Queen City Sounds
By Tom Murphy
Published Issue 139, July 2025
Anthony Ruptak – Tourist
The title of this album seems to refer to a sense of being someone who feels like they’re not fully integrated into any place they are whether physically, socially or otherwise. A feeling akin to imposter syndrome, Ruptak takes this theme and explores it in multiple dimensions in life. Like how things like social media and trying to be a musician with an audience larger than your immediate social circle today — while trying to maintain a healthy psychology — is challenging at best. The melody and dissonance working in tandem frames these indiepop/Americana songs with a perfect emotional resonance, lending grit with a vulnerable immediacy.
BLDDDLTTR – DD6
This Santa Fe, NM-based duo fuses cold wave style post-punk with rich shoegaze guitar work. The saturated synth and near-whispered, deep vocals with melodic and moody bass lines convey a sense of late-night reverie, reminiscent of what it might be like if The Church and New Order had collaborated on a more lo-fi yet vibrant set of songs. The lyrics are vivid portraits of romance and romantic observations on the kind of life you want, and the precious and fragile nature of existence. Listen here.
eHpH – CORRUPTION AND FEAR
The caustic vocals and urgent beats on this first album by eHpH in five years suits well a set of songs aimed at fascism and its partners in totalitarianism and oligarchy. Once upon a time, most industrial bands had socially conscious commentary as well as poignant lyrics about personal struggle. eHpH minces no words and on “Rust,” we hear about how our late capitalist culture encourages extreme selfishness to divide and conquer while cloaking it as being practical. “All These People” is about how policy choices matter in whether or not we can barely make it. The band challenges the very foundation of the thinking that results in endless money for war, while putting cash into the pockets of the ultra wealthy with austerity for everyone else. These songs suggest a better way is within reach if we have the will.
Hospital Property – Sinking Vision
This EP sounds like if someone spent some lost weekends listening only to Chrome, Big Black, Sonic Youth and The Jesus Lizard and then recorded it to an old cassette recorder before setting it aside for a couple of years. Revisiting it, they tried to recreate the intimacy and magic of those initial sessions, but embraced how it would have to sound different. The warped and cutting guitar tones thread well with the synth swells and low end, while the drum machine is like part time keeper and part conductor of the proceedings. Fans of Pink Reason and Portland, OR’s Yoga will appreciate the sound and enigma of this music.
Planning For Burial – It’s Closeness, It’s Easy
Utilizing the palette of transcendent black metal and grimy shoegaze, Thom Wasluck offers a record that truly captures a sense of having lived a life in headlong forward motion often carried along by circumstance. Even more, these tracks encapsulate the rush of one’s on-again off-again ambitions only to find yourself in a place of needing to take an assessment of where your life sits, of the people in it currently, and of those who have passed on or moved beyond your social circle. All the while sitting with those feelings as a way of processing and honoring what you have and what you’ve lost, while not sinking in the overwhelming flood of emotion. It is among the most gorgeous and affecting albums about growing up and coming to terms with the downside of mortality.
Entrancer – Rit
Ryan Mcryhew improvised the core of these tracks with his analog and modular synth and then collaged them into layered rhythms and pattern. The effect is like ambient techno composed using the cut-up method where new resonances emerge that wouldn’t if the songs were written, recorded and produced linearly and through previous established methods. One hears here the sound of a master of his craft rediscovering an excitement and playfulness in using perhaps familiar tools in new ways. The textures and tones have unpredictable flows, and each piece reflects the freshness of technique as much as the surprises held in store for the artist.
For more see queencitysoundsandart.wordpress.com
Tom Murphy is a Denver-based music writer and science fiction/fantasy/horror creator. He is also a musician, historian and itinerant filmmaker.
Head to our Explore section to see Tom’s monthly install of Queen City Sounds.