Denver After Dark

Denver After Dark is a compilation of underground sounds from the Mile High City, burgeoning artists, who will probably be household names in the next two years, or at least deserve to be. It is a decent encapsulation of sounds that drift from doorways of clubs like the Hi-Dive, Rhinoceropolis, the Larimer Lounge, long into the night, drifting on fumes of PBR and American Spirits. The sounds are as diverse as the many different types of people you'll find here, but still manage to flow together to be a pretty listenable compilation. You'll find Chillwave/Witch House/whatever represented here by the sounds of Modern Witch, with their retro-drum machine fetishism and indistinct goth murmurings, but the synth bass is sweet, catches in yr craw, draws you in. You'll find distorted club Pop, destined to be mangled by 12" subwoofers from those that know, from the husband and wife duo of Hideous Men, who are wonderfully gifted at writing skewed but expert pop beats, and are wonderfully nice people, to boot. They gave me a ride to the bus station, once, so make sure you check their tunes.

You'll find electronica, in its various mutant striations, brought to you by Hollagramz, c.db.sn., Flashlights, and Peddahblak. The c.db.sn track, Airport, is detailed and polished, a minimal trancey dubscape with a light-touch that still moves. This dude, one Chase Dobson, obviously knows what the fuck he's doing, and i look forward to showcasing him more, here in the future.

Rock makes a brief cameo here with the final trinity of artists, Woodsman, Gauntlet Hair, and St. Elias. Woodsman are a n instrumental rock trio who absolutely tear the roof off live! Their track, Balance, is a more subdued affair; a pulsing, tribal locked groove affair, that sounds like a Sonic Youth jam, picked up somewhere in the middle, or some lost Kraut nugget. Gauntlet Hair bring it with garage pop, as in yr neighbor's garage, if he lived two blocks away. Like, distant. Good songwriting sensibility, though, nice splashy 70s reverbed guitar, and pounding 4 to the floor backbeats. Solid, yet airy, simultaneously, with an emotional undercurrent to the vocals. They have already been noticed by the p4k, so are probably already familiar to many of you, but i seriously dig what i have heard from these kids. These guys, as well as Woodsman, will be on tour of the West Coast for the rest of the month, so check 'em out live, if you get a chance.

The final track comes courtesy of St. Elias, titled Welcome to your Doom, which is not nearly as metal as it might seem, more like a 90s guitar indie math rock band. Hints of Don Caballero, pummeling menace of Shellac or Polvo. Didn't even know these guys existed. Sure am glad i thought to find this for y'all. Don't even know what's right under my nose.

TRACKLIST

1.) Brittany Gould & Cory Brown: “Nite Chimes For Lucid Lovers”

2.) Modern Witch: “Running”
3.) Hideous Men: “Fantasy Cloak”
4.) Hollagramz: “Magnet Flow”
5.) c.db.sn: “Airport”
6.) FLASHLIGHTS: “Apple Trees”
7.) PeddahBlak: “Make It Funky” (curator of compilation)
8.) Woodsman: “Balance”
9.) Gauntlet Hair: “All Eyes”
10.) St. Elias: “Welcome To Your Doom

This can be had, straight from the horses' mouth, here

Hideous Men-Fantasy Cloak [mp3]

I hope to cover more local culture here, in the near future. There's some neat shit, going on in the mountains, and by focusing on the talented artists and quality people i occasionally meet, it will help me forget how i'd rather be living in Olympia.