Bright Sparks is posted every few weeks and offers a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar. Here’s Vol. 14.
Mount Goldie – Summer
There’s very little information available about Mount Goldie, other than they are a duo based in Portland, Oregon and have a new album, All My Friends Are Mothers coming out this August. In a world of gimmicks and EPKs, there’s something refreshing about letting the music do the talking, which is exactly what Mount Goldie do with ‘Summer’. Building slowly with a sense of weight, the track has sense of stifling summer stillness, a lack of movement that becomes oppressive, as though rising toward some sudden break, though never quite coming to anything. Clint Snow’s vocals rise through this heavy air, conjuring the likes of Dusted in his ability to draw emotion from straight delivery.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1780757305 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2784603116]
All My Friends Are Mothers is set for release on the 3rd August and you can pre-order in now from Bandcamp.
Devon Welsh – Vampires
Best known as the frontman of electronic duo Majical Cloudz, Montreal’s Devon Welsh began pursuing a solo career after the natural end of the band in 2016. Following a collection of older songs titled Down the Mountain, Welsh has been unveiling new material in the last few months. After the meditative ‘I’ll Be Your Ladder’, which came out this spring, Welsh has unveiled a brand new single, ‘Vampires’, complete with a video directed by Christopher Honeywell.
The track is stripped back to a lonely minimum, a kind of late-night absence across which Welsh’s distinctive vocals can move, the introduction of small notes acting like sparks and streetlamps in the gloom, building slowly into an incandescent glow as Welsh rises from from baritone into near devotional warmth.
“What are we doing here hanging on a dark night?
What are we doing here this town’s a vampire
Ducking our silhouettes waiting for the cop’s light
This town’s gonna eat us aliveSo we’re moving on”
You can find all of Devon Welsh’s music on his Bandcamp page.
Floating Room – Dog
Led by Maya Stoner and Kyle Bates, Floating Room are a Portland band who last month put out a new release, False Baptism, via Good Cheer Records. The record is something of a follow-up to 2016’s Sunless, which explored the consequences of an emotional relationship. The new album is still centred on this subject, though there is a greater degree of clarity here, as though pulling away from the scene to better take in its dimensions.
Lead single ‘Dog’ serves as a great example, using the metaphor of pet and owner to explore emotional reliance and obligation. The canine wants to escape the relationship (““I don’t like how weak I am when I’m with you”), and the master is terrified of losing their control, and while both declare their love for the other, the true focus of this love is perhaps not healthy or fair. The result is a situation governed by fear, motivated not by true connection but the dread of being alone.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3111133234 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=1673539532]
False Baptism is out now via Good Cheers Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.
Angus & Julia Stone – Nothing Else
Australian brother and sister duo Angus & Julia Stone have been releasing their atmospheric brand of folk music for over a decade now, culminating in 2017 album Snow. With a video directed by Jessie Hill, they have recently released ‘Nothing Else’ as a single. Charting the lonely spaces between connection and empathy, the song probes the repercussions of relationship and their influence on identity, playing as something of a reassurance (or attempt thereof) after some unsaid disturbance. Featuring Julia playing two roles, the video speaks to this too, as though, regardless of outside judgement, we can return to ourselves in confidence.
Snow is out now and you can get it from the Angus & Julia Stone website.
Izaak Opatz – Bathing in the Ganges
LA-based Montana native Izaak Opatz has teamed up with the good people at Mama Bird Recording Co. to re-release his album Mariachi Static. The record is the perfect balance of playful and emotional, classic country heartbreak portrayed through loose-limbed confidence, all the trials of life doing little to extinguish his sense of humour. Complimenting this is Opatz’s knack for writing vivid scenes, evocative slices of life woven from small details, making for an emotive and endearing atmosphere that prevents the ironic elements from undercutting the meaning of each track.
The reissue also sees the addition of three new songs, a cover of ‘Carmelita’ alongside two new originals. One such tune, ‘Bathing in the Ganges’ serves as a neat introduction to Opatz’s sound, emerging with a slow and dusty inevitability, kicking into something of a rhythm across its length, though never quite shaking the languid stretch.
Mariachi Static is being released by Mama Bird Recording Co. on the 20th July and you you can pre-order it through Bandcamp.
Free Cake For Every Creature – Around You / In Your Car
Good news! Free Cake for Every Creature, the project lead by Philadelphia’s Katie Bennett, are back with a new album. Titled The Bluest Star, Bennett has again enlisted the help of Francis Lyons and Heeyoon Won (of Boosegumps) to record the record, which is set for release in August on Double Double Whammy.
The band have released two singles thus far, which seem to confirm that Free Cake aim to continue their signature gentle indie pop. ‘around you’ is sweet and understated nostalgi-pop, Bennett’s lyrics focusing on those simple joyful moments of making a new friend, while ‘in your car’ features Felix Walworth on banjo and Meghan Center with additional vocals, a song about whiling away long summer evenings in a parked car with Pavement on the radio. Again it displays what Bennett does so well, focusing on small details to infer larger feelings, all wrapped up in a transportive atmosphere.
“Windows down in your stopped car
Radio picking up the distant city’s station
You pass me the glass, your lipstick in the rim
“Summer babe” narration, waiting waiting”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=168791429 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2330156732]
The Bluest Star is out on Double Double Whammy on the 3rd of August. Pre-order it now.
Campdogzz – Souvenir
Campdogzz are a five-piece based out of Chicago who, led by the distinctive vocals of Jess Price, create a brooding indie rock that their bio describes as being “dialled into the bleak, spirited heart of the industrial Midwest.” Following 2016 album Riders in the Hills of Dying Heaven, the band have signed to Cursive’s 15 Passenger Records for a brand new record, In Rounds. The release took shape when Price and guitarist Mike Russell travelled around southern deserts in a school bus, and it is promised that the harsh beauty and wide open spaces of the landscape shape the sound. Lead single ‘Souvenir’ is all we have to go on so far, though it promises a sense of danger and rawness that more than lives up to expectations.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3847377304 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=4073402732]
In Rounds is set for release on the 3rd August via 15 Passenger Records and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.
Indigo De Souza – Home Team
Taken from I Love My Mom, their debut album released last month on Sub-Fi Records, Indigo De Souza’s ‘Home Team’ shows off the North Carolinian songwriter’s wry yet impassioned voice. Simultaneously bitingly honest and guarded, the song toes the line between cutting and pleading, as though seeking to clear up ambiguity in others while stewing in a confusion of its own, a need for reassurance that peaks from behind the bleachers despite the confident front. The result is fiery and at-times genuinely funny, the scope in tone matched by De Souza’s vocal range, as confident in conversational intimacy as big, broadcasted refrains.
“Don’t you blame me
if I don’t answer my phone.
I don’t like fucking boys who need to know
what to do when there’s no-one else home.We’re all pining for that modern day girl
she’s really a star
got the crowd just jumping for joy
on a Saturday night at the home field.”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1865557013 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=66426373]
I Love My Mom is out now via Sub-Fi Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.
You’re Sister – I Think About You
The recording project of New York’s Megan Braaten, You’re Sister put out a new full-length, Keepsake, this past May. Drawing spirit from its title, the album is a comforting brand of bedroom pop that’s shot through with a sense of distant regret, as though there is something inherently sad within the things we treasure most. Single ‘I Think About You’ serves as the perfect example of this, the warm atmosphere nurturing a keen melancholia, an immersive emotion that’s something to do with memories, something to do with the passing of time.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3175469890 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2142293279]
You can get Keepsake now from the You’re Sister Bandcamp page.
Fresh – Daytime
Fresh are a pop-punk four-piece from London who last year put out a self-titled album with Specialist Subject Records. Channelling the likes of Camp Cope, the record is fine balance between thoughtful, personal lyrics and a sense of carefree abandon, painting a picture of the volatile rollercoaster ride that is life as a young person in contemporary society.
A year later, the band are back with a brand new 7″, Daytime/Nightime, and have unveiled a video for lead track ‘Daytime’. Again, the track’s infectious sense of energy buoys what is an impassioned and empathetic lyrical side, Fresh railing against the debilitating search for perfection. As lead Kathryn Woods explains, “[‘Daytime’ is] about how in our culture there’s this myth of constant happiness or the idea that you always have to be thriving and successful, when actually, a lot of the time, you just have to get through whatever’s going on.”
Daytime/Nightime will be released on the 31st August via Specialist Subject Records (UK) and Discos Finu (Spain).
Tender Age – Don’t Mind
Portland punk outfit Tender Age are putting out a new album, Becoming Real Forever, on the 9th of July, and have unveiled a video for the lead single ‘Don’t Mind’ to set the tone. The press release describes the band’s sound as like “being pulled into an automatic car wash,” and while the experience is not nearly as painful as that sounds, the image does capture the whirlwind of activity, a series of disparate elements pulling together toward a cohesive whole. Add in a the retro-tinged vocals that bring to mind Sonic Youth or The Breeders, and you have a confident, moody track unafraid of exploring light and dark within the same space.
Becoming Real Forever is set for release on the 9th July via SINIS Recordings and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.
Blue J – Hard to Know
Vancouver’s Blue J have a big summer ahead, with their debut EP coming out in August and a tour with SALES and Dave Monks (from Tokyo Police Club). So far, the quartet have released a number of singles, and the latest ‘Hard To Know’ demonstrates their ability to weave nuanced lyrics into affecting music. Indeed, the blend of motion and emotion in the instrumentation brings to mind Big Thief‘s Capacity, as the lyrics deal with loss and grief from the perspective of someone outside of the immediate situation, trying to comfort the mourning.
“The way that you looked on that day
I knew that I could not relate
to the shock that showed up on your face
the look of loss you wore with grace
staring at cracks on the ground
your call ended without a sound
no ‘goodbye or see you later’
your breath was getting deeper”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 track=3597204561 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]
You can get ‘Hard to Know’ and the previous singles from the Blue J Bandcamp page, and be sure to keep an eye out for more news on the EP.
You can find all of the previous instalments of Bright Sparks here, and be sure to check back in a few weeks to see what makes the next edition.