Al Mustaqil: “60 seconds to Europe”
Consummate internationalist Jacopo Andreini brings us on a 60-second journey from a detention camp in Lesbos to a dance club in Firenze.
Alinovsky: “60sec in Taipei”
Our international voyage continues with sampled flute from a street in Taipei, manipulated and augmented with radical experiments in stereophonics.
Double or Muffin: “Microdroplets”
Frantic jazz kazoo filtered through John Coltrane’s liver provides a chilling backdrop for a paranoid, germophobic mantra.
Prope Nihil: “Sea of Tranquillity Rework”
You descend the staircase in the swampy, malignant darkness, feeling a following presence, turning at last to see your own twisted self, playing a guitar made of fog.
No One Knows Who Did This: “Shocker Docker Ocker”
This band’s name is a lie, because I know, but I’m never telling.
The Vardaman Ensemble: “Too Smart by a Quarter”
A stripped-down number from some of our favorite Portlandian weirdos, just drums and – keys? EWI? You never know with the Vardamans – traipsing along for a whimsical minute.
Sam Russell: “The Slide Show”
Sam’s keen falsetto overlays guitar and electronic kick drum, gradually building to what you think will be a cathartic release, and th-
Green Light Cameras: “Chemicals”
BoW pop master Phil Chamberlin takes a more experimental approach with this anxious, yet still catchy, exploration of mental illness.
Danbert Nobacon, Kira Wood Cramer, and The Axis of Dissent – Precarious Chair (The House Is on Fire)
57 seconds of flaming dissonance to soundtrack our current state of dystopia. Also, trigger warning.
Aaron J. Shay – Bet It High
Sultry man-bun vocals, catchy banjo, and efficient lyrics— all come together to form one helluva pure, Pacific Northwest minute.
Kenneth Lee Nottingham: “Cradle”
While a folk Americana guitar pattern zigs comfortably, enter the zagging of Bolan-esque light mysticism with lyrics like “giants and jellybeans / angels in perdition” and some “dee dee dee dee”-ing to round things out from one of Seattle’s most esteemed musicians.
Four and Five: “Quiet Streets”
Behold a wistful parlor lullaby composed of the most simple ingredients: acoustic guitar, folk strum pattern, single voice, single room mic and (presumably) a room of some sorts.
Cindy’s Property: “The Great Unraveling”
Cindy’s Property with a personal fugue shapes a brief verse-chorus into a statement on identity crisis — as one might struggle reconciling human identity with the environmental — vocals over piano, resolving with hope, but it’s Groundhog Day.
Lys Guillorn: “Hop Hornbeam”
Music for cabins with wavering vocals and empathic harmony… Americana seeking solitude, forsaking audience for the release that comes with confession — Lysguillorn invites their song’s subject to find kinship within a shared atmosphere of abandonment.
riceburger: “heartbleeps”
Mechanical sounds overlay the playful, rhythmic melody in a way that both draws the listener in and unsettles them deeply at the same time.
Norman Baker: “The Battle at Waterloo”
Norman Baker’s beautifully eerie falsetto and familiar childlike melodies hearken back to a time when no tragedy was too great to be reenacted on the playground.
Serpent, Serpent, Go!: “Cracker Barrel”
Imagine a road trip late at night, you’re tired, you’ve had lots of coffee, you need a song to keep you going ’til you get to wherever– hat’s what I picture when I listen to this, and it might be about sausages.
The Pica Beats: “ohshtmthrfkrwrfkdnw”
“Oh shit motherfucker, oh we’re fucked now”–these words, sampled among other voices in a crowded restaurant or a bar, maybe? remember going to those? were on many of our minds early in our present dilemma, tossed off with a laugh, not quite believing what we knew was coming, softened as gallows humor and here set to electronic beats and synths; of course, it might be about something else.
