Tag: Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams

“Vertical Migration” by Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams Evokes the Dark Tranquility of a Deep Sea Realm Lit by Bioluminescence and the Faint Hint of a Distant Sun

Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams, image courtesy the artist

Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams were trying to evoke the deep sea on “Vertical Migration.” The slowly ascending drones, the sparkling melodic, crystalline tones certainly capture a tactile as well as emotional quality in a depth of sonic field that suggests slow, flowing dynamics broken periodically by unexpected flashes of activity and the way light often seems to travel in strands into the depths. The song is also reminiscent of 1980s Italian synthwave soundtracks and the way those composers often unabashedly used distorted synth lines and the creation of mood in a way itself cinematic. “Vertical Migration,” though, envelops you in its drifting, whorling rhythms in a way more abstract with no concessions to conventional genre songwriting. Because of that you can imagine yourself in a world lit mostly by forms of bioluminescence and hints of the distant sun. Listen to “Vertical Migration” on YouTube.

Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams’ “Landing” is the Sound of Skullduggery Afoot in a Cybernetic Future

MobileSteveAndTheGrandSlams_crop
Mobile Steve and the Grand Slam, image courtesy the artists

The curiously named Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams offer us its new single “Landing.” The analog electronic high pitched bubbling, the distorted low end synth and circular drum figure that runs in the first half of the song sounds like an update on the theme music for the 1967 limited series television show The Prisoner. But then the song goes in a direction more abstract with throbbing sounds like a jet engine of a craft gone sinister and the engine of a transport that is taking us to some clandestine rendezvous where we’ll be asked like Snake Plisskin in Escape From New York to do some daring rescue mission with little reward for the risk. If this is meant to convey a landing as the title suggests, it’s one done after dark and in a secret location. Listen to “Landing” on YouTube and follow Mobile Steve and the Grand Slams at the links below.

facebook.com/msatgs
instagram.com/mobilestevethegrand