Crypt Thing introduced us to Shodan with the following words:
Shodan is an audiovisual exploration of time and space across all their various manifestations. Whether that be physical, literal, virtual or otherwise, these two primary concepts, as well as the wider influence of science fiction and cyberpunk themes form the creative context within which this EP is situated. Each of the songs are named after a fictional supercomputer/AI system from recent popular culture, including Darren Aronofsky’s film debut Pi and the 1994 video game System Shock. The tracks themselves all inhabit very different sound worlds yet all belong to a common sonic system. This relationship is something I aimed to replicate in each of the videos, by creating a virtual environment from which 3D visuals could generate unique versions of themselves. They each grow from an initial still image which was chosen in response to the feelings and thoughts each track provoked. ‘Shodan’ is intended to make sense and be enjoyed both as a singular entity and as individual pieces.
Crypt Thing’s Shodan EP is available now via squareglass.
Matsu Mixu
Meet Houston, TX by Portland, Oregon duo Matsu Mixu, who present the southwest deep-fried premiere of “Fried Chicken Dossier” from Manimal. Michelle Yue & Mat King are readying their debut full-length LP1 available August 18, promising future chill beats soon to arrive to assuage the raging rays of the summer heat. Listen now as Michelle & Mat create their own world of echoes, digitized atmospheres that float along the highway trails that connect TX to PDX.
“Fried Chicken Dossier” is executed like an experimental French pop gem that flies with stealth & grace under the radar via the lo-fi frequencies. Michelle enlists herself as the central voice that repeats the track title among sung romance tongue quips of thoughts that are littered throughout the track. Mat keeps the production super restrained, accentuating everything from Michelle’s breaths, the way synths & beats resonate, & to the subtle sustains of synths that provide a kind of backdrop for Matsu Mixu’s professed love for fried poultry delights. Immediately after the following debut listen to “Fried Chicken Dossier”, read our interview with Michelle & Mat.
Describe the latest inspirations between Portland & Texas for you two these days.
Michelle: Escaping the heat, and the concept of escapism in general—the glass cage aka the mind, places already associated with memories and concepts, etc. Plus long walks across the Burnside bridge.
Mat: Escaping the Texas heat is everything for me. I’ve immersed myself into nature since I got to the Northwest. That’s something I could never do in Houston, and I think it has somehow played a part in the evolution of my productions. Also, not knowing anyone up here has freed up a lot of time to be productive.
What inspired the echoplex-electro jam “Fried Chicken Dossier” and how much fried poultry was consumed in the process?
Michelle: I’ve toyed with the idea of filling a clawfoot bath tub completely with fried chicken wings and soaking in it for a while. The inspiration came from taking a banal concept such as fried chicken, though it could be argued that fried chicken is certainly not banal, and transforming it via language & music.
Mat: Michelle and I are both food nerds and share a common love for fried chicken. It just made sense to call this song “Fried Chicken Dossier”. I remember sending her over the instrumental late one night and listening to what she had done to it that next morning. I couldn’t have been happier with the result.
What was the making of LP1 like for the two of you, and what sorts of discoveries and experiences did you both gain as a result?
Michelle: It was very fun, experimental. We had just started dating and wanted to collaborate musically. Before Matsu Mixu, I was not a front-woman. I usually played keys and sang back-up vocals. I discovered my ability to be a front-woman through this project. I also discovered that my cat likes to bite me when I sing while laying in bed. While in Houston, we were residents of Cirque Noir—a monthly underground deep-house party. These were amazing all-nighters with so many talented people and great energy. I am really grateful they allowed us in their troupe.
Mat: I think being a part of the house scene in Cirque Noir shifted my productions towards a more dance friendly vibe which was cool for the time. It helped expand my arsenal. Picking a genre for me is very hard, there are too many good styles of music. I do try to keep dark undertones in everything I do.
How do you two typically (or perhaps atypically) go about approaching your own systems of synergy?
Michelle: We work almost entirely separately. I occasionally hallucinate melodies after listening to a track over and over again. I work with the hallucination and materialize it with lyrics or keys. Concepts I am fond of: minimalism, duality, harmony.
Mat: I like to say we are a Dropbox band. I’ll send her link to a instrumental and she will send me a link back to what she has added to it. It has worked out well for us. I draw inspiration from abnormal drum beats. Something about a dyslexic sounding drum pattern sparks my imagination. After i get a pattern down i’ll experiment with different dark/goth sounding patches until i get the sound i’m looking for.
Summer dreams & fall/winter hopes?
Michelle: Summer dreams; listening to “Fried Chicken Dossier” while eating fried chicken, sweating in linen dresses, under the clouds, drinking iced tea
Fall/winter hopes: performing at Houston’s Day for Night festival and the perfect denim jacket.
Mat: Summer; getting lost in the woods. finishing new songs.
Winter; I live in the now…
Matsu Mixu’s debut album LP1 will be available August 18 from Manimal.
Plants
Surrey, BC band Plants are comprised of cousins Alex Valenzuela & Gabe Lefno who premiere the electrified ode to style & suave on the comparative desires of being heard on “Cool Like You”. The cousins’ collaborative partnership stemmed from Alex’s productions made utilizing Reason 6 with Gabe cutting his teeth on the guitar, creating the synergistic sprouts of what would eventually grow up to be Plants. Alex lays out thoughts and feelings on the line as bass synths buzz & murmur throughout, reinforced by Gabe’s wandering rhythm guitar bars. The combination of the two’s talents encapsulates the Plants’ sound like a switched-on/plugged-in electric garden of glimmering wonder.
Presenting the ‘pop edit’ of “Cool Like You”, the track opens with the interplay of moody synthesizers & the character of Gabe’s guitar doing a kind of call and response thing to Alex’s arrangement. The classic questions of what is hip, what is cool, & more play out in a song about idolatry, obsession, & the vicarious doting on wanting to be like your favorite local god, or king/queen of the scene. “Because I got you looking in my eyes, what you’re looking for you better find, do you mind telling me who you are, better finish just what you start.” The quest for coolness & the ups & downs of imitation & emulation of the object of adoration & affection plays out in a kind of litmus test that questions whether or not the hero in question is the real McCoy. But as the song ends with Gabe’s squelching notes, the notions of being oneself are placed up against the infatuation of idol worship & all the fascinations & fancy that follows. In Alex’s own words on the inspiration behind “Cool Like You”:
I created it to soundtrack my vision of what a human falling in love with an alien from another planet.
bed.
Introducing bed. with a listen to their Klickitat EP (available now via Bug Hunt) that basks in all those bedroom & living room penned pop gems that resonate with crystallized moments that reverberate with sentimental meaning for an eternity. The opening number “The Rule” establishes the ruling medium that guides a degree of the inspiration at work here, while “Fremm” that advises against waiting until the daybreak of morning for partaking in new experiences, as “Wayward” ventures to paths unknown & exciting, “Boys” hits the nostalgic/sentimentality switches, right before ending with the brilliant ballad to none other than “Billy Joel” that includes such witty refrains like, “I’ll be here until I die, as long as Leonard Cohen is alive.” The band shared with us the following on the process of making the Klickitat EP:
These five songs were written at home in our old apartment and recorded in three different home studios in Portland and Northern California over the course of two years. While they have become a bit old hat for us, they definitely make up an important road map of the beginning and initial growth of our little band over that time period. In other words, Klickitat makes up the bottom row of the proverbial human pyramid that is our band.
Warehouse Eyes
Meet Minneapolis duo Warehouse Eyes who bask in big touches of electro pop to fill the atmospheres and high rise spaces of an industrial storage space. Their new single “Without You or Me” echoes traces of sounds & textures & styles that descend from the northern territories that make the Montreal world of electric-DIY feel closer than ever to the Midwest scenes & movements. Warehouse Eyes takes on the wide-eyed visage of excitement where the entire world is perceived like a decadent oyster dinner as you are treated to a barrage of dance tropes that message the mind’s most pained & stressed sections. Warehouse Eyes shared the following words on the with & without sentiments that inspired “Without Your Or Me”:
This song is about the feeling of loving someone so much that you think your love would still exist even if neither of you did.
Slow Dakota
Slow Dakota, NYC by Fort Wayne, Indiana’s PJ Sauerteig continues to carve etchings of sound with the latest single “In a Pigsty” taken from the forthcoming The Ascension of Slow Dakota album available July 15 from the imprint Massif Records. “In a Pigsty” works like old testament fables where prodigal sons & pious patriarchs are paid tribute in a modern choral rock hymn that encompasses a ball of existential confusion & rage in an earth grounded consciousness that in the end request little more from this life than, “A little meat, a little bread, and my parents holding candles by my bed.” PJ shared the following words on his ambitious single “In a Pigsty”:
“In a Pigsty” took several months to get just right. It started with just piano and trumpet, then the album’s producer, Sahil, laid down some drums on a visit to Indiana. My dad tried to write a guitar part for the ending, but it didn’t fit: somehow pizzicato strings and flute did. The lyrics borrow the phrase, “my quiet ascension” from Regina Spektor—a real hero of mine. The song’s about finding empowerment in isolation. It’s a rather moody one—simultaneously fragile and volcanic.
Basement Revolver
Treat yourself to Basement Revolver’s new single “Words” that moves past the semantic and into the dreamiest audio ether imaginable. Featured off the forthcoming cassette available July 15 from Fear of Missing Out Records, Chrisy Hurn, Nimal Agalwatte & Brandon Munro strive together to move past the gestures & expressions for concrete action that give hope to disturb the ennui. “Words” works to break the spell of hum-drum stalemates with a cure for the blues & subsequent boredom in favor of heroic hopes that may or may not be fulfilled. Chrisy shared her thoughts on the song’s beginnings:
“Words” was written when I was in my last semester of university. I lived downtown and school was up on the mountain and somewhat inaccessible by bus. I was writing my honors psych thesis at the time, as well as many other papers, when it all began to feel meaningless. No matter what I said, in the end, words are just words, they can be stringed together to form something powerful but without context they become as mundane and uncontrollable as one’s commute to and from school. Similarly, a paper is just a paper, a degree is just a degree, and there is so much more to life than the plans and the empires that we build for ourselves.
Blissing Room
