SubmitHub – Queen City Sounds and Art

Abe Seiferth’s Analog Synth Infused Ambient Song “Vibrometry” is the Sound of a More Tranquil and Nurturing Future

There is a great sense of space and playfulness to Abe Seiferth’s “Vibrometry” from his new album Halo (out August 19, 2026 via Noble Circuit Records). A spare and overlapping rhythm with a melodic, wide-ranging sequence in vibrant, lightly distorted tones cycles through with touches of modulation in the higher frequency register that provides an evolving texture and a sense that the song isn’t simply a programmed piece that runs without variation. The song also evolves while maintaining a sense of uplift established from the beginning. Fans of Norm Chambers particularly 2012’s Soft Terminal will appreciate how the song sounds like a future time when we’ve shed inherently destructive technologies and social constructs and have the psychological and physical space and sense of wholeness to explore further the subtle grandeur of the universe and the possibilities of the human imagination. With modular synths employed there is an analog quality to the sound that conveys a tranquil energy throughout with an almost tactile gentleness. Listen to “Vibrometry” on YouTube and follow Abe Seiferth on Spotify.

Signal-23’s “Torchrite” Has the Dramatic Flourishes and Expansive Processional Mood of Epic Science Fiction

Signal-23 seem to channel a touch of the percussive, low end heavy pulse of Clark or earlier Weval on “Torchrite” from EP2 (out August 28, 2026). It has a processional and darkly triumphant feel. The descending scale that climbs back down on the next iteration with more dramatic flourishes that land on outwardly expansive, distorted drones. In a little over two minutes the song conjures a sense of the epic and the enigmatic like music for a science fiction classic that has yet to be rendered in a widely accessible cinematic form. Like something based on an Ursula K. LeGuin novel or Iain M. Banks. Something with grandeur that stirs the imagination as the song’s vibrant tones, finely accented rhythms and creatively colored melodies. Listen to “Torchrite” on Spotify and follow Signal-23 at the links below.

Signal-23 on Instagram

Signal-23 on Bandcamp

Milk St.’s Slackery Jangle Rock Single “Good Grief” Attempts to Make Sense Out of a Messy Life

The title track to Milk St.’s “Good Grief” is accompanied by a music video that looks like the opening sequence to a kind of elevated coming of age horror film akin to Talk to Me. Musically it sounds like a gloriously slackery kin to late 80s Flaming Lips, early Beck or even early Ween had those bands come up through 2000s indie rock and 2010s garage psych and indie pop. Though driven by jangle-y acoustic guitar and intentionally off key vocals that have their own, charming musical logic. We hear turntable scratches and flourishes of vocal delivery clearly inspired by hip-hop without strictly being rapped. The life depicted in the lyrics and in the video seems to be one of a dissolute life in search of meaning but accepting things as they are and turning a lifestyle into artistic expression to give it coherent accessible form. If it’s not supposed to have a kernel of humor the song and video nevertheless conveys a sense of the absurdity of life. Watch the video for “Good Grief” on YouTube and follow Milk St. at the links provided.

Milk St. on Facebook

Milk St. on Instagram

Deniz Cuylan’s Mythical Dream Pop Single “Big Blue” Evokes a Sense of a Cultivated Inner Life

“Big Blue” by Deniz Cuylan sounds like music from a cult fantasy story from Iceland. The sequenced bell tones carrying rhythm and some of the melody seem to run out ahead of the main section of the story like guiding lights along a pathway at night. Strings and harmonic tones course through the song like winds of tone creating a dream like, otherworldly mood as Sarah La Puerta’s elfin vocals provide a warm human emotional coloring relating a story of a garden in the ocean as a metaphor for a cultivated inner life and shared experiences. It’s a song that is both soothing while acknowledging melancholic moods and personal emotional challenges with its gentle, layered textures and hypnotic interweave of near abstract melody. Listen to “Big Blue” on Spotify and follow Deniz Cuylan at the links below.

Deniz Cuylan on Facebook

Deniz Cuylan on Instagram

Dis Fig’s Mix of Ancient and Industrial Sounds on “Psaltery” Generates a Great Sense of Discomfort and Catharsis

Dis Fig centers a sound like hammered dulcimer but is In fact a plucked zither that gives the title on “Psaltery.” In the beginning we hear that sound alongside textural sounds flowing in the background. Then her vocals come in also tracing the emotional edges of the song and building a framework within which the emotional weight of the song can expand. Felicia Chen’s voice nearly cracks with the force of feeling as the song progresses and the sounds of organic percussion in wood and metal join what feels like a ritual procession of sound. Soon enough low end bursts seem to dominate the space preparing us for Chen’s caterwaul and cascade of cathartic release in relentless shocks of vocal outpouring. The song combines the ancient with the modern but to evoke primal feelings that link vast periods of human history and experience and shakes the listener out of any state of comfort in a time when when comfort can be a luxury. Listen to “Psaltery” on Spotify and follow Dis Fig on Instagram. The album What To Make Of These Mortal Hands releases October 23, 2026 via Thrill Jockey Records for digital download, LP and streaming.

The Wheel Workers Hope Beyond Hope For a Future For the Human Race Post-Authoritarian Takeover on Psychedelic Prog Pop Single “One More Thing To Say”

The Wheel Workers, photo by Chad Fontenot

“One More Thing To Say” is the title track to The Wheel Workers’ forthcoming album. Originally written in 2006 with the album essentially unfinished when the band broke up for awhile. But 20 years later with reworked and re-recorded songs it turns out the themes of authoritarianism are unfortunately even more relevant now with fascism ascendant globally. The song with its layers of atmosphere and melody around a solid rhythm and expert pacing is somehow reminiscent of a psychedelic pop band of the 90s coupled with King Crimson circa “Elephant Talk” or Hawkwind in the period represented by the album Quark, Strangeness and Charm. Spectral bell tones drift through as a melody while guitars sketch textures and Steven Higginboth sings about a world being dismantled by power mad political leaders who seem to be guided by nothing but ego and self-dealing but feigning vision except that execution of which is chaos and destruction. Higginbotham’s equally introspective and passionate vocals are reminiscent of Peter Gabriel in moments adding to the art rock feel of the song. But it is a song for the current moment sounding both on edge and clinging to the faintest of hope to navigate perilous times. The music video is part animated and collage stop motion depicting Ruben Ramires traversing the troubled earth and witnessing war erupting and perhaps the final conflict that ends everything. Surely a legitimate concern when a certain American president is talking about using nuclear weapons and the leader of a nation formerly part of the most powerful “communist” nation on earth is hinting and the same. We can only hope none of that comes to pass and that more humane heads prevail. Though the song has a touch of menace and urgency it also suggests that being aware and taking action with a little luck might get us through to better times. Watch the video for “One More Thing To Say” on YouTube and follow The Wheel Workers at the links provided.

The Wheel Workers on Facebook

The Wheel Workers on Instagram

Jupe Jupe’s “Down With the Setting Sun” Leans Into the Cathartic Potential of Melancholic Melodies to Get Through Dark Times

Jupe Jupe’s new single “Down With the Setting Sun” and its music video looks like it was conceived and shot in the space where the band brings ideas to solidify from feelings and sentiments into the kind of mood the band has excelled at up to now. In the video we see scenes from the Stardate Records studio with engineer Jack Knight on camera juxtaposed with footage from the air and from nature often in black and white to convey a stark sense of wonder and isolation. The song is melancholic but with a touch of emotional urgency fitting themes of the ways in which people can accidentally hurt each other in a relationship in times of elevated tension and a yearning to keep connection even though that hurt seems to weigh heavily in moments. The song doesn’t offer solutions but expresses a complex sentiment with musical elegance. Sure the post-punk style and its lonely piano figure is reminiscent of later period The Sound but not many bands do and The Sound is a group that too wrote songs about feelings that are more nuanced and deep with an ear for how leaning into melancholy can help you get through the darker times. Watch the video for “Down With the Setting Sun” on YouTube and follow Seattle’s Jupe Jupe at the links provided.

jupejupemusic.com

Jupe Jupe on Twitter

Jupe Jupe on Facebook

Jupe Jupe on Instagram

The Body and Cel Genesis Alchemize an Urgent Industrial Doom on “Candy Crush”

The Body and Cel Genesis, photo by Chris Danko

In its tradition of unique collaborations, experimental heavy duo The Body teams up with Oakland’s Cel Genesis for Whole Wide World (out November 13, 2026 via Thrill Jockey). Lead track “Candy Crush” doesn’t sound like an alternative soundtrack to the video game so much as a haunted, menacing environment of texture, pointillist simmering sounds in the dark with The Body’s Chip King’s high pitched, alien wail in the beginning before the song engages into a sustained eruption of industrial beats and seething distortion through which King and Cal Genesis’ Pauline Poreroso with her feral and urgent vocals seem to call and response through torrents of sound and into a period of the song that sounds like an evacuation alarm pulses. It comes off like an especially intense and heavy digital hardcore song that fans of Realicide and Machine Girl would appreciate if not already great appreciators of how The Body seems to be able to adapt their sonic imagination to every one of its many collaborative albums and songs. The true fusion of classic The Body’s industrialized doom and a more electronic aesthetic one saw not so long ago in their album with Dis Fig (Orchards of a Futile Heaven, 2024) but this is as inspired as that and a challenge to The Body to expand into territory is hadn’t been previously in working with Cel Genesis. Listen to “Candy Crush” on Spotify and follow The Body on Instagram.

Fumiro Kaneko’s Retro New Age Single “who is behind me” is Like Upbeat Theme Music For a Thriller Montage

Fumiro Kaneko evokes the sounds of late 80s New Age music on “who is behind me.” But with an update on the rhythms with low key trap beats providing some texture and solidity to the bright layers of electronics. Percussive crystalline tones carry the main ascending melody alongside some electronic flute. It could sound like some kind of corporate instructional video music except the title suggests a different interpretation like upbeat music to contrast with a sense of menace and surveillance in a thriller. It has the pacing of a montage scene in which the protagonist notices they’re being followed by someone but not sure who that is or what their intentions might be so a path is pursued to give time to pick up any identifying details before realizing maybe it was a coincidence and not a nefarious encounter. But the contrast between the title and the light and playful mood of the music and its almost retro New Age aesthetic lends it a complex emotional resonance one doesn’t often encounter. Listen to “who is behind me” on Spotify and follow Fumiro Kaneko on Instagram.

Badjokes’ Fusion of UK Garage and IDM on “I Know U” Pulls You in With Melancholic Urgency

With “I Know U” Badjokes blends of classic UK garage melody and fast-paced rhythms, chopped and processed vocals and a dark, moody atmospheric elements. The combined sounds with distorted bass that flares out of the central flow and warping drones lend the song a sense of melancholic urgency and the energy to pull oneself out of a low point of mood. The diversity of the rhythmic arrangements may remind a keen listener of early IDM like those early Future Sound of London tracks and late 90s trance. Or more recent artists like the first couple of Disclosure records or Dirty Vegas but with a more frenetic and complex beat structure. Whatever touchstones seem apt the song is immediately captivating, ends at just the right time and all but demands a re-listen. Check out the song for yourself on Spotify and follow Badjokes at the links below.