Queen City Sounds and Art

Joyer’s “Fall Apart” is a Noise Pop Ode to a Impulse to Self-Liberation Through Leaning Into Chaos

Listening to Joyer’s “Fall Apart” it’s perhaps easy to imagine it’s like a Yo La Tengo song sped up but layered with a catastrophic noise partway through. The latter pairs well with the lyrics about an impulse to do things that make one fall apart. Why? Maybe the things that feel like everything is all together feels like you’re too bound up with limitations that come from social conditioning and conforming to a society where a certain kind of order is valued that can feel like oppression. Maybe the song is about mountain anxiety the release from which can only be indulging in what feels like you’re not clinging so tightly a way of being and living that don’t suit you. It’s a song that seems to acknowledge mental health struggles and a will to be free of them even that means yearning for acting in ways that are counter to what you’ve been told is well and good when part of you is aware that those words were not completely valid all along. Listen to “Fall Apart” on Spotify and follow Joyer at the links below. The group’s new album Night Songs drops April 26, 2024 via North Records/Julia’s War Records on digital and limited edition vinyl.

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Night Sins’ Darkwave Single “The Lowest Places You’ll Go” is an Industrial Dance Journey Through One’s Personal Hell and Beyond It

Night Sins is scheduled to release its latest offering A Silver Blade in the Shadow on May 17, 2024 via Born Losers Records. The lead single from the record is “The Lowest Places You’ll Go” and it has the hallmarks of modern darkwave with a strong rhythm and pulsing bass line all of which sound like they could be purely electronic but rather than embrace subpar production and tones, Night Sins sound like the kind of band that came out of the 1980s EBM underground but with more of an ear for pop sensibilities. There is something vulnerable and human about the music that sets it apart from a lot of current darkwave songwriting The expressive vocals don’t hide behind production and a wall of sound but are almost confrontational in being as forward as they are in the mix. The music video for the song showcases the band live on stage and presumably Kyle Kimball (who some may know as the former drummer for NOTHING) sitting at a table singing about the way you can walk your way into your own personal hell without even being fully aware that’s what you’re doing and come to romanticize the process. Implicit in the energy and momentum of the song is the will to break out of that self-destructive spiral. Watch the video for “The Lowest Places You’ll Go” on YouTube and follow Night Sins at the links provided.

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Robert Ouyang Rusli’s Layering of Choral Vocals, Synth and Organic Percussion Lends “Elizabeth’s Voicemail” a Surreal Yet Fateful Tone

Robert Ouyang Rusli, photo by Acudus Aranyian

Composer Robert Ouyang Rusli recently provided the score for write-director Julio Torres’ new A24 comedy film Problemista. The film is about an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador who brings his unorthodox ideas to NYC and takes on a job assisting an eccentric art world figure as a path to keeping his visa and take aim at his dream. From that score comes “Elizabeth’s Voicemail” and its enigmatic, melancholic yet playful sounds between ethereal, choral vocals and what sounds like a harp tracing a scale, dramatic strings lending an element of classical pathos and textural percussive tones including a lonely piano figure around halfway through that grounds the song with a sense of forward motion. All while preserving a delicacy and sensitivity to the piece that pairs well with a film that has an aspect of a fairy tale storybook. The title itself separate from its context in the film suggests hearing a fateful message that propels one into a significant shift in one’s life direction for the better. Listen to “Elizabeth’s Voicemail” on Spotify and follow Robert Ouyang Rusli at the links below.

Robert Ouyang Rusli on Apple Music

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Lala Salama Conjure Bright Memories of Summer Adventures on the Effervescent Shoegaze Single “Aurinko sulattaa mun pään”

Lala Salama’s latest single ahead of its anticipated debut album release is the “Aurinko sulattaa mun pään” (in English “The Sun Melts My Head”). The up tempo shoegaze ballad and its colorfully dramatic and fantastical video featuring animation and alternating images of the band performing live and frolicking while shape shifting into dogs, snakes, older versions of themselves and back while playing the song on a conventional stage and during a storm with lighting strikes all around (as projections and as effects directly on the musicians) has all the hallmarks of the kind of song destined for a celebratory action sequence in a film. The circular guitar solo and its fast strumming alongside Rosa Jules’ anthemic and emotionally charged vocals recall memories of summer adventures just in time for making more after what has felt like an extended winter. Effervescent and uplifting, “Aurinko sulattaa mun pään” is a song for fans of the irrepressible energy of bands like Blushing and Asobi Seksu. Watch the video for the song on YouTube and follow Lala Salama at the links provided.

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Lala Salama on Instagram

Theo Fried’s Irreverently Surreal Disco Pop Single “Fuggs” is a Wry Commentary on Priorities and Living Within Your Means

Theo Fried celebrates her status as a single mom on limited budget in the playfully self-aware and irreverent disco of “Fuggs,” The title refers to fake Uggs because the real version is out of her income range in any practical sense. The sultry, funky keyboard sounds and the almost spoken lyrics paired together is a bit surreal but the imagery and the sentiments are a level of reality most people can appreciate down to how her daughter has real Uggs but not Fried. But that’s okay, Fried says that if you think she’s going to pay full price for the real ones you’re crazy. And if she moved to a warmer climate she’d change her spending habits on footwear to fake Tory Burch sandals because what else are you going to do when presented similar choices and priorities? And it is that wry humor that informs the rest of the songs on Theo Fried’s latest album of humorous but finely crafted pop confections Cake For Breakfast (because Theo Fried is an adult and can go ahead and make those kinds of choices) released, when else, but Valentine’s Day 2024 Perfect. Listen to “Fuggs” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the album and follow Fried at the links below.

Theo Fried on TikTok

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Kid Tigrrr’s Ambient Shoegaze Single “Shapes of Water” Entrances in Dappled Musical and Emotional Tones

Kid Tigrrr guitar figures flow into languid eddys of sound in the beginning of “Shapes of Water” and as the musician layers the guitar we hear a hint of electronic percussion counting out the paces. Hushed, breathy vocals reminiscent of Fever Ray circa The Knife’s more tender moments or of Jenny Hval add a dreamlike and reflective tone to the song the effect multiplied by deeply evocative imagery of the music video. We see projections of colors and of light reflected on rippling water, of abstract environments in which Kid Tigrrr sways and gestures when not actively executing the music. And in the end there is a touch of reverse delay in the guitar loop concluding the song on a lingeringly entrancing note. Watch the video for “Shapes of Water” on YouTube and follow Kid Tigrrr at the links below.

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Kid Tigrrr on Bandcamp

“Sweets” by faults. is an Endearing Yet Dark Dream Pop Portrait of Life on the Edge

The video for “Sweets” by Swedish audio-visual artist KC Dahlehan looks like scenes from a more cinéma vérité style of one of those great Nordic crime dramas of recent years. All washed out colors and stark landscapes, dramatic situations born of trauma and regret. We see two women seemingly on the run from something in their pasts and all they have is each other and their shared sense of quelling or purging lingering inner darkness. The music is reminiscent of Eastern European post-punk with the spidery guitar figures and icy synth melodies that though gentle and subtle in its composition is not short on a brooding urgency. The vocals are like something you’d expect from a synth pop band with their emotionally stirring melodies but undeniably and compellingly darker in mood. Combined the visual and musical elements of the presentation of the song seem like an a music video commissioned by A24 that fans of Rose Glass will appreciate. Watch the video for “Sweets” on YouTube and follow faults. at the links below.

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Signe Vange Tenderly Wish Outmoded Ways of Being and Thinking Farewell on Dream Pop Single “Dinosaur”

Signe Vange takes a different approach to casting off ways of living, being and organizing human civilization with “Dinosaur.” The gentle vocals, measured pace, subtle washes of synth and warbling melody hovering in the background like the least intrusive alarm siren in recent memory are the perfect backdrop to Zen-like lyrics addressed kindly to the forces in the world that are holding the collective species from living in peace and sustainable prosperity with “For nothing can last forevermore/Not you, you dinosaur/Take a bow and leave before/Your bones/Turn into stones.” The words are not delivered with the angst and understandable rancor such words often manifest in music but with an affection and respect for how maybe some older ways and habits served their purpose at a time or weren’t fully understood to be as harmful as they were or became. It’s an invitation to exit with grace before getting fully weighed down by one’s rigid hubris. Listen to “Dinosaur” on Spotify and follow Danish dream pop group Signe Vange at the links provided.

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Signe Vange on Instagram

Signe Vange on YouTube

Manpreet Kundi’s “unresolved” is a Poignantly Affecting Song About Earnest Infatuation and Future Heartbreak

Manpreet Kundi, photo courtesy the artist

Manpreet Kundi brings to her new single “unresolved” a level of emotional depth and detail even though it seems to come from a place of youthful infatuation. With spare and gentle guitar work and melancholic washes of synth and electronic strings, Kundi frames her song in which we hear moments of sensory memory that anchor feelings of love and affection in your mind like longing gazes, kisses on the neck and shared “frantic” heartbeats when together. But there is a suspicion that can’t be ignored that concludes each section of the song when Kundi realizes “You just won’t say a word.” The whole song Kundi sings of expressions of love and regard without getting them back the way you expect and thus you hear the hint of future heartbreak without them needing to be said because anyone that has felt similarly about anyone else in a similar situation recognizes that moment of realization even when you know your feelings were at least honest and genuine regardless of their reciprocation. Listen to “unresolved” on Spotify and follow Manpreet Kundi at the links below. Look out for Kundi’s forthcoming concept EP of which “unresolved” is a part.

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Manpreet Kundi on TikTok

Manpreet Kundi on Instagram

Mya Lee Explores Themes of Impostor Syndrome and Inner Fortitude on Cinematic Neo Soul Pop Single “Tonight’s the Night”

In “Tonight’s the Night” Mya Lee seems to explore themes of impostor syndrome and cultivating inner fortitude when your internalized habits of mind work to hold you back from achieving your dreams. But Lee also expresses a truth not often spoken of in popular music and that is how if you fail according to the terms of a situation or culture you’ll still be able to get by and continue to do what it’s in your heart to do. Musically Lee starts off with a spare piano accompaniment to her soulful vocals with a style reminiscent of neo soul but with a tasteful trap beat that accents Lee’s lyrics well and weaves in and out of percussive synth lines and electronic orchestral sounds lending the whole song an air of a larger narrative of which this song is an early chapter. But the song stands on its own and the insecurities expressed early in the song are met with gentle words of reassurance and encouragement by the song’s conclusion. It’s a song that has thematic and musical depth and layers of meaning that reward repeated listens. Hear “Tonight’s the Night” on Spotify and follow Mya Lee at the links below.

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