With new EP Rooting For You out early in October, Philly-based songwriter Air Devi has returned with the single, ‘Ashrita’. Based on a bad personal experience with a musician, the track looks to the artists who persevered in an industry not always welcoming—Ashrita from Pinkshift, Lata Mangeshkar, Abi from Kulfi Girls, Noor Jahan—ultimately finding empowerment within stubborn perseverance.  “But Ashrita she’s got my back now / Oh Ashrita, Saraswati can rock out,” Devi Majeske sings. “And Lata Ji I know that she’d be proud / Oh Ashrita won’t let us feel left out.”

BAL – Hyperdrive

After introducing themselves with title track ‘Seafoam‘, BAL continue to lay the foundations for an upcoming album on Furious Hooves with latest single, ‘Hyperdrive’. A huge, swaggering song which shows both the attitude and playfulness of the band. Its sci-fi themes brought to life with pounding drums, bold guitars and ice cool vocals. Futuristic rock with more than one foot in the nineties. Check out the animated video by Brandon Hackler below:

Seafoam is coming soon via Furious Hooves.

Bambara – Tapetown Session

Earlier this year Brooklyn-based post-punk outfit Bambara released their latest album Love on My Mind via Wharf Cat Records, and recently the band called by Copenhagen‘s Grapehouse Studio for a Tapetown Session to perform a couple of the tracks. Despite the cinematic nature of its gothic style, Bambara’s work has always primarily hinged on a sense of impassioned momentum, the sound and Reid Bateh’s frantic delivery fuelling one another. These live takes harness this in its purest form, with performances of ‘Mythic Love’ and ‘Birds’ displaying both their fervent preacher ravings and stone cold cowboy cool.

Love on My Mind is out now via Wharf Cat Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Cache Mirrors – Collision; Losing The Work Horse

The project of LA‘s Cormac Shirer Brown, Cache Mirrors creates compositions at the intersection of ambient and drone. With new record History of a Closed Circuit about to be released on Repeating Cloud, Brown has unveiled the single ‘Collision; Losing The Work Horse’ to give a picture of his work’s careful depth. A slow-moving track which seems to possess an almost nostalgic remove, though as it progresses it inches closer to the listener until it’s nearby and all around, then fades out just as readily.

Katharina Nuttall – Inspired by John Keats

After a period spent scoring films, Katharina Nuttall is set to return to art rock spheres with her fourth full-length album, The Garden, on Novoton. Latest single ‘Inspired by John Keats’ highlights the idiosyncratic vision and depth of her work. A surreal dreamscape which keeps its true nature close to its chest, the strange and eerie march of the opening unfolding into something quietly transcendent, though returning to the original rhythm before any crescendo is reached. All the while Nuttall’s vocals barely more than a murmur, ambiguous until the end. Check out the video directed, filmed and edited by Jacob Frössén below:

‘Inspired by John Keats’ is out now via Novoton and available from the usual places.

Lore City – Animate

Following on from 2021 album Participation Mystique, Portland’s Lore City are gearing up for the release of brand new 7″, Under Way. The track expands upon the style developed on previous releases, merging widescreen and often ominous post-punk soundscapes with the ethereal textures of folk. Lead track ‘Animate’ pitches the listener into such a world, tactile with pounding rain and open space yet somehow uncoupled from the physical plane too, its percussion like some disembodied stalker. An entity with a message to share.

Matching Outfits – It Keeps Happening

The debut single of Berlin‘s Matching Outfits, ‘It Keeps Happening’ serves as an introduction to their forthcoming album Band Made Out Of Sand, out next month on Kitchen Leg Records. Pairing playful pop tones with droll conversational delivery, the song subverts its twee roots with deadpan glee, the vocals possessing a genuine fatigue with the self-centred drive of songwriting. And as the thought develops, so too does the tempo, the rhythms lifting as though a fire is lit beneath it, leading towards the final, furious catharsis.

I’m tired of me
I’m tired of talking about me
I’m tired of singing about me
But it keeps happening

Band Made Out Of Sand is out on the 21th September via Kitchen Leg Records and you can find Matching Outfits on Bandcamp.

Monolithe Noir – Askre

Back in July we previewed Rin, the forthcoming album from Monolithe Noir on Capitane Records and Humpty Dumpty Records with single ‘Barra Bouge‘. “Steady rhythmic drumming allow[s] the track to coil tight like a spring,” we wrote, “but the unerring purpose of its slow march is warped by some strange force […] a world of lightning and dense cloud always gathering toward its own thunderous end.” Latest track ‘Askre’ is no less evocative, another transportive vision built around a theme played on a home-crafted hurdy gurdy. A digi-medieval dream which unfolds with portentous weight.

Rin is out now on Capitane Records and Humpty Dumpty Records and you can grab it from Bandcamp.

Phoebe Go – Hey

The third solo release from Melbourne‘s Phoebe Go, latest single ‘Hey’ highlights the songwriter at her most poignant and open. A track written in the aftermath of a family tragedy, the stripped back sound exists within the strange quiet which follows traumatic events. Hushed and confessional and wearing its pain openly, probing not only the grief inherent in such a loss but the attempts to understand them too. And how personal emotions can come to cloud our ability to truly empathise. “Around the time I was writing it I was sort of fixated,” Phoebe Go explains, “trying so hard to understand him, you know, what he was thinking and feeling and living. I think my own perspective got so lost in his.”

Sister Wanzala – Top Drawer

Back in May, we shared the triumphant return of London‘s Sister Wanzala with single, ‘Perfume‘. The band had been away for a while, went the gist of the piece, but they were back and the dream was still alive. Whether or not that still stands true is up in the air, internecine conflict being part and parcel of any project made up of siblings, but they have managed to share new track ‘Top Drawer’ regardless of whether any ceasefire has been breached. “I’ve been dreaming of disaster more and more and more,” sings Patrick Wanzala-Ryan on the rich and drifting track. The dream isn’t over, but who ever said it was a pleasant one?

Sophia Hansen-Knarhoi – Disguise

The first glimpse of forthcoming EP, Wildflowers, ‘Disguise’ introduces the immersive detail and evident control which marks the work of Perth‘s Sophia Hansen-Knarhoi. A reflection on the past offered with slow-burning clarity, enticing the listener in with its ethereal grace but smouldering beneath the surface as it recalls the mistakes and betrayals which mark the strange gap between youth and adulthood. Ultimately recognising the period for what it was, and blossoming into the space left in its wake.

I’ll take my time again
To feel everything in full
Cuz I won’t settle for you
I’ll clean my act up wash you away
In a feat of triumph you’ve left no stain
I watch in fear and disdain

Spirit Ghost – No Future

Pandemic tracks aren’t exactly uncommon right now, but where most look for solace and soul-searching amid the trauma, the new single from Alex Whitelaw’s Spirit Ghost embraces pessimism wholehearted. ‘No Future’ is a track about just that. The inability to imagine good days ahead as the threats pile up, and how this neuters the dreams one has worked towards their whole lives. “Always there’s no future / I feel dumb and useless,” Whitelaw sings, “At least there’s no future / Just another loser.” A society built towards constant growth and progression cannot face the emergent trials. There can be no future for such a place.

Tenci – Two Cups

Following 2020’s My Heart Is An Open Field, Tenci returns this autumn with brand new record A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing on Keeled Scales. It’s an album which utilises the distance its predecessor lacked, allowing Jess Shoman to consider trauma and pain with a clearer perspective. As shown by single ‘Two Cups’, what results is new mood. Call it wisdom, call it understanding. A willingness to embrace of change as an opportunity to grow, no matter how difficult it might seem. Even a glass half empty can be filled again.

The post Weekly Listening: August 2022 #5 appeared first on Various Small Flames.