The recording project of Teague Cullen and various friends, Foot Ox has made a name with an experimental style of folk, exploring age-old themes of love, loss and longing with rich arrangements and surreal storytelling. Written during extensive travels of the West, new album A Lighthouse with Silver Dog Eyes (forthcoming via Ernest Jenning Record Co.) utilises a genre-spanning style to reckon with the past and present of the area, and ultimately how the mythology of the American West shifts and persists. Following previous single ‘Horseshoe‘, new track ‘Bed of Violets’ shows the nuanced, layered nature of the record, able to recognise the beauty of the landscape while confronting the malevolent forces which haunt it. “‘Bed of Violets’ is a pretty dark song for me, even if it doesn’t seem that way on the surface,” Cullen explains. “It’s about the struggle of facing a dark force in life and overcoming it. Even though the lyrics themselves might not be overtly hopeful, I feel like the orchestration and the strings bring a sense of something vast and beautiful.”

A Lighthouse with Silver Dog Eyes out on the 11th August via Ernest Jenning Record Co. and you can pre-order it now.

General Absurdity & the Open Source – Limestone Ghost

A self-described “CommUNITY Psych-Folk Music Rebel, Performance ARTeest, Pre/Post Historic Bluez, Multi-dimensional BEeing,” General Absurdity & the Open Source is the new project/alter ego of  Lexington, Kentucky songwriter Derek Feldman. Long time readers might recognise Feldman as Doc Feldman, who we last wrote about back in 2021 with the release of A Healthy Dose of Anxiety, an album recorded with full band Doc Feldman & the Alt + Cntry + Delete. “Progressing with what might at first seem like pessimism, decrying magic spells and empty prayers, [single ‘‘Receiving (for Rollo May)’] repurposes such disillusionment into human solidarity,” we described. “Clasping hands not in plea to God but to pull another out of the shit. If we have control over anything, it is what happens here around us.” The mystical bent of General Absurdity & the Open Source might indicate a brand new stage for Feldman, yet this core message remains. Folk music which belongs alongside contemporaries like Will Johnson and strives for human connection within this lonely world.

People Mover – Cane Trash

Brisbane trio People Mover—that’s Lu Sergiacomi (vocals, guitar), Dan Sergiacomi (drums) and Billy McCulloch (bass)—are preparing to release their new album Cane Trash via Little Lunch Records next month, and have unveiled the title track as an introduction. It’s an inherently nostalgic track that draws on memories of the ash which filled the air of hometown Bundaberg during the burn-off of sugarcane before harvest, the bright, upbeat surface belying the melancholic weight at it heart. Which isn’t to say the juxtaposition of joy and sadness is in any way peculiar, for what else is fondness but the persistent presence of those very emotions? “‘Cane Trash’ gives into memories of where you came from and how you used to feel,” as Lu Sergiacomi explains. “It analyses where we go when we need to reset. Is it home, or can it be somewhere that reminds you of it? That memory is an analogy for the album—things are fragile, special and fleeting.”

Shrunken Elvis – K-House

Spencer Cullum, Sean Thompson, and Michael Ruth (AKA Rich Ruth) are all renowned musicians in their own right, be that with their own work—Cullum releasing solo material via Full Time Hobby, Thompson forming bands like Gnarwhal and Promised Land Sound, and Rich Ruth putting out acclaimed albums with Third Man Records—or supporting a wide range of well-known artists in recording and touring. So bringing the three together was always going to be a recipe for success. Under the moniker Shrunken Elvis, they have united to explore their shared passion for experimental music, merging their talents in order to transcend genre and create something new. The project “represents a rare opportunity to create purely for the sake of collaboration and curiosity,” as the album notes put it, the trio drawing on everything from Michael Rother, Alice Coltrane, and Pat Metheny to Can, Ashra and KLF to inform their sound, not to mention inspiration beyond music, be that visual art or the films of Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman. A self-titled album is on the way via Western Vinyl, and you can listen to single ‘K-House’ now. A track which takes something of the nocturnal urgency of eighties cop show theme tunes then expands its horizons with lush psych and cosmic tones.

Stella Donnelly – Baths

Three years after the release of her last full length, Flood, Naarm/Melbourne songwriter Stella Donnelly has returned with a new double A-side single, Baths / Standing Ovation. Both songs are stripped back relative to her previous work (at least until the back half of ‘Standing Ovation’), with a patience and stillness that gives them a sense of meditative clarity. ‘Baths’ in particular stands out, almost acapella as Donnelly’s vocals stand front and centre over barely-there keyboard notes. The music has the effect of incidental ambient noise and this is no accident, as the track was conceived as the sounds of the world seeped in. “I came up with this melody while I was swimming laps at the Brunswick Baths,” Donnelly explains. “The pool filter was making a humming sound on one note which allowed me to sing a melody over the top. “It then continued when I got home and had a shower with the bathroom fan on… I finally sat with a keyboard and held a note and it all just came together.”

Tim Carr – Alone Playing Piano

Though Tim Carr has made a name as part of other projects, be that Perfume Genius, Hand Habits or collaborating on records like Rebecca Schiffman‘s recent LP, Before the Future, he also has a rich solo career too. His debut release might have followed a folk tradition, but Carr’s sound is one in constant evolution, and new full-length Pleaure Drives leans into digital pop and electronic music. Recorded in the Crescenta Valley, the album draws on the LA golden hour in its romance and mystery, Carr intentionally working from a position of celebration rather than melancholy. “Pleasure drove this album to completion,” as he explains, “as it was made from a playful place as opposed to a melancholic state or being smothered by perfectionism.” Latest single ‘Alone Playing Piano’ encapsulates this spirit both in terms of lyrics (“Alone playing piano / getting into it / hitting wrong notes / trying to find the right ones / let it happen when the time comes”) and sound, the track not living up to the apparent austerity of its title but instead offering a shadowy Lynchian waltz.

villagerrr – Ride Or Die w/ Lydia

“Zeroing in on life’s small, ostensibly ordinary moments to find the meaning within.” So we wrote of villagerrr‘s Tear Your Heart Out in a list of our favourite albums of 2024, a record which saw songwriter Mark Scott embrace his Midwestern roots with a country-inflected brand of indie rock. “The result is a decidedly empathetic collection of songs able to zoom close to the smallest details of small town life,” we continued, “be it light through a sunroof, the smell of cut grass or pencil drawings made in an effort to preserve memories.” Having now signed with Winspear, villagerrr is releasing a new deluxe version of the album featuring a handful of previously unreleased bonus tracks, including new single ‘Ride Or Die w/ Lydia’. Featuring feeble little horse‘s Lydia Slocum, the track is characteristically fond and compassionate, sitting in that liminal space between summer and autumn, where the shadows grow long and the colours tend towards a sepia glow.

Watch the video edited by Trevor Hock below:

Tear Your Heart Out [Deluxe Edition] will be released via Winspear on the 10th October and you can pre-order it now.

Weakened Friends – NPC (feat. Buckethead)

Ever feel like life isn’t quite as real as many like to believe? That unfolding events are predestined, not so much by cosmic fate but something more computational? These are the ideas worrying Weakened Friends on new single ‘NPC’, a decidedly existential track featuring guitarist Buckethead inspired by the reality-bending simulation theory. But far from some exercise in idle sci-fi daydreaming, the song is urgent, defiant and cathartic. Fatalistic, but delivered with the kind of full-throated passion that can only exist in those still with the spirit to fight. This tone runs through Feels Like Hell, the Portland, Maine outfit’s new album coming soon on Don Giovanni Records, where every soul-destroying facet of our present moment is used as fuel on the fire. The hegemony of global capitalism, complete with its mass surveillance, environmental destruction and rampant inequality, is enough to drive anyone to despair, but Weakened Friends are determined to deny it that one last victory. Better to scream, yell, bring the whole thing crumbling down with us.

Maybe I’m just fucked in the head
Here daydreaming of annihilation
Maybe we should just hit reset
It’d be the best thing

Watch the video by SunBronx & Olise Forel below:

Feels Like Hell will be released on the 9th October via Don Giovanni and you can pre-order it now.

Wombo – S.T. Tilted

We’ve covered a number of singles from Wombo‘s new full-length Danger in Fives in recent months, noting how the release sees the Louisville outfit push the envelope rather than resting on their laurels. “I don’t want to be in a band that’s confined to one form of writing,” as vocalist and bassist Sydney Chadwick says. “Where’s the fun and the creativity and the exploration in that? You have to push yourself and try something new.” With the album out now via Fire Talk Records, Wombo have shared new single, ‘S.T. Tilted’ as if to prove this sentiment. “It’s the first song we wrote after the Slab EP that made it on Danger in Fives,” as guitarist Cameron Lowe explains. “We weren’t sure it was going to work, but all the contrasting parts ended up being cool. It’s rare for a Wombo song to be written on guitar first like this one, with some of the bass and drum parts jammed out in the basement afterwards. The wacky guitar part came last.”

Watch Lowe’s video below:

Danger in Fives is out now via Fire Talk and available from the Wombo Bandcamp page.

The post Weekly Listening: August 2025 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“The band’s first new release since 2022, new album The Big E promises to be every bit as ambitious and intense as previous releases, finding the trio further apart geographically, but tight knit in their vision and execution.” That’s how we described the new full-length from Editrix back in June, with the lead single and title track introducing a sound “charged with energy yet slightly unnerved in tone, playing like the chaotic, frantic internal landscape of someone gripped by neurotic concerns.” With release fast approaching via  Joyful Noise Recordings, Wendy Eisenberg and co. are back with new single ‘Flesh Debt’. A track sensual in more ways than one, blending a physical, muscular sound with coy, murmured vocals. “The internal band nickname for this song is ‘Horny Jail’,” the band described when asked about the track, “that should tell you all you need to know.”

Foot Ox – Horseshoe

Teague Cullen’s Foot Ox project arose from the Phoenix-Tempe scene that has given the world the likes of AJJ and Stephen Steinbrink, and since 2007 has been an outlet for narrative-driven experimental folk. The project has always been a collaborative one, but new record A Lighthouse with Silver Dog Eyes, which comes out next month on Ernest Jenning Record Co. takes things a step further. A rotating cast of musicians provide their talents, including a full string section, allowing things to move from hushed intimacy to full-band bombast, often within the same song. Latest single ‘Horseshoe’ is a good introduction, a track Cullen says is “about those big, uncontrollable forces in life […] losing people because of circumstances, and trying to follow your heart even when things get chaotic.”

herbal tea – Seventeen

The recording project of Bristol songwriter Helena Walker, herbal tea has won attention with a beguiling blend of dream pop, ambient and indie folk sensibilities, Walker’s home recordings spreading via word of mouth and eventually earning her invitations to play with the likes of Gia Margaret and Ex:Re. Of course, such high profile fans only cause a reputation to snowball, and it’s little surprise the debut herbal tea full-length Hear as the Mirror Echoes not only attracted the attention of Gold Day in the UK but also VSF favs Orindal Records in the US. With the album set for release at the end of August, herbal tea has unveiled single ‘Seventeen’ by way of introduction. One of the earliest songs of the project which has morphed continually over the years, settling here as a characteristically cinematic, textured slice of ambient folk which evokes both the slow aftermath of trauma and the slower process of transcending its overbearing weight.

Watch the video below, directed and shot by Chris Pugh and edited by Walker along with Henry C Sharpe:

Hear as the Mirror Echoes will be released via Orindal Records and Gold Day on 29th August. Pre-order it now from the herbal tea Bandcamp page.

Mae Powell – Contact High

With prior singles ‘Rope You In‘ and ‘Tangerine‘,  Bay Area songwriter Mae Powell has introduced the sincerity and heart of forthcoming album Making Room For The Light. The former saw Powell put comfort front and centre and the latter championing heart-on-sleeve earnestness, the songs set up a record unashamed to show compassion, not least to the self. Latest track ‘Contact High’ is no different, taking inspiration from an unlikely source to offer another affirming sound. “The idea for ‘Contact High’ came when my stoner elderly neighbor Phil suggested I write a song called contact high, but about good vibes instead of about weed,” Powell explains. “We laughed at this concept together but it stuck in my mind, and when one of my best friends was going through a tough time I used the idea to write her a song that might help her see what it feels like to be around her radiant energy.”

Making Room For The Light comes out on 15th August via Karma Chief and Colemine Records. Order it now from the Mae Powell Bandcamp page.

Mr Butterfield – The Train Left the Station//Big Oak Tree

Throughout this Spring, Portland, Oregon outfit Mr Butterfield have released a couple of great singles, first ‘Lamp is On’ and later ‘Bonnie Jean’. Our first introduction to a band—that’s Lee Butterfield (vocals and guitar), Penny Olives (drums), Kyle Raquipiso (bass) and Tim Kam (guitar)—who make an easygoing, countryfied rock ‘n roll. Their new release, double single The Train Left the Station/Big Oak Tree, doubles down on the country side of things, kicking off with the titular poem by “The Lonesome Cowboy Iz” set to galloping drums and subtly squealing guitar. “The train left the station like a bullet from a gun,” goes the opening line, “we were left there waiting, like a puddle in the sun.” ‘Big Oak Tree’ on the other hand is a joyously ramshackle lo-fi country rock song about taking a nap in the shade of an oak, complete with a catchy chorus (“there’s a big oak tree somewhere above me!”) and extended guitar outro. Check it out, it’s a lot of fun.

Okkyung Lee – good morning, harrison, it’s time to go

South Korean cellist and composer Okkyung Lee has been working at the sharp edge of experimental music for over two decades. Her new album for French label and publisher Shelter Press is no different. Informatively titled Just Like Any Other Day (어느날): Background Music For Your Mundane Activities, it’s what the label describe as “a deeply intimate body of recordings at the juncture of ambient music, minimalism, and the baroque, that stands as radical intervention with what experimental music can be, and the place that organisations of sound occupy in our lives. It reinterprets experimental music as a practice or pursuit, something made for the process of creation itself rather than the end product. It also sees Lee move away from the cello for the first time, something immediately obvious on single ‘good morning, harrison, it’s time to go’, which sees soft plinky keys fall like summer raindrops over a second bubbling keyboard line.

Pegg – Baseball Season

The music of Pegg, that’s the Brooklyn-based project helmed by Xander Duell, has always pushed the envelope in terms of style, championing a fundamentally collaborative ethos to reimagine the boundaries of indie rock. Take 2024’s self-titled debut, cinematic, finely honed and constantly surprising record which moved with both swagger and mystery. But if you thought Duell and co. has settled into a groove with the album, think again, because latest release Presque Tout: Variations no. 435-514 “Baseball Season,” Pegg & Van Dyke Parks pushes out further into the avant garde. As the title suggests, the release sees Pegg joined by esteemed arranger, composer, performer and producer Van Dyne Parks, and mammoth single ‘Baseball Season’ hints at the ambition which underpins the exercise. A song of great detail and ambiguous meaning, channelling both the wistful familiarity (and thus melancholy) of its titular period, but also the near sublime sense of stakes. “Baseball is life,” as Duell puts it. “Decisions made in baseball can affect the rest of the season, a microcosm to the decisions you make in life. ‘Baseball Season’ is about choosing your proverbial horse wisely, delicately.” 

Presque Tout: Variations no. 435-514 “Baseball Season,” Pegg & Van Dyke Parks is out now via IS NOT MUSIC. in physical form, including a CD edition and jigsaw puzzle (yes, really), and will be released digitally on the 19th September. Find everything on the Pegg Bandcamp page.

Rival Consoles – Soft Gradient Beckons

Last week Rival Consoles released new full-length album Landscape from Memory via Erased Tapes, a record we’ve described as “focusing in on small details while retaining the grand sweeps of melancholy and euphoria” to ultimately “[retain] a sense of humanity within its digital sound.” To celebrate the record, Ryan Lee West enlisted the help of artist and filmmaker Anthony Dickenson to create a video for the single ‘Soft Gradient Beckons’. Dickenson spent twelve months creating the hand-painted frame animation at its centre, matching the care and craft of the track with its own painstaking process of creation. “Each image became a fragment of memory, layered and stitched together to explore rhythm, decay, and time,” Dickenson describes. “The result is a piece that moves with the emotional undercurrent of the track—quietly pulsing, always evolving.”

Landscape from Memory is out now via Erased Tapes. Purchase a copy from the Rival Consoles Bandcamp page.

U – Is It A Kind Of Dream?

Described by label Lex Records as “working an archivist, collagist and chronicler through careful sonic curation,” the mysterious and suitably un-Googleable project U has made a name by refusing to be pigeonholed, its forays out into the general zones of techno, experimental electronic, ambient and modern classical never lingering long enough to be claimed by any one space. Latest release, double a-side single Black Vaughan / Is It A Kind Of Dream?, shows just how wide the U sonic palette can be. The former, which feels indebted to the soundtracks of Kurosawa films, offers a meditation on violence and dread in all of its poignant unease, while the haunting latter feels altogether more Lynchian in its oneiric strangeness.

Black Vaughan / Is It A Kind Of Dream? is out now via Lex Records.

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