SubmitHub – Page 175 – Queen City Sounds and Art

“Subconscious” by Cherry Junky Emulates the Confusion and Euphoria of the Psychedelic Experience as a Path to Overcome Your Deepest Anxieties

CherryJunky_HauteCouture_cover2_crop — Cherry Junky *Haute Couture* cover (cropped)

Cherry Junky used the simultaneous confusion and euphoria of a psychedelic experience as an inspiration for “Subconscious.” The luminous bell tone synth melody in the foreground with falsetto vocals over the top gives a sense of heightened, dream state while bass sets a warm tempo to ground it with the guitar stepping in to give tonal accents in an almost abstract reggae style. The balance of sounds gives one a sense that within the seemingly contradictory states of confusion and euphoria there is a chance to bring to the surface parts of your mind that normally remain hidden by the dictates of the conscious mind—the fears, the underlying and unexamined desires and aspirations, the motivations that may be a mystery even to yourself. In the process of experiencing confusion and euphoria you can no longer fully hide from those things you think are fully under your control but are really buried rather than integrated into your full, aware self. The melodious tones of the song suggest, though, that this experience need not be nightmarish, rather, it can easily be a welcome change of personal reference and a psychological healing deeper than most things you’ve previously experienced because it has gone beyond the boundaries you put up between you and yourself. Listen to “Subconscious” on Spotify and follow Cherry Junky on Soundcloud linked below.

soundcloud.com/cherry-junky

Teratogen’s Jangle-y Post-Punk “You’re Not Here” is a Purging of the Mind of the Ghosts of a Past Love

Teratogen_YoureNotHere_cover1_sm — Teratogen “You’re Not Here” cover

Teratogen’s frayed musical roots are on display on “You’re Not Here.” Frayed meaning eclectic and drawing from an interesting spectrum of sounds and styles to craft something that sets it apart from a lot of indie rock right now. Its chord progressions echo the jangle pop of 1980s “college rock” bands especially R.E.M. in the breezy yet urgent, chiming leads, the use of a minor chord shift to emphasize a change in structural dynamics during the chorus in which the title of the song is repeated is reminiscent of The Call and the noisier, more aggressive yet melodic aspect of the song may remind some of Hüsker Dü or Wipers. The paired couplets in the verses sketch a scene for us of someone whose mind is haunted by the memory of someone loved and dearly missed but someone who isn’t going to be returning any time soon if ever. Yet, the song isn’t melancholic in its fast pace and gentle intensity. It’s as though it’s a purging of those lingering attachments. The song comes to an unusual ending with a short section of trippy, minimalistic, noisy soundscaping that sounds almost like a synth but likely guitar allowed to drone out with volume swells. Nevertheless it breaks the pace and sounds like the shoveling off of an outmoded frame of mind. Listen to “You’re Not Here” on Spotify and follow Teratogen at Bandcamp linked below where you can also give the band’s new album Terrible Cloud a listen and perchance buy a copy for download.

teratogen.bandcamp.com

Maro Music’s “WAR (ft. Lex Lu)” is Like a Theme Song For a Morally Conflicted Cyberpunk Action Film

maro-music-ft-lex-lu-war-cover-1_crop — Maro Music “WAR ft. Lex Lu” cover (cropped)

Listening to “WAR” by Maro Music, with the rapping from Lex Lu, one thinks of a world where Battle Angel Alita walks the earth teamed up with Molly Millions. The industrial percussion and percussion underpins a talk of going to war with some fool who is choosing to tangle with the deadly duo. But a third of the way through the song a somber tone sets in as Alita and Molly discuss what has happened so far with an abundance of swagger. But the swagger is tempered by questions about the meaning of it all and what it says about the people engaged in such behavior and the world that necessitates such conflict. And the song ends on that note of existential uncertainty. Rather than go out with tough talk if this song were a movie it would be one that takes a sharp turn toward the unexpected the way To Live and Die In L.A. does toward the end and the way the French movie Martyrs turns from a shockingly violent horror film into something commenting on spirituality, the nature of human existence and the limitations of knowledge. Yet it all makes sense in the greater context of the work. It’s just that this song begins with the lyrics seeming to discuss being stoked on going to war as usual only to later have that resolve crumble and question whether that’s a worthwhile pursuit even if you’ve been built for it. The format of hip-hop with industrial production and processed vocals perfectly fits such a complex turn of narrative and makes this song a must listen for fans of Church Fire and MXMS. Listen to “WAR” on Spotify.

Maxx Gawd’s Genre-Bursting, Elegantly Cathartic “Coercion” Perfectly Fuses Trap and Post-Hardcore

MaxxGawdXLilUwu_Coercion2_crop — Maxx Gawd, photo courtesy the artist

Maxx Gawd’s fusion of trap and metallic post-hardcore on “Coercion” brings a surprising emotional power and depth to bear in a song about not being able to trust anyone and betraying yourself by pursuing the wrong things. The song is melodramatic but not overwrought and at its core is a desire for having real connection and not fucking yourself over so often through talking yourself into things that part of yourself knows aren’t good for you. The back and forth of male vocals from Maxx Gawd and female from Lil Uwu creates a gripping contrast of perspectives, a dialogue, that illuminates a way out of that mess or at least a glimmer of hope. The production by Rayless and The Venus De Melos’ guitar work sync well to create a dynamic backdrop of melody and atmosphere that perfectly compliments the alternately emotionally charged and ethereal vocals. Fans of The Mars Volta will appreciate the poetry of the lyrics and the authenticity and emotional power of the sentiments expressed as well as the masterful, elegant melding of electronic and rock elements. As the final track on the band’s album Delete Everything the song sounds like it’s drawing to close a time of great personal struggle and coming to a place of catharsis and, in the end, healing, erasing the pain and psychic torture of the past. It is a genre-bending, genre-expanding song that is much more than the aforementioned genre designations. Listen to “Coercion” on Soundcloud and follow Maxx Gawd there as well at the account linked below.

soundcloud.com/maxxgawd

Charting a Tender Path Out of Personal Darkness, Kate Vogal Strikes a Deep Resonance With Anyone Suffering From Deep Depression on “Reasons to Stay”

The title to Kate Vogel’s “Reasons to Stay” sounds like it’s going to be about reconciling a relationship that was on the rocks or to stay someplace where you felt you no longer belonged and which seems to have changed beyond recognition but you rediscover everything you took for granted. And in a way it is about all of that. It’s about one’s relationship to oneself, to one’s learning to appreciate the things in one’s life that seemed at one point beyond your ability to perceive. It’s a song about reconnecting with the feelings and thoughts in your head that you thought were gone, driving you to dark places and contemplating not sticking around in the ultimate sense. The song is driven by simple yet evocative piano work and Vogel’s tender, resonant and versatile vocals. Her specific voicings and arrangements bring to life the struggle back from the edge and having convinced oneself that you have nothing left in a way that doesn’t feel like some faux posi pop song, it feels like it’s coming from a place close to the heart and not just because Vogel experienced the kind of anguish and darkness about which she sings, she captured perfectly how compassion, patience and sensitivity, even tenderness, with self and others are the only paths out of that place. Her focus on the small life details, listing them off from her specific experience, easily extrapolated to anyone else’s own life, that are easily forgotten in the depths of despair are also the things that seem important enough to your brain to pull back from one’s personal abyss. Listen to “Reasons to Stay”

Medium Article
soundcloud.com/katevog/sets/public
twitter.com/chips_n_kateso
instagram.com/katevogel

With Ethereal Tones and Dreamlike Textures “Don’t Worry” by Brother. Explores the Decision to Be Cool Versus Doing Right

Brother_DontWorry_cover2_crop — Brother. “Don’t Worry” cover (cropped)

The falsetto vocals, shimmering tones and sweeping sense of space in “Don’t Worry” by Brother. is apt for a song about a teenager deciding between, according to the group’s material on the single, “doing what is cool and doing what is right.” It captures the state of mind in which you have to make a choice to pursue fleeting social capital that won’t matter later in life or to choose character and integrity, which does serve at least your conscience for far longer. The bright drone phasing through the beginning of the song, the spare bass line, the lo-fi treatment on vocals gives the structure and texture of the song an amorphous quality reflective of not having settled on the trajectory of one’s life. One guitar shimmers, the other strikes echoing accents—one guitar employs a fuzzy warmth at times while the other paints ethereal, shimmering figures. Halfway through the song the dynamic changes a bit with the guitars hitting a bright riff like an extended drone as the vocals get hit with a rapid reduction of delay time to give it a disorienting, warping sound. The competing messages to one’s conscience are embodied in lines about “lying through our teeth” and the more soothing but dark, “You say don’t worry, it’ll be alright, you say, don’t worry I am on your side.” While entrancing and sitting gently in your ear the song also speaks to that critical crossroads in our lives when we decide whether to be a good person or merely an okay person. Listen to “Don’t Worry” on Spotify and follow Brother., from Provo, Utah, at the links below.

brotherofficial.net
soundcloud.com/brother-481828532
brother5.bandcamp.com

Tymoxx’s “Train” is a Melancholic Yet Effervescent Song About Leaving Behind a Life of Judgments and Limitations

Tymoxx_Train1_crop — Tymoxx, photo courtesy the artist

Tymoxx’s effervescent single “Train” starts off with a crystalline, synth tone figure like a blowing swirl of sparkling snow on a sunny winter day. And from there Kahiti’s vocals pair well with a finely accented, distorted electronic bass line as both wind through layers of melody like a slow ride on the titular vehicle toward a fateful destination, departing from a life of needing to keep a love secret from people in the lives of the subject of the story and the person being addressed. But not only the freedom of being out in the open free from judgment but of a social setting that limits one’s horizons for personal development with the temptation of falling back in line of expected roles to fulfill that no longer suit you. The melancholic yet expansive final third of the song is the sound of having already left on that train to a better life with your insecurities and worries dissolving into the rearview. Listen to “Train” on Soundcloud and follow Tymoxx at the links below.

soundcloud.com/tymoxx
instagram.com/tymoxx

Merging Jazz Vocals With the Somber Weightiness of Beethoven, Elodie Rêverie’s “Not All Bright Women Live in Bed” Makes Deep Commentary on Internalized Oppression

ElodieReverie_NotAllBrightWomenLiveInBed2_sm — Elodie Rêverie, photo courtesy the artist

Using Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” as the instrumental, piano baseline for “Not All Bright Women Live in Bed,” Elodie Rêverie establishes a somber mood for a song about some weighty topics. It’s not unlike, in a completely different musical context, the way Lingua Ignota used elements of Henry Purcell’s Music For the Funeral of Queen Mary in her song “BUTCHER OF THE WORLD” from the 2019 album Caligula. Both utilize classical structure and musical allusion to make a statement on an age old and persistent ill of the world. Lingua Ignota comments on the violence inflicted on everyone by patriarchal culture, Rêverie on the diminished expectations due to diminished horizons by virtue of the fact of sexism permeating culture down to internalized oppression. Rêverie sings lines like “Life’s too big to watch it through a window,” “I don’t have to go to college, I don’t have to know,” and a lyric that contains the song title “Not all bright women live in bed but some do, and I have but I won’t today.” Which are heavy words to sing but it also points to an acute awareness of one’s internal process and a desire to not be in that state of mind. By externalizing these thoughts in song it’s like a mirror for anyone who might have similar thoughts and being able to articulate them gives one some control over how to process and perhaps overcome them. Rêverie’s jazz style vocals blended with the classical sensibility gives the whole song an unconventional dimensionality that refreshingly transcends that of a pop song or any genre consideration. Listen to “Not All Bright Women Live in Bed” on Soundcloud.

The Cosmic Drones of “Blueprint” by PRO424 Soothes Your Mind Into a Deeply Contemplative Mood

PRO424_Blueprint1_crop — PRO424, photo courtesy the artist

Assembled from field recordings and a , according to the artist, “digital, mostly algorithmic synth patch,” PRO424’s “Blueprint” sounds like what it might be like to sit out on a clear, summer night in mid-spring or fall when there is a bit of a chill so you have a campfire going that casts the vast field of stars in only the slightest of orange hazes. But you’ve hiked to the middle of nowhere away from the ambient orange of a nearby metropolis and you can hear the gentle breeze blowing through the grass and trees, carrying motes into the sky while you lay back and take in the firmaments of the heavens, noting the occasional satellite and aircraft while considering this experience is one someone might have had ten thousand years ago before the discovery of steel and wondered, even then, at the underlying patterns of the movements of stars and the moon and its connection to the design that guides the landscape and life of your own world. In the present tense, you imagine the master blueprint for the universe that one might glean from the smallest part of it the way the Buddha said one could extrapolate all of existence from a single blade of grass. The song in layering organic and digital sounds in a way that sounds like a product of nature brings out these sorts of cosmic notions as you take it in and the sounds flow through you. Listen to “Blueprint” on Spotify and follow PRO424 on Soundcloud linked below.

soundcloud.com/pro424

ZEDSU’s Emotionally Dynamic Single “Love Lies When Lust Dies” Takes You Through the Stages of Grieving a Relationship Suddenly Over

ZEDSU_LoveLiesWhenLustDies2_sm — ZEDSU, photo courtesy the artist

“Love Lies When Lust Dies” finds ZEDSU exploring dynamic contrasts in capturing the ebbs and flows of emotion in a relationship that has collapsed leaving echoes of pain in its wake. On the surface level ZEDSU uses a trap approach to production but within that loose framework he adjusts the speed and saturation of sound to match the peaks and valleys of personal anguish revisiting endlessly the feelings of desolation and confusion as one often does when it’s all over and you’re trying to figure out why and letting out that hurt by going through it in your mind until it doesn’t hurt as bad or your emotions toward the situation are exhausted. Inside the expression of those dynamics in the confines of a just under four minute song, ZEDSU richly articulates the sense of being set emotionally adrift and alone, of the aforementioned psychic torment and the letting go. Appropriate it sounds like the stages of mourning with the bargaining and pleading with an implied acceptance in the echoing of the vocals. Listen to “Love Lies When Lust Dies” on Soundcloud and follow ZEDSU at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/zaire-nashon-farmer
twitter.com/daimyozedsu
IG: @daimyozedsu