Okay, you know the drill. Three songs meant to highlight some of the best music we’ve heard coming out of the local scene. For a long time, TRIPLE THREAT was one of Immersive’s anchors, but then the world got significantly more fucked than usual, and it took us a while to grow accustomed to the seismic shift. Six months into the pandemic and Atlanta music remains mired in the biggest existential threat of our lifetime. Live music is out of the question for the foreseeable future, beloved DIY institutions are shutting their doors forever, and it feels like we’re all standing around, waiting for the next bomb to drop.
And yet, there are glimmers of hope. Organizations like Southern Fried Queer Pride are stepping up to fill the DIY void while others are recommitting themselves to the future of the community. But none of it would mean much if artists and musicians weren’t still out there creating. With live shows an impossibility, local bands and songwriters have poured their energy into writing, recording, and rethinking their musical identity. From a creative standpoint, it’s been a fertile period, as evidenced by the impressive trio of songs below. The apocalypse may be lurking just around the corner, but at least it will come with one hell of a soundtrack. – Guillermo Castro
Lotus Plaza – “Gossamer”
From the compilation, A Little Night Music: Aural Apparitions from the Geographic North
The fine tendrils of “Gossamer” are jarring in their simplicity. Though the track is a sample from Geographic North’s annual Halloween compilation, it doesn’t summon horror or fear as much as a sense of haunting decay. As neoclassical chords crumble in on one another the listener is forced to kneel in a worshipful trance. It’s only in the final minute of the song that the strange ambiance morphs into a more aggressive posture, and the encroaching harsh whine reminds the listener of Lotus Plaza’s indebtedness to MBV. This denouement is a fitting end to a track that never settles in one place, a skipped heartbeat during a fitful meditation. – Russell Rockwell
More Info
Bandcamp: lotusplaza.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @lotusplaza
Art Contest – “A Large, White Vase”
From the upcoming LP, Fit Pitcher
In the immeasurable space-time continuum that continues to be the 2020 pandemic, 2017 feels like prehistoric times. So consider this a reintroduction of sorts to the inventive, forever mutating world of Art Contest, whose last LP dropped three years ago. Despite some lineup changes, the group’s madcap appeal remains firmly intact. “A Large, White Vase” finds the band molding punchy, off-kilter rhythms and kaleidoscopic melodies into a vibrant prog-punk aesthetic that sounds like Minus the Bear covering the score to Castlevania at warp speed. While that may sound convoluted, the resulting track is anything but as Art Contest stick one improbable landing after another. – GC
Fit Pitcher is out Nov. 6 via Sludge Country
More Info
Bandcamp: artcontest.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @artcontestusa
Instagram: @artcontestusa
Twitter: @fArtContest
Bathe Alone – “Curbside”
From the upcoming LP, Last Looks
Bathe Alone (the solo project of Bailey Crone) dials up some hefty grunge into her dream-pop sounds on “Curbside,” the latest single from her upcoming debut Last Looks. It’s a powerful mid-tempo song that mixes Bat For Lashes elements with colossal thrashes of guitar and drums. The end result is a bit like a spaghetti western populated by restless phantoms. Crone’s whispered vocal line creates a palpable tension with the song’s action-packed dynamics. “Curbside” shapeshifts throughout its motifs, eventually whipping up into a final dust storm of Stratocaster that rings out in some sort of washed-out and reverb-rich eternity. – Ethan Fogus
Last Looks is out later this year.
More Info
Facebook: @bathealone
Bandcamp: bathealone.bandcamp.com
Instagram: @bathealone
SoundCloud: @bathealone
Twitter: @bathemusic