SubmitHub – Page 107 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Ark White and Lisa Ojda Collaborate on the Psychedelic and Haunted Music Video for Freak Folk Art Pop Single “Crave”

The cinemaography by Lisa Ojda for Ark White’s “Crave” music video is something right out of an A24 psychedelic horror movie. And the song itself is like a freak folk, art rock inflected pop song that sounds like something written in that frame of consciousness between sleep and being awake, the hypnogogic state. The guitar line goes off track and trails off now and then while maintaining an informal rhythm, the vocals have a touch of effects on them to give them a slight, short echo and synths sweep and swell in the background for most of the song except to mark transitions of mood and theme as the narrator of the song tries to make sense of a relationship that has turned from nurturing and loving with a deep connection to something that has dissolved leaving at least one of the people involved feeling adrift in the heart. Musically the song is reminiscent of Current 93 and Crushed Velvet Apocalypse period The Legendary Pink Dots in its mysteriousness, vulnerability and mystical/existential pondering. Watch the video for “Crave” on YouTube and follow Ark White on Spotify.

Easy Sleeper’s Jangle Pop “Dream Prison” is a Gentle But Serious Declaration of Personal Liberation Within

Easy Sleeper, photo courtesy the artists

Easy Sleeper couches “Dream Prison” in an energetically delicate melodies. The jangly/twee guitar sounds work together in a fascinating way in which the rhythm line of the guitar is intertwined with the lead in mutually supportive dynamics allowing the vocals to shine across the whole song while leaving the space in the last third of the song for the bass to accent the fiery and warping twin guitar solos. The interplay throughout the song is subtle but evocative and even though the lyrics seem like a gentle but serious declaration of personal liberation beginning with freeing one’s own psyche of the thoughts and internalized narratives that keep you from living as full a life as you can the structure and emotional coloring of the song makes that process seem easily attainable. The lead vocals are Andy Partridge-esque and the music reminiscent of Nonsuch period XTC while resonating with the style of current jangle shoegazers like Moodlighting, DIIV and Letting Up Despite Great Faults. Listen to “Dream Prison” on YouTube and follow Easy Sleeper at the links below.

Easy Sleeper on TikTok

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Lo Artiz’s Ambient Hip-Hop Track “Softly Pt. 1” is a Free Verse Map of Inner Thoughts Going Into Action

Lo Artiz’s “Softly Pt. 1” single sounds like something in a constant state of flux, breaking down, rebuilding, gently. Its lush arrangement of textural percussion and processed tones that sound like they’re lingering and melting off her strong yet whispery vocals. It all sounds like you’re getting to spend some time taking a casual walk through another person’s dreams as the mind processes streams of thought as motes of feeling and ideas swirl around and drift off to take on a life of their own for a bright, flickering moment before resolving into other shapes and notions and emotions. Her words come off like free verse existential poetry assembling thoughts to properly frame and consider while engaging with the will to take action on this constellation of interconnected thought patterns. It’s a gorgeous map of inner space the likes of which one doesn’t often hear. Listen to “Softly Pt. 1” on Spotify and follow Lo Artiz at the links provided.

Lo Artiz on TikTok

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Lo Artiz on Bandcamp

Kris Cherry’s “Salamander Song” is an Immersive Psych Folk Allegory About Racism and Bigotry

“Salamander Song” sounds like a nature preserve in the beginning. But then Kris Cherry’s song introduces an acoustic guitar that carries a real percussive and expressive rhythm as the song goes on with spare percussion often only a shaker and with backing vocals augmenting Cherry’s luminous singing. The song is like a psych folk ballad about the “salamander man” who lived among the community but had webbed feet and scaly skin and was shunned by almost the rest of the society depicted in the song because people feared his appearance even though he was soft of voice and had a “heart of gold.” He tries to assimilate but is rejected and humiliated at every turn and when he tries to secure employment merely to survive he is denied even that and he has to resort to theft to simply eat and barely get by. In terms of the dreamlike quality of the song it’s reminiscent of the kind of thing Harry Nilsson was doing on the 1971 concept album The Point! But here the obvious inference one can make is that the tale of the “salamander man” is an allegory for racism and the way it imposes limitations on so many and others them so that they have no choice sometimes but choose to operate outside society’s established rules and often on its edges and beyond its boundaries to simply survive much less thrive. This them Cherry carries on to his remarkable new experimental folk album, the cosmically gorgeous Wonderworld out now where his use of field recordings and evocative atmospherics is entrancing. Listen to “Salamander Song” and the rest of Wonderworld on Spotify and follow Kris Cherry at the links below.

Kris Cherry on Twitter

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Tablefox’s “Give It All” Challenges You to Give Your Dreams a Go

Tablefox begin “Give It All” with a delicate and contemplative plucking of guitar strings and hovering tones and vocals that sound like they’re coming through water. Then the song kicks into a slow-building momentum that swings into ever more epic circles like a pendulum that puts the energy of the song into higher levels of sonic energy with each dynamic shift at roughly one minute intervals until the end. The song’s lyrics seem to be a mantra self-affirming one’s inner voice to persevere acting in ways that undermine your goals and disappoint yourself and past the disappointments visited upon you by others. Two thirds of the way through the song the words suggest that you can hold back and settle for something lesser in whatever it is you believe in or you can do as the title of the song suggests and as seems like a natural instinct and to give it all. And that that choice is what shapes your actions. The fiery guitar lead over the flowing distorted rhythm in the final section of the song puts it over the top in expressing what the band has chosen. Fans of Swervedriver and Catherine Wheel will appreciate the drive and layered guitar work of this song. Watch the video for “Give It All” on YouTube and follow New Zealand’s Tablefox at the links below.

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LDN Monos Presents a Playful and Uplifting Expression of the Eternal Cycle of the Universe on “Samsara”

LDN Monos takes the sound of a ritualistic chant and places it in a swim of mechanistic beats and descending bell tones in the beginning of the single “Samsara.” And in the music video we see a swim team entering into their laps, plunging into the water and creating various circles individually and together with a fluid grace paralleled with the song itself which is structured in loops and a circular dynamic of its own. As the title suggests the Hindu/Buddhist concept of the cycle of death and rebirth as reflected in great works of art and music from that region and beyond can be heard in the music and in tandem with the visuals giving it a dimensional and conceptual meaning that into and expresses universal patterns of human behavior and cognition. LDN Monos obviously wouldn’t be the first person to harness this method of using music to convey layers of meaning, his own employment of sounds in crafting what might be considered a bit of an IDM track hits as playful and uplifting like an extended jingle with only benevolent intentions and root inspirations. Watch the video for “Samsara” on YouTube and connect with the UK-based producer LDN Monos on the LinkTree below.

LDN Monos LinkTree

Kramies’ “4:44am” is a Powerful and Radical Yet Fragile and Gentle Reassessment of Work-Life Balance

There is a fragile weariness to Kramies’ single “4:44am.” One imagines it’s the kind of song written that time of day when no one should still be up and at which time no one should be waking up unless they are working the early shift at a coffee shop or on the farm or at a hospital in some mission critical capacity. Since Kramies is a producer and songwriter by trade the coffee shop gig isn’t so difficult to imagine much less being up way too late working on music, his own or that of someone else and having a spare several minutes at the end of a long day to take stock of where his personal life has been and gotten away from him. The delicate guitar strumming and textures that accompany incredibly vulnerable and raw vocals sounds off the cuff and maybe in the initial skeleton of the song it was. Is it strictly autobiographical? Who can say but it is written and performed in a manner that suggests at least emotionally it is coming from a real place of lived experience when you reach the point in a relationship at which you must face your role in its falling into dysfunction. In America and especially in the arts it’s so easy to get into the habit of self-neglect that bleeds over into the rest of your life and get so focused on the work at hand that can stretch out and take up most of your time leaving little room for self care much less the essential activities of maintaining a healthy relationship. Kramies finds that place of regret and a will to work toward making the correction in one’s habits in order to try to make things right. But there’s a layer of nuance and realism that makes the song hit with a subtly crushing force. In singing about how he hits the ground emotionally and stays down Kramies captures that feeling of failure as a human and the sense of weakness that comes from it and in singing “While I’m gone well I’ll try not to hurt myself” and encouraging his beloved that “while you’re alone will you please enjoy yourself” then later that he’ll find his way back home but “this time I won’t lose myself, lest time gets away from me again” the songwriter acknowledges this habit that is perhaps difficult to break because of the nature of his life and bemoans the possibility while also seeking to change it but not knowing how. There’s a power in that acknowledgment that speaks volumes in a seemingly simple song. When the haze of atmospheric drones comes in mid song like how your mind can feel foggy when you’re caught up in things and swept up by the momentum of your projects it’s like an expression of the way you can get into that headspace and not be aware that’s where you’re going because it feels normal. And when that all clears out in the last fourth of the song the clarity of wanting to not be trapped in that cycle returns. It’s essentially an experimental folk song but speaks directly to how we let our lives be dictated by work and how that can warp how we relate to each other without any need for didactic political, social or psychological analysis and that’s why the song hits so hard but with a compassion and spirit of gentleness for those going through these times and definitely for those experiencing the fallout. Listen to “4:44am” on Spotify and follow the critically acclaimed songwriter and producer at the links below.

Corsicana’s “The Torchbearer” is a Poignantly Observed Character Study About Shedding Dysfunctional Habits

“The Torchbearer” eases in with its gentle melody and introspective spirit. But that’s the way Corsicana has often operated. Setting a contrasting expectation with warm atmospheres and delicate textures and lyrics that offer poignant and soul baring/exposing insights. The titular character is someone who takes on family legacy and trauma needlessly like an adopted burden as part of one’s identity. The song seems to be from the perspective of someone who sees a friend psychically self-mutilating until that friend becomes consumed with the resentment of taking on the responsibility of an unspoken habit as tradition like all of the things held up as this is how we’ve always done things in this family or this culture or this society regardless of how dysfunctional and useless it has always been. But these things can be what gives us a sense of stability and continuity in times of turmoil. But none of these structures are sustainable and the final line of the song “did you catch the light through the cracks?” really articulates how you can see someone you care about cling so stubbornly to a mindset in ways that hurt them no matter what you or anyone else has said until realizations crumble that dubious foundation. The orchestral arrangements with singer and songwriter Ben Pisano on guitar, keys, synths, bass, drums, electronics and production and Darby Cicci adding doleful trumpet are reminiscent of classic Elephant 6 style indiepop. The net effect is a lush pop song that condenses an emotionally complex and sophisticated observation and a full arc of composition in just three minutes thirteen seconds and thus a fine example of economy of style. Listen to “The Torchbearer” on Spotify and follow Corsicana at the links provided.

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Azarias, Nabuddah and Sudo Black Collaborate on the Striving and Aspirational Zen of Avant Polyrhythmic Hip-Hop Track “Cross Continental”

The striving bravado of the lyrics of “Cross Continental” flows with confidence and profane creativity while delivering a Zen-like mantra about aspirations and the folly of attaching too much value to the financial currency of society. These are the kinds of lyrics one hears in plenty of hip-hop tracks but not often enough with the incredible musical backdrop on this track. Azarias, Nabuddah and Sudo Black worked together to have a song that utilized a palette of tropical sounding percussion on top of a more industrial aesthetic which of course in the early 80s was directly influenced by hip-hop production. The call-and-response vocal aspect syncs perfectly with the truly unconventional polyrhythms as the main vocal lines gives a focus and solidity to at beat that on its own is imaginative but together there is a dynamic that completely sets this song apart from a lot of hip-hop you run across day to day. Using more robust percussive sounds in the beat and not the predictable trap sounds immediately brings a vital quality worthy of the commanding and deft rap performance. Fans of turn of the century alternative hip-hop will appreciate how the song incorporates earthy subject matter with avant-garde arrangements in an incredibly accessible fashion. Listen to “Cross Continental” on Spotify.

DARLING.’s Poignantly Falling Out of Love Shoegaze Song “Midnight” Has a Sound Like the Inversion of Nostalgia

DARLING. seems to let all the tones linger into a hazy horizon on its single “Midnight.” The song feels like it was conceived of as echoing in a large space with shadowy ceilings and walls too distant to immediately discern. This has the effect of being melancholically reflective and feeling cut off from familiar people and places and left to process complicated emotions around a relationship that appears to be dissolving with nothing to fill that eroding place in your heart. What makes the song especially poignant is how how the lyrics aren’t angry, they don’t point in any directions, they just describe the sensations and the feelings of uncertainty and confusion when things don’t seem to be working the way they once were. The creative use of piano and then an emphasis on synth and rapidly shimmering, pitch shifted guitar swells and the dual vocals give a depth of expression to the song that lingers with you long after its over such is cumulative expression of sliding into a resigned loneliness that isn’t painful in a way that has an easily processed immediacy but something more common in adulthood and that is the unexpected drift that can happen in relationships that have gone on for some time and there is an inertia that has kept them going but the spirit to maintain it just isn’t there and there may not even be good, logical reasons why. Mood-wise it’s reminiscent of early Beach House but cold and sorrowful rather than warm and affectionate, like an inversion of nostalgia. Listen to “Midnight” on Spotify and follow DARLING. at the links below.

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