SubmitHub – Page 184 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Maggy Lee Conveys a Sense of Comfort With Uncertainty in the Early Stages of a Relationship on Treasure’s “Feelings”

Treasure3_crop — Treasure, photo courtesy the artist

Treasure’s new single “Feelings” uses a gently subtle mix of sounds that allow for featured vocalist Maggy Lee’s vocals to shine and resonate. The mix on the percussion is so tasteful in how it sits in the mix and seems so unobtrusive but unmistakable in setting the pace as lingering synth notes set a contemplative mood as Lee’s voice tells the story of uncertainty about the title of the song by asserting she has various feelings and wondering if the object of the song shares them or even has them. But there’s no judgment in her tone, she seems to be looking back on her encounters with the subject of the song in the third person and observing that those feelings are there but that she is often left wondering. The song ends with the implied questioned unanswered or resolved but it also doesn’t require a resolution. It speaks to a spirit of knowing something is there but not wanting to pressure a deep commitment so early on. Listen to “Feelings” featuring Maggy Lee on Soundcloud and follow Treasure at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/treasuretheband
facebook.com/olwhkb
instagram.com/treasuretheband

Remington super 60’s French Pop and Downtempo Track “Fake Crush” is a Tribute to the Complexities of Aspirational Love

RemingtonSuper603 — Remington super 60, photo courtesy the artists

Norwegian band Remington super 60 has been releasing left field pop songs since the late 90s and its latest single “Fake Crush” sounds like it bridges decades. Its exquisitely gentle guitar work and subtle bass line sit between 60s French pop and 90s downtempo with a tonal change in the verses that resolves in a way that transports the listener to some kind of exotic lounge in a cosmopolitan city as the vocals describes confused feelings about a love that feels in some senses real but with the certainty that it isn’t because a crush isn’t truly built to last, it’s just a fantasy as fragile and as delicate as the song’s melody. And this isn’t even a true crush but a fake crush like a feeling someone wants to have and thinks she should have but upon closer examination it’s better as a fantasy than as a reality. And yet it’s these thoughts that spark the imagination some and give one a sense of something to look forward to, which is sometimes all we need to get out of an emotional rut. Listen to “Fake Crush” on Soundcloud and follow the enigmatically named Remington super 60 at the links. Look for a new EP from the project due out January 24, 2020.

remingtonsuper60.com
facebook.com/remingtonsuper60

Maude Latour Takes Us on a Miniature Tour of the Highs and Lows of High Romance and Heartache on “Lovesick”

MaudeLatour5_crop — Maude Latour, photo courtesy the artist

“Lovesick,” the final track from Maude Latour’s 2019 EP Starsick, is a song about a very real phenomenon that most people have experienced at some point in their lives. Using the vocabulary of a pop song and her knowledge of the way ancient Greek and Roman poets like Sappho and Virgil wrote about love as a disease to be treated, once diagnosed by doctors (perhaps figures like Hippocrates and Galen), Latour cleverly fuses suffering from being heartsick and the age old attempt to overcome it by figuring out a cure or something you can do that adheres to principles of reason and science. She describes those feelings with her vocals sitting in the mix in a way that sounds like she’s telling the listener these things in confidence with the listener sitting in for the object of that love. The song blossoms like a cherished memories of the best times of that love that sounds like might be gone and terribly missed by the end of the song. It’s a song that conveys heartsickness but it has a bit of a different feel because Latour doesn’t adhere to the usual song structures, rather the arc of the song is the arc of the course of the romance in miniature that, while it makes sense at the time is guided more by natural rhythms and intuition rather than an imposed framework. Listen to “Lovesick” on Soundcloud and watch the video for the song filmed by Fergus Campbell below.

SKNQTR Transmogrifies Secret Shame’s Introspective Post-Punk Song “Haunter” Into a Goth Club Dance Track

SecretShame_HuanterSkinquarterRemix2_crop — Secret Shame “Haunter Remix by SKNQTR)” cover (cropped)

Secret Shame’s September 2019 release of Dark Synthetics introduced the world to a promising new post-punk band whose lushly moody tones, delicately evocative guitar work and duskily ethereal vocals was informed by a haunted grittiness. This remix by Skinquarter of “Haunter” emphasizes the way the band has crafted an emotional experience that can fit into a more electronic dance side of darkwave as much as it does the more rock aspect of its music. The synths are already part of the band’s music, Skinquarter (a side project of Ricky Olson with whom Secret Shame recorded Dark Synthetics) emphasized that and extrapolated that potential into different shapes so that the track’s dynamics bottom out and swell as if rippling through time in and out of phase. What was a beautifully introspective post-punk song thus had its potential tweaked for becoming a darkwave EBM and Goth club dance track. Listen to the Skinquarter remix of “Haunter” on Soundcloud and follow Secret Shame at the links below. Look for new music by Secret Shame in early 2020.

soundcloud.com/user-477692705
secretshame.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/ShameSecret
facebook.com/secretshameband
instagram.com/secretshameband

Hanna Ojala Beseechers Her Higher Self to Purge Her Being of Outmoded Psychological Habits on “Incantation”

HannaOjala_Incantation_sm — Hanna Ojala “Incantation” cover

Hanna Ojala’s new single “Incantation” embodies the concept as she uses layers of vocals processed and bleeding around the edges as she implores an outside power or her inner self to transform her and illuminate her consciousness. “Carve out my demons, set them free / Burn my mind, and burn my past” she cries out calling down a purifying fire to purge her being of those elements that no longer serve her and a force to come in and forcefully remove her baser and self-destructive behaviors that seem so firmly anchored in her spirit like a possession, like a psychic cancer. It’s less a song, per se, and more like a ceremony of personal mythology designed to cast out the detritus of spirit in an effort to move into a new phase of evolution. But without the naivete that this fix is permanent but knowing that from time to time we need to cast off off the shackles of our outmoded habits and ways of being. Listen to “Incantation” on YouTube.

Vesperwynd Bridges the Gap Between Blackened Metal Death Rock and Transcendent Darkwave on “Breathe in the Blood”

Vesperwynd1_sm — Vesperwynd, photo courtesy the artists

When Vesperwynd’s “Breathe in the Blood” begins it leads you to believe it’s going to be an able and slightly different black metal track with the feral vocals and grinding guitar sound. But as the song progresses an almost symphonic keyboard progression comes in to help the guitar trace expanding, caustic figures like tendrils of smoke. Then near the three minute mark the song takes a markedly different direction into the realm of darkwave like an unusual mixture of early Christian Death and Wolves in the Throne Room. The song hangs suspended for a moment in guitar drone before coming crashing back in with that majestic blend of cutting guitar sound, ethereal synth and processional rhythms into the outro. The song defies expectations beginning to end with where it’s coming from or where it’s going beyond the tone of the epic like a White Light From the Mouth of Infinity-period Swans song cast in black metal and ethereal post-punk tones. Listen to “Breathe in the Blood” on Spotify and follow Vesperwynd on its Facebook page and Instagram account linked below.

facebook.com/vesperwynd
instagram.com/vesperwynd

The Hazy and Disorienting “Talk Show Goth” by Dead Little Penny is a Beautifully Gritty and Grimy Fever Dream

DeadLittlePenny2_sm — Dead Little Penny, photo courtesy the artist

Dead Little Penny’s distorted vocals and guitar work create a gritty if hypnotic effect against the steady drum machine beat on “Talk Show Goth.” It’s hazy and disorienting like a lo-fi Curve song or like something Dirty Beaches might have done in his early days. Synths wash in like a bad video glitch on a VHS tape of the talk show in the title, obscuring the main musical line ever so slightly before the dirt in the mix clears up some toward the end of the song and yet it still sounds like it was recorded with some of the levels pegged like maybe Dead Little Penny listened to a bit of Times New Viking when considering the production on the song as the other songs on the Urge Surfing album aren’t as in the red sonically but share the same beautifully grimy quality that sets the project apart from bands that seem to be coming from the realm of shoegaze and psychedelic rock. Dead Little Penny’s production seems too intentional for it to be a matter of lack of access to recording equipment and the conscious choice to trust in what might be perceived as imperfections by those looking for tamer faire. Listen to “Talk Show Goth” on Spotify and follow Dead Little Penny at the links provided.

itunes.apple.com/us/artist/dead-little-penny/1111324563
soundcloud.com/dead-little-penny
deadlittlepenny.bandcamp.com/track/honeycomb
twitter.com/Deadlittlepenny
facebook.com/DeadLittlePenny
instagram.com/deadlittlepenny

Nomke Sings About the Pitfalls of Our Own Illusions and the Ghosts of Our Relationship Mistakes On “Ended (by the morning sun)”

Nomke2_crop — Nomke, photo courtesy the artist

Nomke takes us far beyond the usual tropes of a song about heartbreak and yearning for something more authentic and substantial on her single “Ended (by the morning sun).” Yes, there are choruses and exquisite structure, her urgent guitar work, bright, upbeat vocals and observations about life and her relationships that didn’t work out worded in a way that’s more poetic than most of us come up with every day. But then she sings these lines that seem so vivid and compelling: “When my dreams try to break me / I want to touch something real / but this town is full of ghosts.” In those lines Nomke expresses how sometimes what we think we want and dream about ends up being if not a nightmare far less than the real, heartfelt experience we want and if we live somewhere long enough our memories of our experiences with other people haunts us and makes it challenging to get out and not feel like you’re repeating past mistakes or risk running into the people you don’t want to see anymore if you can help it. It’s a fascinating line in what might otherwise feel like a breezy pop song but even the guitar work and song dynamics have a complexity that serves the sophistication of feelings expressed and thus the song bears repeated, rewarding listens. Listen to “Ended (by the morning sun)” on Spotify, follow Nomke at the links provided and look for her album True Queen due out in January 2020.

music.apple.com/il/artist/nomke/1198170286
nomkemusic.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/nomke
instagram.com/nomke

Take in the Splintery, Psychedelic Charm of Drug Couple’s “Be In 2”

DrugCouple1 — Drug Couple, photo courtesy the artists

Drug Couple makes no bones about its being influenced by Yo La Tengo and Dinosaur Jr and indeed the splintery guitar work on its new single “Be In 2” bears that out as it stretches the song’s motorik beat out some. As do the the way the vocalists diverge and take on complimentary yet disparate roles in the mix. Becca carries the melody in the more traditional manner, Miles’ more like sing-talking but both styles together give an added dimension to a song that is wonderfully fuzzy around the edges and feeling like it could come apart at any moment from the musicians not trying so hard to reign in its seemingly divergent collection of sounds. Too much music now is trying to be too clean and overproduced in unimaginative ways. Drug Couple makes a virtue of its rough edges by crafting a song that invites you in for a ride through a soundscape where you can be yourself because it is itself unburdened by the usual conventions of how music is “supposed” to work in 2019 but the real trick now is that music and art that would be difficult to imitate by virtue of a unique creative vision is far more compelling than a tired, imitative songwriting style or played out production technique. Listen to “Be In 2” on Soundcloud, follow Drug Couple at the links below and check out the duo’s 2019 EP Little Hits on its Bandcamp page.

soundcloud.com/papercup-music
drugcouplemusic.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/drugcouple

Mokhov’s “Dream Spectrum” Will Brighten Your Spirits With Its Gentle Energy

Mokhov2_crop — Mokhov *Sun Bloom* cover (cropped)

“Dream Spectrum” is an apt name for this song by Mokhov. The mix of melodic drones, processed white noise like an Autumn breeze through branches that have not yet lost their leaves, the bright, drawn out synth melody and upbeat percussion sounds like what you’d want to hear in a dream in that upper register of that phenomenon where nothing terrible happens, just peaceful wandering and a sense of utter tranquility and health. It sounds like the kind of reprieve from heaviness and pressure that hits you in waking life every day and it carries you along rather than demand you follow the music. Reminiscent of some of M83’s instrumental tracks and their seeming ability to tap into the pleasure centers of your brain, “Dream Spectrum” runs at over seven minutes but feels like less than half that time because of how light it sits on your psyche and not in a superficial way but in the way its combined sonic forces work their way into your brain and brighten your spirits with its gentle energy. Listen to “Dream Spectrum” on Soundcloud and follow Mokhov at the links below where you can also listen to the rest of the project’s new album Sun Bloom.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokhov_(musician)
soundcloud.com/mokhov
mokhov.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/olegmokhov
facebook.com/mokhovmusic