Bright Sparks Vol. 10 is the latest in our series attempting to rebrand the Best of the Rest. In case you missed it, here’s our description of that idea: “One of the best/worst things about the whole blogging game is the abundance of great music. Unfortunately there are (still!) only twenty-four hours in a day, most of which are consumed with non-WTD things, so even if we get sent ten great albums then chances are we will only be able to cover three or four. While trying to avoid falling into the listicle trap, we thought the best way to remedy this problem would be a semi-regular round-up”.
A new volume will be posted every few weeks and will offer a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar.
Malena Zavala – A Vision That’s Changed
Born in Argentina but raised in London, filmmaker, artist and producer Malena Zavala is set to release her debut album, Aliso, this spring. As the previous singles attest, Zavala makes a dreamy brand of indie rock coloured with a Latin dimension, and the third single from the record is no different. Slowing the tempo from the other tracks, ‘A Vision That’s Changed’ sees Zavala’s vocals suspended within a column of dusky warmth, though an underlying sadness lurks just out of view. As such, the track plays like a snatched dream of a previous love, any joy or solace shaded with the realisation that the experience will not last, and morning will bring reality back once more.
Aliso will be released on the 13th April and you can pre-order it now via Yucatan Records.
James Edwyn & The Borrowed Band – Pushing Statues
Rooted in the classic Americana tradition, Glasgow six-piece James Edwyn & the Borrowed evoke timeless tales of love and loss and moving on. After releasing their debut album, The Tower, back in 2014, last year saw the band put out the follow-up, High Fences. The second single from that release, ‘Pushing Statues’ is the perfect introduction for the uninitiated—the heartbroken tenderness conjured not just through the lyrics but the instrumentation too, the rhythm driving a sense of motion that threatens to run away with itself. In doing so, the song captures the tension of travel in this genre, the push and pull between moving on and returning home.
High Fences is out now via Dead Records Collective and you can buy it from the James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band webpage.
The New Tusk – Tarmac
Describing their sound as “lo-fidelity short attention span punk,” Brighton trio The New Tusk make short, frantic songs that smash together punk and post-punk sensibilities, the vocals darting between sardonic and snarling and shouting. New single ‘Tarmac’ is no exception, with the instrumentation whipping into a frenzy as the vocals try to keep up with a kind of pissed-off demeanour. However, by the end of the track, you wonder whether it’s in fact the vocals that are commanding the instruments, as a new, more hopeful tone emerges. It can’t promise a new start, or some deliverance to eternal satisfaction, but rather some semblance final comfort, the antithesis of a sting in the tail.
“This year’s came and went, just like the last ten of them.
In my honest uneducated opinion I believe it’s in us all to die happy.”
You can grab ‘Tarmac’ now from The New Tusk Bandcamp page, as well as a number of previous EPs.
John Moods – Leap of Love
The solo project of Fenster‘s Jonathan Jarzyna, John Moods is set to release a debut record, The Essential John Moods, this spring. The album came to life during a hiking trip along the Iberian coast, with Jarzyna recording songs each evening as he arrived in a new town, and the method informs the sound and style of the track in more ways that one. On the surface there’s the languid, psych-tinged summer aesthetic that runs across the record, but the analogy can also be applied in a metaphorical sense—each song representing a different stop in a journey, all linked by a certain structural and stylistic (think architectural) similarity, yet made distinct by differences in mood, pace and atmosphere, not to mention the small nuances and details which populate each track.
The Essential John Moods is set for release on the 20th April via Mansions and Millions.
Nilein – Central Park
Based in Kolkata, nilein make a shimmering bedroom pop that draws on both lo-fi indie rock influences and elements of shoegaze. Last year, the trio put out the short holiday ep, as well as single, ‘Dive’, and 2018 sees them return with a brand new song. ‘Central Park’ feels more weighty than its summery predecessors, the wistful opening and murmured vocals giving way to a heavier midsection, channelling the likes of Gleemer in the way that the drums pound their way over the more delicate guitars before dropping to allow pretty ambient swells. The track comes complete with a video taken from the Makoto Shinkai film, 5 Centimeters Per Second.
You can find nilein on Bandcamp and Facebook.
Alex Bayly – Wade in the Water
Following his self-released debut EP, New America, ‘Wade in the Water’ is Alex Bayly’s first single with My Little Empire Records. Drawing its name from the African-American spiritual, the track uses a rich sense of imagery and metaphor to strike a balance between pain and healing. This is clear from the allegorical visions of the natural world in the opening verse, right through to the steely optimism of the conclusion, preaching a sense of endurance and hope in the face of adversity.
“The grass is growing
on the hill
my time’s not up yet
or so I feel”
‘Wade into the Water’ is out now via My Little Empire Records.
Falcon Jane – Go With The Flow
Fronted by Ontario’s Sara May, Falcon Jane describe their sound as ‘plez rock’—”a music genre inspired by nature, truth, peace and magic.” Ahead of a full-length Feelin’ Freaky which is to be released this summer, the band have released single ‘Go With The Flow’. Described by May as “the ultimate chill out song for freaky, anxious, over-thinkers like me,” the track is a half-paced bob down a meandering river. With the languid instrumentation and May’s lovely vocals, Falcon Jane encourage you to stop thrashing against the current and float wherever the water takes you. Check out the video, directed by Deviio, below:
Feelin’ Freaky is set for release this summer, so keep a eye on the Falcon Jane Bandcamp page.
Guts Club – Mustard Tears
Last year, London’s RIP Records ran an Introduces… series, with the likes of Dama Scout and Canshaker Pi contributing singles that were eventually released as a 12″ record. After the success of Volume One, the label are back with a second edition, including a new track from New Orleans’ Guts Club. The recording project of Lindsey Baker, Guts Club make tunes woven from the American landscape, drawing upon the likes of Scout Niblett and Patti Smith to explore the concepts of situation and place, and how all but the most privileged are more or less confined to certain spaces and lifestyles—unless they want to risk it all in an attempt to change.
‘Mustard Tears’ is to be released on RIP Records, and a new Guts Club album is set to appear later this year.
Varsity – Must Be Nice
We first featured Chicago’s Varsity back in 2016 when we wrote about the dreamy pop of their single, ‘Smash / Still Apart‘. Now the band are readying a full-length album, Parallel Person, due for release on Babe City Records at the end of April. As a taster they have unveiled ‘Must Be Nice’, another pop gem that shimmers with a gently kaleidoscopic psych edge. The lyrics are a little less sunny though, as lead Stephanie Smith delivers lines that are blurred with uncertainty.
“I know I can’t cry in front of them
But if I could…”
Parallel Person is out on the 27th of April and you can preorder it via Babe City Records and from the Varsity Bandcamp page.
Dan Michaelson – Sand
The final track to be taken from the album First Light, ‘Sand’ finds Dan Michaelson at his tender best, his throaty vocals cutting through the sparse, moving soundscape. Thanks to the work of Arnulf Lindner (Skeleton Key), the instrumentation soon develops into a full-bodied orchestral piece, juxtaposing simplicity with carefully crafted emotion to produce a hopeful, poignant track.
First Light is out now and you can get it via the Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards website.
Clare – Loquats
Houston quartet Clare is described in the press release as not so much a band, rather “a group of friends who love and support each other and help each other make sense of this crazy world through music.” Taken from a new EP, Always Afternoon, their latest single ‘Loquats’ acts as solid proof of this relationship, the energetic shimmer propelled forward by a sense of cohesive and community. Thematically, the track takes inspiration from the tangy fruit of it’s title to explore the end of a relationship, finding some nourishment in the bittersweet aftertaste that lingers on the tongue.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=456375410 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=3835271936]
Always Afternoon is out now via Poison Moon Records an you can get it from Bandcamp.
Be Softly – My Hands End with Your Fingertips
Last December, we wrote about a collaboration between American poet Sam Pink and Bristol’s Be Softly, an experimental blend of spoken word and music we described as “like the fever dream manifesto of the archetypal Disillusioned Kid.” Be Softly has returned with a new single, this time the providing poetry themselves. There is a big difference between this and Pink, the words carved more out of melodrama than nihilism, though the instrumentation manages to provide moments both mean and lonely enough to prevent it becoming too sentimental or affected.
You can find on ‘My Hands End with Your Fingertips’ on Bandcamp.
Be sure to stick around for the next volume, and check out the entire Bright Sparks series here.