Queen City Sounds and Art

Pictureplane’s Introspective “Weeping Sky” is a Slow Jam For the Late Night Dance Floor

Pictureplane turns in an introspective club song for slow dancing with “Weeping Sky.” In the music video co-directed by Chris Burden we see Travis Egedy dancing on a basketball court while night scenes of New York City including images from dance clubs are layered over him for an aesthetic reminiscent of early 2000s video editing techniques like one would expect from some vintage underground hip-hop music videos with in-camera editing and effects. Egedy’s vocals are lower than one is used to from his earlier work but paired with the nearly downtempo beats and moody atmospheric flourishes as well as the bright, glitch-pop backing vocals it’s the perfect evocation of immediacy mixed with nostalgia and coming to terms with one’s own desires as a human with physical and emotional needs that can be separated by culture and social conditioning. The song is both a reconnecting of Pictureplane as an artist with his early experimental electronic pop songcraft rooted in hip-hop that resonates even today and moving forward into a different direction that feels more mature in approach without compromising a spark of the joy of life and of living and savoring authentic experiences that recharge and restore you. Watch the video for “Weeping Sky” on YouTube and follow Pictureplane at the links provided. The new Pictureplane album Sex Distortion drops October 31, 2025 on vinyl and digital via Music Website.

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Slouching’s “Medialyte” is an Ambient Coldwave Song Evocative of Retro Science Fiction Noir

“Medialyte” begins with a minimal beat setting a framing of spaciousness before the voice sample comes in with the layers of synth and textural tones. Slouching’s use of these layers is cinematic in a way that sounds like a moody, fiction noir set in the 1980s might look like. Think like a downtempo IDM track influenced by early Gary Numan and late 80s coldwave soundtracking a lost Michael Mann film. Listening you can see the darkened streets and long drives, neon lights, street lights providing a hazy respite from a late night fog. The extended melodies are hypnotic and the voice like some lecture on existential subjects received on a shortwave radio adds more than a touch of compelling mystery without being the centerpiece. Listen to “Medialyte” on Bandcamp and follow Slouching there and on Spotify. The duo’s self-titled EP released August 18, 2025.

“Marina pt. 2” is an Ambient Jazz Fusion Portrait of Leisure Times in the Coastal Subtropics

Shrunken Elvis, photo courtesy the artists

“Marina pt. 2” has a steady clip of a beat with sunny, impressionistic guitar work sketching melodies over shimmering fades. The song by the curiously named Shrunken Elvis sounds like something written from the memories of being near a subtropical coast in latter half of spring between school breaks and summer vacation when the weather is nice and when the crowds are not as active. It’s a time when one can relax and let the days stretch out some while engaged in relaxing activity. The song builds so that the guitar is more distorted and playful. Like some of Brian Eno’s collaborations that include Robert Fripp cutting loose and then reigning it in. One imagines perhaps leisurely boat ride out of the marina into choppy waters and then into more tranquil parts of the bay and returning once again to dock with the sunset. Listen to “Marina pt. 2” on YouTube and follow Shrunken Elvis at the links provided. The trio’s self-titled album released September 5, 2025 on Western Vinyl.

Shrunken Elvis on Western Vinyl

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Birdie Swann Sisters & King Black Acid Embrace the Messy Aspects of Being a Passionate Person in Love on “Hurricane”

Birdie Swann Sisters & King Black Acid, photo courtesy the artists

“Hurricane” by Birdie Swann Sisters & King Black Acid in its Birdie Swann Mix iteration lends the song a softer quality. The animated video with collaged images of imperiled and infamous women in a band playing the song (Squeaky Fromme, Shelley Duvall, Judy Garland, Jayne Mansfield and Sharon Tate) and a figure with a large, papier mache head frolicking in he forest in a kind of manic delirium playing guitar and dancing while a psychedelic world and all its contents continue to swirl. In the end we see the papier mache head in flames. The psychedelic pop song is an embrace of having a tumultuous heart and a passionate and highly emotional nature, being a little volatile, even unhinged, at times and in generally not being able to give less than everything, which is more than you get from a lot of people. Despite the lyrics depicting chaos the song is catchy and itself sounds more celebratory than menacing perhaps proving that sometimes what you see isn’t fully the essence of what you get with someone. Watch the video for “Hurricane” on YouTube and follow King Black Acid on Bandcamp.

King Black Acid on Bandcamp

Carmine Francis Reconciles His Dreams and Existential Anxieties on Tender Psychedelic Folk Pop Single “Too Much”

Carmine Francis, photo courtesy the artist

An ethereal harmonic hovers as the backdrop to Carmine Francis’s single “Too Much” and truly lends his vocals and the spare instrumentation an intimate quality and immediacy. The song is like a meditation on life’s ups and downs and perennial yearnings and anxieties and trying to find a way to turn it all into something that liberates you from that cycle of seemingly endless little struggles that long term can feel like they’re dragging you down. We commiserate with the songwriter as he relates how his own previous efforts and goals may have contributed to staying on the existential rat race rather than aiming to dream differently and take in the fears he once avoided and reconcile them with a better headspace. Fans of Silver Jews and the more psychedelic folk side of Wilco will appreciate the fine inflections of tone and rhythmic nuance that make this song something you want to hear again immediately. Listen to “Too Much” on Bandcamp where you can hear the rest of the Surrender EP which released August 21, 2025.

SAADI Highlights the Strange and Irrational Aspects of Faith on Synthpop Single “Gotcha!”

SAADI’s single “Gotcha!” is a playful send-up of the concept of putting too much stake into articles of religious faith and the superstitious mindset that convinces some people they have more control over their world than they do. Utilizing minimal synth layers, even more minimal guitar riffs and
electronic percussion the songwriter brings a sense of the pristine and otherworldly which is at times reminiscent of a Talking Heads song in the use of polyrhythms and non-Western tonal palettes. It sets the perfect mood for discussing the absurdities of holding the purely mythical and odd stories as part of some eternal and universal truth. Fans of The Knife and Tune-Yards will appreciate SAADI’s masterful arrangement of layered moods and cultural reference points. Listen to “Gotcha!” on Spotify and follow SAADI at the links below. The artist’s new album Birds of Paradise released September 4, 2025 on limited edition vinyl, digital download and streaming.

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Springworks’ “Ultraviolet Lullabies” is Like a Psychedelic Garage Folk Theme Song to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy

Springworks surprises us with a different mood and sound palette for “Ultraviolet Lullabies.” It’s structured around an ascending chord structure that feels like it keeps climbing upward throughout the song even though it starts the cycle over. It sounds like theme music for a science fiction series set on frontier world that is settled enough to have some culture and political intrigue. The melodies and arrangements are like a psychedelic garage folk song but with a retro-futurist feel like some late 60s band writing music for Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. Watch the video for “Ultraviolet Lullabies” on YouTube and follow Springworks at the links provided.

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Patrick Shiroishi’s Ambient Noise Rock Piece “Mountain take that wing” is the Sound of Ancient Life Reclaiming Consciousness

Patrick Shiroishi, photo courtesy the artist

“Mountain take that wing” opens with a burst of high frequency sounds like the final emergency transmission from a starship falling from orbit. The glitches in that signal break its uniform, piercing quality and it crackles to give way to minimal saxophone warble and ghostly guitar, courtesy SUMAC’s Aaron Turner, streaming in the middle distance. The breathy saxophone notes that take the central spot in the mix overlayered by some animated saxophone and guitar that distorts abstractly like a sudden fissure opening to another dimension breaks into the more grounding sounds. But the guitar unleashed intones mournfully like a kaiju awakening from millennia of dormancy. The title provides a perfect image of an immense, ancient earth beast regaining full consciousness and indeed taking to flight, serenaded by angelic voices, provided by Gemma Thompson formerly of post-punk band Savages, in the last minute of the song. We hear the majestic creature crying out as it enjoys its liberty once again. Listen to “Mountain take that wing” on Spotify and follow Patrick Shiroishi on Instagram. His new album Forgetting is Violent is out now on vinyl, digital download and streaming via American Dreams.

Pynch Elucidates the Gutting Sadness of Certain Kinds of Modern Love on Gorgeously Melancholic Dream Pop Single “How You Love Someone”

“How You Love Someone” finds Pynch exploring melancholic feelings from a slightly different angle than usual. The slow glitter jangle of the guitar melody with the vocals sounding every slightly weary and plaintive serves well a song about a relationship that felt like something truly significant but which ultimately didn’t and couldn’t work out the way either person wanted. It perfectly articulates not just notions of modern love as ultimately temporary experiences but how people can often be so in their own head about what they think they want in a relationship and the feelings they associate with that fantasy that when a real human being fails to live up to that the instant urge to move on sets in rather than taking the time to develop real connection and cultivating that and not needing someone else to be a kind of weird vehicle for personal wish fulfillment they can never be. The synth work provides a lively pulse and vivid tones while the guitars are delicate and fleeting in their almost impressionistic character. Altogether it sounds like the feeling of ennui and disappointment and indeed a deep down sadness that things that seem to have had promise really didn’t not because they couldn’t between two people but because the will to really try wasn’t a shared sentiment in enough time to salvage what might have been. Watch the also rather romantically doleful music video set in city nightscapes on YouTube and follow Pynch at the links below. The group’s new album Beautiful Noise dropped October 3, 2025 on Chillburn Recordings on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E31: Ches Smith

Ches Smith’s Clone Row, photo courtesy the artists

Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist and composer originally from California and now based out of New York. His career as a musician has been varied and acclaimed including playing on albums with and playing with the likes of John Zorn, Mr. Bungle, Xiu Xiu, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros Terry Riley, Marc Ribot (as a member of Ceramic Dog), Secret Chiefs 3, Nels Cline and Dave Holland. Smith’s mastery of technique is not divorced from a creativity in crafting rhythms to whatever musical style and mode or mood he finds himself contributing to or writing himself with his various collaborators. In 2025 Ches Smith offered his latest opus, Clone Row which includes performances from avant-garde guitar legend Mary Halvorson, jazz luminary Liberty Ellman and multidisciplinary sound artist Nick Dunston. It’s an album of music that moves with imaginative flow of layered rhythms and tones like if one of those more gifted 2000s math rock bands like Hella and Battles were more into fusion and free jazz. Although instrumental the songs speak musically with a cinematic quality.

Ches Smith’s quartet for Clone Row is currently touring the USA with a stop at The Federal Theatre in Denver on Wednesday, October 15. Listen to our interview with Smith on Bandcamp and follow the musician and composer at the links below.

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