With the release of Clipping only weeks away, Special Friend have returned with the title track to further whet our appetites. Crafted around the skeleton of a guitar loop, the single still carries the lo-fi pop DNA which so marked the duo’s previous releases, though extra guitar lines lift the song above this style, and a marked change of tempo two-thirds of the way through expands the emotional landscape of the sound too. Factor in Siracusa’s lead vocals and Ahleson’s light harmonies and the result is yet more evidence of the evolution of the Special Friend project.

Watch the cameoscope video filmed by Jules Vandale and edited by Erica Ashleson below:

Clipping will be released via Howlin’ Banana Records and Skep Wax on the 20th March and you can pre-order it now.

The post Special Friend – Clipping appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Hot on the heels of acclaimed full-length Animal Poem, a record which earned its place among our favourites of 2025, Portland, Oregon-based songwriter Anna Tivel is returning with collection of b-sides from the same recording period to further expand the world and themes of the album. “The EP will not be released until next spring, though lead single ‘Swan Song’ shows the new tracks are just as evocative and finely crafted as their sisters on the main album,” we wrote in our preview. A song which “pairs a relaxed rhythm and poignant tone with something urgent beneath the surface, a loneliness hurried by the violent pressing of time.” Ahead of its release, Tivel has now ‘Memphis’, another track loaded with equal parts tender emotion and shining intensity, its characteristically nuanced narrative painting life as something so bright it hurts. “I started writing ‘Memphis’ on an airplane after meeting an electric-eyed ex-convict heading to an evangelical gathering in Tennessee,” Tivel explains. “He was magnetic, ecstatic, possibly manic, and so in love with life. He got me thinking about the things we reach for when reality is too painful to accept.”

This Lonesome Paradise – Changelings

“A meditation on the American Dream with all its brutality, broken promises and betrayals.” That’s how we described This Lonesome Paradise‘s 2024 album Luna Nocturna, an almost McCarthy-esque picture of the West in all of its stark and haunted weight. Now E. Ray Béchard and co. are back with Death Motels, a brand new record on Bad Vibes Good Friends which looks to further this aesthetic, positioning the project as one working slightly outside of time with a sound that conjures a mythic past while always facing forwards. Take single ‘Changelings’ and its accompanying video, a brooding, Lynchian number as dark as the night itself, playing like some black mass out in the desert, looking to communicate with some other place or time.

Death Motels will be released on the 12th March via Bad Vibes Good Friends and you can pre-order it now.

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys – Damp

With the release of new album Pale Bloom fast approaching via Unique Records, Berlin-based outfit Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys have unveiled latest single ‘Damp’. “Like most of what I write, it’s about a desire for depth and connection,” Kruger writes of the track. “A kind of quiet mocking of the mundane and domestic. The first verse reflects that polite culture of not saying what you mean, of being too afraid to ask for what you need in case you seem too much, or expose the mess of falling apart. There’s a wanting, though—to give in, give up, or simply to give.” This sense of wanting is made palpable across the song, both in terms of the simmering, taut urgency of the sound and the longing loaded into Kruger’s vocals, and the result is equal parts uneasy and mournful. The sad discomfort of revealing a deep part of oneself without knowing if anyone is even looking.

Watch the video below, created by long-time collaborators DTAN (Berlin) and Gaussian Studios (Amsterdam):

Pale Bloom will be released on the 13th February via Unique Records and you can pre-order it now.

MacGregor Burns – The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Released to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the original, MacGregor Burns has unveiled his own reverent version of Gordon Lightfoot’s classic ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’. An impromptu endeavour recorded in a single take, the song sees Burns stick close to Lightfoot’s process, eschewing embellishment or ostentation to keep the focus on the voice. Not an exercise of reinterpretation but devotion. An attempt to channel the spirit of the original and bring it forward fifty years, something which extends right down to the artwork itself.

‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Otracami – Please

We last featured Otracami back in 2023 with the release of touching the stove coil, an album which saw Camila Ortiz confront the past in all of its minutiae with equal parts foreboding and longing. “A strange mixture of pain and pleasure,” marked the record, as we described. “Approaching something which will almost certainly hurt, yet glows alluringly all the same.” Such tension between conflicting states continues on Otracami’s new full-length Runoff , set for via Figure & Ground this spring, as highlighted by lead single ‘Please’. The track uses samples and field recordings to add layers of depth to a full band arrangement, a style which speaks to the album’s concerns with the dynamic between restraint and release. “I was trying out leaving for the first time—people and jobs and situations with family,” Ortiz describes of the period in which the album was written. “It was real trial and error—sometimes that really worked and felt liberating and other times I had to turn around and go back. It was a period of big experimentation.”

The Pretty Flowers – Came Back Kicking

This spring will see the release of Never Felt Bitter, a brand new full-length from The Pretty Flowers, and the LA indie rockers have never sounded so urgent. Written within a city (and wider country) shaken by turmoil, be it the unprecedented wildfires or equally tinderbox political moment, the quartet found themselves driven by the surrounding atmosphere, the anxiety and chaos of their surroundings seeping into the tracks themselves. “There’s a sense of urgency, fear, and confusion in these songs,” explains drummer Sean Johnson. “Like each one might be the last song we write, or this might be the last album. If anything, it’s the most present we’ve ever been.” Lead single ‘Came Back Kicking’ introduces the style, embracing an almost Japandroids-esque momentum to not only burn through the upheaval but offer enough affirming energy to suggest we might be able to stand up to the things which want to drag us down.

We went walking under black skies
We wore out the terrain
It may have taken billions of years
But it had to happen sometime

And you can take it apart or you can blow it up
Either way don’t let it eat you up
Sucked you in to get a better look
And you came back kicking

Richard Walters – Rafts

Created as part of an artist residency for the Solent Seascape Project and the Blue Marine Foundation, Songs From the Solent is a new album from songwriter Richard Walters. The eight-song release incorporates field recordings from the local area, voices from Solent communities (sea swimmers, artists, visitors and more) and contributions from a stellar list of collaborators including Isle of Wight native Jeremy Irons to flesh out its folk sound. The result is something fundamentally rooted in place. Indeed linocut artist Angela Harding has made a bespoke illustrated map of the Solent, highlighting the locations which inspired each track, which will appear on the Solent Seascape Project website. Exploring the decline of migratory birds and featuring samples from Hayling Island nature reserve, lead single ‘Rafts’ shows just how evocative and uplifting this style proves to be.

Watch the video filmed and edited by Matt Jarvis below:

Songs From the Solent is out now and available from the Richard Walters Bandcamp page.

Robber Robber – The Sound It Made

Back in November, we wrote about ‘Talkback’, the fist single from Robber Robber since they signed with Fire Talk. “A song which doubles down on the spontaneous, impulsive style of the previous record,” as we put it, “[Nina] Cates’s vocals spiralling over the wiry rhythm like the contents of a racing mind blown up and projected onto a wall.” Now the Burlington, Vermont outfit has unveiled new album Two Wheels Move the Soul, and have shared opener ‘The Sound It Made’ to further introduce the sound. The record has roots in turmoil, born in a period after a landlord called for the longtime home of Cates and drummer Zack James to be demolished, and sets out to map the experience of living in a world beholden to the whims of the cruel and greedy. As you might expect, the result is chaotic, foreboding and often abrasive, and ‘The Sound It Made’ throws the listener right in from the off. “All systems go again / Will it ever stop?” Cates asks at one point, her delivery carrying the deadpan cool of someone who knows the ways of the world all too well. “Don’t know / Don’t think so / Don’t know what we’ll do if not.”

Watch the video below, by director Wes Sterrs, producer Emilie Silvestri and director of photography Jeff Griecci:

Two Wheels Move the Soul will be released on the 3rd April via Fire Talk and you can pre-order it now.

Sister Wanzala – Don’t Be Good To Me

Following on from ‘Now You’re Mine‘ and ‘Winter Dominos‘, ‘Don’t Be Good to Me’ is the third and final part of a loose trilogy of singles from London’s Sister Wanzala. And it might just be the most surprising track from the project to date, the outfit having made a name with a wry, tongue-in-cheek humour now turning their attention to that most terrifying of things: earnestness. Which isn’t to say the self-deprecation of previous releases has evaporated. The song explores the mystifying sensation of another person extending their kindness towards you, despite all the evidence you have collected to prove you could never deserve such a thing. Yet despite the subject matter, the song proceeds with a sensual swagger, proving that no matter how many times love might make a fool of you, there’s no harm in trying to look cool.

Snake Orange Cake – Vision

Snake Orange Cake, the new project of Åland-born, Berlin-based artist Julia Carlsson builds upon the electronics of previous project leoblu with spoken-word poetry and a newfound narrative focus. After singles ‘Hair‘ and ‘Animals‘ (a track “embedded within a nocturnal, slightly unreal space,” we wrote of the latter, “[dissolving] any distinction between the organic and the digital, as well as the line between waking reality and dreams”), Carlsson has returned with new single ‘Vision’. A self-described “hypnotic ritual in sound” which functions something like an incantation or mantra, the vocals repeating a series of mystical images as though hoping to conjure some mystical effect. The pulsing beat only furthers the mesmeric vibe, leading the listener into a space somehow adjacent from every day reality.

Watch the video by Maren Frey below:

‘Vision’ is out now via the Snake Orange Cake Bandcamp page.

Special Friend – Breakfast

Consisting of Erica Ashleson (drums, vocals) and Guillaume Siracusa (guitar, vocals), Franco-American duo Special Friend, have been making minimalist, lo-fi indie pop since their formation in 2018, releasing an EP and two albums in the process. Now the Paris-based outfit is back with Clipping, a brand new full-length with Howlin’ Banana which finds the Special Friend sound as rich as it has ever been. Drawing on folk, slowcore and krautrock influences, it opts for a newfound layer of attention and polish to the mixing. Single ‘Breakfast’ gives a taste of what is to come, an infectious track on our eroding attention spans which stays true to the band’s lo-fi origins with a delightful camcorder video.

Clipping will be released via Howlin Banana Records on the 20th March and you can pre-order it now.

Sweetbreads – Punisher of Love

“The perfect antidote to the breakneck bluster of the world we call home,” was how we described Out of Range by Sweetbreads back in 2022, an EP which followed its protagonist on her “quest to resist the thankless treadmill of modern living, opting for an unproductive and entirely more positive way of life.” The latest Sweetbreads release sees lead Melody Stolpp continue their exploration of this contemporary rat race, delving into the weight of expectations and self-sabotage which results. Pushing these ideas of further, comedian Clare O’Kane directed a video to accompany the track, casting fellow comedian Nick Naney as a humanoid rat pursuing Stolpp and her partner through the streets of New York. “We wanted to externalize that feeling of being chased by your own worst impulses,” as Stolpp explains. “What better way to do that than with a literal rat man running through Brooklyn?” Watch below:

‘Punisher of Love’ is out now and available from the usual places.

The post Weekly Listening: January 2026 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

There is a repeated line, a single word refrain, in ‘The Glow’, the new song from Aïda Mekonnen Caby, which you may have some trouble comprehending. Fjaðrárgljúfur is the name of a canyon in south east Iceland which Caby and her partner visited in the early days of their relationship, and the landmark’s cinematic majesty leaks into the song’s very DNA, transforming a gentle indie folk song into something rich with widescreen emotion. It also represents something of a new dawn. For one, it is the opening track of the debut Aïda Mekonnen Caby album, Mais Uma, which comes out at the end of August via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. But also because the trip that inspired it and the feelings it evokes marked a turning point in Caby’s life too, one which saw her move first to Portugal and then to France. Mais Uma promises to explore this period of personal change and all its associated heart swells and aches, illuminated throughout with that sense of wonder at newfound love.

Dead Tooth – Song of the Weak

Led by New York-based songwriter Zach Ellis, self-described ‘rodeo-core’ outfit Dead Tooth have made a name crafting an atmospheric and often slightly chaotic brand of post-punk, combining the brooding shadow of the genre with raw energy. With their self-titled debut out now via Trash Casual, Dead Tooth have shared single and opener ‘Song of the Weak’ to introduce their work to the uninitiated. A song full of volatility and bite, Ellis’s vocals spiking with frustration as though driven half-crazed by the constant motion beneath him, or else how it never seems to lead to anywhere new. “In so many words [the song is] about struggling with cyclical destructive decision making,” Ellis explains. “Choosing hedonism over looking in the mirror. I’ve spent many years in NY on what feels like a hamster wheel of trying to fill a void or chase some kind of unattainable self/other. A song written for the darker times that in retrospect I feel have eaten too many years of my life.”

Dead Tooth is out now via Trash Casual and available from Bandcamp.

Living Hour – Wheel

Winnipeg’s Living Hour have announced Internal Drone Infinity, their fourth record, which will release later this year. What the band themselves have coined “yearn-core”, their style combines slowcore, indie rock and dream pop into something shaded by the gauzy texture of memory. The record was in part inspired by lead Sam Sarty’s time as a cinema projectionist, and it exists in a similarly otherworldly setting, its dark backdrop illuminated by a wistful glow as the band express what they call “the quiet magic hidden in everyday life.” To celebrate the announcement, Living Hour have unveiled lead single ‘Wheel’, which shows off both the dreamy yearn and crunchy rock sides of their sound very nicely.

The track comes complete with a video by Leigh Lugosi and Brett Ticzon, which you can see below:

Internal Drone Infinity will be released on 17^th October via Keeled Scales, Paper Bag Records (Canada) and Beloved Records (Australia). Pre-order a copy now from the Living Hour Bandcamp page.

Malena Zavala – MELT

Born in Argentina and now living between London and Mexico City, Malena Zavala is a self-taught musician and producer who first caught attention with her 2018 debut, Aliso. Drawing inspiration from both Latin American music and the likes of Devendra Banhart, Beach House and Feist, Zavala’s music layers poetic lyrics over hypnotic and haunting instrumentation. Latest single ‘MELT’, the first single from an EP of the same name that comes out later this year on Zavala’s own new label Paraná Records, is a good example. A soft and cosy love song that Zavala says tries “to express the feeling of being wrapped up in bed,” it’s built on gentle acoustic guitar and her hushed and intimate vocals and accentuated by ethereal harmonies and subtle synths.

‘MELT’ is out now via streaming services

Oh, Rose – For Art

Almost a year on from their last full-length Dorothy, Olympia/Portland mainstays Oh, Rose return in September with For Art, a brand new EP released via the good folks as Antiquated Future Records. The EP finds the band’s members in the midst of some big personal events, like getting married and starting families, and perhaps understandably this has them ruminating on family and relationships. As the label put it, the EP focuses on “themes of long-term commitment and partnership—both in romantic and platonic relationships, as well as to artistic practice itself.” Oh, Rose have released the title track by way of introduction, an unhurried and heartfelt song that captures these themes perfectly. “At first I feel so nervous to be this vulnerable,” Rose sings with courageous clarity, “it’s true that I was thinking about you.”

Routine Caffeine – Green Glass

“A track which marries a taut central rhythm with a dreamy haze, and hints at a sharp bite too, all highlighting just how much control Katie O’Brien Kelley (vocals, guitar), Madison Elizabeth Case (bass, synth, background vocals) and Emma Treganowan (drums) have over the mood of their work.” So we wrote of Routine Caffeine‘s ‘Philodendron‘ back in 2024, a track taken from the Louisville-based trio’s Weeds Under Concrete Stones. Their first release since that EP, new single ‘Green Glass’ is no less evocative, again crafting an immersive atmosphere to explore themes of nostalgia, belonging and the passing of time. “This song has served as a way for me to reflect on my family’s old farm in Michigan, one of my most treasured places,” they explain. But more than a lesson in simple longing for home, the track also charts the changes to the beloved place which accumulate with every return, adding an extra layer melancholy as the familiar slowly shifts into something different, and the past only grows further away.

runo plum – Lemon Garland

Minnesota singer-songwriter runo plum has slowly amassed a following over recent years, her detailed, wistful style of bedroom folk winning plenty of attention online. Having now signed with the ever-impressive Winspear, plum has released new single ‘Lemon Garland’ to celebrate. The first taste of forthcoming debut album patching, the song embodies the fondness and compassion of the runo plum style, as well as the longing for connection which underpins it. “Give me company / barefoot and muddy,” as she sings, “give me pointing / at the birds we’ve never seen before / we’ll stop to pick some veggies / for the big feast at our friendly table.” The result is inherently bittersweet, a hopeful vision of the future shadowed by the suggestion such community remains just a dream, though the lasting feeling is one of affection. As though it wishing for something so simple and fulfilling, runo plum shows our desires need not be so far away.

Watch the video directed by Karlee Boon below:

patching will be released soon via Winspear.

Scree – TV Sometimes

Brooklyn experimental maestros Scree return next month with August, a brand new full-length on Ruination Record Co. The band—that’s primary trio guitarist/composer Ryan El-Solh, bassist Carmen Quill and drummer Jason Burger, plus lots of guests—are hard to pin down, smashing together everything from Romantic classical music, dusty lonesome Americana, improvisational jazz and weighty indie rock to create some of the most interesting and deep instrumental music around. Scree released the title track as the lead single a few weeks back, and have now returned with a second cut, the enigmatically titled ‘TV Sometimes’. The song has been part of the band’s live repertoire for years, and here it gets a richer arrangement with contributions from the cast of collaborators. “It’s something like a love song,” El-Solh describes. “I probably should’ve chosen a more generally intelligible title, but at the time there was really only one person I was trying to reach with this bit of code and she got the message so the title stuck.”

The post Weekly Listening: July 2025 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Gathering momentum after a string of appearances at some of the biggest festivals in the UK (Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds among them), songwriter cathy kio has released a brand new single ‘Last Goodbye’ to reinforce her burgeoning reputation. Crafted with a spare acoustic arrangement and kio’s signature heartfelt vocals, the song digs deep into the aftermath of a relationship in all of its tenderness and longing. A track poignant, aching and not entirely without fondness, looking to salvage all the good from the time now gone while recognising the need to walk away.

‘Last Goodbye’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Clutter – Jesus

Consisting of Hilda Ander, Emma French, Ove Jerndal and Ville Scott, Clutter is a new project out of Stockholm who cut their teeth in the underground Swedish scene but now look set to make waves further afield. Their debut 7″ single, Jesus/Holy Brother, out via via PNKSLM Recordings, underscores exactly why the band have risen to prominence so quickly, offering a noughties-inflected shoegaze style that’s able to sound heavy and playful simultaneously. ‘Jesus’ is a great example of the aesthetic, pairing existential lyrics and grungy guitar with an infectious sense of forward motion, showing Clutter’s ability to pack a punch while still having fun.

Watch the video shot and edited by Majken Bergman with animations by Henry Ander below:

Jesus/Holy Brother is out now via PNKSLM Recordings and available from Bandcamp.

The Convenience – I Got Exactly What I Wanted

The Convenience‘s 2021 debut Accelerator introduced a colourful, endlessly inventive brand of funk-inflected pop, but while follow-up Like Cartoon Vampires continues the imaginative style, the sound is very different. Because, following their artistic intuition, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Nick Corson and Duncan Troast have pivoted towards new genres, the album reaching out towards post-punk, noise rock and drone in its search for something different. Single ‘I Got Exactly What I Wanted’ shows the wiry menace of this version of The Convenience, though beneath the shadowy mood lies something just as curiosity and playful in its craft as anything the duo have released to date.

Like Cartoon Vampires is out on the 18th April via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

country girl – field day

Back in September we wrote about country girl, describing how single ‘i like that’ tapped into a nostalgic vibe to paint a picture of real fondness. “The nineties aesthetic adds a fresh, wide-eyed quality to the sound,” we wrote, “creating an ode to a significant other as voiced from the heady early days.” With debut EP out now via FADER Label, country girl is back with the equally warm and affectionate ‘field day’. Another song which finds itself reflecting on the joys of a rose-tinted past, looking to preserve that sense of possibility and fun in the face of life’s inevitable progression. Watch the video directed and edited by Emma Callahan below:

meet me at the fountain is out now via FADER Label.

Gum Parker – Two Subarus

Gum Parker is a new project out of Portland, Maine who are preparing to release their debut album The Brakes this spring on Repeating Cloud. Playing what they describe as “jangly songs” about “small disappointments and occasional wins,” the outfit draw on the considerable DIY history of its members to create good old-fashioned indie rock. Lead single ‘Two Subarus’ embodies this spirit both in style and theme, combining unapologetic nostalgic with a sense of momentous immediacy. “This one is thinking back on my first serious band, which would have been in the early 2000s,” songwriter Galen Richmond explains. “Everything was always just teetering on the edge of falling completely apart and it was the most exciting thing ever. It’s easy to be sorta rose-colored thinking back on that time so I’m making fun of myself for it while I totally indulge it.”

Lutalo – I Figured

We featured Lutalo‘s album The Academy several times last year, admiring how the Vermont-based singer-songwriter delved into their past with such intention and fearlessness. Released via Winspear ahead of a headline tour, new single ‘I Figured’ might not have quite made the cut to be included on the record, but it again shows how evocative Lutalo’s blend of rock and folk aesthetics can be. “Heard your train just holler / I just cussed your collar,” goes one of the verses, typifying the smouldering mix of drama and romance across the track. “You say I should come through / I know I shouldn’t want to / I know I shouldn’t but I want // You.”

Watch the video by Noah Lenker below:

‘I Figured’ is out now via Winspear and available from Bandcamp.

Molly Ganley – Who Are You

With debut album Eldest Daughter coming this March, songwriter Molly Ganley has unveiled brand new single, ‘Who Are You’. Another example of her warm, heartfelt brand of folk which celebrates the work previous generations have done to create and preserve a more hospitable world. “It asks the fundamental question: ‘Who are you to say?'”—who gets to make the call that women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and climate action are unimportant, and that millions will suffer due to lack of legislative protection?” Ganley explains. The result is born of both love and defiance, promising to take up the mantle of our forebears to fight for the future we deserve.

naya mö – outsider

“Draws on the grunge and alt-pop of the nineties and the soaring indie rock of the mid 00s, resulting in something that sparkles with possibility despite being coated in gritty fuzz and shadowy reverb.” That’s what we wrote of naya mö‘s previous single, ‘wanderlust’, back in November, and the latest track from the French artist is no less atmospheric. The second single from a forthcoming EP, ‘outsider’ again taps into a gauzy shoegaze style to create an enveloping sense of loneliness, though is charged with enough energy to face this darkness with a steely defiance. “The EP is about the ghosts that haunt my mind and body. Good and bad, dark and light, love and fear,” naya mö explains of this duality. “Shadows of memories, ideas, regret, people linger in my head. I wrote songs about them and drench them in distortion, reverb and fuzz.”

‘outsider’ is out now and available from the usual places.

OHYUNG – no good

You might know Lia Ouyang Rusli as the composer behind soundtracks such at that of Julio Torres’s Problemista (A24), but they also produce what is described as “experimental and political” under the moniker OHYUNG. Taken from the upcoming OHYUNG album You Are Always On My Mind, latest single ‘no good’ is every bit as cinematic as any of LOR’s scores, enlisting director and designer Day to create a video capable of furthering the song’s portrayal of a quest of self-actualisation. The album itself uses a vivid, trip-hop-inspired sound to chart the process of gender transition, and ‘no good’ explores the strange dualities which accompany such a process, where the desire to become the person you are supposed to be is matched by no small sense of fear. How do we feel when we achieve the very thing we want the most?

You Are Always On My Mind is out on the 28th March via NNA Tapes and Phantom Limb and you can pre-order it now.

Pit Pony – Vacancy

With new LP Dead Stars due for release next month via Clue Records and EMI North, Newcastle‘s Pit Pony have returned with ‘Vacancy’, a track full of wry humour and cutting energy which sets its sights on the cultivated perfection of social media. “My news feed is full of suggested videos of people telling me my life will be better if I buy some leggings or get the ‘off menu’ Starbucks drink. I love an iced coffee as much as the next person but there’s a whole culture of people driving in nice cars drinking coffee and sitting making videos in carparks that I can’t get my head around,” explains lead Jackie Purver. “I feel like it’s opening a black hole somewhere that we’re all going to be swallowed into—a vacancy—like a Dorian Gray painting on a mass scale. I want to derail it, to take things in a different direction, to make it messy.” The song makes good on this wish with a building momentum, resulting in a chaotic crescendo that punctures the fictitious illusion through sheer disordered passion.

Dead Stars is out on the 7th February via Clue Records and EMI North and you can pre-order it now.

since torino – transatlantic flight song

Sheffield‘s since torino are preparing to release their debut EP in the coming months, and brand new single ‘transatlantic flight song’ serves as the ideal introduction to the band for anyone unfamiliar with their work. Opening with a restrained hush, the song sets out a quiet, reflective mood, combining organ and murmured vocals to create an easy meandering fondness, and gradually develops to push the mood further. First with glitched guitars and eventually sweeps of violin, all working together to create a song which aches with the fondness of nostalgic contemplation.

‘transatlantic flight song’ is out now, and you can find since torino at the usual places.

william h. travis – unfuck my mind

Described as “a moniker for a person and a group of friends from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,” william h. travis makes an empathetic brand of folk which walks the line between fondness and disaffection. As such, latest track ‘unfuck my mind’ could be something of a theme tune for the project. A song delivered from a jaded person stuck within the awful present, though nevertheless pining for a return to something more curious and joyful. “Candy cigarettes, big league chew were fantastic / now I can’t even drink water without the microplastic,” as a typical verse goes. “Is it the world or is it me, it’s the two of us probably.”

Zoe Firn – Forever New

The latest single from Brooklyn songwriter Zoe Firn, ‘Forever New’ is a song about the enduring nature of love drawn from an experience of that very thing. The song “is inspired by my grandparents, who were married for over 50 years until my granddad passed last October,” Firn explains. “According to gramgram, she and granddad are together in every life, past, present, and future.” Written from the perspective of her grandmother, the track illuminates this romantic idea further, serving as both a highly personal picture of a treasured relationship and a wider embrace of the hope and joy. “Told the grandkids how we met / in every other past life,” as one verse goes. “Distance never did keep us apart / on earth and I believe / that neither does time.”

The post Weekly Listening: January 2025 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

To close out the year, Mark Trecka has unveiled one final single from the album, ‘New Panthalassa’. Trecka originally recorded the track aged twenty, as part of the song ‘Panthalassa’, though revisits it here as a method of both processing of past traumas and celebrating the friendships and collaborations which have persisted across the years. An Heap appeared on the original and Tesnow joins again, helping build a bed of vintage drum machine, tapes, synth and bass guitar above which Trecka’s crooned vocals soar.

Fool Signals is out now and available from the Mark Trecka Bandcamp page.

Photo by Olivier Nemnom

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“I wanted to write a record that I needed to hear in high school.” That’s the mission statement behind Blvck Hippie‘s Basketball Camp, a new album coming in June on The Record Machine. Backed by Casey Rittinger (drums), Tyrell Williams (bass, backing vocals) and Joe Kyle (guitar, talk box), lead Josh Shaw weaves elements of indie rock, dream pop, post-punk, jazz and emo into a sound as inventive as it is immediate, reflecting on past loneliness with with equal parts sympathy and catharsis. Lead single ‘Streetlights’ introduces the style by musing on a particularly low moment some years previous. “Oh how I wish things could have been different / Why can’t I be what you need?” they sing in the closing refrain, Shaw’s delivery maintaining its sincere yearning quality as the backing vocals descend into desperate yelps.

 Glom – Below

Based in Brooklyn by way of Washington, DC, Glom have established their weighty yet accessible blend of alt and indie rock across a number of releases, managing to repurpose the dark and heavy vibes of the genre into something textured enough to wrap around yourself for comfort. Ahead of a tour later this spring, the band are back with ‘Below’, a new single which furthers this style. A meditation on getting older which takes heart in accepting there might never be a moment where you become the person you always imagined. “I was 29 and creeping up on the next decade of my life, a decade where I thought I would have it all figured out,” they explain. “A year and a half later, I don’t have it “all figured out” and probably won’t for another few years, but the cathartic release of the final chorus illustrates me being ok with the fact that my journey won’t have all the answers I’m looking for right away.”

‘Below’ is out now and available from the usual places. You can find tour dates on the Glom website.

Kyle Andrews – Old Fashioned

“Somebody told you / You were nothing / Why was it easy to believe?” So asks ‘Old Fashioned’ the new single from Wisconsin-based songwriter Kyle Andrews. Having released his first album on Badman Recording Company back in 2006, Andrews went on to set up his own label Elephant Lady Records and put out a string of releases over the years, always sticking to his DIY bedroom recorded roots while pushing the possibilities of such a set up to new heights. Subsequent singles and their accompanying videos have won accolades from the Guggenheim, triggered mass participant water fights and launched cameras hundreds of thousands of feet into the air on a weather balloon. But for all the viral success of such ideas, it is the songwriting which has been the constant, as displayed on the new single ‘Old Fashioned’. The song lands on the reflective, wistful end of Kyle Andrews’s pop-inflected folk style, though is shot through with the kind of authenticity and warmth which has come to mark his every release.

Watch the video filmed and edited by Andrews himself below:

Grab ‘Old Fashioned’ now from Bandcamp.

Membra – Always Blue

The recording project of Brooklyn-based composer, sound designer and filmmaker Ned Porter, Membra utilises the full diversity of its creator’s artistic sensibilities to create experimental pop songs at once intricate and intuitive. Described as “a musical terrarium,” the appropriately titled debut Membra album Blocks of Color Blocks of Sound welcomes the audience into a miniature world which reveals itself in increasing detail the closer you look. Take single ‘Always Blue’, which on the surface can be enjoyed as a left-field pop number, though any listener willing to peer deeper will be greeted with a teaming environment of found sounds and tape loops, elements Porter expertly tessellates into something beyond even the sum of its many parts.

Molly Drag – Dogfight

Michael Charles Hansford’s Molly Drag has been writing atmospheric, often melancholic songs for almost a decade now, first appearing on VSF back in 2015 with Deeply Flawed and more recently in 2019 with album Touchstone. The latter saw a chink of light pierce the project’s gloomy mood for the first time, something subsequent albums have built upon while maintaining the original Molly Drag spirit. Out next month on I’m Into Life Records, new full-length Mammoth represents the next step in this evolution, as highlighted by lead single ‘Dogfight’. The lyrics are full of the visceral emotion and deep yearning which has long marked Hansford’s intimate style, but are delivered here against a sound charged by bright shimmering momentum. What results is a track again centring on raw emotion and suffering, but one which refuses to be buried by the accumulated weight of life, instead reaching towards the surface in search of reprieve.

Mt Fog – Drifting

Described as “a creation of love and a response to the world’s chaos and absurdity,” Seattle‘s Mt Fog employ a combination of folk, pop and electronic styles to conjure the antithesis of such disorder, welcoming the listener into richly woven soundscapes as a kind of safe harbour. With new album ultraviolet heart machine coming soon, the band have unveiled new track ‘Drifting’ as an early taster, and the track is indicative of Mt Fog’s ability to merge the earthly and ethereal. Or rather to position the earthly as its own kind of ethereal space, offering the natural world as a place to escape into and revealing the magic and healing potential therein.

My Dear Companion – These Words

Gothenburg‘s My Dear Companion is the recording project of Lea-Marie Sittler (Lea & The Loved Ones), Agnes Åhlund (Glitterfittan) and Hannah Shermis (Eldstorm), but listen to the way the trio’s vocals coalesce on new single ‘These Words’ and you’d be forgiven for thinking they had merged into single force. A tale of love and loss timeless in its themes yet full of the immediacy of yearning, each of the trio draw from the same well of emotion so as to collapse the space between them. The result is warm and fond and loaded with nostalgia, affirming with the knowledge that such sadness is omnipresence for us all.

‘These Words’ is out now.

Sofia Bolt (ft. Stella Donnelly) – Bus Song

Next month France-born, LA-based songwriter and producer Sofia Bolt will release new album Vendredi Minuit via Born Losers Records. Building upon the nostalgic tones introduced on debut full-length Waves and subsequent EP Soft Like a Peach, the record sees Bolt employ a hazy, reflective tone to explore her relationship with time—from the small personal moments which shaped her to the wider familial and historical forces which mould us all. And if Vendredi Minuit is a tour through the decades, then latest single ‘Bus Song’ encapsulates the theme most directly, inviting the audience onto an LA bus to contemplate life as it passes by the window. Welsh-Australian favourite Stella Donnelly lends vocals too, and the result is a careful balance between tension and catharsis as the taut vocals find release in the chorus’s languid rhythms.

Watch the video by Will Evans below, including Arthur H. Virtue’s footage as part of the Al Larvick Conservation Fund:

Vendredi Minuit is out via Born Losers Records on the 10th May and you can pre-order it now.

TESHA – Come Down

TESHA has made a name crafting evocative and often strange pop sounds, with Growing Pains II channelling the likes of Fever Ray to offer something “ethereal yet rooted in personal suffering” and singles such as ‘Like a Man’ seething with anger both personal and political. Latest single ‘Come Down’ is no less striking, simmering with a latent energy which collapses the difference between sensuality and rage. The final third sees something of a pivot in tone as the momentum decelerates into a languid croon, though the mix of allure and danger at the track’s heart never quite fades away.

‘Come Down’ is out now and available from the usual places.

The post Weekly Listening: April 2024 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Picture this: there’s a big house at the end of the street. When you walk past it, you can’t tell if it’s full or empty. Its two caretakers—who, to add to the uncanniness, wear crimson suits—clean the house, inspect it, and carry out headcounts. Sometimes they only count themselves. Sometimes they count hundreds of people. They don’t know why this is the case, why the house has so many rooms and stories: it’s not their job to know. One day, as you walk past, a void enters and the house explodes. What happens to what’s inside? What impact does it have on your memory?

With Horror Vacui, 9T Antiope paints such a world in all of its strange wonder and dread, evoking the titular fear of empty spaces while simultaneously interrogating exactly why nature abhors a vacuum. The result could be said to teeter on the edge of something—the line between memory and amnesia, growth and decay or order and chaos—but equally there’s a sense of remove. As though the record were a liminal space captured and preserved, a place outside of the ordinary delineations, free to shift as it sees fit. Latest single ‘Mount 22’ presents the style in all of its mysterious weight, where the surface’s fine detail is disturbed by a simmering weight stirring below.

Horror Vacui will be released on 12th April via American Dreams and is available to pre-order from the 9T Antiope Bandcamp page.

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This is not a record that unfolds gently, beginning with what could equate to a sonic jump-scare from its very first second. ‘The Temple (Hymn)’ opens with pounding percussion, like a malevolent force hammering at the door, demanding entry. From there the track builds into an insistent march, snarls and stabs of distorted atmospherics giving the whole thing an ominous inevitability. A swift and unavoidable fall into what’s to come, the harsh and brutal world of Myths.

If ‘The Temple’ is the descent then follow-up ‘Depth’ feels like an arrival. The track is a slow build masterpiece, all ominous percussion and ghostly groaning drones. Here the drums take a backseat as the ambience gusts and moans like alien gales across the scorched earth of this new landscape. ‘Invok (Pure Kult)’ follows suit, steeped in a dreadful unease, its percussion like the sound of your own heartbeat jumping in your ears in the ominous too-quiet. ‘The Truth’ goes even further, perhaps the record’s subtlest track which plays something like the abstract wind sounds that give so many David Lynch scenes the lingering sense of the strange and powerful.

Myths’ longest piece, ‘Feral Fauna (Severed Myth)’ arises from the previous track with the patience and rhythm of a ritual, ghostly synths snaking from the centre of a shifting ring of rattling percussion. It might not pack the same primal punch as the opening track, but it’s the moment that best captures the essence of the record. A ritual rite, a dark and primitive hymn, a celebration or summons to long-forgotten ancient forces.

Myths is out now and available via Bandcamp. Alternatively, head to Lost Tribe Sound to get the entire subscription series.

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Happy Child, Carmen Jaci’s forthcoming album on Noumenal Loom, represents this aesthetic in its most realised form. An attempt to reconnect with the wonder and experimentation so often relegated to childhood, an unguarded style which embraces the performative and the playful to create something inherently personal, no matter how odd or eccentric the outcome. Packed with references to pop music, video games and symphonic works, and brought to life with mallet percussion and children’s toys, the resulting songs capture the curious vibe at the heart of all childlike curiosity—where the whimsical brightness is underlined by a certain disquiet. As though both magic and strangeness lie latent in all things.

Today we have the pleasure of sharing ‘I See’, the album’s latest single which serves as the ideal introduction for the uninitiated. It’s a track which exists across a series of layers, anchored by a syrupy beat but fizzing off with a variety of electronic details, Jaci’s lush vocals washing over with a style that challenges the distinction between sensuality and dreaming. The result is like exploring an idiosyncratic sonic ecosystem, the candy-coloured skitters and squelches and bright little pops filling the whole thing with a sense of childlike wonder. This might be Carmen Jaci’s personal language, but it is one delivered with intuition and curiosity, inviting outsiders into its world so we too might share its strange joys.

Artwork by Matthew Schoen, photo by Collectif Triangle

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Arlo Sun is the moniker of Canadian Erin Bolton, whose music draws on powers both astral and spiritual, as well as the deep ancient energy of the natural world. The Arlo part of the project’s name is a Gaelic word meaning “between two hills,” a reference to the valley of peace and perspective that Bolton creates with her music. Latest single ‘Forwards Motion’ is no different. An emotive song that feels at once weightless and quietly substantial, offering no empty platitudes but instead preaching a steadfast belief in the importance of hanging on through difficult times and putting one foot in front of the other no matter what. “Written while floating just above the relentless undercurrent of hope, this song is more applicable to me now than it was when I wrote it,” Bolton describes. “‘Forwards Motion’ begs you to look at yourself and the path you’ve taken, forks and all.”

‘Forwards Motion’ is out now and available from the Arlo Sun Bandcamp page.

Ellen Soffe x Aodhan – Tomb of the Prince

Ellen Soffe is a songwriter from Sydney whose work feels like the next step in the rich lineage of fellow Antipodean artists (i.e. Julia Jacklin, Aldous Harding, Tiny Ruins). A skilled guitarist, she played her first gig while still at school, and since then developed a distinctive vocal style and the knack for capturing raw emotion. Described as “a dreamy, meditative journey through lost love and the mythology of a fallen prince,” her debut single ‘Tomb of the Prince’ sees Soffe joined by young Dhawaral artist Aodhan. It’s a languid and tender folk-tinged pop song which captures the warm golden hour glow of a summer evening perfectly. Watch the video below:

‘Tomb of the Prince’ is out now and available via streaming services.

Fairy Tales In Yoghourt – Mania

Fairy Tales in Yoghourt is the solo recording project of Nantes-based Benoît Guchet. A self-confessed control freak, Guchet took his time to create Shape Mistakes, the project’s debut album which came out earlier this month. He has spent the last twelve years playing in other bands (such as Bantam Lyons, Yes Basketball, Classe Mannequin), and struggled to find the time to make his own release as perfect as he wanted. But he eventually managed it, and it’s fair to say it was worth the wait. A distinctive blend of psych folk and chilled-out indie rock, the record feels very much the product of one creative mind, unshackled by limitations or the expectations of others. Lead single ‘Mania’ kicks things off, an off-kilter folk pop song that features layers of guitars, beguiling melodies and a sense of brave forward motion.

Hannah Frances – Honey, Hear Me

Back in 2021, Chicago-based songwriter Hannah Frances released her fifth record Bedrock, an album of raw emotion and considerable storytelling. Next month, Ghost Mountain Records are re-releasing the album on cassette, giving anyone who missed it first time around another chance to put that right. Single ‘Honey, Hear Me’ is as good an introduction as any, showing off Frances’ signature guitar work and vehement songwriting. As the opening track of a record Frances describes as “a fountain of intentionality,” which “offer[s] rawness with reverence,” ‘Honey, Hear Me’ feels like something of a mission statement, a bold pledge towards directness and honesty.

learning to not be alone
to be known and sewn with a thread
other than my own
singing with the birds who know
of bravery

Madi Diaz, S.G. Goodman & Joy Oladokun – Be Careful

When Roe Vs Wade was overturned earlier this year, LA songwriter Madi Diaz found herself thinking of Patty Griffin’s song ‘Be Careful’. “It became a mantra of strength that was playing consistently in the back of my heart and mind day in and day out, gently encouraging me to keep putting one foot in front of the other,” she describes. “It became a sort of battle cry directed toward anyone that wants to take away my rights to my own body and my reproductive freedom.” Diaz got together with her friend Morgan Elizabeth Peirce and the pair wrote a new final verse, bringing the song right into the present.

For all the reasons that are ours to know
It’s my choice and I’m not alone

For every man who’s standing next to me
For queer and trans and non-binary
For everybody with their own body
I will meet you all out in the street

Diaz is joined on the track by S.G. Goodman and Joy Oladokun, who each sing a verse, and Courtney Marie Andrews and Savana Santos also provide backing vocals. You can listen to the cover below:

‘Be Careful’ is out now and available from the Madi Diaz Bandcamp page.

Molly Murphy – Salt for Witches

Now based in New York, songwriter Molly Murphy evokes the Blue Ridge Mountains with her homespun folk music. Her latest single ‘Salt For Witches’ is equal parts catchy and emotive, adding lush pop details to a timeless folk skeleton. Drawing on imagery of folklore and superstition, it’s a song about coping with difficult circumstances and wishing simple actions like knocking on wood or a circle of salt could solve them. “They say a circle of salt can keep evil forces at bay,” Molly Murphy describes. “‘Salt for Witches’ is about wishing you could do just that for bad vibes and people.”

Like salt for witches
Salt for witches
It is simple and strong
Find it in the cabinet
and keep the demons gone

Morena Leraba – Morea-rea

Morena Leraba is a musician/band from Lesotho, who for the last few years has steadily become of the figureheads of a reinvention of the country’s musical heritage. The music draws heavily on Sesotho culture and aims to preserve the language which is declining due to the spread of colonial languages such as English. Morena Leraba achieves this by taking Famo, a sub-genre of traditional Sesotho music, and updating it with contemporary flourishes inspired by hip hop and electronic music. “Because we also have influences from elsewhere musically,” he describes, “I’ve always re-imagined Famo. I’ve always re-imagined Sesotho traditional music.” Latest single ‘Morea-rea’ is a great example, emphasising Sesotho phrases and idioms in a style that feels both modern and timeless.

‘Morea-rea’ is taken from a forthcoming EP called Fela sa Ha Mojela. Until then, listen to the single via streaming services.

The Veils – Undertow

It’s been six years since the release of Total Depravity, the last album from London/Auckland-based outfit The Veils, a gap largely explained by an injury suffered by lead Finn Andrews. A freak accident on stage left him with a fractured wrist, and the decision to continue the tour further aggravated the situation. “The scaphoid bone in my wrist had died,” Andrews explains, “which I didn’t know was possible. My sister said that at least it was a really ‘on brand’ injury for me.” With the process of making music now “profoundly annoying,” it seemed to be the end of his days writing albums, but as is the way of such things new songs started to bubble up regardless. What eventually emerged was …And Out Of The Void Came Love, a new double album coming via Ba Da Bing Records. A release intended to experienced in one sitting, albeit with an intermission in the middle, which throws itself headlong into themes of isolation, healing and creation itself. The latter is brought into relief by single ‘Undertow’, tracing the compulsion to write through genetics, like some cursed blessing that holds tight in spite of intention or circumstance.

Wesley – Sugar Free

This month saw Wesley, AKA Louisville, Kentucky‘s Jacob Weaver, release Glows in the Dark on Earth Libraries. An album we described in an earlier preview as “a hazy dreamworld… all pleasantly surreal imagery and twinkling atmospherics,” with the title track “folding the syrupy dream-like quality of meeting your true love into the almost paradoxical emotion of awakening.” Latest single ‘Sugar Free’ might open with a more mournful, reflective tone, but as soon as Weaver’s vocals kick in the uber smooth style returns. A mood perhaps a tad starker than the previous track but no less ethereal. Some nocturnal vision caught between reality and dreams.

Glows in the Dark is out now and available via the Earth Libraries Bandcamp page.

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