Tag: Mosquito

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Abstract and Psychedelic Sounds of Bill Baird’s “Mosquito”

Bill Baird is a Texas-born, Oakland, CA-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, whose lengthy and diverse back catalog touches on folk, ambient music and garage thrash among others. Along with that, he has also been involved in creating immersive audio/visual installations which have appeared in museums, cultural centers and festivals around the world. 

Baird’s latest effort Owl is heavily inspired by Conny Plank and his work with Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster  — and while the material finds the Bay Area-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist fusing different musical and conceptual elements together to take the listener on a journey, the album’s title and overall aesthetic is inspired by Baird’s son’s fascination with owls.  

“Mosquito,” Owl‘s latest single is centered around wobbling, ambient synths, a jangling guitar lines, four-on-the-floor drumming, a strutting bass line and laconically delivered vocals to create a song that’s woozily hypnotic — and manages to evoke a mosquito lazily buzzing and drifting about in the breeze.  The recently released video for the song consists of surreal, psychedelic patterns and scenes that further emphasizes the abstractness of the sounds it accompanies. A

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Karen O. (vocals), Nick Zimmer (guitar) and Brian Chase (drums), the New York-based trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been a critically and commercially successful act with the release of their four full-length efforts, Fever to Tell (2003), Show Your Bones (2006), It’s Blitz! (2009), and Mosquito (2014). Interestingly, out of all of their efforts, it’s the trio’s third full-length effort, It’s Blitz! that manages to be a major change in sonic direction for the band as the material primarily employs atmospheric electronics, layers of buzzing and undulating synths. And although the album’s first three or four songs are arguably the most dance-floor ready the trio have ever released, the album’s remaining songs manage to be moodily atmospheric. Interestingly, the entire album is an exercise in restraint as Zimmer’s guitar playing and Karen O’s vocals are carefully reined in.

Album single “Skeletons” is a spectral and atmospheric song that pairs gently undulating synths, gentle yet dramatic drumming and Karen O’s ethereal vocals in a song that gently builds up tension until the song’s quiet conclusion. The song evokes wisps of smoke curling upward and dissipating into the ether . . .

Comprised of three long-time friends, Liz Drummond, Hannah Field, and Annie Hamilton, the Australian-based trio Little May have quickly become one of their homeland’s most buzzed about bands with the release of their debut effort For The Company, which was released last month to critical praise from the likes of WNYC, Stereogum, Noisey, Billboard and others. And over the past month or so, the Australian trio had been on a lengthy North American tour, which ended last night; but before their tour ended, the Drummond, Field and Hamilton released a cover of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Skeletons” that features a gorgeous three part harmonies paired with guitar chords played through reverb, atmospheric electronics and military-styled drumming, which naturally changes the song’s arrangement. It’s a fairly straightforward cover — but it manages to be equally spectral and gorgeous cover nonetheless.