Graffiti Welfare Guide’s the Mind to a More Blissful State With Hypnogogic Pop Single “Just Follow”

Graffiti Welfare’s single “Just Follow” sits somewhere between gentle, drifty psychedelia and ambient IDM dream pop. Think a lo-fi and more chill Big Black Delta and Washed Out. Melody and texture flows through the song like water and wind, pooling in eddies of sound before dissolving into silence leaving the lightly echoing vocals which haunt the track like the voice of a lingering spirit. In moments it’s reminiscent of parts of The Helio Sequence circa Young Effectuals with the blissed out vocals and layers of hazy melody. Whatever the exact shape, impact and texture of the music the music video for the song is brimming with signifiers synced with what we’re hearing with vocals coming in paired with plants coming into bloom, the vocals represented by abstract fireworks float over the rippling texture of flowing water in a river. Guitar too accompany the burst of blooms and give way to percussion counting the moments as the whole takes a casual pace, dreamlike in a steady flow of soothing energy. It is like a dynamic collage of pop songcraft and symbolic imagery. As the title of the song suggests sometimes it’s best to go with a benevolent flow rather than overthink. Watch the video for “Just Follow” on YouTube, give the rest of the new album Revolving Shores when it releases to Spotify on June 17, 2002 and follow Graffiti Welface at the links provided.

Graffiti Welfare on Twitter

Graffiti Welfare on Instagram

Red Mecca’s “Without a House, Without a Door” is Lush Darkwave in Cosmic Colors

Red Mecca, photo courtesy the artists

The enigmatically titled new Red Mecca single “Without a House, Without A Door” presents us with a wall of steady, powerful percussion and a distorted shimmer of drone through which flares of bright melody pierce periodically as a Susanne Jonsson vocalist graces this stark yet full soundscape with human presence. The effect has the kind of grandeur one often heard in the more hypnotic and drone laden works of Sky Cries Mary with Johnsson’s performance very reminiscent of the expressive and alluring vocal style of Anisa Romero. But Red Mecca, with its name a very cool and obvious nod to the third, great, 1981 studio album by Cabaret Voltaire, is very much more in the post-punk by way of modern darkwave mode with its processional pace and deeply lush, finely textured electronic soundscapes. Think Big Black Delta, think the more modern offerings from Gary Numan. Gorgeous stuff that captivates the imagination. Listen to “Without a House, Without a Door” on Soundcloud and connect with Red Mecca at the links provided.

Red Mecca on Facebook