Anthony Scott Burns – Queen City Sounds and Art

Showtime Ramon’s Driving Synthwave Hip-Hop Single “84 Dan Marino” Takes a Trip Through 80s Thriller Cinema Vibes

Showtime Ramon, photo courtesy the artist

Showtime Ramon brings an unexpected musical and rhetorical complexity to “84 Dan Marino.” Yes, in the music video we see beautiful women and a cool sports car, Ramon delivers an expertly crafted line of swagger and braggadocio like you might expect to see and hear in a mainstream hip-hop banger. But the visual aesthetics of the video is like something from a gritty, 80s thriller including he leads on screen from a film reel and scratches and pops and glitches in the print. It complements the darkly pulsing synthwave beat and the gorgeously evocative melodic splashes that linger like music from an existential horror film of today tapping into the aforementioned 80s vibe. Like Anthony Scott Burns and Nicolas Winding Refn but reaching to an even more lo-fi feel, like Ramon took in more than a few Michael Mann, William Friedkin and Brian De Palma films and absorbed the essence of moods and themes of those movies in writing this song. It has that starkness, menace and a core of melancholia that makes them all effective and “84 Dan Marino” exudes a similar energy. The key line to the song to give it the proper context, or so it seems is when Ramon raps “Lost my best friend now I spit with pain.” With those words, referencing the unsolved murder of Ramon’s best friend, the display of success, luxury, vitality, the promise of pleasure all comes into focus as where your head may need to be so your heart doesn’t sink into oblivion. Not to escape those feelings of loss and despair but to survive them. Ramon makes the processing of the darkest times of our lives feel like an adventure, a chapter of life and an affirmation of what makes being alive feel so significant and good. The song hits hard yet reminds you of the good things in life. Watch the video for “84 Dan Marino” on YouTube and follow Mexican American rapper, and proud Capricorn, Showtime Ramon at the links provided.

Showtime Ramon on Apple Music

Showtime Ramon on Facebook

Showtime Ramon on Instagram

The Instrumental Synth Pop of Ambicture’s “Lyudmi” Glows With an Introspective Hopefulness

Icy synths and a minimalist splash of percussion draws us into Ambicture’s single “Lyudmi” before ethereal guitar rings out through the soundscape. Hazy notes intone in the background and like lights in the fog. But the guitars come back in after fading out a moment with some fortifying distortion accompanied by a brief wave of gritty synth tone. There are no lyrics to give the song a narrative context but the moods it evokes are those of fond memories and warm yearning for a reunion with one’s beloved. It’s like a song one would expect to hear in one of the more recent existential, science fiction horror films like something from Brandon Cronenberg film or Anthony Scott Burns. And like some of the music from those movies there is a hopefulness in the introspective moods that has an instant emotional resonance. Listen to “Lyudmi” on Spotify and follow Ambicture on the project’s website.

Alexandra John Layer Personal Darkness With Catharsis on the Cinematic Synth Pop of “Demons”

Alexandra John, photo courtesy the artists

The slowly increased volume that introduces us to Alexandra John’s “Demons” works well in the context of the music video for the song. The way the song adds and removes layers to give it an emotional dynamic like an intensity of feeling and a moment of clarity as reflected in the lyrics about someone struggling with inner demons and maybe someone who is trying to push push our narrator further into the dark side she’s trying to push beyond. The lush synth melodies driven by lightly distorted electronic bass and minimal percussion bring to the song a touch of classic early chillwave but with a cinematic feel that is more akin to a more upbeat side of Electric Youth. The music video directed and edited by Jake Hays with cinematography by David Gordon has a beautifully dark horror movie aesthetic that fans of Boy Harsher’s treatments on The Runner or Anthony Scott Burns’ visual moods on Come True will appreciate as those films are a fine modern examples of the fusions of music and cinema that don’t shy away from extensive use of visual as well as thematic darkness. Watch the video for “Demons” on YouTube and follow twins Liza Cain and Weston Cain as Alexandra John at the links below.

Alexandra John on TikTok

Alexandra John on Facebook

Alexandra John on Twitter

Alexandra John on Instagram

alexandrajohnmusic.com

Sleepwalker Conjures a Sense of Expansive Darkness on the Cosmic Ambient Single “Call of Ashes II”

“Call of Ashes II” sounds like it came out of a vision quest to one of the secret mystical places in Sleepwalker’s home in remote depths of Siberia. Who can say what instruments are used. You hear what sound like cosmic deep drones possibly made by synth, possibly by a processed industrial hum, you hear what sounds like prayer bowels, struck bits of resonant metal, urgent spans of streaming, processed guitar. The effect is of traveling through immense places in the dark whether underground or in the arctic winter twilight. While stark and mysterious there is an undeniable beauty to the spacious composition that one hopes finds its way into a science fiction or horror movie worthy of its scope of sonic detail and undeniably engaging, emotional momentum. The cinema of Panos Cosmatos, Anthony Scott Burns and the Safdie Brothers would be a good match of moods and cosmic darkness. Listen to “Call of Ashes II” on Spotify and if you like what you hear you can listen to the 2021 split with Fen on Bandcamp. Connect with Sleepwalker at Instagram linked below.

Sleepwalker on Instagram