Rat Tally – Feel Something

The recording project of LA’s Addy Harris, Rat Tally makes an emo-inflected brand of indie rock, exploring tortured emotion and mental health struggles in a manner at once wistful and fierce.  New single ‘Feel Something’ is a perfect example. A song about depression and self-sabotage, Harris delves into the competing horrors of feeling bad and feeling nothing at all. “When you feel depressed and numb, and you’ll stop at nothing to feel anything at all,” she explains, “even if it means emotionally hurting yourself and sometimes the people around you.” Gathering momentum as it progresses, the track becomes both an expression of regret and something of an explanation, and thus a drive to continue forwards nonetheless.

But I just want to feel something
Even if I end up spitting out blood
I told you you’d get used to it
I think I always knew you never would
But I just want to feel something
Even if you end up spitting out blood
When you’re finally done with it
I’ll tell you I always knew one day you’d run

EL LAGO – Pyramid

Existing at the intersection of shoegaze, dream pop and post-punk, EL LAGO’s Pyramid is a nocturnal record, ominous and dark and shot through with shimmering points of light. Released last month on Wallflower Records, the EP packs a genuine sense of variety, from the brusque, Patio-esque detachment of ‘Moths’ to the breathless, soaring shoegaze of the title track. However, each track is linked by a common spirit, all existing in a mysterious twilit space where threat and wonder stand side by side.

Lead single ‘Citadel’ is as good an introduction as any. Kicking into dinghy rhythm, the song holds a promise at its heart, though whether this is a promise of awe or violence is left unsaid. As such, there’s an unhinged intensity to the sound, like Bambara’s crazed preacher vibe, or something that might roll through the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks.

Pyramid is out now on Wallflower Records and you can grab it from the EL LAGO Bandcamp page.

Will Orchard – Turning Back Again

Working under the moniker LittleBoyBigHeadOnBike, Will Orchard wrote and released hundreds of songs a year, his Bandcamp featuring a vast array of experimental and colourful albums that stitched a giant patchwork of his creative influences. After much touring, Orchard decided to reinvent his practice, focusing on less tracks for a longer period of time and putting them out under his own name.

The result is Old Friends on the Mountain, an album made with engineer Jeff Prystowsky (The Low Anthem) that is concerned with loss and longing ” for lost imagination, friends long gone, and memories slipping away.” Ahead of its release next January, Orchard has unveiled the lead single, ‘Turning Back Again’, showing off his more cohesive, Americana-inspired sound. The tone is certainly nostalgic, and therefore focused on things now lost, though cast in a fond light—committed to bringing to life those moments, however mundane or ordinary, that help us become ourselves.

Katie Kuffel – Jelly Donut

Back in October of last year, we had the honour of sharing Take It Up, the debut album from Seattle-based songwriter Katie Kuffel. The record was one “of complete authenticity,” we wrote. “All pretences have been dropped, all half-truths abandoned, every wrinkle of self-doubt examined and ironed out.” In cherry picking the best bits from blues, jazz, folk and pop, Kuffel’s piano-led sound is capable of being fun as well as emotionally deep, tied together by a sense of live energy that her soulful vocal style only grows.

Kuffel is back with a brand new single, ‘Jelly Donut’, a track which develops on the sound of the record. Revolving around ideas of recovery and healing in the face of trauma, there is once again a serious weight at the core, though that is only half of the story. Replete with an energetic groove and smoky charisma, a fluid confidence permeates the sound, producing an affirming mood that’s as enlivening as it is infectious. Check out the video from Amphora Media below:

Alex Chilltown – Drown

Alex Chilltown is the recording project of Croydon’s Josh Esaw, and their debut record Eulogies is very much a product of that south London milieu—a blend of dream pop and art rock for the hyperreal present, a place of concrete and tarmac and a constant bustle toward a future that no-one can quite imagine, so is instead painted as another cycle of the past.

Lead single ‘Drown’ gives a taste as to what to expect. Threaded by a taut energy and a richly intricate sound, the song has pressing tone, unfurling in a relentless flow. “I wanted to write something that felt urgent,” Esaw explains. “It represents a lot of anxieties I was having about myself and that’s why it has that kind of tightness to it like when your brain is stuck in an anxious thought pattern and you’re crippled with indecision but also can’t stop ruminating on that.”

Eulogies will be released on the 24th January via Fear of Missing Out Records and you can pre-order it from the Alex Chilltown Bandcamp page.

French for Rabbits – Highest Hill

Led by Brooke Singer, New Zealand dream pop band French For Rabbits make an ethereal, layered brand of music. Their previous record, The Weight of Melted Snow, released on Home Alone Music and Muscle Beach Records, was translucent and melancholic and alive, the songs the musical equivalent of a sea mist that drifts in with a beguiling hush and settles upon your skin.

‘Highest Hill’, sees French for Rabbits perfect the style, the muted atmosphere showing that emotional resonance need not resort to bombast or melodrama. Working with Misma Andrews, the band set out to record a video with Lucifer the cat and dogs Pepa and Jolene, though with too much footage and/or a reluctance to cut, they ended up crafting two films for the same track—the cat version and the dog version. You can see the one for the far superior animal below:

You can find French for Rabbits on Bandcamp, and find out about the upcoming tour dates on their website.

Lazy Legs – Silkworm

We’ve written about Portland, OR’s Lazy Legs a few times in the past, from their self-titled debut in 2016 to last year’s single, ‘Nosebleed‘. The latter was taken from a new record, Moth Mother, and we’re finally getting close to release, with the album out on the 15th November.

In the preview, we suggested that the new record would see Lazy Legs “orbiting closer to their grunge and slowcore influences,” and latest single ‘Silkworm’ continues the trend. Finding a shuffling rhythm from the tape hiss intro, Laura Wagner’s vocals shimmer across the track before an almighty crunch of sound, drums and guitar and bass clattering into a reverb-drenched crescendo. From here the track ebbs and flows, settling into brief moments of peace before diving headlong into the noise once more.

The Big Easy – Nothing Comes for Free

The recording project of Stephen Berthomieux and friends, The Big Easy makes a distinctive blend of bedroom pop and garage rock that leans into the lo-fi aesthetic as a route toward authenticity. From now until February, The Big Easy will release a brand new single on the first Friday of every month, and ‘Nothing Comes for Free’ is the first entry in the series.

With fuzzed out guitar and a drum machine whirring behind, Berthomieux puts his vocals through a guitar amp to give them a distorted edge too, his voice almost becoming another instrument in weaving the rich texture of the sound. Thematically, the title does the talking, exploring ideas of uncertainty in the face of our costly society.

Two packs a day is more than just a goal of mine
cause then they find my ashes they’re be nothing left that’s mine
and every fucking time that i find i spend the night
life’s like every episode of twilight zone
something must be wrong
i never trust myself

People Person – Bound

Coming from the abrasive world of post-metal and hardcore, People Person is a project that aims to take aggression and ferocity and channel them into a more thoughtful, considered sound. The result, album Look Outside, Watch Closely, is somewhere between post-rock, bedroom pop and ambient, the sound rising from confessional whispers to something intense and soaring. If heaviness comes in a variety of forms, People Person are keyed into the nuances.

Lead single ‘Bound’ is a case in point. Opening with a despondent pop-rock style in the vein of Daughter of Julien Baker, the song intensifies gradually, the band displaying a real expertise in the balance between build and payoff. The result is something more intricate that the one-speed rush of hardcore while avoiding the self-indulgence of post-rock, creating a sound at once vast and immediate.

Alexander Biggs – Madeleine

Australian songwriter Alexander Biggs makes music haunted by a sense of loneliness and loss, as though something important has gone missing from our times. Through poignant arrangements and evocative folk melodies, Biggs brings such emotions to life, binding it all together with his earnest vocal style somewhere between Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers.

Brand new single ‘Madaleine’ is described as an “observational piece,” collating several toxic relationships to paint something of a caricature—a person violent and volatile and suffering, lashing out as though to share some of the pain they are subjected to. Loaded with starkly beautiful lyrics and possessing a tenderness despite the bitter tone, the track is caught between two poles: the immediacy of hurt not lessened but matched by the slow sadness of understanding.

That’s all for Vol. 30 of Bright Sparks folks, but be sure to stick around the Reviews and Previews sections for more in-depth writing.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 30 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

Restorations – Nonbeliever
Goshen Electric Co. – The Grey Tower
Horse Culture – Follow
Yowler – Where Is My Light?
Desert Liminal – Gauze Cave
Anamon – In 3
Adeline Hotel – Lightning
Lea Thomas – Upstream
Scott Orr – No Phone
Advance Base – Christmas in Nightmare City
Blue Wilson – Golden Eyes
The Sofas – Nothing Major
Lazy Legs – Nosebleed
All Boy/All Girl – Bomb
Strange Ranger – New Hair
Elly Swope – Idea
Dweller – Running
Will Henriksen – Halo
Knuckle Pups – Bottom Baby
Ian Wayne – Guessing
Massage – Crying Out Loud
Recluse Raccoon – Mother America
Interbellum – Ink
Marc Ferrino – Like a Spark
Katie Kuffel – As the Crow Flies
Emily Brown – Sometimes
KASHKA – Holding Steady
Philippe Bronchtein – Me and the Moon
Spencer Segelov – Sacred Songs
Annie Dressner – Fades Away
Belaver – Grave Robber
Of The Valley – Ride Alone
Hour – Give thanks in a special way

The post October 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Goshen Electric Co. – The Gray Tower

We’re huge fans of Jason Molina here at VSF, so imagine our excitement when it was announced Strand of Oaks‘ Timothy Showalter was standing in for him for a special tour, as Magnolia Electric Co. (Mike Benner, Jason Evans Groth, Mikey Kapinus, Mark Rice, Peter Schreiner) welcome Showalter into their ranks to form Goshen Electric Co. In addition to a tour, the new outfit are releasing a single, and the first track is available to hear now, complete with a video from Colin Kerrigan and Rocco Avallone.

‘The Gray Tower’, which was first released as a single in 2002, is a perfect fit for Showalter’s delivery, capturing the atmosphere of the original where the foreboding and dread is matched only by the naked humanity beneath. “Jason’s lyrics were darkly heroic,” Showalter says. “Trying to fight against it. Just the word ‘try’—whenever he says ‘try,’ it’s just magic to me.”

The Gray Tower B/W Ring the Bell is to be released by Secretly Canadian on the 2nd November and you can pre-order it now.

Lea Thomas – Upstream

Lea Thomas is a songwriter, textile artist and “lifelong student of ecology” from Maui, Hawaii, and her music draws upon these features in its distinctive style. The opening song of new EP Part of This Place, single ‘Upstream’ is the perfect example—a track through which nature is interwoven, the patient and delicate sensibility hiding a sense of permanence and grace, the parts coalescing into a organic whole. Indeed, much of the album came to life during a stay in the Vermont wilderness, with Thomas embracing any imperfections within the recording as part of the naturalistic aesthetic the music exhibits.

“When I feel the soil breaking free
Sliding down the banks between the colors of spring
I feel the warmth of a woman pouring out of me”

Part Of This Place is out now via Spirit House Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Elly Swope – Idea

Having become a well-known face in the Portland music scene, playing with the likes of Kelli Schaefer, Roseblood, Genders, Sunbathe and Deathlist, this autumn sees Elly Swope’s first proper solo release. Despite playing much of the parts herself, Swope’s sound subverts all conceptions of what solo music can entail, possessing a rich texture and runaway energy that any full band would envy.

Lead single ‘Idea’ is a case in point, sparking into life with a momentum that lets up only to climb toward a bigger release, Swope’s self-assured vocals more than a match for the angular guitars and furious drums. Thematically, the track charts the deconstruction and subsequent reconstruction of identity that follows the end of a relationship. “This song is about the ways in which we dissociate after a breakup,” Swope explains, life separated into what is personal and what was shared, and what must now be let go.

It Feels the Same Everytime is out via Rue Defense on the 9th November. Per-order it now via Bandcamp.

Massage – Crying Out Loud

Massage is a new project from Alex Naidus, who you might know as a founding member of Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Taken from their debut album, Oh Boy, single ‘Crying Out Loud’ is a bittersweet song which delves into “the frustration of deeply caring about someone but not being able to spend time with them without something going wrong.” The sentiment is set against an upbeat tempo to produce a sunny kind of sadness, a wistful sense of loss that’s almost as affirming as it is painful.

The track comes complete with a video from director Thaddeus Ruzicka, and the film textures of the footage capturing the Massage aesthetic perfectly.

Oh Boy is out now via Tear Jerk Records and you can buy it from Bandcamp.

Belaver – Grave Robber

With new single ‘Grave Robber’, New York’s Belaver aims to give the listener a guided tour of “a world of exhumination,” a place of dark unease “where the past is a crypt of memories to rob and a skeleton yet to be discovered.” After time fronting doom-folk band listenlisten, such a style is fitting for B.E. Godfrey, his music exploring the dark and dingy corners of the human experience. Indeed, this latest single follows the killer-themed EP, Wild Desperation, which he put out in 2015.

Utilising a mix of acoustic guitar and synths to support Godfrey’s distinctive vocals, ‘Grave Robber’ feels like a cross between Mt. Eerie and Monarch Mtn—twilit and noir-ish, traipsing through ancient catacombs and holding a torch to whatever dusty relics are found.

You can find Belaver on Spotify and Soundcloud.

Spencer Segelov – Sacred Songs

Spencer Segelov is a musician and songwriter from Caerphilly in South Wales. Previously working under the moniker Spencer McGarry Season, Segelov has explored a diverse range of styles in his time, from rock and jazz to a whole range of pops—indie pop, synth pop, baroque pop—and his new record Loser Leaves Town continues the multifaceted approach. In contrast to the barroom jazz of the title track, ‘Sacred Songs’ is a piano ballad that blurs the line between earnest and playful, though the chorus settles firmly within the sincere end of the equation.

Loser Leaves Town is out now via Country Mile and all the major download services.

Lazy Legs – Nosebleed

We’ve featured Portland grungers Lazy Legs a few times here at VSF, writing about their self-titled EP back in 2016 and describing how previous single ‘Gloss’ “pull[ed] off the quiet/loud dynamic effortlessly […] managing to be both woozily captivating and cathartically empowering.”

The duo are back with a new single, ‘Nosebleed’, the first taste of a forthcoming record, Moth Mother. ‘Nosebleed’ delves into a raw and spiky dreamscape, dropping the psychedelic flourishes of the previous release in favour of a crunchy, heavier sound. The result is still very much of the Lazy Legs aesthetic, though suggests the new album will see the band orbiting closer to their grunge and slowcore influences.

Grab ‘Nosebleed’ now on a pay-what-you-can basis from Bandcamp.

Annie Dressner – Fades Away

We last featured Annie Dressner back in 2013, and now the UK-based American is back with a brand new album, Broken Into Pieces. For those unfamiliar with Dressner’s sound, opener ‘Fades Away’ provides a good example, blending a delicate guitar line with a conversational tone to create an intimate sound. The track is fleshed out with various other instrumental flourishes too, becoming a vivid, warm song of surprising weight, the simplicity of Dressner’s writing only adding to the poetic nature.

Broken Into Pieces is out now and you can get it now from the Annie Dressner Bandcamp page.

Marc Ferrino – Like a Spark

Working in bands such as Black Before Red and Low Line Caller, Marc Ferrino forged a reputation as one of Austin’s best vocalists, and 2019 will see the release of his debut solo EP on Wren & Shark. So far we only have one song to go on, though ‘Like a Spark’ is more than satisfactory in terms of building anticipation for the record. Pitched between indie rock cool and a celebratory style of pop, the track serves as one final hurrah for the summer—a grand, sweeping ode to ephemeral warmth.

Like a Spark is set for release in 2019 via Wren & Shark. Keep an eye on their website for pre-order info.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 17 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

The New Tusk – Tarmac
Lazy Legs – Gloss
Sam Moss – Flowers
Varsity – Must Be Nice
Falcon Jane – Go with the Flow
Desert Liminal – Heavy Heads
Jamison Isaak – Sharalee
Nilein – Central Park
Pendulum Girl – crying in the carwash
Freya – Breath and Chime
Malena Zavala – A Vision That’s Changed
Alex Bayly – Wade in the Water
James Edwyn & The Borrowed Band – Pushing Statues
Tiny Fireflies – Nothing
Boreen – Halley’s Comet
Jenno Snyder – Take Care
Normal State – Summertime
Clare – Loquats
Leathan Milne – Now I Say Goodnight
John Moods – Leap of Love
Guts Club – Mustard Tears
Brianna Kelly – To Behold You
Sympathy Pain – Bless This Ugly Heart
Lung Cycles – Smoke column (Jonathan)
Be Softly – My Hands End With You Fingertips
Hour – Still New To This

Spotify:

Playmoss:

You can find all of our monthly mixes here, and be sure to check back in May for whatever April brought by way of good music.

The post March 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The EP is called Tremor and the first single, ‘Gloss’, has just been unveiled. It’s very much a Lazy Legs song, pulling off the quiet/loud dynamic effortlessly, and managing to be both woozily captivating and cathartically empowering across its six minute run-time. Tenzer says the song was inspired by thoughts on “vanity and narcissism in social media, particularly this kind of faux-tragic mystique that people employ to simultaneously mask and show off their insecurities,” so there’s a little thematic bite to things too. It’s certainly whet my appetite for the EP.

You can get ‘Gloss’ now from the Lazy Legs Bandcamp page, ahead of the release of Tremor on the 20th of April.

The post Lazy Legs unveil new single ‘Gloss’ appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

Half Gringa – Marte
CHUCK – Happy Birthday
Ian Terry – Cut
Bea Troxel – Let Them Know
Dana Gavanski – How Long Has It Been?
Honey Joy – Done
Miseryslims – Onto Elm Street
See You At Home – Summer Is a Long Way Off
Camp Counselor – Limo Speech
Windbury Street – Skinny Jeans and Sweaters
Philippa Zawe – Time
Big Baby – Not That
Illuminati Hotties – (You’re Better) Than Ever
Señor Fín – Joe Charmers
M Grig – Still Life I
Jacob Faurholt – A Lake of Distortion
Lazy Legs – Bed Head
Steakhouse – National
Francis – Swing
all-caps LADD – Computer Kids
Happy Abandon -Severed Seams
pastel – Silhouette
Nice Legs – I Never Knew
Tucker Theodore – Our Lady Hope

If you’ve missed more than a month of VSF, or just want some good music to listen to, check out our other Monthly Roundup mixes.

The post August 2017 Roundup 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.

Lazy Legs – Bed Head

We’ve featured Lazy Legs previously, describing the Chicago (soon to be Portland) outfit’s sound as “a heavy mix of shoegaze and noise pop, a million miles from the sugary sweet jangle at the other end of the genre’s spectrum”. The band are readying their sophomore album, Crawler, and have released the first track ‘Bed Head’ in anticipation. Wrapped in a blanket of fuzz, the track ruminates on reasons to leave your bed in depressive, run-down vocal melodies. It’s shoegaze repurposed for an age of ennui, and has certainly whet my appetite for the album.

You can get ‘Bed Head’ on a name-your-price basis from the Lazy Legs Bandcamp page.

Windbury Street – Skinny Jeans and Sweaters

‘Skinny Jeans and Sweaters’ is the new single from “one man indie rock project” Windbury Street, based in Virginia. Part slacker rock mumble, part heart-on-sleeve emo, the song fronts up to a sense of creeping disaffection and growing older, all run through an appealing college-radio filter.

If you like what your hear, head over to the Windbury Street Bandcamp page and check out their debut album which was released on a name-your-price basis last month.

Ian Terry – Cut

Short, sharp and sad, Ian Terry’s new single ‘Cut’ is a take on so-called ‘call-out culture’, a digital age plea that’s as heartfelt and poignant as any traditional folk track. The Delaware songwriter uses simple acoustic guitar to back his wistful vocals, falling somewhere between the bedroom pop artists and the indie folk revival, and creating a succinct and satisfying number.

You can grab the track and a handful of other releases via the Ian Terry Bandcamp page.

all-caps LADD – Computer Kids

Taken from their upcoming The Whole EP, ‘Computer Kids’ finds New York’s all-caps LADD practising a dark, foreboding energy that conjures both post-punk and indie rock. With the downbeat vocals threading between frantic guitars and drums, and eventually rising is squally yelps, the whole thing has a claustrophobic, overwhelmed feel, as though some great force is passing all around us. And this makes sense, considering the themes of the song. As the band explain: “‘Computer Kids’ grapples with future shock, the feeling of being left behind by accelerating technological change, from the point of view of kids raised in the dial-up era of the internet.”

Find all-caps LADD on Bandcamp and Facebook.

Philippa Zawe – Time

Based in Birmingham, Philippa Zawe combines folk and soul to create organic music built around her versatile voice. This September sees the release of her debut EP, Road of Hope, and the first single, ‘Time’, acts as a great introduction. A considered, slow-paced track, the single utilises the entire vocal range, switching from casual conversational comments to strikingly effecting croons to produce something that ebbs and flows with human warmth.

Road of Hope is set for release on the 8th September and you get get it from the Philippa Zawe Bandcamp page.

Miseryslims – Onto Elm Street

Taken from the recently released second EP from Manitoba band Miseryslims, ‘Onto Elm Street’ is a jangly slice of indie rock, the drums and vocals driving though the fuzz with resolute energy. With surfy vibes lapping at the edges too, the song emerges as the perfect candidates to soundtrack your final days of summer, upbeat and bright with just a little melancholy peeking through.

The appropriately named EP Two is out now and available from Bandcamp.

Big Baby – Not That

Virginia three piece Big Baby, consisting of Ali Mislowsky, Chris Smith and Brian Dove, make an upbeat lo-fi jangle pop to rival the main players in the field. This July saw them release Sour Patch, a four-song record on EggHunt Records.  With Mislowsky’s emotional vocals surfing the bright summertime instrumentation, ‘Not That’ encapsulates the EP. However the bouncy nature of the song hides a sadness rooted deep within the creative process. “Sour Patch is about the worst year I had after graduating college. I couldn’t catch a break and it felt like everything was crumbling from every direction.” How better to shake loose of the blues that with some cathartic indie pop?

Sour Patch is out now via EggHunt Records, and you can get in from Bandcamp.

Happy Abandon – Severed Seams

Happy Abandon are putting out a new album, Facepaint, this month via Schoolkids Records, and single ‘Severed Seams’ sets the tone. Orchestral indie pop, the track is an emotive slow-burner dealing with loneliness and loss, the spacious atmosphere of the track punctuated with small details, moments of beauty forming is the cracks and gaps.

Facepaint is to be released on the 25th August via Schoolkids Records.

Steakhouse – National

The music of San Francisco outfit Steakhouse is a curious thing to pigeonhole, drawing on electronic, art rock and post-punk to conjure images of a wide, strange America. Following up their 2014 self-titled full-length, the band have unveiled a new track, ‘National’, complete with appropriately atmospheric video. Progressing with hypnotic rhythm, the track has a dreamily detached feel that brings to mind unspoken violence, and slightly removed from its own descriptions by shock or awe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wHg6Bauzw

Keep an eye on the Steakhouse Bandcamp and Facebook pages for more news.

Francis – Swing

Formed in 2006, Sweden band Francis have experienced a number of changes in their lifetime, both stylistically and in terms of line-up. However, retaining the same personnel as on 2016’s Marathon, the outfit are back with a new single, ‘Swing’, a dreamy retro summer song that meanders with a wistful edge, focused on the passing of time. As lead Petra Mases says: “This is what ‘Swing’ is about, the wave that comes with all the memories. There is no valuation, nothing to change, just memories from what once was. Suddenly ten, twenty, thirty years has passed. What happened there?”

‘Swing’ is out now on Strangers Candy and you can get it from Bandcamp.

pastel – Silhouette

pastel is the recording project of Gabriel Brenner, a visual artist and musician based in Los Angeles. His new EP, absent, just dust, is coming out on the 25th of August, and the lead single ‘Silhouette’ has left us intrigued. Brenner, who has maternal Pima and paternal Cherokee heritage, wrote the EP as an attempt to confront the lasting violence and trauma of colonialism and its impact on contemporary Native identities. While we hope to get a fuller review up soon, for now you should listen to ‘Silhouette’ echo and flicker as though distorted by time.

Pre-order absent, just dust now from the pastel Bandcamp page.

Check out the previous editions of Bright Sparks to find a whole host of great music, and if you prefer something a little more in-depth then head to our Reviews section.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

And, of course, being comprehensive is impossible these days, so let us know if we missed your favourite and maybe we’ll add it to the collection.

If I Die in Mississippi – Artless
(RIYL: bedroom pop, ambient, Sam Ray, sad)

In Love With a Ghost – Let’s Go
(RIYL: electronic, chillwave, dream pop)

Jake Bellissimo – Piece of Ivy
(RIYL: indie pop, Gay Angel)

Jemima Coulter – lampshade ep
(RIYL: bedroom pop, chilled out, Volcano Choir)

Joyride! – Half Moon Bay
(RIYL: pop punk, indie rock, All Dogs)

Julia Brown – An Abundance of Strawberries
(RIYL: experimental, indie pop, Elephant 6)

Lake Michigan – Gleaming
(RIYL: bedroom pop, late night vibes, Arrange)

Lance Bangs – Lance Mountain
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie pop, Colin Thibodeauxxx)

Lazy Legs – s/t
(RIYL: shoegaze, noise pop, feedback)

Little Kid – Flowers
(RIYL: fuzz pop, bedroom folk, reflective thoughts)

Long Neck – Spring Cleaning
(RIYL: bedroom pop, Cyberbully Mom Club, Jawbreaker Reunion)

Max Gardener – Memory Lounge
(RIYL: dream pop, bedroom pop, slacker)

Mineral Girls – Seven Inches of Release
(RIYL: noise pop, emo, indie rock)

Moin Moin – Dawn
(RIYL: folk, bedroom pop, delicate, quiet)

MOLAR / Pale Kids – Split
(RIYL: pop punk, riot grrrl, The Courtneys)

Molly Drag – Tethered Rendering
(RIYL: bedroom pop, experimental, dreamy vibes)

Monarch Mtn – Everyone is Here
(RIYL: grand melancholy, nighttime)

Monster Rally – Mystery Cove
(RIYL: experimental, hip hop, tropicana)

Moving In – Sunburn
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, teenage heartbreak)

Naps – Happy All the Time Forever Always
(RIYL: ambient, experimental, tape hiss)

No Museums – The Drifting Knives
(RIYL: basement rock, indie pop, lo-fi)

Nice Try – s/t
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie pop, Frankie Cosmos)

Nikolas Escudero – 100
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie pop, slacker)

No Dice Tapes – 2016: the year all bad things went away and everything turned out to be fine
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie pop, good causes, ironic titles)

Noname – Telefone
(RIYL: hip hop, rap, courageous poetry)

Be sure to check out the previous sections of our favourite free music list here.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2016: I – N appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. A Hospital + Crucifix Made of Plastic – Florist
2. Richmond – talons’
3. Say – Indoor Voices
4. Aeroplane – House Plants
5. When I Was an Island – David Karsten Daniels
6. The Gentleman’s Apocalypse – JR Green
7. Hitman – Mrs. Hopewell
8. sun drops – ratbath
9. A Cruise – Brian S. Cassidy
10. Orpheus – Matt Kivel
11. Your Love – Jeremy Squires (INTERVIEW)
12. Blood Moon – C.M. Slenko
13. Bake – Broken Beak
14. Brushes Like a Fox – Saint Corsair
15. daniel – francie cool
16. Baby Blue – Mount Moriah
17. For You – Free Cake For Every Creature
18. Have This Dance – Govier
19. Goodness (trailer) – The Hotelier
20. The River Because – Sawtooth
21. why are you so cool? – Dying Adolescence
22. cockroach – tall friend
23. Waiting – Faint Peter
24. Heart Destroyer – Lazy Legs
25. Take it Forever – Beat Radio (INTERVIEW)
26. Every One of Them, Dogs – Quarterly
27. like a feather or a pawprint – Field Medic
28. Lay For June – Old Earth
29. 2 old 2 broke – Gorgeous Bully
30. Funny Man Routine – Table People
31. House & Home – Arlo Aldo
32. Cave Song – Sea Ghost
33. Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac cover) – Boosegumps (from Sugar Rush)

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Second track ‘Molasses’ is as slow and syrupy as the title suggests, with its heavy guitars and the gauzy, pervading vocals, the song devolving into crushing noise rock before the close. ‘Lipstick Prick’ has another speaker-destroying opening and soft and airy wordless vocals, before hitting lulls that feel like the eye of a storm, when the song morphs into the closest thing on the release to a sweet slice of shoegazey pop. Finale, ‘Ghost’, rises from a period of almost-silence, slower and more considered than the other tracks, all slow thud of beating percussion and whalesong whine of guitars.

If all that sounds like your kind of fun, then you can get the Lazy Legs EP from the band’s Bandcamp page.

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