Como La Flor’s “Haunted” Is Exactly That
The third week of July is the part of the summer where the heat and humidity start to feel genuinely oppressive, like in the first act of a commercial when the only gas station in the entire desert is just waiting for the crisp pop of a soda can to soak the three old men sitting under the rusty signs on the porch with some badly needed chill. I kind of like summer weather because it always feels mildly hallucinogenic, like is this real? This used to just be air I moved through, but now it has a texture and weight? Why does sunlight make me feel like it’s about to rob me? Why is it still this hot at night? A lot of psychedelic music goes well with this weather (Earthless’ Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky is my immediate reference), perhaps because experiencing both tends to overwhelm your brain and make you feel sweaty. I can’t speak for you, but for me, that’s a specific, cathartic feeling, and I love it. I get that that might sound unpleasant, but if such an experience sounds appealing to you, I’d like to recommend “Haunted,” the latest single from a newish local shoegaze band.
Como La Flor plays heavy, FX-shaded alt-rock, and having seen them a few times, I can vouch for their live show, as it feels mentally overwhelming and cathartically sweaty. They write good melodies, have interesting arrangements, and they really wring a lot of cool noise from their instruments. Sonic references, to my ears, anyway, include Deftones, and the last time I saw Como La Flor, they closed with a P.O.D. cover. Given that “Haunted” has a rap verse, that influence on the band seems apparent, but Como La Flor are their own thing. Their music, while heavy, is dramatically atmospheric, and “Haunted” showcases this quality like an urban explorer’s video of an abandoned insane asylum.
For one thing, the track’s live-recording vibe makes it sound huge, and within the shadows of that space lurk daemonic forces formed from distortion and decay. For another, the vocals are ghostly and unnerving, hovering in the midst of the guitars and drums like a specter in the periphery of a bad dream, the kind that disappears if you look at them directly. I streamed the track on Spotify the other night while sitting on my front porch, and even out of my phone’s speaker, the combination of the dark, the heat, the lives of the feral cats, the frogs, and the bugs, and “Haunted”’s ethereal menace made me consider what was real and what was not, and who’s to say which is which? The song ended, and the mosquitoes nagging my ankles confirmed my existence, so I played the song again before I went to bed. I don’t remember dreaming.
Scenester Sounds
Designer/producer/electronic artist Phil Ford did a set at the Boiled Owl Tavern on the Near Southside last Saturday night which didn’t so much blow my hair back as smooth it, like a balmy, groovy, computerized breeze. Performing as emt_dsc, Ford mixed a hypnotic mood shaded with ambient textures, ’90s Jungle rhythms, and a lot of genre-crossing beats. I messaged him about the set, to which he replied, “A lot of that stuff was unreleased, remixes, some stuff from an album soon to be released on [Denton record label] Memory Terminal. Most of my stuff is on Scenester Bandcamp.”
A google search for “scenester bandcamp” takes you to the new emt_dsc album. Mythology contains 29 tracks exploring a labyrinth of rhythms and textures in the service of their titles. I suppose it’s up to the listener to discern the narratives here, but getting from opener “Volition” to closer “Return to the World” via tracks with names like “Echo Chamber Collapse,” “Memory Castle,” “Lost Futures,” and “Escaping the Tower,” literally sounds like an incredible story.
Courtesy Phil Ford
Quaker City Night Hawks Swooping in Soon
Aside from headlining Tulips FTW (112 St. Louis Av, 817-367-9798) on Sat, Aug 1, for the first night of the inaugural HEATSTROKE festival, Quaker City Night Hawks have a new song coming out … soon. Per a July 2 Instagram post with a D Magazine comment, the band alluded to an upcoming single release. To paraphrase that comment, I, too, have heard some of this new Quaker City album, and I agree that they manage to sound both timeless and contemporary. And also maybe a tiny bit like the Stooges now! Chew on that while you await the drop.
