SubmitHub – Page 109 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Susie Suh’s Video for “Blood Moon” Gives Voice to a Yearning for Global Reconciliation and Healing

Susie Suh’s new video for the song “Blood Moon” follows the Fall 2021 release of her album Invisible Love. The production on the song centers her expressive voice giving expression to a yearning for resolution and meaning in a time and in a world where so many things seem in constant flux. The video shows Suh walking the the edges of a volcanic crater in Hawaii with mist arising from the steam emanating from the crater. Suh holds a wind chime which is used in sound therapy tuned to the four elements and in the imagery we see earth, water, air and an implied fire coming together at a point where change is a constant and inevitable and often irresistible. Suh invokes this concept in her song and the ways in which we can learn to live in harmony with natural forces as a lesson for how we might approach forces of change in the human world even though those seem just as beyond anyone’s immediate control though more so than we can influence when a volcano will erupt or the cycle of solar flares and other natural phenomena. And yet you hear in Suh’s resonant voice and the flow of synth tones around her the admission that she doesn’t know everything about the situations or how to address them and that in doing so opening up to possible paths through them and productive ways of engaging not dissimilar to the humility humans should have toward nature and not assume that our constructs of ego and identity can overcome all obstacles through sheer energetic willpower. But these conceptual considerations of the song aside it is a gorgeously soaring work of deeply atmospheric and emotionally refined experimental pop that is moving in its sense of wonder and ache for resolution. Watch the video for “Blood Moon” on YouTube and follow Susie Suh at the links below.

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The People Versus’ Video for “Ocean Family” is Like a Sophistipop Segment in an A24 Supernatural Thriller Musical Yet to Be

The People Versus, photo courtesy the artists

If not for the Alice Edwards’ melodious vocals and the upbeat and even bouncy jangle pop song in which they frolic one might get a very different impression of The People Versus song “Ocean Family” based on the music video. The band is awash in turquoise light and mostly looking like they’re in a trance performing music like an unlikely band that survived the sinking of a ship and cursed to perform lilting folk sophistipop for all eternity at the bottom of the ocean. Given prospects for the world now that may not be such a horrible fate. And the lyrics seem like a love song of a sort or certainly loving but it waxes sinister and reveals itself as a possessive love song as conceived from the perspective of a long-lived or immortal being whether a ghost haunting the aforementioned wreck or a goddess or a similarly appointed being. The music video along with the lyrics and music provide contrasting layers of meaning that you might expect from an A24 short film or a segment in an unlikely, supernatural musical greenlit by that production company. Perhaps it will be and maybe The People Versus will be brought on board. But whatever the potential of the whole concept of this song and video it’s a kind of ear worm that pushes the UK folk band past its presumed wheelhouse into the realm of art pop music and fans of Swing Out Sister and Rubblebucket will probably find the track to their liking. Watch the video on YouTube and follow The People Versus at the links provided.

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The Polyphonic Spree Nudges Us Toward Living Rather Than Existing on the Uplifting “Got Down To The Soul”

The Polyphonic Spree, photo by Marisa Halbach

The Polyphonic Spree is rightfully known for the orchestral spectacle of its shows featuring sometimes dozens of people on stage including locals when the band tours. What can get lost in that completely unique live show presentation is the impressive songwriting and heartfelt observations on life and the way it can yes hit you with heartbreak but also the ways you can seemingly find emotional and spiritual fortification and uplift in unexpected places and thoughts that strike you at exactly the right time. And that’s at the core of its single “Got Down To The Soul” in which singer and band director Tim DeLaughter describes a personal process of “breaking the spell, feeling the light inside” by connecting with your core instead of being weighed down and held back by focusing on the superfluous things that don’t serve us but which we are told to value. DeLaughter and what becomes a chorus of voices in the gentle flow of uplifting, bright melodies encourages us to find our future “by design” and “by the light” and that in trusting in some inner sense of authentic self the world around us tends to support our efforts. One hopes that nefarious types would have more doubt about the rightness of their actions but too often everyone else is filled with doubt and falls into a life more mundane and unfulfilling conforming to a standard of aspiration and living that doesn’t suit them and this song seems aimed at giving a boost to anyone down on life and going through the motions when they know deep down even modest mediocrity is a choice and its more inspirational to be at least somewhat on the path you’d prefer. Listen to “Got Down To The Soul” on YouTube and follow The Polyphonic Spree at the links provided.

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The Tracks Take Us to the Edge of the Emotional Abyss and Back on the Swampy Post-punk of “Your Bike”

Dylan Dixon’s video treatment for The Tracks’ song “Your Bike” seems to tap into cultural touchstones like the Circle Jerks’ lounge scene in Repo Man and late 80s Love and Rockets comics with the foggy, dark basement noir menace of Green Room. The music an amalgam of bluesy post-punk with psychedelic saxophone in the latter half of the song adding to a sense of escalating disorder is difficult to compare to much else except for maybe The Dirtbombs and Ty Segall. It has that grit and a touch of the otherworldly. But The Tracks are more dusky and more atmospheric overall on this song and on the rest of its recently released full length Paredón Blanco (out July 29, 2022).In the video we see the band playing in a basement club where some conflict is about to go down and that tense energy permeates the scene and crackles in the vibe of the song as well. For a perhaps more contemporary comparison in terms of mood and aesthetic one might say there’s a touch of the lurid and decayed that one hears in more recent offerings from Iceage. Whatever the ingredients to the band’s music might be “Your Bike” stretches out and sways in its fluid progressions and tinged with a soulful darkness that is missing from too much modern music and a willingness to go to the edge of emotional breakdown and peer over before pulling back to give us some of that otherside spirit. Watch the video on YouTube and follow The Tracks, based out of Los Angeles, at the links below.

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Floyd Zion’s Industrial Hip-Hop Song “Black Hoodie” is a Vivid Peek Into Urban Nihilism

Floyd Zion finds the resonant nexus of introspective synth pop, industrial gangster rap and minimalist lo-fi production on the “Black Hoodie” single. In the track’s one minute nineteen seconds it is so concise in telling the story of a young man perhaps doomed by his circumstances because “I was raised just to never give a fuck.” At a young age learning to use a gun, violence and attitude to get what he’s been conditioned to want and to garner the symbols of success through a channel so dysfunctional and abusive yet brutally effective that it’s a self-reinforcing lifestyle that perpetuates the victimization of self and others. The production on the song is somehow both so intimate and stark it draws you in to a deep understanding of the worldview depicted and how it’s just a natural consequence of a world that denies you your core human needs and dignity from a young age and how adapting to surviving and feeling like one has power and the ability to satiate one’s desires immediately is more than simply seductive. The song is completely lean and is somehow imbued with mood and atmosphere. Listen to “Black Hoodie” on YouTube and follow Floyd Zion on Instagram.

Doo Crowder’s Tenderly Heartbreaking “Goodbye My Favorite” Is a Direct and Powerful Evocation of Loss and Love

Doo Crowder sounds so close and holding on by fragile threads on “Goodbye My Favorite.” He seems to be singing a song to a recently lost loved one. With just his clear and emotionally ragged voice gently delivering words so tender and heartbreaking it’s easy forget the elegant and spare guitar work that sets the perfect timbre to what might be described as a desolated yet loving tribute. When Crowder sings “So I pray we might reunite/As teardrops fall/Each one a memory/Of what you shared with me/May I cry them all” it’s so simple and direct and devastating that it slips past your defenses because it has no agenda other than communicating a feeling we hope we never have to experience but we all have or we all will someday. In giving voice to that pure expression of loss Crowder honors all the feelings and memories around those words without melodrama and with no more than the absolute essential elements of songwriting. Crowder has been writing songs for years in bands like indiepop band The Dinnermints, with the sprawling indie folk orchestra Pee Pee and on his own in various incarnations of his experiments in sound including electronic, avant-garde pop but the through line is a disarming sincerity and sensitivity to his subjects and that is in full force with this song. Listen to “Goodbye My Favorite” on Spotify and connect with Crowder at the links below.

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Syzygy’s Electroclash Synth Pop Song “Justice of Mercy” Questions the Folly of Believing One’s Own Virtue has the Power to Change Anyone But Yourself

Australian electronic pop Syzygy was formed in 2019 in Melbourne when former Spotting members Rebecca Maher and Gus Kenny started to explore a more pure electronic pop sound. Going to the roots of that style of music Maher and Kenny have been deep into the aesthetics of 80s synth pop but with a more modern production style. And yet the music video for the single “Justice or Mercy” and its fantastic use of letters as pixels forming Maher’s image dancing really touches on memories of Yaz videos, the music of Human League and certainly Phil Oakey’s collaboration with Giorgio Moroder on the title song for 1984 science fiction film Electric Dreams, “Together in Electric Dreams,” and add in a touch of early Depeche Mode. The arrangements bring to mind Ladytron’s 604 album and the way the bass line is accented with the percussion. All comparisons and dissection of possible influence aside Maher’s vocals shine through with an emotional power and her minor chord shifts here and there truly help to set the track apart from a lot of other music in a similar style. They lyrics also explore a nuanced take on relationships and the folly of hoping someone will change even given consequences if they don’t feel they’ve done anything wrong. The synth melodies intertwine with the percussion and rhythm after the manner of modern electroclash and fans of Boy Harsher and Electric Youth may find this track what they’re looking for to branch out into new music. Watch the video for “Justice or Mercy” on YouTube and follow Syzygy at the links below. Look for the album Justice or Mercy due out later in 2022.

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The ttypes’ “73 78 Honey” is a Blissful Reimagining of Beck’s Remix of Philip Glass Compositions “NYC 73-78”

Perhaps it’s as much a commentary of the modern era of electronic music as it is an interesting experiment but ttypes doing “73 78 Honey” as a reworking of Beck’s remix of Philip Glass compositions as “NYC 73-78” is not merely meta. Adding vocals, processing others, changing the focus and tenor of the music but not the expansive spirit the elements of the song are brought into focus and rendered into the kind of psychedelic pop song one might have expected out of the Beach Boys at their most experimental or Animal Collective when aiming at a more classical sonic architecture. The repeated choruses swim in musical sunlight and in the end fade out blissfully into the infinite distance like a flight home into the rising sun. Listen to “73 78 Honey” on YouTube and follow ttypes at the links below.

Turquoise Delivers a Thrilling Dream Pop Call to Cultivating One’s Better, More Vital Instincts on “Le Bruit”

“Le Bruit,” the companion single to “Lumio,” by Belgian shoegaze/dream pop band Turquoise combines a brisk pace with hazy melodies and a defiant spirit. The lyrics seem to outline rediscovering something within oneself, an irresistible noise, thus the song title, that represents a more spirited part of our personality that has until now been buried and obscured by social conditioning and the ways in which we make a habit of departing from what is at the core of our being and which drive us to do something worthwhile in life rather than simply fit in with the dictates of a society and economic system that needs compliance rather than people connected to their humanity and living a life that has a personal connected with a community. The lyrics are in French but plugging the words into a translation site on a search engine reveals to the English speaker the lyrics suggesting speaking about these things rather than burying them can be cathartic and a way not to be isolated and despairing. Even if you don’t subscribe to any ideological thinking even in these times when authoritarianism and its culture is operating completely in the open anyone can relate to the desire to live free, to speak our truths and to live in a world where basic human rights are the bottom rung and not an aspiration. Musically it is reminiscent of Stereolab in a more pop mode with that always appealing fusion of forceful yet playful and expansive energy and for that matter in melding that with socially uplifting content. Listen to “Le Bruit” on YouTube and follow Turquoise at the links provided.

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Macro/micro’s “All Possible Worlds” is Like the Opening Music to a Future David Fincher Tech Noir

Macro/micro’s “All Possible Worlds” sounds like a more deep house inflected, futuristic take on Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer (Precursor).” Its quivering, hovering tones and rhythms changing in texture and tone as though put through a very controlled bit of phasing so that it can pulse into full high definition sound or muted and blurred out in the background out of focus, switching places with a flurry of distorted white noise as a lonely piano figure draws out in lingering chords like something from a late period Talk Talk album recontextualized to preserve the stark mood but enhancing the sense of isolation. It’s the kind of track that makes one think this is what it might sound like if Demdike Stare was convinced to write opening music for a David Fincher noir much as the aforementioned NIN song appeared on the soundtrack to Se7en. Listen to “All Possible Worlds” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the Things Will Never Be The Same Again with other fascinatingly dark techno material and follow Macro/micro at the links below.

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