This Little Underground

MS. MEKA NISM RE-EMERGES

Orlando singer, mover and mystic Ms. Meka Nism has been relatively quiet on the scene lately. However, all is not what it seems, and that’s about to change this week.

First and foremost, Meka was recently elected president of the Florida chapter of the Recording Academy. It’s news as big as it is historical, because she’s only the fourth woman, and the first Orlandoan ever, to hold the major position in the Florida chapter’s nearly 27-year history. This could mean some good things for Central Florida music since she tells me she wants to get Orlando’s best eligible for Recording Academy membership and Grammy submissions.

The other notable Ms. Meka Nism news is that she’ll be doing her first local show in a couple of years on Thursday, Aug. 4, at the Alley in Sanford (7 p.m., no cover). It’s a video release party for her latest single, “The Day Fell.” Even through all her aggressive power-metal stylings, I’ve always thought of Meka as a heavy-metal Kate Bush. Well, this gorgeous 2021 single proves that I still got it, baby, because the ethereal song is one of the best pure showcases of her voice to date and now has a proper video to go with it.

The multi-part show will feature three distinct sets: a solo acoustic set, a group set and a jammy, bluesy, witchy cabaret set to tease this fall’s Central Florida Witches Ball. And as if the reasons to celebrate weren’t already enough, the event will also be Meka’s birthday celebration. Go toast her for all of it.

LOCAL RELEASES

Oh, you don’t know what vaporwave is? You’re not alone. But if ever there were a good primer on the niche genre, the new joint

Orlando musician Ms. Meka Nism was recently elected president of the Florida chapter of the Recording Academy. She’s first Orlandoan, and only the fourth woman, ever to hold the position in the Florida chapter’s nearly 27-year history

by Dylan Houser + Black Wick is it. The extended 18-track album V s L E N C I s, PART III pairs two luminaries of Central Florida’s outer-limits music frontier. Dylan Houser is a noted noise scene figure, and Joshua Rogers, the mind behind Black Wick, is also the boss of the Illuminated Paths label, one of the leading purveyors of vaporwave.

This collab between the two experimental giants is a textbook odyssey that epitomizes the 1980s fantasia of vaporwave in all its leftfield allure. Houser crafted the tracks and Black Wick completed the aesthetic through hours of hand manipulation and layering through vintage cassette stock. The result is the beau idéal of vaporwave.

Bathed luxuriously in soft retro synths and filtered through lo-fi ether, these songs hover in the consciousness, warm and warped, like a neon mirage. Even amid all that ambience, though, this album is one of the more melodically memorable vaporwave collections out there, a quality not always guaranteed in this genre. V s L E N C I s, PART III is available digitally or on super-limited-edition cassette through Illuminated Paths’ Bandcamp.

BY BAO LE-HUU

MS. MEKA NISM | PHOTO BY DEAN KARR

CONCERT PICKS THIS WEEK

If you go out, be safe, be cool.

Ceremony, Hotline TNT, Romeo Blu,

Body Shop: Few bands in the indie world have been as notably defiant of genre as shapeshifting punk refugees Ceremony. This impressively eclectic bill honors that spirit. Hotline TNT are exciting fuzz-rockers from Minneapolis. Romeo Blu is the solo synth project by Carson Cox, frontman of Merchandise, the Tampa band that broke out to 4AD fame. And Body Shop are a stylish all-star local act specializing in arty and primitive punk moods. Together, they’ll all make for one dynamic evening. (7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4, Henao Contemporary Center, $16)

Elder, Ruby the Hatchet,

Dreadnought: The bar can get you drunk but the bands on this bill will get you high as fuuuck. Massachusetts band Elder deal in heavy prog expeditions that don’t even need visuals to whisk your consciousness away on an epic voyage. Those eyelids will remain heavy the whole night long with the 1970s-worshipping brew of doom and psych from New Jersey’s Ruby the Hatchet and the proggy doom metal of Denver’s Dreadnought. Pass the Doritos, dude. (8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10, Will’s Pub, $20)

baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com