In May of last year, Whatever’s Clever Records released Sprigs & Sprays, Vol I, a benefit compilation in aid of The National Network of Abortion Funds. It brought together rare or unreleased tracks from many of the label’s artists and their friends, including the likes of Ben Seretan, Cf Watkins, Nico Hedley and Field Guides. As its title suggested, the compilation was the inaugural edition in an ongoing series, with each new volume planned to benefit a different organisation.
Next month, the second volume in the series will be released, Sprigs & Sprays, Vol. II: A Benefit Compilation for Environmental Justice. This time, all proceeds will go to The Indigenous Environmental Network, an incredible organization which describes itself as “an alliance of grassroots indigenous peoples whose mission is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by strengthening maintaining and respecting the traditional teachings and the natural laws.”
The compilation will feature sixteen artists in total, including some we are already familiar with (such as Vireo, Bea Troxel and Strawberry Runners) and some who are completely new to us. Only three are available to listen to so far, but offer more than enough to suggest that every entry will be a small gem in its own right. Such as ‘Eternity’ by Brooklyn’s Nadoyel, a slice of mournful slo-mo dream pop that crests in swathes of emotive strings and whale song-like wails.
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The project of Louisville, Kentucky’s Daniel Lobb, So It Was shares an overtly political track that somehow manages to embody a much needed oasis of calm in the current climate of greed and bigotry. “You are welcome in this world,” Lobb sings in a gentle yet steadfast rebuttal to prejudice and injustice, “no matter your points in the game.”
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Lastly is ‘Fisher Cat’ by Lindsay Skedgell’s Mother Juniper, a project we have grown to love over the last couple of years. As we described previously, Mother Juniper make music “full of small textures and tactile moods which sits within a lineage of such lo-fi recordings, from Connie Converse to Michael Hurley and beyond,” combining earthy folk with dreamlike ambience to evoke both the natural world and some other plane beyond our limited senses. This song is no different, rich with a sense of place and rooted in ecosystems that continue to cradle us even us we dig them up, chop them down, cover them in steel and glass and concrete.
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Sprigs & Sprays, Vol. II releases on 7th April. Pre-order it now from the Whatever’s Clever Records Bandcamp page. There is also an option to buy a limited edition postcard (see example below) by Benedict Kupstas of Field Guides.
Cover art by Tyler Rai and Benedict Kupstas