SubmitHub – Page 117 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Anastave’s Darkly Etherea “Sacrifice” Gets Behind the Eyes of a Narcissistic Abuser

Anastave brings a darkly ethereal, soothing sound to the “Sacrifice” single. The hushed vocals sound so up close and intimate and the background synth melodies and textures sound like a needle was dropped on a record made for the occasion to play while the vocals were recorded. The lyrics seem like a weird series of short diary entries written to someone but perhaps in the style where the words are a manifestation, a summary, of sentiments and words spoken to the author like assuming the persona of an abuser to make more sense of a challenging situation as a vehicle for therapy through art. Though the song does sound very much like it’s all but whispering in your ear there is a sense of spaciousness like taking the time to speak one’s truth into actual space instead of keeping them merely to yourself and even though the song’s lyrics speak of toxic interactions and a terribly controlling relationship down to threats of violence and holding a lethal consequence offered if the abuser feels the abused is worthy. In the chorus there is talk of sacrificing everything for the malignant narcissist and their own expressions of a deranged sense of personal aggrievement which seems so relevant to social dynamics we have largely left unexamined as a culture. It goes to some darkly personal places and in doing so with the level of honesty and reality demonstrated allows for the truth to shine rather than get to hide because of one’s own internal censor and social cover for horrible behavior serve as an illusion to cover over the harm done. The luminously airy composition is dreamlike in its delivery of its layers of mood and in being so easily accessible it makes the content easier to take on its own terms. Listen to “Sacrifice” on Spotify and follow Anastave at the links provided.

Anastave on Instagram

Anastave LinkTree

Lo Artiz’s Downtempo Electro Soul Single “11:11” is a Musical Salve for the Anxious Mind

Lo Artiz’s arrangements on the “11:11” single uses a subtle, sparkly tonal backdrop that sound like winking starlight as the setting for the song’s deeply contemplative tenor. The song has layers of vocal melody like something one might expect in a electro soul song akin to something you’d hear on an Erykah Badu record. The song is about sorting out the ways a person struggles with the anxieties that haunt them without allowing those disruptive waves of mood to circumscribe one’s entire life. But in those moments when your personal demons hit so deep into your mind that you have a difficult time shaking off their grip sometimes you really need some things to hold on to to pull yourself out of those dark corners of the soul and sometimes it’s the ability to dream of a different time and place for yourself, sometimes little activities and joys that serve as the scaffolding of your psyche so that even if you fall far into personal darkness you can at least have something that stimulates your brain beyond its self-immolating fixations. The recursive pulse of the rhythm with ethereal tones that unravel anxious reactions are like a salve themselves especially with Lo Artiz’s soulful and commanding vocals that serve less as a demand for better for yourself than a hypnotic reminder that the worst moments in your head are not the entirety of who you are and that even without insipid positivity and bravado that you can in face find a way to go on even when you don’t think you can. Listen to “11:11” on Spotify and follow Lo Artiz at the links provided.

Lo Artiz on Facebook

Lo Artiz on YouTube

Lo Artiz on Instagram

loartiz.com

Conflict at Serenity Pools’ “faraway” is Like the Mysterious Opening Sequence to a Lo-Fi Cosmic Science Fiction Noir

Conflict at Serenity Pools, photo courtesy the artist

The rippling sideways cascade of sounds and flow of texture in the beginning of “faraway” by Conflict at Serenity Pools pairs well with the rippling painterly naturaly imagery in the music video. Plants warp and move in tandem with the arc of the music, like a sine wave form treatment on the footage. Together it reinforces the song’s sense of otherworldliness, discovery and serenity. We hear birds in the background like we’re catching these views in the early morning hours before the beat of the sun drives all creatures into seeking shade and cooler places. It has the feel of the introduction of something. The organic atmospheric quality with resonant bell-like tones echoing and the sound of a breeze as background distorted drone suggests an old 70s, Utopian science fiction movie. Without invoking library music and media archaeology the song conveys a the mood of a neglected aesthetic like mixing avant-garde folk with IDM in a way that hasn’t already been done by Boards of Canada. Like an experimental music video shot to Hi-8 and rediscovered decades hence with no identifying markers and the technology used to make it the only signifier of context. If the intro to an album is supposed to get you to listen to more or the opening of a film to get you to commit to viewing the whole this song with its attendant video accomplish just that.

Conflict at Serenity Pools on TikTok

Conflict at Serenity Pools on Instagram

The Bodies Obtained Combine Techno, IDM and Post-punk Aesthetics for the Evocatively Intricate “Do Nothing, Be Nothing”

The Bodies Obtained (presumably the name of the project is named after the lyric from the Joy Division song “Day of the Lords”) title its single “Do Nothing, Be Nothing” and invoke expectations of something that might sound like a Discharge song. But no, it’s a wonderful combination of post-punk and IDM-infused techno like a Depeche Mode and Clark mash-up. Its sound brings together textural tones and layers of rhythm like a melodic electronic bass line given a percussive quality so that the driving dynamic of the song seems to vivid with multiple through lines that carry an irresistible aggregate of momentum even as the song diverges from what is initially established as the main musical theme and then consolidates the strands of sonic ideas by the end. We’ve heard elements of this song before in other styles of music but it’s not often we hear a project truly thread together minimal techno, post-punk’s moodiness and IDM’s propulsive atmospheric qualities in such an intricate yet uncomplicated way with strong musical lines that complement each other so effectively. Listen to “Do Nothing, Be Nothing” on Spotify and follow The Bodies Obtained on Soundcloud.

Death Hags Offers a Soothing Haven for the Realization of Dreams on “This ∞ Mind”

Death Hags brings to the single “This ∞ Mind” (from the album Big Grey Sun #4) a rather tonally vivid dream pop sensibility. There are ethereal melodies but there are jagged edges that give definition to their character that are bit like lightning in a storm allowing delineation of the boundaries of clouds in a thunderstorm. The album itself is a bit of a journey through luminously dreamlike soundscapes with a touch of fuzzy psychedelia providing some bite to the soothing aesthetic of the songwriting. This song in the beginning is reminiscent of Midwife’s 2020 album Forever but rather than the soul shearing heartache the track feels like the other side of that emotional black hole and a contemplation of possibilities that one hopes for and seem within reach if you truly take the time to plot some trajectories for your energies in making what are now mere hopes and dreams happen. Watch the gorgeously mysterious and colorful music video for “This ∞ Mind” on YouTube and follow Death Hags at the links below.

Death Hags on Twitter

Death Hags on Instagram

Graffiti Welfare Guide’s the Mind to a More Blissful State With Hypnogogic Pop Single “Just Follow”

Graffiti Welfare’s single “Just Follow” sits somewhere between gentle, drifty psychedelia and ambient IDM dream pop. Think a lo-fi and more chill Big Black Delta and Washed Out. Melody and texture flows through the song like water and wind, pooling in eddies of sound before dissolving into silence leaving the lightly echoing vocals which haunt the track like the voice of a lingering spirit. In moments it’s reminiscent of parts of The Helio Sequence circa Young Effectuals with the blissed out vocals and layers of hazy melody. Whatever the exact shape, impact and texture of the music the music video for the song is brimming with signifiers synced with what we’re hearing with vocals coming in paired with plants coming into bloom, the vocals represented by abstract fireworks float over the rippling texture of flowing water in a river. Guitar too accompany the burst of blooms and give way to percussion counting the moments as the whole takes a casual pace, dreamlike in a steady flow of soothing energy. It is like a dynamic collage of pop songcraft and symbolic imagery. As the title of the song suggests sometimes it’s best to go with a benevolent flow rather than overthink. Watch the video for “Just Follow” on YouTube, give the rest of the new album Revolving Shores when it releases to Spotify on June 17, 2002 and follow Graffiti Welface at the links provided.

Graffiti Welfare on Twitter

Graffiti Welfare on Instagram

theWorst’s “Hurt Forever” is a Raw and Powerful Expression of Radical Vulnerability and a Will to Self Love

“Hurt Forever” showcases theWorst’s ability to deliver blistering melodies as expressions of a sensitivity abused by bad faith actors far too many times. But also not being willing to lose that vulnerability that makes one open to oneself and others in spite the of the risk of running afoul of people who think you’ll just take their abuse without comment. Joshua James Hand’s video treatment for the song has Brooke Binion in a mental health facility with other people also often stuck in such places when family and society doesn’t know what to do with people who have hit some sort of breaking point often as a normal reaction to extraordinarily harmful situations. We see the stark conditions and the surreal quality of that experience until that imagery and that of being in a rock band is juxtaposed perhaps revealing how creative work and pursuing one’s non-destructive passions can be a way out of that state as a positive way to build the psychological infrastructure to sustain a functional existence. Maybe rock music as therapy is a bit on the nose but it really works here because there is no suggestion that having creative outlets for your psychic agony is going to solve all your problems or soothe the tender places where you still hurt from a lifetime of abuse, self-inflicted and otherwise. When the end of the song comes and Binion is cloaked in a plastic drape singing quietly with only an acoustic about a yearning for genuine connection after much of the rest of the song raging with channeled frustration at having no control over one’s life and no meaningful agency it hits perhaps hardest because it’s where the anger and furious energy are set aside to express what everyone wants and needs with the simplicity of an unvarnished truth. Watch the video for “Hurt Forever” on YouTube and follow theWorst at the links below where you can also listen to the rest of The Worst’s new album Yes Regrets with released on 6/2/22.

theWorst’s Link Tree

theWorst on Twitter

theWorst on Facebook

theWorst on Instagram

Lake Over Fire’s Gritty Horror-Themed Music Video for “The Devil Provides” Has Tobe Hooper Vibes

Lake Over Fire, photo courtesy the artists

Lake Over Fire’s video for “The Devil Provides” looks like lost footage of the movie Tobe Hooper made on sixteen millimeter after the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and discarded in a shed rediscovered nearly 50 years hence. Or the sequel to Antrum. The grainy image quality certainly looks like we’re seeing something forbidden and when the bikers head out into the desert with a cloaked figure, death-like in appearance, looking on the scene takes on a sinister aspect. The music itself is like a strange mix of post-punk, blues rock, crust punk and Dead Kennedys-esque dynamics with vocals that cut through to tell this story of a person who is afflicted with a mysterious condition and fascinated with the darker side of the psyche. Where it seems the pulp storytelling aspect and tongue in cheek seems obvious is in the subtitles that come later in the video separate from the proper lyrics when The Devil makes an appearance with a company of demons to enact a ritual and the dialogue is subtitled as well as the words “[epic guitar solo]” when there is in fact such a tasty performance. Humorous aspects aside there’s no doubting the song doesn’t sit neatly in some predictable genre niche and the aesthetics of the video as well as the production is as good as any of the better, more believable found footage horror films to have come out in the last thirty years. Watch the video for yourself on YouTube and connect with Maine-based Lake Over Fire on Instagram.

Making Movies’ Video For “Sala De Los Pecadores” is a Celebration of the Seedier Side of Hedonism

Making Movies, photo by Black Haven Visuals

Making Movies lives up to its moniker with the video for “Sala De Los Pecadores.” Think like a Quentin Tarantino film with characters of questionable morals and character partying in a hotel room dimly lit with colored lights and at one point miniature versions of the band is playing from inside a microwave. The music is a lively hybrid of styles: cumbia, rock, salsa, blues and psychedelia. It’s reminiscent of a Latin and Afro-Cuban version of Gogol Bordello. The English meaning of the title of the song is “Hall of Sinners” and the video and energy of the song is a celebration of behavior that transgresses conventional morality and mores because most people engage in some form of sin while many don’t recognize the concept as a part of a rational human life and accept these indulgences as part of the broad spectrum of a life lived to the fullest whether or not they choose to participate in specific activities. Watch the video for “Sala De Los Pecadores” on YouTube.

Evil Gima Chart the Flow of Natural Forces on Engrossing Ambient Track “IT/AM”

One has to imagine that Evil Gima conceived of the song and video for “IT/AM” in some sort of creative tandem. The sounds themselves suggest spaciousness and texture like the snow and water droplets depicted in the video. The piano figure drifts while plinks of metallic sounds like processed windchimes or stringed instrument plucking and slowly resolving drones convey a languid atmosphere. It’s like the analog of natural processes unfolding like the accumulation of snow depicted in the video as it forms and melts into water and fills into ponds then evaporates and the cycle begins again. It’s a little like an orchestral piece Anthony Braxton might have written around the turn of the 70s if he had access to a robust electronic palette of sounds. That organic improvisational way of arranging noises in abstract, conceptual fashion that made him a rebel then and a style outside orthodox music making that ambient music and abstract free jazz aficionados appreciate now. Watch the video for “IT/AM” on YouTube and follow Evil Gima on the project’s website linked below.

evilgima.com