Graffiti Welfare – Queen City Sounds and Art

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

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Graffiti Welfare, photo courtesy the artist

Graffiti Welfare are on to a very real personal phenomenon with the song “Volume.” It’s something that could only happen from the late Twentieth Century onward but reflects an aspect of human psychology and culture that goes back to our most ancient of days. The shimmering tone and ethereal vocals with some fairly funky bass, synth drone and expressive percussion cast a dreamlike quality on the song and the lines “Turn the television on while I get some sleep/Leave the volume up, man it’s the same to me” that open the song expresses how familiar sounds and energies can soothe our minds so that we can get adequate rest. Not everyone but the kinds of people who maybe in ancient times had the habits of being aware of environmental sounds and when those sounds and sense of movement remain familiar their nerves could relax some but when that normalcy is interrupted they shock to awareness. “I’m scared the volume will cut out/While I’m asleep/Next day no voice on the street” speaks to that ancient mindset adapted to a modern context. Even when a television station will broadcast different programs there is a kind of constancy and predictability to the sound level and dynamics that is not unlike the fires going on, the sound of wind in grass, the regularity of water lapping at the shore and so on. On another level the song articulates what it’s like to have a survival mentality where maybe you feel like you have to be hyper vigilant and pin your ability to relax on these unconventional cultural tools that might actually agitate people not saddled with those sensitive instincts. Musically it’s like a psychedelic, moody synth pop song that fans of Nation of Language and Lake Trout might enjoy. Listen to “Volume” on Spotify and follow Graffiti Welfare at the links below.