Queen City Sounds and Art

Engine Summer’s Fuzzy, Psychedelic Post-punk Single “Whiteout” Channels the Frenetic Energy of a 1980s Video Game Tournament

Engine Summer, photo courtesy the artists

“Whiteout” by Chicago’s Engine Summer might be about trying to be present when the temptation to dissociate for various reasons looms. But who can be sure when the voice singing those verses that might reveal some linear interpretation of the song seems caught up in a headlong rush through furiously distorting bursts of processed electronic fuzz guided by an urgent and accented bass line with drums dropping in and out to ground the rapid cycle buzzes that feel like they’re about to burst before starting all over and the sounds of an 8-bit computer system getting hyped on something. It’s like the people in the band are imagining what it might be like to live inside an old arcade game at peak activity in the 80s during a tournament and then turned that into this song. But that is the vibe for the rest of the band’s 2023 album MAXIMUM SHPBAG WEEKEND which it unleashed in all its weirdo post-punk glory on December 6, 2023. For the record apparently monophonic synth frequently replaced the guitar lending the whole affair a brilliantly retro-futurist edge the way early chillwave artists and their ilk rediscovered the least glamorous, and largely neglected, synths of the 80s and repurposed them to not just capture an older synthpop sound but to utilize that sound to express modern melancholia. Engine Summer took a similar path but bring to us a gritty atmosphere that provides a scuzzy psychedelic flavor reminiscent of Jay Reatard’s old band Lost Sounds and expressing a catharsis of current anxiety and desperation. Fans of Genesis Owusu’s 2023 album Struggler will find resonance here as well. Listen to “Whiteout” on Spotify and follow Engine Summer at the links below. Did the band name itself after John Crowley’s brilliant 1979 post-apocalyptic novel? Possibly not but it would be cooler if it did.

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Pretty Name’s Fuzzy, Post-punk Synthpop Single “Threads” is a Rejection of the Commodification of All Aspects of Life

Pretty Name takes that incredibly evocative chillwave sound of a decade ago with the melancholic 80s synth pop aesthetic and injects it with blown out melodies and a strong, moody bass line. That combination of sounds lends itself well to a song that seems to be about a deep disaffection with the world as it is and not wanting to be a part of a culture that pretends at being interconnected when so many social forces impose ever increasing amounts of atomization in service to the demands of monetizing all aspects of life and our interactions with one another. The song decries the performative aspect of how we’re encouraged to behave and how we’re expected to deliver some aspect of our lives, personalities and aspirations to fit a marketing angle rather than develop organically without having to know what that’s all going to look like or how it has to be that might make it easier to fit into an algorithm. The song’s melancholic flavor and how even its construction of melody colors outside clear lines is an act of resistance to the homogenizing commodification of all things by embracing not being cookie cutter and letting a certain analog fuzziness and humanity be a virtue of the songwriting. Listen to “Threads” on Spotify and follow Pretty Name at the links below. The band’s Horse Music EP released on December 7, 2023.

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Yune Taps Into Britpop and Late 90s Alternative Rock For Its Summery Shoegaze Single “Cake”

When Yune’s single “Cake” from its forthcoming album Lemon Sweet Perfection starts off it seems like you’re in for one of those late 90s summer time electronic dance pop hits. But then the distorted, noisy squall comes in like a Medicine song. When the vocals enter the picture the impression of the quasi-halcyon days of when a left field hit would somehow make it onto Total Request Live in the summer solidifies. Like the Danish band was raised listening to a steady diet of late 90s alternative rock and Britpop. The fluid bass lines and evocative piano work with dream-like synth melodies supporting vocals that are slightly breathy with a touch of soulfulness hits a certain vibe that brings back summer energy in the colder seasons. The song is about being caught up in the momentum of your own life and becoming aware suddenly and wanting to be active in the living of life rather than a being kind of a passenger. Maybe the title refers to having one’s cake and eating it too because why not. Despite the throwback feels the message of the song and its immediacy of mood anchors it in the present just like its themes describe. The band’s press release suggests the song sounds a bit like highlife performed by a band that has never heard that style of music. And there is a touch of that liveliness and intricacy of composition as well as a sense of being out of time yet steeped in a long tradition. Listen to “Cake” on Spotify and follow Yune at the links provided.

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Coucou Babe’s Dusky and Processional Dream Pop Single “Lavenderbees” Dissolves Heartbreak With Its Drifting Uplift

Coucou Babe immerses you instantly in a realm of hazy melodies and cool color moods when “Lavenderbees” gets going. Guitars both chime and bloom in slowly turning rosettes of tone, drums keep a steady pace with gentle accents, vocals seem to stream from a cavernous space filled with luminous fog, projecting shadows. There is a slowly undulating quality to the song, not hypnotic so much as reflecting a bittersweet reflection on someone who both breaks your heart and disappoints you and mixed with a sense of regret. It’s reminiscent of the way Chromatics’ songs have a quality that’s both cinematic and drawing out emotions that might otherwise be painful to take on all at once but when experienced through a filter of billowy sounds and drify in its uplift dissolving the edge just enough. Listen to “Lavenderbees” on Spotify and follow Coucou Babe at the links below.

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Half Shadow’s Psych Folk Single “Horizon” is a Pastoral Contemplation of the Therapeutic Influence of the Ocean

Half Shadow released its latest EP 5 New Songs of Half Shadow on December 8, 2023 via Bud Tapes (available for digital download, streaming and as a limited edition cassette). Jesse Carsten, whose songwriting project is Half Shadow, was able to take a course given through Los Angeles’ School of Song under the tutelage of Phil Elverum of Microphones and Mount Eerie fame and that resulted in a series of songs written in response to a writing prompt. The opening track, “Horizon,” and the only single from the EP, is a folk ode to healing power of the ocean. Field recordings of the shore with birds serves as the backdrop to Carsten’s near whispered vocals and impressionistic guitar work in the beginning as the songwriter contemplates the subtle interconnectedness of all things and how our current form and vessel of experiencing the world is transitory like a mirror of the ocean which is always changing and always constituted of similar stuff. The opening lyric “Blending into the horizon, driving on the grass, the ocean is blowing through the open window”is cast in a kind of free verse with the meter following an unconventional rhythm and structure the way the the world as we experience it has both uniformity and seemingly endless specific variery. When the reverse delay hits and sounding like a rewind of the contemplative moments we’ve heard and the sound of a car warning that the door is open while the electrical system is actively engaged can be heard at the end it truly feels like we’ve both been on a journey and starting where we began. There’s something therapeutic in the knowing deeply about how the impermanence of universe has built into it a consistency and inherent unity as well. It’s as literary an effect as one more musical. Listen to “Horizon” on Spotify and follow Half Shadow at the links provided and perhaps consider buying download or a cassette which will come with the latter through Bandcamp.

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Vyle’s Industrial and Ambient Hip-Hop Song “GEARSHIFT (Model S)/Front Row Stockist” is a Riveting Journey From Striving to Tranquility

Vyle brought on board an imaginative crew to craft “GEARSHIFT (Model S)/Front Row Stockist.” With production by Brodinski and contributions from Haleek Maul and Teki Latex the song from AÜTO/MÖTOR (released on September 22, 2023, the first ever WebVR album) the rapping comes at us like data packets of images of ideas swimming between pulses of dub-like electronic bass and what sounds like part of a siren abstracted and looped together. It lends the song a sense of urgency and grittiness and the lyrics employ the metaphor of the functions of a car to get into a high realm of life functioning. And then there’s a transition where the vocals all but whisper as we hear what could be a train underpass and/or the sound of distant gunfire all at once. The line “turn your dream into a nightmare” hints at this dark passage in the song before it gives way to a distorted, dreamlike outro where the vocals sound slightly overblown, wordless in ethereal flares ending abruptly with a metallic mechanical sound, a gear shifting to another setting. It feels like we’ve been hearing a musical diary reflecting a different head space across days edited together for a song that wouldn’t be out of place in the Warp Records catalog and reminiscent of the more experimental end of Sole and other artists in the Anticon universe with a similar instinct for changing up how hip-hop has to sound and not being limited by stylistic considerations. Listen to “GEARSHIFT (Model S)/Front Row Stockist” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of AÜTO/MÖTOR and follow Vyle at the links below.

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Thomas Frempong’s “Mada Meho So” From 1985 Highlife Classic Aye Yi is a Vibrant Example of the Genre and Its Influence on Modern Indie Rock

Thomas Frempong (often spelled “Frimpong”) was an important figure in the Ghanaian music scene for half a century before his untimely death on September 18, 2013 leaving behind a rich legacy of popular music. As fate would have it a treasure trove of Ghana Highlife records was found in the the bottom of a garden in the UK by DJ Jerry Frempong’s wife Katie. Frempong’s father Anthony Roberts Frempong, was the founder of one of the more important Ghanaian record labels Asona Records that championed Electric Highlife. BBE Music owner Pete Adarkwah heard about that discovery and worked out a catalog deal to reissue those records and make them available to a new generation of listeners. Asona had originally released Thomas Frempong’s 1985 album Aye Yi which came out in the wake of his move to the UK. BBE reissued the album on digital on November 10, 2023.

Any one of the four tracks on the record would be a vital example of Burger Highlife in the 80s but “Mada Meho So” is strikingly modern for our current time in its sensibilities. Its progressive and expertly accented funk bass lines, the intricate guitar work, splashes of echoing, haunting, rhythmic synth work and the energetic vocals have an irresistible immediacy. Musically it would fit on a playlist with the likes of Flying Lotus, Kaytranada and even the more jazz end of black midi. More than a decade ago indie rock bands like Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Foals, Vampire Weekend and Dirty Projectors were dipping heavily into Highlife. But “Mada Meho So” and the rest of Aye Yi is heady trip through a refined peak of the art form. Listen to “Mada Meho So” on Spotify and explore the rest of the album there as well or through Bandcamp where a digital download is available for purchase.

A.K. Yeboah & K.K.’s No. 2 Band’s Recently Unearthed Burger Highlife Song “Nde Yen Da” is a Lively Party Track For Living Outside Linear Time

A.K. Yeboah (aka Antony “King” Yeboah) began his career in music performing highlight in the 50s but in the 80s he started writing songs in Pidgin and his electric guitar style fit in well with “burger” highlife style of that decade as well and established himself as an influential musician for Ghanaian artists worldwide. As fate would have it a treasure trove of Ghana Highlife records was found in the the bottom of a garden in the UK by DJ Jerry Frempong’s wife Katie. Frempong’s father Anthony Roberts Frempong, was the founder of one of the more important Ghanaian record labels Asona Records that championed Electric Highlife. BBE Music owner Pete Adarkwah heard about that discovery and worked out a catalog deal to reissue those records and make them available to a new generation of listeners. “Nde Yen Da” by A.K. Yeboah & K.K.’s No. 2 Band is the title track to that group’s 1985 album.

“Nde Yen Da” has an immediate appeal the moment the song starts with its layered polyrhythms and intricate guitar melodies supporting the call and response vocals. There is compelling energy to the music that pulls you along for an experience that doesn’t require one to understand Pidgin to appreciate. The lead vocalist occasionally throws out some dynamic side narrative like a market hawker to break the almost hypnotic repetition of pointillistic guitar work in runs that would be impossible outside the hands of a master musician, the kind of performance that would challenge math rock riff masters. And in the evolving rhythm scheme that guides you to the edge and back of the song and one gets the sense that the song works like an experimental novel where you can pick up the vibe at any point and ride with it to the end and start over and get something unique out of it each time. Is the song 7 minutes 15? Yes. Does it feel like the average song over five minutes? No, because it has its own logic that seems outside the linear experience of western pop music formats. Listen to “Nde Yen Da” and the rest of the album on Spotify and find more information on the record and the reissue series on Bandcamp.

Don Sahand Sustains a Haunted Sense of Unease and Mystery on Ambient Track “Mirrors”

Don Sahand eases us into “Mirrors” (part of his forthcoming album My Missing Dentures) with some electronic clicks and simple percussive noises the likes of which one more often hears in the modular synth compositions of Kraftwerk. But the song’s moods build with a shivering melodic resonance like a walk down a long hall when lights triggered by motion sensors illuminate your path, in this case, perhaps a mirrored hallway in which you’re forced to confront your isolation and sense of alienation on your way to an uncertain future. Droplets of crystalline notes sound and trail off in the unknown distance like the hidden activities of the world around you that you’ll never full know but which you can sense, contributing to the enigmatic and haunted feel of the song and its sustained melancholia. Listen to “Mirrors” on Spotify and follow renowned composer Don Sahand on Instagram.

The Stop Motion Video for vagaries’ Lo-Fi Shoegaze Single “open waves” Evokes Nostalgia For a Less Mediated Era of Creativity

From the stop motion animated music video to the eclectic instrumentation and songwriting, vagaries also brings to “open waves” a sensibility reminiscent of a time in underground American rock when narrow genres all but aimed at the marketing of songwriting built into its conceptualization wasn’t a thing. The song’s lo-fi production is actually one of its charms and lends its blend of psychedelic and indiepop a freshness of presentation, a spontaneity and immediacy that carries you along so that it’s more than six minute length feels like less than half the time. The stop motion animation with colorful figures as the band too taps into an earlier era of music like evoking nostalgia without the sentimental aspects or feeling at all thrownback. Its melody is reminiscent of Ultravox’s “Reap the Wild Wind” but the distorted vocals and the hybrid style is resonant with what Studded Left has been doing lately in its own subversive pop songcraft. Watch the video for “Open Waves” on YouTube and follow vagaries at the links provided.

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