the likes of Gary Numan, Sparks and Fad Gadget. Rather than simply ethereal melodies, Operators has a robust low end in its mix giving the music some real power and momentum rather than merely sounding pretty. The quartet is currently touring in support of its 2019 full-length Radiant Dawn.
Wednesday | June 19
Mastodon, photo by Jimmy Hubbard
What:Wand w/Dreamdecay When: Wednesday, 06.19, 8 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: Wand bridged the gap between weirdo, psychedelic lo-fi rock à la Pavement with the heaviest metal but without ever come off live like a metal band. More like indie rock nerds who never had to turn their nose up at the kinds of dynamics and sounds one heard in 70s hard rock, prog, the more inspired jam bands and stuff like Sleep. Currently the group is touring in support of its 2019 album Laughing Matter. On the latter it sounds like the group has been listening to some more post-punk and post-rock like Slint.
What:Mastodon and Coheed and Cambria and Every Time I Die When: Wednesday, 06.19, 5 p.m. Where: Fillmore Auditorium Why: On Mastodon’s 2009 album Crack the Sky the Atlanta-based metal quartet aimed to write their version of a classic rock album with strong melodies and great mood and solid songwriting. True enough the overall tenor of the record with its dynamics out of step with most metal at the time, but anticipating where so many rock bands, not just metal, would go over the next decade. This is sort of a Tenth Anniversary type tour but the band recently recorded an homage to its late manager Nick John called “Stairway to Nick John” that is a cover of the Led Zeppelin song that some people may have heard at some point in their lives. The single was released on Record Store Day and the proceeds are going to benefit the Hirschberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer.
What makes “Earthworm” by Chicago’s Friends of the Bog is that it uses some of the instrumentation you might hear in a folk or Americana song (banjo, accordion, gently strummed guitar, piano, violin, brushed drums et. al.) but as simple elements that contribute to a greater, well-orchestrated whole with a few changes. This is no mean feat for a song that is all of one minute fifty-three minutes long. The vocals, winsome and introspective, emotionally generous, stand ever so slightly in the foreground as if you can almost visualize the band on stage un-mic’d. Fans of early Jenny Lewis solo records will appreciate the songwriting here as well as Beth Hyland’s spare yet warmly expressive vocals and native wit. Released as one side of a two song single “Glow/Worm” (the other side “A Glow”), “Earthworm” is practically a master class of brevity and poignancy. Give this charming song a listen and follow the band’s further adventures at the links below.
Brian Hazard of Color Theory, photo courtesy the artist
Brian Hazard as Color Theory has in “Sniper” a fast-paced electronic pop song that combines minimal synth dance sensibilities with some 8-bit tones. Difficult to say if he used a modified Famicom to put the beats and sounds all together but fans of Depreciation Guild will appreciate the modes and tones employed here. By using digital noise elements in an otherwise melancholic melodic song with a fairly dark theme, Hazard is showing how, like Kavinsky, you can do a kind of cyberpunk short story collection based in an 80s that never happened. With the first two Color Theory singles from the forthcoming eleventh album (tentatively titled Lucky Ago) “Backward” and “Feral” Hazard is developing a bit of a conceptual narrative that interrelates while each song stands very much on its own. For the project, Hazard has some strong ideas about how he put the record together and conceptualized it beginning to end and after listening to the song you can explore the artist’s richly imaginative body of work and progress toward the release of the new album at the links below.
Yearning, wistful, introspective, resigned, accepting—Leena from MBG packs a lot of emotional mileage into a spare and soulful song about love and how we often question ourselves in how we fit into the relationship and sometimes realize that we can’t live up to expectations because we have to be who we are and honest with ourselves more than fulfill someone else’s fantasy. Somewhere between a country song and bluesy folk, “Unfinished Love Song” may live up to its title because your life and your connections with people rarely end with the kind of manufactured closure that you might find in a movie, a novel or a hackneyed pop song. With its expressive guitar lines and nuanced vocals, “Unfinished Love Song” also has the subtext of a reminder to be gentle and kind with yourself even as you question it all. MGB’s new EP Have a Alright Day recently released on Spotify and you can listen to “Unfinished Love Song” below and follow MGB’s work and happenings at the links following.
Prior to the July 19 release of its second full length album Sun Release, post-rock band Heron from Warren Pennsylvania set forth the single for “The Glow.” Perhaps a nod to Microphones, the song itself begins with a dawn-like shimmer to the sun rising on a peaceful day of feeling whole and well-rested and motivated to do something as if, yes, one has a glow emanating from within to drive a spirit to living fully. Maybe that explains the title of the album as well. The ethereal echo of sounds at the end definitely sounds like someone or something has launched toward better places. Listen below and keep up with the band at the links provided as it prepares to roll out the new record and the more than likely series of live dates in support.
Rarely will we share a song by the same artist this close together but “Mars” is a very different flavor and sound from Bahrainian songwriter Ala Ghawas. It’s still rooted in a sort of fusion of folk, jazz and pop but “Mars” finds Ghawas processing his soulful voice and otherwise incorporating a broad range of vocal styles in a relatively short song. Musically it’s a bit like hearing something that bridges modern soul with 80s artsy pop like Talk Talk and Peter Gabriel. The fascinating changes, dynamics and dazzling array of instruments brought to bear in the songwriting but channeled into an accessible form speak to a talent that could make him a darling of American alternative radio, if he isn’t already, given half a chance.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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