Latest Posts

Sparklebomb Releases New Batch of Spooky Singles

Spooky synth queen, Sparklebomb, has released a new batch of brooding ambient tracks. The Buffalo-transplant / Syracuse native, Angie Conte has been performing under the moniker for close to seven years, perfecting her atmospheric and dismal sound. As per the songwriter’s repertoire, the intro to “Right Along with Me” leads into the dialogue of an old-time audio of Murder Castle, a drama inspired by serial killer / madman, H.H. Holmes. The dialogue is spliced over ominous organs, eventually introducing a drum machine. The muffled interaction drops,  leaving almost mesmerizing synth loop meanwhile building your anxiety for something to happen, which is a tease because the track fades out much like how it faded in. If there ever was a musician to score a horror film, it would be Sparklebomb. Check out “Right Along with Me” below and explore the ‘bomb’s discography here.   [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/273362364″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Sound Devices: Why Sparklebomb Loves Her Casio SK-1

Editor’s note: Each week, Cory Perla of The Public asks a local musician to tell us why they love their favorite piece of gear. Sparklebomb is Angie Conte, an electronic music producer from Buffalo. Her most recent release is a full length cassette tape titled “Bring In The Night.” “It looks like it’s for babies, but the Casio SK-1 has 13 different envelope filters, a sampler, and the most fantastic voices. If you’ve ever listened to Sparklebomb, you’ll know that the haunting pipe organ and spacey brass ensemble voices have both been staples in mostly all of my songs and live performances. Little money was spent on my SK-1 but I have spent quite a bit more on the effects pedals, which I use to enhance its existing beauty. With the right tools, I can make it sound like a grand pipe organ or a synthesizer you’d hear featured in the[...]

Sparklebomb – Bring in the Night

Last year, I was taken aback by just how haunted I was with Funeral Beats, the debut cassette from Sparklebomb, the alias of Angie Conte, one of the city’s more unique and intriguing electronic musicians. Mixing synth beats and textures with samples from found phone recordings, the mini album was a seance, a conjuring of ghosts that has stayed with me since I heard it. So when I heard there would be a follow up tape, Bring in the Night, I was excited to see what Conte had in store next. As I sit with it now, this new tape is as much a step forward as it is an exciting return to these haunted spaces. On the whole, there is something much brighter about Bring in the Night than the anxious spaces of Funeral Beats. This is not to say the sense of anxiety that hangs over the synth drones has been fully excised nor[...]

Tonight: Hallowed Bells

Tonight at the Electric Avenue, Hallowed Bells will be gracing the crowd with lush, twinkling, synthesizer melodies, organ raptures, and steady rhythms. The two-piece Philadelphia outfit creates the kind of otherworldly music that calls to mind the sky, sentient beings from another planet, pastoral epiphanies among other things.  According to their website, much of the music was recorded this January and February, combining “dense chromatic harmonies and intricate arrangements with moments of luminous simplicity and lyrical melodies.” They will be fittingly accompanied with notable Buffalo musicians in the city’s electronic scene:  Sparklebomb, Kristachuwan, and Eppo. The first of whom arranges moon-landing chord progressions with elegiac rhythms along with static-y radio and tape recordings, while Kristachuwan accompanies live sax with thumping, kaleidoscopic dream scapes. Last but not least, Eppo manipulates eastern samples, matching them with pronounced, swinging beats, producing hazy yet melodic tracks with a hip-hop flair. The ethereal electronic affair begins[...]

Sparklebomb Releases “Moldavite”

Buffalo electronic act Sparklebomb (aka Angie Conte) just dropped a fresh new song on her soundcloud page yesterday, titled “Moldavite.” Backed by soothing synths, the song feels like communication from distant planets that Conte managed to catch on tape. Sometimes chilling, but mostly beautiful, the track reminds me of some of Apparat’s more tender moments, and, for some reason, “Jed the Humanoid” from Grandaddy had Jed written the song rather than Jason Lytle. You can listen (and download) “Moldavite” below.