Tag: SubmitHub

Nathaniel Paul Considers the Disruptive Nature of Modern Life on “Turpentine”

Nathaniel Paul, photo courtesy the artist

Nathaniel Paul of the acclaimed pop band The Bergamot is releasing his sophomore solo album Turpentine in Spring 2022. The debut “Turpentine” finds Paul sketching riffs off the main rhythm line in seemingly whimsical fashion and in the video he hangs upside down at a jungle gym while he opines about trying to get out of the rat race and get back to a stable place in order to dream about a better life again. Animated characters interact as an air of menace permeates those sequences as well as those of the mysterious rabbit figure with the briefcase that contains a mysterious glowing prize à la Pulp Fiction. The song is playful but its words are very real and thoughtful about how “This harsh world takes its toll” on everyone and puts us all off balance despite our best efforts. Is it planned? Does Mr. Paul have some ideas in mind to climb out of these darkly mysterious situations for himself and for humanity as a whole? That’s probably too much to ask but surely more illuminating tales rendered as innovative pop songs await when Turpentine releases. Watch the video for the title track on YouTube and connect with Nathaniel Paul at the links below.

nathanielpaulhoff.com

Nathaniel Paul on Bandcamp

Nathaniel Paul on Facebook

Nathaniel Paul on Instagram

Manx Dreams Captures the Mystique of Late Night Journeys on the Darkly Synthwave Pop of “Black Spark”

“Black Spark” announces the brooding tone of this lead single from Manx Dreams forthcoming album Of Past Lives (due out April 8, 2022) with the title alone. The song begins with a measured pace of lightly distorted, layered synth drones and a steady beat and electronic bass line that establishes a leisurely pace like a walk on a moonless night in the industrial edge of town where street lights are sparse except for the commercial lots fenced in and desolate. When the vocals come in they’re reminiscent of Andrew Eldritch’s on the Sisters of Mercy song “Colours.” But more processed though occupying a similar place in the middle of the mix like a presence in the late night darkness to guide you from the outer edges to a place more welcoming. In the melodies of “Black Spark,” especially the intonations of the vocals one might hear hints of John Foxx or Steven Strange. Whatever the inspirations and influences on this track might be, Manx Dreams captures that mystique of late night life and journeys to places that retain a bit of mystery even in an era when seemingly everything is broadcast to the public. Listen to “Black Spark” on Spotify and connect with Manx Dreams at the links provided.

Manx Dreams on Bandcamp

Manx Dreams on Instagram

Charles Fauna’s “Diner” Taps Into the Solace of a Faded Late Night Culture

Charles Fauna, photo courtesy the artist

In just over three minutes Charles Fauna’s “Diner” perhaps unintentionally hits depths of melancholic nostalgia mixed with regret and a sense of leaving the past behind and going on into an uncertain future but with a feeling of liberation. It’s a lot to pack into a short pop song but the aforementioned possible unintentional impact gives the song more heft despite its ethereal and uplifting melodies. When Fauna sings “I think you’re perfect in the diner light” after referring to getting off on the turnpike after having left in the dead of night for many he is conjuring the image, in physical and emotional memory, of a time that isn’t quite the same anymore. The pandemic devastated an industry that had been in trouble for years because its usual patrons and workers were often students or other lower wage workers who could indulge a diner meal on the regular when many cities were still somewhat affordable and college as well. So there was a late night dining world in cities and off highways the kind that existed in even the least glamorous locales throughout America. It felt reliable even if the food quality could vary a bit. But in the past decade late night options in many places have diminished whether it’s grocery stores no longer being twenty-four hours, coffee shops closing by eight p.m., many by 5. As cities have become precipitously economically challenging and housing scarce the diner as we knew them before the 2010s has become scarcer. The pandemic hit that late night culture even harder and maybe put an end to it into the foreseeable future. And yet Fauna’s song taps into the memories of hanging out with friends at these places and finding refuge in them on a road trip while taking for granted their presence and the people willing to work in them and the chain of economic relationships that made them possible eroded by the trickle down impact of oligarchic greed. So while Fauna’s lushly gorgeous song is a simple yet emotionally rich pop song about leaving your past behind for the sake of your well being he invokes memory and a completely understandable hope for a future where such simple luxuries can exist again on a better basis. Fans of M83 will probably like this one. Listen to “Diner” on Spotify and follow Charles Fauna on Soundcloud linked below.

Sham Family Torch the Rotting Masquerade of Political Respectability on “Plaque Protection”

Sham Family burst forth in shiny and urgent tones at the beginning of “Plaque Protection.” The title is a metaphor for the veneer of respectability put on by politicians and various people to make it seem like what they have to say is civil, genteel and thus reasonable when it is merely the cheapest theater employed by those who have little or nothing to offer. Unless the aforementioned gestures are meant as a way to prop up a position in society and a place of power. The surging guitar riff and propulsive rhythms and brashly intense vocals should appeal to fans of IDLES and Iceage as should the sense that the music is about to go off the rails at any moment even as the band maintain a delicate musical balancing act. Listen to “Plaque Protection” on Spotify or the Wavy Haze Records Soundcloud and give a listen to the band’s self-titled EP out now.

DigDog’s Apocalyptic Video for “Sirens of Hell” is a Heavy Math Rock Warning Against Future Disasters Coming At Us From Humanity’s Collective Blind Spots

Images of a tunnel, a gas-masked figure, a skull flowing with dark clouds from its crown, the inside of a cathedral, people in prayer cast in grey overtones all combine to give the early parts of the video for DigDog’s “Sirens of Hell” video a properly apocalyptic feel. The lyrics seem to take on the perspective of someone with a Millenarian mindset outlining humanity’s fall from grace through the auspices of social media and other outlets of manipulating people’s consciousness and public opinion. Given the impact of conspiracy theories and communities for them made more widely accessible because of various social media platforms and digital media making it easier to gain a broad audience for someone capable of presenting whatever ideological perspective they please in an entertaining way or at least in a manner that seems cohesive but may not be and is essentially accountable to no one as long as it makes money. DigDog sets this narrative to dynamic, heavy math rock like the mutant child of Don Caballero and Primus trading between scorching riffs and an elegantly intricate, introspective, spindly guitar figure contrasting the fragile balance of human existence and what looks like its doom from seemingly harmless sources as suggested in the song when the vocalist sings “it’s gonna hit when you least expect” referring to the acts of the devil as a metaphor for humanity’s most self-destructive impulses shielded from clear view by our collective hubris. In the video images of a virus certainly points out one of those vectors of the downfall of our species because of how we’ve failed to act appropriately and what obvious thing could be next to land in our lap to wreck civilization as we know it? Watch the video for “Sirens of Hell” on YouTube and listen to more DigDog on Spotify.

John McCabe’s “Lightly” is a Sensitive and Poetic Power Pop Ballad About Childhood Family Heartbreak

“Lightly” finds songwriter John McCabe bringing to bear some intricate yet simple and delicate guitar work to help carry the melody of a song about childhood heartbreak. The call and response vocals help to establish a conversational tone that alleviates some of that pain like you’re getting a sympathetic ear for your hurt and conflicted feelings. Apparently the song is about having to decide between living with one divorced parent or the other at 13 years old and between material comfort in the Midwest or the warm weather and familiarity of San Diego. The countrified power pop sound of the song is the perfect style to allow for McCabe to deliver heavy lines about these decisions with an affection for one’s memories and the tender feelings and sensitivities that come back to you when you revisit that time in your life when nothing seems like a good or easy decision but one people made increasingly from the 1970s forward and while the specific context is the late 70s McCabe makes that deep uncertainty and and those confused feelings resonate for the present time while articulating the nuances and multiple considerations that throw your brain into flux when trying to make an important decision when you’re not quite yet mature and knowledgeable enough to know what the right choice might be and one that will alter the course of your life. Yet, McCabe casts the song in a way that makes whatever decision is made seem like the one that’s going to have to be the best or at least that you’ll end up having to make the best of the consequences. That aspect of the song lends the title a poignant poetic resonance. Listen to “Lightly”on Soundcloud and connect with McCabe at the links provided.

johnmccabemusic.com

John McCabe on Bandcamp

John McCabe on Instagram

Sleepwalker Conjures a Sense of Expansive Darkness on the Cosmic Ambient Single “Call of Ashes II”

Sleepwalker, photo from Bandcamp

“Call of Ashes II” sounds like it came out of a vision quest to one of the secret mystical places in Sleepwalker’s home in remote depths of Siberia. Who can say what instruments are used. You hear what sound like cosmic deep drones possibly made by synth, possibly by a processed industrial hum, you hear what sounds like prayer bowels, struck bits of resonant metal, urgent spans of streaming, processed guitar. The effect is of traveling through immense places in the dark whether underground or in the arctic winter twilight. While stark and mysterious there is an undeniable beauty to the spacious composition that one hopes finds its way into a science fiction or horror movie worthy of its scope of sonic detail and undeniably engaging, emotional momentum. The cinema of Panos Cosmatos, Anthony Scott Burns and the Safdie Brothers would be a good match of moods and cosmic darkness. Listen to “Call of Ashes II” on Spotify and if you like what you hear you can listen to the 2021 split with Fen on Bandcamp. Connect with Sleepwalker at Instagram linked below.

Sleepwalker on Instagram

The Howard Hughes Suite’s Aptly Titled “Transcendental Medication” is a Sonic Salve For the Restless Mind and Troubled Heart

The beginning of “Transcendental Medication” sounds like we’re peeking into the end of a movie with the final credits rolling. But it reprises with a sound almost like white noise but with a touch of melody that stretches into an infinite horizon, a sonic canvass upon which the drawn out pedal steel notes cast tones that enter that sonic stream in parallel. Like a previous track we reviewed for this site, “Lake of Dreams,” this song recalls Brian Eno’s “Deep Blue Day” from the 1983 album Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks for which Daniel Lanois contributed his own iconic lap steel work that unified a grounded Americana quality with cosmic ambient music to transport the mind to tranquil spaces free of the rat race of regular human life. The elegance and subtlety of the performance leaves no edges yet draws you in with a deep sense of peace with which you want to connect. Listen to “Transcendental Medication” on YouTube and connect with The Howard Hughes Suite at the links provided.

The Howard Hughes Suite on Bandcamp

The Howard Hughes Suite on Twitter

The Howard Hughes Suite on Instagram

PICTURES Reignites the Fires of the Heart in the Ruins of Late Capitalism on “Who Took The Soul”

PICTURES, photo by Christian Bardenhorst

PICTURES sounds a bit like a more punky Stone Roses on “Who Took The Soul” the fourth single from it’s new album IT’S OK (out now on Clouds Hill Music linked below). Like the German rock band injected early Britpop with the rawness of recent garage rock with guitar riffs that sync up with its melodic vocals for a sonic fusion into psychedelic territory. The music video for the song looks like a band playing a remote gig in the ruins of an old civilization being repurposed for a new society and embodying that vitality as a will to move toward something better. Yes, the song asks “Who took the soul of of my life?” but also out of our lives in general and the arc of the song suggests a reigniting of the same on a reinvigorated basis. Watch the video on YouTube, give a listen to IT’S OK on Spotify and connect with PICTURES and Clouds Hill Music below.

PICTUES LinkTree

PICTURES on Facebook

PICTURES on Instagram

Clouds Hill Music on Facebook

Clouds Hill Music on Instagram

Vicious Dunk Lovingly Lampoons Chicago Theater Kid Bohemia on “Please Try To Leave Something There”

When a band from Chicago calls itself Vicious Dunk you have to assume there’s some primo, brutally self-deprecating humor of the Midwestern vintage informing the music. So in the video for “Please Try To Leave Something There” filmed in one take at the Edge Theater in Chicago you get that and much more. The song is a gentle indie pop song that takes digs the evolution of the urban Bohemian creative and never once is the dreaded designation of “hipster” employed. And maybe because despite the dry sarcasm and irreverent sentiments it’s a tender song about an affection for the experiences and the people along the way and how they shape your perspective. With just vocals, acoustic guitar, drums and bass with a touch of synth in the background to give parts of the song a surreal atmosphere that perfectly suits the whimsical and humorous yet meaningful tenor of the whole presentation. Chicago has long had an overlap with theater and music (Maestro Subgum and The Whole as an older example) and clearly songwriter Jake Pollock (bassist of the late, great indie folk weirdos Friends of the Bog) and Preserve Records label founder Patrick Budde have some experience with being or being around theater kids and that gives the vibe here an authenticity that prevents the pointed humor from being too much of a, yes, vicious dunk. Hard to compare this odd indie pop song to anyone else and best just to watch the video on YouTube or visit the project’s Bandcamp linked below to get a taste of how clever and inventive Vicious Dunk has been as a songwriting duo but fans of They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Richman and Dead Milkmen might greatly appreciate what these guys have to offer.

Vicious Dunk on Bandcamp