Asobi Seksu – Queen City Sounds and Art

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.

Lala Salama on Facebook

Lala Salama on Instagram

Lala Salama Imbue Its Shoegaze Single “Summer Love” With a Rush of Excitement and Emotional Intoxication Befitting the Title

“Summer Love” from Helsinki-based band Lala Salama begins in a hazy reverie and then kicks into urgent, warping surges of guitar and ethereal vocals in a kind of interplay of the tranquil and the passionate. At times it’s reminiscent of The Flaming Lips’ “Race For The Prize” in its pacing and tonal palette but in terms of its dynamic twists and turns more akin to the likes of the avant-pop aspects of Asobi Seksu circa its 2006 album Citrus and more contemporaneously Blushing’s exquisite melodic whorls and uplifting rhythms. Listen to “Summer Love” on YouTube and connect with Lala Salama at the links below. Look out for Lala Salama’s album All That Plazz forthcoming in 2023.

Lala Salama on Facebook

Lala Salama on Instagram

The Loud Bangs’ “Candy Sometimes Always” Transcends Pop Conventions With Its Collage of Visceral and Expansive Effervescence

The Loud Bangs, photo courtesy the artists

Linear musical structure matters less than layers of emotional coloring and tone in The Loud Bangs’ “Candy Sometimes Always.” It somehow works as a hooky pop song without conventional structure because the collage of guitar melody, distorted waves of textures, an almost sampled, musique concrète element of vocals and expressionistic percussion collude to sweep you away in a sustained effervescence that feels like a bubbly cleansing for the brain in the listening. Fans of Asobi Seksu, Blushing and the more pop end of My Bloody Valentine will appreciate what The Loud Bangs have done here and with the rest of its December 16, 2022 EP Salvation Memorial Hospital. It is music as visceral as it is dreamlike in emotional resonance. Listen to “Candy Sometimes Always” on YouTube and follow The Loud Bangs at the links below.

The Loud Bangs on Facebook

The Loud Bangs on Instagram

The Therapeutic Power of Music in Kempt’s “Commune”

Kempt_sm — Kempt, photo courtesy the artist

Kempt is MC Wolfe and former Asobi Seksu guitarist James Hanna. The duo started Kempt in the winter of 2018 in Brooklyn and brought to the band a great deal of polished musicality as evidenced by the single “Commune.” What is striking about the track for anyone more than familiar with dream pop and electronic post-punk is that Kempt draws upon nostalgia for 80s synth pop without sounding like a later era chillwave band too late to that movement’s sell by date. It has an upbeat, even effervescent quality that is enhanced greatly from strong vocals from both Wolfe and Hanna. That the lyrics are about to evoke a sense of empathy and affection for a suffering loved one without maudlin sentimentality is an achievement in itself. But listen for yourself below and take in the entire five-song EP.