SubmitHub – Page 72 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Mali Hâf’s Utterly Unique Blend of Organic Textures and Electronic Pop Songcraft on “SHWSH!” is Also a Creative Statement on the Right to Express One’s Gender Identity

Mali Hâf not only employs a unique blend of rhythmic, textural and tonal elements to craft the song “SHWSH!” but she also sings in the Welsh language. In the music video we see her auditioning for the part of a “woman” in a dance studio and in a variety of outfits to the theatrical to those more associated with ballet. And it all represents the point of the song which is to encourage listeners to be their authentic selves in the face of cultural and social forces reinforced by media and social media images and narratives to conform to someone else’s standards. The music, which may have resonance with dream pop circa Cocteau Twins, New Age pop and IDM, invites you to take it and accept it on its own terms and for its part is imbued with an energetic dynamic and immediacy that facilitates that acceptance. In writing the music this way with this intention, in a seemingly exotic yet locally completely common language like Welsh, Mali Hâf conveys the message that these identities including gender identity is personal to the individual and that you should be free to express it because it is another facet of the human experience worthy of respect. Watch the video for “SHWSH!” on YouTube and connect with Mali Hâf at the links below.

Mali Hâf on Twitter

Mali Hâf on I nstagram

Figure Eight Deliver an Epic Noise Pop and Shoegaze Single With the Splintery and Frayed-Edged “Altar”

Figure Eight, photo courtesy the artists

Oakland-based noise pop group Figure Eight has a number of self-recorded tapes and demos out in the world but “Altar” represents its debut releasing a “proper” recording. But in doing so the band didn’t bother with taming its sound or smoothing over what some might consider the rough edges of its songwriting and performance. Rather, the bendy, distorted guitar riffs and ghostly, winsome vocals, melodic bass lines and generally flooding bursts of dense yet ethereal sounds are preserved like you’re listening to a band that dangled a single wide spectrum mic over its practice space to capture the essence of what it would be like to be there and experience that while of sound and its beautifully and blissfully disorienting quality. Immediate comparisons must be drawn with My Bloody Valentine because of the dreamlike noisiness of the song and its disregard for conventional song structure in favor of a more organic flow. In doing so Figure Eight has crafted a song whose influences seem obvious but whose sonics invite repeated listens because it hits with an analog charm that seems like something that when you see it live would be a little different every time because the musicians are letting the wild nature of the way the electric instruments process the signal go off the rails a little bit with every performance. Listen to “Altar” on Spotify and follow Figure Eight at the links provided.

Figure Eight on TikTok

Figure Eight on Instagram

Manpreet Kundi’s “salvage” is a Palpably Vulnerable Song About a Relationship in Irreconcilable Shambles

Manpreet Kundi, photo courtesy the artist

The colorful urban backdrop to Manpreet Kundi’s music video for “salvage” establishes a mood of normalcy and the mundane while she walks in what looks like a park with trees in twisting shapes like she’s singing the painfully confessional song in a secret and protected haven. With a minimal piano melody and mournful strings tracing her resonant and vulnerable vocals, Kundi conveys a tender pain that comes through accepting that a relationship is over and that really it got to the point where there is no way to salvage what bond and connection there once was, even assuming there was one because in the song we hear the realization that all the real communication and genuine feeling came from one party and seemingly little from the other and somehow that hurts worse than if the split was born of a normal conflict or disconnect that develops out of points of incompatibility. What makes the song especially poignant and effective is that it comes from a place of resignation and not rancor and because of that it hits a little harder emotionally. Watch the video for “salvage” on YouTube and follow Manpreet Kundi at the links below.

Manpreet Kundi on TikTok

Manpreet Kundi on Facebook

Manpreet Kundi on Instagram

Manpreet Kundi Website

Wasabi Club’s Introspective and Ethereal “Convergence” is a Gentle Song About Rediscovering and Reconciling a Troubled Romance

Rikalet de Lange of Wasabi Club, photo courtesy the artist

Wasabi Club establishes a delicate mood at the outselt of “Convergence” with the spare guitar figure echoing into a minimal soundscape. When the vocals come in they introduce an introspective element that floats in the lush haze over impressionistic beats. There is a tone in the beginning of the song that also sets up a dynamic of the melody curving back in on itself which is hypnotic and makes the repetition of themes work like the ebb and flow of memory. For a song that seems to be about people learning to relate to each other again or perhaps for the first time on a truly authentic basis and coming together to appreciate what each has to offer and reinvent and reconcile the bond with a gentleness of spirit that invites true intimacy. Fans of Beach House will appreciate the emotional nuance of the track. Listen to “Convergence” on Spotify and follow the South African shoegaze and dream pop band Wasabi Club at the links provided. The new Wasabi Club The Last of the Dreamers released on May 12, 2023.

Wasabi Club on Facebook

Wasabi Club on YouTube

Wasabi Club on Bandcamp

Wasabi Club on Instagram

El Señor’s “Dirty People” is a Noisy and Electrifying Psychedelic Punk Song About Class Solidarity

With a seething intensity and noisy urgency El Señor brings to the song “Dirty People” an electrifying conviction to its message of compassion and class solidarity. Mid-song when the vocals hit a more defiant tone that amplifies the sentiments about having a love for the people that certain corners of society reject and declare dirty, undesirable and generally “other.” The buzzsaw guitar and dissonant and angular attack of the music somehow combines a Ty Segall-esque tunefulness with the sonic mayhem of a song by a band like The Gordons and infused with a restless spirit that gives the song an irresistible immediacy. Think a psychedelic garage rock group with the sensibilities of a hardcore band. Listen to “Dirty People” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the album Affection to Belong and follow El Señor at the links below.

El Señor on Facebook

El Señor on Instagram

El Señor LinkTree

TEKE::TEKE’s Genre Bending Indie Pop Funk Prog Song “Hoppe” Celebrates the Impermanence of All Things

In the music video for “Hoppe,” TEKE::TEKE looks like it’s performing in the unlikely, grungy, underground club in one of Japan’s gigantic metropolises. But this just enhances the vibe of a band that seems to have amalgamated Bossa Nova, classic Japanese folk pop, punk, funk, jazz and psychedelia. But really the footage was shot at Pow Wow in Montreal, Quebec where the band is based and by Samuel Woywitka and Sei Nakauchi Pelletier with animation flourishes by Maya Kuroki. The song goes in wild directions but maintains an infectious charm. In moments the music is reminiscent of something Prince might have done had he gone an indiepop route and worked with Fishbone to get there. In others Deee-Lite but rather than electro retro disco, trying its hand at ska and ending up somewhere weirder and more original. That the song seems to be about the folly of assuming anything is permanent and not in a constant state of flux suits the style well. Multiple manifestations these beautiful and endearing hybrid pop sounds can be head throughout the group’s 2023 album Hagata out now via Kill Rock Stars. Watch the video for “Hoppe” on YouTube and follow TEKE:TEKE at the links below.

TEKE::TEKE on Facebook

TEKE::TEKE on Instagram

teketekeband.com

Second Daughter’s Darkly Lush “Love Language” is a Dream Pop Song About Accepting That the Relationship Isn’t Going to Work Out After All

Second Daughter, photo courtesy the artist

Second Daughter draws on long arcs of rhythm and lush atmospheres and melancholic, ethereal melodies to craft the weighty and processional “Love Language.” It sounds like the kind of synth pop you would use to close out an indie dance night or as the outro music of an existential and tragic love story inspired by the more romantic side of David Lynch’s cinematic career. The tone of the song is one of resigned and remorseful acceptance that someone with whom one is involved communicates love in a way that isn’t in line with one’s own, with gestures and words that don’t quite resonate though they might with someone else. And the most one can say is the person tries and that both people make the effort but it’s just not going to work out no matter how much time and energy you’re willing to put into it. Maybe there was an initial spark or attraction that brought the people together, which happens often out of circumstance or a momentary period in a person’s life and you want it to work out but deep down you both know it won’t and rather than let that disconnect spiral into something destructive you take a moment to reflect and mourn the possibility you wanted to manifest like adults. Listen to “Love Language” on Spotify and follow Second Daughter at the links provided.

Second Daughter on Instagram

Wombo’s “Thread” is a Warmly Moody Avant-Post-Punk Song About Emotional Self-Protection

Louisville, Kentucky’s Wombo dropped its latest release the Slab EP via Fire Talk Records on June 9, 2023. The second single “Thread” and its companion music video showcase the more tender side of the band’s songwriting. Originally written by singer Sydney Chadwick on piano the song has morphed into something no less minimalist in musical quality but driven by spare percussion, melodic bass lines and Chadwick’s vocals sounding like they’re coming from a secret place and revealing personal secrets, not tentatively, but as though feeling safe enough to be so vulnerable to speak those words out loud about having to protect oneself emotionally through subtle acts of subterfuge. The music video itself looks like something filmed clandestinely to perhaps release to a public someday but maybe leaked quietly online for those more savvy and clued into the vibe to find. Musically it’s a slight departure from the beautifully dissonant tonality of earlier releases from the band yet in line with its seeming willingness to go off established maps of expectation in crafting music that gets past those filters. Watch the video for “Thread” on YouTube and follow Wombo at the links below.

Wombo on Facebook

Wombo on Instagram

V V Brown’s “Twisted” is a Neo Soul Song of Resistance to Cultural Appropriation and Commodification

V V Brown taps into a classic neo soul sound for “Twisted,” a thoughtful yet forceful examination of the ways a creative and social culture can be co-opted and exploited for profit without the people who make up the organic, human community of people in which that culture germinates benefiting directly. Brown’s voice sounds like its coming from another time and traveling through a hall of images and memories while a repeating phantom of processed vocals passes her by to a rhythm outside of the standard 4/4 time of pop music, rather, something more behind or ahead of that beat, dragging behind ever so slightly at times like a Dilla production. It altogether keeps you riveted on Brown’s commentary about the commodification of black and other indigenous cultures as something to fetishize and sell back to that community and to people who think that by buying in they’re participants. It’s a process as old as the model of colonialism and its endless trivializing the culture, spirituality, beliefs and art of the colonized so that it can be turned into yet another product. But in Brown’s words and lyrics you hear a spirit of resistance to this pattern and a reclamation of the dignity of the authentic culture as something you are rather than giving it up as something for sale. It’s the kind of creative subversion of the dominant paradigm that has been part of popular musical styles for decades and even centuries. V V Bown, with “Twisted,” just gives it her own brand of soulful cool. Listen to “Twisted” on Spotify and follow V V Brown at the links below.

V V Brown on Facebook

V V Brown on Instagram

Good Lee and Marya Stark Make a Case for the Alchemical Power of Forgiveness on the Downtempo Pop Song “Turn to Roses”

“Turn to Roses” has a soft production and meditative rhythms that suggests the dawning of something within. Songwriter Good Lee tapped Starling Arrow vocalist/musician Marya Stark to perform the vocals for the song from the August 4, 2023 album A World Within to give it a gentle but melodiously evocative touch. Stark’s turn at singing the song took her out of her usual context in a more folk vein and sat perfectly in a downtempo pop song about forgiveness and the power of growing beyond the accidental hurts and offenses we can visit upon those we love and have loved. The line “all our arrows turn to roses” points to the almost emotionally alchemical process of that path out of holding onto one’s aggrievement and into a place of grace and to remember the things that brought you together rather than the misunderstandings and conflicts that drove you apart. The song is reminiscent of early 90s New Age-inflected pop music but with a modern production sensibility that lends the ethereal tonality a warmth it might not otherwise possess. Listen to “Turn to Roses” on Spotify and connect with Good Lee at the links below.