New Music – Page 70 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Shilpa Ananth Personalizes the Nature of and Desire For Power on Art Pop Song “The Search (feat. Riatsu)”

Shilpa Ananth, photo courtesy the artist

Shilpa Ananth examines the nature of power and the making of it and seeking it out on “The Search (featuring Riatsu).” A percussive synth melody frames the song as she sings lines exploring the pursuit of power on a personal basis beyond immediate experiences and what she might do with that power and if she’s worthy of the journey in taking on power and its responsibilities. She mentions the concept of reincarnation and having lived many lives though one might take that in the symbolic sense as all of us live multiple lives in one lifetime if we have lived a path of growth and often when we don’t consciously do so because the nature of living is working through change. And in that idea is the implication of what we learn and the thoughts that come out of what we think we know and how our inherent shortcomings as mortal beings should give us pause in seeking power without understanding it and how it can be used and abused and how even possessing various kinds can change a person whose character is not suitable to a proper use of power and prestige. The video treatment directed by Suruchi Sharma is reminiscent of early Kate Bush music videos in the use of symbols and repetition including a large wire frame of a person reminiscent of The Wicker Man and its own symbolic resonances for the use and abuse of power and the seeking thereof. And that visual sense parallels the art pop sensibilities of the song and how its emotional colorings contain nuances of meaning reflected in its especially through-provoking lyrics. Watch the video for “The Search” on YouTube and connect with Shilpa Ananth at the links below.

Shilpa Ananth on Facebook

Shilpa Ananth on Twitter

Shilpa Ananth on Instagram

Jack Skuller Turns Heartache Into a Vision of Hope on “Echo”

Jack Skuller uses a simple device to bring an added layer dreamlike whimsy to his song “Echo” from his debut album Draw the Lucky Card (which dropped on October 15, 2022) with a drawn out note that sounds like a chord stretched out. This thread of a musical idea runs through Skuller ruminating on a love that has perhaps fallen on challenging times or faded off for the moment but which comes to visit his idle thoughts drawing him in to romantic reverie and symbols of a future for relationship. The line about “When I’m down in the valley and the grass is green” and the concept of the echo as a reminder in a positive sense with the suggestion of a depth that we can take for granted especially in our low moments and for Skuller in this song it seems to be one of a connection that he can’t forget and doesn’t want to let go even though things might seem at an ebb because it was genuine and strong. Skuller’s album seems to be a series of reflections on his life and the quirks of fortune that can shape character and his knack for a contemplative yet warm melody is one of its finest features. Listen to “Echo” on Soundcloud and follow Skuller at the links below.

Jack Skuller on TikTok

Jack Skuller on Instagram

Good Grim’s Video for “Idiot” is a Surreal Yet Poignant Exploration of Love, Tragedy and Acceptance

Don’t mind that the video for “Idiot” looks like something that could have been a segment on Wonder Showzen with the woman in a romance with a giant white rabbit with blue eyes that seems to become perilously ill early into the relationship. This surreal visual is a perfect and poignant companion to a song seemingly about heartache, tragedy, loss and redemption. Its lush melodies and processional pace comes off like music from a dream where the sometimes nightmarish realities of real life turn out okay for real and where happy endings don’t have to be the stuff of fairy tales and movies. It is deeply hopeful and soothing even though the music video depicts the challenging realities that will visit us all at some point in our lives but which we can handle while feeling all of those painful emotions and not be sundered by them. Good Grim’s 2022 album Enchantment seems rich on songs that take heavy experiences and sets them to music that soften the blow without watering down the emotions. Watch the video for “Idiot” on YouTube and connect with Good Grim at the links provided.

Good Grim on Facebook

Good Grim on Instagram

Good Grim on Apple Music

Rival Consoles Gives Us a Taste of Leisurely Travel on an Alien World With Cinematic Synth Song “Running”

Rival Consoles seem to channel a retro science fiction film aesthetic with “Running” from its new album Now Is (which released on October 14, 2022 via Erased Tapes). The steady, accented beat and the rapid, angular echoes of tone and bright melodic cast convey a sense of motion with distorted white noise streaking like wind. One imagines large empty spaces on a distant planet long lightly colonized with small urban areas connected by conveyances that leave one with the leisure time to take in and be impacted by the environment. Composer Ryan Lee West imbues the track with a textural component in the rhythm as more ethereal drones bubble up and drift off so that one does feel like one is inside a kind of machine that effects travel and captures the complexity of the device and its interaction with the surrounding environment in the arrangements for a holistic listening experience that grounds the music even as it captures what it might be like to spend unstructured time in a peaceful alien world. Now Is is now available digitally and on vinyl and CD. Listen to “Running” on YouTube and follow Rival Consoles at the links below.

Rival Consoles on Facebook

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Rival Consoles on Instagram

Mardi Lumsden Sings About the Benefits of Reconnecting With the Exuberance of Youth Even When You’ve Settled Into the Habits of Adulthood on “nineteen”

Mardi Lumsden, photo by Jade Ferguson @ Visual Poets Society

The melodic afterglow that flows throughout Mardi Lumsden’s synth pop ballad “nineteen.” It’s the perfect musical framing device that honors both the naivete and romance of being in one’s late teens when a very justified and knowing sense of doubt and nuance turns the black and white of teen feelings and thinking into a more full-fledged emotional spectrum takes hold. Lumsden paints that picture of being nineteen and feeling like you understand everything about love and you are willing to do anything for it or your idea of what that might be because your youthful exuberance is undiluted by life experience. But toward the latter half of the song the lyrics shift to a more adult perspective where you think you’re more sophisticated and have some more perspective under your belt but have somehow lost that everyday exuberance for life, that native excitement over simple things or rather to have that come to you without effort and have it uplift your actions and outlook. There’s something to be learned from this contrast in not romanticizing youth or ossifying into a sense of self defined by your adopted role in society or in the workplace. Lumsden reminds us that staying connected with the ability to be excited is not folly and that appreciating the benefits of learned wisdom isn’t selling out. Listen to “nineteen” on YouTube and follow Mardi Lumsden at the links provided.

Mardi Lumsden on Facebook

Mardi Lumsden on Instagram

In the Haze and Melancholic Intensity of “what kind of mania” suffer fools Creates a Rare Lo-Fi Sense of Mystique

Listening to “what kind of mania” by suffer fools is a bit like catching an enigmatic music video on a mysterious TV station before everything went digital and you’re getting an elusive wave of music that keeps bringing you back even though maybe the reception is snowy and there is some distortion in the reception. In a more modern era it’s like a moody post-punk song but which eschews high fidelity and makes you work for it just a little with few concessions to commercial music considerations beyond the ear worm of a melody and an undeniably powerful mood evoking melancholic feelings of disappointment, conflicted romantic feelings and obsession. The way Times New Viking did its own unique take on punk and lo-fi rock, suffer fools tones down expected notions of sonic fidelity and embraces what some might perceive as production shortcomings. Singer Debbie Debased establishes a concept here that has the hallmarks of the artist’s purported background as a former child star who knows the perils of having one’s life too exposed and on display and the importance of an ever more elusive quality of mystique. In a hyperconnected world where it’s relatively easy to dissect someone’s life and their art and miss the point of what makes creative work compelling by overly focusing on personality and visual aesthetic this song invites the listener in to world of deeply personal heartache as a shared experience through music. Listen to “what kind of mania” on YouTube and follow suffer fools at the links provided.

Debbie Debased on Facebook

suffer fools on Instagram

Debbie Debased on Tumblr

suffer fools on Bandcamp

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5hUryrSWX96Pcy5rtw4LbJ

Morhaf Al Alchkar Crafts a Sense of Wonder and Yearning on Arabic Folk Rock Song “Malo Methal”

“Malo Methal” pair’s Morhaf Al Achkar’s percussive oud work with his lively vocals and a touch of flute helping to carry a melody over the top. One hears in Al Achkar’s voice a sense of curiosity, wonder and yearning. The orchestration of the song interweaves the instrumentation while allowing various aspects to shine in moments as rhythms complement each other in a dynamic that feels continuously expansive. The flute accents Al Achkar’s vocals as both counter melody and harmony and in the extended lines mid song there is a sweet spot of emotional resonance that sends the song into quietly transcendent spaces before reeling back into the grounding of oud to the front at song’s end. It’s an example of the beautifully thought-provoking and nuanced compositions to be found on Al Achkar’s album Mabsoota which released on November 4, 2022. Maybe it’s the fact that the musician is a survivor of stage IV lung cancer as of 2016 that gives the music a subtle vitality and intensity in its clear joy and playfulness but the work also speaks for itself in the imagination of its arrangements. Listen to “Malo Methal” on Spotify and follow Al Achkar at the links below.

Morhaf Al Achkar on TikTok

Morhaf Al Achkar on Instagram

Sun Kin Invites Us Into the Mysterious and Wondrous World of the Beaked Whale on Ambient Track “nursery talk”

In the background of Sun Kin’s “nursery talk” you can hear breaths over the dimly luminous tones like distant sunlight beneath the sea. The track comes from Sun Kin’s 2022 release painting whales, part 2, the second in the “Painting Whales” series, and one inspired in part by Ziphindae, the family of beaked whales of which we know very little and who are among the deepest diving of mamals with the Cuvier’s species going down to nearly two miles aka parts of the ocean the human race knows little about. The photo from this installment of the series appears to be one of the whales breaching the waters of the antarctic, a traveler of spaces humans tend to avoid. Sun Kin composer Kabir Kumar expresses the wonder and mystery of these creatures in the music that takes on the form of flowing drones, impressionistic guitar tones and a beatless, informal, intuitive structure that evades the human tendency for seeking organization that has clear lines and separations of self from nature and environment imposing a psychological and cultural meaning that would be alien to a whale. In conveying an approximation of a break from standard pop music forms and even conventions of ambient music, Kumar invites us to try on a way of listening and feeling that may seem otherworldly but which is adopted with ease. Listen to “nursery talk” on Bandcamp and follow Sun Kin at the links provided.

Sun Kin on Facebook

Sun Kin on Twitter

Sun Kin on Instagram

Rain Carnation Transforms Heartache and Betrayal Into Triumph in the Gloriously Melancholic Haze of “Liar”

Rain Carnation’s “Liar” is saturated with tone and emotion befitting the subject matter. Airy backgrounds and sweeps of distorted synth drones splash and splay into fadeout over the vocals as pulsing electronic bass recalls at once some late 80s synth pop and the chillwave of the late 2000s and early 2010s and the way that music often took painful heartache and soothed it with gorgeously expansive music that seemed to dilute that pain in the streams of outward melody and taking the time to fall back into the comfortable places of your mind to recover with the words speaking your emotional truth brewing and emerging with a forcefulness that former dissociation can no longer repress. Fans of Neon Indian’s Era Extraña (2011) will appreciate the vibes presented in this song. Listen to “Liar” on Soundcloud and connect with Rain Carnation at the links below.

Rain Carnation on Instagram

Shumaila Hemani’s Powerful Track “Displacement” Evokes a Spirit of Perseverance in the Face of Devastating and Uncertainty in the Wake of the Floods in Pakistan

Shumaila Hemani, photo courtesy the artist

Shumaila Hemani starts “Displacement” with clips of news about the recent devastating floods in Pakistan from the raw destruction of the floods (June 14, 2002-October, 2022) themselves but also the aftermath in terms of a massive impact on the lives and livelihoods of the people of Pakistan.
The samples of news reports give the proper gravity of context for “Displacement” and its mournful yet hopeful tones. The music sounds rooted in a Hindustani classical style with a sustained harmonium drone and some expressive filigree and accents with harmonium, tabla and santur beautifully weaving together (Ojas Joshi on tabla and Mehdi Rezania on Santur). Hemani’s own resonant vocals traces a poetic narrative that even if you don’t understand her chosen language for the song convey a layered, nuanced and powerful expression of loss and perseverance. The song is part of the album Mannat released on October 7, 2022 and proceeds from the digital sales of the single go to benefit those impacted by the aforementioned floods in Pakistan. Listen to “Displacement” on Spotify, find more information on Hemani and her efforts on her website and purchase the song and the album on Bandcamp.

shumailahemani.com