SubmitHub – Page 155 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“Want U 4 Mine” Finds Les Gold Turning a Song of Attraction and Desire Into a Electro-Psychedelic Epic

The minor chord progression in the guitar riff of Les Gold’s “Want U 4 Mine” sets the song up to go to interesting tonal and emotional places from the beginning. It seems to start as a kind of modern garage rock song but blossoms into a sonically rich bit of electronic psychedelia all while soul-inflected vocals lay out lines about a strong attraction in a manner more poetic and creative than the standard pop song and gives a sense that the attraction goes beyond the raw, physical kind. The lyrics aren’t just an expression of bravado-laden desire but also speak to the narrator’s own weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The driving electronic bass section later in the song alongside fiery guitar work and glimmering synth arpeggios bring to the song a rare richness of soundscaping that sets it apart from a great deal of music tapping into similar influences in post-punk, psychedelic garage rock and R&B. Listen to “Want U 4 Mine” on Spotify and connect with Les Gold at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3XfOlbu8GzAWZgunWPap5s
https://soundcloud.com/lesgold
https://www.facebook.com/lesgoldmusic
https://www.instagram.com/lesgoldmusic

Frogooo Imagines a More Vibrant, Gentler World of the Future When the Current Order of Cruelty Through Austerity Crumbles on “Weak Sounds Are Hard to Hear When You Fear to Be Hurt”

On its single “Weak Sounds Are Hard to Hear When You Fear to Be Hurt” Frogooo addresses the way most of us have been conditioned to display a bravado and false strength in the face of our struggles and adversity. It’s a shield we put up between each other and a pretext for not acting in the best interests of our communities when conventional wisdom suggests we must pursue what we perceive to be our own best interests at the expense of others if need be. It’s a pathology that runs throughout Western history and culture but also manifests in cultures worldwide to varying degrees. That need for displaying strength and stoicism when sensitivity and and gentleness are a better approach and yield better results. That compassion and vulnerability are seen as deficits in a “practical” world is laughable, really, when we know better through practice and experience. Often if we’re patient and willing to be open to more than we’ve been conditioned to be and to take people and situations on their own terms rather than an imposed understanding we can expand what we know about ourselves. Musically, fans of Young Marble Giants, Malaria! and the Raincoats will appreciate the delicate yet urgent rhythms and intuitive dynamics that put the mind into an alternative headspace that reinforces the song’s message of people being in solidarity with those less fortunate or more vulnerable in the late capitalist end game before the next stage of human social evolution sets in and we can weather the inevitable crises ahead with humanity rather than adherence to “efficiency” and the dictates of the soon to be deposed masters of the mechanized economic order who demand austerity for the many so that the few can live not in real luxury that could be for everyone but a diminished form of it in the context of the dystopian world we’ve fallen into. The song says we all deserve better and suggests we can get there with these small gestures that taken as a whole are stronger than what currently seems monolithic like the vine that breaks concrete. Listen to “Weak Sounds Are Hard To Hear When You Fear To Be Hurt” on Spotify.

Lycio Captures the Romance of Pursuing Your Dreams Against the Odds of Fulfilling Them on “Somebody”

The music video for the Lycio single “Somebody” was put together from footage shot by drummer Alex Lowe often using vocalist Genie Mendez’s phone across three years of bonding as musicians and traveling to gigs. Which suits the subject of the song which, on one level, is about an unrequited love, which is surely a kind of metaphor for what it’s like to be in a band that isn’t yet known outside a relatively small circle of a fan base. The song, a compelling mix of downtempo and R&B-inflected synth pop, somehow encompasses that tentative feeling of experiencing that unrequited love with the hope and anticipation of that love becoming a reality or at least keeping your spirits up while you’re working your way through to accepting it’s never going to happen but not dipping, as most of us will, into a phase of despair thinking we’ll never find a love that is life affirming, fulfilling and healthy. That mix of emotions also parallels that of being in a band where you hope your songs connect with an audience or at least someone for whom what you express resonates and captures the imagination and all the effort and work you put in that no one much talks about because it’s the unseen, largely boring, drudgery, every day, un-glamorous activity that makes it all happen. The sorts of things that you sometimes have to make it fun for you to get through even though it’s part of the deal. You watch the video and you do see some of the frivolity amid the mundanity and that is the core of this lush, soulful song that recalls so many of the better, aspirational synth pop songs of the 80s by bands clearly steeped in soul and R&B: it embraces the romance of our infatuations and being swept up in pursuit of our dreams because life without those guideposts is barely life at all which jibes with the title of the song as well. Watch the video for “Somebody” on YouTube and connect with Lycio at the links provided.

https://soundcloud.com/lyciomusic
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpN9rBftfYUeCjvuKjafrLQ
https://twitter.com/lyciomusic
https://www.facebook.com/lyciomusic
https://www.instagram.com/lyciomusic

Hanna Ojala Encourages us to Indulge in Sensual Pleasures to Bring a Little Joy Into Our Lives on “Spring in my Step”

Hanna Ojala takes a foray into the realm of earthy sensuality on her single “Spring in my Step.” The tropical flavor of the percussion via hand drum and the sounds of birds and insects from a warm climate serve as the backdrop of ritualistic poetry spoken in ode to the joys of being in one’s body and the pleasures one can indulge. And as usual, Ojala takes these words that could be, given a different musical context, a playfully hip-hop tribute to sublime hedonism, and infuses them with a spiritual dimension. But in the presentation she fuses the earthly with the transcendent through an unabashed and refreshing reconciliation of components of our psyche that much of our conventional cultural conditioning in the Western world suggests need to be separate and in the case of pleasure, that it is somehow embarrassing. Ojala shows with her dancing in the music video and her words and music that we can simply embrace and enjoy these aspects of the human experience without shame if we can manage to not take things overly seriously. After all, if you don’t have something that puts a spring in your step regularly, life is nothing but drudgery. Watch the video for “Spring in my Step” on YouTube and connect with Hanna Ojala at the links provided.

https://soundcloud.com/h_mo
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOciWsXO_7cDSrveFlwSmkA

Anna Lidman’s Chamber Pop Single “Animal” Employs Musical Prowess in Crafting Imaginative Songwriting

“Animal” from Anna Lidman’s 2020 EP POEM was written with composer Marc Tritschler and crafted with a vision to combine classical techniques and Lidman’s soulful and forceful melodies with arrangements for a chamber orchestra. The resulting song has a great deal of organic presence. The sheer physical presence of the song in your ear as the various textures rhythms and melodies interact with a dynamic flow. It sounds like something written and recorded spontaneously with a mind to capture that energy and the feel of a song you’re getting to hear live with the potential for some element to go off the rails for a moment but never really does. The unique percussion brings a playful flavor to the song and the short sweeps of harp and woodwinds lends the song an air of the mythical. Fans of CocoRosie and later Ani DiFranco will appreciate the musicianship and creative arrangements thereof in which musical chops serve the songcraft exceedingly well. Listen to “Animal” on Soundcould and follow Anna Lidman at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5zqgZyK4X03croI1wYWUyR
https://soundcloud.com/anna-lidman
https://www.instagram.com/annalidmanmusic

“Pocari Sweat” is an Imaginative, Culture and Style Jamming Amalgam of Trap, Lo-Fi Glitch and IDM

Still from the video for “Pocari Sweat” by RHYTCH

RHYTCH perfectly blends trap production with lo-fi glitch electronica and IDM on “Pocari Sweat.” In the context of the music video which looks like something that had to have been captured on either a camcorder or early generation phone video the warping rap and heavily processed vocals it feels like you’ve entered the world of a soft drink commercial in slow motion except part of the sampling is to take out the elements in which a product is being sold to you but the lifestyle content is intact. Albeit one that exists in some kind of post-modern, post-current-civilization existence where the art is to unmoor cultural signifiers from their original referents. After all naming your song, as a German artist, after a kind of unusual Japanese soft drink that you can find in vending machines all over Japan and parts of Asia and Australia but usually only at an Asian market elsewhere, is a way of recontextualizing that bit of popular culture. Though production-wise the song is a product of the current musical climate it has much in common with underground electronic music of the late 2000s, The Art of Noise and turn of the century IDM in the creative use of samples as a compositional element to craft accessible yet imaginative music to take you out of everyday life. Watch the video for “Pocari Sweat” on YouTube and connect with RHYTCH through the link tree linked below.

https://linktr.ee/rhytch

Autow Nite Superstore’s “Sharp, Sharp Blade” Invites You Into a Journey of Late Night Intrigue

Autow Nite Superstore, photo courtesy the artist

The name Autow Nite Superstore brings to mind the image of a twenty-four hour petrol station in the middle of nowhere or at least on the edge of town that is also part video rental store department store, coffee shop and dance club. The video for the group’s song “Sharp, Sharp Blade” made with the help of collaborators all around the world since the regular shooting of the video was interrupted by the global pandemic of 2019-2020. The result is a short film that is reminiscent of a Nicolas Winding Refn project and Run Lola Run with tonally rich techno score that is spacious and urgent. The standout bass line in the song expands and thins out in a fluid dynamic with the phased synth arpeggio and wordless vocals for a song that soothes the mind and brings you along for a journey into late night intrigue. Watch the video on YouTube, connect with the Greek techno project at the links below and check out for the full length album Conversations on Bandcamp.

www.autownitesuperstore.com
https://soundcloud.com/autownitesuperstore
https://www.youtube.com/autownitesuperstore
https://www.facebook.com/autownitesuperstore
https://www.instagram.com/autownitesuperstore

The Ragged Nonchalance of Lethe’s “Easy” Shows How You Can Leave a Bad Situation With Your Dignity Intact

The lively and jagged riff that runs through “Easy” by Lethe combined with the distorted vocals, borderline clipping in the mix,conveys perfectly that feeling of being at the end of your tolerance of someone’s nonsense and you’re ready to exit the scene, the relationship, the friendship, the situation entirely while trying to preserve some sense of dignity. The latter represented by the line that closes each set of lyrics “Excuse me while I light a cigarette…” The spare melody might recall to some a kind of lower fi The Strokes but the off the cuff delivery and edge of the song is perhaps more reminiscent of the likes of Nouns-period No Age and Eat Skull circa Sick To Death. This song similarly conveys an attitude that commands acceptance of the raw display of emotional honesty channeled through what might be described as a ragged nonchalance. Whatever the influences and impulses behind the song there’s no denying its wiry hook and rough-edged tunefulness. Listen to “Easy” on Spotify and connect with the Croatian band Lethe at the links provided.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0OQauRV0REGtOizVb6YTf5
https://soundcloud.com/lethe-cro
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsgSxwgR_3rycS0CUofUCtA
https://www.facebook.com/Lethecro
https://www.instagram.com/letheband

The Introspective and Nostalgic Tones of the Title Track of Latvian Indie Pop Band Stūrī Zēvele’s New Album Labvakar Both Soothe and Stir the Heart

Stūrī Zēvele, phot by Oupenieks Ilguciems

The title track to Stūrī Zēvele’s new album Labvakar (“Good Evening” in Latvian) sounds like something written by friends who are getting together in their personal retreat free to enjoy each other’s company while indulging the time to let their creativity flow where it will, trusting in their personal chemistry to refine their songwriting on the fly. The music video for the song displays the band in a home lit by candlelight while they bring out instruments and try out ideas but not like it’s a job. Like it’s something fun that they do that sometimes results in a song they can share with other people and often enough it’s something that was just fun on its own that may inspire ideas to explore further. That spirit infuses the easy and affectionately introspective tone of the song. Like it’s written from the perspective of a band taking stock of where they’ve been and appreciating the process that has kept their band around for fourteen years. The group, originally from the small town of Kuldiga, Latvia, is now based out of the capital city Riga, is perhaps hinting at its origins of small town life where they learned not to put too much pressure on their art and to keep it something they love doing together. Musically the song, and the rest of the record for that matter, has much in common with American indie pop from the 90s in that its sophistication of composition and creativity in the use of unconventional instruments as well as synths/keyboards and standard rock instruments creates a world of sound and storytelling that is easy to get lost in even if, like this author, you do not speak Latvian. It would be facile to compare the group to a famous alternative rock band like Mumiy Troll, post-punks Kino, psychedelic folk legends Akvarium, progressive synth pop group Zodiak but to American ears there will be some sonic kindship there. Comparisons aside, fans of Elephant 6 artists will appreciate what Stūrī Zēvele has to offer. Listen to “Labvakar” on Soundcloud, watch the video on Vimeo and connect with the group on Bandcamp where you can order a limited edition vinyl of the record.

https://sturizevele.bandcamp.com/album/labvakar

The Grace and Quiet Wisdom of Wales Finds Expression in Shawn Kerr’s Ambient Piano Piece “Fluke”

Shawn Kerr was inspired for “Fluke” by the calm motion of a humpback whale as it swam by him when he was working along the Antarctic Peninsula. The drifting piano line resolves organically, swells, flows into minimal introspection and follows a naturally elegant and seemingly informal line of melody. In the background and drone of bright melodies resonates in the distance capturing the ineffable beauty of the moment. Kerr says the song is about opportunities in the larger sense as in one can be open to powerful moments and be struck by something outside your self-conditioned sense of the world and thus moved into a different state of awareness and thus consciousness without that experience having been planned or commodified and sold to you in some fashion. Whales remain mysterious to us because we know they’re intelligent and humpbacks certainly have a greater emotional capacity than humans. Kerr seems to suggest that being open to learning from a whale without needing to impose our limited understanding upon them might expand, to the extent possible, our understanding of ourselves in the broader context of the world. Certainly his composition takes us out of a life of linear logic for a few moments and leave us to wonder and experience a quiet awe at creatures motivated by impulses we may never fully understand and should, thus, respect. Listen to “Fluke” on Spotify and connect with Shawn Kerr at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0SxCkzmGHNlJI0FDnlYfrz
https://soundcloud.com/shawnkerrmusic
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5i1tJJZT4oAgOlcgbjtLLQ?
https://shawnkerr.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/shawnkerrmusic