With this in mind, the previous releases were ambitious enough, but the latest Nuisance project takes those ideas and pushes them to new heights. Coming next month on Katuktu Collective, triple album SAND, STONE, GLASS follows the template set with Kuchisabishii and Qanisquineq but with the dial twisted to eleven. “SAND, STONE, GLASS is an album that was recorded before it was written,” the band explain. “Selected instruments were deeply sampled then coded and designed into a series of 31 virtual instruments by the artist(s) and used exclusively in the making of the record(s).”

Nuisance left no stone unturned when collecting these instruments. They include everything from a refurbished abandoned felted piano and heirloom oud, to a vintage home organ borrowed from Facebook marketplace and synths crafted from experimental found sounds. But the expanded library was only the beginning of the project’s vision. Because just as Scott Robert Allen and Eric Osterman reimagined songs from Kuchisabishii to make the Qanisquineq EP, the triple album invites the collaborators to make two entirely new records from the nineteen songs of the first. The result is essentially three variants of the same album: SAND, STONE, GLASS.

Lead single ‘Sepia’ gives a view into how this plays out. The SAND version of the track is what Nuisance describe as “indie folk meets bedroom pop with a pinch of doo wop,” its acoustic washes drawing the listener into rich world of ambient textures, piano and organ beats. But the STONE variant favours a starker ambient style, the acoustic elements stripped out and replaced with a sense of space, while the GLASS offering leans much further toward the piano, maintaining the expansive atmosphere of its predecessor but offering a fonder, poignant tone.

SAND, STONE, GLASS will be released on 3rd March via Katuktu Collective. You can listen to all three iterations of ‘Sepia’ and ‘Davenport’ now via the Nuisance Bandcamp page.

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Adrianne Lenker – cradle
German Error Message – Hopelessness
Jo Schornikow – Incomplete
Grizzly Coast – Half-Light Boy
Taylor Hamilton – Might Say
Porridge Radio – Give / Take
Patio – Scum
Ruthie – Spirit Now Moves
Esther Rose – Don’t Blame It On the Moon
Blood Cultures – Flowers For All Occasions
Puddle-Cuddle – Compost
Mess – Dead Space
Cry Babe – Soft Honk
The Painters – Pieces of Life
Two Meters – Ground
Erin Durant – Take a Load Off
Michelle Blades – Ring
Eric & Magill – Thanks to Sciences
Foundlings – Caught Up on You
Craig Finn – Something To Hope For
JW Ridley – Homesick (Out The Blue)
Pieket – Eternal Recurrence
The Curfews – Rose
Emily Fairlight – Body Below
Raggedy – Brainwash
Barrie – Saturated
Blush – Forever Is a Long Time
Shane Leonard – Empire Builder
Con Davison – Sofa Bed
Gold Light + Snakemusk – The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
The Chats – Pub Feed
Shutups – Yellowjacket
Izzy Heltai – Stuck In Stone
Adam Ostrar – Take It Back
The Death Of Pop – Last
Toledo – Some Samurai
Yot Club – Japan
Evan Thomas Way & The Phasers – Long Distance
K. Campbell – Heads Up
The Duke of Norfolk – As the Heralds Revere You
Leaky Engine-John Birch Society Blues
naps – treading
Vieo Abiungo – What the Rain Restores
Old Earth – The Friends ∴ The Gods
Good Good Blood & Astral Social Club – Heathen Astronaut

Like what you hear? Catch up with the rest of our Monthly Mixes!

The post April 2019 Roundup Mix appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Following on from 2017’s Peach Colored Oranges, we’re delighted to be able to share a brand new Eric & Magill single that is being released today. Opening with a lapping warmth of drones, ‘Thanks to Sciences’ is a gentle slice of dream pop made grand by orchestral flourishes, providing the kind of benevolent spirit familiar to Radical Face. The blend between humble quietness and expansive, almost post-rock swells offers a sense of curiosity and wonder, casting us as small viewers in a majestic and ever-changing world.

B-side ‘Valhalla Baby!’ offers a similarly ethereal tone, the track’s modest vocals eventually giving way as an array of instrumental and electronic elements merge into a crescendo. Once again the duo’s uncanny talent at combining genres is utilised to full effect, with folk, pop and even electronic sensibilities drawn upon to create a unique sound that exceeds the sum of its parts.

‘Thanks to Sciences’ comes complete with a whimsical live/stop animated video that accentuates the childlike marvel that marks the atmosphere of the track. Check it out below:

‘Thanks to Sciences’ is out today and you can listen via Spotify.

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The recording moniker of Weber’s solo work, REW<< has itself been the vehicle for a number of styles and sounds, with Weber’s solo visions as experimental and ambitious as any of his partnerships. Recorded in a series of hotel rooms across much of Asia, Departeures offered a subtropical and reflective slice of dream pop, while 2015’s Olive Skinned, Silver Tongued Sirens Sing Swan Songs pushed into neo-classical territory. Still, the latter employed pop sensibilities to counter the classical vibe, making for a record that blurred the distinction between avant garde experimentalism and accessible pop.

New album Les Racines Parmi Les Sabots Des Chevaux is another direction for the REW<< sound, with Weber shedding the pop aspects in favour of a pure neo-classical aesthetic. Centring the piano as the driving force, the record is a lesson in minimalism, at least when contrasted with REW<<‘s previous releases, dropping much of the dressing in favour of stark emotion. This is typified in the album’s opener ‘Victoire Impossible,’ the tone somewhere between pensive and sparkling, or perhaps both at once—concerned with the quiet beauty of things, and the process of elevating such appreciation into our everyday lives.

The joyous finale of the opener sets the tone for the record, with tracks such as ‘Ralentissement Debout’, ‘Monde Magique et Solitaire’ and ‘Attraper un Aperçu de la Femme de la Peinture’ all finding different ways to bloom into deeper life from their minimal beginnings. Which is not to say that Weber is not equally adept at pure restraint, as highlighted by the sombre tones of ‘Équilibre’ and field recording textures of ‘Volière d’Oiseaux Sans Vol,’ but it’s clear that his tendency with this record leans toward the transcendent climax.

Les Racines Parmi Les Sabots Des Chevaux is out now and you can get it from the REW<< Bandcamp page.

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“neo-classical… draws on a wide range of styles and genres to create a surreal, cinematic slice of orchestral pop”

Now the album has been released and I’m glad to say it follows this same blueprint. Opener ‘Big Fish And The Sirens’ is a perfect example of this. The first thirty seconds unfold as a luscious, intricate instrumental before Weber’s vocals arrive and transform the track into a pop song. But just as his vocals take centre-stage and you think you have it pegged, the music responds accordingly, swelling once more so that Weber’s voice is reduced to just another element of a brilliant whole. The song barely reaches the 2:20 mark, yet by the time the music recedes to leave sirens traversing the silence, you feel in the aftermath of something important and on the verge of a larger burst of activity.

As we mentioned in other REW<< and Eric & Magill posts, Weber draws inspiration from across the globe, utilising an array of distinctive sounds side by side to create something akin to the multicultural world in which we live. ‘To Come Unglued’ opens with air-raid siren synths which morph quickly into an Eastern jaunt before the drums and vocals of Western pop kick in. The title track is similarly diverse, a collision of Bollywood and Hollywood scores with the slow, atmospheric percussion of a post-rock anthem. ‘The Lights in the Sands of Katumpkale’ is the soundtrack to a different cinematic world entirely, one where unknown Europeans committed weird to tape, while ‘Cupid’s Empty House’ is a grand dream-pop song, and ‘Swan’s Melody’ is piano-led and melancholic, full of lingering moments and gravid empty spaces.

If this variety sounds jarring then that’s because it is. Weber does not knit all the elements into a seamless whole but rather plays with order and explores the joins, in doing so creating music which addresses our fragmented, postmodern existence. His biggest achievement is managing to assemble the pieces into something listenable for all of it’s idiosyncrasies, with the pop elements acting as a string to follow into the unfamiliar territories beyond.

Olive Skinned, Silver Tongued Sirens Sing Swan Songs is out now on Hidden Shoal. You can buy it from Bandcamp.

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‘The Lights in the Sands of Katumpkale’ is a short neo-classical track that draws on a wide range of styles and genres to create a surreal, cinematic slice of orchestral pop. Lable Hidden Shoal describe the song as “a window into Ryan E. Weber’s kaleidoscopic musical universe,” which seems more than apt. You can grab it for free right now over at Bandcamp.

Not content with the intricate track, Weber teamed up with Megan Olinger Sweeting to shoot an accompanying video which certainly ups the intrigue. Focusing on the strange movements of various body parts, the video is what my uneducated self would label Lynchian, although I’m sure those who enjoy avant-garde cinema would know of a few better examples. Whatever the influences, the whole thing is shot on Super 8 and transferred to VHS, giving that mysterious/creepy/slightly seedy feel of 70s/80s arthouse flicks. Watch it below:

The album will be released on Hidden Shoal the 16th July.

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In This Light is a slight change from previous releases with drums and guitars more prominent, their familiar loose dreamy ambience channelled into a more focussed shoegaze-y sound. Opening track ‘Easy Goes It’ sets this tone, E&M’s trademark sound boosted with conspicuous percussion. ‘What’s Your Secret?’ continues in a similar vein, some Nintendo-style electronics adding bleeps and bloops to the cacophony at opportune moments. 

With drums leading a plethora of other instruments and samples, it might be expected that In This Light is a disorderly riot of different noises. The opposite is true, with E&M getting a good grip on each song, keeping them succinct and tight, each sound relevant and necessary. Even the tracks that do feel a little looser, such as ‘You Never Know’, are relatively short. Indeed, no song exceeds the four minute mark, meaning that the self-indulgence of some ambient and shoegaze, where it feels the artist is having just too much fun to stop, is avoided. This is furthered by the inclusion of tracks like ‘Holding Onto Light’, restrained and wistful songs that take the foot off of the gas and break up the noisier tracks.

The end result, whether you want to call it shoegaze or dream pop or folktronica, is an experimental album where the experiments were conducted before recording, where the artists are not riffing on their ideas but presenting a complete and structured album.

You can buy the album on a pay-what-you-can basis via the Eric & Magill bandcamp page.

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When you hear the story of the recording process, the tropical sound isn’t surprising. Amazingly, Departeures was recorded in hotel rooms and train compartments across Kenya, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia, all within a few months in 2013. If the wet/snowy weather is getting to you, put Departeures on your headphones and remember that it’s always summer somewhere in the world.

The album is available on a pay-what-you-can basis over at the REW<<  Bandcamp.

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Doug MacNearney – Rambling Songs

(RIYL: folk, Canada, Tyler Butler, Zachary Lucky, heartfelt lyrics)

Dutch Barn – About Time

(RIYL: indie pop, fuzz, reverb, Teenage Fanclub)

Eerie Summer – S/T

(RIYL: dream pop, Best Coast, Pains of Being Pure At Heart)

Elvis Depressedly – Holo Pleasures

(RIYL: fuzzy pop, melancholy, Coma Cinema)

Eric & Magill – Two Travelers

(RIYL – indie pop, dream pop, long distance relationships)

The Everywheres – Slow Friends

(RIYL: Garage rock, psychedelic, fuzz)

Fiesta Minor – Time Spent Breathing

(RIYL: hardcore, screamo, post rock)

Filbert – Chronographic

(Riyl: indie rock, hip-hop, Why?)

Flow My Tears – I

(RIYL: indie pop, The Smiths, Cygnets)

The Flying Blackbyrds – No. 0

(RIYL: 60s rock, bar brawls, Mike Tod)

Fog Lake – Holy Cross

(RIYL: experimental, bedroom pop, slowcore, melancholy)

Fthrsn – Middle School Swag

(RIYL: glitch hop, dream pop, chillwave, GRL MTN)

Gatsby’s Estate – Intro/Extra

(RIYL: chillwave, synths, indie pop, the lonely life of Jay Gatsby)

Gingerlys – Summer Cramps

(RIYL: lo-fi, dream pop, indie rock)

Glass Vaults – Bright EP

(RIYL – ambient, dream pop, Youth Lagoon)

Goldeen – Off Duty Detective

(RIYL: chillwave, synths, John Maus)

Greatest Month – Herbs

(RIYL: washed out electronics, field recordings, chillwave)

Hand Drawn Dracula – Milkin’ It

(RIYL: grunge, indie rock, Nirvana, Toronto)

HAPPY TRENDY – For Listening Trial

(RIYL: lo-fi instrumentals, hypnagogic electronics, anxiety and chill)

Hog Bucket – Old Mustard

(RIYL: dirty bar-room blues, country, classic rock, drunken lovin’)

Hozier – Take Me To Church

(RIYL: radio-friendly indie, piano, Elton John)

The post Favourite Free Music of 2013 (D-H) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The album is one of collaboration between yourself and many others from around the globe. How exactly does this process work? Did you have a plethora of material which you shaped into the record that was released, or did everyone do something specific that was initially planned?

So far the way it has worked is that Eric and I begin a song, chords and words etc. Then as tracks come back from people the song starts to evolve, which kind of indicates how we eventually arrange and re-arrange the tracks. It is a process, sometimes times a song takes an unexpected turn as we receive tracks back from people. Often there is a stand out part that we get that we need to accentuate or use for a transition or something. Every time we get tracks from people it is kind of like opening a Christmas present.

I’m not sure where you are in Kenya and what the situation is like with regards to living conditions etc. but do you find it difficult to carry on the musical projects in an environment so different from what we are used to? I spent a few weeks in some remote areas of Kenya and found the complicated stuff receded and I essentially looked forward to eating simple meals and sleeping (in a sweaty tent). Was it a struggle to remain creative in such a different environment? 

I lived in a very simple house and had a very bare bones studio set up. Mic. Laptop. Headphones Acoustic Guitar. Voice. But really at the core of any song or recording are these things whether in remote Kenya, or Wisconsin or Armenia or wherever I make recordings are these same ingredients. As I write, I’m in Laos in a hotel room, and as I’ve been traveling I’ve been trying to write and record a future stripped down record that will just be me in these environments and I think each new environment adds something to the sound, or the vibe to the recording and soul of the song.

The answer to this may be similar to what you have just said but did being in Kenya shape the record into something it would otherwise have never been? I guess what I’m asking here is if you make music because of your location/situation/life or in spite of it, is it intended as a picture of your experiences or an escape from them?

I think for me what I tend to write about is a reflection of my experiences, at least lyrically. I get inspired musically often from travel, but since we collaborate with so many folks I think their contributions add their own feel to the songs making them a bit more universal sounding.

Are there any specific tales from your travels that inspired a certain song?

The song Psycho is about a feud I had with a pastor from a church that was next to my compound in Kenya. The Pastor had a huge PA set up that he would blast the Beauty and Beast soundtrack or instrumentals from the movie Top Gun for the entire village to hear at 5 AM every Sunday. Very odd, funny at first, but it slowly drove me insane after enduring months and months of this. Everyone in the neighborhood felt powerless to confront this guy, or they had just accepted this. On three occasions I walked over to the church in my pajamas to find this guy sitting in the dark alone blasting this maddening music that shook the walls of my cottage. We’d have words, but he never turned the music down or start later in the morning. On the final time I went over to confront this man I found myself in my pajamas in a shouting match with a priest in Swahili as the sun is just rising. After the fight I took my stereo from my house outside and played Led Zepplin’s ‘House of the Holy’ as loud as it could go. Upon greater reflection I wondered who was likely perceived to be crazier, me or this priest. The song is about how we all act like Psychos to other people we’re in a fight with or something, but it was inspired by this.

Which bands would you cite as major influences?

I don’t think I can listen to any band and not get inspired about something they are doing. Even bands I hate, I can listen and find something I like or find inspiring.

Do other mediums play a role in your musical writing? Are there any writers, artists etc. that you feel make up some of Eric & Magill’s sound?

On the last record there was actually a bit of homage to Jean Luc Goddard who is one of my favorite directors / writers. I think possibly some cinema verte ideas might have entered into my music. Sometimes I like leaving in microphone bumps or talking between takes, things like that, but more generally I somehow relate to some of the attitude and mood to his movies. This is just one that comes to mind though from our Night Singers.

Finally, could you name 4-5 artists that you are into right now? Old or new, tiny or HUGE, anything you find yourself listening to repeatedly.

Honestly I peruse soundcloud or bandcamp or lastfm or whatever a lot looking for new music and possible new people to collaborate with, but there is so much it’s hard to think of a few. I just got a ton of music from Bollywood movies from 1960s-1970s while I was in India. I’ve been digesting this a bit lately and just really enjoying it.

Jon: Thanks again to Ryan Weber for taking the time to talk to us. If you haven’t already you can get Night Singers on Bandcamp. The illustrations are by Toby Leibowitz. and the photography by Joe Wigdahl.

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