The instrumental intro, ‘everyone humming together at once’, is a stuttering, hazy drone, which precedes ‘ant hill paradise’, a track which sees Citron’s vocals breaking through a layer of distortion. The lyrics have a strange and dream-like synthesic quality:

“all i can see, are puddles full of colors,
apartments full of roses
if it helps, i can leave for a bit
fragrances of jasmine isolate the air”

‘avocado and bones’ begins with a teach-your-parakeet-to-talk recording which crackles below some gentle acoustic guitar, a clip that is strangely sweet. “Remember that your bird is an imitator and learns to talk by listening to what you say, not only words and sounds but inflections,” it informs us. “Extend your finger directly under his feet inside the cage until he becomes friendly and clings to it for a gentle ride outside”. The track eventually subsides into a gentle bedroom pop song with some synths and finger snaps and unsettling lyrics: “a ghoulish walk among the tree tops when black top tastes like tar / ‘lets take the scenic route for once’ you cry at the bizarre”. ‘parasite boy vampire bat’ is another soft acoustic track, the vocals so light and breathy as to be almost undecipherable, although not quite:

“we will go places
i won’t bite anymore
i’m sorry for wanting blood
i love the sound of color swirling all around”

‘it felt like rain without the gloom’ is an instrumental interlude which sounds like feedback from a supercomputer channelled through an old church organ, or the electrical turmoil within heavy black storm clouds. ‘Fairy Lights’ is hushed and subdued, several layers of vocals somehow coming together to make something that sounds cohesive and whole, while ‘frogs and toads’ sounds warmer and more positive than the other tracks, the lingering sense of melancholy offset by the strummed guitar. “and i tell my friends i just wrote the prettiest poem,” he sings. “i tell all my friends ‘i just wrote the prettiest poem thats ever been wrote'”. Closer ‘i’ve still never seen Scorpio in the sky’ is another strange and distorted instrumental, mirroring the opening track and bookending the release rather nicely.

You can get buzzing like a bug in the snow as a name-your-price download via the bedbug Bandcamp page.

The post bedbug – buzzing like a bug in the snow appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Daytime TV – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, 80N7)

Debaser – MOOD RING
(RIYL: mixtapes, lo-fi, weird)

Derek – Rookie of the Year
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi)

Devon Mello – Constance All Grown Up (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, bedroom pop)

Dicktations – Words Don’t Love You (REVIEW)
(RIYL: garage rock, Weezer, Black Lips)

Diners – It’s All True
(RIYL: indie pop, Telekinesis)

Diocese – S/T 
(RIYL: garage rock, Krill)

Eerie Summer – The Way I Don’t Understand Anything Anymore (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, shoegaze, jangle, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart)

EP – Ashland (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi)

Fairweather Currents – Things Get Better (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, acoustic Nana Grizol)

Fanpage – L Y A (REVIEW)
(RIYL: noise pop, shoegaze, Jenny Hval)

Faux Discx – Where We Were (COMPILATION)
(RIYL: indie rock, post-punk, shoegaze)

Fazed on a Pony – Hunch
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie rock)

Field Medic – Light is Gone (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, lo-fi, J. Tillman)

Fog Lake – Victoria Park (REVIEW)
(RIYL: experimental, atmospheric pop, solitude)

Fox Academy – Elsie (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, summer nostalgia, golden oldies)

Fraternal Twin – s m a l l  w i n d  p o w e r (REVIEW)
(RIYL: gentle acoustics, natural glitches, intimate songwriting)

Free Cake For Every Creature – Moving Songs (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, post-collegiate blues [or, overcoming them])

Furnsss – New Moves (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, deadbeat disinterest, Abe Vigoda, Hallelujah The Hills)

Gay Angel – Floral (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, weird, early CFTPA)

Gleemer – No Goobyes (REVIEW) / Moving Away (REVIEW)
(RIYL: pop punk, grunge, Pains of Being Pure at Heart)

GoldFlakePaint – The Human Noise We Sat There Making https://goldflakepaint.bandcamp.com/album/the-human-noise-we-sat-there-making
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, compilations, all the cool stuff GFP write about)

Good, Good Blood – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, atmospheric folk)

The Grey Estates Vs Gold Flake Paint – The Pale Light Between (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, compilations, Gold Flake Paint, The Grey Estates)

Griffin Washburn – S/T
(RIYL: chill indie pop, psych, The Lagoonas)

GRNDMS – Capitol Mill (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, Frankie Cosmos)

We’ll be sharing a new section of the list every day this week, so be sure to check back for the complete collection. If you find something you like, or think we missed something life-changing, then why not let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr or good old email.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2015: D-G appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. I Don’t Know – Tina Refnes (+ Lit Links)
2. If I Were a Portal – Evening Hymns
3. Cradle Robber – Tyler Butler and His Handsome Friends
4. Calvander – Mount Moriah
5. The Way It Is, The Way It Could Be – The Weather Station
6. Porch – Long Beard
7. Small Wind Power – Fraternal Twin
8. Mourning Dove – Danielle Fricke
9. 3 – Cat Be Damned
10. Cold Apartment Floors – Vagabon
11. I Used To Be A Bird – Fairweather Currents
12. Drive-Thru – Honeyuck
13. Ghosts – The Washboard Abs
14. Litany – Tyler Key
15. Aviator Shades – Quiet Hollers
16. Book of Right On (Joanna Newsom cover) – Foxtails Brigade (Lit Links)
17. Judy Blume – Mal Devisa
18. So Long – Dot & Logic
19. A Swift Thing – EP
20. Stuck w/ Me – Home Lives
21. Close Call (Adderall Anxiety) – Shaky Shrines
22. Boys – Dicktations
23. Nothing – Strange Friends
24. Careful Creators – Summering
25. Blinding White – Vapour Night
26. Pull – Slow Dancing Society (Hidden Shoal compilation)
27. Calmest – Naps
28. As He Walked Into the Field – Robert Stillman
29. Church Bells – Tommy Perman, Simon Kirby & Rob St. John
30. Seven – Oh, Rose
    31. No Hell – Cloud Cult

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

‘Take Me Out of New York’ begins as the album means to go on, somehow defiantly gentle, like a quiet little voice that tells you to keep on going, “There is a light at the ending of the tunnel that gets brighter every day / As dim as it can ever get, it can never be erased”. This trend continues with ‘Folktale Amongst Sea Monsters’ and ‘Neptune’, vocals sometimes hushed to an near-whisper and sometimes rising with a reticent stoicism (“I just want to write songs that are beautiful and warm / like hot cocoa and a fire in a blizzard”). ‘I’m Slowly Forgetting All My Old Songs’ ripples with piano and is reminiscent of Windmill.

‘Drifting in Space’ is probably my favourite track on the album (at least at the time of writing), mentioning a whole host of things including dreams of alien abductions and sunburn from stars and depression and Alex G and Hop Along and beards and the end of the world. It’s incredibly pretty and more importantly feels honest and heartfelt.

“All of my songs they are the same
I love my mothers maiden name
it reminds me of the summer air and the desert”

‘Jim’ is addressed to a dead friend, with lines such as “I know you have your doubts about heaven or a god / I do too but from the things I’ve heard you’ll find it pretty nice there /
send a postcard”. It’s actually pretty heavy stuff, with crying parents and bittersweet memories and that numb no-feeling that can follow bad news. But it’s also, like the album as a whole, shot through with hope, little glimmers of that grow in intensity and break through in beams at the end: “I think that I’ve been growing for awhile now / I think that I will miss you for awhile now / I think that I’ve be living for awhile now / I think that I’ll be living for awhile more”. ‘I’m Too Quiet to Play House Shows’ is a pretty acoustic instrumental, while ‘I Used to Be a Bird’ has strong shades of Bright Eyes, with simple acoustics and pensive vocals about past lives in wide open natural spaces.

‘The Island Pt. 2’ stretches to almost ten minutes, a piano-based epic with hints of the heart-on-sleeve nature of Wendy, and then closer ‘Take New York Out of Me’ returns to acoustic guitar, providing the mirrored book-end of the opening track an some nicely reassuring lyrics, “Things get worse but they’ll get better soon”.

If you like any of the aforementioned acts then I urge you to check out Things Get Better. It’s not in any way flashy or pretentious and retains an endearing sense of understated honesty throughout, which is pretty much the most important thing from this kind of music.

You can get Things Get Better on a name-your-price basis from the Fairweather Currents Bandcamp page.

The post Fairweather Currents – Things Get Better appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Earl Boykins – FRIENDS / Everybody Likes Dogs

(RIYL: indie rock, punk, jangle)

E.L.M.H. – Life Is Super

(RIYL: experimental, bedroom pop, ambient)

Emily Hope Jacobsen – Passenger EP

(RIYL: folk, acoustic, Sarah Winchester)

The Emptiness – Sadie, Hawaii

(RIYL: pop, VH1, Arrange)

Eric Funn – No More Blue Tomorrows 

(RIYL: anti-folk, outsider, Daniel Johnston)

Family Video – Too Short, Too Long / Maybe This Summer

(RIYL: lo-fi, pop, indie rock, Standard Fare, Waxahatchee)

Fairweather Currents – Truesdale

(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, Small Wonder)

Fanpage – Trip

(RIYL: indie rock, experimental, noisy clamour, Sweden)

Free Cake For Every Creature – “pretty good”

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

Florist – 6 days of songs

(RIYL: bedroom pop, sad, lo-fi, Frankie Cosmos)

Flower Face – Homesick / Funeral Kid EP

(RIYL: bedroom, sad girl, sincere folk)

Fog Lake – Virgo Indigo

(RIYL: Ambient, dream pop, experimental)

Frankie Cosmos – affirms glinting

(RIYL: bedroom pop, sad, lo-fi, Adult Mom)

Garrett Walters – At the End of South Washington

(RIYL: punk, folk, Ghost Mice)

Geology – Our Intertwined Worlds

(RIYL: folk, indie rock, The Tourist, mewwithoutyou)

German Error Message – Haunts

(RIYL: ambient, bedroom pop, folk, The Microphones)

German Error Message & Lung Cycles – s/t

(RIYL: experimental, ambient, folk, The Microphones)

Girl Valley – June/July II

(RIYL: bedroom acoustic, lo-fi)

Ghosting – Virtual Saxophone Transmissions

(RIYL: vaporwave, smooth jazz, 80s movies)

Gleemer – Holyland USA

(RIYL: shoegaze, dream pop, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine)

Globelamp – Star Dust

(RIYL: dream pop, psychedelic, lo-fi)

The Goodbye Party – Silver Blues

(RIYL: bedroom pop, power pop, Radiator Hospital)

Gorgeous Bully – Smiling, Laughing

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

Hands and Knees – American Cheese

(RIYL: indie pop, Constantines, Born Ruffians)

High Pop – Holy Smokes

(RIYL: punk, fuzz pop, Wavves)

Home Alone – There’s a Light Coming Through

(RIYL: bedroom pop, ambient, dark lonely nights)

Favourite Free Music of 2014 (E-H) from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2014 (E-H) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:
1. Le Sigh – Johnny Foreigner
2. What You Need – Jacques Greene
3. Opinion Piece – Jon Hynes
4. Is What It Is – She Keeps Bees
5. Dead Lamb – King of Cats
6. Full of Minnows – Happyness (from 80n7)
7. Gypsy Dead Girl – Field Medic
8. Do Girls – Theophilus London
9. Fireworks (Reprise) – Radiator Hospital
10. Garden – Hiatus
11. All the Experts Say – Joyride!
12. 24 – Shipwrecks
13. The Way He Looks at Me – Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
14. G – Young Jesus
15. Spring Sheet – Fairweather Currents
16. 925 – Gorgeous Bully (from 80n7)
17. On the Rocks – The Rural Alberta Advantage
18. Never Catch Me – Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar
19. Seraphine – Peirson
20. Colorado – Noah Young

September Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

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

But with the internet, oh boy, I didn’t even have to look! I just clicked a few links that looked vaguely interesting and now I’m sitting here listening to Truesdale, trying to describe why this modest, minimal little piece of music is so damn beautiful. If you liked Small Wonder’s Wendy or Adieu Caribou’s I Do Care About You, then I think you will like this.

This is a very personal album, one of those ones that you just know was borne out of compulsion rather than a desire to please. Citron says it best himself:

“This album was not written for anyone other than myself, and I am wary to upload such a personal lens into myself onto the public of the web. So all I ask in return is your support if you enjoyed it! Share it! Tell your sad, sad friends who enjoy sad, sad music!”

So sad friends, if you’re out there, please enjoy this album. You can download Truesdale on a pay-what-you-want basis over at the Fairweather Currents Bandcamp page.

P.S. Fairweather Currents also have two collections of covers including takes on tracks by The Antlers, Nana Grizol, Waxahatchee, Coma Cinema and many more. They’re pretty lo-fi and morose but also really nice.

The post Fairweather Currents – Truesdale appeared first on Various Small Flames.