The songs reflect this intention, providing soundscapes spacious and nuanced enough to become sonic representations of the environments which inspired them. Nico Osborne (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, contrabass, analog processing), Brendan Mulvihill (electric bass, synthesizers, analog processing), Jeremy Mendicino (electric guitar, twelve string guitar, acoustic guitar, analog processing) and John Thayer (drums, analog processing, noise) all lend their talents too, allowing Lea Thomas to weave tracks of layered richness in which the audience can lose themselves.

This sense of encompassing warmth is central to the record, and signifies the notable diversion from her previous work. Mirrors to the Sun might have celebrated nature but could never quite emerge from beneath the anthropogenic calamity it currently faces. “Implicit in any engagement with the natural world is its ever accelerating collapse,” we wrote in our piece on the record, with songs like ‘Heat Keeps Rising’ facing up to “the ongoing disaster in all its overwhelming weight, not to mention the dizzying strangeness of living through such a time.” But Cosmos Forever opts for a different outlook. One not naïve to the present situation, but determined to decentre the human within its arrangement. Which means a willingness to let go of the anxiety of unanswered questions and worries about the future to lose oneself within an ecological present.

Everything is one
And you already hold
The gift

The song comes complete with a video directed and edited by Dave Yim, with additional creative direction by Phil Robibero, which taps into the environment which proved so central to the song. “I moved from New York City to a small town in the Catskills a few years ago, and daily walks through the landscape have become an important ritual,” Thomas explains. “One of my favourite trails starts in an open meadow and winds into the woods, echoed in the arch of this video. The song follows a similar path, from light to dark, day to night, known to unknown.” Watch the video below:

Cosmos Forever is out on the 20th September and you can pre-order it now from the Lea Thomas Bandcamp page.

Photo by Wyndham Garnett, album art Artwork by Iruka Maria Toro w/ design by Daniel Murphy

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Fast forward a few years, and several releases later, Lea Thomas has unveiled Mirrors to the Sun, a brand new full-length on Spirit House Records which again looks to explore our position within the natural world. Take single ‘Hummingbird’, a track evoking the transportive, transcendent powers of nature. The song takes inspiration from a dream in which Thomas “dissolved into a pool of saltwater and re-emerged as a large white wolf,” dismantling the barrier between the personal and the wild. “I am a white wolf / Running, running, running free,” she sings. “Then I remember my heart started beating / To the sound of the universe / I leaned into the feeling / Like a hummingbird.”

Again evoking lupine imagery, ‘Howl’ picks up from this sense of freedom, conjuring the primal joy of finding love. The sense of movement and harmony in submitting to the force. Other tracks are more reflective, with ‘Magnolias’ pondering the impermanence so familiar to the ecological sphere, though emerging from the melancholy with a sense of healing and power. ‘How Would I dream?’ is equally wistful, the transience this time extending as far as memories and dreams.

But implicit in any engagement with the natural world is its ever accelerating collapse. ‘Heat Keeps Rising’ faces up to the ongoing disaster in all its overwhelming weight, not to mention the dizzying strangeness of living through such a time. “This song is a practice in continuing to ask the heavy questions even when it seems like there may be no immediate resolve,” Thomas told Guitar Girl Magazine. “We recorded it live and left a lot of room for improvisatory exploration so we could see where those questions would take us—surely, towards a new perspective.”

A video directed by Michelle Sui with cinematography from Alice Millar furthers this style, a visualisation which helps chart the surreal contours of the moment. The song opens with a relatively sedate rhythm, though Thomas’s vocals soon kick into a kind of tripping momentum, each line piling atop of the last and evoking the claustrophobic bustle of an ever-warming city. “The heat keeps rising,” Thomas breathes in moment of pause, though the instrumentation soon rises in response, pushing the track (and video) into a kind of frantic fever dream. Only, one from which there is no waking.

Mirrors to the Sun is too astute to offer much hope in such times, but Lea Thomas also refuses to submit to doom. They might not find answers within nature, but there is always consolation. Something in the wider impermanence that brings comfort to our own. The reinforcement of the present and its tender beauty. Final track ‘Close to Me’ is carved from such wisdom. Returning to the energies of the white wolf and dissolving dream in a subtle, humble form. No great transformation, but a (re)connection with nature nonetheless.

I trust my body when it tells me
That the work can wait till tomorrow.
Let the worries in my mind turn swift into sparrows,
Find their rest among the pines again.

Like the winds that had raised me and carried me here,
I could drift for miles understanding nothing
But the freedom song of the grasses
As they whisper for no witnesses:

Stay close to me

Mirrors To The Sun is out now via Spirit House Records and available from the Lea Thomas Bandcamp page.

Photography by Hannah Rosa Lewis-Lopes

The post Lea Thomas – Mirrors to the Sun 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.

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