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Longboat’s “Midnight Drive” is a Neon Hazed Synth Pop Story of a Man With a Lurid and Murky Past

Longboat’s “Midnight Drive” is the narrative of someone who is trying to get some enjoyment out of life on a leisurely drive. The simple pleasure of it and the tranquility. The synth tones are saturated and percussive while carrying a melody and in its haze to a steady electronic beat and meditative vocals we hear suggestions of a past that might have some dark episodes but nothing so nefarious as rumors in our storyteller’s social circles speculate. The music video is a depiction of this journey with a ride through the desert at first before scenes from a city in an unspecified city in the world. It could be the USA, it could be somewhere in the UK, somewhere in Asia or Latin America or elsewhere. The footage has signifiers that don’t spell this out and that fits the song well as we don’t really find out the mystery our narrator hints at throughout the song. It’s like the musical equivalent of the plot of a long lost 1980s William Friedkin film or an early Michael Mann offering. And musically it sits somewhere between a Murray Head song and a modern vaporwave track and that bridging of times and aesthetics is what makes the song retain re-listening value. Watch the video for “Midnight Drive” on YouTube and follow Longboat on Instagram.

Noah and the Loners’ Righteous Fury on “Protest Anger” is a Rallying Cry We Need Now When the World Threatens to Fall Apart

Noah and the Loners, photo courtesy the band

Noah and the Loners seethe with a fury one might expect from a song called “Protest Anger.” It’s a punk song that combines a pointed energy and urgency that is part Killing Joke and part the raw power of an early era street punk band. But what the band does here with its surging rhythms and electrifying attitude is not just critique society with a sensitive and thoughtful if spirited set of words. Rather, Noah and the Loners dispense with the niceties and cut to the core with the kind of direct sentiments that feels exciting regardless of whether you’re a member of Gen Z or just someone who is done with the framing of times past that may have been adequate to that moment but do fuck all for a time when climate disaster isn’t in some distant future, it’s been on our doorstep and beyond for years while our leaders and political and economic systems are in deep denial. The line “This country’s in doomsday danger” sums that up immediately. And “Government cancer and look into my eyes and tell me the Tories play fair” could apply to the situation in America with the GOP. “Centrism” has been the handmaiden of fascism worldwide and the younger generation is keyed into that knowledge in a way older generations tend not to be. What could be clearer about that weak lack of resolve about the proper role of government and human organizing in general than “People die in the street while you screw up and repeat and repeat and repeat.” Who wouldn’t be furious and frustrated at such irrational political malfeasance. The song is a rallying cry that sounds so vital now and very much embodying a spirit running through the world that leaders and establishment types ignore at their own peril.

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Buddy Wynkoop Injects a Self-Aware Neurotic Fury Into Its Math Rock Punk Single “Relatable”

Buddy Wynkoop, photo courtesy the artists

Buddy Wynkoop’s herky jerky rhythms on “Relatable” are anchored by math rock-esque precision with spookily playful synths and altogether immediately recall 1970s Devo and Gary Numan. But the nervy energy and particular brand of eccentric irony is very much of this moment framed in the lingo and sensibilities of today. Talk of telling someone they’re relatable, the self-examination to the point of neurotic self-obsession, the self-medication, the crying things out and telling yourself it’s all fine. Maybe that’s something people did in decades past but it’s definitely something people do now. But with the spiky musical dynamics and borderline frantic energy and self-awareness Buddy Wynkoop on this song at times reminds one of the late, great Lithics, who were also from Portland, Oregon, perhaps also of Ganser and Dry Cleaning. But Buddy Wynkoop strips things back a little before dashing its songs with furiously creative self-indulgence. Listen to “Relatable” on Spotify and follow Buddy Wynkoop at the links below.

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Buddy Wynkoop on Apple Music

Cleo Handler’s Wryly Humorous “but i’m a vegetarian” Indulges in the Darkly Surreal and the Absurdly Mundane

Cleo Handler, photo courtesy the artist

Cleo Handler asks a lot of surreal questions and poses odd scenarios in her song “but i’m a vegetarian.” The vocal style is deadpan and conversational but melodic enough to be singing and in that way like a strange story set to minimal guitar riffing and drums. The vibe is definitely in the realm of King Missile, Dead Milkmen and Camper Van Beethoven in that the wry and absurd sense of humor informs lines about eccentric aspirations. “what if i became a carnivore, what if i became an arsonist, what if i robbed a fucking bank, what if i became a grand larcenist” gives us a peek into idle, dark fantasy and mentions of listening to podcasts about fucked up men and going for a run contrasts that with some of the most mundane pursuits that some people think makes them edgy. It really is choice humor in an understated way one might more often see underlying the film work of Miranda July in which the humor isn’t spelled out for you but which in aggregate offers sharp analysis of society and the stream of consciousness daydreams that can drift into your brain upon which some act and others shake themselves out of or enjoy for the ridiculousness of these unusual psychological impulses. Listen to “but i’m a vegetarian” on Spotify and follow Cleo Handler at the links below where you can also listen to the rest of her recently released album gold on Bandcamp, a record that fans of experimental post-punk band Dry Cleaning may enjoy as well.

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Daisy Chapman’s Orchestral “Porcelain” Powerfully Reconciles Tragedy and Joy

Daisy Chapman, photo courtesy the artist

Daisy Chapman (Crippled Black Phoenix, Venus Principle) reconciles the tragedy of loss and the celebration of a new life on “Porcelain.” The title invokes a fragility, delicacy and perfection that is the nature of life at all times. Chapman’s vocals are vulnerable and immediate in delivering vivid imagery of a time spent in a hospital for the passing of a family member and simultaneously and coincidentally when a friend had recently given birth. The piano work paired with cello and viola lends the song a deeply evocative orchestral tone that is both somber and hopeful, its a contrast that elevates the song beyond a merely well-crafted pop song in the vein of the better work of an Aimee Mann or a Sam Beam and with a similar gravity buoyed by a masterful melodicism. Listen to “Porcelain” on Spotify or on Bandcamp linked below.

Mononegatives’ “North Carolina Atomic Bomb” is a Thrilling Shot of Caustic Synth Punk

Canadian synth punk band Mononegatives released its latest album Crossing Visual Field on April 21, 2023 and unleashed a set of songs that are the sound of raw dystopia. The song “North Carolina Atomic Bomb” sounds like something that made from found instruments culled from thrift store dives and some expert rehabilitation of old gear while listening to a steady diet of Metal Urbain, Pow!, Big Black and Devo while not sounding derivative of any of those. Its cutting/clashing guitar lines, fuzzy synth melodies and urgent, almost robotic vocals has a feel like a future wasteland of hard scrabble living in the ruins of technological civilization and there’s something thrilling about music that hits like the sudden realization that everything is a slow moving disaster so may as well get some enjoyment out of the immediate dopamine hit of the solid slices of benevolent irreverent punk nihilism that Mononegatives offer on this song and the rest of Crossing Visual Field. Listen to “North Carolina Atomic Bomb” on YouTube and follow the band at the links below.

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Mononegatives on Down Records

moondaddy’s “Silver Dust” is a Gorgeously Orchestral, Introspective Synth Pop Song Swimming in Feelings of a Cinematic Romance

moondaddy, photo courtesy the artist

The minor chord shift at the beginning of moondaddy’s “Silver Dust” immediately puts you an introspective mood enhanced by its slow resolving guitar riff and lushly luminous and hazy production. At times it’s reminiscent of Avalon-period Roxy Music in its evoking of another era like the musical equivalent of the mood of Suddenly Last Summer as interpreted by the song by The Motels or a pastoral Terrence Malick-directed romantic noir that never happened. Cara Potiker’s enigmatic and crooning vocals floating in glittery guitar and humming keyboard sounds with ethereal synth accents create the kind of mood you want to spend some time indulging for the duration of the song but it will linger long after. The synth melody mid-song when the wash of guitar and keyboards clears is a striking moment that leads to a gorgeous processional resolve that brings together the rich sonic palette the band has employed throughout for a truly satisfying resolve. Listen to “Silver Dust” on Spotify and follow moondaddy at the links below.

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“Blow-Up” is don’t get lemon’s Jubilant Synth Pop Collage of Dreamlike Bliss and Personal Darkness

don’t get lemon, photo courtesy the artists

The jaunty rhythm and bright synth accents on don’t get lemon’s synth pop song “Blow-Up” recalls the subversive pairing of dark themes with buoyant compositions that were a hallmark of some of the better 80s post-punk and New Wave. The electronic flute sound that introduces the song before the slightly distorted bass line anchors bursts of expansive melodic pulses and soulful and strong yet introspective vocals takes over is almost ironic in context but it all balances out the songwriting so that lines like “Anything within me will blow-up/Is this the death you’re dreaming of” can hit with an anthemic force. The imagery of the song suggests the visual sense of dreams before the underlying nightmare asserts itself, a testament to the cut-up method used to assemble the lyrics so that they can tap into a subconscious process and thus evade more straightforward, logical analysis and work as poetry that can ride that wave of irresistible yet moody melody and jubilant rhythm into your mind and strike with an unexpected poignancy. In that way it’s reminiscent of how XTC transitioned from well-crafted post-punk pop to a more streamlined, perfect pop songcraft that didn’t skimp on the possibilities of powerful emotional expression built into that format. Apparently the song shares its name with Michaeangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film and its own foreground of swinging London and its hedonism with its own underlying darkness and this layered cultural reference and methodology in songwriting is what makes this song as well as much of don’t get lemon’s music much more than simply synth pop or post-punk or simple genre jamming.

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The Ghost Helags’ “Looking For Mary” is a Bright and Uplifting Synthpop Song About Preserving One’s Sense of Wonder

The Ghost of Helags, photo courtesy the artists

The Ghost of Helags use a beat like the electronic equivalent of a fast pace tambourine strike to set the pace of “Looking For Mary” and it gives the synthpop song a character like you’re hearing an old psychedelic folk song. But the swelling synth melody and sustained keyboard chords have a brightness and uplifting quality reminiscent of Chromatics or an early OMD song and imbued with a similar sense of romanticism in a song that appears to be about finding or rediscovering one’s sense of wonder and ability to cast aside the forces that would erode and eclipse one’s passions and light. Listen to “Looking For Mary” on Spotify and follow The Ghost of Helags at the links below.

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The Ghost of Helags on Bandcamp

Foam and Sand’s Flow of Tonal Texture on “Circle 37” Induces a Lingering Sense of Tranquility

Foam and Sand, photo courtesy the artist

The oil refraction imagery in the video treatment for “Circle 37” by Robot Koch’s most recent project Foam and Sand matches well the introspective yet expansive drift of the song. The interplay and swim of colors pairs well with Priscilla Ahn’s wordless vocals and the slow roil of low end distorting into floating drones that slow swarm with textural detail and all collide into transcendent melodic resolves. It has the dynamic of eddies of air and suspended light in motion and there is refreshing tranquility to the song that lingers in the mind well after it has ended. Watch the video for “Circle 37” on YouTube and follow Foam and Sand at the links below.

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