The beautifully-shot video, which free space shot and edited themselves, begins in a dark and enclosed art exhibit, Mays and Brown lit only by a celestial light show, projected images of the sun and the moon and distant constellations. This changes just before the minute mark, as the song unfurls and we’re transported into the big wide world, forest sunsets and leafy avenues and panoramic skies, before we’re whizzed back into the walk-in planetarium, as if all that real-world stuff was just a dream.

All this fits really well with the song’s existential overtones, the images knitting together to conjure that very human yearning you might feel when looking at wide open spaces or beautiful things. It’s difficult to put into words but it’s part of the reason why reincarnation holds appeal, something to do with never being satisfied, or constantly being amazed, that desire to be an intrinsic part of everything you ever see or hear about when all you have is your own tiny body and limited nerve endings.

If you haven’t already, head to the Free Space Bandcamp page to download ahead of myself for however much you’re willing to pay.

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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) Lost (Season One) – Camp Cope
2) Johnny – Basement Revolver
3) Can U Hear Me Now? – Porridge Radio
4) All 4s – ARMS
5) If You’re on the Water – The Saxophones
6) In Ribbons – Psychic Shakes
7) a good pet – Real Swell
8) Breadcrumbs – The Perennials
9) Father is a Craftsman – Modern Studies
10) Aligning With the Sun – Dear Tracks
11) Cake Bath – Cloud Cover
12) Postdoc Blues – John K. Samson
13) Room For Love – Wooden Dinosaur
14) Crab Line – Trust Fund
15) 1 – Young Jesus
16) Life’s Rough – Serial Chiller
17) Never Lonely – Space Mountain
18) I Wish I Was Plural – Free Space
19) More Than Science – Sunshine Faces
20) Maya – Competition
21) Fireball – Albosel
22) It Hurts- A Day Without Love
23) That Went Well- Guppy
24) Kids Playing Outside – Almanac Mountain
25) Patience To Undo the Patience – Psalmships

You can check out the previous monthly roundups here, and our various other playlists and mixtapes here. Be sure to pop back throughout September and beyond to see what autumn brings!

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

ahead of myself begins with ‘glowmont drive’, a lo-fi bedroom pop song with acoustic guitar and the duo’s vocals, possessing the same mellow and sad vibes as Trace Mountains and Fairweather Currents. Brown takes over vocal duties on ‘sleeping in dorms’, with its heady reverberating guitar and dreamily smeared vocals, while ‘trying’ is a downbeat lo-fi song. ‘sororities never liked me’ is another Brown-centric track, with lyrics reflective and honest (“and i’m not a quitter but i’m surely not a winner / you say i’m the latter but i know better / i know you flatter / me with those kinds of words”). Mays and Brown sing together on ‘people’, a pretty little bedroom pop song, before ‘limbic system’ which is gentle and sad, swaddled in buzzing synths that sound somehow quietly transcendental, like lo-fi church organ ringing in simple devotion.

“your studies show
you’re normal but your insides scream otherwise
but sometimes anatomy can’t show
why you can’t feel quite right

a dose of perspective and some animal crackers keep me alive”

‘bible names’ is just soft acoustic guitar and Mays’ & Brown’s vocals, a song about escaping reality, or perhaps trying to find a better one, one where dad doesn’t hit mom, where the lawn isn’t covered in garbage. The repeated chorus line of “show me I’m real” hints at finding solace in another person, that fact of life that company can make the bad things seem better.

“I wish I could collapse like a star/ or maybe just into bed” begins the finale ‘I wish I was plural’, with its warm thick atmosphere that sounds undeniably hopeful. It has the same devotional bedroom pop vibe as Florist’s The Birds Outside Sang and proves a great end to a really nice album.

“now i wish i was grass
now i wish i was leaves
now i wish i was wind
now i wish i was everything
and everything”

You can get ahead of myself on a name-your-price basis via the free space Bandcamp page.

The post free space – ahead of myself appeared first on Various Small Flames.