Described as a “multifaceted, multigenerational recording project from Albuquerque, New Mexico,” AJ Woods counts members of a Hawk and a Hacksaw, The Sir Douglas Quintet, Neutral Milk Hotel and Heather Trost Band among its roster, and the level of experience shines through in the sound. Forthcoming via Perpetual Doom, new album Hawk Is Listenin’ uses this multitudinous style to evoke nature in all of its diversity, reminding us that not only should we be more attuned to the natural world, but moreover that it is more aware of our presence than we might think. The opener and title track sets out these ideas in characteristically inventive style, layering a dreamy folk song from all sorts of sounds and images, and punctuating the careful arrangement with bursts of evocative noise.

alx frncs – good is your friend

“An attempt to process an extremely difficult period via an intimate, gentle sound.” That’s what we wrote back in March about alx frncs‘s ‘i cant do anything right’, a song which typified the confessional yet empathetic nature of the Brighton songwriter’s work. Written in response to the loss of her childhood pet, new single ‘good is your friend’ is no different, exploring themes of grief and mourning in a kind of post-religious space. The lapsed-Catholic state of mind where dogma might no longer be the organising logic of a life, yet the imagery and rhythms remain. The atmosphere is subdued and enveloping, with a textured cinematic feel that blossoms from its modest beginning.

christ i’ve given in
give in me mortal sin
if we don’t find out
where we’ll end up now

time,
passes by

Bitter Calm – Surrender

‘Salt’, the first single from Bitter Calm‘s forthcoming album Eternity In The Lake of Fire on Earth Libraries, represented something of a change for the band. As we wrote in a preview, “the song is still concerned with the weighty themes of love and death” that marked debut Good Grief, but “the shadowy slowcore sensibilities are replaced with something altogether brighter and more melodic.” But rather than a compensatory turn to positivity, the tone is something won in the hardest of manners, brightness not as an absence of dark but rather the strange marvel at being alive to record at all. Final single ‘Surrender’ turns to alt folk sensibilities to further this style, positioning itself between acts like Songs: Ohia and Purple Mountains, the high priests of such moods.

Eternity In The Lake of Fire is out on the 6th September via Earth Libraries and available to pre-order from the Bitter Calm Bandcamp page.

Decimal Decade – Trace

Decimal Decade is a recording project led by Chicago-based songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Nico Tiparescu. Born in Venezuela to Romanian and Peruvian parents and growing up in Spain and later Chile, Tiparescu has a more diverse background than most, and the breadth of his personal experience is evident in the debut Decimal Decade EP, Soon to Evolve. It’s a synthesis of styles and interests which emerged from the dissolution of a previous band, Tiparescu seeking to rekindle his love of music after a period of disappointment. “A constant parameter that I tried to follow was that everything in the songs felt natural to me,” as he explains. “All the ideas I put in had to be completely in line with what felt honest. I was just moving towards what made me excited about the music.” Listen to single ‘Trace’ for a glimpse into the release:

Masayoshi Fujita – Our Mother’s Lights (feat. Moor Mother)

Coming next month on Erased Tapes, Masayoshi Fujita‘s new album Migratory sees the Japanese composer, vibraphonist and marimba player continue to explore the possibilities that exist in the spaces between electronic and classical music. The record’s title is apt, the release drawing upon the phenomenon of avian migration as a central image for its far-reaching sound. The album was “inspired by my experiences of living abroad and returning to my homeland,” Fujita explains, “as well as by the artists featured on this album who also somehow travelled or lived in other countries across the boundaries, and being influenced by the music of other lands but at the same time somehow led to their roots.” Artists like Mattias Hållsten and Hatis Noit feature on the album, but its is Camae Ayewa, AKA Moor Mother (Irreversible Entanglements / The Art Ensemble of Chicago), who steals the show with vocals on new single ‘Our Mother’s Light’.

Neighbours Burning Neighbours – Always Winning

Described as “an anthem for all of those who struggle with navigating the whirlwind of ADHD,” Neighbours Burning Neighbours‘ new single ‘Always Winning’ finds the Rotterdam-based outfit further their distinctive blend of post-rock and noise pop sensibilities. The song, a glimpse of their forthcoming self-titled album on Subroutine Records, follows previous track ‘Neil Young‘ in its ability to sound at once discordant and infectious, pulling the audience into its rhythm and holding them there through the ebb and flow between taut slacks and hectic rapids.

Oh, Rose – Toilet Water

Back in June we shared ‘The Call’, a single from Oh, Rose‘s new album Dorothy, coming soon via Antiquated Future. A track which “originated in an inflection point,” as we wrote, “one where Rose was made to consciously decide to continue her pursuit of her artistic energies when life seemed intent on strangling them.” Named after Olivia Rose’s grandmother, the album takes inspiration from the skill of quilting. A collection of styles and genres stitched together with patience, where many small pieces unite into something greater than the sum of their parts. “I always said this album was going to be a love album,” she says, “and this record feels emblematic of the love I shared with her.” The closing track of the album latest single ‘Toilet Water’ sees the Olympia, Washington outfit work up an affirming chorus in the face of continuing difficulty, as though wrapped in the blanket of the record, they are ready to face down whatever might come their way.

Retail Drugs – Net

The new project of Laveda‘s Jake Brooks, Retail Drugs offers the Brooklyn-based artist a vehicle to explore new sonic directions and get playful with production. His album i love you so ! is out now via Candlepin Records, a record the label say is about “a distaste for music scenes, the grief of losing a loved one, fear of age & irrelevance, & clutching on to specific moments in time even while finally understanding that moving on is a part of life.” Lead single ‘Net’ is a great intro to Brooks’s blend of saturated tape textures and DAW wizardry, a slow-burning track that sits somewhere between the dense slowcore of Duster and They Are Gutting a Body of Water with the joyful, earnest and slightly submerged delivery of early Youth Lagoon.

Surf Party, USA – Beach Ball

We’ve featured a number of tracks from Surf Party, USA in recent times, with ‘Barrel’ and ‘Umbrella’ capturing different dimensions of their new album, Surf Party, USA 2. The former offered all the fun and chaos of a good day on swell, while the latter was more reflective, as though the sun was dipping below the horizon at the end of the day. With the record now out, the Brooklyn-based outfit have released another single, ‘Beach Ball’, a song which sits at the languid end of the Surf Party spectrum. Perhaps it represents that peace when night has finally fallen and everything seems to find a kind a melancholy perspective.

teasea – Always

As well as being half of the indie-psych soul duo Ritual Talk, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Tom Criblez also records solo under the moniker teasea. The act is a vehicle for a heavier, shoegaze-adjacent style which sits somewhere between My Bloody Valentine and Midwife. Part of a new EP, single ‘Always’ is a great place to start for the uninitiated. A densely layered track which envelops the listener from the off. But more than being a lesson in size and heft, the song is far more nuanced. Introspection manifest as sound, the track’s depth coming to mimic that of our interior lives, not to mention the murky network of relationships we maintain. But for all of its gloomy weight, there’s a certain lightness arcing through the sound too. The sense everything is reaching towards some state of enlightened truth.

‘Always’ is out now.

Wanda What – Besties

In recent weeks we’ve previewed Dyke TV, the new album from Harmony Reynolds’s Wanda What, with a number of singles which brought into relief what we’ve described as the “central tension” of the project, “one which might be crudely described as the friction between dreams and reality.” ‘Big Tree‘ offered a country-inflected croon which split the difference between playfulness and heartache, while ‘Bye Bye‘ turned to noughties buzz bands for influence for its sunny and energetic sound. With the album now out via Youth Riot Records, latest single ‘Besties’ shows yet another dimension of the project. A pop banger which doubles as an ode to those friends who always have your back. “I love to lean into a sort of goofy cheerfulness,” Reynolds describes. “Its okay to simply write a pop banger about loving your friends.”

The post Weekly Listening: August 2024 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“An embrace of contradiction,” was how we described Wins Above Replacement, last year’s sports-themed full-length by the amazing Lorenzo Landini. “Because, like sports, life can feel like a whole lot of suffering until those moments where it’s suddenly wonderful.” What he calls “a piece about hungering to belong in an increasingly disconnected and brutalizing culture,” new single ‘Leave No Trace’ sees Landini adopt a newly polished style without sacrificing the immediacy and charm which made the previous album so striking. Again the mood splits the difference between playfulness and sincerity, the vocals full of searching questions and wry humour, with a rock energy coming to drive the track forward and towards its cathartic conclusion.

Braden Lawrence – Gary

A song “told through the lens of an elderly man who’s looking for love after a tragic loss,” ‘Gary’ is the lead single and title track from a forthcoming EP by Braden Lawrence. Perhaps best known as a founding member of Philly rock band The Districts, Lawrence also previously recorded under the moniker Haggert Mctaggert, but has switched to his real name for last year’s album When You Lose the Light, released via Anxiety Blanket Records. Again on Anxiety Blanket, the Gary EP promises to continue the record’s blend of folk songwriting and contemporary indie pop. ‘Gary’ the single is a good introduction, a downbeat but sincere song full of wistful longing for things past, all hushed vocals and gently poignant instrumentation.

When you lose something you find something new
That’s what they said and then I met you

‘Gary’ is out now via streaming services.

Hatis Noit – Aura (Laraaji Rework)

The latest “rework” of a track from their acclaimed album Aura on Erased Tapes, London-based, Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit has teamed up with “multi-instrumentalist, laughter meditation practitioner and ambient godfather” Laraaji to reinterpret the album’s opener and title track. Previous reworkings have seen the likes of Preservation and Armand Hammer push Noit’s work towards hip hop, whereas Laraaji uses open tune zither, kalimba and vocals to lead it further out into ambient landscapes, leading to a multi-timbral sound which reaches the for the horizon.

Hemlock Ernst – Raised in the South

Hemlock Ernst, the rap project of Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring, has announced a new album, Studying Absence in collaboration with Icky Reels. Released via Beans‘ Tygr Rawwk Rcrds this coming October, the record sees Herring swap the typical jazz and soul beats of the Hemlock Ernst sound for Icky Reels’s industrial sensibilities and forces his most ambitious record to date. One loaded with all the history and ghosts of the South, that which happened and what might have been. “Studying Absence is what I see when I look in the mirror,” as Herring explains. “The record explores the magic that can arise when people are brought together by fate, and the poignant absence that underlines the human experience.” Check out lead single ‘Raised in the South’ now:

Studying Absence is out on the 16th October via Tygr Rawwk Rcrds.

Julia-Sophie – i was only

With new full-length forgive too slow, out now via Ba Da Bing Records, Julia-Sophie “uses her danceable electro pop sound to present something messier but more authentic,” we wrote in a preview. “As though the album is not a straight line towards a final goal but an orbit around an elusive answer.” Closer ‘telephone‘ offered what we described as “a lush song of love, loneliness and longing, where the brightness on the horizon might be some emergent hope or just the neon smudge of the last place still open so late at night,” whereas final single ‘i was only’ invites Noah Yorke to paint the romantic yearning underpinning the entire release. “I was only falling in love with you,” Julia-Sophie sings, and the swirling soundscape comes to mimic such an overwhelming descent.

ladylike – Horse’s Mouth

Taking equal doses of folk, shoegaze and post-rock to form their distinctive sound, Brighton‘s ladylike sit somewhere between caroline and Big Thief, conjuring expansive soundscapes populated with intricate details. Following on from the success of debut single ‘Southbound’ and slots at Glastonbury and Green Man, new track ‘Horse’s Mouth’ is the ideal starting point for those looking to get on board before ladylike really take off. An ever-shifting song which seems at once intimate and sprawling, as though in delving so deep in its introspection it inverts to find a vast internal landscape, one as majestic and melancholic as anything you might find in the wild.

Langkamer – At the Lake

Last month we introduced Langzamer, the forthcoming album by Langkamer on Breakfast Records, with lead single ‘Richard E. Grant’. Indicating something of a change of tone for the outfit, the song displayed a slower, more considered pace to house its confessional exploration of grief. Latest single ‘At the Lake’ invites The Gold Dregs to help Langkamer further this sound, reaching for something as close to Americana as anything they have released to date. “‘At The Lake’ is a song about the fallout of binge drinking culture,” says drummer/lead vocalist Josh Jarman, “and the prestige that we attach to the idea of the poète maudit. The way we romanticise unhealthy behaviour in the name of creativity.” Hence references to Janis Joplin and James Joyce in the almost mournful sound, the track unfurling with all the slow, soul-searching regret of the worst day after.

Langzamer will be released on Breakfast Records on 16th October and is available to pre-order via the Langkamer Bandcamp.

Madam Sad – Exs

Earlier in the month shared Madam Sad‘s ‘Hope For You’, a single which introduced Maddison Schreiber and Evelyn Charlotte Joe’s “willingness,” as we put it, “to confront difficult things with a compassionate face.” With its depiction of relationships and their inevitable end, latest single ‘Exs’ is no different. A song which looks to utilise a sense of personal growth in order to face such breaks with a more neutral, or even positive, attitude. “The song title is a way of holding myself accountable to make sure I am always hoping for the happiness of those who have hurt me,” Schreiber explains. “I also do get to a more genuine place where I feel compassion for an ex-lover’s success, and that’s a nice kind of sad.”

Exs is out now via streaming services.

Niall Summerton – Train

If Niall Summerton‘s previous album What Am I Made Of? presented “easygoing pop […] packed with lo-fi charm,” as we wrote last year, then new single ‘Train’ offers an altogether more shadowy side to his work. Again released via Tiny Library Records, the single pairs prominent drums and almost grungy guitar into a more conflicted atmosphere, the skipping rhythm faltering on occasion as though to evoke the apprehension at the track’s heart before rising into the squally climax. “It’s going to get harder,” Summerton sings, and amid the tumult of the closing seconds, you get the sense the prophecy has already arrived.

‘Train’ is out now via streaming services.

Nick Zanka – Softshoe

Described as “one part intervention, one part pep talk,” ‘Softshoe is the latest single from Nick Zanca ahead of his forthcoming LP, Hindsight. Recent singles ‘Little Professor’ and ‘You Two’ took on neurodivergence and open relationships respectively, and ‘Softshoe’ feels like it meets both tracks halfway. “I wrote this song for a dear friend and longtime collaborator during a period where we were struggling to communicate,” Zanca explains. “When zoomed out, it is a love song to a friend and a promise to persist and keep the faith.”

Slark Moan – Dollhouse Heart

The first glimpse of forthcoming EP The Return of Guitar Music, ‘Dollhouse Heart’ is the new single from Slark Moan, alter ego of New York multi-instrumentalist Mark Sloan. “[The song] is about feeling small amidst the enormity of life, and the overwhelming sadness and beauty of living an ephemeral existence within an infinite universe,” Sloan explains, illustrating both the scope and inspiring nature of the record. “I recognize that I’ve gained an unabashed realism,” they continue, “creative empowerment, and gratitude that my younger self just couldn’t access.” Sloan is joined by Nashville songwriter and visual artist Meg Elsier, and together they conjure something that oozes calm confidence and newfound wisdom as life’s many emotions threaten to burst from the seams. Watch Diego Molina’s video below:

‘Dollhouse Heart’ is out now on streaming services.

The post Weekly Listening: July 2024 #5 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Back in May we wrote about Turn Around For Me / See You Soon, the new double single from Glasgow‘s Constant Follower ahead of their anticipated second album The Smile You Send Out Returns To You, coming early next year via Last Night From Glasgow. “[Stephen] McAll and co. breathe extra life into the arrangement,” we wrote of ‘Turn Around For Me’, “and the song swells with an affirming rhythm which tips it towards indie rock territory.” The follow-up ‘See You Soon’ is no different. A continuation of the band’s exploration of memory which draws on the concept of saudade—the nostalgic longing for some absent person or thing—the song captures a picture of everyday life as haunted by a missing piece. Something which can never be resolved, a wound which will go on hurting.

Jordan Whitlock, Memory Spells – Heaven and Here

Back in February, we wrote about the collaboration between songwriter/producer Jordan Whitlock and Matt Bauer‘s Memory Spells, describing single ‘Take My Hand’ as “Suffused with the lush, shadowy grandeur of Lynch at his most romantic.” Now the duo have returned with a brand new single ‘ Heaven and Here’, another impressively atmospheric piece of cinematic pop music. Combining ambient and classical elements with Whitlock’s piercingly poignant vocals, it has all the drama and aching emotion of a tragedy. Sombre strings ache and sway over glitchy atmospherics and the muted thump of percussion as Whitlock delivers lyrics that possess a spare and opaque poetry.

Wildflowers bloom
Bend toward the sun
I follow you out through the waves
Nothing between
Heaven and here
Only the words I couldn’t say

‘Heaven and Here’ is out now via streaming services.

Lutalo – Ocean Swallows Him Whole

Following on from 2023’s AGAIN, a record which explored the various forms of oppression woven through our societies, Lutalo is returning this September with debut full-length The Academy on Winspear. Described as a time capsule of lessons learnt in their first chapter of life, the album sees the Vermont-based singer-songwriter delve into their past and invite the audience along for the ride. Single ‘Ocean Swallows Him Whole’ uses the doomed figure of Icarus to capture the peaks and troughs of this journey, drawing an energizing momentum from adrenaline rush, even if it comes from a fall.

Watch the video by director, cinematographer and editor Rich Smith below:

The Academy is out on the 20th September via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

 Melanie MacLaren – Heaven Is

A song she says is “about a lot of the myths and imagery we’re fed about the afterlife,” ‘Heaven Is’ is the latest single from Nashville singer songwriter Melanie MacLaren. Delivered in an easy country-pop style and with equal helpings of bittersweet feeling and wry humour, it combines existential musings with observations altogether more terrestrial. So heaven becomes both “a place up in the air” filled with lost loved ones and something in the here and now, like “sipping beer in folding chairs,” or “eating fruit straight off the vine.” “[‘Heaven Is’] is about the experience of how deconstructing those myths leads to reality check that we really have no idea what happens,” MacLaren describes, “besides that we leave, and everyone else does too.”

Heaven is the place where the dead girls go
Heaven is the place up in the air
Heaven is a place i don’t think about much
But I’ll have to one day I’m aware

‘Heaven Is’ is out now via streaming services.

Miserable chillers – Great American Turn Off

Miserable chillers has made a name with an idiosyncratic, constantly inventive sound, following a myriad of creative directions from Kate Bush-esque art pop to SNES soundtracks and field recordings. A mixtape featuring recordings made between 2018 and 2024, Great American Turn Off not only personifies the spirit of Miguel Gallego’s work, but serves as the ideal introduction for those looking to dive in for the first time. The release functions best as a full entity, rewarding those who take forty minutes to lose themselves in its easy rhythms, but we recommended single ‘The Shaft’ for anyone who needs a quicker dose.

Great American Turn Off is out now and available to hear in full here.

Molly Murphy – Seabird

Specializing in what she calls “lo-fi folk tunes summoned from the Blue Ridge and set loose in New York City,” Molly Murphy makes bright and emotionally resonant folk music. Her latest single is a cover of  The Alessi Brothers 1976 song ‘Seabird’. Complete with vocal harmonies, subtle mandolin and slide guitar, it’s a lush and laidback take on the original. Murphy’s vocals take centre stage, confidently but vulnerably delivering lyrics that use the imagery of the titular bird covering vast distances of remote ocean as a metaphor for distances altogether more human. “Like a lonely seabird,” Murphy sings, “you’ve been away from land too long / Oh, too long.”

Old Amica – Tiden far

Described as a release about time, Old Amica‘s ‘Tiden far’ sees the Swedish project turn their attention memory, looking to invoke how we experience the past, where the amorphous drift comes to form strange patterns and meanings. As such, the single is suitably hazy and slow-moving, its drama arising from a concealed hand as though always masked by something. Familiar sights and sensations as experienced through a gauze curtain. Old voices coming through a crackling radio, messages moving through the accumulated years with something to offer us yet.

Shady Baby – Feel It

Following a couple of singles in 2023, Brighton garage rockers Shady Baby are back with a brand new single, ‘Feel It’. Comprising of Sam Leaver (vocals, guitar), Nick Varnava (bass) and Tom Jackson (drums), Shady Baby draw on late 90s and early 00s alternative rock, and ‘Feel It’ is no different. A rich,  enveloping wall of sound is punctured by energizing electric guitar and crisp percussion, with enough hooks to appeal to the radio and festival circuit and enough grunge to bring in the rock-heads. All this raw energy is used to explore feelings of agitation and doubt. “‘Feel It’ started off as a song about grappling with impatience,” says Leaver, “but along the way it evolved into exploring the uncertainties of new relationships.”

‘Feel It’ is out now on streaming services.

Special World – Cloak in the Attic

This month saw Special World, that’s the solo recording project of Philly‘s Andy Molholt (who you might know from Speedy Ortiz), released their debut physical release with a self-titled collection. Described as ‘early’ songs, the cassette provides a peek into the inventive and often idiosyncratic style of the Special World sound, something demonstrated by the single and opener ‘Cloak in the Attic’. Starting with a glass smash but progressing with a lethargic rhythm, the song slowly crawls over the listener and absorbs them into its peculiar world. A place often strange and always colourful, where the light bends in odd shapes and everything takes on the loaded, abstract logic of dreams.

the cloak in the attic is hidden
obscured by a flowering gem
where is the proof?
no fumes left to reduce
cannot refuse a bargain which i cannot lose

night after night we misconstrue

Stelth Ulvang and the Tigernips – Dissolve

Described as “a visceral journey through the late-night mental crumblings of summer, capturing the essence of spontaneity and sincerity,” ‘Dissolve’ is the first single from Stelth Ulvang’s upcoming self-titled album, Stelth Ulvang and the Tigernips. Ulvang might be best known as the pianist for folk sensation The Lumineers, but has long pursued a variety of creative outlets, and the new album is something of an antidote to radio-friendly anthemic polish which has come to mark The Lumineers sound. ‘Dissolve’ is our first glimpse of a collection of songs which instead leans into the vulnerable and raw side of things, allowing Ulvang to show a slightly stranger but altogether more authentic side to his work.

YULLOLA – Silk Nightdress

At the end of last month, Maine songwriter and producer YULLOLA released Zen Maiden, a brand new record that exists in an unreal world of its own. Direct, pop-inflected indie rock songs sit next to cinematic spiritual jazz segues and dreamy spoken word sections. All of which makes sense when you understand where the album came from. “This year I truly was considering becoming a nun whilst getting obsessed with vocal inflections of kulning and female Bulgarian choirs,” YULLOLA describes, “spending hours in the forests of Maine just making sounds.” Opener ‘Silk Nightdress’ is the perfect introduction, a spoken word track with all the shimmering unreality and dark cinematic romance of Twin Peaks at its most melodramatic.

Zen Maiden is out now and available via the YULLOLA Bandcamp page.

The post Weekly Listening: June 2024 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The band say the song is inspired by “lovers across the centuries; from the love letters between Heloise and Abelard in medieval France to Bonnie and Clyde’s romantic partnership in crime in 1930s America,” blurring the distinction between time periods to evoke the fundamental forces present in perpetuity across such relationships. So for all of the anachronistic strangeness of adding cello, violin and flute to a retro punk sound, the lasting impression of the track is instead that of familiarity. As though in reaching across history The New Eves have identified a common thread running through human experience. An emotional state capture in the refrain, which is taken from a seventeenth century posy ring held in the British Museum:

Many are the stars I see
but in my eyes no star like thee

The post The New Eves – Astrolabe appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Following in the lineage of songwriters such as Lana Del Ray and Ethel Cain, april june is a Madrid-based artist whose Gothic brand of synth pop muddies the line between desire, fantasy and reality. With a full-length edging closer, april june has been releasing a steady stream of singles in recent times, and the latest ‘it’s all my fault’ serves as the ideal introduction for those not already onboard. Shimmering nostalgia, heartbreak and loneliness marble into something enveloping, with a melodramatic gloom that is nevertheless shot through with shining longing.

ARXX – Baby Uh Huh

Earlier this year, Brighton duo ARXX released their album Ride Or Die via Submarine Cat Records, a record which saw Hanni Pidduck and Clara Townsend push the garage rock sound which made their name towards polished, soaring power pop. To close out the year, ARXX have returned with another evolution, this time of single ‘Baby Uh Huh’. Developed in collaboration with trans collective charity We Exist, the reimagined version collects a bunch of friends to celebrate the Queer community’s communal power, taking an already affirming track and elevating its joyous spirit even higher. “We were looking at the world around us, at all the attacks on Queer lives and in particular Trans lives and we wanted to do something to show our support with our Queer community,” the duo explain. “‘Baby Uh Huh’ is about finding the right people to surround yourself with to make you a better version of yourself, which is a very Queer experience.”

You can grab the charity single on Bandcamp. Ride Or Die is out now via Submarine Cat Records.

body / negative – sleepy (feat. Midwife)

Back in October we introduced body / negative‘s forthcoming album everett, with multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Andy Schiaffino enlisting the help of Midwife to create an incredibly personal memorial to her parents. “An attempt at communication through planes of existence and accumulated time,” as we described of the title track, “reaching across seemingly impassable gaps to ensure the line between loved ones remains open, regardless of how distant they might come to seem.” Latest track ‘sleepy’ is no less poignant, its sparse arrangement and layered samples playing like an evening in an empty room. Only within the stillness something else stirs, echoes of past days returning to dispel the apparent solitude, as though time is not a straight line but a stack of superimposed snapshots.

everett is out on the 8th December via Track Number Records and you can pre-order it from the body / negative Bandcamp page.

Haley Heynderickx & Max Garcia Conover – How Does The Horse Go Home?

Both Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover have been regular fixtures here at VSF over the years, so it was a real treat to have the pair join forces for Among Horses III, one of a series of collaborative releases from Son Canciones. “Whether writing confessions about themselves or imagined fictions about others, the genius of both Heynderickx and Conover is their ability to draw a relatable emotion from their subject matter,” we wrote, “tapping into a universal sense of nostalgia and longing and presenting it back to us, shaping and polished into its most gleaming form.” To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the EP, the pair have returned with a new extended edition, featuring new songs like the ‘How Does The Horse Go Home?’—another deft, striking contemplation on love in all of its changing, persistent forms.

Land Dweller – Losing Touch

Having previously recorded under the moniker Varsity Dad, Denver‘s Dan Harvey has now taken up the name Land Dweller and is preparing to release the project’s debut full-length Past Life. With Harvey on bass, guitar and vocals and Larry Shaw lending drums, the album establishes the Land Dweller MO—a blend of slacker and garage rock which melds bright rhythms and nostalgic textures. Take lead single ‘Losing Touch’, where the sound’s fatalistic reflection is counterbalanced by a rising rhythm, allowing for something at once despondent and cathartic.

Luah – To Relate

Luah is the recording project of Brendan Paul Sullivan, a Florida-born, Baltimore-raised and Kingston, New York-based songwriter, alongside an assortment of friends. The first taste of a forthcoming album, new single ‘To Relate’ is a slow unfurling of a song. Downbeat vocals bob along a meandering arrangement, so what might at first appear to be a morose mood is gradually revealed to be something more varied and natural. As though in committing to the flow, Sullivan not only accepts the changeable currents but finds beauty in every small eddy and pull.

Other Suns – To Adrianne

The cornerstone of debut full-length album Songs About Death, ‘To Adrianne’ introduces the hushed, introspective sound of Other Suns. Opening with the gentle lap of the tide, the song uses a spare folk sound to conjure something both warm and searching. A space outside of normal things in which to voice questions or share sentiments in the aftermath of loss. Or perhaps just to listen, to attune to the quiet sadness inherent in all things in an effort to sense the connection which exists between them. As the final line offers: “If everything dies, I’m not alone.”

Touch the Clouds – Dissolve

“A study on retrospection itself, calling attention to the artifice of memory and the rose-tinted fictions it has us believe.” That’s how we described ‘Gordie and the Cruisers‘ by Detroit‘s Touch the Clouds back in 2022. A bright indie rock anthem which held a more ambiguous message underneath. New track ‘Dissolve’ is no less dichotomous in style, its driving momentum and impassioned vocals detailing a headspace altogether less certain. As though only in leaning into forward motion can one shake free of the baggage of modern living. “I’ve been goin’ through a lot / trying to find a little peace / in all the yuck / racing around inside of me,” as the song opens. “Like dogs on the loose / running the street / howling a tune / into the moonlight.”

The Wolf In Our Own Backyard – God Help Me

The songwriting project of Kevin Gigler, The Wolf In Our Own Backyard is a Providence, Rhode Island-based outfit that works within folk’s best traditions. New album Stuck in Useless Country is full of wry humour, self-deprecation and dissatisfaction, all delivered with an upbeat and often scrappy folk rock style which twists and bends conventions as it sees fit. Single ‘God Help Me’ is perhaps one of the more traditional tracks on the album, though is shot through with the same spirit. Think John Prine’s ‘Paradise’ updated for a slightly later stage of capitalism, where the citizens of said useless country are left with no recourse but to mourn its perpetual decay.

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

What she calls “[a song] about the experience of being both loved and misunderstood by someone,” ‘Poser’ is the title track of the forthcoming EP from Edmonton‘s Antonia Estelle. Built on a skeleton of stark acoustic guitar, the song is fleshed out with syrup-heavy drums and gusts of distorted guitar, the vocals swaying with quiet intensity like a flickering flame. The emotions underpinning it are gloomy and turbulent, focusing on the strange balance of a dysfunctional relationship and the ultimate unknowability of selfhood. “I had a dream that bears had butterfly wings,” Antonia Estelle sings, “it’s a picture I can’t paint—a feeling that stays inside.”

I don’t know why I even try to explain
Things that I know you won’t understand

Big Cry Country – Pest Control

Based in Washington D.C., Big Cry Country pour a whole host of moods and emotions into their sound, as latest single ‘Pest Control’ attests. Taken from their EP Living Conditions, the song finds inspiration in the likes of Cayetana and Remember Sports to offer something at once deliciously angsty and infectiously energetic. “I’m older but not better,” as the cathartic refrain states. “I’ve seen the afterlife and you are wearing my old sweater.” Big Cry Country might be a fitting name, but releasing emotion has never been so much fun.

Closebye – Hell’s Kitchen

Formed by Dallas-born, NYC based duo Jonah Paul Smith and Julian Paint Smith (unrelated), Closebye make folk-inflected indie pop inspired by the likes of Elliott Smith, Aimee Mann and Hovvdy. Following their debut album Lucid News, released in 2022, the band have returned with a perfectly autumnal single, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’, what they call “an ode to their libra birth season and to their home base of New York City.” The Smiths are joined by Ian Salazar, Margaux Bouchegnies and Simon Clinton, who together use a plethora of instruments to craft a “breezy pop banger” that’s tinged with just a hint of something more wistful, creeping in at the edges like the cool touch of the oncoming winter on an autumn afternoon.

Who are you gonna be?
When every day is Halloween

Check out the video, directed and edited by Elizabeth Kroner, below:

‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is out now and available from Bandcamp.

Dumb Things – Self Help

‘Self Help’ is the lead single and title track from the new record by Meanjin/Brisbane indie poppers Dumb Things, coming soon via Coolin’ By Sound. Influenced by the droll poetic style of David Berman, it’s a slice of breezy, dusty pop with a streak of yearning melancholy, the narrator looking to self-improvement as a remedy to past mistakes. “The original idea for the song is that it’s a letter from a guy who’s a bit down on his luck but still in the fight, to his ex, some time after they split up,” says vocalist Adam Vincent.

Lately I’ve been working hard on my personality
Cos you got to keep it up, to keep it together ah ha
Been trying to find the time to put the work in
Yeah, I’ve been working out how to work it out

Elephant in Red – Honey

The creative outlet of Glasgow‘s Loup Havenith, Elephant in Red make what they call “sappy sounds for earthly beings.” Latest single ‘Honey’ sees the band combine gently grooving, stripped back folk with a shimmer of shoegaze, full of rich textures and gently wavering vocals. Havenith is joined by Chris McRory (drums), Fin Logie (bass) and Alex Gyllos (piano), who together built the song from the ground up. “[The song is] a sort of longing for calmness and simplicity,” the band describe. “Wanting to move past the weird overwhelming coming-of-age feelings that come hand in hand with being young in a city full of people.”

Lando Manning – Driftwood

Written during what he calls “the final dregs of lockdown,” ‘Driftwood’, the new single from London‘s Lando Manning, is an exploration of the many shades of isolation and loneliness. A quiet folky song, it’s built on percussive acoustic guitar and soft peals of piano, full of loaded negative space and a film-grained cinematic quality. “I had moved to Brighton and felt that I had been isolating myself from my friends back home,” Manning describes of his time writing the song, “and the track was written as a letter to my friends to try to explain why I had been absent.”

‘Driftwood’ is out now and available on streaming services. Manning will release his sophomore EP on his label Mango Wax Records next February.

Laurel Bluffs – Richmond

“Losing myself in the mirror / drenched in alcohol and smoke / I called, you came and picked me up / laid me down, turned out the lights.” So opens ‘Richmond’, the latest single from Phoenix, Arizona-based project Laurel Bluffs. A drive to Richmond follows, a hungover nausea, the bumpy road, and with it the kind of wistful reflection which blooms in the sorry aftermath of things. The folk rock sound and unadorned delivery lend an intimacy to the track, where fondness and longing are present without spilling into sugary sentiment. Instead, there’s just the highway, a building pressure, and the accumulated weight of actions as gathered over the course of regretful years.

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

Neighbours Burning Neighbours – Neil Young

Specialising in a brand of meaningful chaos, Rotterdam noise pop act Neighbours Burning Neighbours have been crafting songs from disorderly melodies and left-field harmonies since 2018. Following a couple of single releases, the band set to work on their debut full-length, which they plan to release in 2024. To whet appetites, they have released the record’s first single ‘Neil Young’, a typically discordant but infectious track which challenges gender norms and the harmful status quo. Watch the video, directed by Charlotte Brand and produced by A Small Production Company, below:

‘Neil Young’ is out now via streaming services.

Twin Bridges – A Dream of You

Led by cellist Zach Gerzon, Twin Bridges are a band from Portland, Oregon who combine folk and indie rock songwriting with neoclassical arrangements and elements of chamber music. They recently released Fertile Ashes, a new record which Gerzon wrote in the aftermath of some very difficult personal circumstances. “These songs explore what can feel like an impossible task, overcoming grief from loss, trauma, and failed relationships,” he says of the album. “Making this album helped me let go of things I held onto for so long.” Perhaps the record’s most personal cut, ‘A Dream of You’ is an ode to Gerzon’s late mother, suffused with an elegant simplicity and sorrow.

The post Weekly Listening: November 2023 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Based in Fort Worth, TX, singer-songwriter and musician Cameron Smith cut his teeth in hardcore and post-punk before settling into a solo career in folk rock. Drawing on the loaded depths of the southern gothic genre, Smith has now made the field his own, and latest single ‘Under the Cover of Darkness’ serves as the ideal introduction for the uninitiated. A song for the heartsick wanderer which can be traced back through Molina and van Zandt, where the long night is illuminated only by the blood moon and low fuel light on the dash. But through its melancholic haze rises an impassioned chorus, doubling down on the will to eventually make it home.

Coming home tonight
I’m coming home tonight
Under the cover of darkness
Where the sky grows wide

Dippers – Recurrent Sight

Hailing from Naarm/Melbourne, Dippers is the project of Matthew Ford and Innez Tulloch. Formerly known as Thigh Master, the band make an energetic and immediate brand of jangly indie pop which wears its rough edges with pride, and forthcoming album Clastic Rock promises to find the band at its most raucous to date. That is, if lead single ‘Recurrent Sight’ is anything to go by. The song is inspired by a coping method Ford devised to help with what he describes as “the constant mental anguish caused by the less gratifying neurodivergent traits,” namely, “to portray myself as the protagonist in a coming of age sci-fi film, where an extra-terrestrial life-force is attempting to send me a message via tedious and inconvenient hijinks.” The sound intensifies as it progresses, ramping up towards the transportive tumult of the closing guitar solo.

Jacob Furr – Not That Bad

The music of Jacob Furr has always felt like it served a clear purpose, be it the intensely personal picture of grief that was Trails & Traces or Sierra Madre and its wider wrestle with darkness and loss. Through the analogy of a (not always so) trusty car, latest single ‘Not That Bad’ sees the Texas artist explore this functional aspect of songwriting, where the mechanics of progress are dented by bad luck and punctuated by small moments of faith. “‘Not That Bad’ was written in the middle of the night in the backseat of my ’89 Camry while broken down beside I-20 somewhere around 2015,” Furr explains. “Music has been the vehicle that has carried me through so many days and nights, and sometimes it feels like a broken down car. But then a friend comes along, you get the new alternator installed, and off you go again with your dreams and plans.”

Empty space in the middle of my heart
With my faith in this broken down car
I’m leaving tonight
Turn the key praying for the best
Tomorrow I’ll sing this song again
If the tune don’t let me down

Julie Meunier – I Don’t Want To Be Friends

We first featured the work of Julie Meunier back in April with ‘World War X‘, a collaboration with Dwi Riana we described as “an exchange between lovers which begins as a seemingly innocuous conversation but ratchets up with every sentence, soon precipitating into an argument which draws the relationship’s tensions out into the open.” Meunier’s latest single ‘I Don’t Want To Be Friends’ is equally personal in focus but more a monologue than dialogue. A one-sided conversation which arose from the lockdown-era of the pandemic, where the desire for human connection was balanced against a fear of romance or intimacy.

Lady Apple Tree – S/T

Back in April we wrote about ‘Silver Hands‘, the first single from a forthcoming self-titled EP from Lady Apple Tree, AKA Northern California-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Haylie Hostetter. “A soulful, sinuous song built around the voice at its heart,” as we wrote, “Hostetter’s vocals rising from sultry croon to impassioned urgency, playing like something from a forgotten country star brought into the present.” Hostetter has now returned with the title track of the EP, a reflection on the orchards of Northern California which mines the landscapes for all of its metaphorical weight, again slotting into the classic country style with its balance of melancholic nostalgia and playful charm.

The New Eves – Mother / Original Sin

Having just signed with Broadside Hacks Recordings and Slow Dance Records, Brighton outfit The New Eves have released the double single, Mother / Original Sin. The former track first appeared on a Slow Dance compilation last year, introducing band’s idiosyncratic blend of punk and pagan sensibilities, owing as much to Picnic at Hanging Rock as The Velvet Underground. ‘Original Sin’ pushes this combination further, a folk horror reimaging of Genesis as told from Eve’s perspective, pride, shame, pleasure and pain combining into one heady mix, though the presiding emotion is that of a defiance. Check out the video directed by the band themselves below:

Original Sin/Mother is out now and available from the usual places.

Steak Blake – Wonderbread

‘Wonderbread’, the latest single from London-based artist Steak Bake on Step Sideways Records, was written when the artist returned home to their native Minneapolis. George Floyd had been recently murdered near their mother’s home, and song inevitably saw a turn towards all those past encounters with prejudiced authority. “When I was only ten or twelve years old / my father sat me down and told me about the skin I hold,” go the opening lines, the droll vocals sitting in a bed of taut post-punk menace. “This is how we live, this is what you’re not / You your father’s son so you might get shot.” And it doesn’t take long for the volatile potential to be realised, the track dipping into manic bursts of noise as though coming to appreciate the absurdity of a nation which has such circumstances inscribed into its very soul.

Tiny Leaves – Campanula Rotundifolia

Tiny Leaves is the moniker of composer and multi-instrumentalist Joel Pike, who hails from the borderlands between England and Wales. The project has just released its fifth full length album, Mynd, which weaves a sonic portrait of the Shropshire countryside that Pike calls home. The record is built from strings, piano, synth soundscapes and, perhaps most importantly, field recordings from a residency Pike completed at The Long Mynd, a heathland plateau and designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the area. Single ‘Campanula Rotundifolia’ captures this landscape in both its sweeping vastness and intricate detail, resulting in not so much of a static picture of the surroundings as a moving, breathing environment.

Mynd is out now and available from the Tiny Leaves Bandcamp page.

Tractor Beam – Backseat

Tractor Beam is the “post-folk” recording project of producer Sasha Balazic. Hailing from Toronto and based in Vancouver, Balazic draws from across the ages in their work, owing as much to 00s indie as 60s folk, and all wrapped up the the contemporary DIY aesthetic, leading to a sound both emotionally immediate and tangibly nostalgic. Having recently released new record Turtles All The Way on Kingfisher Bluez, Tractor Beam have shared their latest single, ‘Backseat’. The ideal introduction to the intimate, reflective tone of the album, where Balazic’s warm vocals blur the line between past memories and future dreams.

The post Weekly Listening: July 2023 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Swiss post-punks Batbait are preparing to release their debut album this September, and latest single ‘Talk’ certainly whets the appetite. With a deadpan vocal style delivered over rhythmic drums and a tense bass line, the track threatens to spark into furious life for most of its runtime, though despite the discordant guitars passing over haphazardly, it isn’t until the closing section that the real bite reveals itself. A lesson in passive aggression which can’t help but eventually show its claws. Check out the claymation video by Nadia Leonhard below:

‘Talk’ is out now via Irascible Distribution and available from the Batbait Bandcamp page.

Foyer Red – Flipper

Described as “fuck-you crayon rock”, the music of Foyer Red combines colour and bite to great effect, blurring the line between fun, fury and fantastical charm. New single ‘Flipper’ embraces this style wholeheartedly, swinging wildly between sugary sweet and strikingly strange to weave its way between the real and imaginary. As the track barrels its way toward the chaotic climax, any distinction between the two seems to dissolve, leaving a trip to the bodega as desperate and dangerous as scavenging a post-apocalyptic world.

i’m a ravenous creature left to roam the earth
set against a scorching sphere
no one here, my own frontier
rusted into this warzone
i’m all alone, i have no bones (no bones)
not yet full grown, i’d eat your bones
bones, bones

‘Flipper’ is out now and available from the Foyer Red Bandcamp page.

Healees – In Your Cave

Based in Paris, Healees are a four-piece band who make noisy but sweet pop music that harks back to the C86 era. Formed back in 2015 after a chance meeting between Bryan Quinn and Renaud Chauré, the band soon added Hillevi Robertsson (bass) and Arthur Chen (drums) and set to work on writing songs, culminating in 2019 with the release of the demo tape Heal’s Beals. Now Healees have teamed up with Hidden Bay Records to release their first proper debut, a self-titled EP that contains polished versions of some of the demos as well as brand new tracks. One such new song is lead single ‘In Your Cave’, which on the surface sparkles like the summer sun but is undercut by a sober wistfulness.

Jacob Faurholt – Madness on the Rise

Back in March we wrote about, ‘Comforting Sounds’, the first single from Jacob Faurholt‘s new album, When the Spiders Crawl. A nostalgic track “downbeat but coloured by an overriding fondness.” Latest single ‘Madness on the Rise’ picks up this melancholic tone, exploring mental struggles with Faurholt’s characteristically empathetic and understanding style. But it carries a certain starkness too as the electric guitar rumbles with palpable weight, a formidable force bubbling up around fragile vulnerability.

When the Spiders Crawl is out on the 15th July via Raw Onion Records and you can pre-order it now.

JayWood – God is a Reptile

JayWood is the alias of Winnipeg songwriter and producer Jeremy Haywood-Smith, who has recently announced a brand new record coming this summer on Captured Tracks. Haywood-Smith began work on the album as an escape from what can only be described as mourning, both from the various social crises of 2020 and the death of his mother in 2019. He began by reconnecting with his roots, pulling back into the past in order to fire himself forward into a better future, hence the title Slingshot. For an album that explore such deep territory, it is surprisingly fun and playful, presenting a near-real version of his life that combines fact and imaginative fiction to explore themes of childhood, religion and identity. First released standalone back in March, lead single ‘God is a Reptile’ is the perfect introduction, a kaleidoscopic blend of groovy pop and bummed-out angst, complete with refracted layered vocals and surreal tempo changes. Check it out below:

Rob Dickson – Aaron and Rae

Based in Whitehorse, Yukon, Rob Dickson is a songwriter gearing up to release brand new record, Portraits, later this year. With guests including Ansley Simpson, Bry Webb, Mika Posen, Nic Hyatt, Micah Smith, Drew Jurecka and Michael Feuerstack, the album assembles some of Canada’s best to realise its rich and emotive sound, as demonstrated by lead single, ‘Aaron and Rae’. An ode to the past which drops the rose-tinted fondness in favour of something more real and raw.

Shady Baby – Come To Life

The project of Brighton‘s Sam Leaver, Shady Baby is the latest emerging act to be featured in the ‘Nice Swan Introduces…’ series of UK label Nice Swan Records (which has also included the likes of Sprints, English Teacher and Saloon Dion). Leaver is joined by Laurie Debnam (guitar), Nick Varnava (bass) and Tom Jackson (drums), who together make contemporary indie rock that draws heavily from the Britpop and Madchester scenes that dominated British music in the 90s. Shady Baby have introduced this style with ‘Come to Life’, their debut single for Nice Swan. It’s a track that belies its angsty subject matter with pure heart-quickening energy. “‘Come To Life’ is an angry response to feeling like people treated you like shit but you let them get away with it,” Leaver describes. “Feeling both angry at them but also at yourself for letting it happen.”

‘Come to Life’ is out now and available via streaming services.

Weird Nightmare – Searching For You

Best known as the guitarist and vocalist from METZ, Alex Edkins has turned to new project Weird Nightmare as an outlet for another dimension of his creativity. The self-titled debut album, out now via Sub Pop, leavens the foreboding weight of Edkins’ usual material with a mischievous fun, as captured in the hectic single ‘Searching for You’. A track which is no less pedal-to-the-metal than anything in the METZ catalogue, but engages this energy in an entirely different direction. Check out the great video directed by Ryan Thompson with animation from Jordan “Dr. Cool” Minkoff:

Weird Nightmare is out now via Sub Pop and you can get it from Bandcamp.

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

Because living up to its name, the record had a folky wistful air, coloured by a sense of creeping loss and longing, though rather than meandering with melancholy it was prone to outbursts of noise too—urgency and desperation spilling over into chaotic swells of guitar. With Max Boughen (guitar) Daniel Byrom (guitar, organ), Joe Caple (drums, percussion) and Chris Whitehorn (bass, organ) sharing the vocals, this chaos was harnessed and set in a common direction, the songs often possessing a sense of communal power that took frustration, confusion and pain and channelled them into something uplifting.

This spring sees the return of Wild Cat Strike with a brand new EP, Mustard Coloured Years. Again on Small Pond, the release develops the band’s aesthetic further, lead single ‘Toothcutter’ offering a brash indie rock dimension to the sound. Still, it’s the urgency and tension in the vocals that make the song, a sense of immediacy placed front and centre in the brooding atmosphere.

Today we’re lucky enough to share the release’s second single, ‘Mustard’. Stripping things back from ‘Toothcutter’, there’s a hesitancy to the opening of the track, though the energy gathers with each tentative step. First within the cadence of the vocals, then the instrumentation itself. Recorded at Echo Zoo Studios in Eastbourne, on a desk allegedly used by David Bowie, the song sees Wild Cat Strike joined by fellow Small Ponders Bonniesongs and Natalie Evans, as well as friends from Tall Ships and I Feel Fine, lending the track a collective feel and imbuing the singalong spirit a real sense of weight and emotion. This is compounded by the thundering collision of guitars and drums in the latter half of the track, a storm from which the vocals emerge, calm and reflective once more.

The post Wild Cat Strike – Mustard appeared first on Various Small Flames.

This spring, the band put out two standalone singles with Memorials of Distinction that hinted at this newly vibrant sound. The first Porridge Radio songs to be recorded in a studio, the songs feel like both the end product of a band that have put in the hard yards, cutting their teeth with live shows, and the first steps into a new era where Margolin and co. are more fully-equipped to realise their artistic visions.

“The song displays a newfound clarity,” we wrote of ‘Give / Take‘, “the weirdo lo-fi bedroom pop vibes replaced with sharp and confident melodic pop.” But most importantly, the switch sees not a hint of betrayal of their DNA. “Best of all,” we continued, “this evolution is managed without sacrificing any of the emotional intensity that made Porridge Radio so great in the first place,” opening up an avenue of possibilities and representing a watershed moment in the band’s life.

Today the band release a video for ‘Give Take’, directed by Dream Wife’s Bella Podpadec, which probes further into the strange and tactile world of Porridge Radio, a dissociated cool juxtaposed with bright colours and absurd imagery. Despite a playfulness that veers between a decidedly 90s goth teen angst and even more 90s kids TV show bustle, mortality lurks behind every frame, as well as a bodily squash of flesh and fluid. “The video,” Popadec explains, “is a juicy exploration of messy polyamory, messy fruit, sex, death and that your pals and music are just as important as any of that shit.”

Indeed, the video helped to further develop exactly what the song means, even to Margolin herself. “We had a lot of fun with it, but we also had some big honest conversations about what the song was about,” she says, “and I think that openness translated into something really exciting and quite raw, and I love how it turned out.”

‘Give / Take’ is out now via Memorials of Distinction, as is the other stand alone single, ‘Don’t Ask Me Twice’, and you can buy them both from Bandcamp.

Photos by Christopher Fenner

The post Porridge Radio unveil new video for Give / Take appeared first on Various Small Flames.