Based in Omaha, Nebraska, 37735i6 works in the lineage of ambient folk practised by artists like Midwife and Grouper. Conjuring intangible soundscapes that nevertheless possess a palpable weight, and utilising this contradiction to evoke intricacies of mood and experience that might otherwise be difficult to describe. Taken from 2020’s stay forever EP, single ‘prairie madness revival’ uses layers of reverb and delay effects to encapsulate this style, inviting listeners into a liminal space between presence and absence, darkness and light.

Ailsa Tully – Salt Glaze

Ahead of a spring tour and slot at the upcoming Green Man festival, Welsh songwriter Ailsa Tully has returned with ‘Salt Glaze’, a brand new single on Dalliance Recordings. The song follows on from Holy Isle, an EP which developed on the classic singer-songwriter style with an array of additional instruments, and channels this invention into conjuring the warm stillness of a familiar home. A sensation Tully experienced when staying in the house of her late grandmother during a period of lockdown. “My Grandma passed away a few years ago and the house remained unchanged, it was like a museum of salt glaze ceramics and abstract art pieces which began to absorb into my creativity,” Tully explains. ‘Salt Glaze’ uses the image to explores ideas of preservation and acceptance in the face of change. Check out the video directed and edited by Finlay O’Hara:

‘Salt Glaze’ is out now via Dalliance Recordings and you can get it from the Ailsa Tully Bandcamp page.

Amelia Jackie – All Around Town

For most of her life, Amelia Jackie has moved from place to place. Raised as one of four sisters by a single mother, hers was a childhood of motion and flux. Now based in New York, Amelia Jackie is preparing the release of her debut album, You Can’t Fuck the Internet, a record that promises to “beckon us into the sensual environments that spawned her, where the smell of sweet peaches meets the fumes of burnt diesel.”

In preparation, Jackie has unveiled the lead single, ‘All Around Town’, which offers a glimpse at her uniquely humid, country-tinged sound (what Colin Atrophy Hagendorf described for She Shreds as “Southern Gothic, Bastard Out of Carolina, lesbian Americana”). It’s a song about a passionate devotion, the object of which takes on near-supernatural power as they blaze a trail through towns and hearts.

you were born in the middle of a hot night in july
and your momma couldn’t tell if you were laughing or crying
a storm blew in right off the gulf
so you never did learn when enough was enough

Bri Barte – High Noon

Hex Signs, the new record from Ann Arbor-based songwriter Bri Barte, is an album about loss. Saturated with physical imagery and sensations, the songs shift from sluggish crawls to racing energy with little warning, capturing both the sharp sting and diffuse drudgery of life in the aftermath. Take ‘High Noon’, its picture of ruin heightened by odours, textures, heat and light. Barte wanders amid dead squirrels and flies and beating sun, pining for relief.

I always liked a punishing summer
The kind that makes you pray for rain
But these days I’d rather have you
I get so lonely out here at high noon

Without you

Catcher – Fallen Stones

Hailing from Brooklyn, Catcher are the latest post-punk brooders to capture widespread attention. Taking the shadowy volatility of Bambara and adding a cathartic forward motion, the six-piece walk the fine line between violence and beauty, and the delivery of vocalist Austin Eichler is suitably unpredictable amid the noise. Single ‘Fallen Stones’ captures the mood perfectly, Eichler emerging from the dense foreboding soundscape with the conviction of some half-drunk preacher.

ce qui nous traverse – Point sur la carte

Montreal-based ensemble ce qui nous traverse seek “to capture the intensive vibrations that compose the surrounding ambiances,” something their most recent record Le sacre de Sainte-Barbe tackles with both ambition and invention. Released on Cuchabata Records, the album is something of a study on a specific place, the outfit utilising their collective experimentation to examine the influence of sound on an old house in a North American village. Single ‘Point sur la carte’ is both an introduction to this strange, nocturnal world and proof that ce qui nous traverse beyond the slow haunting tones you might expect. Check out the video by Guillaume Vallée and Larissa Corriveau below:

Le sacre de Sainte-Barbe is out via Cuchabata Records and available via Bandcamp.

Cola – So Excited

Rising from the ashes of Ought, Cola is the new project of Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy, along with The Weather Station drummer Evan Cartwright. Ahead of their debut album Deep in View, coming this May on Fire Talk Records, they have unveiled new single, ‘So Excited’. Powered by a sleek, taut groove, the track plays like Ought stripped of its excesses, polished down to something tactile and gleaming yet capable of a kind of perpetual motion.

And if you are so excited
Then you are so invited
To take this stone and right it
If you are so excited

Have a gander at the video by Camille Anais Semprez, Cedar Teionietathe Jocks and Jacob Summers below:

Deep in View is out on the 20th May via Fire Talk Records and you can pre-order it now.

FES – Clarinet

Peterborough/Leeds-based trio FES work at the intersection of a variety of genres, drawing on pop punk, math rock and alternative styles to conjure a sound full of invention and weight. Ahead of debut record With Regards From Home, out via Small Pond this spring, they have unveiled new single ‘Clarinet’ to whet your appetite. Check out the video by Sam J. Lance below:

With Regards From Home is out on the 29th April via Small Pond and you can pre-order it now.

Nuevos Mundos – Mis Plantas

Nuevos Mundos are am indie rock band from Madrid, consisting of John Galilea (guitar, keyboard and vocals), Diego Cendra (guitar and vocals), Jaeson Peña (bass) and Miguel A. Sánchez (drums). They have just released their debut EP, Mis Plantas, a collection of three songs that display their talents. From energetic opener ‘Domingos en Casa’, a roaring throwback to the mid 00s indie rock golden age, to a hazily reflective title track that feels smothered with regret, there really is something for everyone.

Ocie Elliott – With the Lights Down

Victoria, B.C. duo Ocie Elliott caught our attention with their stripped back covers of songs from the likes of John Prine, Big Thief and Gillian Welch, and latest single ‘With the Lights Down’ shows their original material possesses all the same tender and intimate tones. Written after a summer solstice birthday party on the beach, the song evokes a sense of quiet gladness. A moment to remember the things you appreciate while they are still close at hand.

Find out more on the Ocie Elliott website, and check out the covers on their Youtube page.

Wildlife Freeway – Flea

“Let this one thing be known,” says Sunny Atema, AKA Wildlife Freeway. “I don’t play music. I use music.” Debut album Sunny, out via Alex Ebert’s Community Music, was created under this sentiment. An album recorded in the aftermath of the loss of her beloved dog when the world felt distant and sad. A tool to reconnect with life. “A wildlife freeway is a bridge for animals to safely cross over busy roads” Atema says of the project and album. “The name also speaks of wildness and life on the road. The actual road, putting in the miles, brings us eye to eye, connecting without a screen between.” Check out lead single ‘Flea’ below:

The post Weekly Listening: Feb 2022 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Recorded primarily in Brighton, MI, the record is an evolution of the mellow and melodic style made familiar on Transmissions. Here the ambient drones are richer, the choruses more urgent, the instrumentals more ambitious and intense. Floyd takes a more considered and thematic approach that matches his writing with the increasingly weighty sound.

We’re thrilled to be able to share a new single, ‘Wondering and Wandering’, ahead of release. The newfound depth is clear from the opening drums, an insistent beat around which the track’s intricacies are based, and is developed further with the soaring escalations of guitar that arrive periodically. Floyd’s vocals traverse this soundscape with a light-footed tenderness, his tone earnest and vulnerable but also swelling into cathartic crests as dictated by the instrumentation.

The track comes complete with a video directed by Sávio Fernandes, the scenes captured in a film-grained monochrome and infiltrated by colour as the song peaks, sparks of light building to a crescendo of vivid brilliance, the world made bright and whole again.

Wanderer is out on the 12th April via 1212 Records. The band are also on tour right now. Check out the remaining dates below and be sure to head along if you are in the area:

3/14 – Memphis, TN @ Growlers
3/15 – Nashville, TN @ The Crying Wolf
3/16 – Louisville, KY @ Open Community Arts Center
4/4 – Ypsilanti, MI @ The Late Station
4/19 to 4/20 – Lansing Michigan @ Stoop Fest
6/14 Rochester, MN @ ROCKchester Fest

The post Parkway & Columbia – Wondering and Wandering appeared first on Various Small Flames.

We first came across ACAB Rocky through their split with Kneedlez (a release we featured on our Favourite Free Music of 2014 list), and now the Victoria trio are back with a release on Michigan’s Hacktivism Records.

Truce sounds like a real progression from their previous releases, with a lush mix of lo-fi shoegaze, indie pop and 90s emo creating tracks filled with riffs and vocal hooks. Opener ‘Matches’ plays like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart fed through a math-y filter, with the refrain “I don’t know what you’re up to or up against” proving maddeningly catchy. ‘Nursery’ slows things down, opening with some admirable guitar work and developing into a laid-back song that dips a toe into psychedelic waters, before ‘Stella’, my current favourite, returns to the pop/shoegaze sound of ‘Matches’. ‘Stella’ typifies everything that makes Truce a success, a summer evening of a track, relaxed and slow and gilded with fading light, sad in a nostalgic sort of way.

This trend is continued across ‘Jane’, fuzzed-out synths providing a more immediate atmosphere, and ‘Backwoods’, where the drums become a little more ramshackle and free, straying toward garage rock territory. This all changes for closing track ‘Don’, the most minimalist on the EP, the focus on guitar and vocals bringing to mind the title tracks from last year’s album Sara.

Truce sounds like the sort of EP you will want to play as darkness falls in the warmer months, just sad enough to satisfy that weird sort of comfortable melancholy that descends with the summer sun. You can grab it now via the Hacktivism Bandcamp page, including on a rather lovely purple cassette.

The post ACAB Rocky – Truce appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Ann Arbor based collective GRL MTN have put out a new compilation of the most recent work to come from their diverse membership. Consisting of 15 tracks of woozy, eclectic beatwork, AAURAL II is worlds away from the sparse folk ruminations that we’re used to hearing from the Midwest. Check out the video for highlight track ‘Marijuana’ by Chrome Sparks above, and stream or download from here (use the mediafire link). The first installment can be found here.

The post GRL MTN – AAURAL II appeared first on Various Small Flames.