“Their EP, ▲ S N O W B E A S T ▲, is swirling concoction of musical styles that is hard to pin down. There are relaxed surf rock baselines (‘Backyards and Alleyways’), Vampire Weekend-esque African influences (‘No One Wants to Live in the Ghetto’), electronic beats and fuzzy repetitive choruses (‘A Howl Like a Wolf’) and in-your-face shouty bits (‘Snowbeast’ and ‘Somewhere, Ontario’)”

Well the band aren’t back but we might well have the next best thing. The new project of SNOWBEAST frontman Riun Garner, Hoshifo have extracted the tropical vibes from the SNOWBEAST carcass and expanded upon them to make shimmering pop single ‘I’m Not There’. The song toes the line between blissed-out haze of summer days and the sentimental melancholy of summer nights, sounding like Dexter Tortoriello’s vacation jams. Have a listen below:

There’s not much in terms of information about Hoshifo, but be sure to ‘like’ their Facebook page to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

The post Introducing Hoshifo appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklist:

1. Kids Will Be Kids – Praything
2. Do You Have Romantic Courage – Hallelujah The Hills
3. The Shore And The Coastline – Now Wakes The Sea
4. The Corrections – Alphabetical Order Orchestra
5. Give Me Time – Roo & The Howl
6. To Remember – City States
7. Vow – Sales
8. In The Rain – Cut Ribbons
9. Feel What – Jacques Greene
10. Down On My Luck – Vic Mensa
11. Greater Than – Sharpless
12. Tennis Court (Flume Remix) – Lorde
13. Warehouses – Kane Ikin
14. Wild Geese – Small Sur
15. Youth – Best Wishes
16. Early Morning – Eagle Lake Owls
17. Dust To Settle – Rough River
18. Slow Down – Scott Orr
19. Gray Lodge Wisdom – Will Stratton
20. Brother, Do You Know The Road? – Hiss Golden Messenger
21. Something Like That – Wolf Collage
22. Muscle and Bone – John Joseph Brill
23. All Your Promises – Jesse Marchant
24. Echo Tropism – Inventions
25. Veiled Grey – Christian Löffler
26. All I Want – Dawn Golden

If you missed them, we have such mixes for January, February, March and April too.

May Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post May 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“I’ve spent years with these songs when they were only mine, and I emptied myself into them…So if you’re going to listen, please know that this is all of me. A flawed and destructive mess of good intentions. A still life.”

The album is an emotional mixture of futuristic electronics, lo-fi bedroom pop and heart-on-his-sleeve lyrics. It’s also magnificently produced, sounding like a cinematic, widescreen version of the genre. Those of you who like Houses will love Dawn Golden, as will fans of Youth Lagoon, Arrange and the newer stuff by The Antlers. This is an album to be listened to on headphones, or on lonely nighttime drives. Tortoriello has similar ideas:

“I hope you will listen to it on your headphones and keep someone that maybe you miss a lot in your mind while you do. Maybe you will see them soon and I hope that you do.”

Lead single ‘All I Want’ (which you can hear in the player above) is a slow-burning epic, which climaxes in a chaotic, but triumphant, breakdown. The track has recently been given the remix treatment by Diplo too, which you can hear over at Soundcloud. We also featured the video (an excellent sci-fi love story directed by Tyler T. Williams) ‘All I Want’ over at Beatclash, so check that out too.

You can buy Still Life right now via Downtown Records / Mad Decent.

The post Dawn Golden – Still Life appeared first on Various Small Flames.