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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
From the beginning of War Strings’ “Surreal” its blend of textural sounds and deep atmosphere bears immediate resonance with Drowse mid-90s Flying Saucer Attack. It establishes a delicate and billowy sound where the steady guitar riff anchors the ethereal vocals before they have a chance to dissolve into the background drone flowing off the core stream of sounds. The lyrics are like images from a dream spent contemplating an old hurt and trying to sublimate off that pain even if that may not happen on the first attempt. The final stanza of lyrics “In everything I see/It’s surreal, surreal/It’s all blown out/All blown out/All blown out” is like a mantra to the way memory can distort our current emotional state when we lean into it but in addressing the heartaches that stick with you it’s usually necessary to just feel it and not try to escape even when it can leave you disoriented and confused for longer than might be comfortable. And while the song has that ghostly, haunted quality it isn’t one that is built on dissociation or avoidance. Listen to “Surreal” on YouTube and follow War Strings at the links provided.
Orions Belte has long had a gift for turning musical complexity into playful and emotionally charged music. Its single “Silhouettes” moves in pulses and soaring tones with shuffling rhythms. Bass-driven and flute filigrees alongside urgent strings with fiery, fuzzy guitar mid-song “Silhouettes” is part progressive Bossa Nova pop and Krautrock and part orchestral psychedelia. Like a math rock Stereolab in moments and imbued with a similarly effusive energy and freshness of spirit that sweeps into your brain like a bright dream about a party in a retro-futurist jazz club in a cosmopolitan locale. Not just a studio creation, Orions Belte performed the song on its recent swing through North America and helped to cement the trio’s reputation as one of the leading lights of modern art rock. Listen to “Silhouettes” on Spotify and follow Orions Belte at the links below.
Ryan Cassata’s punk ballad “If You Ever Leave Long Island” hits with a beckoning tenderness that takes you by surprise from the beginning. The video treatment directed by Dory Fine shows the band performing in a warehouse space on an upper floor with no one else seemingly around. It’s like a symbol for a welcoming spirit, making space for the person to whom the song is sung. Cassata urges a friend and/or loved one to help chase away their sadness by getting out of the familiar contexts that have all the memories of experiences that perpetuate being stuck in life. Cassata urges this friend to not get mired in yet another seemingly comfortable relationship that won’t fix the core issues and environments that are clearly some of the source of the friend’s misery and the earnest choruses and uplifting melodies are so convincing that if this song is directed to a real person or people you hope that person or people have the good sense to follow the words of a friend who knows you so well. Watch the video for “If You Ever Leave Long Island” on YouTube and follow Kill Rock Stars artist Ryan Cassata at the links below.
Dvanov’s video for “шушан (shushan)” (“That’s It” in English) looks like it takes place in some near future of societal collapse and a simple act of solidarity in sharing drinks and other amenities and rolling through episodic experiences of people trying to eke out small moments of joy as they can in an otherwise bleak reality. The music is a seething industrial post-punk beat under almost spoken word rapping in Russian commenting on the stark reality of the scenes depicted and the confusion, disorientation and social disruption in life under an entrenched oligarchy and its impacts on everyday existence. Fans of “Come To Daddy” period Aphex Twin, the more dystopian end of clipping. and Sleaford Mods if that group stripped its pointed commentary of humor may enjoy this song and the rest of the St. Petersburg, Russia-based project’s new album семья (“Family” in English) which released on March 17, 2023. Watch the video for “шушан (shushan)” on YouTube and follow Dvanov at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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