Back in 2022 we featured ‘Metamorphosis’, a single from Chicago-based outfit Daarling which we described as “a simmering, brooding number which dwells on the inevitability of change and the friction which results.” This month saw the release of Daarling’s debut album The Deep Within, which develops the style seen on ‘Metamorphosis’ further to occupy a space between dream pop and post-punk. Take the way recent single ‘Cherish//Flourish’, which again builds from modest beginnings into something both spacious, detailed and prone to sharp rises in intensity, Erin Lyle’s vocals more than a match for the dramatic soundscape which results.

The Duke of Norfolk & This Is A Kit – The Yeast in the Sugar

“An ode to an uncertain relationship, finding beauty and joy in the present despite the lurking doubt, attempting to be grateful no matter how fragile or transient the tie.” That’s how we described The Duke of Norfolk‘s ‘As The Heralds Revere You‘ back in 2019. The track was typical of peripatetic folk musician and multi-instrumentalist Adam Howard’s project, exploring the porous border between reality and myth with a careful, compassionate tone. New song ‘The Yeast in the Sugar’ is a collaboration with This Is the Kit, and continues this style with a decidedly patient quality. A meditation on what it means to wait, to develop slowly in a world which demands immediate gratification.

James Jonathan Clancy – Had It All

Perhaps best known as lead of art punk ensemble His Clancyness (plus noise group Brutal Birthday), it has been seven years since James Jonathan Clancy released a record. In the interim he founded the record label Maple Death Records, and slowly but surely worked to refine his own creative work. The result of that period of focus and innovation is Sprecato, a record Clancy will release on his label early next year, the first under his birth name. Written and recorded between London and Bologna and featuring a transnational ensemble of collaborators, the album takes inspiration from the ‘apocalyptic pastoralism’ of Michelangelo Setola’s Gli Sprecati, though ends up pushing into a territory all of its own. Single ‘Had It All’ is a good place to jump in, taking equal parts cosmic folk and spacious ambient styles and applying them to a more traditional singer-songwriter sound.

Joseph Shabason – Welcome To Hell

“Soundscapes full of detail, movement and laidback swagger, which get at something almost intangible, the spirit of the era.” So we described Joseph Shabason’s Welcome to Hell, an album on Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records which uses the eponymous Toy Machine video as a jumping off point to paint a sonic picture of the nineties skate scene. With the record now available, the final single and title track is a fitting point of entry, taking the most rewound part of the tape—the bail segment—and reimagining the soundtrack as an out-of-body ambient chill. The resulting video presents a strange mix of ballet and body horror which Shabason’s soft vocals instil with all the longing and glory of the best memorial.

Welcome To Hell is out now via Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records.

The Juniper Berries – Role Model

Fronted by Josh Stirm, The Juniper Berries are an Austin-based outfit preparing to release their album Death and Taxes next spring on Earth Libraries. Lead single ‘Role Model’ introduces what to expect from the album, with the upbeat country rock style mapping the complicated edges of grief and attempting to use loss as an impetus to keep on living. Storytelling is a big part of the record, with fictional narratives employed as a kind of distancing force, but the single holds up intensely personal circumstances to ground the themes of the record. The experience of going through the process of mourning as it is made all the more difficult by the knotty relationship shared in life.

I got a little bit closer to the edge last night than I had planned
you were running through my mind,
you’re up there all the time
but now I’ll never, ever, see you again

Looms – Hologram

The Dogs of Doubt, the latest EP from Brooklyn‘s Looms, is the kind of release which most fully rewards the patient and curious. For while the tracks are immediately impressive in their careful craft and emotional resonance, those willing to return to them will witness Sharif Mekawy’s songs unfurl with graceful depth. Take the understated build of single ‘Hologram’, which presents itself as a tender folk song, though is complicated by its subtle layers. The track’s true nature seems to be revealed by its outro, like a book which only makes perfect sense on reading the final chapters. The wise listener will return to the beginning to repeat the process, thereby lowering themselves more fully into the beguiling world of Looms.

Malachi Graham – Together for the Kids

What she calls “a hymn for the exhausted,” Caretaker is the forthcoming new album from Portland singer-songwriter Malachi Graham. The record was inspired by a bad breakup and its aftermath, in which the scales fell from Graham’s eyes and she began to see pathological behaviour everywhere—be that in others and herself. Single ‘Together For the Kids’ introduces the record’s uncompromising exploration of these behaviours and heralds the more rock-oriented style Graham has embraced to capture the experience in all of its chaos, starting tense and bitterly wistful before blooming into a gloriously noisy catharsis.

Caretaker is out on the 15th January and you can pre-order it now.

nudista – Different Eyes

We last wrote about London band nudista early last year, calling single ‘inasmuch’ (from debut EP Halfway Here) “a clarified dream pop which seeks to communicate directly and honestly.” Now the duo, Pilar Matji Cabello and Robbie Carman, are back with a new single ‘Different Eyes’, released by the ever-reliable Sad Club Records. The song explores what Carman calls “a distrust of my own narrative […] a gradual realisation that I have outgrown some previously held opinions,” and again focuses on communicating as directly and plainly as possible. This is delivered with a little more verve and rough edges, adding a country-gaze rock swagger to their careful emotion. Oh, and the chorus is a killer.

You never want to be here
You’re always somewhere else
You’re always chasing something
Trying to be someone else

‘Different Eyes’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available from the nudista Bandcamp page.

Sierra Ferrell – Fox Hunt

“Well, take the path down to the river, it is hunting time / Clothe the kids and feed the children, oh, the meat is fine.” So opens ‘Fox Hunt’, the new single from country artist Sierra Ferrell, a track which harks back to bygone days to capture the thrill of the hunt. But this is no sleepy, sepia-toned pastoral scene, its racing strings and stomping percussion capturing the breathless rush through a forest in all of its boisterous, full-blooded glory. “The lyrics may be straight old time,” Ferrell says of the track in a piece for Rolling Stone, “but the music is pure adrenaline… and maybe that’s what I’m here for.”

Watch the animated video (hand drawn by Rob Fidel) below:

‘Fox Hunt’ is out now and available via streaming services.

Teenage Halloween – Melodrama

“Burning through the bullshit to occupy your space in the world.” That’s how we described Teenage Halloween’s new LP, Till You Return, in a preview of single ‘Armageddon Now‘. With the album now out via Don Giovanni, the New Jersey outfit have unveiled latest single, ‘Melodrama’. A sub-two-minute ripper which lives up the same spirit, refusing the slide towards pessimism and nihilistic tendencies with a bracing sense of momentum. Life is hard and things are often beyond our control, but with enough propulsive force we might fight to keep our heads above water yet.

Watch the video by Alex Cihanowic below:

Till You Return is out on the 20th October via Don Giovanni Records and you can pre-order it now.

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

Last month we introduced Real Love, the forthcoming album by Beat Radio on Totally Real Records. An examination of personal turmoil against a wider context of intergenerational trauma which “prob[es] into some of the most tender areas in order to address the wound.” The first song Brian Sendrowitz wrote from the record, latest single ‘Radioactive’ not only sets the album’s fuzzed out tone but established the stakes too. “You were radioactive / And its taken its toll,” Sendrowitz sings, “But you’re learning to change / And to make yourself whole / It’s a fight for your soul.”

Real Love is out on 21st October via Totally Real Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Bollards – Crimestopping

Described as a “relentless rush of blood to the head”, ‘Crimestopping’ is the latest track from London outfit Bollards. The song is a blend of post-punk and art rock sensibilities which captures a decidedly urban milieu. Spacious atmospherics coupled with claustrophobic cul-de-sacs and an overarching instability hovering above. This semi-hysterical tone informs the lyrics too, where paranoia about surveillance is matched only by the incessant desire to surveil in turn. A world where you can trust no-one, and no-one trusts you. Check out the video co-directed by Mars Washington and Jonny Dickens:

‘Crimestopping’ is out now and is available from the Bollards Bandcamp page.

claire rousay – wouldn’t have to hurt

LA‘s claire rousay returns this month with wouldn’t have to hurt, a benefit album for the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people, via Mended Dream Records. Woven from a fabric of field recordings, midi instruments, guitars and piano, as well as guest strings from Theodore Cale Schafer, the title track sees unguarded and forthright spoken word from nurse and Youtuber Madison Van Dine. A discussion of mental health stripped of any mawkish sentiment or quick-fire solutions, just working through things and facing up to every day. An encapsulation, that is, of rousay’s intentions with wouldn’t have to hurt. Still here and communicating to others, no matter how injured, frustrated or flat.

Crooks & Nannies – control

This month saw the return of Crooks & Nannies, AKA West Philadelphia duo Madel Rafter and Sam Huntington, with their first new music in a number of years. Released via Grand Jury Music, ‘control’ is a single which explores the knife-edge of mental health and the often unseen work which goes into maintaining the balance. The gentle progression slowly ramps as discordant noises punctuate the background, soon escalating into a chaotic rhythm. “I wanted to capture the feeling of walking through an art museum and holding all of your muscles tightly because if you don’t, you might give into some crazy impulse and do something really really bad,” Rafter explains, “like pull a painting off the wall and put your foot through it.” Check out the video with art by Sam Huntington and animation by Sarah Alvarez below:

‘control’ is out now via Grand Jury Music and you can get it from the Crooks & Nannies Bandcamp page.

daarling – Metamorphosis

Chicago-based indie rock band daarling are gearing up to release their debut full-length, and new single ‘Metamorphosis’ gives an insight into what to expect. A simmering, brooding number which dwells on the inevitability of change and the friction which results, with lead Erin Lyle riding the peaks and troughs of the instrumentation to find a tone both cutting and cathartic. “Metamorphosis is bullshit / I’ll cultivate my state either way,” she sings. “Your idleness affects no one / You confuse stability for stagnation.”

Kevin Dorff – Impossible Objects

Kevin Dorff is a songwriter and playwright originally from Des Moines, Iowa and now based in Brooklyn, who recently released his debut LP Silent Reply. A record which explores the lasting impact people have on our lives, even after their death, Silent Reply combines elements of folk and Nineties indie rock into a sound that shifts effortlessly from poignant to energetic. Dorff’s style is thanks at least in part to its influences—he cites the songwriting of David Berman and Craig Finn as big inspirations, but also the novels of Rachel Cusk and portraits of visual artist Alice Neel, which goes some way to explaining a tone that’s both sincere and wryly humourous. A standout is ‘Impossible Objects’, possibly the most touching track to ever name check M. Night Shyamalan and Toy Story 3.

Orchid Mantis – Lucid Dreams

The prolific Orchid Mantis is gearing up to release their seventh album via Spirit Goth Records, and first single ‘Lucid Dreams’ gives an indication of direction Thomas Howard is taking on the new tunes. After the newfound optimism of Visitations, an album we described as “an attempt to push beyond the past, keeping a clear-eyed focus on the present and what comes next,” the song finds itself inevitably turning back toward the past, even if just in the night-time visions suggested in the title. “Back out on my friend’s porch / or down by the church,” Howard sings, “feels like a lucid dream / like it was 10pm in 2016”

and nothing feels the same
but nothing really changed
i’m filling up my head
with memories that
i don’t ever want to resurrect
i wake up again

‘Lucid Dreams’ is out now and available from the Orchid Mantis Bandcamp page. How Long Will It Take is out via Spirit Goth Records on the 11th November.

Ross Jenkins – Plain as Day

Writing back in March, we described Free All Day by Vancouver’s Ross Jenkins as a record marked by “a sense of restraint and quiet grace,” which brought to mind “the solo records of Canadian songwriting heavyweights Bry Webb and John K. Samson.” Recorded during the same period as that album, latest single ‘Plain as Day’ embraces this style once more while also leaning into the seventies-era psych sensibilities which also reared their head. The gentle rhythm belies the strength underpinning its intentions, coming off as an assured statement and worthy addition to Jenkins’s catalogue.

Sweetbreads – Out of Range

Led by Melody Stolpp in collaboration with Nick Watt, and featuring a rotating cast of musicians, Brooklyn’s Sweetbreads make a hybrid of alt-country and pop which aims to get your toes tapping and hearts swelling in equal measure. Latest single ‘Out of Season’ follows protagonist June and her quest to resist the thankless treadmill of modern living, opting for an unproductive and entirely more positive way of life. Complete with a “muppet-inspired” background chorus with over forty voices, the song celebrates breaking conventions in the most joyous way possible, and ends up as the perfect antidote to the breakneck bluster of the world we call home.

The post Weekly Listening: September 2022 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.