Featuring:

Petal – I’m Sorry
Wild Pink – The Seance On St. Augustine St
Big Thing – Spin
Bombshell Nightlight – Death Day
Mount Goldie – Summer
Elsa Lester – Pretty Bad, Man
Why Bonnie – Gold Rush
Devon Welsh – Vampires
Max García Conover – Another Travelling Man
Floating Room – Dog
Izaak Opatz – Bathing in the Ganges
Free Cake For Every Creature – Around You
Indigo De Souza – Home Team
Museum Food Court – bad song
Crisco Dreams – I Like Your Bed
You’re Sister – I Think About You
Russel the Leaf – Let ‘Em Run
Fresh – Daytime
Stevhen Peters – Phone Talk
Tender Age – Don’t Mind
Lord Youth – Do You Have Anything To Add?
Quiet Hollers – Addicted
Blue J – Hard to Know
Post Moves – The Arc of Life
Angus & Julia Stone – Nothing Else
Gia Margaret – Birthday
Sun June – Discotheque
Campdogzz – Souvenir
Field Report – Every Time

*(Due to various issues of availability and licensing, neither playlist has the complete quota of acts, but welcome to the modern age).

You can find all of the previous instalments of Bright Sparks here, and be sure to check back in a few weeks to see what makes the next edition.

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

With its lazy drum beat emerging through lonely ambience, ‘Do You Have Anything to Add?’ opens restrained and casual, though a certain energy glows like the embers of a forgotten fire. By the first chorus, this flickers into something more conspicuous, with Blaichman’s vocals joined by those of Ella Rae Peck to possess more assertion and bite. Hints of a more playful side appear across the second verse, conjuring the likes of Nap Eyes, though the track never shakes its leisurely aesthetic, as though a blanket has been thrown over it, masking the true emotions within.

I was dreaming when I wrote this
That’s no excuse
And I don’t want to play remember when
Cos’ sometimes the facts just obscure the truth
Especially when the truth is so bad

Do you have anything to add?
Make our music dreamy and sad.

Raising the tempo, ‘Hungry Ghosts’ is the more upbeat of the two, though there is still an atmospheric stillness in the spaces between the notes. The song almost has something of a western feel, indie rock dragged through some dusty frontier town in search of water, hallucinating a spectral presence while the mind still burns with something, or someone, left far behind.

Do You Have Anything To Add?/Hungry Ghost is out now via BB Island and Soul Step Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

The post Lord Youth – Do You Have Anything To Add? / Hungry Ghost appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Of The Valley – Italy

Of The Valley is the recording project of Canadian-born, Copenhagen-based songwriter Brian DellaValle. Ahead of a debut full-length that is set for release soon, DellaValle is currently releasing stand-alone singles, beginning with ‘Quiet and Curious’ back in March. The track was a good introduction to the Of The Valley style, a slow, sad and atmospheric brand of folk which supports DellaValle’s affecting baritone vocals.

His latest single, ‘Italy’ follows a similar pattern, wrapped in warm melancholy that brings to mind a later-era Mark Kozelek. Thematically, the track charts a relationship and its slow evolution across time, change as a shaping force, capable of builing and destroying in equal measure. As the press release describes:

“Italy is a voyeuristic slice into a moment between two people. Beauty in such situations can certainly be found between those two, but also between the lines. When something important comes apart, it takes courage and time to find if you can build it back again.”

Slowcoaches – Found Down

London’s pop punk trio Slowcoaches have been putting out tunes as ferocious as they are catchy for a good while now, with 2016’s album Nothing Gives followed by a series of singles. The latest of which, ‘Found Down’, is the lead track from a new two-song release on Sonic Unyon Records. A boisterous, squally listen, the track races around the throaty vocals of Heather Perkins, demanding you join in with the hollered chorus. “on the dirty ground, I gotta grow up, grow up,” she shouts, “you say you want to be around, you never show up, show up.” However, the words are secondary to the sheer energy and attitude bursting from their delivery in cathartic release, a furious shedding of all of life’s soul-destroyingly banal frustrations in a two-and-a-half-minute storm.

The Found Down 7″ is out on the 30th June via Sonic Unyon Records and you can pre-order it from the Slowcoaches Bandcamp page, including on vinyl.

Minor Moon – It’s Okay

We first wrote about Sam Cantor’s Minor Moon back in 2016 when we covered A Whisper, A Shout, an album we described as “fuelled by the insistent dread of self-doubt and bad feeling to [become] something keenly honest and cathartic, yet always coloured with wry self-referential lines about that very process.” This was followed by an EP What Our Enemies Know, and now Cantor and co. are back with ‘It’s Okay’, a brand new single ahead of a future full-length album.

Don’t let first impressions deceive you. The instrumentation of ‘It’s Okay’ is something of a Trojan horse, housing a keen existential anxiety that flourishes in the lyrics. Therefore, while the sound evokes a timeless rock vibe, the themes of the track are actually far more contemporary, detailing the sense of alienation and dread that comes with the creeping ubiquity of technology and mass media. The song sees something of a fight back against this, preaching the idea that any form of resistance and human connection is valuable, and any attempt to be okay is at least some way closer to realising the wish. As Cantor explains: “I can be very cynical and take a dark view of things, but that cynicism is rooted so much in a desire for hope and for a better world.”

You can grab ‘It’s Okay’ from the Minor Moon Bandcamp page, along with the previous releases.

Caroline Lazar – Georgia

Caroline Lazar is a songwriter from outside Atlanta, so new single ‘Georgia’ is aptly named. The track is the first taste of a new EP to be released on My Little Empire Records, and shows off Lazar’s melancholic mix of bedroom pop and folk. The basis of the track is a languorous flow, a slow summer heat that ripples the vocals into a sedated, less immediate form of heartbreak. But heartbreak this track is, detailing a lost love and conflicted hopes of its return. “Why am I hoping that you might be holding someone else?” Lazar laments, “need a better reason to replace your picture on my shelf.”

Caroline Lazar’s EP is to be released soon via My Little Empire Records, so keep an eye on Bandcamp for further news.

Heatwarmer – Here Comes The Band

Heatwarmer are three piece from Seattle, Washington, who put out their latest album, Here Comes The Band last autumn. The record layers rich retro-pop with tongue-in-cheek humour, something like Mike Pace and the Child Actors taken to the next level of irony. ‘American Dog’ is the prime example, a smooth backwards-looking love ballad, though the focus of this emotion is not a beautiful woman or dark and handsome man, but a small, canine US national. Yes, really. The chorus makes it pretty clear:

“Oh oh oh oh my god
I didn’t know I’d feel this way about a little dog

American dog, American dog
I fell in love with an American dog
Good God, I fell in love with an American dog”

Here Comes The Band is out now and you can get it from the Heatwarmer Bandcamp page.

The Nova Darlings – I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)

Hailing from Los Angeles, The Nova Darlings are a garage rock four-piece described by their bio as “equal parts violent and tender.” Their sound draws upon influences from either side of the millennium, mixing the 90s guitar of Built to Spill and 00s vibes akin to The Shins with a more contemporary bedroom pop aesthetic that brings to mind The Washboard Abs. As a result, they manage to live up the the bio’s promise, capable of earnest emotion and ramshackle rocking within the very same track.

Since their EP Songs for Felix back in March, the band have been putting out a series of singles. The latest of which, ‘I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)’ is the perfect example of the sound we describe above, the tenderness of the vocals juxtaposing with the violence of the title and lyrics, and the carefree rhythm of the instrumentation managing to serve both.

You can grab ‘I Like Crashing My Car (Into Yours)’, as well as the other singles, from The Nova Darlings Bandcamp page.

Jacob Furr – Life Comes At You Fast

We’ve written about Texan songwriter Jacob Furr a few times in the past, first in 2014 upon the release of his debut album Trails & Traces, and then again in 2017 in a belated review of his sophomore record Sierra Madre. The conclusion of the latter post functions as a neat summation of what Furr’s music is all about: “Hope doesn’t have to be a sentimental act or retreat from reality, rather a considered and consistent refusal to give in. [Furr] finds strength in weathering storms, and, what’s more, wants to share that notion with you too.”

Last month saw the release of a brand new single, ‘Life Comes At You Fast’, and again a similar sense runs through the track. The nostalgic Americana sound is the ideal medium to capture the wistful attitude, and the whole thing is dressed in fondness too, as though any sense of melancholy is not so much regret but rather a reminder to feel.

“Running like a river through your dreams
down into the ocean, where nothing is as it seems.
And you watch the seasons change, you listen to the rain,
see the wind that’s tied up in the trees.

And you know just how that feels
Wishing you were free”

‘Life Comes At You Fast’ is available now from the Jacob Furr Bandcamp page, along with his previous releases.

Deux Trois – Dave

Working out of Kingston, Ontario, Deux Trois is something of a Canadian super group, featuring Nadia Pacey (Konig) Benjamin Nelson (PS I Love You) and Ben Webb (Carvings). Ahead of a new eight-song release, Health, the three-piece have been unveiling some singles to get the anticipation up. Following on from the hypnotic and salacious ‘Late Night Girls’, latest song ‘Dave’ moves on to unrequited love and the invisibility it casts over its suffers. The song has something of a dual perspective, the present pining for the titular Dave, but also one positioned ahead of the moment, looking back, free from the clutches of the once consuming conviction of love.

“Dave, I feel like an infant
Dave, just tell me I’m human
you look so sad but didn’t age that bad
drop the glass and struggle hard but
it’s all gone to waste.

At the time I was just a kid
you said you loved me but you never did”

Health will be released on the 8th June in a variety of formats, so keep an eye on the Deux Trois Bandcamp page.

Grace Turner – Dead or Alive

Utilising elements of folk, rock and country, Australian musician Grace Turner crafts songs at once energetic and emotional, the charged sound allowing her to delve into intimate and honest personal difficulties without ever coming off as trite or overwrought.

Latest single ‘Dead or Alive’ is a case in point, the persistent momentum of the drums leading Turner into a haunting exploration of internal suffering and the comfort that human connection can bring in the face of such turmoil. “The lyrics in the chorus are literally transcribed from [a] conversation,” Turner explains. “[A friend] called and said, ‘I didn’t know if you’d be dead or alive’. The whole song was written in about an hour after the phone call.”

“That was so sweet just the other night
You called me just to see if I was alright
You said you didn’t know if i’d be dead or alive
You said you worry so much about me sometimes”

‘Dead or Alive’ is out now and you can snag it at the Grace Turner Bandcamp page.

Britton Patrick Morgan – Southern Drawl

Britton Patrick Morgan is a multi-instrumentalist based in Kentucky who has recently put out his debut album, High Lonesome Throne. The record is rooted in the folk traditions, with Morgan using a 1947 Gibson LG2 parlour guitar to evoke a timeless quality to his sound, despite loving his Huss & Dalton guitar enough to give it the name Jane. “Instruments,” he explains, “much like people, have their own distinct personalities.”

‘Southern Drawl’ is a great welcome into this warm and wistful world, a song drawn forth from an age old existence in the American south, where the landscape colours the essence of life and a kind of patient longing seeps into the fabric of things. Fittingly, the song is pitched somewhere between plaintive and hopeful, a kind and compassionate word into the air in the hope that others might hear.

“I’d try to catch you if you had a fall
nobody’s perfect, we’re all flawed
If you ever need me you can call
And I’ll always love you
with a southern drawl.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYc45eO2pFw

High Lonesome Throne is out now and you can get it from iTunes.

You can find all of the previous instalments of Bright Sparks here, and be sure to check back in a few weeks to see what makes the next edition.

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 13 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.

Courtney Marie Andrews – May Your Kindness Remain

Last year we spoke with Courtney Marie Andrews about Honest Life, the record that seems to have been her breakout success, despite being in the business for over ten years. Hot on the heels of this newfound recognition, Andrews is back with a brand new album, May Your Kindness Remain, to be released this spring. So far we only have the title track to go on, but the signs suggest Andrews expanding her sound beyond acoustic folk, with strong elements of soul, rock and gospel, giving the song a spirit that seems lifted from some bygone time, and likely cementing Andrews amongst the very best songwriters working today.

May Your Kindness Remain will be released on the 23rd March via Loose (UK) and Fat Possum Records/Mama Bird Recording Co. (North America), and you can pre-order it now.

inning – Feels Like It Did

“Last night, I taught viola to aliens in dreams.” Not many songs aim for territory as weird as this, and even less manage to weave it into such a sad and serious mood, but Virginia-based inning does so with aplomb. The track was inspired by one of those soul destroying college entrance questionnaires, albeit a relatively cool one, which asked “If you could send one thing to aliens that represented human life, what would it be?” inning decided that an instrument might be a good choice, in the hope that, should the contact ever develop into something more face-to-face, we might have something in common, and a way to communicate. Which maybe explains the kind of desperate loneliness that seems to smoulder behind this track, a metaphorical viola solo aimed skyward, not knowing if they could figure out how to play the thing, or even got the package in the first place.

Après​-​Ski EP is available now from the inning Bandcamp page.

Rosie Tucker – Spinster Cycle

Taken from an upcoming EP, Rosie Tucker’s ‘Spinster Cycle’ is a break-up song based, of all places, in a late-night laundromat. Picture the scene: your most treasured relationship failing amidst artificial lighting and a constant mechanical whirr, while muted TV screens try to sell you stuff as an awkward audience of semi-attentive strangers look at their feet. Here is a classic tale of miscommunication and banal distraction, the impossibility of truly knowing another person working its way into the cracks of even the most promising pairings, meaning that instead of trying to talk it through, they just lie back and let the drift carry them apart, even while their clothes share the same hot water, the dyes leeching and mixing into one dull shade.

“My parents met in a laundromat parking lot
I almost tell you but then I think not to
We focus on pulling our lights from our darknesses
We separate even though we’ve got sparks
While the colors bleed”

‘Spinster Cycle’ is available now from the the Rosie Tucker Bandcamp page, and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the EP.

Why Bonnie – Made of Paper

Ahead of their debut EP on Sports Day Records, Austin band Why Bonnie have unveiled lead single ‘Made of Paper’ to get us suitably excited. Fuelled by a loose sound which belies the surprisingly insistent tempo, lead Blair Howerton explores vulnerability and perseverance through the lens of history and image, challenging preconceptions and expectations in search of some deeper truth. As such, ‘Made of Paper’ feels like a motivating call from Why Bonnie, helping us all shake free of a clinging inertia, or at least urging we test its grasp in preparation for a future escape.

“I never knew my great grandmother,
but I’m always told i have her skin.
although I think I’ve talked to her,
I know I can’t escape the skin I’m born in.

Reading my fortune
in the mess I’ve made in the kitchen
dirty spoons
to show that I’m still going”

In Water is set for release on the 16th February via Sports Day Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Sonny Baker – Comfortable

At the very end of 2017, Buffalo’s Sonny Baker put out a new record, steady hands, dead tired via Admirable Traits, following up an EP, easier, which came out in April. Don’t let the late release date slide under your radar amidst all the end of year lists, because this is an energetic, at times furious, slice of indie rock. Single ‘Comfortable’ serves as a good taster, railing against the chains of routine and comfort zones, the frenetic tempo aiming to shock you from your tracks, scrub the grey film from your eyes.

“I’m at the point
to set it all
on fire

dump the rest
into a garbage can”

steady hands, dead tired is out now via Admirable Traits Records and you can snag it from Bandcamp.

Andrew Goldring – Lost in the Motion

Following up last year’s EP Morning Light, Salt Lake City’s Andrew Goldring is back with a brand new single, ‘Lost in the Motion’. Pitched somewhere between the gruff melancholia of Water Liars and psych-tinged rock of The War on Drugs and The Wooden Sky, Goldring ticks both boxes—managing to represent a clear-eyed stride forward while remaining haunted by lingering images of the past. As such, the single serves as both a confident driving song and introspective examination, and should be a regular in your headphones on just about any occasion.

‘Lost in the Motion’ is out now and you can get it from the Andrew Goldring Bandcamp page.

Field Report – Summertime Songs

Finally, Milwaukee band Field Report have unveiled a new single, ‘Never Look Back’ ahead of their forthcoming record, Summertime Songs. Those unfamiliar with Chris Porterfield’s writing are well advised to check out their previous releases, with both their self-titled debut and 2014’s Marigolden up there with our favourite albums of the decade (no exaggeration). As we wrote in our review of the latter, “Porterfield’s writing is humble, real, able to be all shades of sad and beautiful. He leaves it to the listener to decide what they take from it, be it comfort or disturbance.”

Summertime Songs was written pre-election, and also in the run up to the birth of Porterfield’s first child, and the anxiety and fear of the unknown allows the songs to form “a dialogue about the fragility of America” and it’s various ideals. With that said, the press release leaves us with the promise that “Field Report will grab you by the short hairs and make you see yourself,” which sounds just like the Field Report we know. The record is out via Verve Forecast on the 23rd March, and you can get more information from the Field Report site.

‘Never Look Back’ is streaming now over at Stereogum.

That’s all folks. If you’re still not sated, why not check out previous editions of Bright Sparks?

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 8 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.

Sleep Movies – ‘Paper Hat’

Skyler Brimmierer from Pittsburgh, PA records invitingly hazy pop as Sleep Movies. If you like your vocals distorted and your instrumentation something akin to fog-like sedation, then his latest release, EDG will be right up your alley. ‘Paper Hat’ is one such example, playing like a tropical scene projected onto your bedroom ceiling as your sink down into the sheets and imagine the sun’s rays.

EDG is out now via Crafted Sounds on a pay-what-you-want basis, though unfortunately the cassettes have sold out.

Katie Von Schleicher – ‘Paranoia’

The beady-eyed (or eared) amongst you will recognise the voice of Katie Von Schleicher from our recent post on Wilder Maker, though the Brooklynite has a burgeoning solo career. The lead single from Shitty Hits, her debut album out later this summer, ‘Paranoia’ is a lush, woozy song straight out of some earlier, grander time. However, beneath the decadent production and sweet country-pop vibe lies a strange neurotic edge, as though the expansive sound is compensating for something, or else signalling the begin of a weird spiral somewhere altogether darker.

Shitty Hits is set for release on the 28th July via Ba Da Bing and Full Time Hobby (UK/EU), and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Pip Hall – James

We first wrote about Pip Hall back in November, praising her style of rich pop with added synths. March saw the release of her debut EP, James, building on the above formula to craft a haunting, atmospheric sound that also ticks all the boxes of a potential mainstream radio favourite. The title track displays this perfectly, the subtle synths and half-paced clatter of drums supporting Hall’s vocals as they wax and wane with great emotion.

James is out now on My Little Empire and you can grab it from Bandcamp.

Bradford Loomis – Bravery and the Bell

Washington’s Bradford Loomis creates evocative, earnest music concerned with the classic folk themes―love, death, memories―essentially digging down into what it means to be human. Written in the aftermath of his father’s Early Onset Alzheimers diagnosis, Loomis’ latest album is more personal and heartfelt than ever, the shock and subsequent sense of purpose serving to eradicate trivialities. As Loomis explains, “Bravery and the Bell… is about legacy, both the lineage we are born into and that which we pass on. Whether burdened or buoyed by our generational inheritance, this album confronts the drudgery of simply surviving and sounds a call to stand up to the things that stand in the way of us truly passionately pursuing that which we were made to be.”

Bravery and the Bell is out now and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Lord Youth – Blue Yodel #156

The songwriting project of Queens’ Micah Blaichman, Lord Youth makes music too cinematic for bedroom pop and too gloomy for garage rock, a murky, midnight noir to soundtrack your black and white dreams. Taken from the Lord Youth EP released last year, ‘Blue Yodel #156’ is something of a signature track for the band, slightly discordant and populated by wispy moans, as though behind Blaichman’s dejected lyrics lurk sad spirits of previously blue beings.

Lord Youth EP is out now via BB*ISLAND and you can get it on vinyl or digitally via Bandcamp.

Kazyak – ‘Sundial’

Written during a trip to Alaska as frontman Peter Frey prepared for his upcoming wedding, the themes of facing challenges and the natural world run through Happy Camping, the new album from Minneapolis band Kazyak. But this is achieved not in the harsh and difficult way such topics are usually broached. “It’s after you’ve put your pack on your back and set out walking down an unexplored trail, but before you’ve arrived to the foot of the mountain,” Frey says. “This album is the long walk through the open field to the base of the mountain.” As single ‘Sundial’ shows, Happy Camping is a spring album, where life is in a clear forward motion, the clean optimism of progressive snuffing out any signs of death and decay.

Happy Camping, is set for release on the 21st July and you can stay tuned to the Kazyak website for details.

Dama Scout – Paper Boy

The third single from the London/Glasgow three-piece Dama Scout, ‘Paper Boy’ is varied, hard-to-pin track that starts out woozy dream-pop and ends up somewhere far heavier. Indeed, such a shift is the band’s forte, with us describing a previous single as a “stylistic mutant ” and “a surreal ride through a many-eyed storm.” The languorous opening sees Eva Liu’s dreamy vocals float over choppy instrumentation before both coalesce into something more fluid, though the acceleration continues right through the other side, the song breaking down into chaotic disorder by the second half of the track. Imagine a slowly-rotating kaleidoscope gathering pace minute by minute, clicking into the perfect pattern for just a moment before eventually unravelling or exploding in a burst of coloured shards which rain down around your head.

‘Paper Boy’, and the band’s previous singles, can be found now on the Dama Scout Bandcamp page.

Why a fox – Solstice / ‘Young Trees’

The brainchild of Adelaide native, Fukushima resident Hayden Marks, Why a fox blends folk, pop, punk and emo to create heartfelt songs somewhere between Nana Grizol, Camp Cope and The Hotelier. This spring saw the release of Solstice, a verbose album of ramshackle lo-fi tunes notable for their energetic sincerity and bittersweet spirit. As a follow-up, Marks has also put out a new single ‘Young Trees’, taken from the forthcoming album Old Forest. Young Trees. A piano-driven instrumental, the track is something of a departure from the previous sound, though fits right in to the Why a fox aesthetic with its sincere positivity and emotional weight.

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

Solstice is out now and available from the Why a fox Bandcamp page. Old Forest. Young Trees is set for release this July, so keep an eye out for that too.

Alanna Eileen – ‘Knowledge’

New Zealand-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alanna Eileen makes lush music that draws upon both traditional and contemporary folk. With Eileen’s soft vocals and warm guitar backed by country ambience and modest piano, new single ‘Knowledge’ is a gauzy number that envelops you slowly. The possibility of sadness or heartbreak lingers just out of focus, neither the lyrics or instrumentation ever quite slipping from their agreeable vibe.

Alanna Eileen is currently working on a debut full-length album with Adam Selzer. In the meantime, check out her previous releases on Bandcamp.

Coastal Clouds – ‘Wanna Come Down’

California’s Roberto Rodriguez certainly choose an apt moniker when naming his new project, Coastal Clouds. As the latest single ‘Wanna Come Down’ attests, the sound is moulded out of the West Coast spirit of sun and surf, an early evening top-down drive where the clear skies and cool breeze conjure a sentimental edge, as though the knowledge such a carefree existence cannot last. Indeed, the lyrics push this further, dealing with the realisation that we must grow up and move on from even our most golden of days.

Keep up with Coastal Clouds via his Facebook page.

For more posts like this, head to the Best of the Rest tag!

The post Bright Sparks: Vol. 1 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.

The post Best of the Rest: Things We Have Missed #9 appeared first on Various Small Flames.