Having orbited around one another in the LA music scene for a short while, Derek Ted and Braden Lawrence gradually began to collaborate, helping one another with solo work, producing other artists, then eventually writing original material as a duo. The product of the relationship is beaming, a brand new project which will release its debut self-titled EP this June via Rose Garden, and lead single ‘slow sinkin’ gives a flavour of what to expect from the outfit. With Field Medic adding guest vocals, the track possesses all of the earnestness fans of Ted and Lawrence’s solo work will know well, the bright rhythm and heartfelt tone the sonic equivalent of shaking clarity into a clouded mind. “Lyrically, it’s about looking back on the past and how easy it is to get caught up in your own BS,” the band explain. “It’s our most acoustic track on the EP, and we wanted it to feel more natural and organic.”

Watch the video directed by Olivia Alonso Gough with cinematography and colour by Michael Greenwood below:

Beaming EP is out on the 13th June via Rose Garden and you can pre-save it now.

Bouquet – Hold On

Almost a decade since their previous album was released, LA-based dream pop duo Bouquet are preparing to unveil a brand new full-length. Consisting of interdisciplinary artist, writer and composer Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and songwriter and producer Max Foreman, the project made a name with a rich and romantic style that championed restraint within a genre often prone to excesses, and new single ‘Hold On’ represents a continuation of the style. With Pennypacker Riggs providing vocals and guitar and Foreman vocals, synthesizer and drum machine, the song is a lesson in precision, not drowning the audience in reverb and haze but instead beckoning them into its ethereal, wistful world.

Course – Hue Mirror

Led by Jess Robbins, Chicago synth pop outfit Course formed in the months before the pandemic, so adapting to challenging conditions has always been part of the project’s DNA. Their third album Hue Mirror is no exception. After suffering with chronic pain for years, Robbins was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition ankylosing spondylitis, and wrote the record within the vertiginous early days of processing the news. The lead single and title track introduces the tone of the record, one delivered with equal doses of tenderness and fear. “I wrote this song during the confusion and uncertainty of my future,” Robbins explains. “The song touches on the idea of how a medicine for this disease comes at a price, the pain I had been having for so long, and the sneakiness of not knowing when the next flare will come.”

You find me again
And again
Driving fear
Comes over me
In the light of pain

Hue Mirror is out on the 25th April and you can pre-order it via the Spondylitis Association of America, with all proceeds being donated to research.

Jess Kerber – I Wonder If I’ll Forget This

Born to musician parents, and a guitarist herself since the age of twelve, Nashville’s Jess Kerber makes warm and timeless songs that feel like worthy entries to the American folk tradition. New single ‘I Wonder If I’ll Forget This’ is a case in point, a wonderfully understated track that aches with real emotion. Kerber’s vocals are flanked by acoustic guitar and the barely-there texture of organ drone, an arrangement that allows the songwriting to shine through. It’s impressively mature, particularly in the way it combines genuine vulnerability with a sense of steadfast tenacity, a sensation Kerber likens to “the feeling of being little and learning to swim, grabbing the edge of the pool.”

‘I Wonder If I’ll Forget This’ is out now via Felte Records and is available on streaming services.

JLJR – Arms For Eyes

With new EP The Rest of Your Life coming soon via Paper Moon Records, JLJR has shared new single ‘Arms For Eyes’. Building upon the mix of emotion and narrative which marked the JLJR debut, the track adopts a tone both reflective and defiant to chart the end of a distinctive kind of relationship. One troubled and difficult to live through, yet equally one whose closure takes something from you too. “It’s a reflection on the disintegration of a bad friendship,” as JLJR puts it, “and the struggle to be yourself after someone robs you of part of your identity.”

‘Arms For Eyes’ is out now via Paper Moon Records.

Luah – Wanting You

“Something like a memory, or rather several memories superimposed. A way in which to not so much return to the past as view it more vividly, somehow striking in both its intimacy and remove. That place we long for but can never return to.” So we wrote of ‘Ocean O. (home 4 the holidays)’ by Brendan Paul Sullivan’s Luah back in January. It was a song which embodied the sincerity and heart of the project, not to mention the gentle patience with with emotion is brought to life. With album Some Blue Heaven coming next month, latest new single ‘Wanting You’ takes this sense of patience even further. A layered, slow burning psych folk song that taps into the rhythms of the diurnal cycle, moving from day to night as it progresses and gradually coalescing into something almost cosmic.

Molly Ganley – Comparisons

Last week saw the release of Eldest Daughter, the debut album from NYC indie folk artist Molly Ganley. Described as “a nostalgic and honest account of finding your way,” it’s a very human record about growth and change and navigating life’s strange turns with as much grace as is possible. One standout is ‘Comparisons’, a track that sits at the centre of the album and proves the perfect introduction to what Ganley does so well. Backed by pedal steel, piano and backing vocals from country folk duo Raising Daughters, the song confronts the futile and needless woes that result from comparing oneself to others.

Monnone Alone – Dry Doubt

Eighteen months ago, Melbourne‘s Monnone Alone released single ‘Loose Terrain’, a stellar slice of jangle pop where bright playfulness was shadowed by the slightest mark of wistful longing. With three albums already under their belt, the track seemed to be a culmination of their talents and experience, only for the project to settle into a prolonged period of radio silence. Such quiet can go one of two ways in the music industry—positive or negative—but luckily for us, in Monnone Alone’s case, the answer is the former. Because while they might have have appeared inactive from the outside, the truth was they were hard at work on brand new full-length, Here Comes the Afternoon. Pencilled for early May, the release is a joint endeavour, with Lost And Lonesome (Aus), Meritorio (EU), Safe Suburban Home (UK) and Repeating Cloud (US) teaming up to spread the record far and wide. Album opener and new single ‘Dry Doubt’ suggests ‘Loose Terrain’ was anything but a flash in the pan, so the date can’t arrive soon enough.

Orchid Mantis – Spirit Circle

Over the years, Atlanta, Georgia-based artist Thomas Howard has used the Orchid Mantis project as a space in which to explore a host of musical styles, each release responding to and building upon that which came before it so that the work was always in flux. Coming this spring on Daydream Records and Start-Track, the latest Orchid Mantis full-length Possession Pact pivots towards a nineties slowcore style, channeling forebears like Low, Bedhead and Codeine to offer a new dimension to the project. Opener and lead single ‘Spirit Circle’ typifies the understated brooding atmosphere. A song bathed in shadowy textures and melancholic quiet, always threatening to rise into something more intense but for the most part maintaining its muted darkness.

Steven van Betten & Andrew Rowan – Cloud Behind the Sun

Back in 2023 we wrote about Friends and Family, the debut solo full-length by Steven van Betten on Future Gods which highlighted the LA songwriter’s distinctively compassionate, humane style. Now van Betten has returned with brand new EP Cloud Behind the Sun, though has parked the solo venture in favour of continuing a collaboration with composer Andrew Rowan which stretches back more than a decade. The lead single title track shows the three-song release to be every bit as thoughtful and heartfelt as its predecessor, taking the ostensibly ordinary experience of passing an ex on the street and mining the moment for all of its depth and weight. Something made possible not least thanks to Rowan’s almost cinematic arrangement, its intricacy revealing itself as slowly yet decisively as spring through a thawing winter ground.

Wryn – Only Thing

We’ve covered a couple of singles by Californian songwriter Wryn in recent weeks, with both ‘Snake‘ and ‘Slow Down‘ introducing the themes of change and self-actualisation which run through their upcoming full-length, Shapes. The record’s release is fast approaching on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, and Wryn has returned with new single ‘Only Thing’ to further expand upon these ideas. The song opens with a spare, almost hesitant tone, but gradually builds in momentum, as though deciding to embrace life’s inevitable forward motion. “Life is always shifting and evolving,” as Wryn puts it, “and that’s a good thing. Change is the only constant.”

Watch the suitably literal video directed by DanTroon-Sazani below:

Shapes will be released on the 28th March via Righteous Babe Records and you can pre-order it now.

Zoya Zafar – I don’t love you

Writing of release Spring Songs in April of last year, we described how Lahore-born, Orlando-based songwriter Zoya Zafar utilised a controlled, unadorned style to communicate a considerable depth of feeling. “Zafar uses minimalism not as an austere stylistic choice but as a tool to hone her music’s emotional weight,” as we put it, “suffusing it with warmth despite its direct and unfussy arrangement.” New single ‘i don’t love you’ is no less charged in its mood, beginning life with no accompaniment other than acoustic guitar before Max Helgemo helped evolve it into something richer without sacrificing the poignant spareness.

The post Weekly Listening: March 2025 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklist:

Field Medic – henna tattoo
Leggy – Taffy
Myshiuno – Turf War In Chinatown, SF
Press Club – Suburbia
Shady Bug – Make it Up
Calicoco – Anchor Park
LUNCH – Forget Everything
krissanthemum – Honesty Hour
Wy – Pavements
UV Rays – Flowerhead
Fanclub – Stranger
Jeffrey Silverstein – Easy Rider
Ryan Dugré – Tonight
Okay Embrace – Phantom Text
Samia – Lasting Friend
community college – karaoke
runnner – eggshell
Fields of Heaven – Song of Loss
Minor Moon – Hold Me Up (Liar)
Lampland – You Little Liar
Westkust – Swebeach
kate can wait – licantropía
Bleeder – Rusted and Raw
Laveda – Dream Sleep
Pass/Ages – As It Rises
Yuri Tománek – In the end, we all fade away
Tender Glue – Dear Peri
Red Wedding – Bones
Women Tied to Railroad Tracks – Endless Carpet
Eyesore & the Jinx – On An Island
Bellows – What Can I Tell You About the World?
Merival – Sinner
Vassals – Lil Anvil
The This – The Strangest Ritual
Breakup Films – You Said You Hate Not Seeing Me
The Phone Booth – Healthcare
Seamstress – Everything
Zelma Stone – Light Bulb Boy
Charlotte Cornfield – Andrew
Wicketkeeper – Night Night (Whatever)
a. harlana – faces
Lady Dan – What Sanity
Tesha – Funeral

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

runnner – eggshell

runnner is the project of Noah Weinman and Nate Lichtenberger, who make muic that they describe as “fus[ing] electronic and experimental elements into ragged, heart-on-your-sleeve folk-rock.” In May last year we premiered a video from their debut album Awash, and now the band are readying a follow-up EP entitled Fan On. In anticipation, runnner have released the first single, ‘eggshell’, a song that sees them inject a little lo-fi folk aesthetic into their bedroom pop. It’s something like the breezily reflective folk pop of Pinegrove meets the kitchen-based everyday introspection of early Trace Mountains. Lyrically the song is both smart and sad, probably the most affecting song you’ll hear about cooking eggs all year.

Stay tuned to the runnner Bandcamp page for news on the new EP.

Wy – Pavements

We wrote about ‘Gone Wild’ by Malmö’s Wy back in 2017, describing the track as “representing the sensation of being stuck in your own head, a vast lonely place that’s somehow claustrophobic too.” The track was taken from Okay, an album which existed within a great cloudy haze of atmosphere and emotion, though latest single ‘Pavements’ expands upon the record’s style and pushes into more urgent, aggressive territory. The evolution serves to increase the intensity and ferocity of the Wy sound, the insistent rhythm driving Ebba’s ominously threatening vocals and forthright lyrics.

‘Pavements’ is out now via Hybris.

Westkust – Swebeach

Based in Gothenburg, rock band Westkust have been quiet since the the release of Last Forever back in 2015, though this year will see that put right with a self-titled album with Run For Cover Records. Lead single ‘Swebeach’ gives an indication of what to expect, fun-filled garage rock as filtered through a shoegaze prism, Julia Bjernelind’s vocals emerging through the wall of noise with a sense of assurance and warmth, like a hand reaching out in the dark.

Merival – Sinner

Merival, the project led by Toronto’s Anna Horvath, make lush and emotive songs that combine self-searching introspection with slow-burning catharsis. Their latest single ‘Sinner’ is what Horvath describes as a song “about being caught between two places, one known and comfortable, and the other intoxicatingly new and impossible to avoid.” It combines the lyricism commonly associated with folk with sparse guitar arrangements and confident vocal delivery. The sense of grand emotion is heightened in the track’s second half as elegant strings weave onto the scene, proving that you don’t need to write a sad-sounding song to convey real feeling.

You can buy ‘Sinner’ from the Merival Bandcamp page.

community college – novocaine / karaoke

The side project of Horse Jumper of Love bassist John Margaris, community college are readying their debut album on Disposable America. Joined by his brother Dan on drums and fellow Horse Jumper Dimitri Giannopolous on bass, Margaris makes downbeat lo-fi pop songs that are nevertheless crunchy and catchy. The opening two tracks have been released into the wild early, and both ‘novocaine’ and ‘karaoke’ are short and moreish, the former feeling as numbed as the title suggests, while the latter has a bit more life, tentatively shambling towards glorious basement indie rock.

You can pre-order comco now from the Disposable America Bandcamp page.

Seamstress – Everything

New Jersey’s Gabriella Chavez met Charlie Sztyk in their local music scene, and the pair formed Seamstress, a band that take Chavez’s personal history of heartbreak and moulds it into songs that sweep and shift around a solid emotional core. Their latest single, ‘Everything’ is a case in point, a vulnerable admission of the difficulty of communication in trying times. Chavez’s vocals sound strong and still despite this sense of fragile yearning, resulting in the kind of sincere folk rock that Sharon van Etten has made her own.

I don’t wanna talk about it, anymore,
I don’t wanna talk about it

Tender Glue – Dear Peri

Tender Glue is Tom Gluewicki, born and raised in Poland but now residing in New York. ‘Dear Peri’ is a track from the latest Tender Glue album, Closet Leftovers, an achingly emotive song inspired by the death of a Polish climber on Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas. The Peri of the title is a ghost of local legend which protects the mountain, and the lyrics confront imagined details of the climber’s last moments as he succumbs to the will of the mountain. Built on an anchoring guitar line, the song sways with waves of atmospherics as Gluewicki’s vocals deliver his words with an intense melancholy.

Closet Leftovers is out now and available from the Tender Glue Bandcamp page.

Charlotte Cornfield – Andrew

Charlotte Cornfield is a singer-songwriter from Toronto. Her third LP, The Shape of Your Name, is on its way in the Spring, and is set to feature a stellar cast of collaborators, including Leif Vollebekk and Brendan Canning, Kevin Drew and Charles Spearin (all of Broken Social Scene). In anticipation of release, Cornfield has unveiled the record’s first single, ‘Andrew’. She describes the song as a “reminder to step back and look at the bigger picture instead of dwelling on the minutiae,” and says that it could be about a partner both platonic or romantic. The press release promises something contemplative and contemporary, funny and heart-wrenching, and Cornfield makes good on the pledge, creating a folk rock song that feels both spry and tender, a clear-eyed and confident confrontation with the truth of a situation.

The Shape of Your Name will be released on the 5th April via Outside Music’s new imprint Next Door Records.

Zelma Stone – Light Bulb Boy

Zelma Stone are from San Francisco, with lead Chloe Zelma joined by Haley Pan (bass), Jake Kissner (drums), Jewelz (keys) and Kevin Fielding (lead guitar). Citing Big Thief and Angel Olsen as major influences, the band have recently released their debut EP, Layla, which promises to “channel grief and pain into a dreamy soundscape of empowering arrangements and addictive melodies.” ‘Light Bulb Boy’ is the third track on that EP, a song that builds from mellow folk rock beginnings into something altogether more stirring.

Being here where things are breakable
I guess we’ve chosen this path
It’s a long familiar road now darling
and these seasons just keep on coming back

Field Medic – henna tattoo

We’ve been fans of Field Medic, aka Kevin Patrick, for a long time here at VSF, and have been pleased to watch his progress as he has made music his full-time endeavour. His latest album, fade into the dawn, is on the way via Run For Cover Records, a release that promises to blend “black humour and bold introspection” to find meaning in the mundane. As a taster, Field Medic has unveiled first single, ‘henna tattoo’, a characteristically sincere song recorded to 4-track tape recorder. Acoustic guitar is joined by Patrick’s earnest vocals and subtle beats from his drum machine, making for a track that lands at the folkier end of the bedroom pop spectrum.

fade into the dawn will be released on Run For Cover Records on 19th April, and you can pre-order it now from their website or Bandcamp page.

Shady Bug – Make it Up

The latest addition to the ranks of Exploding in Sound, Shady Bug are an indie rock band from St Louis. Their forthcoming album Lemon Lime is due to be released next month. The first single, ‘Make It Up’ is available to stream right now, and it’s immediately apparent that their sound feels right at home next to their new label mates. Lead Hannah Rainey says the song is about sharing Sprite with a crush, although the sweetness is offset somewhat by the chorus which covers worries both personal and what Rainey describes to Flood Magazine as “anxiety caused by the trees blooming early and dying in my neighborhood because of global warming.” The thrashing, cathartic finale helps too, proving that Shady Bug have the indie rock chops to support their fun songwriting.

Pre-order Lemon Lime now from the Exploding in Sound Bandcamp page and the Shady Bug Bandcamp page.

UV Rays – Flowerhead

Though originating as the solo project of Adrien DeFontaine, Brooklyn’s UV Rays soon grew into a four piece and found their groove as a raucous indie rock band. New single ‘Flowerhead’ serves as a great introduction for the uninitiated, driven forward by the drums and vocals of  Erica Warner, the guitars and bass surging behind with warm energy—like a shoegaze track as imagined by a power pop band, all melancholy blown away by the sheer momentum.

‘Flowerhead’ is taken from the band’s debut EP, Try and Begin, which is set for release on the 1st March, so keep an eye on the UV Rays Bandcamp page.

a. harlana – faces

Juno Roome leads a. harlana, a band that make gauzy and vaporous ambient pop songs with a raw and emotional edge. They have recently released an EP, ada belle, three tracks that shift and swirl with dreamy feeling, or as the press release accurately puts it, “elegaic, elegant, enigmatic and extra-good.” ‘Faces’ is the initial standout, a 7+ minute lesson in patience and atmosphere, lingering like tendrils of fog over sparkling guitar and lovelorn vocals. The overall aura is one of yearning, especially with the final line of “but i can’t seem to will your face next to mine.”

Okay Embrace – Phantom Text

We first featured David Schaefer’s Okay Embrace back in November when we premiered their single, ‘Moving’. “The delivery has a breathless quality,” we wrote of the track. “like the words of a person who has withheld their feelings for too long, the mounting pressure breaching some threshold and spewing forth in manic flow.” ‘Phantom Text’ is the second song from the release Moving/Improving, a song that builds from uncertain beginnings and kicks into a tighter rhythm. Again, the track builds into an increasingly pressing emotional state, bringing to mind the likes of Bright Eyes and Slaughter Beach, Dog in its ability to craft personal struggles into affirming, searching tunes.

Moving/Improving is available now from the Okay Embrace Bandcamp page.

Lady Dan – What Sanity

Working out of Texas but with roots in Birmingham, Alabama, Lady Dan makes music which is self-described as “Melancholic cowboy sounds you can cry in front of your cat to.” Taken from a forthcoming EP, ‘What Sanity’ takes this aesthetic and runs in the direction of unrequited love, detailing the soul-sucking sensation of falling for someone when they are indifferent to your very existence.

Bellows – What Can I Tell You About the World?

Recording as Bellows, Oliver Kalb has made his name as an interesting, ambitious songwriter that deals in heartfelt honesty. The Rose Gardener, his forth record that’s coming soon on Topshelf Records, looks set to continue the trend, stretching the limits of the bedroom pop genre and calling into question the use of such terms. Still, leads single ‘What Can I Tell You About the World?’ keeps things simple, a humble, touching folk song that comes complete with an intimate video from Richard Gin, setting the tone for an album that looks to address the poisonous culture of judgement and loneliness that marks the contemporary Western experience.

The Rose Gardener will be released on Topshelf Records on the 22nd February and you can get it on Bandcamp.

The This – The Strangest Ritual

Beginning life as a solo project of Evan Matthiesen, the ungoogleable Victoria, B.C. band THE THIS put out a debut EP back in 2017, and have since followed up with a series of single in preparation for a full length album. After the dejected weariness of ‘Casual Encounters’, the band are back with ‘The Strangest Ritual’, a frantic slice of punk rock that trades any hesitancy for frantic forward motion. As Matthiesen shouts over runaway instrumentation, you get the sense that the song is determined to have a good time despite whatever might be happening around it, as though fun and assured energy can be willed into existence with enough desire and dedication.

Bleeder – Rusted and Raw

Bleeder is the recording project of Shelby Smoak a writer and musician who focuses much of his attention on his experiences as a haemophiliac. His memoir, also titled Bleeder, was published by Michigan State University Press back in 2013, detailing the quest for life and love when suffering from haemophilia and HIV, with what Joanna Smith Rakoff described as “not just brutal honesty, but also with humour and grace.”

Bleeder the band emerged from the book’s ashes, looking to explore similar themes through a different form and tone. The second video in the outfit’s Singles Series, ‘Rusted and Raw’ takes the emotion, fear and loneliness of the memoir and weaves it into a wistfully retro brand of indie rock—once again breathing human life into a story of suffering and perseverance.

You can find all previous editions of Bright Sparks here, and why not check out our monthly roundup mixes?

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 21 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Field Medic – Flash Tattoo

If you’ve been following WTD for any length of time, chances are you already know all about Field Medic (if not, check out reviews here, here and here), and the way he makes folk music for the Twenty-first Century. The latest Field Medic single, ‘flash tattoos’, is yet another example, what feels like a sincere classic folk song at heart, a quietly confident paean to celebrating your differences, but embellished with warm lo-fi pop stylings that keep things genuine and rooted to the ground.

“it don’t pay to be different right now
but sometime I know someday it will”

The song will appear on a forthcoming EP, so keep your eyes peeled for the full release.

Praything – You’ll Be Mine

Praything, the project of Brooklyn’s Ju Kovacevich, is another artist we’ve featured several times (for example here and here). Praything’s first song of 2017 is ‘You’ll Be Mine’, another slice of lush and anthemic indie pop, Kovacevich’s distinctive vocals delicate and vulnerable against steady percussion and bubbling synths, before the whole thing breaks out into a cathartic wordless chorus. Sometimes you don’t need words to express emotion.

On the Other Side – Lincoln Oak

On the Other Side is the solo project of Dwight Miller from Modesto, California. He has an EP out early next month on CA DIY label Make Anything Records, and has recently released the first track, ‘Lincoln Oak’. The sound is emotionally charged, emo-tinged, indie rock, with shades of Pinegrove and Modern Baseball. The label say Miller tries to make “music that isn’t just escape from his problems, but forces him to tackle them head on”, so expect heart-on-sleeve sincerity behind the throaty barked vocals.

She Was My Ryan is due on the 7th of April, and you can pre-order it now from Make Anything Records.

Cassandra Jenkins – Red Lips

New York’s Cassandra Jenkins is soon to release her debut album Play Till You Win, and has just released the second single ‘Red Lips’. The song is a beguiling mix of Emmylou Harris’s country rock, Mazzy Star’s dreamy lingering pop and the strange and emotional synths of the Twin Peaks Soundtrack. The song deals with the encroachment of the digital realm on our lives, and the subsequent impact on our mental health. There are messages woven into the fabric of the track, as Jenkins explains, “Each verse takes on one color from the RGB spectrum: red for love and desire, green for jealousy, and blue for sorrow.” If this is anything to go by, the album will be one to look out for as it takes pop music to new ruminative and thematic depths.

Play Till You Win will be released on April 7th through Jenkins’s own label Cassandra Complex, which she set up as a means of making “social commentary in a way that is accessible and beautiful”. You can order it now from Bandcamp.

ULTRAS – Team Handed

The moniker of Scottish multi-instrumentalist Gav Prentice (formerly Over The Wall), ULTRAS is a veritable melting pot of influences, from pop, rock and traditional folk to electronica and hip-hop. The self-titled debut album, set for release this April, is therefore a diverse listen, though lead single ‘Team Handed’ finds Prentice practicing a similar style to that of Over The Wall. Warm guitar and background ambience are coupled with detailed lyrics that manage to sound both dejected and alive, giving the whole thing an emotive, empathetic vibe that speaks highly of Prentice’s songwriting capabilities.

ULTRAS is set for release on the 28th April via Hello Thor Records and Instinctive Racoon.

On The Water – Sun Temple

Philadelphia-based experimental folk band On The Water have announced their sixth collection of songs, Superposition, to be released in the middle of April. Written by Fletcher VanVliet and featuring an array of contributors both old and new, the release comprises of unorthodox folk songs which seem to fall somewhere between eccentric and organic, playing like thoughts and feelings presented unfiltered. Single ‘Sun Temple’ is a good example of this, eschewing convention to sound like a direct view inside someone’s head, ending up every bit as immediate and weird as that might seem.

Superposition will be released on the 22^nd April and you can pre-order it now from the On The Water Bandcamp page.

Rosie Tucker – Fault Lines

Rosie Tucker is a musician and songwriter from LA. Her latest single, ‘Fault Lines’ is her first new music since her debut album Lowlight, and provides what she describes as an “indie-rock ode to a particular sort of sun-bleached, So-cal feeling of isolation”. Fans of Waxahatchee and Frankie Cosmos will find plenty to like, especially as the songwriting is so strong. As the title suggests, the lyrics use the geology beneath California as a metaphor for movements of a more personal nature.

“California aches on her tectonic plates
she waits to make the break into the sea”

Keep an eye on the Rosie Tucker website for info on future releases.

Sleep Movies – Paper Hat

Sleep Movies is the recording project of Pittsburgh’s Skyler Brimmierer, who featured recently on the Crafted Sounds compilation, Have a nice day. (of which there are a few copies left, if you’re quick). April sees the release of EDG, a hazy-yet warm collection blissful lo-fi pop that plays like a tropical sea mist descending on your day at the beach. Lead single ‘Paper Hat’ serves as a perfect introduction, the vocals fuzzed to the point of indecipherability, yet losing nothing in their message thanks to the expressive delivery and idyllic vibes. As such, the track is temperate and hospitable, allowing the listener to relax back into its cloudy embrace. As the press release suggests: “Watch TV in your dreams, and flip on Sleep Movies.”

EDG is out on the 13^th April via Crafted Sounds and you can pre-order it now in both digital and physical formats via Bandcamp.

Panther Hollow – Jamie

NYU music composition graduate Bernardo Ochoa writes and performs for Modern Diet, Ackerman, and a variety of other Brooklyn-based bands, though Panther Hollow is his personal recording project. With the help of Matti Dunietz (drums), Dan Hemerlein (bass) and Evan Lane (trumpet), Ochoa has put together an EP, People Synesthesia, which pulls inspiration from all directions to form what the press release describes as a “stylistically diverse collection of portraits and transient feelings.” While lead single ‘Office’ was a fuzzy slice of grungey garage rock, second single ‘Jamie’ uses banjos and mandolins in support of Ochoa’s gentle, wistful lyrics to create something altogether more pacifying.

People Synesthesia is set for release on the 31st May.

The Saxophones – New Tradition

You may remember us writing about The Saxophones back in August, when we reviewed their debut EP, If You’re On the Water. Excitingly, the 3-song single is now getting the release it deserves on Full Time Hobby. To celebrate, the band have released a video for ‘New Tradition’, a track we described in our review as a “slow dream pop song, like a sad croon in a sparsely filled dance hall, Alexi Erenkov’s sax snaking around and conjuring an almost Lynchian, noirishly romantic vibe”. The video takes a slightly different tack, setting the song to footage of a bright summer day, and one man’s attempts to shake off a sense of gloom.

You can get If You’re on the Water now on 7″ vinyl or digital download from Full Time Hobby.

Day Joy – Fumbling

A few months back we featured ‘Florida’s Warm’, the new song (after a three year hiatus) from Michael Serrin’s Day Joy project. We described the track as, “[not] hopeful so much as hopeful of hope, the narrator holding on to the image of a brighter day, homesick and half-tortured by the slim possibility of the chance the sun might rise once more, bringing a thaw that might allow some sensation to return to frost-bitten limbs”.

Making good on his promise to release the album single by single, Serrin has now unveiled ‘Fumbling’, our second taste of the direction Day Joy will take on the new record. The track is a slow burning ballad, Serrin’s plaintive vocals laid on top of melancholy piano, gentle percussion and winding atmospherics. It’s a stunningly accomplished piece of work that’s wrought with emotion and certainly has us eagerly anticipating the rest of the record.

The post Best of The Rest: Things We Have Missed #11 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

And, of course, being comprehensive is impossible these days, so let us know if we missed your favourite and maybe we’ll add it to the collection.

Emily Yacina – Nice Try
(RIYL: bedroom pop)

Evening River Band – EP5
(RIYL: country, folk, psych rock)

Ever – But I Am
(RIYL: bedroom pop, dark rooms)

Exam Season – Mostly Homely
(RIYL: indie rock, emo, Trust Fund)

Family Video – Places To Sleep
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, longing)

Field Medic – that beer called becks reminds me of a haiku i wrote
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie pop, modern folk)

Fish Food – For Shadow Hurts
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, weird lyrics)

Folktale Records – Folktale Sampler (COMPILATION)
(RIYL: experimental, folk, indie pop)

Fossil Jane – will you?/you will.
(RIYL: bedroom pop, singer songwriter, )

Free Space – Ahead of Myself
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, Trace Mountains)

Generifus – Peace Sign Rising
(RIYL: indie pop, indie rock)

Georgia Maq – Brain Studio Session
(RIYL: acoustic, bedroom pop, Camp Cope)

Ghost Camp – Great Lakes
(RIYL: indie rock, psych pop)

Glider – Demos
(RIYL: lo-fi, psych pop)

GoldFlakePaint – Too Far From Town To Learn
(RIYL: indie pop, lo-fi, Gold Flake Paint)

Good Good Blood – O Belong / Motion Sickness
(RIYL: ambient, dream pop, folk)

Gorgeous Bully – Better Demons
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie rock, fuzz)

Govier – Predator
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, “alien folk”)

High Sunn – i will never learn
(RIYL: chillwave, lo-fi, dream pop)

The post Favourite Free Music of 2016: E – H appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. Hold That Thought – Joyride!
2. Betsy’s Back – Bloody Death Skull
3. Cold Spell – Lunar Quiet
4. Go To Sleep – Skinny Blonde
5. Limbaud – American Enthusiasm
6. Saurkraut – Your Dog
7. Ache – Dæva
8. Bound By Blood – Hollow Twin
9. Florida’s Warm – Day Joy
10. The Dark Side of the Holy Ghost – Young Elk
11. The Park Behind Walmart  – Boy Scouts
12. Fear & Force – Vagabon
13. Stanton Park – Luke De-Sciscio
14. uuu – Field Medic
15. Meeting Points at 2AM – dné
16. The Rain Thief – Honey Stretton
17. The Stranger – Tyler Butler
18. Nervousness Fangs – Will Johnson
19. Constellation – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
20. The Dark Streets of Newark – Monarch Mtn
21. Violet – Roddy Hart & the Lonesome Fire
22. Work – naps
23. Passage of Old – Seabuckthorn
24. We’re Stuck With The Beauty – Winter Villains
25. Why They Call You Blue – Jordan Buchell

The post November 2016 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – f(l)ight

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is an artist, poet, writer and musician from Canada who this September released her new album, f(l)ight. Produced by Jonas Bonnetta of Evening Hymns, the album combines lush instrumentation with Simpson’s mutlilayered poetry, sounding at once intensely physical and spiritual, charting not only personal experience but also that of her ancestry and the land on which they live. As such, style and perspective is fluid, every word and note and small space of silence part of some larger whole, where past violence, future hope and enduring spirit coalesce as one. You can get the album from RPM Records.

Will Johnson – Nervousness Fangs

Centro-matic frontman (plus Molina collaborator and Monster of Folk alumni) Will Johnson recently released a new solo single, ‘Nervousness Fangs’. The track is a beautifully sad lo-fi folk song, recorded (as Johnson tells American Songwriter) at home on a Tascam 424. The lyrics read like summer evening back-porch wisdom, as Johnson sings “Jesus what a mess / what they’re all selling / and what’s being sold”. Check it out on Soundcloud below:

In other news, Johnson has been nominated for a Grammy (!) for his Record Store Day split single with Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster of Water Liars. You can still get the 7″ via Misra Records.

Givan Lötz – MAW

Described as a “an aural savant whose sound projects operate exterior to expectations”, Johannesburg’s Givan Lötz recently released a new album, MAW. The record, which intends to “shed waning light onto and into this post-scientific realm where meaning is unhinged”, consists of ten dense, dark songs which shift and shimmer with unsettling unfamiliarity, all floated on a sea of melancholy. However, as ‘Speak’ highlights, a sense of positivity seeps through the cracks, though it’s impossible to tell whether this is true hope or just a peculiar euphoria gained from submitting to confusion. MAW is available now from Other Electricities.

Dama Scout – All In Too

Blending dream pop and kraut-rock sensibilities with added noise pop bounce, Dama Scout’s second single ‘All In Too’ feels like a stylistic mutant in the most complimentary sense. Calm and quiet one minute and seized by mayhem the next, the track feels like a surreal ride through a many-eyed storm, excitement and fear and abrupt tranquility passing without rhyme or reason. In other words, you should grab it right now from Bandcamp.

Vagabon – Fear & Force

We loved Vagabon’s last EP, Persian Gardens, so it’s great to hear that Laetitia Tamko is putting out a full-length album next February. The first single, ‘Fear & Force’, is a re-imagining of ‘Vermont II’ from the aforementioned EP, and gives a great insight into the development and evolution of Vagabon’s sound. Here Tamko reveals her multi-instrumentalist skills to flesh out the track and create a deep lush sound without losing any of the organic intimacy which made the original so great. Infinite Worlds is set for release next year on Father/Daughter Records and you can pre-order it now.

Her Harbour – Hewing Crowns

‘Hewing Crowns’ is the first single from Gabrielle Giguere’s Her Harbour’s sophomore full-length Go Gently Into the Night, out on E-Tron Records this coming February. The record was written at a time when “death felt omnipresent,” and the single is intended to serve as a “preface to the demons [Giguere] attempted to quell in making the album,” and is therefore ripe with haunting sounds and symbolical imagery. The video for the track, edited by Mike Dubue, consists of found footage from Conrad Aiken’s 1966 short film “Silent Snow, Secret Snow,” forming a collection of oblique frames which match the ghostly ambience of the song. You can grab ‘Hewing Crowns’ from the Her Harbour Bandcamp page.

Pip Hall – Devil You Don’t

Pip Hall must be in the running for the youngest artist we’ve ever featured here at WTD. At just 16, the Preston-based songwriter is making music beyond her years. Her new single, ‘Devil You Don’t ‘ opens with some Stranger Things-style synths before blossoming into a rich pop song that teams Hall’s smooth vocals with the steady pulse of synths and some guitar for added crunch. If you like what you hear, keep an eye out for Hall’s sophomore EP, James, out next March on My Little Empire. You can pre-order via Bandcamp.

Courtney Marie Andrews – Put The Fire Out

Continuing with precocious youngsters, Courtney Marie Andrews apparently left home at 16, travelling the US as a musician before getting a gig as Damien Jurado‘s lead guitarist. She’s done a lot of touring with various acts since then, and earlier this year released an album of her own, Honest Life. The good news for us in the UK is that Loose Records are releasing the album here in January (pre-order now). To whet your appetite, here’s a single, ‘Put the Fire Out’, a warm and reflective country track that is a must for fans of bands like Mount Moriah.

Camp Cope – Keep Growing

Following their excellent self-titled debut album, Melbourne’s Camp Cope recently put up a new single which appears to be from an as-yet unannounced release. ‘Keep Growing’ sticks to the successful formula of the previous album, playing like an internal monologue that flicks through sadness and confusion and doubt but keeps cycling back to a joyous resolve, the recognisable pilot light of Camp Cope’s music. As Georgia Maq explained on Facebook, the song is about “new beginnings, it’s about rejecting what society tells you is beautiful,” ending the post with the simple but perfect advice. “Do you.” Grab the track now via Bandcamp and keep your eyes peeled for news of a physical release.

Field Medic

We’ve covered San Francisco’s Field Medic several times at WTD, so its cool to learn he’s got a new song. ‘uuu’ is essentially a classic folk song, gentle instrumentation and yearning vocals directed to a love (the titular you you you). The lyrics are as heart-on-sleeve as we’ve come to expect from Field Medic, with lines such as “all i ever needed was your matchstick mama / to take my wrongs & make them right / to take my darkness & make it bright “. Get the song now on a name-your-price basis via the Field Medic Bandcamp page.

The post Best of the Rest: Things We Have Missed #5 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. A Hospital + Crucifix Made of Plastic – Florist
2. Richmond – talons’
3. Say – Indoor Voices
4. Aeroplane – House Plants
5. When I Was an Island – David Karsten Daniels
6. The Gentleman’s Apocalypse – JR Green
7. Hitman – Mrs. Hopewell
8. sun drops – ratbath
9. A Cruise – Brian S. Cassidy
10. Orpheus – Matt Kivel
11. Your Love – Jeremy Squires (INTERVIEW)
12. Blood Moon – C.M. Slenko
13. Bake – Broken Beak
14. Brushes Like a Fox – Saint Corsair
15. daniel – francie cool
16. Baby Blue – Mount Moriah
17. For You – Free Cake For Every Creature
18. Have This Dance – Govier
19. Goodness (trailer) – The Hotelier
20. The River Because – Sawtooth
21. why are you so cool? – Dying Adolescence
22. cockroach – tall friend
23. Waiting – Faint Peter
24. Heart Destroyer – Lazy Legs
25. Take it Forever – Beat Radio (INTERVIEW)
26. Every One of Them, Dogs – Quarterly
27. like a feather or a pawprint – Field Medic
28. Lay For June – Old Earth
29. 2 old 2 broke – Gorgeous Bully
30. Funny Man Routine – Table People
31. House & Home – Arlo Aldo
32. Cave Song – Sea Ghost
33. Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac cover) – Boosegumps (from Sugar Rush)

The post February 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“like a feather or a pawprint
your spirit speaks to me of kinship
the only love that i believe in
you’re a golden railroad
shooting thru me like starlight
your name i whisper
& it sounds like music
it sounds like windchimes”

‘OTL’ is all acoustic guitar and mouth organ and lyrics about the things people do to find that special someone. You know, like wearing weird clothes and reading Murakami and taking percocet at parties, buying supermarket sushi and reading in libraries and drinking on church steps at twilight. ‘ur the 1 4 me’ is another slow and acoustic song, in which the one true love has been found, “feels like new years day when we kiss / feels like new years day when we talk”, before ‘not a normal boy’ closes the EP with something that almost sounds like Father John Misty’s brand of addled romance.

“i’m not a normal boy
i need an abnormal girl
you’re in me like a prayer
you hold me like a spell
you’re supernatural”

You can get that beer called becks reminds me of a haiku i wrote on cassette via Sunroom Recordz, or as a name-you-price download via the Field Medic Bandcamp page.

The post Field Medic – that beer called becks reminds me of a haiku i wrote 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.