Hang Linton Perfectly Embodies the Surreal Desperation of Trying to Afford Living Under Late Capitalism in the Face of Climate Collapse in Post-Punk Performance Art Single “Radiator”

Hang Linton, photo by Jen Foto

There is a surreal urgency that courses through the entirety of Hang Linton’s single “Radiator.” Utilizing the image of the radiator as a symbol for the escalating cost of living in the chorus of “Can you feel the heat?” Gorillaz bassist Seye Adelekan adds both a steady pulse and an understated yet heady insistence that accents the song perfectly as it goes from contemplating crisis to seeming to become unraveled by it all. Linton’s vocals are both delivered in spoken word fashion and psychedelic as he evokes both desperation and the attempt to keep calm in a time of multiple challenges to simply afford living. The song hits as both an intensively creative and thought-provoking post-punk song and a performance art piece that expresses perfectly the amplified anxieties that are ambient in the world in this moment and the will to hold it together with a little unleashing of those energies through creative acts. Fans of early 80s No Wave art funk and the work of Reggie Watts will appreciate the sonic heights and emotional nuances Linton and his collaborators achieve here. Listen to “Radiator” on Spotify and follow Hang Linton at the links below.

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Azalia Snail Resets Your Brain From the Conditioned Conformity of Modern Life With the Lo-Fi Psychedelic Electronic Pop Song “Zap You of That Hate”

Azalia Snail, photo courtesy the artist

The “Queen of Lo-Fi” Azalia Snail returns with her fifteenth album titled POWERLOVER (released April 5 via Cloud Recordings). The featured single from the album “Zap You of That Hate” includes contributions from Alan Sparhawk of Low and an entrancing music video that looks like something that one might more expect to see from an old website from the 90s except with much better image quality. Maybe it’s Omnichord melodies forward, minimal percussion and an evolving backdrop of drones and other synths that reset your mind from the present and into the more colorful and analog aesthetic of the music video with images of nature enhanced by collage art animation and flashing lights. Like the song and the visuals together are aiming to hypnotize you into a better and more benevolent state of mind with the artist speaking the title of the song in the end to punctuate what has been a wonderful sonic journey beyond the highly produced music of the modern era by demonstrating how something that embodies being accepted on its own terms can be a way of life that can grow as much as systematized conformity. Watch the video for “Zap You of That Hate” on YouTube and follow the pioneering lo-fi, experimental pop artist Azalia Snail at the links provided.

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Springworks Playfully Deconstruct the Insidiously Pervasive Presence of Marketing Culture in Society on New Wave Garage Pop Single “Snake Oil Salesman”

There is a vividness to the production on Springworks’ latest single “Snake Oil Salesman.” It’s a nice touch for a song about the kind of people who try to fool people into believing in something that is patently untrue but profitable for the person peddling misleading claims. We see this all the time in politics, in the way our economic systems are run and the ways in which people have been tricked into a way of living that involves constantly having to market yourself for clout because there are social incentives for building clout even if it really amounts to very little. Musically the song is like a weird mix of garage rock and New Wave with some buzzy guitar work and atmospheric vocals in the chorus. But underlying the music are currents of Flying Lizards’ cover of “Money (That’s What I Want)” and a deft allusion to Pete Shelley’s 1981 hit “Homosapien.” The scratchy guitar riff that runs throughout sounds like a sound effect for a frazzled end wire that is sparking on and off electricity like the way electronic signals in binary fashion communicate but in the song it has the effect of embodying a disconnect with oneself and the world around you yet it has its own catchy appeal like the touch of psychedelic melody that is at the core of the song. Overall it’s a layered commentary on how we have come to accept the dynamic of being lied to and the incredibly pervasive presence of marketing culture on all levels of actual culture while also playfully suggesting we can unplug from that way of being and to pull back the curtain on the charlatans that plague us. The title alone highlights how what can seem new now in society has in fact been a part of public life since as long as we can remember with figures of speech that capture the phenomenon perfectly. Watch the video for “Snake Oil Salesman” on YouTube and follow Springworks at the links below.

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K C Q’s Gritty and Urgent Trip Hop Single “If You Can Make It” is Like a Mantra on Persistence and Self Patience

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K C Q strikes defiant yet vulnerable tones on the single “If You Can Make It” from her Former Teen Model EP (released on March 5, 2024). The song has an emotional urgency in both word and music. An echoing tone over syncopated rhythms as the vocalist drops alternately rhyming couplets and free verse statements of observation and intent. K C Q’s portraits of striving for a good and vital life are not mere bravado. Not with lines like “daily struggle comes with daily pain.” The song has a dreaminess and heavy rhythm like a trip hop song but there is an aspect of noisy industrial beats that gives the song as well as the other tracks on the EP a compelling intensity, darkness and grittiness that draws you into the songs because it feels like something vital, raw and new. It speaks to persistent everyday frustrations and the pressure to constantly prove yourself while remind oneself to believe in yourself and the knowledge that if you get through these most trying of times maybe you’ll attain the level of success and achievement that will make what you’ve endured worth it. Listen to “If You Can Make It” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the EP as well.

Boko Yout and boerd Deliver “Sooky Sooky” a Downtempo Hip-Hop Song About Heartbreak, Affection and Compassion

Boko Yout and boerd (R-L), photo courtesy the artists

Boko Yout and boerd team up again for “Sooky Sooky,” a downtempo hip-hop song that expresses a nuanced and emotional complexity in word and its deeply evocative music. Boko Yout’s distinctive soulful vocals shift in and out of various styles of processing that lend shadings of resonance that complement the vocalist’s already rich tonal range as he seems to experience the feelings in real time of heartbreak and trying to understand what happened in a relationship that is experiencing some turmoil. The line “Sooky Sooky let me down/never let me go” gets to that place in your heart where you would rather someone let you down because that’s human and everyone does it but wanting to keep a special connection going. In the rest of the song we hear a voice weary of misunderstandings and conflict and of being sad but left with feelings of compassion and affection that remain. Throughout the song there is a spare guitar line and a touch of piano that closes out the song on a hopeful, upward note. Listen to “Sooky Sooky” on Spotify and follow the multi-faceted songwriter and singer Boko Yout at the links below. The new Boko Yout and boerd EP Griot released on March 15, 2024.

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Ana Hausmann’s Ambient and Modern Classic Song “come on, I’ll catch you” is a Poetic Evocation on Isolation

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Ana Hausmann establishes a strong sense of mood and place from the beginning of “come on, I’ll catch you.” Icy violin stretches out over the sound of splashing water as a slow roiling drone serves as a backdrop like a constant presence, like a haze at sunset. Wordless vocals resound in the latter half of the song like someone commenting on a time and place that seems quiet and all but abandoned. The song comes from Hausmann’s album seminary which is a little like a musical diary capturing slices out of life and the landscape and evoking time spent meditating on small details that can be otherwise missed in the rush of life spent catering to the relentless demands of commerce and finding poetry and a deeper meaning in those moments of observant contemplation. The who track feels like an expression of the essence of isolation as an opportunity for reflection and cultivating deeper and nuanced understandings. Musically the piece and many of those on the album blends ambient composition, modern classical attention to tone as texture and processed field recordings as a foundation of songcraft. Listen to “come on, I’ll catch you” on Soundcloud and if you like what you hear the rest of the album is on Bandcamp. Follow Hausmann’s further adventures in soundscaping at the links below.

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Immortal Wound’s Sweet and Noisy Shoegaze Single “burnt out star” Exudes Feelings of Heartbreak and a Yearning for Reconciliation

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The reverse delay noises in the opening of “burnt out star” by Immortal Wound is like the opening credits for a short film and contrasts with the song proper with its gently processed percussion and circular guitar strumming and vocals hazy in the mix. But all of this allows the song to seem much more voluminous than it is. In fact its economy of songwriting is impressive on its own at two minutes thirty-seven the song goes through a variety of moods, textures and atmospheric dynamics as the singers speak to a love that has broken but not for good and a desire for reconnection and reconciliation. With the reverse delay noises reprising at the end and the lyric “and leaves me loveless” one wonders if it’s a tiny bit of an homage to My Bloody Valentine and that band’s own disregard for conventional song structure and use of sounds in a rock context. But this song is clearly not a direct and obvious descendant of that most hallowed of shoegaze bands. The dissonance in this song paired with the melody creates a sweetness of mood that’s undeniable and imbues its yearning for romantic satisfaction with a spirit of hope. Listen to “burnt out star” on Spotify and follow Immortal Wound at the links below.

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Joyer’s “Fall Apart” is a Noise Pop Ode to a Impulse to Self-Liberation Through Leaning Into Chaos

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Listening to Joyer’s “Fall Apart” it’s perhaps easy to imagine it’s like a Yo La Tengo song sped up but layered with a catastrophic noise partway through. The latter pairs well with the lyrics about an impulse to do things that make one fall apart. Why? Maybe the things that feel like everything is all together feels like you’re too bound up with limitations that come from social conditioning and conforming to a society where a certain kind of order is valued that can feel like oppression. Maybe the song is about mountain anxiety the release from which can only be indulging in what feels like you’re not clinging so tightly a way of being and living that don’t suit you. It’s a song that seems to acknowledge mental health struggles and a will to be free of them even that means yearning for acting in ways that are counter to what you’ve been told is well and good when part of you is aware that those words were not completely valid all along. Listen to “Fall Apart” on Spotify and follow Joyer at the links below. The group’s new album Night Songs drops April 26, 2024 via North Records/Julia’s War Records on digital and limited edition vinyl.

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Night Sins’ Darkwave Single “The Lowest Places You’ll Go” is an Industrial Dance Journey Through One’s Personal Hell and Beyond It

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Night Sins is scheduled to release its latest offering A Silver Blade in the Shadow on May 17, 2024 via Born Losers Records. The lead single from the record is “The Lowest Places You’ll Go” and it has the hallmarks of modern darkwave with a strong rhythm and pulsing bass line all of which sound like they could be purely electronic but rather than embrace subpar production and tones, Night Sins sound like the kind of band that came out of the 1980s EBM underground but with more of an ear for pop sensibilities. There is something vulnerable and human about the music that sets it apart from a lot of current darkwave songwriting The expressive vocals don’t hide behind production and a wall of sound but are almost confrontational in being as forward as they are in the mix. The music video for the song showcases the band live on stage and presumably Kyle Kimball (who some may know as the former drummer for NOTHING) sitting at a table singing about the way you can walk your way into your own personal hell without even being fully aware that’s what you’re doing and come to romanticize the process. Implicit in the energy and momentum of the song is the will to break out of that self-destructive spiral. Watch the video for “The Lowest Places You’ll Go” on YouTube and follow Night Sins at the links provided.

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Robert Ouyang Rusli’s Layering of Choral Vocals, Synth and Organic Percussion Lends “Elizabeth’s Voicemail” a Surreal Yet Fateful Tone

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Composer Robert Ouyang Rusli recently provided the score for write-director Julio Torres’ new A24 comedy film Problemista. The film is about an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador who brings his unorthodox ideas to NYC and takes on a job assisting an eccentric art world figure as a path to keeping his visa and take aim at his dream. From that score comes “Elizabeth’s Voicemail” and its enigmatic, melancholic yet playful sounds between ethereal, choral vocals and what sounds like a harp tracing a scale, dramatic strings lending an element of classical pathos and textural percussive tones including a lonely piano figure around halfway through that grounds the song with a sense of forward motion. All while preserving a delicacy and sensitivity to the piece that pairs well with a film that has an aspect of a fairy tale storybook. The title itself separate from its context in the film suggests hearing a fateful message that propels one into a significant shift in one’s life direction for the better. Listen to “Elizabeth’s Voicemail” on Spotify and follow Robert Ouyang Rusli at the links below.

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