Single and opener ‘Leave This Home’ pulls the listener into this mood from the off. A song carved from a hushed, nocturnal sound which flickers and creaks like an empty house. Harmer’s vocals emerge like a whisper within this environment, confessing the things perhaps not utterable under the light of day. Essentially a description of isolation and loneliness which creeps like a shadow and soon overcomes the whole scene.

I’ve seen this type of lonely
In people I’ve observed
I didn’t think it would happen
Without knowing that it would

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Tracklisting:

Restorations – Nonbeliever
Goshen Electric Co. – The Grey Tower
Horse Culture – Follow
Yowler – Where Is My Light?
Desert Liminal – Gauze Cave
Anamon – In 3
Adeline Hotel – Lightning
Lea Thomas – Upstream
Scott Orr – No Phone
Advance Base – Christmas in Nightmare City
Blue Wilson – Golden Eyes
The Sofas – Nothing Major
Lazy Legs – Nosebleed
All Boy/All Girl – Bomb
Strange Ranger – New Hair
Elly Swope – Idea
Dweller – Running
Will Henriksen – Halo
Knuckle Pups – Bottom Baby
Ian Wayne – Guessing
Massage – Crying Out Loud
Recluse Raccoon – Mother America
Interbellum – Ink
Marc Ferrino – Like a Spark
Katie Kuffel – As the Crow Flies
Emily Brown – Sometimes
KASHKA – Holding Steady
Philippe Bronchtein – Me and the Moon
Spencer Segelov – Sacred Songs
Annie Dressner – Fades Away
Belaver – Grave Robber
Of The Valley – Ride Alone
Hour – Give thanks in a special way

The post October 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

From the beginning of last year, the four have been working on their debut record piece by piece, assembling a body of songs both old and new, continually revamping, recasting and reworking their material until an integrated, cohesive sound was developed. The result is a self-titled album, to be released on the 5th October via Forged Artifacts.

Opener ‘Avenue’ has the loose, languorous spirit of a long, late summer evening, though beneath this easy energy lies something more. “I went down to the avenue,” begins the pensive opening verse, “where I tried not to think of you. / You had me walking for a long time / I can’t read your mind.” With the lyrics in mind, the atmosphere takes on an entire new quality, the laconic dreaminess not a freedom from strife but rather the inability to process it, the track something of a dazed drift that precedes hard won acceptance.

This layered style defines the Dweller aesthetic, with many of the tracks operated on several levels to balance both style and substances. Take single ‘Running’, which marries a carefree surf pop style with a particular millennial disenchantment, the song eventually rising to cut through the catatonia. “Running is a song about being stuck in and frustrated with the routine of everyday life,” the band told Post-Trash. “About feeling pent-up angst towards the monotony, and choosing to be spontaneous and energetic to combat those feelings.”

The rose-tinted ‘Memory Lane’ utilises a nostalgia as an alternative means of escape, while the slack ‘Feel So Long’ is a song for the summer depressive, as though all its energy has been baked out under a hot sun. ‘Dayscreen’ is far more epic than its relatively modest run time suggests, a great glowing catharsis that, after the more playful ‘Sometimes’, is matched by the equally meaty ‘Bugs’, a track which creeps and crawls out of its slow opening to grow wings and soar.

This run of songs signals something of a trend on the record, as though Dweller are examining and addressing the issues they set out in the opening. Rather than hiding the frustration beneath a cool surface image, the second half of the album levels the layers, bringing all sentiments to the fore in order to hold equal footing. So, while ‘The Letter’ opens as a meandering folk song, it is of no surprise that it glues together into a redemptive climax. The insistent rhythm of closer ‘Walking (Airplane Mode)’ presents something of a lightened mood, though this time the buoyancy feels genuine, not feigned. Dweller are all too aware of the difficulties of trying to find your place in a world of infinite options and quasi-freedom, and their self-titled debut wants to help chart a path through it.

Various Small Flames has the honour of sharing the album a few days early, so be sure to take the opportunity below.

Album artwork by Kees Holterman 

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