Black Angels – Queen City Sounds and Art

The title of Monalia’s “We Are Dust” sums up nicely the overarching theme of the song. The vocals intone the refrain “Time whatcha gonna do to me now?” in the beginning of the song before the guitars come in with an forceful, expansive dynamic reminiscent of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” and evolving into an introspective psychedelic drone and processional rhythm comparable to something done by Black Angels that reflect the tone of a reluctant acceptance of the cosmic and the way our lives are simply a blip on the timeline of infinity and the atomic components of our bodies and our entire existence are the dust of ages that happen to have come together for these moments that are all we can consciously know. But it’s not pure abstraction as the opening line suggests as does the follow up line later in the choruses after that opening line is sung: “Sneaking up behind, taking what’s mine, nothing matters to you.” This acknowledges the ways in which so many things, and in the end everything, we take for granted or cherish can be seemingly perversely taken from us over the course of our lives but of course it’s the nature of things even if the personal effect of a cycle of impermanence of being is tragedy. The details in the this song that is a well orchestrated assemblage of melodies, atmospheres and finely crafted tonal accents are immediately striking in aggregate even though it may take multiple listens to identify and fully appreciate. Listen to “We Are Dust” on YouTube and follow Norwegian psych/dream pop band Monalia at the links provided.

Monalia website

Monalia on Facebook

Monalia on Instagram

The menacing bass line and almost motorik beat that opens “Wishbone” by Husbands and the way the song unfolds with disparate streams of sound is reminiscent of pop weirdo Russ Ballard. The song weaves together strands of post-punk, Krautrock, synth pop and experimental psychedelic rock across it’s duration. The distorted vocals, processed to sound robotic, cuts through the mix and then gives way to moody harmonies that contemplate the dissociative aspects of modern American culture. The fractured guitar solo in the first half of the song sounds like society or at least one’s psyche on the verge of fragmenting while the synth work mid-song touches on the warped, dreamlike soundscapes of Black Moth Super Rainbow. As the song plays visions of Stereolab collaborating Black Angels on a cover of Ballard’s 1984 hit “Voices” is hard to shake which just makes “Wishbone” a bit of an earworm in the end. Listen to the song on Spotify and connect with Husbands at the links provided.