SubmitHub – Page 128 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Stephen Durkan Brings a Raw Vulnerability in Speaking to a Generalized Sense of Burned Out Desperation on “Prayer”

Stephen Durkan, photo courtesy the artist

The hovering drones and background high frequency, subtle sound like the voices of starlight are the perfect setting for Stephen Durkan’s poem “Prayer.” He speaks of the deep kind of alienation anyone that is half paying attention feels these days of existential dread and exhausted, burned out desperation for any flicker of hope or at least comfort perchance to have something real and vital to look forward to. When Durkan speaks of a life feeling like it’s been pre-programmed and living having becoming like “software running itself.” When he expresses that he doesn’t feel like his actions have any weight and how that makes everything feel heavy, of how we’re all thrown into the world without an instruction manual and a sense that the world only exists to hut you and having no meaningful direction only toward more meaningless fog and fuzz of life in world not built for the nurturing of all but rather the extraction of resources from everything and everyone from material goods as well as the intangibles like time, energy, intellect, creativity and a sense of life and for what? Durkan makes this reality so poignantly personal in the track it can be a bummer but one that actually tells it like it is and in that manifests something that is comprehensible and thus not a hanging, shapeless notion in your mind weighing you down. And so even if you can’t change things right now the awareness means the reality can have less unconscious control over feelings. Listen to the “song” or poem or whatever we can call it on Spotify, listen to the rest of Durkan’s masterful and affecting debut EP The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves on Spotify or Bandcamp and connect with Durkan at the links provided.

Stephen Durkan on Facebook

Stephen Durkan on Instagram

Sibillie Attar Highlights the Tensions of Holding Onto One’s Authenticity in Pursuit of a Creative Life on “Cold Generation”

Sibillie Attar, photo by Nina Andersson-Voight

Sibillie Attar celebrates her decade as a solo artist with the new EP Lost Tracks 2012-2022. The lead track from the compilation is “Cold Generation” was recorded in 2017 and meant originally for release on the 2018 Paloma’s Hand EP. The song begins with urgent piano and a countdown sounding like something from a 1960s rocket launch. But when Attar’s vocals come in bright and emotionally intense yet sweetly melodic it can be easy to miss how the song is one of conflicted feelings that in contrast to the bubbly, ascending synth line and the dynamic of a slightly drifting momentum seems so striking and direct in its use of metaphors for trouble coming down the pike of your life and not being able to live with the compromises expected of you when success in your profession or your creative life suddenly becomes a part of your reality and a rising sense of panic and maybe even disgust at the insincerity that seems to be part of the deal of popularity and critical recognition while navigating the circles in which one has been thrust and perhaps even sought out before knowing what might happen. Attar sings of not knowing if she wants to make it because it “seems everybody’s faking” while she’s stuck in her “violent mind” and “no one cares for the good fight.” Sounds like it can warp one’s sense of one’s status in all your relationships. Attar garnered a Grammy Nomination for “Best Newcomer” in 2012 for her first EP The Flower’s Bed so maybe that experience informed some of this song or she was projecting and extrapolating for songwriting purposes on the experiences of people who have garnered even more sudden popularity at great personal cost. Whatever the true inspiration of the song it is instantly compelling and thought-provoking which is a rarity in a pop song indie or otherwise. Listen to “Cold Generation” on Spotify and follow Attar at the links below.

sibillieattar.com

Sibillie Attar on Facebook

Sibillie Attar on Instagram

Sibillie Attar on YouTube

The Lovelines Ponder the Nature of Love and Desire on the Downtempo “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower”

The Lovelines enter downtempo jazz pop territory with its latest single “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower.” A steady drum beat runs through the song while synths flutter about like luminous highlights and bell tones accent the the track with an incandescent tonality lending the track a sensuality befitting its subject matter. The duo’s female singer sounds like someone out of a modern jazz quartet in her cadences and inflections of voice as she ponders the different aspects of love like a flower and how it manifests under various stimuli and in the case of this song of blooming in moonlight and another in sunshine. She also wonders if her own love will come to fruition if properly nurtured and coaxed as well. But the song works as a pure exercise in concise songwriting and formal structure. Because of the production and the blend of organic and electronic its reminiscent of 90s trip-hop but with a refreshing minimalism that draws you in immediately. The subtle details and mini-flourishes of synth and keyboard play really frame the song well as it suggests a contemplation of the roots of desire without having to spell it out to you Listen to “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower” on YouTube and follow The Lovelines at the links below.

The Lovelines on Apple Music

The Lovelines LinkTree

Russian Cowboy Sardonically and Enthusiastically Extols the Virtues of an Unglamorous Life on “Same Ol’ Thing”

Russian Cowboy, photo courtesy the artists

There’s no pigeonholing Russian Cowboy’s “Same Ol’ Thing” single. It launches with a bluster of warping out, highly energetic warping guitar riff and driving rhythms to accompany a humorously self-deprecating litany of truly unglamorous life factoids like taking vacations to the speedway, eating only when hungry enough to die and regularly dining from dumpster dive scores, being late to pay child support and on and on. Even with the cartoon of a trailer home with only two wheels enhancing the point of the song there’s something undeniably charming about the way the band perfectly fuses country, punk and psychedelia that is reminiscent of early Gun Club. The gang vocal is as tired as something beaten into the pavement with overuse in the 2000s but Russian Cowboy makes it sound like the only way to cry out the chorus of acknowledging how the treadmill of misery described in the rest of the song is indeed the same ol’ thing—as if to shout to our narrator when are you going to pull yourself out of the existential quagmire? Most songs that are “fun” are wack but not so with “Same Ol’ Thing” by Bloomington, Indiana’s Russian Cowboy and you can listen for yourself on Spotify and connect with the group on Bandcamp linked below.

Stephen Roddy Establishes a Sustained Sense of Perilous Urgency on “Darkness Visible”

Stephen Roddy, photo courtesy the artist

A sound analogous to streaming fog brings us into Stephen Roddy’s song “Darkness Visible.” Distorted synths sketch the sonic landscape while a steady beat, high energy drones and simple electronic arpeggios serve as a path through this fraught world where a sense of menace hover all around. It should be the soundtrack for a challenge phase in a horror video game given its mixed aesthetic of dark ambient, 16-bit composition and driving dynamics but works outside of any context but its own as a song that conveys a sense of vague urgency in response to an unseen threat or the paranoid thoughts that enter your mind when you’re on alert walking through a place you’ve been told is or know can be dangerous. Listen to “Darkness Visible” on Spotify and follow Irish electronic musician Stephen Roddy at the links provided.

Stephen Roddy on Apple Music

Stephen Roddy on Twitter

Stephen Roddy on Instagram

Miynt’s Video for “Of the sun” Cleverly Contrasts Scenes of Stockholm Winter With a Spirit of Warm Playfulness

The video treatment for Stockholm-based synth/dream pop band Miynt’s song “Of the sun” looks like a fan video for a Boards of Canada song. Except that it’s winter shots in Sweden, part performance with presumably the singer of the group wandering around the city offering observations and poetic statements in affectionate tones like “I wanted you to see that you knew you saw light in my eyes.” There’s a playfulness to the track that makes it irresistible when paired with its going off any standard pop songwriting trajectory with experimental tonal flourishes like the processing on the vocals to allow it to ring out and echo in perfect sync with the song’s wide-ranging dynamic centered around its eccentric set of melodies. At times it sounds like a hybrid of dream pop, and psychedelic funk and disco especially with that finely accented bass line. The guitar lead switches between that warping chorus and what sounds like a bit borrowed slightly from Level 42’s 1985 hit “Something About You.” Maybe that’s the hint of jazz and funk in the song but it really fits in with the warm tone to the song in nice contrast to the aesthetic of the music video. And watch that video for the song on YouTube, follow Miynt at the links below and look for the group’s debut LP Lonely Beach due out in May 2022.

Miynt on Instagram

Grocer’s “Pick A Way” is the Musical Embodiment of the Psychological Paralysis of Life Under Late Capitalism

It seems entirely appropriate that Grocer is in the dark dimly lit by occasional flashlight illumination focusing on parts of members of the band for the video for “Pick A Way.” In writing the song the band found a way to make start and stop dynamics work without sounding like they’re stumbling over each other while conveying a deep sense of existential stasis with a burst of guitar noise splaying out and churning back in among the other sounds while the rhythm section maintains the meditative beat. It’s like listening to a much more introspective early Preoccupations song with the willingness to take straight forward sounds and rhythms and deconstruct them mid-song while maintaining forward motion without collapsing. Which is a bit like an analog to the state of mind described in the song where maybe you’re living a life where there were expectations based on what you’ve been told implicitly by culture and maybe even aligning with the trajectory of your life until it isn’t and you’re left wondering where to focus your energies, what direction to go when there’s really nothing there for you and you have to try to figure something out in an economic, social and political world that is in disarray and turmoil and basically collapsed but not yet recognizing it and with no leaders or movements to suggest a path out of the slow moving quagmire to doomsday. It’s an unusual song yet what better music to help clarify where you might be at by expressing similar feelings with such clarity of mood? Maybe, as with many psychological states of stasis and emotional paralysis, it is best to pick some route of action in life and go with that rather than flail while the world burns. Watch the video for “Pick A Way” on YouTube, connect with Grocer at the links below and look out for the band’s forthcoming LP Numbers Game due out 5/6/22.

Grocer on Twitter

Grocer on Facebook

Grocer on Instagram

MAYSUN Evokes a Sense of Organic Breakthrough in Creative Exploraiton on “An Opening”

“An Opening” is the second to last track of MAYSUN’s 2022 album Wanderlust II. One might expect an opening to be necessary for progress to begin but in the larger context of the composer’s work and of the album in particular, a great deal of exploration in the processing of everyday sounds into musical components to create an emotional resonance with that transformation and recontextualization it is often the experiments that produce new elements that lead to new realizations and understandings that wouldn’t have manifested so readily. In aggregate this very organic mode of learning through creative work often yields new vistas and plateau’s of aesthetic that aid in progressing one’s own growth as an artist. “An Opening” sounds like a journey through a passage to a new mode of exploration founded on the most recent round of exploring pure tone and methodology as a vehicle for self-comprehension and of the expanding possibilities of one’s art. Perhaps this is the meaning of the word “wanderlust” in the title—each iteration of delving into ideas and setting ideas into motion serving as phenomenon that sparks and lures one into the realms of creative work in an eternal dynamic in which boredom is not an option or really even part of the cognitive framework. Musically it shines as much as it evokes a mood and an effervescent texture. It is energetic whereas other tracks of the album really express the melancholy and mystery of the process and of expanding one’s mind on the personal and artistic level as a unified process. Listen to “An Opening” on Soundcloud and follow MAYSUN at the links provided.

maysun.ca

MAYSUN on Instagram

MAYSUN on YouTube

Aerial2k Reconstructs the Surreal and Soothing Vibe of the Myth of the Middle Class Suburb on “Max Normal”

“Max Normal” by Aerial2k employs multiple layers of synth and other electronic sounds to craft a song that sounds like the soundtrack to a time lapse construction across years of a suburban neighborhood. Is the title of the song meant to be someone’s name? An opinion/observation offered. Either way one can hear the steady pace of the percussion while tones carry on as if manifesting tiny bits of the buildings and other features of the neighborhood to be while highlighting how strange yet aspirational that sort of project might be while also calling into question how “normal” it is even though such communities are held up as the epitome of “normal” both in the positive sense and in the connotation more pejorative. The track itself, though, feels meditative like taking some time out to build an ideal community one can go back to in order for relaxation away from the hustle of work life, one’s own private haven and sanctuary, which was one of the goals of early suburbs and who can blame anyone for wanting that. These days it all doesn’t mean much with the changing ways people work and drastically increasing income inequality and the complete erosion of a meaningful middle class. So in some sense this song is a sort of sonic cultural archaeology that manifests a type of utopia and the best aspects of these strange social and economic phenomena of the suburb before the world definitely took a turn for the worse thus the source of its curiously soothing aesthetic. Listen to “Max Normal” on YouTube and follow Aerial2k at the links below.

Aerial2k on Instagram

Vessels to Motherland’s “shenandora” is like a One Act Play of Sonic Dialogue Written in the Language of Machine Intelligences

Vessels to Motherland, photo courtesy the artists

Vessels to Motherland tap into a similar creative and sonic space as Art of Noise did in the 80s with a pure blend of archaic, textural sounds and modern electronic and avant-garde aesthetics. With its track “shenandora,” Vessels to Motherland created what sounds like a dialogue, a play written for cybernetic organisms in their natural mode of communication. Percussive sounds establish patterns and electronic tones weave intricate call and response dynamics that by the end of the song sounds a bit like foreboding dance music that dissolves into calm, repeating resonances that pulse with the satiation that intelligences that do not suffer the limitations of analog, organic life and its cycle of processes into which fatigue and sleep are built. Yet machines and digital existences too must update, repair and replenish in the face of the variations of stimulus to their own environment just like us humans. Vessels to Motherland brilliantly gives expression to that very concept without a single word spoken or sung in the song with a title that suggests an individual name whether of a consciousness or a place or a collective, a corporate entity, which adds yet another dimension to the level of creative work going on with the song. Listen to “shenandora” on Soundcloud, follow Vessels to Motherland at the links below and look out for the NYC-based duo’s full length album Machine Lieder set for release in 2022.