Junji Ito – Queen City Sounds and Art

ZoZo (Zoe Wardlaw and John Mannion) created something truly a manifestation of the their glitchcore pop sound in the video for “Blood-Brain Barrier.” It looks like something like a live action Junji Ito manga mixed with a science fiction horror MMO set to a frenetic pace but not one that ever seems overwhelming even as multiple streams of sound, rhythm and texture stream past you as you take a trip into the blood stream and into organs and interact with everyday life processes in the chemo-electrical system that we depend on and take for granted every day of our lives happening as it should reliably across a lifetime. ZoZo gives a voice and a mythical imagery to this process while telling a tale that seems part mystical, part self-affirmational and part menacing with a poetry worthy of the more elegant end of Atari Teenage Riot. Watch the ferocious video for “Blood-Brain Barrier” on YouTube and follow ZoZo at the links provided.

ZoZo website

ZoZo on Bandcamp

ZoZo on Instagram

Sonomancer’s video for “Digital Graves” is strongly reminiscent of a Junji Ito manga if he and Inio Asano collaborated on a science fiction horror story about deep regret and the way the digital aspect of human relationships were the vector of cosmic horror. Like a generative disillusion and self-and-mutual alienation reflected in the song with its slow moving synth swells like a warning siren and ambient distorted electronic sounds and cycling sounds that are inescapable and crawling from all sides as a reminder that you’re never alone and always connected in this artificial way. Martha Goddard’s vocals are the beacon of humanity in the song expressing the regrets and misgivings of the specific ways we store our memories digitally through photos and videos or means of staying in contact and how what in another era might have been private is often exposed to too many people and which can be lost when technology glitches, fails or is discontinued in general. The song builds into a gentle and subtle industrial techno track with organic percussive textures that seem to compliment perfectly the shifting and disturbingly beautiful imagery of the video. It is indeed a track for our current era with the aesthetics to match. Watch the video for “Digital Graves” on YouTube and follow Sonomancer at the links below.