“They say it was a failed utopia / but it ain’t failed if you’re flexible.” So sings LA-based songwriter Dolly Creamer on latest single ‘Like Water’, two lines which could be said to serve as the mission statement of the song. With a loose, easygoing spirit, the track embraces this philosophy to create its own small world within the imperfect whole, leaning into the image of the title to stay attuned to the natural world and go with the flow of life. Sarah Harris, Sasha Massey, Joon Voigt, Riley Geare and Joel Crocco lend their talents to flesh out the sound, and Voigt also created a suitably lo-fi video to further bring the mood to life as part of their thunderwurld motion picture co. The result is an affirming reminder of the hope inherent within any community.

‘Like Water’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Erik Hall – A Folk Study (Laurie Spiegel)

Back in November we introduced Solo Three, the closing release in a trilogy of albums by Erik Hall on Western Vinyl which sees the Michigan-based composer and multi-instrumentalist reimagining contemporary classical pieces by passing them through the prism of his own unique minimalist sensibilities. Where predecessors Music for 18 Musicians and Canto Ostinato focused solely on the work of Steve Reich and Simeon ten Holt respectively, Solo Three casts a wider net, the release featuring reinterpretations of pieces by Glenn Branca, Charlemagne Palestine, Reich again and, as with the latest single, Laurie Spiegel. As though led by the title, Hall brings an added tempo and warmth to ‘A Folk Study’, favouring an acoustic palette to tease out the organic spirit of Spiegel’s original.

Hiding Places – Holy Roller

“I’m a holy roller / I move so much.” So sings Audrey Keelin of Hiding Places on single ‘Holy Roller’, invoking a phrase in the Holiness movement for those of the congregation so struck by the presence of God they dance and shake uncontrollably. Released to celebrate the Brooklyn-based outfit’s signing with Keeled Scales, the single embraces this sense of spontaneity in more ways than one, not only in how it explores the restless spirit of its creator but also in terms of its very construction. “’Holy Roller’ was a lesson for me, a song that happened with no planning, no ‘trying to write’, but a pure, detached channeling,” Keelin explains. “That metaphor made perfect sense to me after the fact, there is a voice in my heart that I have a complex relationship with that tells me to move around, be somewhat nomadic, not really settle down in one specific place. During that writing session, that bittersweet feeling of moving from my home state kept returning,”

Howling Bells – Chimera

Back in October we introduced Strange Life, the first new album from Sydney-born, London-based outfit Howling Bells for over a decade. “The album not only breaks the hiatus but reflects on it,” we described when talking of lead single ‘Heavy Lifting’, a testament to the effort and resilience required to persist within the music industry and develop a sense of confidence. Latest single ‘Chimera’ continues this meditation on making art, exploring the double-edged sword of ambition and how it can both cut you down and lift you towards higher achievements. “Chimera is a strange word. It means a few different and curious things; in this context, however, I’m using it to mean something of an absurd nature, unattainable, a fantasy. Such is the relationship we have with music at times,” lead Juanita Stein explains. “This song speaks to my experience as a musician, surviving the perpetual ups and downs of the game. But if you’re lucky enough, you have someone who can cut through the noise and help you realise that the fantasy is half the joy. That the longing is part of the journey and that our achievements along the way are deeply meaningful. At its core, ‘Chimera’ is a song about hope and relinquishing control.”

Strange Life will be released on the 13th February via Nude Records.

Ken Wohlrob – William

“A song is a stubborn thing. It’ll resist you with all its might. As you try to bend it and twist it, it will reject your strokes of genius, leaving you feeling like a damn fool for thinking they would work in the first place. A song will tell you, in no uncertain terms, what it wants to be.” So explains musician and composer Ken Wohlrob of new single ‘William’, a track which seemed to repel all attempts to develop it beyond its core guitar riff. You might know Wohlrob from acts like End of Hope, Swarm of Flies, Northern Heretic and Eternal Black, but his solo work offers space for something more meditative. And it was with that spirit he decided to drop the attempt to complicate the sound and let ‘William’ have its own way. “What I had was a single take of a repetitive guitar riff, played live through a reverse-echo feedback loop for eleven minutes,” he continues. “The feedback loop created oscillations and repetitions that took on a life of their own, extending past the riff, even re-absorbing it. There was a compelling journey in that single guitar line.”

No Singing – Care Takers

In recent years, Ben Godfrey has made a name with baroque, off-the-cuff recordings under the moniker Belaver, offering what we’ve called “a blend of deadpan humour and human heart which proves ideally suited to capturing the bleak and bizarre milieu to which it belongs.” Now Godfrey is back with new project No Singing, and there’s something of a stylistic change. Gone are the live arrangements and wry sensibilities in favour of something more considered, personal and nostalgic. Single ‘Care Takers’ introduces the sound, the tale of a character who intends to find a car and drive until the gas runs out. Only this yearning for forward motion is complicated by its very existence, both the lo-fi sound and Godfrey’s vocals betraying a sense of stasis. The stuck feeling of being young and lonely within a city which barely knows you exist, longing for any sense of speed which might allow an escape.

Sam Wenc – Limitless of Blue

Recording under the moniker Post Moves, Philadelphia-based composer, improviser and interdisciplinary artist Sam Wenc released fifteen albums across a variety of labels, establishing the sonic strand of his work as something intricate, finely crafted yet always surprising (just check out Cut Into Your Own Dimension or Heart Music). Wenc has decided to release latest album Language At An Angle under his own name, though it very much feels a continuation of an ongoing body of work. Inspired by and dedicated to pedal steel virtuoso Susan Alcorn who passed away earlier in the year, the record is a lesson in the possibilities of the instrument, one grounded in years of experience and deepened by an ongoing practice of sitting meditation, as well as a reminder of the raw power of art. Perhaps the only real way we can truly confront the unknowable and create meaning, this record suggests, is to continue the work of our forebears and never stop pushing the boundaries. Listen to lead track ‘Limitless of Blue’ now, and watch the video directed by Mikel Patrick Avery below:

Language At An Angle will be released via Lobby Art Editions on the 30th January and you can pre-order it now.

Sophie Gault – Is There Anyone Out There

We last wrote about Nashville-based songwriter Sophie Gault back in 2023 with the release of ‘Christmas in the Psych Ward‘ from album Baltic Street Hotel, a track which followed a lineage of Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin to delve, as we put it, “into highly personal experiences of bipolar disorder with a tone both steely and wry.” With new album UNHINGED set for release in January 2026 via Torrez Music Group, Gault has now returned with single ‘Is There Anyone Out There’, and the track is no less emotive or evocative. A version of the Gurf Morlix song of the same name, the track preserves the intimacy of the original while reaching towards something more connected and communal. Morlix’s album Kiss of the Diamondback came out in the heaviest days of the pandemic and its sound was very much informed by the isolation and solitude of the period, but Gault adds a certain layer of warmth to create a mood that’s still melancholic but a little more bittersweet.

Unhinged will be released via Torrez Music Group on the 23rd January and you can pre-save it now.

vireo – the great golden gloom

We’ve featured a couple of tracks from vireo‘s forthcoming album The Great Golden Gloom in recent weeks, firstly ‘catching minnows’ back in September and more recently ‘icanicanican‘. Both tracks highlighted the spirit of a project attuned, as we put it, “to the curative power of the environment and the small beauties therein, packed full of brightness and wonder as though written in honour of the joy of being alive.” With the record now out, Chris Beaulieu and co. have shared the title track as one final single. Serving as the conclusion of the album, the track is in many ways a culmination of its ideas and tones. One grounded in the richness of nature yet marked by a trademark sense of invention, its bright style is as earnest as anything vireo have put out to date, and perhaps more accomplished and assured. The sound of a band who have discovered both their musical style and view of the world and have taken great pleasure in committing it to tape.

Weirs – Lord Bateman (Live at Feast V)

“A hymn delivered not from the still air and stone of a cathedral but God’s own Earth,” was how we described ‘I Want to Die Easy‘ from Weirs‘ album Diamond Grove earlier in the year. “Where fellow contemporary traditionalists like Lankum and ØXN highlight the stark, foreboding tones of the genre to push towards the realm of folk horror, the Weirs sound is more in line with the work of Terrence Mallick. Songs heightened not by an emergent dread or the suggestion of the supernatural but rather an abundance of life itself. The humblest of details given the closest of attention and the latent beauty revealed.” To celebrate the album and kick off a new tour, Weirs have shared a live version of the epic ‘Lord Bateman’, complete with a video filmed at their album release show at the 5th annual Feast in Orange County, North Carolina. “Each year in the fall, friends and I host Feast, a harvest meal and music event that spans the first weekend of October,” explains lead Oliver Child-Lanning. “This year, to mark the release of Weirs’ new album Diamond Grove, we opened Saturday night by playing through ‘Lord Bateman’ from the album in its entirety, with shadow puppets by my sister Violet and other friends and family. Everyone gathered around the glowing puppet theater as we played and sang, accompanied by insects and the fall breeze.”

Diamond Grove is out now via Dear Life Records and you can get it from the Weirs Bandcamp page.

Where’s Beth – Overtime Waltz

Following on from 2024 album Bone Broth, a release we described as “a picture of domesticity in the weeks and days around marriage,” which “for all its tender fondness, still finds room for the peculiar and idiosyncratic details,” Sarabeth Weszely’s Where’s Beth has returned with a festive offering that uses the pressures of the period to highlight chronic struggles and loneliness. “I wrote ‘Overtime Waltz’ from a place of burnout,” Weszely explains, “working long hours in NYC, struggling to connect with loved ones even when we were physically together, and feeling a vague and relentless sense of grief.” Abbey Blackwell (Alvvways) contributes upright bass and harmonies while Steve Moore (Sufjan Stevens) adds Wurlitzer and synth, lifting the sound to its full, melancholic warmth.

Is the snow ever coming, will it always be rain?
Will the cold bring numbing to take away the pain?
I’m needing some kindness to show me the way

Watch the lyric video below:

‘Overtime Waltz’ is out now and available from Bandcamp.

The post Weekly Listening: December 2025 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

A feature of the Zoroastrian tradition of sky burial, the tower of silence is a raised circular structure used to offer the bodies of the dead to vultures and other scavengers without the remains contaminating the earth. A single from 2021 album Lain Prone, Belaver‘s ‘Tower of Silence’ mines this imagery for its themes of isolation and slow disintegration, not only referring to the process itself but also the manner in which such rituals are under threat in the contemporary age, as the bird populations are challenged by the unfolding breakdown of the climate. A new video directed, shot, and produced by A. Jung casts the track as a first-person horror story, leading the viewer through an assortment of corridors and rooms to discover a body, and then bending reality by replaying the journey on a projected screen.

Lain Prone is out now and available from the Belaver Bandcamp page.

Brake Run – Valid

The new project of Brianna Snider (half of duo Bexley Moms, and previously of saltlick), brake run combines slowcore and shoegaze influences into sound full of dark texture and pressing weight, as captured on new EP lift hill soundtrack. Single ‘valid’ is typical of the style, Snider’s vocals emerging from within a wall of gauzy guitars and pitch black atmospherics, transcending the gloom or else embracing the surroundings as the reality of things. Fans of the likes of Midwife take note.

without anything in my back pocket it feels very hard to cope

Expensive Music Band – Cool Aunty

Inspired by the birth of their daughter, Expensive Music Band’s Troon Lienad set out to write a song to celebrate the importance of aunties within the family structure. “A cultural exchange that is generational, witty and fun,” as the press release aptly describes it. Enter ‘Cool Aunty’, the latest single from the Cringila, Australia project’s forthcoming record Things to say at a barbecue, where Lienad looks forward to a potential future where his daughter is taken under the wing of the titular figure to become a person just as kind, stylish and effortlessly cool.

Kitba – My Words Don’t Work

“What’s my worth / If my words don’t work?” asks Brooklyn-based songwriter and harpist Rebecca Kitba Bryson El-Saleh, AKA Kitba, on the lead single from their upcoming self-titled debut. “Can’t get the meaning to hold / What’s the point / If my words don’t mean / What they’re supposed to mean?” Released via Ruination Records, the album sees El-Saleh look to conquer the barriers between interior and exterior worlds, and communicate the personal without the message becoming denatured in transit. ‘My Words Don’t Work’ starts this process by confronting the problem head on, and ultimately pushing beyond language to convey the meaning between or underneath words. Watch the video directed and edited by Robin Sessions below:

Kitba is out on the 21st July via Ruination Records and you can pre-order it now.

Requiem – Tired Hot and Bothered

Consisting of musician and multimedia artist Doug Kallmeyer, visual artist Monica Stroik and guitarist, soundscape designer and conceptualist Tristan Welch, DC-based outfit Requiem exists at the intersection of post-rock, pop and electronic sensibilities. A project which looks to combine the dramatic weight of Explosions in the Sky or GY!BE with the spacious qualities of ambient music, and further develop the result with visual accompaniments to their live shows so as to become a fully immersive experience. Debut POPulist Agendas is coming this summer on Mutineer Records, and lead single ‘Tired Hot and Bothered’ is the ideal introduction to the style, spanning the gamut of emotions and moods which feature in Requiem’s work and sounding altogether larger than its four minute runtime.

POPulist Agendas is out on the 7th August via Mutineer Records and you can pre-order it now.

Tiara Mustafa – Beyond the Shadow

Known primarily as one half of of Brunswick County, Virginia folk pop duo Tiara & Andrew, Tiara Mustafa recently released TRIBE, a solo EP on Grimalkin Records. Its two songs were born out of a very difficult period, which saw her mother diagnosed with cancer, the death of her cat and the loss of an album’s worth of Tiara & Andrew material. But rather than dwell on sadness and worry, Mustafa was able to find hope, something second track ‘Beyond the Shadow’ illustrates very well. “There’s a light in darkness, creeping up your spine,” Mustafa sings in what’s an ethereal and soothingly peaceful pop song, “Hide beyond the shadow, you will breathe in time.”

The Weather Holds – Five Roses

Producer and composer Devon Bate has worked behind the scenes on a number of Juno and Polaris award-winning albums, as well as equally stellar dance and theatre productions. But after giving so much to the Canadian arts in relative anonymity, at least to the general audience, his project The Weather Holds sees the favour repaid. Bate calls on the connections made over the years to create a supergroup which unites the indie and classical music scenes. An immense amount of talent features, including the likes of Common Holly, Jean-Michel Blais, Jeremy Dutcher and composer Beatrice Ferreira to name but a few, and resulting album You Couldn’t Ask For a More Beautiful Day is striking in its richness. Take single ‘Five Roses’, a celebration of the Montreal community brought to life by a dozen musicians.

Who Is She? – Thursday

With new record Goddess Energy coming this August on Father/Daughter Records, Seattle supergroup Who Is She? have unveiled lead single, ‘Thursday’. The album sees Robin Edwards (Lisa Prank), Julia Shapiro (Chastity Belt) and Bree Mckenna (Tacocat) joined by fellow Tacocat member Emily Nokes, and the new song hints at the harmonies the newly bolstered line-up will bring. An ode to the titular day which will be stuck in your head all week, andan excellent example of the goddess energy emanating from the project. Check out the video directed by Sébastien Deramat below:

Goddess Energy is out on the 25th August via Father/Daughter Records and you can pre-order it now.

Will Orchard – Simple Magic

Will Orchard is a songwriter from the East Bay of Rhode Island who we first wrote about back in 2019, describing the tone as “certainly nostalgic, and therefore focused on things now lost, though cast in a fond light—committed to bringing to life those moments, however mundane or ordinary, that help us become ourselves.” Taken from new album Learning to Stand, latest single ‘Simple Magic’ is the encapsulation of this style, unfurling with a careful tenderness and drawing the listener into a space of calm contemplation.

The post Weekly Listening: May 2023 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Fast forward a few months and Godfrey is back with new single ‘Mount Misery’ ahead of the album’s release. The song is as upbeat as anything Belaver has put out to date, but beneath the surface lies a cutting critique of consumerism and entitlement. “Even in death I still expect treasure forever for doing nothing,” go the final lines. “If I’m not entitled to be fed and be fucked / That might mean I might be the one who is what I say is my enemy.”

The song comes complete with a video designed in collaboration with fifteen animators, a process which itself reached into the heart of one such exploitative scene. Dust Reid of Feel Bad Records explains the concept in detail:

Ben showed me this Medium article about how wikiHow exploits its artistic labor by hiring global talent through services like Fiverr and then having the artists sign an NDA so they wouldn’t receive credit for their work. This seems to be the general operating M.O. for corporations when commissioning cheaper labor and it prevents the artist from building a portfolio which would help lead them to bigger commissions. We decided to use Fiverr but in our outreach asked each animator for photos, bios and links to their work and told them we want to collectively publicize who they were.

The “Mount Misery” music video captures our attempt at modernizing the ‘American Dream.’ In corporate America we’ve come to see how creatives can get the short end of the stick. With this video concept, we aim to popularize promoting people’s work and ascribing value to their contributions. We hired 17 incredible animators to represent and design different segments of the song, encouraging them to fold in their own vision to our story; the end result is the quilted essence of Mount Misery’s message.

We gave each animator a prompt, some asked for storyboards which we provided and others provided them back. The only direction we gave on the physical appearance of the character throughout was that it should be a blond man. Some interpretations didn’t end up having blonde hair but it was truly a collaborative effort and to each animator we are thankful for their interest and enthusiasm on this project.

Lain Prone is out on the 22nd October and you can pre-order it from the Belaver Bandcamp page.

The post Belaver – Mount Misery appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The latest Belaver single is no different. ’70’s Adventure’ is the first taste of a new collaboration between Godfrey and Robert Ellis, who produced the forthcoming new Belaver album, Lain Prone. The pair share a long history, having met around Houston’s DIY scene in the early 2000s and playing, touring and recording together ever since. You get the sense that such familiarity is key, that Ellis is someone who understands Godfrey’s singular style and can help realise it more fully. The record’s first single, ’70’s Adventure’, is proof that such cooperation is bearing fruit.

Because the track is Belaver in perhaps its most distilled form yet. A strange, melancholic number seemingly caught between laughing and crying, the sardonic tone refusing to undermine the emotion at the core. Instead, it settles into a surreal sort of drift, a meandering numbness which nothing quite penetrates, no matter how intense or outlandish. The mood is captured in a video directed by Erica Alexandria Silverman, where Godfrey paddles through absurd landscapes with barely a second glance.

’70’s Adventure’ is out now via Feel Bad Records. Stay tuned for more information on Lain Prone.

The post Belaver – 70’s Adventure appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Acting as an encapsulation of the Belaver aesthetic, the sound is undeniably downbeat, imagining a series of possible futures that range from disastrous to ridiculous, though a thin seam of hope perseveres. However fatalistic the song might be, it is never purely pessimistic, remaining as open to the dice landing favorably as it is to the inevitable set of snake eyes.

This month sees Belaver return with ‘Here It Comes’, a brand new single that continues this mood into the newly dystopian present. “They say the world is going to end,” goes the opening lines. “It’s everybody’s final chance / to make it better if they can / it’s up to them.” It’s the one-two punch of our times, societal collapse and society’s insistence that only personal responsibility can stop the fall. But the oceans are rising and choked with plastic, the earth is barren and dry. What hope is there?

‘Here It Comes’ takes a queer delight in the fulfilment of its prophecies, a kind of release that only comes with accepting the worst. “We’ll try to get it right next time,” Godfrey sings, “and if we fuck up, so what? / So we die another time.” The thing about the death-fearing pessimist is he’s always proven right in the end.

Check out the video below, with cinematography from A. Jung and directed by Godfrey himself.

‘Here it Comes’ is out now via Feel Bad Records.

The post Belaver – Here It Comes appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Real Life Buildings – Racing the Sun
Nice Apple – Are You Still There?
V.V. Lightbody – Babe, Honestly
Nico Hedley – Late Bloomer
Gracie Gray – Morphine
Spencer Radcliffe & Everyone Else – Bloodletting
Pleasure Systems – Heirloom
Ana Roxanne – Slowness
Kin Hana – Fog
Rainwater – Pink Flowers
Christelle Bofale – U Ouchea
Prudence – Smile & Nod
Operators – Faithless
Belaver – Driver
Mr Husband – Friends
Rose Hotel – Running Behind
Jeremy Squires – Somersault
Bad Books – Lake House
Yammerer – Poisonous Reptilian Colleague’s & Co
Britt – Trial Period
Wild Yawp – Femme Girl
Forest Management – Blue Leaves
Robert Stillman – Ritual
Everyone is Dirty – Hit-Girl
Merin – Coral Island
Lavender Bones – Over Again
Luke De-Sciscio – R.O.B.Y.N.
Anna Wiebe – Fortune
Young Elk – Gossip Magazines
Emma Frank – I Thought
Eamon McGrath – GUTS
Jacob Faurholt – The Dark Isn’t Right

Like what you hear? Catch up with the rest of our Monthly Mixes.

The post May 2019 Roundup Mix appeared first on Various Small Flames.

We first wrote about B.E. Godfrey’s Belaver project back in October, describing how his music “explor[es] the dark and dingy corners of the human experience” with its off-kilter, noir-ish retro pop aesthetic. After a series of singles, this month sees the release of the debut Belaver album, True Love of Crime—a record which draws upon everything from goth and electronic to the alt-country of Bill Callahan to create a strange, melancholic world.

We’re drawn into this sphere immediately with opening track ‘Prisoner’, the wistful strum and ambient textures heralding Godfrey’s distinctively downbeat vocals. There’s a touch of Say Hi in ‘Partners’, a song about how even the most hardened or volatile criminals need a getaway driver, while ‘Doer’ ups the synths to create a glassy soundscape, its spacious style populated with a variety of warm and playful flourishes as the lyrics explore identity in the face of addiction.

Oh no
I think I did it again
I might have done that thing again

Don’t go
Yeah I might never quit
but what am I without it?

The more upbeat elements are stripped away on the minimal ‘Swimmer’, Godfrey channeling Phil Elverum in his wordy delivery, though details begin to bleed through as the track develops, highlighting one of Belaver’s true strengths in the ability to present isolation and loneliness with an almost transcendental air. The Elverum comparison stands for ‘Grave Robber’ too, which provides what we previously called “a cross between Mt. Eerie and Monarch Mtn—twilit and noir-ish, traipsing through ancient catacombs and holding a torch to whatever dusty relics are found.”

After the interlude of ‘Dancer’, which is something like Owen Ashworth soundtracking a Twin Peaks VHS, ‘Vampire’ arrives in all of its theatrical horror. Accompanied by a video from Dustin M Reid, the song is for all the things moving through the darkness, lurking in shadows and lunging at those unfortunate enough to stray from the path.

The retro weirdness is dialed to ten on closing track ‘Driver’, a creeping neon-dripped reach for something new or different. Acting as an encapsulation of the Belaver aesthetic, the sound is undeniably downbeat, imagining a series of possible futures that range from disastrous to ridiculous, though a thin seam of hope perseveres. However fatalistic the song might be, it is never purely pessimistic, remaining as open to the dice landing favorably as it is to the inevitable set of snake eyes. The track comes complete with a video from Che Houston, starring Harvey Kaufman as a news anchor intent on revealing Belaver’s shady past, a film-grained view of backwards memories and past events, not to mention our relationship with the unending fascination with images

Oh say, can you believe what I see?
I see our bodies, exploding
Do you really think if we keep driving
we’ll break free of the barricade?

True Love of Crime is out now and you can get it from a variety of Belaver pages.

The post Belaver – True Love of Crime appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

Restorations – Nonbeliever
Goshen Electric Co. – The Grey Tower
Horse Culture – Follow
Yowler – Where Is My Light?
Desert Liminal – Gauze Cave
Anamon – In 3
Adeline Hotel – Lightning
Lea Thomas – Upstream
Scott Orr – No Phone
Advance Base – Christmas in Nightmare City
Blue Wilson – Golden Eyes
The Sofas – Nothing Major
Lazy Legs – Nosebleed
All Boy/All Girl – Bomb
Strange Ranger – New Hair
Elly Swope – Idea
Dweller – Running
Will Henriksen – Halo
Knuckle Pups – Bottom Baby
Ian Wayne – Guessing
Massage – Crying Out Loud
Recluse Raccoon – Mother America
Interbellum – Ink
Marc Ferrino – Like a Spark
Katie Kuffel – As the Crow Flies
Emily Brown – Sometimes
KASHKA – Holding Steady
Philippe Bronchtein – Me and the Moon
Spencer Segelov – Sacred Songs
Annie Dressner – Fades Away
Belaver – Grave Robber
Of The Valley – Ride Alone
Hour – Give thanks in a special way

The post October 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Goshen Electric Co. – The Gray Tower

We’re huge fans of Jason Molina here at VSF, so imagine our excitement when it was announced Strand of Oaks‘ Timothy Showalter was standing in for him for a special tour, as Magnolia Electric Co. (Mike Benner, Jason Evans Groth, Mikey Kapinus, Mark Rice, Peter Schreiner) welcome Showalter into their ranks to form Goshen Electric Co. In addition to a tour, the new outfit are releasing a single, and the first track is available to hear now, complete with a video from Colin Kerrigan and Rocco Avallone.

‘The Gray Tower’, which was first released as a single in 2002, is a perfect fit for Showalter’s delivery, capturing the atmosphere of the original where the foreboding and dread is matched only by the naked humanity beneath. “Jason’s lyrics were darkly heroic,” Showalter says. “Trying to fight against it. Just the word ‘try’—whenever he says ‘try,’ it’s just magic to me.”

The Gray Tower B/W Ring the Bell is to be released by Secretly Canadian on the 2nd November and you can pre-order it now.

Lea Thomas – Upstream

Lea Thomas is a songwriter, textile artist and “lifelong student of ecology” from Maui, Hawaii, and her music draws upon these features in its distinctive style. The opening song of new EP Part of This Place, single ‘Upstream’ is the perfect example—a track through which nature is interwoven, the patient and delicate sensibility hiding a sense of permanence and grace, the parts coalescing into a organic whole. Indeed, much of the album came to life during a stay in the Vermont wilderness, with Thomas embracing any imperfections within the recording as part of the naturalistic aesthetic the music exhibits.

“When I feel the soil breaking free
Sliding down the banks between the colors of spring
I feel the warmth of a woman pouring out of me”

Part Of This Place is out now via Spirit House Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Elly Swope – Idea

Having become a well-known face in the Portland music scene, playing with the likes of Kelli Schaefer, Roseblood, Genders, Sunbathe and Deathlist, this autumn sees Elly Swope’s first proper solo release. Despite playing much of the parts herself, Swope’s sound subverts all conceptions of what solo music can entail, possessing a rich texture and runaway energy that any full band would envy.

Lead single ‘Idea’ is a case in point, sparking into life with a momentum that lets up only to climb toward a bigger release, Swope’s self-assured vocals more than a match for the angular guitars and furious drums. Thematically, the track charts the deconstruction and subsequent reconstruction of identity that follows the end of a relationship. “This song is about the ways in which we dissociate after a breakup,” Swope explains, life separated into what is personal and what was shared, and what must now be let go.

It Feels the Same Everytime is out via Rue Defense on the 9th November. Per-order it now via Bandcamp.

Massage – Crying Out Loud

Massage is a new project from Alex Naidus, who you might know as a founding member of Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Taken from their debut album, Oh Boy, single ‘Crying Out Loud’ is a bittersweet song which delves into “the frustration of deeply caring about someone but not being able to spend time with them without something going wrong.” The sentiment is set against an upbeat tempo to produce a sunny kind of sadness, a wistful sense of loss that’s almost as affirming as it is painful.

The track comes complete with a video from director Thaddeus Ruzicka, and the film textures of the footage capturing the Massage aesthetic perfectly.

Oh Boy is out now via Tear Jerk Records and you can buy it from Bandcamp.

Belaver – Grave Robber

With new single ‘Grave Robber’, New York’s Belaver aims to give the listener a guided tour of “a world of exhumination,” a place of dark unease “where the past is a crypt of memories to rob and a skeleton yet to be discovered.” After time fronting doom-folk band listenlisten, such a style is fitting for B.E. Godfrey, his music exploring the dark and dingy corners of the human experience. Indeed, this latest single follows the killer-themed EP, Wild Desperation, which he put out in 2015.

Utilising a mix of acoustic guitar and synths to support Godfrey’s distinctive vocals, ‘Grave Robber’ feels like a cross between Mt. Eerie and Monarch Mtn—twilit and noir-ish, traipsing through ancient catacombs and holding a torch to whatever dusty relics are found.

You can find Belaver on Spotify and Soundcloud.

Spencer Segelov – Sacred Songs

Spencer Segelov is a musician and songwriter from Caerphilly in South Wales. Previously working under the moniker Spencer McGarry Season, Segelov has explored a diverse range of styles in his time, from rock and jazz to a whole range of pops—indie pop, synth pop, baroque pop—and his new record Loser Leaves Town continues the multifaceted approach. In contrast to the barroom jazz of the title track, ‘Sacred Songs’ is a piano ballad that blurs the line between earnest and playful, though the chorus settles firmly within the sincere end of the equation.

Loser Leaves Town is out now via Country Mile and all the major download services.

Lazy Legs – Nosebleed

We’ve featured Portland grungers Lazy Legs a few times here at VSF, writing about their self-titled EP back in 2016 and describing how previous single ‘Gloss’ “pull[ed] off the quiet/loud dynamic effortlessly […] managing to be both woozily captivating and cathartically empowering.”

The duo are back with a new single, ‘Nosebleed’, the first taste of a forthcoming record, Moth Mother. ‘Nosebleed’ delves into a raw and spiky dreamscape, dropping the psychedelic flourishes of the previous release in favour of a crunchy, heavier sound. The result is still very much of the Lazy Legs aesthetic, though suggests the new album will see the band orbiting closer to their grunge and slowcore influences.

Grab ‘Nosebleed’ now on a pay-what-you-can basis from Bandcamp.

Annie Dressner – Fades Away

We last featured Annie Dressner back in 2013, and now the UK-based American is back with a brand new album, Broken Into Pieces. For those unfamiliar with Dressner’s sound, opener ‘Fades Away’ provides a good example, blending a delicate guitar line with a conversational tone to create an intimate sound. The track is fleshed out with various other instrumental flourishes too, becoming a vivid, warm song of surprising weight, the simplicity of Dressner’s writing only adding to the poetic nature.

Broken Into Pieces is out now and you can get it now from the Annie Dressner Bandcamp page.

Marc Ferrino – Like a Spark

Working in bands such as Black Before Red and Low Line Caller, Marc Ferrino forged a reputation as one of Austin’s best vocalists, and 2019 will see the release of his debut solo EP on Wren & Shark. So far we only have one song to go on, though ‘Like a Spark’ is more than satisfactory in terms of building anticipation for the record. Pitched between indie rock cool and a celebratory style of pop, the track serves as one final hurrah for the summer—a grand, sweeping ode to ephemeral warmth.

Like a Spark is set for release in 2019 via Wren & Shark. Keep an eye on their website for pre-order info.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 17 appeared first on Various Small Flames.