SubmitHub – Page 32 – Queen City Sounds and Art

CR&M’s Ambient Downtempo “Coping strategies” is the Soundtrack to a Brisk Walk to Clear and Stimulate the Mind

The hovering, harmonic drone that begins CR&A’s “Coping strategies” is soon joined by what sounds like a swift wind and background melodic abstraction that is soon punctuated by percussion that is impressionistic in it’s deployment of hi-hat, bass drum and other percussive sounds. The cover art for the single is a view of someone looking up between tall buildings into a blue sky with white clouds coming into view. The song’s enigmatic mood reflects that halcyon view and it feels like a moment of contemplation followed by a brisk walk as you follow your strings of thought stimulated by the changing landscape. But the vibe isn’t Thoreau at Walden Pond but rather the existential resonance of an urban setting that can likewise spark ideas beyond your immediate concerns. Listen to “Coping strategies” on Spotify and follow CR&M on Instagram. The group released its album Stems on August 28, 2024.

CR&M on Instagram

Close to Monday’s Techno Dream Pop Single “Different” Encourages Us to Embrace Our Analog Uniqueness

Close to Monday, photo courtesy the arists

The insistent rhythm of Close to Monday’s “Different” establishes a hypnotic pattern reinforced by the colorful visuals of the music video. Like something you’d expect to hear in a dance club that caters to electronic dance music. Except Close to Monday’s melodies and moods have as much in common with experimental synth pop and rock band Ladytron and the inspired moodiness of their music as they do with Underworld’s percussive tones. The song is an encouragement to embrace one’s uniqueness untainted by and separate from the inducement to conform to the limited modes and channels of expression and communication available through social media and its unspoken system of dubious psychological rewards that rope you into a feedback loop of fitting in to the boundaries of the product of a technology company. The song pulses with a bright energy and is imbued with a heady momentum that feels like the pace of an escape velocity from one’s cycle of participation in digital existence. Watch the video for “Different” on YouTube and follow Close to Monday at the links below.

Close to Monday on Twitter

Close to Monday on Facebook

Close to Monday on Instagram

Nathan-Paul Cuts Loose With the Futuristic Free Jazz Hard Bop of “Outflow”

“Outflow” sounds like an amalgam of free jazz and IDM with industrial beats. Nathan-Paul’s composition incorporates elements of that late era hard bop saxophone with arrangements that bring to mind an era of music when experimental musicians seemed to have in mind compound time and Middle Eastern tonal palettes. Bursts of raw skronk in futuristic modes and sax lines that both snake fluidly and then strike angular patterns before waxing into looping surges that give way to more wild dynamics. He song packs a lot of ideas into a little over three minutes and its various layers embody the title and it is stylistically diverse even with some nods to fusion and all imaginative and impressive in technique. The energy is strongly reminiscent of that scene in Lost Highway (1997) when Bill Pullman is going off on the sax in the night club—fiery and like something from a hyper real dream. Listen to “Outflow” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the Free Trap EP which released on August 23, 2024. Follow Nathan-Paul at the links provided.

Nathan-Paul on LinkTree

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Nathan-Paul on TikTok

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Nathan-Paul on YouTube

Chihei Hatekayama and Shun Ishikawa Unite Summery Tranquility With Wintry Introspection in the Ambient Soundscapes of “M6”

Japanese ambient artist Chihei Hatekeyama and jazz drummer Shun Ishikawa released the album Magnificent Little Dudes Vol. 1 on May 24, 2024 via Gearbox Records to great acclaim. The second volume in the series is due out later in 2024 but for now you can hear the sprawling, meditative single “M6.” The impressionistic, drifting piano work against the backdrop of a harmonic tonal shimmer sounds simultaneously like an expression of droplets of sunlight on the ocean on a bright and calm summer day and of drifts of blowing snow catching the light of a full moon. That dual atmospheric resonance manifests as a sound both tranquil and tactile, soothing and enigmatic. It feels more iterative than simply repeating like a loop and that is what catches your attention without interrupting your thoughts. Listen to “M6” on Spotify.

gearboxrecords.com

Desert Liminal Brings Into Focus the Limits of Nostalgic Whimsy on Gritty Dream Pop Single “Kid Detroit”

Desert Liminal, photo courtesy the artists

Desert Liminal’s melancholic and trailing tones on “Kid Detroit” convey a sense of an earlier period of one’s life that one looks back on with feelings of nostalgia but through the lens of one’scurrent perspective. It flows with the kind of romance of wish you could go back to that earlier period of your life and re-write parts of it like it was a movie and maybe that would put your later life in a better place. Yet one senses that in the song the knowledge that such playing with time and one’s own life’s narrative while attractive and something to occupy some idle time might take away the person you are today and the lessons and achievements however taken for granted that opened the window to even entertain improving your backstory. When the song waxes uplifting and hopeful it’s like an embrace of one’s whole self including the mistakes, flaws, wrong turns and misfortunes that didn’t sink you maybe, just maybe, improved your life in ways you don’t yet understand and in many that you do. And yet there’s no harm in thinking in ways that you can enact today with one’s current level of self-awareness if you choose to lean into it rather than run from it into fantasy. The dynamic piano work and overdriven guitar help to anchor the introspective vocals and to orchestrate an undeniable push and pull of mood that bring the song’s themes into focus in a way that lends this dream pop song some grit. Listen to “Kid Detroit” on Spotify and follow Desert Liminal at the links below. The band’s new album Black Ocean is out October 18, 2024 via Whited Sepulchre Records on streaming, digital download and limited edition vinyl.

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“Slow Drug” by Lord Buffalo is an Epic and Mysterious Voyage of Desert Kosmische

Lord Buffalo seems to channel esoteric films of the 70s in the mood of “Slow Drug” right from the beginning. Think Jodorowsky, Herzog and Ken Russell. The pulsing of piano and stretched, processed presumably guitar sound like the sounds of an otherworldly creature speaking hit as more of a sound design choice than mere songwriting. But as the song progresses more recognizable musical elements leak into the soundscape with urgent guitar loops and tribal percussion before the song seems to completely unfold and unfurl mod song and that sound we might have been unsure of before reveals itself as a voice through a distorted filter so that it is more like an occult incantation. Once the song gets into full swing its rich details of sound and deserty-psychedelic vistas reminiscent of the hypnotic and mystical music Boris included on the soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s 2009 neglected classic The Limits of Control or the music of Bad Rabbit in the same film. There’s something epic and mysterious about it without the predictable trappings. Listen to “Slow Drug” on Spotify and follow Austin, Texas’ Lord Buffalo at the links below. The group’s new album Holus Bolus released July 12, 2024 on streaming, for digital download and physically on CD and vinyl via Blues Funeral Recordings.

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ChooKi Expunges Toxic Influences on Hyperpop Darkwave Single “World Is Mine”

ChooKi’s mastery of creative production brings to “World Is Mine” a layered aesthetic that enhances her expression of themes of reclaiming her own power. The pitch bending is reminiscent of hyper pop but the beat is more measured and refreshingly not glitched out as it contrasts effectively with how the other sounds and experiments in unconventional melody structure seem to be able to wander and resolve where they will. The song and its lyrics seem to be a clear evocation of the concept of true self-cultivation and allowing oneself to grow and develop from an authentic place and perspective rather than be warped or diverted by bad faith actors in your life or simply those that for whatever reason of their own background can’t help but try to diminish those with whom they come into contact in small yet significant ways. In the song you can hear the songwriter’s efforts to strain the toxins of undue and non-beneficial influence out of her psyche, a process which takes time and thus the song’s pace is one informed by patience with self but with the real effort put into the free flowing expressions as the practice of fortifying a genuine sense of self built on a healthy and compassionate foundation. Fans of Björk and Yeule will get a lot out of the song. Listen to “World Is Mine” on Spotify and follow ChooKi on Instagram.

Callummm Transmutes a Shower Holder Into an Object of Hypnotic Psychological Resonance for Ambient Track “Shower Bath”

Callummm found shower holder in his dad’s garden a few years ago and as though he had discovered an ancient artifact of unknown origin with powers of spiritual resonance he discovered once he bowed it and found it had multiple possibilities as a sound source. Perhaps the most sublime so far has become the track titled, appropriately enough, “Shower Bath.” In the music video we see Callummm carrying the item around on a walk through the street with streaks of color streaming down the field of vision as though the frequencies are opening a perceptual door to another world. The hypnotic and radiant tones have a slow shimmer that while repetitive has an undeniably compelling quality that holds your attention like an ambient piece built upon iterative frequency shifts in an endless feedback loop that yields other frequencies that distort off each other so that the sounds when layered produce an effect like your brain went on a journey inexplicable in mere words but which feels curiously satisfying in the end. Watch the video for “Shower Bath” on YouTube and follow Callummm at the links provided.

Callummm on Twitter

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Callummm on Bandcamp

Retail Drugs’ New Album i love you so! Is a Collection of Tender and Ragged Lo-Fi Indie Rock Portraits of Confessional Vulnerability

Retail Drugs, photo courtesy the artists

Retail Drugs is a recording project of Jake Brooks from Laveda and it dropped an album on August 2, 2024 called i love you so! These songs are almost like an alternate reality version of the kind of music Brooks does in Laveda. They feel wonderfully and charmingly rough hewn like home demos recorded to cassette with the blown out sonics left in, the distortion overwhelming the mic a little. But the vulnerability is still there and though Brooks’ vocals are behind the mix a little you can feel the raw sincerity in them especially when the heated white noise of clears in moments. Like the words sung are saying things that while heartfelt might sound to you a little too real. But on a song like “Stairs” the music is instantly reminiscent of 2000s and early 2010s bands like Times New Viking, Tyvek, No Age, Eat Skull and artists on the Siltbreeze imprint generally and how the intentionality of that kind of unvarnished sound is part of the point of the music. It would be difficult to co-opt and mass market yet has an undeniable appeal to people who can hear through it all the attempt to capture unfiltered emotion and offer that up as an experience that anyone open to it can find relatable. The relative sprawl of “Net” is intimate and gorgeous in its fragile delicacy and even its “imperfections” lend its expressions of radical vulnerability the evocative power of a confessional letter one intends for someone important in your life but which you can never bring yourself to deliver. But the album doesn’t stay lurking in the fog of overwhelming feelings and distorted atmospheres. “Sea (Fade Away)” is a more lo-fi acoustic pop song that unexpectedly veers into a moody bit of warping and bending slowcore. Did Brooks just use a 4-track to record these songs? If not he did a good job of faking it and thus giving the album’s nine songs a freshness and purity that comes from going into making music for the joy of it and not aiming for a specific audience and letting one’s creativity and instincts be the guide. A lot of music is put in the world as “lo-fi” but it’s just poorly recorded music. Brooks seems to have tapped into the creative potential of that sensibility in itself and turning the limitations into a virtue. Listen to i love you so! on Spotify and follow Retail Drugs on Instagram.

SUUNS Conjure a Sense of the Otherworldly Epic on Indie Art Rock Single “Overture”

The minimal kick drum beat that runs through the first part of “Overture” by SUUNS is like a faint heartbeat underneath the glittering synth figure. The vocals sound like they’re reading from a mix of an existential diary and mystical poetry as they sing lines like “Blink twice. Your eyes are full of heaven. Cross with me to the other side” and “Do yo hear my voice? Do you hear my dreams?” And it all builds to moments of sublime exultation mid-song with orchestrated pulses of sound and high pitched dissonant distortion like the song is overheating and ready to burst right before the end when the song enigmatically ends with the line “We bummed a ride on dead end streets and lost our way on the road to Mecca, free.” It all sounds like something promising something even more glorious ahead, a resolution to the mysterious imagery and poetry of the rest of the song and yet it’s a piece that sits in the middle of the Canadian group’s new album The Breaks (out September 6, 2024 via Joyful Noise Recordings on CD, red vinyl and for digital download and streaming). But that’s long been one of the band’s appeals of nearly surreal lyrics, unconventional sonics arranged into a coherent song that appeal to fans of left field indie rock and the avant-garde both. But more than anything for this record it piques the interest to hear what else SUNNS has been crafting since the release of its 2021 album The Witness and thus the title is fitting for the song itself and where it fits in the context of a record. Listen to “Overture” on Spotify and follow SUUNS at the links below.

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