SubmitHub – Page 33 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Vince Nudo’s “Everyone Here Reminds Me of You” is a Stirring, Cinematic Piece of Transcendent Ambient Soundscaping

Vince Nudo recently released his soundtrack album to the documentary film Mary Heilmann: Waves, Roads & Hallucinations on July 26, 2024 as the first release on hs own record label Doom to Bloom. The gorgeously sprawling concluding track “Everyone Here Reminds Me of You” builds with layers of harmonic loops and threads of drone that flow through and add an inflection of mood that create a rich soundscape that is minimal in its sonic signature but constantly evolving, drawing you further into a narrative suggested by the title. The arpeggiated figure that runs throughout the piece is hypnotic and anchors each element that build the song to an increasingly rich and dramatic cinematic mood that sounds like something from a Michael Mann film. Think Moby’s “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters” or Kronos Quartet’s contributions to the soundtrack of Heat as well. It has a similar quality of entering into a heightened dream state with its blend of tranquility and sense of transcending normal worldly boundaries. Listen to “Everyone Here Reminds Me of You” on Spotify and follow Nudo at the links below. Some may know Nudo for his work as the drummer in Kurt Vile’s backing band The Violators as his time as the drummer and founding member of Priestess but it’s clear his efforts in sound design and experimental music while not on the road have been fruitful as well.

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The Otherworldly Tones and Textures of Franco Esteve’s “Weirdly Bent” May Linger on the Edges Your Daydreams

Franco Esteve, photo courtesy the artist

Puerto Rican composer and multi-instrumentalist Franco Esteve has gifted us with a song that sounds like music from a reality a quantum shift away from our own in “Weirdly Bent.” Esteve utilizes processed organic sounds and pure electronics in a seemingly intuitive flow of tones and textures that float in space and drift where they will and resonate with stimulating yet calming frequencies. It is incredibly easy to get lost in the music Esteve has created with the track in the vein of the likes of “Deep Blue Day” by Brian Eno but perhaps more like something that has had brushes of influence from 90s IDM like Aphex Twin or Lifeforms-period The Future Sound of London; perhaps Esteve got into Vladislav Delay’s experiments in tonal textural flow. Whatever the roots and inspirations, “Weirdly Bent” lingers with you in its benevolently haunting beauty and unconventional use of melody and harmony as it truly lives up to its name. Listen to the song on Spotify and follow Franco Esteve at the links below.

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8mm’s Smoldering Downtempo Single “Over and Over” is Like a Mantra to Soothe One’s Lingering Heartache

The minimal piano intro with a hovering harmonic drone at the beginning of 8mm’s “Over and Over” creates a slight sense of anticipation for what’s to come. The project comprised of producer/mixer Sean Beavan (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle), vocalist Juliette Beavan and guitarist composer Jonathan Radtke (Filter, Kill Hannah) offers this time out a song that feels like late night musings in a smoldering downtempo jazz mode cast in streams of tone that ring out and linger like the sentiments expressed in the song. It seems to be about a relationship in which one person has been waiting around too long for commitment from the other person after an initial spark the embers of which persist beyond any reasonable hope. It would sound foolish as the line “A melody a fool believes” suggests but it’s not an uncommon experience for anyone that feels fully and deeply even for people and things in their lives that disappoint them. There is something beautiful in the brooding tragedy of the song whose looping lines of “Over and over and over and over” is like a self-soothing mantra to get oneself through the periods when the heartache seems to haunt you the most. Listen to “Over and Over” on Spotify and follow 8mm at the links below. The band’s new album Black Cat releases on September 13, 2024 on digital download, streaming and limited edition colored vinyl.

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Parallel’s “Death or Oblivion” Blurs the Line Between Post-Punk and Shoegaze in a Contemplative Expression of Faint Hope in the Face of Existential Dread

The guitar tones and interplay in Parallel’s “Death or Oblivion” is refreshingly distinct and clear in the realm of where post-punk and shoegaze blur the stylistic line. Though the vocals are understated and slightly hazy in the mix they sit well in the mix offering a poetic commentary on the connection between the ravages of climate change and existential dread in the face of a seemingly doomed future. The arcs of descending melody anchored by pulsing yet crisp bass lines and widely expressive percussion enhance a contemplative mood yet one driven by an urge to express what’s in one’s head as a means of giving it explicable form in a way that inspires emotional movement rather than getting stuck in a pit of psychological stasis of being overwhelmed. There is a bit of Seventeen Seconds-period The Cure in the dynamics of the outro and fans of The Chameleons will appreciate the deep clarity in the song’s tonal mix. Listen to “Death or Oblivion” no Spotify and follow Oakland’s Parallel at the links below. The group’s new mini-album Flooded released via Cherub Dream Records July 10, 2024 on streaming, download, cassette and vinyl.

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Easy Sleeper Puts an Upbeat Spin on the Introspective Melodies of Jangle-y Post-punk Single “Feeling Good All the Time”

Easy Sleeper, photo courtesy the artists

Easy Sleeper lays out “Feeling Good All the Time” in what feels like a collage of memory with effective uses of starts and stops. This suits what seems to be the themes of the song which are learning to appreciate the good things and the people in your life and be in the moment and to enjoy life’s little joys without coming to see them as ends I themselves. Musically the sparkling, jangly guitar work and the sometimes charmingly, intentionally rough vocals nearly shouted in moments provide the kind of contrast one hears in a Protomartyr song except that Easy Sleeper favors more ethereal melodies that lend the song an introspective quality that culminates in the beautifully orchestrated tonal bends and swirl to echo at the end of the song. Thus, what could be a paradoxically effervescent, melancholic song ends with an upbeat flourish. Listen to “Feeling Good All the Time” on Spotify and follow Easy Sleeper at the links provided. The group’s new album A Sacred Way of Living releases August 30, 2024.

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Margo Scout’s Shimmery Dream Pop Single “Otters” is a Song About Setting Boundaries and Not Getting Lost in Others or Yourself

Margo Scout’s shimmery guitar work on “Otters” is like something you’d hear off a late 80s Cocteau Twins record—faintly luminous, transporting and impressionistic in arrangement. But it is joined by flecks of tonal percussion over the more expressive rhythms. All in support of Scout’s melodiously breathy vocals intoning introspectively about habits of codependency in a relationship and learning to set the boundaries for oneself not only to protect oneself from the behavior of others but also as a means of living a psychologically independent life. The concluding line of the song “Gotta learn to breathe by yourself, I can’t be your only hope” spells out the dynamic Scout has explored throughout the song and the way it can be easy, in pursuit of love and showing love blurring those lines of self in unhealthy ways that be harmful to everyone involved. It’s a hard lesson but Scout expresses it in such lush and gentle tones that the song doesn’t hit as stark and harsh, rather delivered with an affectionate spirit. The title of the song and the subsequent imagery also suggests a playfulness that may not be obvious at first and in that the song conveys that we’re learning a lot of this as we go and we can be kind in our mistake making. Listen to “Otter” on Spotify and follow Margo Scout at the links below.

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Tom O C Wilson Coaxes Us Out of a Patch of Emotional Stasis With the Moody Synth Pop Single “Until I’m Out”

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Tom O C Wilson expertly infuses his single “Until I’m Out” with saturated synth tones and low end so that it immediately has a sonic presence that immerses you in a reflective mood. David Brewis’ lead vocals on the track are reminiscent of a more melancholic Iva Davis of Icehouse and altogether the song feels like a series of sketches of taking a stroll in the mind to take stock of one’s relationship with oneself. Wilson pairs well streams of moody melody with couplets on how your thoughts can revert into a pattern of isolation when it has become a habit. That slow creep of anxiety that reinforces those habits when you can be just a little too stuck in your own head until you find yourself having to be outside of that pattern and your mind is forced into a different mode. Maybe the song isn’t about being depressed and the little things that can nudge you out of it and how sometimes you have to trick yourself into almost unknowingly to be away from what feel like immediate comforts and stimulate your mind beyond what might be described as a feedback loop. But the song with its sounds of moody comfort instantly dissolves anxiousness and the splashes of piano and other bright tones, the lyric “As I’m starting to hear the light” in the beginning of the song captures the impulse to a more engaged mode of living well, make the prospect of moving out of a state of suspended inertia seem inevitable and desirable. What makes the song seem especially effective is how it invokes feelings of nostalgia and musical styles of another era but employs them in a way that looks to the future with an apparent knowledge that often one needs to coax oneself into better head spaces. Music it’s like an update of an 80s synth pop song as envisioned by one of the classic art rock composers and because of that it’s a refreshingly original listen. Listen to “Until I’m Out” on Spotify and follow Tom O C Wilson at the links below.

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Bad Flamingo’s Leisurely Jazz Pop Single “Days of Mellow” Celebrates Having the Luxury of Unstructured Time

Bad Flamingo, photo courtesy the artists

The slinky guitar line in Bad Flamingo’s “Days of Mellow” is a different vibe for the mysterious duo. But it embodies the title and the energy of the song. It’s like a loop that in an extended groove and riff manner is a little hypnotic. This time it’s not a song about desperate love and the hint of a dark past and being on the run. Instead lines like “I do have the time” and “Saturdays, cartoons” it’s one about relaxation and having the luxury of indulging a leisurely pace and not being on edge and ducking the consequences of perceived misdeeds. Yet for those more familiar with Bad Flamingos’ past work the song does retain the fantastic level of sonic detail with guitars, bass and percussion going off the main stream of sounds in a playful way that lends the music a playful and cinematic quality. Listen to “Days of Mellow” on Spotify and follow Bad Flamingo at the links below.

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Michael VQ Lays Waste to Sociopathic, Wannabe Oligarch Failsons on Colorful Breakbeat Track “RICH P”

In “RICH P” Michael VQ seems to be taking direct aim at one of those people who it’s said were born on third base and thought they hit a triple. The kind of person who never really had to work for their health and then tell other people who weren’t born to great money to work hard and be frugal if they want to be as successful as they are. The blend of hip-hop word flow and Jack Dangers-esque production in an breakbeat style really suits the righteously caustic invective that takes down the lifestyle and mentality of the ultra rich. The lines about how “he” doesn’t pay his bills makes one think of a particular racist would be oligarch but of course no need to name someone specific because all kinds of upward failsons and daughters seem to find themselves “miraculously” successful. Being handed 413 million dollars by your dad can sure make you look like an accomplished big shot despite having few actual accomplishments to your name and yet for certain people and their ego and low self-esteem that’s not nearly enough privilege in life. All hints and allegations aside, the song and its video making various forms of cash look like warped symbols of corruption is perfectly paired in the takedown of a monstrous mindset and how society and culture is poised to prop up and perpetuate it. Watch the video for “RICH P” on YouTube and follow Michael VQ at the links below. Look out for the album 4U&URMØN$TER on Tanoshi Crime School Records coming soon.

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Alas de Liona’s “Violet” is Kate Bush-esque Dream Pop

Alas de Liona, photo courtesy the artist

“Violet” by Alas de Liona is one of the most melodious songs about anxiety-induced insomnia of recent years. The layers of gossamer vocals over and around the lead vocals are dream-like and transporting and Alas de Liona does what looks in her own video like a nod to Kate Bush’s moves in the video for “Army Dreamers” but musically the song has a soothing and otherworldly quality that resonates strongly with the “Love Theme” from the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club. Though de Liona’s dream pop confection of a song is about feeling overcome with nerves and worry its energy is that of finally finding that tranquil place in the mind where sleep and rest are possible and the end of the song feels like relief is already gently here. Watch the video for “Violet” on YouTube and follow Alas de Liona at the links below. Her new album Gravity of Gold is out 13 September on her own Deli Owner Records via Absolute Label Services.

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