The collage and animation video for “Heaven” by Paperface (done by the artist as well) really conveys the sense of wonder and confusion about one’s own identity after discovering the world isn’t quite what you assumed for years and that your dreams and aspirations are called into question because your very foundation as a human is now so tentative. The metaphor of getting some distance on your whole world via airplane and hot air balloon is obvious but it never seems heavy handed with the vocals intoning into a vast open space as percussion and piano keep up a simple rhythm and melody. Guitars fill in some of those musical spaces a bit, ringing out, backing vocals trickle in just before the song dynamic shifts and keyboards and distorted come in to accent climax of the song and the moment of realization as the narrator descends back into his body in a hospital and accepting life as it is rather than the alternative of escaping this mortal coil into infinity. It is a cycle of emotion, thought and personal transcendence cast into song. Other than that Paperface lives in a lighthouse and claims to add an orchestra in Prague and Budapest before finished and mixing the music in a borderline ruins of a chateaux outside Paris, the artist likes to keep things under wraps. That said, you can follow him and his work at the links below.
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Travel Through a Quantum Door to Yesteryear With Whettman Chelmets’ “recall (outro) / The Swimming Hole”
Whettman Chelmets wrote a layered, textured ambient track “recall (outro) / The Swimming Hole” around some twenty year old four-track tape “experiments.” This act of creative excavation initially gives the impression of traveling through a quantum wormhole into memory bounded by echoing white noise of the energy fields involved in effecting that trip. It’s been said that when creatures are traveling from parallel dimensions that the sound of rushing wind, like a dozen jet engines from far away, can be heard at low volume before shutting off when that “door” between worlds closes. The sound on this composition isn’t so melodramatic and the place it takes you is the languid and peaceful memory from childhood of an oasis where you felt free and your imagination could roam where it will without the demands of everyday life weighing you down. How did Chelmets make these sounds, how did he mix it together? It matters much less than the emotional and experiential quality of the piece. Close your eyes and give the song a listen, perchance to later explore Chelmets’ fascinating work including the excellent Doesn’t Matter album from which the song is drawn further at the links below.
soundcloud.com/chelmets
open.spotify.com/artist/4uHXYKxoGDvb8f1GLWlyOC
twitter.com/wc_helmets
instagram.com/whettmanchelmets
IVATU’s “Haunt” is a Chilling Trip Into Personal Nightmare
Eava Tuevskaya’s vocals on the IVATU single “Haunt” (from its recent Enormous and Mild EP) recall those of Karin Dreijer of The Knife in sounding distinct but mysterious. But the music is an entrancing blend of downtempo, Goblin-esque synth screams and dark neofolk. The title suits a song that is about the existential fears and insecurities that come to erode one’s confidence and hope like the ghost of a vampire come to drain your emotional and spiritual energy. The fog-enshrouded melody and the way the percussion beats in the distance like the clack of the last train out of a land about to be overtaken by the worst blizzard in three hundred years is downright chilling. It is perhaps the sound of the personal nightmare you can’t escape but must. Fans of the star and gorgeous soundscapes and vocal heft of artists like Jenny Hval, Chelsea Wolfe and Marissa Nadler would do well to seek out Moscow’s IVATU. Sample the track and follow the band at the links below.
https://ivatu.bandcamp.com/track/haunt
ivatu.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/ivatu.msc
“Molly” by Velcro Mary is a Tender Ballad to a Relationship Gone Awry
Velcroy Mary may be “the only band in North Carolina that did not record their last album with Mitch Easter at The Fidelitorium” but maybe it’s single “Molly” was recorded with Chris Schultz at Wavelab Studios in Arizona because it’s melancholic anthem is reminiscent of DeVotchKa circa How It Ends. The doleful accordion melody and the words of resignation and yearning bracketed by gently strummed guitar spells out a message meant to offer comfort and reassurance to someone who might be going through a period in life fraught with insecurity and emotional fragility. Tender and touching it’s simple structure and graceful performance makes what is hinted at by “this time apart’s supposed to help us grow” and “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” and a troubled relationship that has all but drifted apart for good. Listen below and follow Velcro Mary’s excellent string of singles at the links following.
VelcroMaryMusic.com
soundcloud.com/velcromary
velcromary.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/VelcroMary
facebook.com/velcromary
cityGirl’s Poignant “Curled” Embodies the Concept of Saudade
Although the main melodic line is a bright toned keyboard figure on cityGirl’s “Curled,” one gets the distinct impression of this song coming from a place of pain. Maybe not anguish or the sharp kind that comes from losing someone forever. But the kind where someone who made a strong impression on you who helped define an important period in your life in a way only someone with whom you’re spending a great deal of time can. And when that person exits from your circle of relationships, for whatever reason, instead of being angry you can only feel sad and a little confused as your affection for that person would be dishonored with unworthy and aggressive emotions. In Portugese there’s a word “saudade” that means, according to Wikipedia, “a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves.” The mood of the song conveys well a bittersweet sensibility that expresses the good times not forgotten but overshadowed in the moment by the feelings of loss. It is kind of a simple pop song but given all the elements it expresses a complex state of mind and being that is often challenging to articulate. Give the song a listen and follow cityGirl at the links following.
soundcloud.com/citygirl-2
artists.spotify.com/c/artist/2XkJtfRO0ldQw3CjNGZ5hN/profile
D.D. Island’s Manifestation of the Halcyon Days of a New Love on “Sawtooth Sunshine”
“Sawtooth Sunshine” by D.D. Island is something best heard in headphones to take in the full range of the sounds of the song. It’s main guitar melody, reminiscent of “Carolyn’s Fingers” by Cocteau Twins, and the texture of the acoustic strum, electronic drums and Brandon Rhodes’ wistful vocals sketch out the emotional image of the early, fresh stages of a new love when everything feels good and right. In the context of the new full length Lost Dog (released June 8) it’s part of a natural arc of the human experience and not a place to get stuck and hung up on like your lowest points. And yet one to enjoy and savor for as long as it lasts. Listen to the track and explore D.D. Island’s work further at the links below. Also, look out for the band live around the USA in 2019.
open.spotify.com/artist/3vuZryGDMqcVxiAiBvNi5X
https://ddisland.bandcamp.com/album/lost-dog
facebook.com/d.d.island.music
instagram.com/d.d._island
“TIIMALASI” by Roca. is Evocative of Urban Isolation and a Yearning for Connection
Roca.’s latest music video for “TIIMALASI,” with clear visual references to Georges Méliès’ 1902 landmark film Le Voyage dans la lune, is a surreal collage of colors, imagery about time and the rushing about of humanity in groups rushing about but emotionally and socially isolated from one another. There is a bit of the aesthetic of the mediated experience one sees in the horror films of Koji Shiraishi and Norio Tsuruta and that gives the experience of the song an unsettling, haunted quality. Musically it echoes a bit of mid-80s Kate Bush minimalism and evokes the emotional isolation depicted perfectly. The incandescent bell tones, ambient washes of sound, warm keyboard drones and high and low arc of the vocals is the sound of modern urban life in Twenty-First Century oligarchy in which true connection to others is discouraged but now more necessary than ever. You can explore more from the Tokyo-based duo and its recently released Gene EP at the links below following the video.
Obstacle’s “Unknown Number” is a Free Flowing Puzzle of Ambient, IDM, No Wave Funk Noise
On “Unknown Number,” instrumental trio Obstacle brings to bear technical chops both in performance and in post-and-live processing of sound to create this brilliantly strange and always evolving track that one wants to call ambient, post-rock, IDM and No Wave funk. And it’s all of that with the finely processed and reassembled bits of sonic texture and architecture. Each fragment of sound is vivid and intersecting with what sounds like a natural rhythm with every other and placed expertly in the mix. In that way it is somewhat reminiscent of Sirens-period Nicolas Jaar minus vocals—where even the most outré sound is intentional and helps to draw you into the songs specific experiential world. What Obstacle is doing here straddles the world of musique concrète, noise and experimental electronica with an exquisite compositional balance. Listen for yourself and follow Obstacles further adventures into the artful assembling of sound at the links below.
obstaclemusic.com
open.spotify.com/artist/4Jf2iLfFvViJO0ApXPDqJ5
obstaclemusic.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/obstaclemusic
Friends of the Bog Wax Poetic With Wit and Charm About Love Lost on “Earthworm”
What makes “Earthworm” by Chicago’s Friends of the Bog is that it uses some of the instrumentation you might hear in a folk or Americana song (banjo, accordion, gently strummed guitar, piano, violin, brushed drums et. al.) but as simple elements that contribute to a greater, well-orchestrated whole with a few changes. This is no mean feat for a song that is all of one minute fifty-three minutes long. The vocals, winsome and introspective, emotionally generous, stand ever so slightly in the foreground as if you can almost visualize the band on stage un-mic’d. Fans of early Jenny Lewis solo records will appreciate the songwriting here as well as Beth Hyland’s spare yet warmly expressive vocals and native wit. Released as one side of a two song single “Glow/Worm” (the other side “A Glow”), “Earthworm” is practically a master class of brevity and poignancy. Give this charming song a listen and follow the band’s further adventures at the links below.
“Sniper” by Color Theory is a Brilliant Cyberpunk Synthwave Story Song
Brian Hazard as Color Theory has in “Sniper” a fast-paced electronic pop song that combines minimal synth dance sensibilities with some 8-bit tones. Difficult to say if he used a modified Famicom to put the beats and sounds all together but fans of Depreciation Guild will appreciate the modes and tones employed here. By using digital noise elements in an otherwise melancholic melodic song with a fairly dark theme, Hazard is showing how, like Kavinsky, you can do a kind of cyberpunk short story collection based in an 80s that never happened. With the first two Color Theory singles from the forthcoming eleventh album (tentatively titled Lucky Ago) “Backward” and “Feral” Hazard is developing a bit of a conceptual narrative that interrelates while each song stands very much on its own. For the project, Hazard has some strong ideas about how he put the record together and conceptualized it beginning to end and after listening to the song you can explore the artist’s richly imaginative body of work and progress toward the release of the new album at the links below.
soundcloud.com/colortheory
open.spotify.com/artist/7uWMG0Go7YMKqVG1fbsOBO
youtube.com/colortheory
colortheory.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/colortheory
facebook.com/colortheory
instagram.com/colortheory
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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