Microphones (band) – Queen City Sounds and Art

Half Shadow’s Psych Folk Single “Horizon” is a Pastoral Contemplation of the Therapeutic Influence of the Ocean

Half Shadow released its latest EP 5 New Songs of Half Shadow on December 8, 2023 via Bud Tapes (available for digital download, streaming and as a limited edition cassette). Jesse Carsten, whose songwriting project is Half Shadow, was able to take a course given through Los Angeles’ School of Song under the tutelage of Phil Elverum of Microphones and Mount Eerie fame and that resulted in a series of songs written in response to a writing prompt. The opening track, “Horizon,” and the only single from the EP, is a folk ode to healing power of the ocean. Field recordings of the shore with birds serves as the backdrop to Carsten’s near whispered vocals and impressionistic guitar work in the beginning as the songwriter contemplates the subtle interconnectedness of all things and how our current form and vessel of experiencing the world is transitory like a mirror of the ocean which is always changing and always constituted of similar stuff. The opening lyric “Blending into the horizon, driving on the grass, the ocean is blowing through the open window”is cast in a kind of free verse with the meter following an unconventional rhythm and structure the way the the world as we experience it has both uniformity and seemingly endless specific variery. When the reverse delay hits and sounding like a rewind of the contemplative moments we’ve heard and the sound of a car warning that the door is open while the electrical system is actively engaged can be heard at the end it truly feels like we’ve both been on a journey and starting where we began. There’s something therapeutic in the knowing deeply about how the impermanence of universe has built into it a consistency and inherent unity as well. It’s as literary an effect as one more musical. Listen to “Horizon” on Spotify and follow Half Shadow at the links provided and perhaps consider buying download or a cassette which will come with the latter through Bandcamp.

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Half Shadow on Facebook

Half Shadow on Instagram

Jake Minch’s “whose you are” is Like a Diary Entry Brimming With the Raw Vulnerability of Feeling in a Moment of Peak Reflective Loneliness

With mostly just an acoustic guitar and jhis voice, Jake Minch is able to pack a lot of emotional power and vulnerability to the songs from his October 20, 2023 EP how many EP. For the single “whose you are” we get a music video that looks like footage of someone documenting a time of great transition in a time of cold weather and journeys away from the places one knows best and the inevitable disruptions that occur and the necessary change of physical and social scenery and thus the nature of the emotional bonds one built with the people closest to you. The song is like a diary entry in its raw and poignant honesty and with some simple poetry it conveys impressions of connection, intimacy and the yearning for that when it’s something in the past and how confusing and painful it can be and how it can linger and still haunt a present that doesn’t seem so far to measure up and create new memories with the same depth of psychic resonance. Musically it’s reminiscent of artists like Wolf Colonel and perhaps Microphones but in a current manifestation of those creative impulses and mode of expressing those all too real feelings that strike you in a moment of peak loneliness and desolation. Watch the video for “whose you are” on YouTube and follow Jake Minch at the links below.

Jake Minch on Instagram

“Big Elsewhere” by vireo is a Tender Dream Folk Soundtrack to a Heartwarming Day Trip

“Big Elsewhere” by vireo sounds like something a bunch of super creative kids wrote in their tree house long before forming an actual band. It has that quality of openness and a sense of wonder and an unhurried spirit. Its chiming guitar work and bird-like keyboard melodies behind tender vocals individually and in harmony. The music video, made by Suzanne Gomes, looks like a fall weekend spent on the coast with gray skies and choppy waters. It’s all the spontaneous aesthetics of Super-8 and no strict narrative structure, just images like what you might shoot if you weren’t planning but merely documenting your experience for yourself. And the song feels like that too. It’s a mere one minute, fifty-three seconds but in that time vireo sounds both like a futuristic indie pop thing informed by the sort one heard and experienced in warehouses and house shows in the 2000s and early 2010s. The kind of music that has an undeniable charm and appeal but always very home made feeling like the choices of instrumentation are idiosyncratic executed with an unexpected originality. Maybe someone would call this band shoegaze but the sound is much more in line with the kind of borderline twee, dream pop folk that would fit well on a bill with say a Stephen Steinbrink or Microphones. Even Wolf Colonel. Its an intimate and inviting sound that seems to be a part of the group’s style that resonates strongly with the DIY musical experience of a decade and more ago. Watch the video for “Big Elsewhere” on YouTube and follow Pittsburgh’s vireo at the links below.