SubmitHub – Page 9 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Slouching’s “Medialyte” is an Ambient Coldwave Song Evocative of Retro Science Fiction Noir

“Medialyte” begins with a minimal beat setting a framing of spaciousness before the voice sample comes in with the layers of synth and textural tones. Slouching’s use of these layers is cinematic in a way that sounds like a moody, fiction noir set in the 1980s might look like. Think like a downtempo IDM track influenced by early Gary Numan and late 80s coldwave soundtracking a lost Michael Mann film. Listening you can see the darkened streets and long drives, neon lights, street lights providing a hazy respite from a late night fog. The extended melodies are hypnotic and the voice like some lecture on existential subjects received on a shortwave radio adds more than a touch of compelling mystery without being the centerpiece. Listen to “Medialyte” on Bandcamp and follow Slouching there and on Spotify. The duo’s self-titled EP released August 18, 2025.

“Marina pt. 2” is an Ambient Jazz Fusion Portrait of Leisure Times in the Coastal Subtropics

Shrunken Elvis, photo courtesy the artists

“Marina pt. 2” has a steady clip of a beat with sunny, impressionistic guitar work sketching melodies over shimmering fades. The song by the curiously named Shrunken Elvis sounds like something written from the memories of being near a subtropical coast in latter half of spring between school breaks and summer vacation when the weather is nice and when the crowds are not as active. It’s a time when one can relax and let the days stretch out some while engaged in relaxing activity. The song builds so that the guitar is more distorted and playful. Like some of Brian Eno’s collaborations that include Robert Fripp cutting loose and then reigning it in. One imagines perhaps leisurely boat ride out of the marina into choppy waters and then into more tranquil parts of the bay and returning once again to dock with the sunset. Listen to “Marina pt. 2” on YouTube and follow Shrunken Elvis at the links provided. The trio’s self-titled album released September 5, 2025 on Western Vinyl.

Shrunken Elvis on Western Vinyl

Spencer Cullum on Instagram

Birdie Swann Sisters & King Black Acid Embrace the Messy Aspects of Being a Passionate Person in Love on “Hurricane”

Birdie Swann Sisters & King Black Acid, photo courtesy the artists

“Hurricane” by Birdie Swann Sisters & King Black Acid in its Birdie Swann Mix iteration lends the song a softer quality. The animated video with collaged images of imperiled and infamous women in a band playing the song (Squeaky Fromme, Shelley Duvall, Judy Garland, Jayne Mansfield and Sharon Tate) and a figure with a large, papier mache head frolicking in he forest in a kind of manic delirium playing guitar and dancing while a psychedelic world and all its contents continue to swirl. In the end we see the papier mache head in flames. The psychedelic pop song is an embrace of having a tumultuous heart and a passionate and highly emotional nature, being a little volatile, even unhinged, at times and in generally not being able to give less than everything, which is more than you get from a lot of people. Despite the lyrics depicting chaos the song is catchy and itself sounds more celebratory than menacing perhaps proving that sometimes what you see isn’t fully the essence of what you get with someone. Watch the video for “Hurricane” on YouTube and follow King Black Acid on Bandcamp.

King Black Acid on Bandcamp

Carmine Francis Reconciles His Dreams and Existential Anxieties on Tender Psychedelic Folk Pop Single “Too Much”

Carmine Francis, photo courtesy the artist

An ethereal harmonic hovers as the backdrop to Carmine Francis’s single “Too Much” and truly lends his vocals and the spare instrumentation an intimate quality and immediacy. The song is like a meditation on life’s ups and downs and perennial yearnings and anxieties and trying to find a way to turn it all into something that liberates you from that cycle of seemingly endless little struggles that long term can feel like they’re dragging you down. We commiserate with the songwriter as he relates how his own previous efforts and goals may have contributed to staying on the existential rat race rather than aiming to dream differently and take in the fears he once avoided and reconcile them with a better headspace. Fans of Silver Jews and the more psychedelic folk side of Wilco will appreciate the fine inflections of tone and rhythmic nuance that make this song something you want to hear again immediately. Listen to “Too Much” on Bandcamp where you can hear the rest of the Surrender EP which released August 21, 2025.

SAADI Highlights the Strange and Irrational Aspects of Faith on Synthpop Single “Gotcha!”

SAADI’s single “Gotcha!” is a playful send-up of the concept of putting too much stake into articles of religious faith and the superstitious mindset that convinces some people they have more control over their world than they do. Utilizing minimal synth layers, even more minimal guitar riffs and
electronic percussion the songwriter brings a sense of the pristine and otherworldly which is at times reminiscent of a Talking Heads song in the use of polyrhythms and non-Western tonal palettes. It sets the perfect mood for discussing the absurdities of holding the purely mythical and odd stories as part of some eternal and universal truth. Fans of The Knife and Tune-Yards will appreciate SAADI’s masterful arrangement of layered moods and cultural reference points. Listen to “Gotcha!” on Spotify and follow SAADI at the links below. The artist’s new album Birds of Paradise released September 4, 2025 on limited edition vinyl, digital download and streaming.

SAADI on Facebook

SAADI on Instagram

SAADI on Bandcamp

Springworks’ “Ultraviolet Lullabies” is Like a Psychedelic Garage Folk Theme Song to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy

Springworks surprises us with a different mood and sound palette for “Ultraviolet Lullabies.” It’s structured around an ascending chord structure that feels like it keeps climbing upward throughout the song even though it starts the cycle over. It sounds like theme music for a science fiction series set on frontier world that is settled enough to have some culture and political intrigue. The melodies and arrangements are like a psychedelic garage folk song but with a retro-futurist feel like some late 60s band writing music for Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. Watch the video for “Ultraviolet Lullabies” on YouTube and follow Springworks at the links provided.

springworksband.com

Springworks on Twitter

Springworks on Facebook

Springworks on Instagram

Patrick Shiroishi’s Ambient Noise Rock Piece “Mountain take that wing” is the Sound of Ancient Life Reclaiming Consciousness

Patrick Shiroishi, photo courtesy the artist

“Mountain take that wing” opens with a burst of high frequency sounds like the final emergency transmission from a starship falling from orbit. The glitches in that signal break its uniform, piercing quality and it crackles to give way to minimal saxophone warble and ghostly guitar, courtesy SUMAC’s Aaron Turner, streaming in the middle distance. The breathy saxophone notes that take the central spot in the mix overlayered by some animated saxophone and guitar that distorts abstractly like a sudden fissure opening to another dimension breaks into the more grounding sounds. But the guitar unleashed intones mournfully like a kaiju awakening from millennia of dormancy. The title provides a perfect image of an immense, ancient earth beast regaining full consciousness and indeed taking to flight, serenaded by angelic voices, provided by Gemma Thompson formerly of post-punk band Savages, in the last minute of the song. We hear the majestic creature crying out as it enjoys its liberty once again. Listen to “Mountain take that wing” on Spotify and follow Patrick Shiroishi on Instagram. His new album Forgetting is Violent is out now on vinyl, digital download and streaming via American Dreams.

Pynch Elucidates the Gutting Sadness of Certain Kinds of Modern Love on Gorgeously Melancholic Dream Pop Single “How You Love Someone”

“How You Love Someone” finds Pynch exploring melancholic feelings from a slightly different angle than usual. The slow glitter jangle of the guitar melody with the vocals sounding every slightly weary and plaintive serves well a song about a relationship that felt like something truly significant but which ultimately didn’t and couldn’t work out the way either person wanted. It perfectly articulates not just notions of modern love as ultimately temporary experiences but how people can often be so in their own head about what they think they want in a relationship and the feelings they associate with that fantasy that when a real human being fails to live up to that the instant urge to move on sets in rather than taking the time to develop real connection and cultivating that and not needing someone else to be a kind of weird vehicle for personal wish fulfillment they can never be. The synth work provides a lively pulse and vivid tones while the guitars are delicate and fleeting in their almost impressionistic character. Altogether it sounds like the feeling of ennui and disappointment and indeed a deep down sadness that things that seem to have had promise really didn’t not because they couldn’t between two people but because the will to really try wasn’t a shared sentiment in enough time to salvage what might have been. Watch the also rather romantically doleful music video set in city nightscapes on YouTube and follow Pynch at the links below. The group’s new album Beautiful Noise dropped October 3, 2025 on Chillburn Recordings on vinyl, digital download and streaming.

Eric Angelo Bessel’s Ambient Single “Scavengers” is an Enigmatic and Haunted Evocation of the Mysteries of Hidden Depths

Eric Angelo Bessel, photo courtesy the artist

Eric Angelo Bessel is half of Portland, Oregon-based, ambient post-punk experimenters Lore City. With solo work the sound palette is more abstract and ahead of the October 31, 2025 release of his second solo album Mirror at Night, Bessel offers the single “Scavengers.” All the sound sources have a quality as though having passed through the ocean before reaching your ears so that the tonal lines don’t doppler so much as they might with the wind but resonate in a linger and trailing manner. Like an impossible piano being played at the bottom of the ocean with its notes intact, a Phantom of the Opera of the depths, a piece for the lost episode of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau in which the crew discovers the entrance to the ruins of Atlantis or at least their showcasing the wonders of the underwater constructions of Nan Madol. There is something of a spirit of wonder to the track as much as it is enigmatic and when it’s over all too soon it leaves you yearning for more of the mysterious side of our world not yet completely mundaned by overexposure. Listen to “Scavengers” on YouTube and follow Eric Angelo Bessel at the links below. Mirror at Night will be available on limited edition 12” vinyl, digital download and streaming.

lorecitymusic.com

Lore City on Twitter

Lore City on Bandcamp

“Let Go/Ascent” by SOHN is the Sound of Both Cosmic Horror and Existential Transcendence

“Let Go/Ascent” by SOHN is almost iterative in its slow flowing, evolving harmonics and melodic pulses as the track goes from distant and dusky to bright and present. The music video depicts a sunrise and the music itself reflects a time of early morning quiescence with a sustained, slightly distorted synth drone that elevates in tone gradually and then rapidly before cutting off suddenly to give way to throbbing synth lines and an icy synth backdrop. The video for this half of the song shows an eye blinking at the rising dawn sun. Sonically it’s reminiscent of Sinoia Caves’ saturated synth work for soundtrack to Beyond the Black Rainbow and Ben Salisbury’s and Geoff Barrow’s score to Annihilation. It’s an enigmatic mood with elevated, abstract, spectral melodies anchored by distorted low end that warps and modulated the stretch out the trailing ends of tone for an effect that’s both entrancing and foreboding. Watch the video for “Let Go/Ascent” on YouTube and connect with composer and producer SOHN at the links provided. SOHN at the links provided. SOHN’s new album Albadas (Dawn Songs) is out October 10, 2025 via APM Records.