It’s a mammoth undertaking, featuring 106 “(mostly) original (mostly) unreleased”  tracks from 106 different artists, a number chosen to mark the 106 years since the British Government’s 1917 Balfour Declaration. Obviously, that’s too many artists to list, but rest assured it contains a ton of good stuff, including acts we have featured in the past, such as Swim Camp, Tuxis Giant, Kitchen, Greg Mendez, Bummer Camp, Shunkan and more.

You can only get access to the music by making a direct donation to the PCRF via the donation page. Once you’ve done that, email or DM a screenshot of the donation to Bee Side Cassettes (beesidecassettes@gmail.com) to be sent a download.

Due to overwhelming demand from both artists and donators, Bee Side Cassettes have decided to work on a second compilation, For Gaza Vol. 2. This one will comprise of 75 tracks, symbolising the 75 years since the start of The Nakba, the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians by Israeli settlers during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

For more information and the full tracklist, visit the Bee Side Cassettes Bandcamp page.

Cover art by Nicole Rifkin

The post Bee Side Cassettes – For Gaza appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Eli Frank is something of a fixture of the New York DIY scene, playing in the likes of Teenage Halloween, Punt and Winnebago Vacation. Latest project Bummer Camp is their first solo venture, an outlet for layered songs crafted from the basic ingredients of guitar, drum machine and loop pedal. Bummer Camp has just released its second EP, Big Deal, a record Frank says “tackles both the everyday and the everlasting impact of striving to create something meaningful.” Single ‘It’s a Pain’ is a good introduction, beginning as a taut indie pop song before exploding in cathartic noise in the final third.

Watch the video by multimedia artist Preston Spurlock below:

Big Deal is out now and available from the Bummer Camp Bandcamp page.

Diamond Grinder – Let Me Live with You

Back in June, New York‘s Diamond Grinder released their full-length Expectations via Perpetual Doom, an album which introduced the long-time (if intermittent) collaboration between songwriters Margaret Nygard and Eli Recht-Appel. Together with a huge, rotating cast of musicians, the pair create a folk-inflected brand of rock which manages to combine intimacy and dynamism, owing as much to seventies Americana as it does contemporaries such as Big Thief. Having just shared a new video directed and edited by Elizabeth Kroner for the slow-burning single ‘Let Me Live With You’, now’s the time to jump aboard the Diamond Grinder train if you missed it the first time around.

Expectations is out now via Perpetual Doom and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Duster – The Weed Supreme

Hot on the heels of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Stratosphere, slowcore royalty Duster have unveiled a collection of previously unreleased material, Remote Echoes, via The Numero Group. Or kind of unreleased, with some of the material having previously appeared on demo tapes Christmas Dust and On The Dodge. Single ‘The Weed Supreme’ gives an indication of what to expect, bathed in fuzz and possessing the trademark hushed vocals, proving so laidback so as to be almost horizontal.

Remote Echoes is out now via The Numero Group.

Family Man – FATHER JOHN

‘FATHER JOHN’, the latest single from Family Man, is an expose, an exorcism and an apology. Written about his experiences within LA’s private Catholic school system, lead Conner Root takes aim at both the callous dogma of conservative Christianity and the systems of privilege and white supremacy which underpins it. Family Man have made a name with their raw sound, but the intensely personal nature of this song breaks new ground. Years of toxicity and repression expelled with crushing force, castigating those who created such a reality, and making amends to the person inside Root who was waiting to live their life as it was meant to be.

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

Fortunato Durutti Marinetti – Clerk Of Oblivion

We previewed Eight Waves In Search Of An Ocean, the forthcoming album by Turin-born, Toronto-based Fortunato Durutti Marinetti on Quindi Records and Soft Abuse, back in September with single ‘Lightning On A Sunny Day‘. “An epic track that manages to weave real drama into its lazy sprawl,” as we put it, “evoking the titular image in its dreamlike blend of space and intensity.” The “poetic jazz rock” artist has now unveiled new track ‘Clerk Of Oblivion’, a song which turns its woozy electronic style towards the monolith of labour, sounding at once seething and stupefied, as though slowly whittled down by the weight of work. It uses the last few ounces of energy to try to communicate just how pointless and cruel the concept can be. “My only objective going into this song was to exorcize the spirit of Robert Wyatt’s The Age of Self, a major source of inspiration,” Marinetti explains. “But as usually happens, something else entirely formed.”

Half Stack – Cruisin USA

“The dusty cowboy aesthetic remains, but there’s more to Half Stack than that. Now they’re allowing their true spirit to shine through.” That’s how we described Sitting Pretty, the new album from the Oakland band on Forged Artifacts and Royal Oakie Records, in a preview earlier this summer. With this new freedom comes influences ranging from psych rock and power pop to honky tonk, and latest single ‘Cruisin USA’ taps into a little bit of everything to create a sound at once reflective and full of swagger. The dual vocals add a real chemistry too, and the result possesses an affirming spirit no matter how uncertain the lyrics might prove.

Laura Zarougian – Back To Piran

We’ve written about several singles from Nayri, the debut album from New York-based artist Laura Zarougian, recently, full of praise of her “one part Armenian cowgirl and one part indie rock” aesthetic. Now the album is out in the world, and we couldn’t help but feature one last song. A timeless slice of country, ‘Back To Piran’ is the record’s midpoint and an encapsulation of everything that’s good about it. A song full of longing and fragile strength, a commitment to remain connected to one’s heritage despite geographical distance. It’s a feeling far more genuinely American than any Hollywood cowboy. A ballad for diaspora everywhere.

Layperson – I Want To

The recording project of Portland, OR-based songwriter Julian Morris (Little Star, Post Moves), Layperson uses a welcoming folk rock sound to explore the strange contradictions of life. Next month’s new album Massive Leaning, a joint release by Lung Records and Bud Tapes, emerged in the aftermath of a break-up, though Morris consciously subverts the traditions of such records to offer a more nuanced picture. One where the vertiginous sense of loss and loneliness is in some way counterbalanced by a persistent hope. Take latest single ‘I Want To’, where Morris consciously refuses the temptation to return to familiar ground and instead opens his mind towards something different, and the buoyant sound comes to suggest a nascent spiritual awakening.

Baby, I want to
I want that feeling
The feeling that drives all the reasons
Baby I want to

Zoya Zafar – Tunnel Vision

Since the release of a self-titled EP back in 2013, Zoya Zafar has developed a delicate and often searching brand of folk music, probing into the uncertainties of relationships with equal parts vulnerability and strength. Produced by Gia Margaret, 2018 single ‘Sweet Talk’ saw Zafar’s sound evolve in an increasingly dreamy direction, something which carried through into this year’s ‘Wordz’. Her debut full-length album Some Songs is coming soon, and the Lahore-born, Orlando-based songwriter has unveiled latest single, ‘Tunnel Vision’ to further establish this sound. “True love / did it happen to be real love?” go the opening lines, “or just something to get through the night? / We don’t believe in paradise.” This confessional style is delivered on a pillowy arrangement, as though fragility and conviction are one and the same.

Tunnel Vision
I only see you
If I knew why,
It’d be the last thing that I’d do

The post Weekly Listening: October 2023 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.