Michael Mann – 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

Longboat’s “Midnight Drive” is a Neon Hazed Synth Pop Story of a Man With a Lurid and Murky Past

Longboat’s “Midnight Drive” is the narrative of someone who is trying to get some enjoyment out of life on a leisurely drive. The simple pleasure of it and the tranquility. The synth tones are saturated and percussive while carrying a melody and in its haze to a steady electronic beat and meditative vocals we hear suggestions of a past that might have some dark episodes but nothing so nefarious as rumors in our storyteller’s social circles speculate. The music video is a depiction of this journey with a ride through the desert at first before scenes from a city in an unspecified city in the world. It could be the USA, it could be somewhere in the UK, somewhere in Asia or Latin America or elsewhere. The footage has signifiers that don’t spell this out and that fits the song well as we don’t really find out the mystery our narrator hints at throughout the song. It’s like the musical equivalent of the plot of a long lost 1980s William Friedkin film or an early Michael Mann offering. And musically it sits somewhere between a Murray Head song and a modern vaporwave track and that bridging of times and aesthetics is what makes the song retain re-listening value. Watch the video for “Midnight Drive” on YouTube and follow Longboat on Instagram.

MP Shaw and Nick Andre Craft an Urgent Atmosphere of Dark Mystery on IDM/Ambient Track “Electric Company”

MP Shaw and Nick Andre teamed up to create the sort of techno track with “Electric Company” that was written for the soundtrack of the short film “Return of the Sleepwalker” but wouldn’t be out of place in a Michael Mann or William Friedkin film. It has an enigmatic duskiness and strong tonal pulses and an urgent rhythm that contains a hint of menace or at least focused purpose. A melodic line will trace a short arpeggio and burst into a short echo as the song pushes forward. One hears the touch of the influence of Giorgio Moroder and late night video game play reaching to finish an important section of a horror or thriller RPG you wish existed and may yet be. Listen to “Electric Company” on Spotify where you can listen to other tracks including Shaw’s excellent and evocative cover of Brian Eno’s “Deep Blue Day.”

1st Base Runner’s Video for “Dark Drive Through The Canyon” is Like a Deep Mood Michael Mann Film in Miniature

1st Base Runner, photo courtesy the artist

1st Base Runner’s “Dark Drive Through The Canyon” is perhaps best experienced by watching the music video directed by Dilly Gent. In the video Tim Husmann from the project sits high on a box inside a convertible while driving around Long Beach told to remain absolutely still despite the cold and having just filmed the underwater music video for “Man Overboard” earlier the same day. It suits the lush and dramatic ambiance of the song and we see Husmann in focus as a nightscape and evening lights and daytime views stream by behind him out of focus and mixing up our own sense of time. Like a short Michael Mann film with the industrial part of Long Beach and its harbor and highways as the backdrop. The cascading, bright tones fading out in sequence swimming in a breeze of dim light drone are cinematic in quality themselves but in context of the video it creates a meaning and a mood we recognize in taking a moment to contemplate a peaceful core of our mind even as events and a dystopian state of the world streams by that we can and will have to engage with at some point but from which we can take a break now and then for moments of Zen. Watch the video on YouTube and follow 1st Base Runner at the links below.

1st Base Runner on TikTok

1st Base Runner on Facebook

1st Base Runner on Instagram

1stbaserunner.com

Plus with Nigel Hood and Monogem Contemplate the Balance Between Integrity and Success on the Urgent Darkwave Hip-Hop Track “The End (El Final)”

Plus assembled a team of collaborators in Nige Hood and Monogem to create the dusky, urgent and moody track “The End (El Final).” The arc of pulsing synth melodies and luminous drones alongside beats that feel like the percussion equivalent of call and response frame a story of someone who struggles with the temptations of not just everyday life to put you off your hussle but also the trappings of success that can be seductive with people flattering you and pretending to be your friend all while looking for their own opportunity in crawling to the top of whatever industry you can name because there is that unnecessary competitive streak and aspect of to most important endeavors whether it needs to exist or not. The song is about maintaining a healthy sense of self and not overfeed the ego and stick to strong foundational principles. It is about the hustle of being an entrepreneur and/or an artist and the precariousness of balancing integrity and authenticity with success and maybe let a little of the latter go if it means you can be true to what you know is best. Musically the track is somewhere between commercial mainstream hip-hop in production but more experimental in the soundscaping bordering on darkwave for an effect that it sounds like something you’d hear in an epic Michael Mann crime drama even though it isn’t itself about a life in crime. Truly a song for night driving. Listen to “The End (El Final)” on Spotify and follow Plus at the links provided.

“Rumors” by The Motion Epic is Lush and Melodramatic Pop Song in the Classic Mid-80s Style

TheMotionEpic_Rumors_crop — The Motion Epic “Rumors” cover (cropped)

Pat DiMeo takes us on a trip back to the mid-80s with his project The Motion Epic and the single “Rumors.” Soft, luminous, bell tone synth arpeggios, Casiotone-esque washes and emotive saxophone provided by Benjamin Harrison of Cirque Du Soleil all sound like something straight out of an episode of Miami Vice or any other Michael Mann production of the era like Band of the Hand. It’s melodramatic and would have fit on the radio alongside the likes of Phil Collins and John Parr. It is the sound of a niche period in mainstream popular music from 1984-1986 when soaring melodies and windswept dynamics with production and treatments on instruments that would quickly go out of style. Fortunately DiMeo spares us that cheesy and personality-lacking, compressed guitar sound that was de rigueur at the time. Rather, he focuses on the cool emotional colorings and lush compositions that gave some of that music its enduring appeal. Listen to “Rumors” on Soundcloud and follow The Motion Epic at the links below.

themotionepic.com
soundcloud.com/themotionepic