Norm Chambers – Queen City Sounds and Art

“Constructing my new world” by Squarewav sounds like the music you’d want to hear if you had to witness a visual representation of the reconstruction of your life in chapters. The sequenced, textural beats and melodic paces are uplifting and bright, hopeful even. The saturated synth tones mid-song are reminiscent of the work of Norm Chambers and his Panabrite project. Later in the song the distorted sounds of a robot construction crew welding, landing rivets and screws and assembling the shiny and tidy final project end the song on a satisfying note like getting closure on an ambitious project that is your life or at least a chapter that began in raw disarray but now feels like a place where you can move forward with confidence and integrity. Listen to “Constructing my new world” on Spotify where the rest of the Beautiful digital, construct my world EP dropped on May 3, 2024 and follow Squarewav at the links provided.

Squarewav on Bandcamp

Squarewav on Instagram

Deth Rali, photo by Julianna Photography

Deth Rali’s 2021 album Light Levels felt like an ambitious dream pop album, orchestral in its composition and completely immersive in its soundscapes. The band’s latest single “Candle in the Dark” immediately feels like it’s organized organically with subtly expansive waves of tone guided gently by finely cadenced percussion. Like you’re listening to the ghost of a memory of psychedelic fantasy movies from another decade but manifesting as as song within which one also hears echoes of 90s indiepop and whatever amalgam of dream pop phase Animal Collective, chillwave and the bright and soothing synth composition of the late, great Norm Chambers (aka Panabrite, think Soft Terminal period) probably isn’t even part of the band’s musical DNA. It’s a song that gets into your brain and you feel better for having experienced its soothing frequencies. The band regularly performs live in Denver and Colorado so if you can, witness this stuff in person for the full effect. Listen to “Candle in the Dark” on Spotify and follow Deth Rali at the links below.