The song is the lead track from Songs After The Blue, the fourth studio album from Hamburg duo Deniz Çiçek and Robert Heitmann, and it’s clear that the entire record is crafted from the same aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from a wide range of artistic sources, from Rilke’s Letter to a Young Poet and Patti Smith’s Just Kids to movies such as Heathers and Breakfast Club, the album spins new wave, electro-pop and indie rock into a beguiling blend of familiar and strange.

The thematic side of the album is equally fluid, with lyrics that manage to sound at once intimate and abstract, a collision of the human and digital where connection does not necessarily equate true communication. Indeed, such a tension informs much of the release, the struggle of living and loving in a world of images and information. Songs such as ‘Heather’ tussle with some sort of loss of tangible existence in a world augmented by technology, where direct experience is replaced by the curation and re-visitation of the past. “We used to sleep under the trees,” Çiçek sings, “Now all we do is browse through / Long forgotten distant memories,” and later decrying “Living in a mirror / feeling like an error.”

‘Resonating Truly’ expands upon similar ideas, opening with the idea of “living [i]n a made-up scenery” before detailing a kind of free-fall through too many memories, too much information. ‘The Day the Internet Died’ feels like a culmination of these themes. As the press release describes, the track explores the “discrepancy between the promises of a virtual community and the lack of intimacy and internal isolation in the real world.” Worse, this does not result in a deadening of feeling, like the cliche of screen-obsessed zombies, but rather lonely and desperate people doing all they can to break free, to cut through the technological haze to once again feel something.

Songs After The Blue is out now via Better Call Rob and you can buy in on vinyl and cassette via the Kraków Loves Adana Bandcamp page.

The post Kraków Loves Adana – Songs After The Blue appeared first on Various Small Flames.

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.

Kraków Loves Adana – Rapture

The second single from upcoming full-length Songs After The Blue, ‘Rapture’ sees Kraków Loves Adana perfect their slightly weird and fully nostalgic brand of pop music. The project of Hamburg-based duo Deniz Cicek and Robert Heitmann, the sound here is one of ominous romance, as though working emotions loose from the past, exploring the strange spaces and film-grain footage of sun-bleached tapes, their contents at once dark and neon-lit, love and heartbreak entwined into cinematic spectacle.

“Tell me what’s next
Tell me what’s best
Put a cassette into the tape deck

Gotta play it for me
Hear the voices weep
Let the sad poets sing me to sleep”

The single comes complete with a fantastically fitting video by Wy’s Ebba Ågren, which also fulfils the slightly weird/fully nostalgic criteria:

Songs After The Blue is set for release on the 6th April via Better Call Rob. In the meantime, be sure to check out the first single ‘American Boy‘ too.

Cool American – Focus

Following up 2017’s excellent Infinite Hiatus, Portland’s Cool American are back with the latest instalment of their better luck next year series, which collects the b-sides and demos that didn’t fit on the full releases. That, however, does not mean a dip in quality. As ‘Focus’ attests, the differences between these songs and those on Infinite Hiatus are just stylistic, swapping out the runaway energy for something a little more languid and dreamy. Therefore the band get a chance to flex their musical muscles and try out some different formulae, and in doing so explore other faces of the millennial ennui they are making a career exploring.

better luck next year: vol 3 is out on the 16th February via Good Cheer Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp. The first and second volumes, as well as Infinite Hiatus, are available there too.

Bucolic – Blue Tree

The recording project of New Jersey’s Seth Carpenter, Bucolic makes music combining dream and bedroom pop to create something at once downbeat and uplifting. Taken from a forthcoming EP, Glow Worm, ‘Blue Tree’ serves as a great introduction for those new to his sound. Opening with a an emotional sparseness, the Carpenter’s vocals enter to portray a kind of detached regret, as though too sad to properly register the loss. Or else, the Bucolic sound is one so used to the idea of regret, so rooted in the melancholic way of things, that the loss becomes proof of something, using time passing as a way to remember what we still have left.

Glow Worm will be released in March so keep an eye on the Bucolic Bandcamp page.

There’s Talk – Give It Up

The latest single of Oakland’s dreampop trio There’s Talk, ‘Give It Up’ is the opening track of a new EP, bathed water moon. The title of the release feels pertinent, because if ever a string of three near-abstract words could describe the There’s Talk sound then it is this—ethereal and lightweight yet hiding a darker side, the bright face of Olivia Lee’s vocals masking some cold, desolate flip-side, of which her melancholic style seems all too aware.

You can pre-order bathed water moon now from the There’s Talk Bandcamp page, including lovely 7″ vinyl edition complete with an art print and pin badge.

Doomking – I Laid the Prairies to Rest

We featured Doomking, the recording project of Victoria-based musician Jordan Soles, back in 2015 upon the release of their album, A Mark of Something No Longer In Existence. We described the album as “a release very much of and for our times,” with a “mixture of impassioned sentiments and general despondency shrouded in a haze of confusion,” all fuelled by the fracturing of human connection as we increasingly move contact online.

Stripping things back from A Mark of Something, Doomking’s new single ‘I Laid the Prairies to Rest’ feels like the aftermath of the previous album. With the last thrashings of resistance all but ended, an insulated sense of isolation has taken over—sparse and lonely and poignantly pretty, the prairies committed to sound.

‘I Laid the Prairies to Rest’ is available now from the Doomking Bandcamp page.

Airium + Double Honey – Concrete House Of Dreams And Pools

A collaboration between producer Airium and vocalist Double Honey, ‘Concrete House Of Dreams And Pools’ is a rich, expansive electronic pop song inspired by the work of David Hockney. Here, the honey-thick vocals and soaring instrumentation are coloured by an over-arching melancholy, a kind of life-affirming gloom that descends as the sun sets over a city. Indeed, the vocals and instrumental brightness fade into the night-time solemnity, so that the closing stages play like the sun’s dip below the horizon, replaced by shadows and blinking neon.

Airium + Double Honey can be found on Soundcloud.

The Saxophones – Just You

Back in October we told you about ‘Aloha’, the new single from California’s The Saxophones, a track which we described as “both sad and somehow not… like gentle moonlight glinting across a tropical bay.” We also mentioned that the b-side was a cover of ‘Just You’ from the Twin Peaks soundtrack, and the band have now released this into the world too. As we expected it’s pretty much the perfect material for The Saxophones, unfurling in a ways that’s equal parts sultry and strange.

Get ‘Aloha’ from The Saxophones Bandcamp page.

Jelani Sei – LVNDR TWN

Released last autumn, LVNDR TWN was the latest genre-bending release from Hartford’s Jelani Sei—combining r&b, indie rock, pop and soul, as well as mathy flourishes and a sprinkling of a Dirty Projectors-esque oddness, to make a sound that’s as entertaining as it is unpinnable. If, like us, you are late on this one, then allow ‘Divinity’ to win you over. Starting sunny and driven forward by a strong drum beat, the subverts the pop genre by refusing to settle into any familiar pattern, the style, tempo and vocals changing at will to create a thriving collage of musical goodness.

LVNDR TWN is out now and available from the Jelani Sei Bandcamp page.

Why Dogs Why – Linus

Why Dogs Why is the recording project of Alex Johnson from Northridge, LA. Formed after his previous outfit Bedbugs ceased toward the end of 2017, the moniker will be used by Johnson for a series of singles, one every two weeks until the summer. Mixed by Derek Ted, ‘Linus’ is the first such track, detailing a bittersweet opinion of suburban life in the San Fernando Valley that manifests as an agoraphobic terror. As such, ‘Linus’ is a frantic panic of a song, racing with anxious statements and a certain volatility, as if the whole thing might come apart at the seams at any given moment.

Grab ‘Linus’ now from the Why Dogs Why Bandcamp page.

Tree House – Nonsense

Tree House, the project of London resident Will Fortna, released his debut EP, Into the Ocean, back in September on Memorials of Distinction Records. We missed the boat at the time, but a recent video for the EP’s opening track, ‘Nonsense’, gives us the perfect opportunity to catch up. The song exists on the smoother end of the bedroom pop spectrum, minimalist grooves undulating behind Fortna’s gently sighing vocals. The video is equally dreamy, a video collage featuring doves and lizards and pastel-hued clouds.

You can get Into the Ocean from the Memorials of Distinction Bandcamp page.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 9 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

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.

Brenda – Children

Having been involved in the Toronto punk scene for a number of years, Brenda got together as a four-piece in 2015. After last year’s double A-side single Sally’s Spit / ICU, the band are back with a new song ahead of the EP, Creeper. ‘Childen’ is about ‘about manipulation and the inevitability of growing up’, exploring the interplay between wanting to grow up and a secret longing to return to childhood innocence. The result is an unsettling, off-kilter track that gets under your skin, the whimsical falsetto of the verses tending toward chaotic noise in the chorus. Watch the coulrophobia-inducing video below:

Creeper is due to be released later this year, and in the meantime you can get the ‘Children’ single from Bandcamp.

Wy – Gone Wild

Taken from Okay, a new album from Swedish duo Wy, ‘Gone Wild’ is a sparse, lonely song detailing a multitude of fears. From anxieties about the death of loved ones, to worries about being misunderstood and rejected, the track charts fear in its various forms, the focus on the vocals giving everything an isolated, introspective feel. As such, the song ends up representing the sensation of being stuck in your own head, a vast lonely place that’s somehow claustrophobic too.

Okay is out now via Better Call Rob and Hybris, and you can get it from Bandcamp.

blue milk – feelin’ Blue

blue milk is the lo-fi folk project of Nashville’s Chrissy Pederson. Pederson re-purposes the elements of age-old folk music for the young people of today, acoustic strums supporting lyrics reminiscent of Frankie Cosmos or Florist. Her latest release, a collection of songs called feelin’ Blue, is short and sweet, full of songs about Millennial angst, boredom and dying young. The whole thing is reassuringly DIY and the perfect antidote to sickly, overproduced chart folk pop.

You can get feelin’ Blue on a name-your-price download from the blue milk Bandcamp page.

Sam Valdez – It’s Alright

Based in Los Angeles, Nevada born songwriter Sam Valdez draws inspiration from Sufjan Stevens, Sylvia Plath and the desert of her childhood to create a sound both dreamy and spacious, as highlighted by new single ‘It’s Alright’. With equal focus on interior and exterior forces, the track examines the masked feelings behind a troubled relationship, though rather than placing them in claustrophobic melancholy, casts them into a wide, expansive soundscape with a life of its own. The result breaks the mould of personal folk, allowing the overall tone and message of the track to remain far more ambiguous, with the sadness accompanied by an unshakeable elation.

Be sure to check out her previous single, ‘Hours‘, and keep an eye on the Sam Valdez Facebook page for future news.

Heck Nugget – Never Feel Bad / Rookie, Judgement

Hailing from Houston, Texas, indie rock trio Heck Nugget mix pop punk energy with nostalgic melancholia, as demonstrated on their previous album, Sleeping With The Forcefield On. Since, the band have been working on new singles to form a split release with Austin band The Red Heroes. ‘Rookie, Judgement’ shows the upbeat, energetic version of the band, the track racing behind throaty vocals, while ‘Never Feel Bad’ is the pensive side of the coin, regret and sadness woven into something warm and affirming, no matter how blue.

The National – The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness

In some instances, the task of writing about your favourite bands or albums is almost impossibly difficult, especially when said act has exploded into about as mainstream a position a hard-working indie rock band can achieve these days. The world doesn’t need another think piece about The National, nor comparative piece on whether The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness stands up alongside their other work. Whether or not this reaches the heights of Alligator and Boxer is kind of beside the point—Berninger and Co. remain one of the most consistent and interesting groups going, and if this record been released by an unknown act we’d be praising it’s achievements. So, while they’ve risen beyond our remit, we still think The National warrant a mention on our site, for posterity’s sake.

The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness is out now via 4AD.

Dream Nails – Tourist

London’s self-described ‘feminist punk witches’ Dream Nails recently put out a sharp, snappy single in preparation for their forthcoming EP, Dare To Care. Channelling the spirit of the Riot Grrrl age, the band create music equal parts catchy and furious, retreating not one iota in their stance against misogyny and the patriacrhal society. “[‘Tourist’ is] about men who present themselves as a hero but all they really want to do is fetishise sad girls,” say lead Janey Starling. “We can smell those guys a mile away and they’re creepy.”

Dare To Care is set for release on the 27th October so keep an eye on the Dream Nails Bandcamp page.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 6 appeared first on Various Small Flames.