Joined by Matyas Wolter (surbahar), Chris Murphy (trumpet), Franz Bargmann (ebow guitar) and Amir Sinai Weisglass (electric piano and violin), Altman crafts an experimental blend of folk and ambient music, using synths and vocals to complete the detailed, nuanced sound. In a preview post for track ‘ Heroic Bee’ we wrote how “the song has a peculiarly natural rhythm, cyclical and familiar but also idiosyncratic, packed with small quirks and details which accumulate into a breathing ecosystem,” and the description holds true for the record as a whole. With small deviations from the rhythmic sound, each track explores the continuity of life and death, forming a familiar yet constantly evolving picture within which we all exist. So, while decidedly more upbeat than Fairydust, these songs are no less poignant, finding wonder and sadness and beauty within the natural way of things, as though in accepting our position in the grand scheme of nature we might find comfort in our tiny scale. As he sings in ‘Just Like The Rain’:

“Now I’m a man
I do what I can to be happy
Just like a flower
Just like a bee
I don’t waste my time counting how fast i’m falling
Just like the rain
Just like the leaves on a tree

When its time for me to leave this bag of bones
Someone might say “I can’t believe that he’s gone”
Everything keeps on going no need to cry
In to the ocean
In to the sky”

The song was written while Altman was reading a book by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and activist Thich Naht Hanh, which accounts for the themes of reincarnation and continuity. To further this vibe, Altman created a breathing sound by filtering white noise through two analog filters, both inhalation and exhalation represented. Indeed, thanks to his technical skills as a producer and engineer, Altman employs a number of novel methods and inventive techniques to enhance the sound across the album as a whole. For example, ‘Heroic Bee’ utilises a dazzling array of sound samples and filters, including piano played over a recording from a beehive and then passed through a telephone filter to add age and character. For those interested in the techincal details, Altman writes about his process in depth here and here.

The album can be heard in its entirety below. Due to the immense care taken in regard to themes and sound, we suggest you listen to it in one sitting, with the best headphones or speakers you have.

Artwork by Stefano Campus

The post Idan Altman – Expiration Date appeared first on Various Small Flames.

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.

Deer Scout – Sad Boy

After the excellent EP, Customs (which we described as “at once sort of sad and strangely uplifting”), Dena Miller’s Deer Scout is back with a brand new single, ‘Sad Boy’. Complete with a video directed by Haftom Khasai and Nick Morgan, and produced by Neuromantic Productions, the track sees Miller adopt additional production and straight-eyed confidence, toeing the line between sincere intimacy and cool commentary. As such, the track serves as a neat put down for every tortured male with a guitar, and a high five for all the female, trans and non-binary people (what Miller calls “non-dudes”) who write honest, earnest music without due recognition. “The issue isn’t men being vulnerable,” Miller says. “The issue is that non-dudes have always embraced softness and vulnerability and never get enough credit for it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceziEe0eTAo

Outside The Academy – Anaesthetise

Recording project of Australia’s Pawel Cholewa, Outside The Academy follows up his second EP with a brand new winter single (in the southern hemisphere, at least), ‘Anaesthetise’. Something between bummed-out bedroom folk and psychedelic electro pop, the track is a slow, glassy number which plays something like Todd Goldstein’s ARMS projected through space, the dancey electronics and catchy vocals stretched sombre and strange by a minimalistic glitch.

Grab the single, and all of his previous releases, right now on the Outside The Academy Bandcamp page.

Idan Altman – Heroic Bee

Taken from Idan Altman’s forthcoming album, Expiration Date, ‘Heroic Bee’ is a sprawling experimental track that utilises a whole host of sounds and techniques to create a uniquely alive soundscape. With everything from synths, guitar and piano to crowd recordings and bee sounds, the song has a peculiarly natural rhythm, cyclical and familiar but also idiosyncratic, packed with small quirks and details which accumulate into a breathing ecosystem.

Expiration Date is out later this year so keep an eye on the Idan Altman Facebook page for more details.

Crumb – Plants

Following up the excellent self-titled EP on Citrus City, Lila Ramani’s Crumb last week unveiled another brand new release, Locket. Smashing together influences as diverse as art rock, 60s psychedelica and jazz, the band create a mesmeric, swirling sound that’s somehow leisurely and intense all at once—a hallucinatory dream that follows you into the day. Check out single ‘Plants’ below for a dose of lightheaded nostalgia:

Locket is out now and you can get it from Bandcamp, plus Crumb is still available from Citrus City Records.

Midwestern Exposure – Riverboat

Earlier this month, Philly’s Midwestern Exposure release their latest LP, The West. Fifth track ‘Riverboat’ encapsulates all that’s great with the record, a textured, twangy brand of folk rock that’s as catchy as it is evocative. As such, the song ticks both boxes, packing the grand themes and finger-picked atmosphere of traditional folk while fronting a positive, almost optimistic energy. Fans of The Cave Singers and Dr Dog take note.

The West is out now and you can get it from the Midwestern Exposure Bandcamp page.

Flamingods – Bhima

After last year’s captivating debut, Majesty, the Bahrain-via-London group Flamingods have joined Moshi Moshi to release brand new EP, Kewali. Further pushing the boundaries, the release finds the band feeding off its own energy like some machine of perpetual motion, the genre needle flicking somewhere between retro dance, pervasive rock and cultic chant. ‘Bhima’ is perhaps the best introduction, frenetic and fervent and fantastically odd, opening like a theme song to a old TV show from another dimension and morphing into a powerful, hypnotic intonation.

Kewali is out now on Moshi Moshi Records and you can get it from the Flamingods Bandcamp page.

Sammus – Pieces In Space

Okay, so we’re stretching the ‘new music’ tag here, but Pieces in Space is a record we’ve been meaning to write about for a while now. Sammus does hip-hop her own way, lush beats backing her frantic, often ferocious rhymes which entwine popular culture, social issues and personal experience, what the press release describes as “raw confessions, pro-weirdo anthems, and clever musings on modern life.” As such, the record manages to sound grounded while holding lofty intentions, simultaneously taking on the big stuff and painting a vivid portrait of a recognisably dysfunctional twenty-first century existence.

Pieces in Space is out now via Don Giovanni Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Will Graefe – Blood Feather

After touring as a guitarist for Okkervil River, Petra Haden, Larkin Grimm and many others, this summer sees Will Graefe release his debut solo record, North America. Written on the road, the name proves to be apt—the album weaving American themes of travel and distance, yearning and loss, into a lush, lonely record with sizeable scope and even bigger heart. A prime example of this sound, ‘Blood Feather’ is at once cynical and optimistic, facing reality with a sly grin but never quite able to shake dreams of a better future from within its chest.

North America is out now on Pretty Purgatory and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Check out volume 1 of Bright Sparks for more great tunes.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Loverboy Wanderers – Big Boy

Philadelphia’s Loverboy Wanderers put out their self-titled debut earlier this month and welcomed us to their chaotic brand of indie pop music. Opening track ‘Big Boy’ serves as the perfect introduction, starting out as a half-paced rock number, the track gradually unravels into disorder. The vocals and lyrics are the first thing to go, lead Emmett Drueding growing increasingly unhinged as the music follows suit and descends into joyous commotion, resulting in a strangely uplifting finale filled with the kind of conviction unique to those who’ve stopped caring about conventions.

You can get Loverboy Wanderers now from Bandcamp.

Julia Lucille – Eternally

‘Eternally’ is the second single and opening track from Julia Lucille’s upcoming album, Chthonic. As the title suggests, the album is concerned with the underworld, more specifically descending into as a mode of growth and rebirth (a la Persephone), and ‘Eternally’ shows off the interplay between shadow and light that constitutes the record’s aesthetic.

“Call but I don’t answer
I long to be eternally free
Not like my mother
Not like my father
But what feels good to me”

Chthonic is set for release via Keeled Scales on April 7th and you can pre-order it via Bandcamp.

The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters

Toronto band The Wooden Sky have long been putting out exemplary indie rock albums, and this spring sees the release of their fifth and perhaps most impressive. Named after a quote from Frank Herbert’s Dune (“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water”), Swimming in Strange Waters finds the band battling their own unfamiliar currents, traversing barroom barrages, acoustic eddies and psychedelic squalls in what is their most experimental and visceral record to date. The result is cacophony in the best sense, loud and fiery, personal and political, seemingly always on the verge of veering out of control. Pretty much the perfect album for our current times.

We’ll leave it there in order to keep our powder dry for the full review, but there are two singles currently available, with the lush, wistful ‘You’re Not Alone’ premiering over on Clash and the rousing title track hinting at the true sound and fury on the record.

Swimming in Strange Waters is out on Nevado Music on the 7th April and you can pre-order it now.

Idan Altman – Expiration Date

Israel-born, Berlin-based producer and songwriter Idan Altman creates organic folk music with an electronic twist, blending traditional, technical guitar work with ambient flourishes. The opening track from a forthcoming concept album, ‘Expiration Date’ sets out Altman’s themes of impermanence and continuity, his vocals finding wonder in the ephemeral, the background instrumentation like a flowing river, constant and repetitive yet never quite the same.

You can grab the album from the fairydust Bandcamp page.

Nnamdi Ogbonnaya – dOn’t turn me Off Ft. JD AKA ThrashKitten & Mal Devisa

Aside from being associated with projects such as Monobody, Itto and Teen Cult, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya also has a burgeoning solo career. His latest album, Drool, comes out this March, and as if to start firing on all cylinders, the first single sees Ogbonnaya joined by JD/Thrash Kitten and WTD-favourite Mal Devisa for ‘dOn’t turn me Off’, a verbose experimental track that combines rapid wordplay with a big chorus to tick all boxes.

DROOL is out March 3, 2017 via Sooper Records and Father/Daughter Records.

Winter Coat – Into The Blue

Winter Coat are a four-piece from Cardiff who make “swirly sonic soundscapes…inspired by movies, Mr Whippy and their over-active imaginations”. Their latest track, ‘Into the Blue’ is a lush dream pop song in the vein of Cocteau Twins or The War on Drugs, all gauzy atmospheric guitars and epic, percussion-heavy crescendos.

Listen to the song on Soundcloud and check out the Winter Coat website for previous releases and future new material.

Lord Youth – Gray Gardens

Lord Youth is the songwriting project of Micah Blaichman from Queens, NY, who is all set to release his debut self-titled EP this spring. If lead single ‘Grey Gardens’ is anything to go by, the release will sound something like the midnight mourning of a half-drunk ghost, too caught up with cheap whiskey and past regrets to move on to the other side.

The Lord Youth EP is out on the 24th of March on 10″ vinyl via BB*Island. Pre-order it now.

Lady Pills – Old Song

Finally, Boston punk band Lady Pills went to Berklee Internet Radio Network to play a version of their (assumedly new?) ‘Old Song’. Those familiar with last year’s album Despite will recognise the attitude and energy on show, the track opening with an insistent clatter before mutating into great swells of noise which rise and recede beneath increasingly unhinged vocals.

Keep an eye on the Lady Pills Facebook page for news on shows and new material.

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