“Good luck getting back to me / I’ll go with the dead / Way down where the water’s deep / Way over your head.” The opening to ‘Mountain Stream’, the lead single from Angela Autumn‘s new LP Believer forthcoming via Gar Hole Records, signals the spirit of an album about a retreat to nature and the potential both personal and creative therein. Appalachian native Autumn left her adopted home for a variety of wild spots in order to write the record, bouncing between the Tennessee woodland, an Asheville treehouse and Chattanooga warehouse to centre the wild in the songs. “I like to put myself in extreme situations in order to write,” Autumn explains. “That’s how I wrote songs like ‘Jesus Heist’ and ‘In the South’: by leaving everything behind and going into nature. Without the earth, I probably wouldn’t have any music.” As ‘Mountain Stream’ shows, the result is both richly crafted and emotionally affirming, drawing the audience into Autumn’s natural world so that they might find peace too.

Watch the video by Ives Albert and Ash Wright below:

Believer will be released on the 11th September via Gar Hole Records and you can pre-order it now.

aument – Sam I Am

Ever been so pissed off about something you’ve written a song? ‘Sam I Am’, the title track of aument‘s new EP, originated from exactly that scenario. With the uniquely maddening experience of neighbour trouble escalating when one of the juvenile characters urinated in aument’s garden (while they were sitting mere feet away, no less), they decided to channel their anger into music. With help from Micah Prussack of Youbet (bass) and Zeb Stern of Psymon Spine (drums), the resulting track is raw, immediate and ultimately cathartic. Not a solution to the hostility of the outside world, but a declaration of opposition nonetheless. A non-binary person raising their voice against masculine cruelty and general disregard of others and somehow still finding room to spin something fun from the fury.

Black Duck – Connects By Water

“After touring across Spain with acclaimed Basque musician Elena Setién, the trio felt they had discovered someone else clearly attuned to the Black Duck spirit, and have taken this forward to not only invigorate the project, but to reimagine its very boundaries.” So we wrote of Black Duck with Elena Setién, the new album from the Chicago supergroup (Douglas McCombs on bass/guitar, Bill MacKay on guitar and Charles Rumback on drums) which looks to commit the magic of live performance to tape. After lead single ‘Land of the Many Eyes’, Black Duck and Elena Setién have returned with new track ‘Connects By Water’ to further hint at the depth of the record. McCombs’s fingerprints are clear on the sound, with the composition sharing DNA with those of projects like Tortoise, yet the others breath more space into the sound so that it becomes something altogether more ventilated and welcoming. “Somehow for me, this track is a great respite,” Setién explains. “Like finally coming to a beautiful quiet beach, knowing you can relax.”

Darren Hayman – Little Arrow, Little Sparrow (feat. The Wave Pictures & Rotifer)

Following on from the release of the expanded edition of majestic 2012 full-length The Violence, Darren Hayman‘s present project to make the full breadth of his back catalogue available online continues apace. The Violence was a “complex and emotionally resonant concept album centring on the English Civil War and the contemporaneous witch trials across East Anglia,” as we wrote in our review, but latest single ‘Little Arrow, Little Sparrow’ couldn’t be any further from those themes. Released as part of Vostok 5, an exhibition of music and art “about people and animals in space,” the track moves from base superstition to the far edges of human endeavour, at least ostensibly. Because the title is in fact the translation of Belka and Strelka, the two dogs who became the first to orbit earth and return alive after the Soviets sent them into space, hinting at the prayers and violence behind even the most futuristic of missions.

Hawk & Steel – Caroline

Melding the warm twang of Americana with the rugged drama of the Pacific Northwest, Victoria, BC-based folk rock outfit Hawk & Steel adept at both sweeping weight and emotional depth. More than a decade passed between their previous LP and recent release Ain’t Never Moving On, though the outfit return from their hiatus recharged and ready for a new chapter. Single ‘Caroline’ gives a flavour of what to expect, the song still possessing some of the fitful energy which has long marked the Hawk & Steel sound, while displaying a newfound sense of reflection which suggests the band have been evolving in the intervening years. “I tried to, forget who you were / Forget what your hair smells like,” the opening lines play, immediately introducing the yearning which permeates the track. “Still your voice, rings in my ear / Louder than it was when you were here.” Love might pass but the past is not so easy to shake.

Josaleigh Pollett – Like a River

There was a sense of conviction apparent on ‘The Witness‘, the previous single from Josaleigh Pollett‘s upcoming album If I Let It Quiet, a song about learning to look beyond the usual categories and borders of existence in order to find peace. Latest single ‘Like a River’ concerns itself with similar ideas, indeed is the track which gives the record its title, but comes from a far more uncertain place. A dispatch delivered not with the clarity of distance but the rush and chaos of the present. “’Like a River’ is about an attempt at quieting the noise of my own thoughts and of a chaotic world around me in order to try to be more resilient,” Pollett explains. “A too-late-coffee-fueled yellow-light-lit silent moment—having arrived at myself just in time to feel my pulse speed up and the news of the day sweep me away into frothing rapids. Hoping for the peace of a quiet river bank, only to remember that a river is swift, chaotic, and ever-changing the earth beneath it. Inspired by Paul Simon’s Peace Like a River—a song I’ve always held in my heart as a beautiful protest song.”

Jules Reidy – Shadow Symmetric for JACK Quartet (excerpt)

Jules Reidy‘s Thrill Jockey debut Ghost/Spirit was a deep and often dense exploration of mysticism, the Berlin-based polymath offering a narrative arc which bent through the dark of contemplation towards eventual transcendence. Therefore, while it might be tempting to view the altogether lighter tone their new record Clerestory, coming again via Thrill Jockey later this year, as something of a pivot away from its predecessor, in actuality it feels like the perfect continuation. The clue is in the title itself, a clerestory being a high wall set with windows, often in a church, which serves to imbue a space with light and fresh air. This image which embodies the sound of the release, as though the path Reidy established on Ghost/Spirit has merely continued onto a new canvas, angling upwards towards the light. Of course, with light comes shadow, and no-one familiar with Reidy’s work would expect anything other than a sound full of the weight of contradiction. But the overarching sense is a record on the edge of transcendence, one foot on earth, the other stepping towards something altogether more spiritual. Listen to ‘Shadow Symmetric’ now for a taste, recording with the renowned JACK Quartet:

Marika Che – Edge of the Storm

You might recognise Marika Justad as the frontwoman of indie rock outfit Tangerine, but she has recently returned as a solo artist, under the moniker Marika Che. Debut album Bright Flame introduces the style of this new era, displaying a warm yet confessional style of folk rock which sits somewhere between Waxahatchee’s country-inflected rock and something closer to dream pop. As single ‘Edge of the Storm’ attests, the result packs an emotional punch yet delivers it within a breezy warmth, drawing the audience in with an easy-going rhythm and assured vocal style. A debut this might be, but there’s clear experience within its craft, and you’d be hard pushed to find a more pleasant soundtrack as summer blooms.

Pale Ramon – The Mirror

Founded by Kevin Plessner and Emanuel Ayvas, Brooklyn‘s Pale Ramon have made a name with an amalgamated style of indie rock, taking the usual energy and emotional heft and adding in post-punk angles and layers of sax and strings. This autumn, they are set to release their brand new full-length The Yawn, and have recently put out the album’s lead single ‘The Mirror’ to give an indication of what to expect. Building with admirable patience, the track is indicative of the band’s craft, with a lush atmosphere gradually tipping towards something more urgent, a style followed by the vocals too. What emerges is a picture of something like desperation, told with both the immediacy of the moment and the fondness of personal history. Watch the video produced by Andrew Marfoli and Brian James below:

The Yawn will be released on the 6th November and you can pre-save it now.

Tough Old Bird – Wednesday’s Child

Founded by brothers Matthew and Nathan Corrigan and now expanded to include Ricky Bechard (drums) and Brendan O’Shea (bass), Tough Old Bird is a Buffalo-based folk rock band who offer both rich narrative lyricism and atmospheric arrangements. Latest single ‘Wednesday’s Child’, the first of what promises to be a steady stream of releases throughout the coming summer months, marks something of a new era for the project. Their first as a four-piece, and thus newly detailed and rich, the kind of sound that every prior release from the Corrigans seems to have been building towards. Another stellar entry in this year’s bumper crop of electrically charged country rock, standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Thomas Dollbaum, Sluice and Brown Horse.

Zoon – You Can’t See Me (This Low)

“There might not be an easy answer at the end of the Happy Thought School, indeed the fact that things remain unresolved might be a central facet of the project as a whole. But if Zoon has communicated anything with their releases to date, it is that the only way to reckon with difficult histories is to delve into them regardless of whether answers might be salvaged from the wreck.” So we wrote of the new album from Zoongide’ewin’s Zoon back in May, with singles ‘One Too Many Nights‘ and ‘I Was Younger’ picking through the ruins of a relationship. With the album not out via Paper Bag Records, Zoon has shared final track ‘You Can’t See Me (This Low)’, a fittingly confessional number which confronts heartbreak, relapse and recovery which characteristic candour.

Happy Thought School is out now via Paper Bag Records and available from the Zoon Bandcamp page.

The post Weekly Listening: June 2026 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Back in May we shared an updated version of Hayman, Watkins, Trout And Lee, a bluegrass record which combined original material with covers of genre classics, and hinted that the release might be the start of a wider project to unearth the full depth of Darren Hayman’s substantial back catalogue and reinvigorate it for the digital age. This process has quietly continued across recent weeks. Previously missing titles from Hefner have reappeared via his own imprint Belka, as well as releases from The French, The Secondary Modern and his debut solo EP Cortinaland, meaning a long-needed sense of order is starting to emerge within Hayman’s online presence. The work of this kaleidoscopic and shape-shifting artist finally catalogued in one place.

But the crowning achievement of this mission is the release of an expanded edition of 2012’s The Violence. Among one of Darren Hayman’s most ambitious undertakings, The Violence is complex and emotionally resonant concept album centring on the English Civil War and the contemporaneous witch trials across East Anglia. With a sound brought to life by a vast ensemble of musicians going by the name The Long Parliament, the record digs right into the violence and superstitions of the period, tracing a country pulled apart by misplaced fervour, illusions of moral superiority, pernicious rumours and the old-fashioned desire for power. A society, that is, very different from our own, yet governed by familiar forces. One in which fear and ignorance curdle into something terrible, and act as a cover for those who wish to enact ideas of cruelty and greed. “The beliefs and fears that led to the Witch Trials are taken from the Puritan idea that it is wrong to glorify or look upon God’s image directly. Taken to its absolute extreme, only the blind were seen as truly pure, and ungodliness was perceived to be everywhere,” Hayman explains:

Evil never thinks of itself as such, and people can act cruelly when frightened. I assume that Matthew Hopkins, the self-named ‘Witch Finder General’ believed, on some level, that he was acting on God’s instruction. In early 1645, Hopkins pushed his ear to his window and overheard conversations between supposed witches. Elizabeth Clarke, a one-legged, 80-year-old widow, was the first to be accused and arrested.

Hopkins claimed that 3 days and nights of ‘watching’ led Elizabeth Clarke to ‘confess many things’; furthermore, that his interrogation witnessed the summoning of numerous hideous imps and demons. Clarke confessed to sleeping with the devil and also pointed the finger at other women in the parish, including Anne West and her daughter Rebecca. All of these women were single or widowed beggars and perceived to be a drain on their communities.

Hopkins began offering his services to other towns. For a fee, he would help rid these communities of their ‘witches’

The expanded edition of The Violence comes complete with its companion EP The Four Queens, plus several unreleased songs and demos. “It’s so important to me to have this record available again. It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked, and I believe it sounds like nothing else in my back catalogue,” Hayman explains. “I write easily about modernity and pepper my lyrics with slang, brand names, and colloquialisms. I wanted to write about something in Essex’s past that spoke of its strangeness and also forced me to write in a language suitable for another period.”

The Violence (Expanded Edition) is out now and available from the Darren Hayman Bandcamp page.

The post Darren Hayman – The Violence appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Having recently signed to Nils Frahm‘s LEITER imprint, New York-based saxophonist and composer Alden Hellmuth has announced new full-length Tether. The album builds upon 2024’s punk-inflected jazz record Good Intentions to explore the creative potential of an ensemble embracing the tension between composition and improvisation. Tether is a fitting name for the release, speaking to both the connection between Hellmuth and her supporting cast—bassists Logan Kane and Miller Wrenn and drummer Justin Brown (Thundercat, Aja Monet)—and how group, and indeed the audience, act something like a leash within the spontaneity of improvisation. The musicians might play themselves out into unexpected territory, but there’s always a line to bring them back into the heart of the group. Lead single ‘Face The Wall’ is available now, and shows just how raucous and visionary the Alden Hellmuth sound can be.

Alice Bradley – Seismic

Per her bio, Asheville-based songwriter Alice Bradley “sees songwriting a way to grow words past the point of logic into catharsis,” and latest EP Seismic certainly lives up to this intention. Take the title track, woven from a layered, almost meditative arrangement of fingerpicked guitar, though one always led forwards by the underlying groove. The style is matched by Bradley’s vocals, both in tone and substance, the rhythmic ease of her delivery belying the difficult grapple presented in the lyrics. “There’s a face looking back / and a face looking forward / the space between that / i gotta move toward,” as she sings. “And the waves want to crash / to talk with the shore / future and past / converse at the door.” But by the close, something of a slow epiphany seems to have occurred. The acknowledgement that perhaps words aren’t best suited to pick at such complicated knots, and instead it is best to lean into the flow.

maybe this is something i cannot talk through
maybe this is something i must dance to

Atta Boy – Oh, Mama

Since their inception back in 2012, LA-based indie pop outfit Atta Boy have amassed a following with a sound that’s bright, sometimes whimsical and always compassionate, driven by a sense of curiosity shared by core members Dashel Thompson (piano), Eden Brolin (vocals), Freddy Reish (guitar), and Lewis Pullman (drums). The band are preparing to release their new album Lilt this June, and new single ‘Oh, Mama’ embodies the spirit of their work. A song which holds up the unique force that is motherly love as something as organic and ever-present as the natural world itself. “When I was growing up (and still today) my mom was so amazing at inspiring a sense of wonder at our natural world,” Brolin explains. “She is intensely nurturing and there for me, no matter what. I could say a billion things about why I think my mom is the shit, but as far as the song goes, I just wanted to paint a picture of how grand I see her love and her motherhood. This idea can be applied to anyone whose support feels like relief and respite when life is sideways. I think it’s a testament to how meaningful and necessary human connection is.” Watch the video for the track directed by Michael Rees with cinematography by Sarah Penson:

Silt will be released on the 26th June and you can pre-order it now.

Brenna Bruce – Something Gold

Brenna Bruce “brings to life a serene sound shadowed by a certain mournfulness,” we wrote of the Seattle-based songwriter when covering her 2024 EP Honest Bloom, “evoking the way even the most tranquil environment is in some way made poignant by the latent promise of its own end.” The release, put out via Ghost Mountain Records, placed emotional states within the context of the larger cycles of the natural world, and came to find beauty within an embrace of transience. Now Bruce is preparing to release Light Catcher, a brand new EP no less ambitious or emotionally astute, and latest single ‘Something Gold’ hints at what to expect. The song asks whether mourning is a strange form of alchemy, charting how moving through the end of a relationship can so often elevate the mundane into something precious, at least in one’s memories. Although, whether this process is legitimately capable of creating treasured material is open to interpretation. Every alchemist is shadowed by the possibility of their folly, coming to see (or wish for) cherished things which cannot, and never will, exist.

Light Catcher will be released on the 12th June via Ghost Mountain Records and you can pre-order it now.

Darren Hayman – Hotter Than Mojave in My Heart (Iris DeMent cover)

Way back in 2008, Darren Hayman (Hefner / New Starts), Dan May (Owl & Mouse / Field Glass), David Watkins and David Tattersall (The Wave Pictures) released a self-titled bluegrass album under the name Hayman, Watkins, Trout And Lee, winning acclaim with a mixture of originals and rearrangements of songs from the likes of Townes Van Zandt and The Mountain Goats. Now Hayman is re-releasing the album and has provided two new covers in support, including a take on Iris DeMent‘s ‘Hotter Than Mojave in My Heart’. Leaning into the playful side of the original, the song not only offers solid evidence for diving back into Hayman, Watkins, Trout And Lee, it also hints at the depth of Hayman’s back catalogue, which has remained more or less missing despite his position as one of the most creative and distinctive voices in UK music.

Fox Run Sounds – Shake a Shoe

“But I don’t think you’re hearing me / I don’t think you’re hearing me / If I don’t feel you here with me.” So sings Fox Run Sounds on ‘Shake a Shoe’, a short verse indicative of the mood and tone of the new track. The project’s previous EP Yuh, O! probed at the tension between interior feelings and exterior appearances, utilising a bright sound to explore dark themes so that the form mirrored the duality of the content, and the new single is no less thoughtful in execution. More downbeat on the surface yet leavened by the hope that’s inherent within any sense of longing, the track ebbs and flows between hushed despondency and naked yearning, that latter marked by a lift in the instrumentation as though towards some promised epiphany. The enlightenment might never quite be granted, but the very act of continually reaching towards it seems to hold some wisdom of its own.

The Hobknobs – Easier Listening

“Helmets Off can be described as an honest attempt at honesty.” So describes the press release for the debut album of The Hobknobs, a new project featuring Arie van Vliet (Lewsberg) and Yaël Dekker (The Klittens), though anyone expecting something earnest and sentimental will quickly find they have misunderstood. Because the honesty of The Hobknobs is something purer than the usual meaning of the word. Purer and therefore stranger. Honesty as delivered by a pair of songwriters who aren’t overly convinced by the goodness of humanity or even the meaning of language. Lead single ‘Easier Listening’ might be the poppiest track on the album, and on the surface gestures towards a nostalgic sort of twee, but is in fact very much its own animal. “’Easier Listening’ is about people who consciously choose to be less intelligent, in order to be able to understand so much more” Dekker explains. People who are faithful yet have no faith, enlightened and underestimated, presented here without judgement. Should we surrender and join their ranks?

The Huntress and Holder of Hands – Doctrine

Rising from the ashes of folk duo Brown Bird after the death of creative partner and husband Dave Lamb, MorganEve Swain’s The Huntress and Holder of Hands is both a vehicle to explore grief in its full spectrum of emotions and a way to continue the spirit of its predecessor. The result is a sound that holds space for anger, confusion, sadness and compassion, as well as an inherent sense of hope that’s built into the very fact of its existence. Set for release next month, new album Babylon is the perfect example of this nuanced style, confronting the corrupt and violent present without forgetting ideas of redemption and sanctuary too. Single ‘Doctrine’ was written in 2017 but is more relevant than ever, a taut and haunting slice of country rock which simmers with fury even it is quietest moments. “Honestly I was hoping it would be obsolete by now,” Swain explains, “but instead these words now feel like an incantation we need more than ever.”

Babylon will be released on the 5th June and you can pre-order it now.

lots of hands – grapevine

Newcastle upon Tyne duo lots of hands (that’s Billy Woodhouse and Elliot Dryden) last released new music at the beginning of 2025 with Fire Talk debut into a pretty room. Since then, the band have gone from strength to strength, finding lots of new fans and going on tour across the US in support of Lala Lala. Now they are back with a new single ‘grapevine’, a song which harks back to their nostalgia-laced lo-fi roots with a stark, stripped-back atmosphere. It’s dark and shadowy, squealing guitar and repetitive loops undulating over electronic percussion, Woodhouse and Dryden both contributing soft, understated vocals that deliver lyrics both opaque and suggestive. “Oh I feel it pulling me away, some sort of magnetic wave,” Woodhouse sings, “I’m finding myself upstate.”

Scott C Park – Marlene

Last year, Stornoway-based songwriter Scott C Park released his debut album Crossing The Line, establishing a rich and introspective brand of folk rock able to probe deep into the uncertainties of young adult life. Not one to rest on his laurels, Park is preparing another full-length for later this year, and has unveiled lead single ‘Marlene’ to whet appetites in the meantime. A track which again possesses the authenticity of its predecessor, pairing an almost twee level of sincerity with a rougher edge, resulting in something heartfelt but never cloying. This is achieved in no small part via the wry humour which runs through its heart, a feature which ultimately grants an affirming conclusion. “The song spends a whole lot of time where the protagonist is like, ‘Woe is me’… his world is kind of grey and drab,” Park explains. “And then in the last half he just rips the piss out of himself for being such a depressed guy.”

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

The post Weekly Listening: May 2026 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

I have heard this song before, I think it was played in a session a while back, and am glad that the recorded version remains more or less true to the version I was familiar with. It is a slight change from the usual Withered Hand sound but a worthwhile one. Should Withered hand manage to get together a full band and tour songs like this I see no reason why they wouldn’t achieve a greater level of recognition. It would be fully deserved.

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