Claire Cronin – What the Night is Thinking
Michael Cromier – Foghorn
Ylayali – little caterpillar graveyard
Forrest Moody & Jake Bellissimo – Selige Sehnsucht
Grotto Terrazza – Was Leben Will Muss Sterben
Trying – If I Don’t Get a Job
Giant in The Lighthouse – Sprinting
Soften – Iridescent
Champ Major – Abbeville
Grebes – Plum
Jack M. Senff – Old Days
Sam Lynch – Not My Body
Tyler Key – Change My Mind
Ē – Afraid of the Ocean
Dehd – Wild
Pancho and the Wizards – Rot
TV People – Healthier Days
Plastic Cactus – Mystery Boy
Bibi Club – Jean Rene
It’s Sunday – Comme Un Fool
Little Slugger – Impossible
runnner – fan on
Hostxess – Time
omes – wyd
Oliver Ray – Ol’ Coyote
Will Johnson – Cornelius
Merival – No Brakes
My Father’s Son – Dust to Rust
Jordan Klassen – Virtuous Circle
Ditty – Deathcab

Check out our previous Monthly Roundup playlists, and be sure to read or Reviews and Previews throughout the month.

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

The image of an empty house is a pertinent one, not least because such a space is alluded to in the title. The debut Grebes release, House Creature, is being released later this week on Broken Circles, and we’re lucky enough to be sharing the whole thing a few days early. From opener ‘One Trick Pony’, there is a sense that Ungerleider is working from within a state of isolation, becoming the titular house creature crafting private pop gems. Which is not to say the tracks lack any sparkle or detail, with the intricately layered ‘wyd’ showing off a stratified stack of synths and psych-inspired guitar, while the foggy pop of ‘Beleev’ is a party in its own right, even if it’s just a party of one.

Other tracks favour the enveloping sadness of nostalgia, with ‘Halo’ and ‘Always Home’ hinting at the folk underpinnings of the Grebes sound. The former kicks into a gentle groove a third of the way in, though the latter remains insular and faded. “And when the last green starling has flown,” Ungerleider sings from within the wistful ache of the instrumentation, “will there be anything to call your own, I would never / and when you’re tired and all alone, you know I am always home.”

The track signals something of a switch in the album’s mood, flipping the switch from peppy rhythms of the opening half to something far more downbeat. ‘Plum’ is a case in point, a sultry, half-paced croon that slinks and slides in slo-motion. “Keep me here when I’m alone, and I’ll watch your tv show,” go Ungerleider’s words, sounding somewhere between a promise and a plea. “See my fear is all I know, all I ever had to know.” The sun has well and truly set on the Grebes abode, and Ungerleider is digging in for a long night.

That said, the album ends not with some triumphant crescendo but rather a humble passing. Closer ‘Always New’ sets out with cushioned tones before being washed out by an accumulation of aqueous synths. The low-key finish encapsulates the House Creature aesthetic. If life is fragile and fleeting, events both special and terrible passing in a blink of an eye, then what use is bombast in its representations? Rather Grebes highlights the value of subtlety and discretion, charting not the melodrama of the moment but rather the slow melancholy of time’s passing.

Photo by Malcolm Donaldson

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