WIlliam Friedkin – Queen City Sounds and Art

Showtime Ramon’s Driving Synthwave Hip-Hop Single “84 Dan Marino” Takes a Trip Through 80s Thriller Cinema Vibes

Showtime Ramon, photo courtesy the artist

Showtime Ramon brings an unexpected musical and rhetorical complexity to “84 Dan Marino.” Yes, in the music video we see beautiful women and a cool sports car, Ramon delivers an expertly crafted line of swagger and braggadocio like you might expect to see and hear in a mainstream hip-hop banger. But the visual aesthetics of the video is like something from a gritty, 80s thriller including he leads on screen from a film reel and scratches and pops and glitches in the print. It complements the darkly pulsing synthwave beat and the gorgeously evocative melodic splashes that linger like music from an existential horror film of today tapping into the aforementioned 80s vibe. Like Anthony Scott Burns and Nicolas Winding Refn but reaching to an even more lo-fi feel, like Ramon took in more than a few Michael Mann, William Friedkin and Brian De Palma films and absorbed the essence of moods and themes of those movies in writing this song. It has that starkness, menace and a core of melancholia that makes them all effective and “84 Dan Marino” exudes a similar energy. The key line to the song to give it the proper context, or so it seems is when Ramon raps “Lost my best friend now I spit with pain.” With those words, referencing the unsolved murder of Ramon’s best friend, the display of success, luxury, vitality, the promise of pleasure all comes into focus as where your head may need to be so your heart doesn’t sink into oblivion. Not to escape those feelings of loss and despair but to survive them. Ramon makes the processing of the darkest times of our lives feel like an adventure, a chapter of life and an affirmation of what makes being alive feel so significant and good. The song hits hard yet reminds you of the good things in life. Watch the video for “84 Dan Marino” on YouTube and follow Mexican American rapper, and proud Capricorn, Showtime Ramon at the links provided.

Showtime Ramon on Apple Music

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Showtime Ramon on Instagram

Isaac Watters’ Noir Pop Song “Coconut In The Street” is a Vivid Glimpse Into the Contrasting Social Reality of the Haves and Have Nots of Los Angeles

Isaac Watters brings a downbeat, noir mood to “Coconut In The Street.” In the live video version below we see what looks like black and white with some blue tones allowed in the color palette enhancing the cool, late night feel of the song. It sounds like a brooding blues song with a touch of urgent and shimmery synth around the edges. And of course Watters relating a story of tensions between the moneyed and the down and out and how both seem to exist not so far apart in the streets of Los Angeles where it’s not like a sanitized version from a movie but a city with as much grit and desperation as one might find in a city with more of a reputation for that, just with generally better weather unless it’s wildfire season. Watters’ imagery captures these contrasts well and sure early in the song you hear the ghost of Leonard Cohen haunting his style but as the song progresses and his wailing bursts in singing the late song chorus gives it a different flavor, one more imbued with an immediacy that elevates the song beyond a merely good singer-songwriter in the bluesy folk vein of today into something more mysterious when paired with the vivid poetry of the song’s lyrics that make it feel like watching one of William Friedkin’s Los Angeles movies do or if Jim Jarmusch did an entire movie set in the City of Angels. It hits as unexpectedly cool and uncommonly observant while giving you the language to describe social dynamics in fresh and creative ways. Lines like “You were so angry at the laughing stock downtown/Stumbling zombie on the edge of the freeway/You call the police, they say they’re on the way/But you can’t pull over” and “Double back flip off the new glass tower downtown/Is that you they found? Is that your enemy?/Is that the friend you always meant to be?” capture such a specific emotional space while grounding it in a specificity of place it invokes the familiar while inducing new ways to think about places you’ve been physically and psychologically. Watch the video for “Coconut In The Street” on YouTube and follow Isaac Watters at the links below.

Isaac Watters on Facebook

Isaac Watters on Twitter

Isaac Watters on Instagram

johnisaacwatters.com

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.

MP Shaw and Nick Andre Craft an Urgent Atmosphere of Dark Mystery on IDM/Ambient Track “Electric Company”

MP Shaw and Nick Andre teamed up to create the sort of techno track with “Electric Company” that was written for the soundtrack of the short film “Return of the Sleepwalker” but wouldn’t be out of place in a Michael Mann or William Friedkin film. It has an enigmatic duskiness and strong tonal pulses and an urgent rhythm that contains a hint of menace or at least focused purpose. A melodic line will trace a short arpeggio and burst into a short echo as the song pushes forward. One hears the touch of the influence of Giorgio Moroder and late night video game play reaching to finish an important section of a horror or thriller RPG you wish existed and may yet be. Listen to “Electric Company” on Spotify where you can listen to other tracks including Shaw’s excellent and evocative cover of Brian Eno’s “Deep Blue Day.”

“City of Angels” from Ladytron’s Forthcoming Album Time’s Arrow Evokes a Hazily Dreamlike Cinematic Mood

Ahead of the January 20, 2023 release of its new album Time’s Arrow, Ladytron offers a glimpse of what we’re in for with the music video for the lead single “City of Angels.” Directed my Manuel Nogueira the video shows figures caught up in a dance in a dimly lit underground setting like a a forgotten dance club out of a dystopian science fiction film. The haze and shadow fit well with a song that while buoyant and pulsing with a subtle momentum is an orchestration of sonic opacity between vocals and layered melodic lines that are reminiscent of New Wave era synth pop so that one has a sense of navigating not just an environment the likes of which is depicted in the video but the social landscape as well with its competing demands on your attention and regularly evolving signifiers. If the song references Los Angeles it does so in capturing how a big city built on both traditional commerce and the entertainment industry is always more complex and nuanced than any romanticizing or cynicism is adequate convey with accuracy. Rather, Ladytron’s gift for crafting colorfully atmospheric rock music is akin to the way William Friedkin imbues his own films, and his own depiction of Los Angeles as a kind of character as well as setting, with grit, deep mood and an eye for fine details. Ladytron’s cinematic sensibilities have been there since its 2001 debut album 604 and it appears Time’s Arrow as hinted at by “City of Angels” will be full of the band’s signature set of observational stories set to evocative soundscapes. Watch the video for “City of Angels” on YouTube and connect with Ladytron at the links provided.