SubmitHub – Page 125 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“Undone” by uah is Like a Warning Transmission From a Dying Planet

“Undone” by uah begins with the sound of strings strummed for textural rather than tonal effect gives way to a saturated field of sounds. Rapid cycling movement in the field of noise and a vocal seemingly coming to you in reverse. The effect is like a Pink Floyd song, perhaps “Welcome to the Machine,” through the lens of an alternate dimension, those vocals going on to sound like something recorded using an EVP recorder while distorted synths act like the snow of an old television commandeered by an alien using archaic technology to send a desperate message that sounds like the mourning dirge of a dying planet. It’s reminiscent of one of those mysterious broadcasts from the 80s when an old school television or radio hacker would take over a station for a short period of time to transmit an enigmatic message. The song is orchestral though somewhat forbidding and almost overwhelming in the way it hits the ears yet also hypnotic in effect. It recalls an Orbit Service or Legendary Pink Dots composition but rendered in pure electronic form propelled by emotional urgency. Listen to “Undone” on Spotify, follow the acclaimed composer uah aka Usman Haque at the links below and check out the rest of his debut album Let Death Live now available.

Easy Sleeper’s “Access Reply” is Like the Early Rebellious Musings of a Corporate Cog

Easy Sleeper, photo courtesy the artists

Easy Sleeper set an unusual scene in “Access Reply” with the musings of what sounds like a cog in a corporate bureaucracy lamenting his fate in the dull end of the legal department. Guided along this path of middle American mediocrity by slinky guitar dynamics and melancholic atmospherics that almost sound sardonic in tone. Twee guitar floats into passages of playful introspection at times and helps to establish a borderline surreal tone like the theme music for the life of Griffin Dunne’s character Paul Hackett in After Hours (1985) in his everyday life when he’s not bumping into weirdos in a single night of adventure in an otherwise bland and predictable existence as a computer data entry worker at a time when that still might pay well. Musically it sounds like what Protomartyr or Pavement might do if they decided to take Patrick Bateman’s love of beige 80s pop seriously for the purposes of writing a song commenting on being a corporate drone rebelling in the ways one can and still hold down a “real” job. The line in this song that serves as a chorus “I just whisper and I’m wistful, then I hinder and I’m wasteful” really gives you a peek into the head space of the subject of the song. Maybe that hindering and being wasteful is the least dramatic form of rebellion but one that begins by speaking softly and fantasizing at least a little about the possibility of a more fulfilling life. Listen to “Access Reply” on YouTube and follow Easy Sleeper at the links below.

Easy Sleeper on TikTok

Easy Sleeper on Instagram

Julian Zyklus Evokes the Mood and Sounds of a Moonlight Swim on “Waterpiano n.2”

If you could sit at the bottom of a pool of water and look into the moonlit sky and take in the sound of sources of water flowing into the pond and dribbling in from spouts in the runoff of an early spring snow, it would sound a little like Julian Zyklus’ “Waterpiano n.2.” The piano line courses and echos with the flow of water tracing its luminous tones changing pace in elegant dynamic shifts that suggest movement, perhaps slow swimming with rivulets of air bubbles trailing behind, stirring the water into textured sounds that stream and wash in the background. The melancholic cast of the latter part of the song is more evocative in the manner of a minor chord progression rather than mournful, more a sense of regret and loneliness than sadness as if acknowledging this tranquil journey underwater is coming to an end before one is ready for it to come to its conclusion. Listen to “Waterpiano n.2” on Spotify and connect with Julian Zyklus at the links provided.

Julian Zyklus on YouTube

Julian Zyklus on Instagram

Freedom Fry Embraces and Celebrates the Natural Cycle of Learning and Evolving on “Growing Up”

Freedom Fry seems to be channeling a bit of early American folk music on its “Growing Up” single. The banjo provides as much texture as it does a percussive melody to frame the lyrics about the inevitability of growing up throughout life. Sometimes that growing can be painful, sometimes it can hit us unawares, sometimes it comes to us in a flash for which we’re not prepared, certainly not at the rate at which it happens, sometimes its a gradual realization that seems so natural that it doesn’t feel like growing. Freedom Fry embraces and celebrates this aspect of life that all of us, with any luck, share rather than sitting static in a part of life stubbornly refusing to move into a different headspace given new information and changes in the body and life circumstances that aren’t always, arguably rarely, entirely under our control and it’s folly to believe that anyone is completely the master of their destiny. Freedom Fry’s jaunty vocal harmonies and immediately engaging and compelling melody draws one’s attention immediately with sentiments that hit with an obvious truth that is easy to overlook in the rush of life in the living. Listen to “Growing Up” on Spotify and follow the prolific songwriting duo at the links below.

Freedom Fry on Facebook

Freedom Fry on Twitter

Freedom Fry on YouTube

Freedom Fry on Instagram

Lea Bromper Torches Try Hard Scenesterism on “Bellows And The Fire”

At the beginning of Lea Bromper’s “Bellows And The Fire” the guitar sounds like gouging through a dark mood and leaving jagged edges. Then even with the raw, splintery guitar sound the song swings some like a more punk-inflected post-punk song. And the lyrics poetically spell out forcefully in stark imagery the story of someone who has had more than enough of the phony and judgmental social scene that exists in most places where people are able to construct a false sense of their own significance and a persona that adheres to what is at best a temporary and/or tenuous position of power and influence, seduced by their own need to think they’re cool and basing that on the aforementioned. And anyone that has been in the ever evolving local music, art, creative, political or any social scene knows that there will come a time when you’re not going to be on top or near it and the people who aren’t really your friends will more or less abandon you in favor of whoever seems most exciting for similarly vapid reasons. It’s difficult to say what this song is really about but when the lyrics “Truth! Death! Excitement! Uniform drift! That’s where the ice is!” come into a particularly spirited part of the song followed later by the line “those motherfuckers didn’t care about you” it seems like a particularly pointed and poignant commentary on scenesterism and moving beyond it to preserve some of your own dignity. The chorus of “Grab the skull and let the saints come out” is perhaps more obtuse but the way some people hold on to their position in their social circle like it’s the source of their personal power is a little like people holding on to “holy artifacts” that are symbolic but meaningless and the actual power and sense of self comes from within. Musically it’s pretty lo-fi even for punk but also borders on death rock style particularly in the vocals and fans of Pop. 1280 will find something to like in the way Lea Bromper scorches the try hards and instincts in that direction. Listen to “Bellows And The Fire” on YouTube and follow Lea Bromper on Spotify and Instagram.

Stargirl’s “ゆりかごのうた”(“Gentle Lullaby”) is the Musical Manifestation of a Benevolent Spirit

Japanese experimental pop band Stargirl contributed it song “ゆりかごのうた”(“Yurikago No Uta” or “Gentle Lullaby” in English) to the Bughead Records compilation For Ukraine with the proceeds obviously going to support the people of that now war torn country. The gentle plucked guitar, the sound of flowing water perhaps created electronically or through processed guitar or actually a treated sample, accents of ethereal drone and female vocals singing as though contemplating what it would take for the world to reach a place of peace and tranquility. A piano figure enters into the mix toward the last part of the middle of the song giving it winsome quality that further establishes the premise of the song suggested by the title. Musically it’s reminiscent of the more fairy tale/otherworldly/intimate music of Cranes with its blend of the almost tactile and analog with the more dreamlike and transcendent. Whatever inspirations for the music or for contributing the song to the compilation the song is the sound of sensitive benevolence given voice. Listen to “Gentle Lullaby” on Bandcamp where you can purchase the track and contribute to the cause and follow Stargirl at the links below.

Stargirl on Twitter

Stargirl on Instagram

ViVii’s “Wrap Your Arms” is Like the Dream Pop Outro Music to a Romantic Thriller

“Wrap Your Arms” comes in with what sounds like reverse delay on a bright, distorted synth tone interlaced with the sound of horns giving the impression what you’re about to hear takes place in a daydream. The introspective male vocals take center in a reflective aspect shared by the female vocals that take the forefront later in the song like we’re hearing the outro music to a romantic thriller. The lush layers of atmosphere and the processional pace of the song brings to mind some parallel dimension Eurovision winning synthpop hit where the noir quality of the song coupled with its flavor of post-disco era ABBA-esque New Wave captured the imagination of millions rather than the sort of thing that normally does. The small sonic details of the song really stir the emotions with the bell tone highlights like a dusting of snow in the late afternoon as you mull over conflicted feelings and regrets even though you’re pretty sure the relationship is over. Listen to “Wrap Your Arms” on YouTube and follow ViVii at the links provided.

The Oozes Give Cathartic, Seething Form to Your Churning Feelings of Betrayal on “Sickening”

Queercore band The Ooozes from the UK scorches feelings of betrayal with the pointed and cathartic “Sickening.” The distorted guitars slash through the air propelled by the rhythm as the fuel for vocalist Tom Gilbert’s outburst of righteous frustration and disgust. “You know you you did something wrong/Oh you did something so very wrong” could be about any number of things but the way the song is written it can serve as a vehicle for purging those feelings for anyone without needing to interject a specific offense. Who hasn’t felt that way and hasn’t quite heard that intensity of feeling put out there in a way that seems more like productive anger than the kind more unhinged and destructive? When Gilbert sings “I need a time out/It’s fucking sickening to think about” and “Fuck excuses/They’re all useless” despite the fire with which those lines are delivered there is a nuance of expression there that doesn’t dehumanize as the words denounce in no uncertain terms. Fans of Bratmobile, Tribe 8 and even Leslie Mah’s previous band Anti-Scrunti Faction will appreciate the raw, tuneful punk rock The Ooze has been putting out into the world since 2018. Listen to “Sickening” on Spotify and follow The Oozes on Instagram.

Majority Razorblade Deconstructs Nostalgic Sounds to Craft Dreamlike Ambient Pop on “Infinite Golden Egg”

Majority Razorblade, photo courtesy the artist

Majority Razorblade sounds like a future, musical archaeologist on “Infinite Golden Egg.” Like he’s sifting through layers of media content that blurs indie pop stems and analog synth collages separated from their original contexts by time. The song has cohesion and also feels like a flowing experiment of sounds and textures like he’s reassembling bright, ambeint pop songs by real time finding the tonal and stylistic threads and mixing them together to see if that creative DNA resonates and not quite knowing if it’s an exact replica of the original. Who can say what approach songwriter Colin Pate took to assembling this song and the rest of Mr. Moonlite simply listening to these beautifully strange compositions but fans of The Spirit of the Beehive, Black Moth Super Rainbow and Boards of Canada will appreciate the ways in which Pate takes sound ideas and puts them into arrangements that could seem haunted and spooky but the vibe is comforting and benevolently entrancing. Listen to “Infinite Golden Egg” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the album and connect with Majority Razorblade on the project’s LinkTree.

Majority Razorblade LinkTree

The Auxiliary Charts the Challenging Path of Self-Deception to Self-Awareness on “Overture”

The vocal processing and overall production to “Overture,” the latest single from The Auxiliary aka Russell Howard, enhances the impression of waking up through one’s own fog into awareness. Paired with a music video in which the character in the song converses with a figure that is at times a mannequin and other times an unresponsive human the muted aspects of the vocals feel gentle like the flickers of intuition that make suspicions or hunches flow into emotional certainties when one’s cognition keys into aspects of the world around you and truths you had ignored or put aside come into focus. There is a low key horror or thriller film aspect to the music video where the horror might be coming into the understanding that you’re with someone that isn’t really paying attention to your needs even as you try to anticipate theirs and do things for them any normal person would in any normal loving relationship. At the end of the video there is a video projector casting the image of the beloved on the wall like the projection of one’s own fantasy of that person as the human you want them to be but aren’t. Although a blunt metaphor it speaks well to the ways we allow ourselves to get into situations that don’t suit us because we insist they are something we want instead of what they are even when all along we’ve known it’s not true but we so desperately want to believe something that fulfills our heart’s desire that we will go along with that fantasy until enough is triggered in our minds that the truth hits hard. The way Howard structured and executed the song from early, soft musical touches to more sonically saturated passages parallels perfectly the cinematic depiction of the process of being willing to feel the pain of breaking free of limiting fantasies and walking toward a life we would want instead of the one we’ve fooled ourselves into thinking we have. Watch the video for “Overture” on YouTube and connect with The Auxiliary at the links below.

The Auxiliary on TikTok

The Auxiliary on Instagram

The Auxiliary website