Tracklisting:

1. Hold That Thought – Joyride!
2. Betsy’s Back – Bloody Death Skull
3. Cold Spell – Lunar Quiet
4. Go To Sleep – Skinny Blonde
5. Limbaud – American Enthusiasm
6. Saurkraut – Your Dog
7. Ache – Dæva
8. Bound By Blood – Hollow Twin
9. Florida’s Warm – Day Joy
10. The Dark Side of the Holy Ghost – Young Elk
11. The Park Behind Walmart  – Boy Scouts
12. Fear & Force – Vagabon
13. Stanton Park – Luke De-Sciscio
14. uuu – Field Medic
15. Meeting Points at 2AM – dné
16. The Rain Thief – Honey Stretton
17. The Stranger – Tyler Butler
18. Nervousness Fangs – Will Johnson
19. Constellation – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
20. The Dark Streets of Newark – Monarch Mtn
21. Violet – Roddy Hart & the Lonesome Fire
22. Work – naps
23. Passage of Old – Seabuckthorn
24. We’re Stuck With The Beauty – Winter Villains
25. Why They Call You Blue – Jordan Buchell

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

Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire – Violet

Glasgow’s Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire are back with a new single, ‘Violet’, a track which blends delicate melancholy with a human warmth in a way reminiscent of The National.  The song is taken from their forthcoming album, Swithering, which you can pre-order right now.

Winter Villains – We’re Stuck With The Beauty

Taken from the Cardiff band’s sophomore album Once there were sparks, now there are ashes, ‘We’re Stuck with the Beauty’ is a strange, orchestral chamber pop song both striking and beautiful. A certain oddness underpins both the sound and the lyrics, a sense that the world is not quite as it seems, the angles not quite logical, the imagery shot through with an obscure sense of meaning.

dné – Meeting Points at 2AM

The recording project of Czech Republic’s Ondrej Holy, dné is a neo-classical project born not of formal training but an innate musicality, drawing upon piano, strings and vocals as well as lush field recordings and other sampling techniques. The result is new album These Semi Feelings, They Are Everywhere, a critique of “today’s world of Internet driven hyper-realities, superficial connections and the increasing elusiveness of romance and relationships”, though as ‘Meeting Points at 2AM’ shows, there is hope and light aplenty. The album is out via Majestic Casual Records.

Mitski – ‘Your Best American Girl’ live on Colbert

We wrote a preview post about Puberty 2 and ‘Your Best American Girl’ back in , and while we’d planned to give the album the full review it deserved, it was difficult to find the time and space to write something interesting about Mitski that hasn’t already been said. So, in the likely event that the review never appears, here’s a spellbinding live session from Colbert to remind you that Mitski is special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkvE_0k_2q0

Luke De-Sciscio – Stanton Park

Luke De-Sciscio describes his latest album Gossamer Rose as one about “growing to the point you can face yourself candidly – about recognising your flaws and intricacies such that you can contribute to this journey through life in the most positive way… it’s a record about eye contact.” This idea shines through on ‘Stanton Park’, a suitably intimate folk song where every imperfection only reinforces the sense of authenticity, drawing on the likes of JBM and adding warmth and nostalgic poetry.

Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt – New Friend

San Diego’s Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt are soon to release a new 6″ lathe-cut single with Brooklyn’s Already Dead Tapes and Records, ‘New Friend’ sounds sunny and gentle, with strummed acoustic guitar and warm choral vocals. With the cartoony, wish-you-were-here style novelty postcard artwork, it’s a welcome relief from the frosty mornings and biting north wind. Pre-order the single now from Bandcamp, and get bonus download codes for four (!) Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt albums.

Jordan Burchel – Why They Call You Blue

Gainesville, Florida resident Jordan Burchel makes electrically and emotionally charged indie rock that’s infused with a sense of mass and negative space. He’s soon to release his sophomore album, Vowel Sounds, and has recently unveiled a single, ‘Why They Call You Blue’. The song is the perfect introduction to Burchel’s sound and has certainly whet our appetite for the LP. Be sure to keep an eye on his website ahead of release in December.

Century of Ecstasy – Bus

The recording project Stockholm’s Joakim Persson, Century of Ecstasy produces sparse, lonely songs with nothing more complicated than an acoustic guitar and piano. Taken from his latest EP, I’m Leaving, Who Cares?, ‘Bus’ is a lesson in insular music, sounding like a late-night lament as heard from an empty room, so reflective and melancholic that it comes off almost as a ghost story, or rather a story from a ghost.

Skinny Blonde – Hi Annie

New York’s Skinny Blonde blend power pop and garage rock together with wry humour and deadpan vocals to tell stories of wasted youth, coming off like BOAT might have sounded in their high school years. ‘Hi Annie’ is the perfect introduction, the tale of a introverted, peace-loving admirer following their beloved, party-going Annie from a distance, thinking that their differences need not get in the way of romantic love (“I can wait in the car Annie, and you can have a real good time / you and me could go far Annie, I can push on through and I don’t mind / Lord knows I’ve got the time, Annie”). The song is taken from their new album, Precious Cargo, that you can get from Bandcamp.

David Stone – Sound of a Spark

David Stone is a songwriter from Ontario who recently wrote and recorded ‘Sound of a Spark’, a song about his great uncle Sid, a belly gunner in the Second World War. While the whole Remembrance Day thing has become a bit of a commodity, today of all days we should remember the human side of war, and this song does just that.

The post Best of The Rest: Things We Have Missed #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Opener ‘Bed’ sounds like a sonic time capsule from a rainy wartime evening, Williams’s voice rising from a dusty gramophone in the corner sounding both cinematic and distant. The delicate guitar on ‘Tired Mind’ tumbles as if caught on a breeze, the vocals supported by gentle coos and a tidal background hum, before the piano-led ‘The Rain Thief’. The track sounds somehow apprehensive, at least at first, as if someone is playing in a dark and empty room at midnight, though eventually settles into a more certain groove of melancholy.

The title track closes the EP, stretching over 8 minutes with gentle quite and Williams’s quiet croon. After the halfway mark the song descends into a rumbling, disonant noise, like a relentless wind battering a flat and barren landscape, the vocals reduced to just another brief echo in time.

You can get Wail now from the Canigou Records Bandcamp page. Its available as a digital download, or on cassette, which comes complete with a bonus track and an unique hand-drawn artwork. Oh and 10% of sales goes to Refuge, so what are you waiting for? Also, be sure to check out the Honey Stretton Soundcloud page for a few more tracks.

-Photo credit: Jack Goodwin-

The post Honey Stretton – Wail appeared first on Various Small Flames.