Queen City Sounds and Art

Charm School’s Frantic and Edgy Noise Rock Eruption “Cherry Red” Is Like a Nightmare and Fever Dream Colliding With One Another

Charm School, photo courtesy the artists

Charm School’s edgy and frantic guitar lines that run through “Cherry Red” gives the song an unsettling and chaotic quality. Like a manic, desperate repeating scream of guitar alongside another riff of pulsing, distorted bursts creating an asymmetrical rhythm that comes together in moments while the vocals almost deadpan seem to paint the picture of someone debauched and corrupt who stumbles into their comeuppance or into their accumulated consequences of a life ill lived. Altogether the song sounds nightmarish and fever dream-like at once ending on roaring whorls of sound and shouts of the chorus of “I’ll be what fucks you up!” The song has the intensity and sonic violence of a hardcore song but its tonal choices and structure is more unorthodox and more in the realm of the likes of noise rock bands like Chat Pile and Mclusky in both sound and substance. Listen to “Cherry Red” on Spotify and follow Louisville, Kentucky’s Charm School at the links below. The band’s new album Debt Forever is out January 21, 2025 on limited colored vinyl, digital download and streaming.

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SKLOSS Marshall the Massive, Doomy Shoegaze For the Fiery and Hypnotic “The Pattern Speaks”

In watching the video for SKLOSS’s “The Pattern Speaks” a bit of the mood is set when the neon light above the doors to a night time hours BRODIE FOOD MART only has the letters to “DIE MART” lit up as the clerk cleans the doors the a refrigerated case. What could be next? Security camera footage and one of the employees reading Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States before getting on the mic to sing after yet another has started a fuzzy, moody guitar riff. Customers file in seemingly in a hazy frame of mind while the song expands into a kind of heavy, driving psychedelic drone and ghostly vocals courtesy the drummer who mere moments before was reading that Zinn book. The song ramps up to hypnotic, fiery propulsive passages before going off the forward progression established into another pattern and the guitarist joins on vocals trading vocal lines with the drummer whose hat clearly says “Die Mart” and hey both are wearing that had as the customers nod and groove to the undeniable primal rhythm the band has established. But the fun draws to a close with people checking their phones and the band back to duties working the convenience store. But it’s also nice to know that some six plus minutes seemed to just breeze by in the wake of SKLOSS’s sonic frisson. Watch the video for “The Pattern Speaks” on YouTube and follow SKLOSS on Spotify. The duo’s debut album, also titled The Pattern Speaks, is due out March 7, 2025 via Fuzz Club for download, streaming and limited edition cloudy orange vinyl.

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Motherhood’s Charmingly Eclectic “Grow High” Juxtaposes Whimsical Playfulness With Post-Punk Aggression

Motherhood charges right into the beginning of “Grow High” with a charming exuberance. But then treats us to some unorthodox rhythmic changes throughout the song that transforms what some might interpret as quirky into some exciting and intense passages of raw post-punk fury on full display in the imaginative musical video. The juxtaposition of playfulness with scenes seemingly of people checking out a solar eclipse, as many did in 2024, and the climax of the song and its nearly hardcore punk level of aggression makes “Grow High” seem like a wonderful dream in miniature with all the drama and unique melodic appeal one might want from a song that doesn’t restrict itself to a narrow genre. Watch the video for “Grow High” on YouTube and follow the trio from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada at the links provided. The group’s new album Thunder Perfect Mind is out January 24, 2025 on vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming.

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Non-Functional Harmony’s Ambient Modern Classical Piece “Days” is a Sustained Expression of Melancholic Emotional Solidarity

An unsettled, melancholic, almost resigned mood courses through Non-Functional Harmony “Days.” It’s nearly abstract, processed piano chords stream into the horizon and a simple string line like a pall over a desolate space drifts in and through the soundscape in seeming mournful resonance about uncertain and perilous times. There is a palpable sense of loss in the track that looms even more when the vocal sounds bloom in cold sonic colors, slowly expanding arcs of tone like penitents seeking mercy from a seemingly hopeless situation for which they don’t know the reason for their suffering. It’s a moving song and while it doesn’t offer false hope or faint fires of resistance it expresses a feeling like one will have to gird oneself against a wave of darkness in the world for awhile even after what feels like years of struggle and sustained perseverance. And yet there is a comfort in its sounds through a spirit of emotional solidarity. Listen to “Days” on Spotify and follow Non-Functional Harmony at the links below.

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Per Störby Jutbring’s Cinematic, Melancholic and Heartbreaking Single “Swan Shaped Kite” Fuses Pop Accessibility and Classical Music Elegance

Per Störby Jutbring, photo courtesy the artist

Per Störby Jutbring combines pop song ideas with classical music performed by the Swedish The Malva Quartet for the warmly rendered album Tenants Of Misty Mansion (According To The Landlord) (out November 22, 2024 via HOOB Records). In the video for the lead single “Swan Shaped Kit” we see an elegantly detailed stop motion animation reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s 2009 film Fantastic Mr. Fox. But in the song there is a sense of melancholic reflection and quiet yearning evoked by interweaving stings floating over rich low end. We see anthropomorphic figures going through the motions of daily mundanity within the cut out view of a house that sits empty part of the time conveying a sense of loneliness and isolation. The figures sometimes seem to stand as if caught in a moment of poignant reverie on the brink of crying but not quite crossing over. It’s a beautiful piece of music and without needing the underlying narrative it is both musically and with the accompanying video visually affecting. Watch the video for “Swan Shaped Kite” on YouTube and follow Per Störby Jutbring at the links provided.

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Unlettered’s Dissonant Post-punk Single “Leave Behind” is Burns Like a Noisy, Maximalist, Lo-Fi Space Rock

Unlettered’s “Leave Behind” immediately hits with sonic resonances recalling somehow both the more krautrock end of Yo La Tengo and the layered sonics of Bailter Space or perhaps in moments that band’s post-punk predecessors The Gordons. The vocals are underneath the soundscape ever so slightly but discernible all while as noisy flakes of tone spark off the driving rhythm. The bass line carries the song toward the middle as guitar echoes with a clashing/shimmering effect. Although well arranged dissonance is a feature of the song the net effect is as though you’re hearing an unconventional melodic structure as the song is undeniably catchy in its splintery and maximalist lo-fi glory. Listen to “Leave Behind” on Spotify and follow NYC’s Unlettered at the links below. The project’s latest album Five Mile Point released on November 22, 2024.

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Memory Scale’s Enveloping and Spacious “Moment of Inertia” is Like a Train Journey Through a Fog Shrouded Morning

Early into the orchestration of sonic vectors and percussive tonality of Memory Scale’s “Moment of Inertia” there is an almost palpable sense of the title as the pace of the composition lifts off. He repeating sounds like a great wheel resonating in the background almost serves as a timer of the energy generated in the movement of the song though its chill atmospheres and spaciousness sound like a chamber of sustained and floating tones interacting with one another in hazy, distant luminosity. There’s a sense of being in a train looking out into a foggy day and making out the muted shapes of landscape as you move forward into a distant destination. The song works both as an aurally tactile experience of drifting and streaming textures but also as one of soothing yet evocative harmonic presences. Listen to “Moment of Inertia” on Spotify and follow French composer Memory Scale at the links below. The single comes from the Fauna compilation curated by Franck Zaragoza (aka Ocoeur) released December 10, 2024, International Animal Rights Day with proceeds donated to French animal rights non-profit L214.

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KAPUT’s Frantic, Organic Beats and Haunting Spaciousness in “Runner” Evoke a Sense of a Calm in a Storm of Clearing Your Head of Intrusive Thoughts

KAPUT’s use of organic percussive tones to set both a frantic and headlong and languid beat in parallel on “Runner” mirrors the song’s themes perfectly. The way you can feel anxious and in a hurry while caught up in dreamlike moments in passages of fever dream calm when intrusive thoughts and ghosts of past and current concerns can get mixed up in distracting you from being in the moment. But in the rattles, clicks, clinks throughout the song sound like a shaking off of these drags on the mind. The resonant piano alongside Nadia Garofalo’s almost deadpan but more slightly weary vocal delivery casts the song in a seeming context of having been through this struggle before of working through getting to be able to reach a point of focus clear of the static of what’s been limiting you and tripping up the progress you’d like to be making. The rich textural rhythms and haunting spaciousness of the song gives it a truly unique sound that while stylistically is adjacent to post-punk is very much its own thing. Listen to “Runner” on Spotify and follow Chicago’s KAPUT at the links below.

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Elodie Gervaise Speaks to the Manifestation of a True Love of Self on Dreamlike Hip-Hop Single “King of Cups”

Elodie Gervaise, photo courtesy the artist

Elodie Gervaise nearly whispers in the close up vocal delivery as if in confidence with listener of “King of Cups.” It’s fitting for a song that on the surface seems to be an ode to an ideal lover but is really a kind of mantra of the reconciliation within oneself and loving oneself the one needs to be first and foremost through symbolic imagery through the kind of archetype represented by the tarot figure of named in the title. Gervaise’s vocals float through lightly bouncing rhythms and circling swells of background vocals like a trap style beat crafted for her words of creative visualization and focusing on manifesting within oneself the traits one seeks in the world around you. It’s almost like a spoken word piece with dreamlike resonance and both introspective and expansive. Listen to “King of Cups” on Spotify and follow Elodie Gervaise on Instagram.

Ben Lukas Boysen’s Ambient Single “Alta Ripa” is the Sound of Easing Into a Time of Rest

Ben Lukas Boysen, photo courtesy the artist

“Alta Ripa” comes in like a slow moving snowstorm late at night. Ben Lukas Boysen’s arrangements of harmonic drones roil languidly and blanket the soundscape with cool, subtle layers that drift and flow, conveying a sense of settling in. The harmonies linger and dissolve into the generated mood. It’s like hearing distant horns signaling a time of rest and reflection in some distant future when the world is at rest and able to indulge some extended periods of inactivity imposed by the onset of winter at least for a night or a two. The sound can wax melancholic but ultimately it is one of ease into a headspace of peace. Listen to “Alta Ripa” on YouTube and follow Ben Lukas Boysen at the links below.