Transfer Queen – Eight Stories

Each artist knows his limitations as well as his strengths, among the numerous musicians there are coincidences in many aspects, in most of them, nevertheless, the human condition, the condition that distinguishes us as rational people, gives us the opportunity to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the people and that each unit, each individual, can have a cultural or artistic heritage that directly influences and determines his way of thinking and acting. It is in this field that each artist uses his influences to apply them to his productions, creativity needs to be nourished by external factors, not only by those elements that can be attributed to a musical genre or to certain techniques.

Recently we have come across the first album by an American artist who calls himself Transfer Queen, alias of the American producer Nathan Charlson, who also works in parallel as Milkfixer, a project with which he collaborated on one of the Collide albums, with the famous industrial music duo that already has three decades of history. Transfer Queen and Milkfixer coexist simultaneously, Milkfixer has released several albums, however, their sound is unpredictable because each release is completely different from the rest, yet there is an aura that is reflected in all their work, including the Transfer Queen album, and that is the subversive sound.

Transfer Queen’s influences can be very diverse, with their album Eight Stories they show that they have the resources and imagination to convey and carry out their work. As its name indicates, Eight Stories is about eight different stories, which may have coincided in the same space-time or the opposite, however, the one who is most enriched by these multiple experiences is the listener himself, as it is a heterogeneous album with very disparate developments.

The first of the eight stories is Cat piss and cum, a title that can have a thousand connotations, but it is not for us to judge, the sound content can also suggest different mental states, from digression to concentration, the texture of the sound background and its continuous harmonic alteration is penetrating, the provocative whispers do not help to mitigate the tension either, it is the stability of the rhythm that brings us back to sanity. The opening bars of Feldmaus augur some emotional stability, but it is only a brief mirage, psychosis soon sets in when we realise that the vocalists involved are either rodents or definitely don’t belong on this planet, their voices somehow reminding us of Rubber Johnny’s disturbing face. Finger, the third story of this album, musically is defined by its constancy and the hypnotism it provokes, and although different voices also intervene, which could very well belong to the actors who have participated in the two previous tracks, here the feeling it transmits is different because the strength it gives off is comforting. With Luto the author transports us to another stage of life, and we should not let ourselves be carried away by the prejudices that the word itself may generate because of its meaning in Spanish, as it can be translated into a state of decayed mood, however, if anything, this degraded mixture of choruses, rhythms and unfathomable frequencies can induce confusion.

Rien, the fifth story told by Transfer Queen, shows us what could be interpreted as a return to the bewildering and anguished life of an alien with a personality disorder, his voices are the ones that introduce us to a landscape that at times intensifies with arid storms and strong gales. The alienation that Yellow provokes from the mix of frequencies, the volatile panning of his sounds and the forceful discharge that he emits with the bass lines, is undoubtedly a perfect remedy to disturb the minds of the weak. The story that the author tries to convey with Downcast may be linked to the fragility and vulnerability of an individual, however, the energy persists within a system without order, where ideas and thoughts intertwine and entangle. The last of the eight stories places you in a conflict of war that we can perfectly transpose to the struggle of any living being trying to survive, Archery in the dark expresses steadfastness and selfishness.

Release date: February 24th, 2023.