Kalle Mattson – Twice The Gifts

We’ve been fans of Kalle Mattson for a number of years now, appreciating his distinctly emotive and perceptive songwriting. So, though we’re not big on Christmas music as a rule, his new single ‘Twice the Gifts’ forced us to reconsider—a delicate, tender song that uses the holiday season as a pressure on already existing cracks.

“My parents got divorced something like the day after I was born,” Mattson explains. “So my only memories of Christmas & the holidays are divorced ones. Spending half the day at one house then driving to the next. Two dinners, double the families, and yes twice the gifts.” The song is Xmas stripped of its idealist image, an ode to the non-nuclear family at a time when traditional structures are broadcast from every screen.

Supermercat – Johnny Rack

Self-describing as “friendly punk with a splash of Sheryl Crow,” LA’s Supermercat make a boisterous yet accessible brand of rock that combines the attitude of punk with the singalong value of pop and ties them together with something of a country swagger. Therefore, single ‘Johnny Rack’ could be seen a bouncy slice of fun or a scathing stare down, depending on your frame of mind, though in reality it is likely that is both at once—showing that, with a fierce enough spirit, you can let the good times and heads roll.

You can find Supermercat on Bandcamp.

Be Forest – Bengala

Be Forest are a trio from Italy that create a shoegaze-inspired post-punk, and next February sees them release, Knocturne, their first album in five years. The enlisting of Josh Bonati (Zola Jesus, David Lynch) should give a clue as to the direction of the new record, pushing out in surreal, mesmeric directions to create a rich black sound not entirely of our world.

Lead single ‘Bengala’ is the case in point, though however brooding, represents one of the brightest moments on the record, the song that helps us navigate the rest. “Bengala is the spotlight that lights up the stage after the curtains open,” the band explain. “A celestial body which at the moment of its impact allows us to glimpse our surroundings it’s the brightest point, the north of the compass. This is, though, only ONE of the coordinates of Knocturne. Perhaps the most reassuring.”

Gabriel Birnbaum – Stack the Miles

You might know Gabriel Birnbaum from Wilder Maker, the Brooklyn band who themselves put out a great record this year, and those familiar with his writing will be pleased to learn of a solo album due out on 2019. There’s not much to go on yet, though lead single ‘Stack the Miles’ certainly raises expectations, with Birnbaum’s distinctive delivery driving a track that’s understated yet shot through with real feeling and some brilliant turns of phrase (“the highway’s all police like Chekov’s gun”). As such, the track joins the likes of Monarch Mtn. in painting detailed canvases of American life through poetic imagery and a pervasive atmosphere—a detached, anxious world where miracles and meaninglessness intertwine.

“Water patterns on the window shift like static on tv
in the parking lot by the restaurant, silently
without even the desire for desire, watch the rain rearrange
it’s alphabet an infinite meaningless

I stack the miles I hope it’s enough
I stack the miles I hope it adds up
too many miracles here and I can’t take no more of the good times I’m done”

Grab the single now from the Gabriel Birnbaum Bandcamp page, and keep your eyes peeled for more information on the record.

Castle Pines – Castle Pines

Working out of Corona, CA, Castle Pines make music by and for the disaffected and uncool, anthems not for the performative weirdos of hipster scenes but those quiet, honest folks from blue collar and suburban households. Though the band are prolific, this self-titled single works as culmination of their previous work, bringing their ideals into one track. “We have been performing some version of this song live since we started back in 2009,” the band explain. “It has taken similar iterations but has always held this hazy recollection of the street Castle Pines and all the things that went down […] ‘Castle Pines’ is the capstone of our story as a band, and it is’ both a sad chronicle of suffering and a bright start to better times ahead.”

The song is composed from different facets of contemporary suffering, playing as American dread viewed through a compound eye. Death, poverty, addiction and terrorism are the backdrop, and the foreground the persistent hope of finding a safe home—though one that is itself shaped by nostalgia, pining for a time that can no longer return, the Second Coming of a once famous glory.

No Aloha – The Big One

Based in Portland and with close ties to Salem, No Aloha are a five-piece led by principle songwriters Blake Ferrin and Brette Irish,  the latter having just signed with the fine folks at Good Cheer Records as a solo artist. Which is to take nothing away from the band themselves, because No Aloha are just as worthy of your time. Drawing on the vague doom that hangs over the tectonically-active Pacific Northwest, ‘The Big One’ is a single “about being in a big earthquake and only being able to worry what your crush is doing.” The result is cataclysm for the romantics, where ever the bone-shaking earth can’t break the ties of young love.

You can find No Aloha on Bandcamp and Facebook, and watch Good Cheer Records for more on Brette Irish.

The Beths – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Auckland’s The Beth’s have had a whirlwind year, releasing their debut full-length Future Hates Me on Carpark Records, and touring all over the world. Their festive offering is a take on ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’, which sees them dial back their pop punk energy in favour of strings, what the band describe to The Spinoff as the Beths version of the Ella Fitzgerald version. All proceeds go to Girls Rock! Camp Aotearoa and Women’s Refuge too, so it’s all for a good cause.

Blue Ranger – Ah My

It’s been a weird year with lots of distractions, meaning a fair number of great records have slipped past before we could write about them. One such album was Saving a Beauty by Blue Ranger, so in lieu of the attention it deserves, we’re going to suggest you start with single ‘Ah My’ and discover the rest for yourself. The track highlights Josh Marre’s folk-leaning style and warm writing, giving a glimpse at the affectionate atmosphere that permeates the record. Christmas is a time for fondness, after all.

“Please would you mind
put your arms around me
please keep in mind
you’re sure that someone’s listening

keeping mine in mind”

Lampland – Don’t Drive

Ahead of a full-length album out early next year, New York’s Lampland has unveiled a new single, ‘Don’t Drive’. Fittingly, the song concerns the approach of a winter storm, snow and ice immobilising the city and trapping the principle characters within their apartment. The moment opens up a space within normal time, a relaxing of life that allows a certain magic inside, made all the more precious by the certainty that it will be over as quickly as it began. What could be more Christmassy than that?

“Don’t try to drive tonight
Pressures dropping I was right
Heavy shiver in the air
I don’t know why I’m laughing
You know the bridges freeze first?
And then the gin in your purse
And then the swimming pool where you work”

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Mount Goldie – Summer

There’s very little information available about Mount Goldie, other than they are a duo based in Portland, Oregon and have a new album, All My Friends Are Mothers coming out this August. In a world of gimmicks and EPKs, there’s something refreshing about letting the music do the talking, which is exactly what Mount Goldie do with ‘Summer’. Building slowly with a sense of weight, the track has sense of stifling summer stillness, a lack of movement that becomes oppressive, as though rising toward some sudden break, though never quite coming to anything. Clint Snow’s vocals rise through this heavy air, conjuring the likes of Dusted in his ability to draw emotion from straight delivery.

All My Friends Are Mothers is set for release on the 3rd August and you can pre-order in now from Bandcamp.

Devon Welsh – Vampires

Best known as the frontman of electronic duo Majical Cloudz, Montreal’s Devon Welsh began pursuing a solo career after the natural end of the band in 2016. Following a collection of older songs titled Down the Mountain, Welsh has been unveiling new material in the last few months. After the meditative ‘I’ll Be Your Ladder’, which came out this spring, Welsh has unveiled a brand new single, ‘Vampires’, complete with a video directed by Christopher Honeywell.

The track is stripped back to a lonely minimum, a kind of late-night absence across which Welsh’s distinctive vocals can move, the introduction of small notes acting like sparks and streetlamps in the gloom, building slowly into an incandescent glow as Welsh rises from from baritone into near devotional warmth.

“What are we doing here hanging on a dark night?
What are we doing here this town’s a vampire
Ducking our silhouettes waiting for the cop’s light
This town’s gonna eat us alive

So we’re moving on”

You can find all of Devon Welsh’s music on his Bandcamp page.

Floating Room – Dog

Led by Maya Stoner and Kyle Bates, Floating Room are a Portland band who last month put out a new release, False Baptism, via Good Cheer Records. The record is something of a follow-up to 2016’s Sunless, which explored the consequences of an emotional relationship. The new album is still centred on this subject, though there is a greater degree of clarity here, as though pulling away from the scene to better take in its dimensions.

Lead single ‘Dog’ serves as a great example, using the metaphor of pet and owner to explore emotional reliance and obligation. The canine wants to escape the relationship (““I don’t like how weak I am when I’m with you”), and the master is terrified of losing their control, and while both declare their love for the other, the true focus of this love is perhaps not healthy or fair. The result is a situation governed by fear, motivated not by true connection but the dread of being alone.

False Baptism is out now via Good Cheers Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Angus & Julia Stone – Nothing Else

Australian brother and sister duo Angus & Julia Stone have been releasing their atmospheric brand of folk music for over a decade now, culminating in 2017 album Snow. With a video directed by Jessie Hill, they have recently released ‘Nothing Else’ as a single. Charting the lonely spaces between connection and empathy, the song probes the repercussions of relationship and their influence on identity, playing as something of a reassurance (or attempt thereof) after some unsaid disturbance. Featuring Julia playing two roles, the video speaks to this too, as though, regardless of outside judgement, we can return to ourselves in confidence.

Snow is out now and you can get it from the Angus & Julia Stone website.

Izaak Opatz – Bathing in the Ganges

LA-based Montana native Izaak Opatz has teamed up with the good people at Mama Bird Recording Co. to re-release his album Mariachi Static. The record is the perfect balance of playful and emotional, classic country heartbreak portrayed through loose-limbed confidence, all the trials of life doing little to extinguish his sense of humour. Complimenting this is Opatz’s knack for writing vivid scenes, evocative slices of life woven from small details, making for an emotive and endearing atmosphere that prevents the ironic elements from undercutting the meaning of each track.

The reissue also sees the addition of three new songs, a cover of ‘Carmelita’ alongside two new originals. One such tune, ‘Bathing in the Ganges’ serves as a neat introduction to Opatz’s sound, emerging with a slow and dusty inevitability, kicking into something of a rhythm across its length, though never quite shaking the languid stretch.

Mariachi Static is being released by Mama Bird Recording Co. on the 20th July and you you can pre-order it through Bandcamp.

Free Cake For Every Creature – Around You / In Your Car

Good news! Free Cake for Every Creature, the project lead by Philadelphia’s Katie Bennett, are back with a new album. Titled The Bluest Star, Bennett has again enlisted the help of Francis Lyons and Heeyoon Won (of Boosegumps) to record the record, which is set for release in August on Double Double Whammy.

The band have released two singles thus far, which seem to confirm that Free Cake aim to continue their signature gentle indie pop. ‘around you’ is sweet and understated nostalgi-pop, Bennett’s lyrics focusing on those simple joyful moments of making a new friend, while ‘in your car’ features Felix Walworth on banjo and Meghan Center with additional vocals, a song about whiling away long summer evenings in a parked car with Pavement on the radio. Again it displays what Bennett does so well, focusing on small details to infer larger feelings, all wrapped up in a transportive atmosphere.

“Windows down in your stopped car
Radio picking up the distant city’s station
You pass me the glass, your lipstick in the rim
“Summer babe” narration, waiting waiting”

The Bluest Star is out on Double Double Whammy on the 3rd of August. Pre-order it now.

Campdogzz – Souvenir

Campdogzz are a five-piece based out of Chicago who, led by the distinctive vocals of Jess Price, create a brooding indie rock that their bio describes as being “dialled into the bleak, spirited heart of the industrial Midwest.” Following 2016 album Riders in the Hills of Dying Heaven, the band have signed to Cursive’s 15 Passenger Records for a brand new record, In Rounds. The release took shape when Price and guitarist Mike Russell travelled around southern deserts in a school bus, and it is promised that the harsh beauty and wide open spaces of the landscape shape the sound. Lead single ‘Souvenir’ is all we have to go on so far, though it promises a sense of danger and rawness that more than lives up to expectations.

In Rounds is set for release on the 3rd August via 15 Passenger Records and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Indigo De Souza – Home Team

Taken from I Love My Mom, their debut album released last month on Sub-Fi Records, Indigo De Souza’s ‘Home Team’ shows off the North Carolinian songwriter’s wry yet impassioned voice. Simultaneously bitingly honest and guarded, the song toes the line between cutting and pleading, as though seeking to clear up ambiguity in others while stewing in a confusion of its own, a need for reassurance that peaks from behind the bleachers despite the confident front. The result is fiery and at-times genuinely funny, the scope in tone matched by De Souza’s vocal range, as confident in conversational intimacy as big, broadcasted refrains.

“Don’t you blame me
if I don’t answer my phone.
I don’t like fucking boys who need to know
what to do when there’s no-one else home.

We’re all pining for that modern day girl
she’s really a star
got the crowd just jumping for joy
on a Saturday night at the home field.”

I Love My Mom is out now via Sub-Fi Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

You’re Sister – I Think About You

The recording project of New York’s Megan Braaten, You’re Sister put out a new full-length, Keepsake, this past May. Drawing spirit from its title, the album is a comforting brand of bedroom pop that’s shot through with a sense of distant regret, as though there is something inherently sad within the things we treasure most. Single ‘I Think About You’ serves as the perfect example of this, the warm atmosphere nurturing a keen melancholia, an immersive emotion that’s something to do with memories, something to do with the passing of time.

You can get Keepsake now from the You’re Sister Bandcamp page.

Fresh – Daytime

Fresh are a pop-punk four-piece from London who last year put out a self-titled album with Specialist Subject Records. Channelling the likes of Camp Cope, the record is fine balance between thoughtful, personal lyrics and a sense of carefree abandon, painting a picture of the volatile rollercoaster ride that is life as a young person in contemporary society.

A year later, the band are back with a brand new 7″, Daytime/Nightime, and have unveiled a video for lead track ‘Daytime’. Again, the track’s infectious sense of energy buoys what is an impassioned and empathetic lyrical side, Fresh railing against the debilitating search for perfection. As lead Kathryn Woods explains, “[‘Daytime’ is] about how in our culture there’s this myth of constant happiness or the idea that you always have to be thriving and successful, when actually, a lot of the time, you just have to get through whatever’s going on.”

Daytime/Nightime will be released on the 31st August via Specialist Subject Records (UK) and Discos Finu (Spain).

Tender Age – Don’t Mind

Portland punk outfit Tender Age are putting out a new album, Becoming Real Forever, on the 9th of July, and have unveiled a video for the lead single ‘Don’t Mind’ to set the tone. The press release describes the band’s sound as like “being pulled into an automatic car wash,” and while the experience is not nearly as painful as that sounds, the image does capture the whirlwind of activity, a series of disparate elements pulling together toward a cohesive whole. Add in a the retro-tinged vocals that bring to mind Sonic Youth or The Breeders, and you have a confident, moody track unafraid of exploring light and dark within the same space.

Becoming Real Forever is set for release on the 9th July via SINIS Recordings and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Blue J – Hard to Know

Vancouver’s Blue J have a big summer ahead, with their debut EP coming out in August and a tour with SALES and Dave Monks (from Tokyo Police Club). So far, the quartet have released a number of singles, and the latest ‘Hard To Know’ demonstrates their ability to weave nuanced lyrics into affecting music. Indeed, the blend of motion and emotion in the instrumentation brings to mind Big Thief‘s Capacity, as the lyrics deal with loss and grief from the perspective of someone outside of the immediate situation, trying to comfort the mourning.

“The way that you looked on that day
I knew that I could not relate
to the shock that showed up on your face
the look of loss you wore with grace
staring at cracks on the ground
your call ended without a sound
no ‘goodbye or see you later’
your breath was getting deeper”

You can get ‘Hard to Know’ and the previous singles from the Blue J Bandcamp page, and be sure to keep an eye out for more news on the EP.

You can find all of the previous instalments of Bright Sparks here, and be sure to check back in a few weeks to see what makes the next edition.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 14 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

I was involved with that camp for about ten years—as a camper, an intern and then a music instructor and band coach,” Frances explains. “It was there that I learned about the misrepresentation of women, queer people and people of colour in the music industry. I began learning about sexism, feminism, and the power behind protest music.

Born Yesterday feels like a culmination of these themes and ideas, though the record does not play as an explicit statement. Rather, it feels a natural gathering of thoughts and opinions, the logical product born of the lessons Frances has been learning. This requires a certain degree of opening up, working through feelings in real-time via music, and is manifested as a palpable vulnerability in the songs and lyrics.

Opening track ‘Blue Shit’ is a good example, a brand of folk that delves deep into the unspoken dimensions of human character, though implicitly, hinting at the sense of sadness and dissatisfaction rather than displaying them in overwrought focus. Furthermore, Gillian Frances utilises a meditative sound that combats any danger of mawkish sentiment, the vocals delivered in an even tone that suggests simple and organic communication.

‘Pet Diamond’ follows a similar pattern, utilises ambient noises and field recordings to flesh out the dreamy background atmosphere, and while ‘Vanilla’ is more focused and driven, the poetic nature of the lyrics allows a lightness to remain. “We’re still children now,” Frances sings, her comforting croon skating along the foggy instrumentation. “Vanilla-scented adolescents / with hooks in the clouds, dragging lines in our messes / Our minds swirling in a fluorescent tide / emptied and ready for the flight.”

Allowing space back into the instrumentation, closer ‘Gold’ is a slow-burner hung upon rhythmic guitar, and though the expectation is for this to smoulder into something more fierce, Frances remains in the restrained track, again allowing what is left absent to act as the driving force. The result, like much of the EP, is something akin to a daydream. Though this is not a fanciful vision where the impossible becomes real, rather a introspective reflection, a space in which Frances has room to say what might otherwise be impossible, or else not say what she might else feel compelled to.

Born Yesterday is out via Good Cheer Records and you can snag a copy via the Gillian Frances Bandcamp page.

Cover art by Jonathan Benz

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After the success of Friends, the folks at Good Cheer have decided to look back into the Boreen catalogue and re-release their first album, Cartoons. The aesthetic of this record is altogether rougher, though the lo-fi sound pushes the same qualities of earnestness and connection, the songs inspired by the experiences of a young loved one mourning the loss of a close friend. In order to cope, they had turned to Disney movies, and O’Sullivan explores the idea of escapism through a mixture of live/toy instruments and field recordings.

The result is somewhere between Mt. Eerie and Alex G, the mundane captured in stark detail and woven into something altogether more fantastical. From driving a car to take a walk to the Youtube-induced miss of Halley’s Comet, O’Sullivan’s writing is rooted in the banalities of every day, banalities which either require escape or become escape tactics themselves, once viable distractions transmogrified into a prison of their own making. As such, despite the dreamy sound and sincerity of the emotions, a sense of dissatisfaction permeates the record, an itch that no cartoon or weed or sugary snack can quite scratch. And through this, Boreen avoid any accusations of being silly or twee, the childlike naivety not some affected front but rather a genuine attempt to preserve some sense of joy in a world where loss is all around.

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Following the retro-pop sound of ‘Providence’, the album is wrapped in a distinctive atmosphere, a kind of hazy strangeness that channels The Cure, or even The Smiths, though with some of Morrissey’s gloom switched out for an odd weightlessness. ‘Jacks’ is probably the best example of this, the downcast nature of the lyrics buoyed upon the almost psychedelic instrumentation, the sadness ultimately trumped by floaty transcendence. Elsewhere, the title track offers a brooding, surreal depiction of loneliness, a syrupy dreamscape where day and night operate according to one’s mood and semi-literal ghosts visit your room, while the aforementioned ‘Providence’ is more upbeat, at least in terms of tempo.

However, the same morose feeling is present here too, the sensation that something has been lost, or else will be, perhaps even before the first hint of separation has taken place. Indeed, much of the release is marked by a sense of inevitable sadness, an acceptance that bright sparks burn out, while still watching the afterimage they leave behind your on eyelids. Fittingly, ‘Waltz’ closes the EP with a piano lead coda or postscript, something in its ambience or timing suggesting an empty room, an old emotion committed to tape and long since vanished, a recording playing to no-one.

Even In Dreams is set for release via Hidden Bay Records (cassette) and Good Cheer Records (digital). You can pre-order it now from the Little Star Bandcamp page.

Album art by Adam Finkelston

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A new volume will be posted every few weeks and will offer a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar.

Blushing – Weak 

Working out of Austin, Texas, Blushing is a quartet made up of two husband and wife couples that make a shimmering brand of shoegaze that stokes the flames of nostalgia while pushing ahead into new territory. With the band set to release a new EP, Weak, they’ve unveiled the title track as a single to whet our appetites. The track, which nods at forebears such My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive as well as contemporaries like Pains of Being Pure At Heart, weaves a gauzy atmosphere and feedback and reverb, though the poppy vocals are also allowed to bob to the surface.

Check out the video below, which was directed, filmed and edited by drummer Jake Soto with help from Eddie Chavez.

Weak is to be released via Austin Town Hall Records on the 26th January, 2018, and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Amparo – Ruby

Amparo is the project of Arizona’s Lela Amparo, who is due to release their debut EP, Rains, later this week, the first ever release on label Taabiir. The first single from the record, ‘Ruby’ combines sombre piano, sparse guitar and minimal spoken samples to form something that sounds moving and elegiac. The track was inspired by the rhythms of the natural world, as Amparo explains. “This past summer I spent time in Gothenburg, Sweden surrounding myself with the nearby woods. The original intention was to continue crafting electronic music, however after a friend loaned me his guitar, the outcome was entirely different. Over the course of two days, I sat down and began to sketch out guitar hooks and loops, which would eventually transpire into this EP.”

Rains is due for release on the 10th of December via Taabiir.

Veronica Bianqui – Victim

Multi-instrumentalist Veronica Bianqui makes music inspired a variety of sources, melding the 60s pop with classic soul and finishing off with the rough edges of garage rock. While her debut album is not scheduled for release until 2018, new single, ‘Victim’, gives a good insight in her sound and aesthetic. Bianqui’s sister died young after struggling with drug use, and the song plays as an attempt to prevent such tragedies, imploring those struggling addiction to find the strength to change and live. As such, ‘Victim’ is about breaking patterns of self-victimization in order to heal and grow, maintaining an upbeat, positive vibe despite the grave matter at hand.

‘Victim’ is available now from Veronica Bianqui’s Bandcamp page.. All of the proceeds are being donated to the Harm Reduction Coalition, who fight to promote the health and dignity of individuals and communities impacted by drug use.

Lavender Child – Happy Illusions

Based in Toronto, Canada, Lavender Child makes what they describe as “ethereal dreamscapes” intended to “inspire listeners to reconnect with nature, community, and themselves.” The result is something pitched halfway between indie pop and ambient, taking equal inspiration from Grouper, Julianna Barwick and Sharon van Etten. The lead single from a new EP, Reflections, ‘Happy Illusions’ demonstrates the vivid, dream-like soundscapes that Lavender Child conjures, evoking not only a sense of wilderness but also a rich inner life too, as though the interior and exterior are merged into one soaring fabric.

Lavender Child‘s EP, Reflections, is out on the 1st December.

1971 – Anxiety (In The Depths Of Northwestern Ontario)

Cameron Glen Cranston, bassist and founding member of 1971, very sadly died earlier this year aged just 25. The band have called it a day in response, but have decided to release their final two recordings as a cassette single, No Matter Where You Go, There You Are.

One of those tracks, ‘Anxiety (in the Depths of Northwestern Ontario)’ was written for Cranston back in 2016, during a very difficult period before his death. We’re glad we have ‘his’ song,” the band told Exclaim! “even though it’s hard to listen to sometimes.”

The song deals in the kind of sparse and expansive Canadian indie rock that will appeal to fans of Wintersleep or Summering, the pain and emotion that inspired it spiking in punky yelps during the chorus, and whipping into a blizzard of squealing guitar and pounded drums for the finale.

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are is out Dec 1st and available via the 1971 Bandcamp page.

Joe Russell-Brown – Post-Youth Depression

Recorded on nothing but a laptop and cheap microphone in his grandmother’s bungalow, Joe Russell-Brown’s debut EP Post-Youth Depression manages a surprising anthemic richness to accompany what is still an undoubtledly lo-fi sound. The title track is the perfect example of this, coming off as a jagged celebration of times gone by, detailing the facets of teenage years in boring towns that become suddenly beautiful in hindsight.

Post-Youth Depression is out now via Warren Records and you can grab it from Bandcamp.

Bryde – Desire

Bryde is the recording project of Pembrokeshire native Sarah Howells, who makes a dark blend of indie rock and pop that probes at the sinister underbelly of love and relationships. Following on from her debut EP, ‘Desire’ is a new single that furthers this style, serving as a critical, semi-disgusted look at a relationship gone wrong. According to Howells, the songs is about “our need for instant gratification, about desire’s addictive qualities and how they can make us behave,” charting the transforming or transmogrifying power of love and lust. Here, passion is not the beguiling force of Hollywood movies, rather an instinctive, near-animalistic force capable of destroying your sense of self and better judgement.

‘Desire’ was released earlier this month via Seahorse Music, and precedes Bryde’s debut album, pencilled in for next Spring.

Little Star – Providence

Starting out as the solo project of Portland, Oregon’s Daniel Byers, Little Star grew to include band members John Value and Julian Morris for 2016’s Being Close this year’s self-titled record. However, returning to his roots, Byers has taken to the studio as a solo act once more to record a new EP, Even in Dreams, that will be released next year on Good Cheer Records. Until then, we have ‘Providence’ as a taster, a track that combines an intimate bedroom pop with 80s college rock, with elements of shoegaze thrown in for good measure—resulting in a song that blends emotion and deadpan observation in a way similar to the excellent Friendship record we reviewed a few weeks ago.

Even in Dreams will be released on Hidden Bay Records and Good Cheer Records on the 12th January and you can pre-order it now. In the meantime, check out the Big Star Bandcamp page for their previous albums.

Allegra Krieger – So Glad You Said Goodbye

Based in New York, Allegra Krieger is a songwriter rooted in the traditions of folk, as much of a storyteller as a musician. Indeed, as with much of the best folk, her debut album Circles deals with themes of moving, coming out of a period spent “living on the road; in tents, caves, strangers couches.” As such, the record feels like a sincere attempt at communicating the experience of life, with situations and relationships always beginning and ending, the narrator left to navigate the constant change and subsequent heartache. ‘So Glad You Said Goodbye’ is a perfect example, pitched on the vague space between heartsick and wistful, finding solace or strength in the act of moving forwards.

Circles is out now and you can get it from the Allegra Kriger Bandcamp page.

Me and The Moon – Standing Still

After much praise for their debut single, ‘Get Away’ , Guildford trio Me and The Moon are back with a second single on My Little Empire Records. ‘Standing Still’ is an indie-pop song with shoegazey elements and near mathy influences, making for a track that’s both upbeat and melancholic in the best way possible.

The single is out via My Little Empire, and available now from Bandcamp.

Be sure to check out our previous Bright Sparks posts via the tag, and keep your eyes peeled in the opening weeks of 2018 for the next edition.

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