With the release of the album fast approaching, Luke De-Sciscio has shared new track ‘Spinning’. If the previous single possessed a certain starkness, then ‘Spinning’ distils the mood into a purer form. A sparse, slow-moving track full of ache and open space. “You were / In a public bathroom / Somewhere in a mall in Manchester,” De-Sciscio sings in the opening lines. “Up North / In a stall / Barefoot / Balling your eyes out.” The scene forms the heart of the song, one not so much rooted in narrative as images. The way dire moments or bad dreams are reduced to stillness. The vocals barely break a murmur for the majority of the runtime, but echo conspicuous against the near-silence of the arrangement. Another example of De-Sciscio’s ability to conjure those feelings almost too delicate for open air.

Theo is out on the 27th September and available to pre-order now.

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Their first release since 2016’s And Then Like Lions, Blind Pilot‘s forthcoming album In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain finds the Oregon outfit having undergone something of a necessary hiatus. “I was struggling with a lot of fear surrounding expectations of who I was supposed to be,” lead Israel Nebeker says, “I’d lost my path with music.” The time away allowed Nebeker to travel to Scandinavia to reconnect with his Sámi heritage, as well as visit places like Mexico City as part of a humanitarian group helping migrants. “I got the idea to write a song that looks at ideas of ownership and othering, and what it does when we tell people, ‘This is our home, not yours’.” he continues. The new record flowed out in less than a month. Lead single ‘Just A Bird’ introduces the new sound, one possessing all the heart which won fans over to Blind Pilot in the first place, but an extra sense of focus for those energies. Watch the visualizer by Lotte Budai below:

In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain is out on the 16th August via ATO Records and you can pre-order it now.

Coolhand Jax – Everything Changes All of the Time

After moving on from surf-psych band Sunshine Brothers Inc., Los Angeles-based songwriter Jake Weissman took to the road across America and started working on new demos. The songs would eventually make up the first Coolhand Jax releases, which came out via Spirit Goth Records, and the project has never looked back. Latest single ‘Everything Changes All of the Time’ shows Weissman’s knack for combining bright rhythms with intimate emotion, following a challenging conversation during a car ride which turns towards themes of loss and death. But far from emerging as something bleak, Coolhand Jax instead wrap these ideas in a rich, wistful sound that highlights the romance of such themes. Finding some comfort in the concept of change, if only to feel a sense of movement.

Cooza – Blonde

In June, UK folk songwriter Cooza released Getting Better At Knowing You, a brand new full-length on Folk Boy Records. Described as an album “written for and about his sister Ellie,” the songs might have emerged from a period of mourning, but their intent is to do more than evoke feelings of grief. Because while loss sits at the heart of Getting Better At Knowing You, the record actively works against the totality so often ascribed to the experience. Ellie might not be here in the way she once was, Cooza seems to be saying, but she is far from lost. Single ‘Blonde’ is our first taste of this affirming album and the tender, incredibly intimate emotions found therein.

Getting Better At Knowing You is out now via Folk Boy Records.

G. Himsel – Sweet William

You might know Geoff Himsel as the songwriter behind Portsmouth, New Hampshire trio Bird Friend, but after finding his groove in recent times and writing an abundance of material, he has decided to begin releasing music under the solo moniker G. Himsel for the first time. With an album on the horizon, Himsel has unveiled single ‘Sweet William’ for a glimpse into the world of his sound. A sonic representation of the New England landscape, where expansiveness meets intricate detail and whispered subtleties, resulting in something patient, delicate, and fully attuned to geographies both physical and emotional.

hey i’m outside – Frontyard

“You’re in an overgrown front yard at sunset. The worldwide vibe is kinda off right now but you gotta try anyway.” That’s how Medford, MA’s outfit hey i’m outside describe the vibe of ‘Frontyard’, the first single from their upcoming album. The tone is heartfelt if a little woozy, as though clinging on as everything we know shifts off-kilter. It finds a person trying to preserve the small joys and points of interest they stumble across, even if the attempt is doomed to fail. “saw you in the front yard / looking at flowers, just about dark,” as the first verse plays. “I lined up my camera, I tried to compose / but a fragment of time can only come close.”

Jacob Furr – Take Care

“I was thinking about an old junkyard/antique collection that I know of and how those objects were all once important to someone’s life,” explains Jacob Furr of new track ‘Take Care’. The Texas-based songwriter uses the energies and meaning inherent within such ephemera as a springboard to explore care in a wider sense. What results is every bit as warm and compassionate as anything Furr has written to date, serving as a reminder of both the power of kindness and the need to cultivate such feelings to stave off the selfishness and cynicism so prevalent in these days. “Take care of the well that’s in your heart,” as he sings, “draw deeply on its waters but don’t let down your guard / Because the darkness comes without / The darkness comes within / and it’ll try to take everything you’ve been given.”

Jae Soto – Standing

The solo moniker of Brooklyn-based songwriter and producer Justina-Maria Soto, Jae Soto creates music which exists at the intersection of the traditional and contemporary, with classic songwriting sensibilities merging and interacting with various electronic styles. Released via Switch Hit Records, new album Leave the Light On demonstrates the inventiveness and potential of such a style, showing how an exploratory sound need not lack a sense of meticulous crafting. Single ‘Standing’ is a good place to jump in, introducing the themes of growth and self-care that run across the record. It’s a song which represents “an earnest reflection of the solitary, empty feeling a person can have after coming out of a long, stressful period where they were operating in survival mode,” Soto explains. “It can sort of feel like you’re living as a ghost since the rest of your life hasn’t caught up to shape around the new person you’ve become. Ultimately, the message is ‘I’m still here!'”

Julie Doiron & Astral Swans – Last Night I Saw My Love

Following on from the successful collaborative EP Split with Chad Vangaalen, Astral Swans are now preparing to release Split 2, a second joint EP this time with Canadian songwriting royalty Julie Doiron. Released via Stoner Bird Records and as a limited edition lathe cut vinyl via Red Spade Records, the EP finds two artists at the height of their abilities, however contrasting their styles. Doiron with her earnest invocations of love, Astral Swans with an altogether more sardonic slacker contemplations. Focus track ‘Last Night I Saw My Love’ captures the full nuance of the style—an ode to a lover delivered over great distances which chugs and croons its fondness with a building momentum.

Luke De-Sciscio – Only A Woman Knows

Most people might take a few months to themselves on entering parenthood, getting to grips with the inevitable life changes, but for prolific songwriter Luke De-Sciscio, the process only served up a deeper source of inspiration. Where previous LP Papa painted a couple on the precipice of their new life, latest album Theo sees them fully immersed within it. A collection of songs written and recorded in snatched moments during his daughter’s first six weeks, the record offers an unusually immediate picture of new fatherhood, something furthered by the live-recorded style. Single ‘Only A Woman Knows’ demonstrates the release’s delicate power, where anxiety and self-doubt bubble on the surface of a new wellspring of love.

Madam Sad – Hope For You

Madam Sad, that’s Hamilton, Ontario-based duo Maddison Schreiber and Evelyn Charlotte Joe, is a project which exists in defiance of poverty and disability, functioning both as a source of healing and a way to spite the challenges life has placed in their way. New single ‘Hope For You’ shows the heart which underpins the Madam Sad sound, as well as its willingness to confront difficult things with a compassionate face. “The song title is a way of holding myself accountable to make sure I am always hoping for the happiness of those who have hurt me,” as Schreiber says. “I also do get to a more genuine place where I feel compassion for an ex-lover’s success, and that’s a nice kind of sad.”

‘Hope For You’ is out now via streaming services.

Marisa Finley – Hallelujah (Movin Through Ya)

Exploring the timeless themes of love, loss and growing up, the work of Canadian singer-songwriter Marisa Finley uses a hazy, reflective sound to further its wistful charms. Her debut single ‘Hallelujah’ sees her team up with friend and collaborator Peter Mol, a musician and producer known for work with the likes of Father John Misty and Quincy Jones, and the result is as richly heartfelt as it is melancholic. An indie pop song bathed in ambient textures and sound recordings, as though Finley’s voice emerges through the cloudy fog of her accumulated past to make itself heard. What she has to say delivered with a heavy heart, charting the experience of falling in love prematurely and the slow process of realisation, though always with an assured fondness that respects the time which has passed.

‘Hallelujah (Movin Through Ya)’ is out now via streaming services.

Soot Sprite – I Went Swimming

Next month sees Exeter trio Soot Sprite return with I Went Swimming / Home Among Your Bones, a brand new 7″ double single on Specialist Subject Records. Through releases like album Poltergeist and single ‘Lazy‘, the band have established a cathartic, often confrontational style, calling out the slights and injustices of modern living in search of a sense of self-worth. ‘I Went Swimming’ applies the style to personal relationships, its thundering momentum and impassioned delivery typifying Soot Sprite’s willingness to stand up to all that is toxic and wrong. The track is about “recognising a red flag in your relationship and emotionally shutting down to that person and cutting things off,” as lead Elise Cook explains. “Some people describe this as getting ‘the ick’ but that feels like a trivial term. Sometimes we have to learn from our mistakes and protect ourselves and that’s exactly what this is about.”

The sky is filling up with red flags
And you can’t take that back
I went swimming in the water
And now I only see black

The post Weekly Listening: July 2024 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Back in July we wrote about  Fort Worth, TX songwriter Cameron Smith, describing how single ‘Under the Cover of Darkness’ drew on “the loaded depths of the southern gothic genre” to evoke “the heartsick wanderer which can be traced back through Molina and van Zandt, where the long night is illuminated only by the blood moon and low fuel light on the dash.” Recorded as part of a Café Solo Songwriters Live session, latest single ‘Shadows of the Moonlight’ follows a similar spirit. This time it takes inspiration from the story of Smith’s great-grandfather Sam Smith who served in WWI and worked as a cowboy before being killed while working as a lineman for the Texas Louisiana Power Company. “I’m not a cowboy but Sam was,” as Smith explains. “It’s a campfire song; a reflection on the mental, spiritual and physical distances a person can travel between night and day.”

You can grab the track now from the Cameron Smith Bandcamp page.

h. pruz – I Keep Changing

The third single from their forthcoming record No Glory, ‘I Keep Changing’ is the perfect introduction to the music of h. pruz, aka Queens-based songwriter Hannah Pruzinsky. It’s a rich and direct track that wanders further toward rock than previous h. pruz songs, giving weight to the very real emotional power that has always underpinned their music. Like much of the record, the song focuses on a pivotal moment, conjuring almost physical dimensions to inner turmoil and subsequent growth. “The song emerged a few weeks following a pretty life-altering break-up, Pruzinsky describes to Stereogum. “I’m trying to capture the feeling of the moment when you can feel something inside you giving way to a newer form, and how ugly yet unstoppable and freeing that ultimately felt.”

No Glory comes out on 29^th March via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. and is available to pre-order via the h. pruz Bandcamp page.

Habibi – On The Road

Brooklyn’s Habibi return later this spring with Dreamachine, their first new record in four years. Released via Kill Rock Stars, the album promises to be something of an evolution for the garage rock five-piece, drawing on everything from post punk and lo-fi experimentalism to vintage disco and the Middle Eastern psych influences that have always made Habibi stand out. And it’s not a case of style over substance either, the band utilizing these disparate elements to explore themes both physical and spiritual. “There’s always a desire for transcendence in our music,” says lead Rahill Jamalifard, “a desire to go beyond our limitations. Whether it’s spiritual or physical or emotional, it feels like this album really embodies that search for something more.” Check out lead single ‘On The Road’ for an early taste, a beguiling and deadpan track with infectious percussion and stabs of wiry guitar.

On the road again, on the road again
Driving north towards the great star of Bethlehem

Dreamachine will be released on 31st May via Kill Rock Stars and is available to pre-order via Bandcamp.

Hailaker – Gist

A collaboration between songwriters Ed Tullett (Lowsimmer) and Jemima Coulter, Hailaker put out two records pre-pandemic, with both their self-titled debut and follow-up Holding proving testaments to the bond between the artists. However, several years of isolation and social distancing, not to mention other creative endeavours in the interim, left the pair wondering whether the spark had extinguished. It was only when Coulter suggested they park any songwriting ambitions and instead just enjoy one another’s company again did the connection rekindle, and the resulting songs are as ambitious and inventive as anything Hailaker has released to date. Take new single ‘Gist’ with its newfound pop sensibilities, sounding like a new dawn fitting for the circumstances, and one suggestive of a bright future for the project once again.

‘Gist’ is out now via Believe.

Jackie West – Snow Amplified

Back in December, we described how Jackie West‘s ‘Tiny Flowers ii’ drew the audience in with a decidedly ambiguous tone, with a specific line from the song “complicat[ing] the second listen and every one thereafter, its gravity subverting the track’s structure and perspective from what the sound might originally suggest.” West has now announced her debut full-length, appropriately titled Close To The Mystery, to be released this May via Ruination Record Co., made in the hope of edging closer to the truth at the heart of any relationship. But with its oscillation between stark fingerpicked hush and chaotic, weighty momentum, new single ‘Snow Amplified’ suggests such mysteries might resist easy explanation, and instead only draw the audience deeper into the rich ambiguity of Jackie West’s work.

Kierst – Southern Star

“A reflection on longing and self-worth which owes as much to Grouper and Mazzy Star as it does contemporary bedroom pop, the intimate vocals and pressing rhythm lifted by an ethereal soundscape, resulting in a mood which transcends the immediate pain for heartbreak.” That’s how we described ‘Phone Call from Kierst‘s Thud EP on Sad Club Records. Following on from the success of the release, which among other things saw a track placed on Disney+ series Extraordinary, Kierst has returned with a brand new single, ‘Southern Star’. Just as emotive as anything on the previous record, the new single offers the kind of lush dreaminess only possible with patience and attention. “I wrote this a long time ago when I was really heartbroken, there’s no other way to put it,” Kierst explains. “But years have gone by and the song has gone through countless versions and been transformed by people I hold dear—and in that way, it means so much more to me now than ever before.”

‘Southern Star’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available from the usual places.

Luke De-Sciscio – Papa

Looking to capitalise on the creative breakthrough of recent full-length Heaven, an album which parked any sense of overworking in favour of “an intuitive flow which charges the songs with a sense of poetic authenticity,” prolific songwriter Luke De-Sciscio has already released new album, Papa. Described as “nine songs of delicate brevity,” the album takes stock of the ephemeral moments shared by a couple as they pass through the trials of young love towards parenthood, both as a way to preserve what has been and as a kind of ritual farewell. ‘Insights of a Heart’ is the perfect introduction to this tender, reflective collection, understated yet shot through by a frantic longing which belongs to the late night. ‘Blank Inside, Designed And Printed In The UK’ is no less keen in its observations, evoking the mysterious space between an end and a start with De-Scisco’s trademark reverence for human feeling.

Papa is out now and available from the Luke De-Sciscio Bandcamp page.

Mandy – High School Boyfriend

Best known as the lead singer of Chicago noise rockers Melkbelly, Miranda Winters has also quietly written her own music for over a decade. Despite some small releases over the years, she is now about to step into the limelight proper with the release of Lawn Girl, her debut “solo” full-length on Exploding in Sound Records, released under the moniker Mandy. With assistance from Linda Sherman (guitar), Lizz Smith (bass) and Wendy Zeldin (drums), Mandy make what Winters calls “dirty-bubblegum pop rock” that explores being a daughter, a mother and a woman in general. Lead single ‘High School Boyfriend’ is an exhilarating introduction, a crunchy rock song that packs anthemic noise and clear-eyed sincerity into its barely two minute runtime. Watch the video by  Liam Winters and Marty Schousboe below:

Lawn Girl will be released on 26th April via Exploding in Sound. Pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Pacing x Career Woman – Boyfriends

After the success of album Real poetry is always about plants and birds and trees and the animals and milk and honey breathing in the pink but real life is behind a screen, Pacing has teamed up with Melody Caudill, AKA Career Woman, for a new single on Lauren Records. ‘Boyfriends’ collides the trademark sensibilities of both artists, blending confessional emotion with quirky charm to offer something between wistful rumination and scream of frustration. But by the end of the joint chorus, the overring emotion is something affirming. “It feels very nostalgic to me,” McTigue explains, “like I can’t tell which parts are about being a kid and which parts are about being a grownup.”

We promised that we would live together in a tree
And watch the world end
But you got a boyfriend
I got a… really cool pen
But you got a boyfriend

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Based in South London, Alice Boyd is a singer-songwriter and sound artist who looks to address our increasingly disconnected position within the wider ecological system. This might be through residences and performances in botanical gardens, travelling to collect field recordings or even making music with plants themselves. As the title suggests, new single ‘Life in Cities’ finds Boyd mourning this separation from nature and pining for a more interconnected way of living. A hushed, reflective folk song which gazes out at its surroundings with a heavy heart. “Life in cities now / sleep no more,” as the opening lines go, “stare out my window / ’til the break of dawn.” Melancholy not as a form of pessimism, but rather a feeling born of knowing what nature could offer us should we let it in. Watch the video by Edith Morris below:

‘Life in Cities’ is out now and available from the Alice Boyd website.

BYLAND – Postcard

BYLAND, the recording project of Albuquerque-born, Seattle-based artist Alie Renee Byland, will next year release a new full-length album Heavy For A While. Latest single ‘Postcard’ gives an insight into what to expect from the release. Mournful but never without hope, the song explores the concept of searching for a place to call home within a world in which things too often fall away. Meagan Grandall of Lemolo sings the last verse before joining Byland for the final chorus, something which elevates the song both stylistically and thematically. “Meagan is someone whose friendship fostered so much of my own growth, and whose music and voice warms and inspires me,” Byland explains. “In the final chorus, we both sing the main melody, doubling each other, which feels almost like a sister comforting another sister in this life of too often ‘goodbyes’.”

‘Postcard’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Jackie West – Tiny Flowers ii

Back in 2022 we wrote about ‘Amelia‘, a single from New York-based songwriter Jackie West which offered a picture of close friendship in all of its persistence and comfort. But working within this warm sound was something more mysterious, dipping beneath the surface fondness to evoke the intangible connections we might share with other people. Released via Ruination Record Co., new single ‘Tiny Flowers ii’ builds upon these foundations, drawing the audience in with tenderness yet remaining distinctively ambiguous in its overall tone. The opening verse’s wistful fondness is undercut by the refrain: “I don’t fall in love like that anymore.” The line complicates the second listen and every one thereafter, its gravity subverting the track’s structure and perspective from what the sound might originally suggest.

‘Tiny Flowers ii’ is out now via the Jackie West Bandcamp page.

Jacob Faurholt – Words Whispered From the Sand

We’ve long admired the work of Jacob Faurholt, most recently with album When the Spiders Crawl and single ‘Madness on the Rise‘. The latter was a song “exploring mental struggles with Faurholt’s characteristically empathetic and understanding style,” as we wrote, [but carrying] a certain starkness too as the electric guitar rumbles with palpable weight, a formidable force bubbling up around fragile vulnerability.” With new album Burn Burn Here out now, Faurholt has shared single ‘Words Whispered From the Sand’, which embodies the record’s foreboding yet tender tone. Faurholt recorded the album at his home studio beneath his children’s bedroom, its hushed quiet as much a practical necessity as anything else. The result feels like being invited into an artist’s home to listen to what comes out in the still hours of the night.

Burn Burn Here is out now and available via the Jacob Faurholt Bandcamp page.

Luke De-Sciscio – Clever Ghost

Heaven, the latest full-length album from songwriter Luke De-Sciscio, felt like the work of an artist finding their true voice. “As though,” as we put it in our review, “having built up momentum across the years, De-Sciscio was able to record an album free of overthinking and overworking, instead tapping into an intuitive flow which charges the songs with a sense of poetic authenticity.” Not one to squander this headspace, De-Sciscio has returned with ‘Clever Ghost’. The stripped-back folk sound splits the difference between warm intimacy and tortured loneliness, playing like the patient confession of a man caught between memories and dreams.

‘Clever Ghost’ is available now on a variety of streaming platforms.

Oh, Rose – Back 2 U

We’ve followed Olympia’s Oh, Rose since the release of their exceptional SEVEN, so it was with great excitement that we saw Olivia Rose and co. have returned with brand new single, ‘Back 2 U’. Their first release since 2019’s While My Father Sleeps, the song shows a newly pop/dance dimension to the Oh, Rose sound. But however changed the style might be, it is the sense of returning which stands out most clearly. “I remember when I wrote this I wondered who/what I was going back to. Songs have a funny way of revealing themselves and we took our time with this one,” Rose explained in an Instagram post. “Right now I’m gonna leave it at back to music, back to friendship, back to y’all in a way that feels lighter than before… I hope this song can be a roadmap to LOVE.”

ask me where I am
the maps they all trace back
back to you

Speedrun – Hysteria

‘Hysteria’ is the new single from Speedrun, the “indie chic” project of New York’s Nina Lüders. Named after the psychological condition that was originally considered unique to women (the word originates from “hystera”, the Greek word for uterus), the song explores what Lüders describes as “the false equivalency of female rage as psychosis, independence as irritability, autonomy as threat.” Beneath the angular guitars and propulsive percussion and indignant backing vocal (“do what the fuck I want!”) lies an uplifting message of female solidarity and empowerment. “This song is for the mothers and sisters in my life who raised me,” Lüders describes, “and taught me to turn my rage into light, compassion, and forgiveness.” Watch the lyrics video by John Filmanowicz below:

‘Hysteria’ is out now via streaming services.

talker – Drag Your Feet

“I’ve said that the songs on my new record are my most honest songs ever,” says Celeste Tauchar of talker of her forthcoming debut album, “but that doesn’t always just mean being honest with others. Sometimes, it means accepting a hard truth for yourself.” This is particularly true of latest single ‘Drag Your Feet’, a song written after the long decline of a five-year relationship. It’s a hooky indie rock song that marbles sadness over the end with a sense of relief in finally admitting the truth, a big messy catharsis that burns a new hopeful path into the future.

‘Drag Your Feet’ is out now via streaming services.

WILDES – heartbreak is silent

Following the release of debut album Other Words Fail Me back in January, Ella Walker’s WILDES is readying a new EP for release next Spring. Titled Subsidence, the record promises to see the Anglo-Irish songwriter and producer return to her roots, recorded at home with the help of long-time collaborator Matt Wiggins. Walker says the EP “centres around the abrupt end of a loving relationship that left me quite devastated and shocked,” and lead single ‘heartbreak is silent’ tackles this theme head on. It’s a pulsing synth pop song with a calm, clear-eyed centre, capturing the strange mixture of strength and vulnerability that follow in the aftermath of heartbreak.

‘heartbreak is silent’ is out now via the WILDES Bandcamp page.

The post Weekly Listening: December 2023 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

But even if no such point exists, there is the sense that Luke De-Sciscio grows more confident and inventive with each passing release, and latest album Heaven might be his most assured to date. As though having built up momentum across the years, De-Sciscio was able to record an album free of overthinking and overworking, instead tapping into an intuitive flow which charges the songs with a sense of poetic authenticity. Take opener ‘Fortress of Cool’ with its nuanced blend of stark and soft tones, the lyrics stripped back to their barest state so that nothing complicates the emotions being delivered.

The slow, evocative style marks the record, positioning the songs somewhere among those of Jason Molina, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Emma Ruth Rundle. A sound at once tortured and tender, confessional and apologetic. Like ‘Heartbeat’ and its attempts to communicate across a divide between worlds, the spectral shimmer of ‘Death Is Empty’, or expansive closer ‘Heaven Is Doubtlessness’ and its sacrosanct spirit. Luke De-Sciscio recorded the album using his grandfather’s old guitar, and something of this fact comes through in the tracks themselves. A sense of reverence, seriousness, songs as an act of veneration. The mood is perhaps best captured with single ‘Hold The Dark’, another patiently unfurling song which stitches poetic imagery into a picture of a relationship. Taking something intangible and fragile and lending it permanence.

A blanket a blade
Smoke of our haze
Conjoined in the air like a circus for fades
Leaping repeatedly off of your cliffside
Woke up to your arms around me like a cage

Heaven is out now via Folk Boy Records and available from the Luke De-Sciscio Bandcamp page.

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Describing themselves as “a quixotic mix of American post-punk and ’80s post-hardcore,” East Vancouver Aversions combine heavyweight riffs, pounded percussion and acerbic vocals to comment on our contemporary moment. Loosely based on the visual essay About Face by graphic novelist Nate Powell, Aversions say ‘New Whip’ is a song about “how the impact of generational thinking shapes the people we become, and the beliefs and opinions we’ll go to any lengths to enforce…shin[ing] a light on how toxic masculinity is passed down like a gene.”

‘New Whip’ is out now via the Aversions Bandcamp page.

bedbugz – if i cried, we’d both drown

Back in June we wrote about Canterbury outfit bedbugz and their self-titled single on Tonetic Records. “With its upbeat rhythm and searching vocals, the title track is a bittersweet tale of young love,” we described, “while the b-side sets out further into shoegaze territory.” The debut bedbugz full-length all hail the goblin king! is out later this week, and lead single, ‘if i cried, we’d both drown’, shows how the band have knitted these styles into something of their own. A sound which owes a debt to both bedroom pop and indie rock without quite belonging to either, and offers a delightful blend of sincere emotion and noisy charm. Check out the video by Elliott Sirota-Gott and Tom Postgate below:

‘if i cried, we’d both drown’ is out now via Tonetic Records.

bmq – Spontaneity

Tokyo‘s bmq have been at work for fifteen years, though it is only now they are releasing their debut full-length album, Order, Spontaneity and the Body. Drawing inspiration from fields as diverse as post-punk, krautrock, ambient and US indie rock, the record feels like it utilises every month of this gestation period, weaving a finely honed style which constantly tests the line between control and volatility. Take single ‘Spontaneity’, which explores the tension between repetition and change with a simmering energy, unpredictable but always harnessed by an understated confidence. The sound of a band who have spent a long time working out what they want to say and how they want to say it.

Burs – Nearly

Back in September, Toronto‘s Burs released their latest album Holding Patterns, a record which blended various shades of indie, folk and dream pop to allow the quartet to explore a myriad of different moods and settings. What resulted was a rich and often ethereal collection of songs able to change with fluid ease, from the vast, spacious opener ‘The Year Now’ to the urgent ‘Lily’. But it is perhaps latest single ‘Nearly’ which best encapsulates the Burs style. The restrained acoustic intro heralding the considerable chemistry of their dual vocal style, the track slowly deepening with subtle layers of textures and warmth.

Once again I find myself awake inside a dream
Two of us and me, myself and I
Four on the floor, one in the door, a light
Out of purgatory darkly shines

Cat Clyde – Mystic Light

Next February sees the release of Down Rounder, the latest album from Ontario‘s Cat Clyde. Writing back in 2019 we described Clyde’s sound as encompassing “everything from folk and rock to blues and jazz, leading to a sound that swaggers with attitude and smoulders with smoky emotion, and lead single ‘Mystic Light’ suggests the new record builds upon these foundations to offer a fresh vision of the country style. One crafted from personal emotion but imbued with something more ancient and mysterious too. Watch the video directed by Laura-Lynn Petrick below:

Down Rounder is out on the 17th February and you can pre-order it now.

Caroline Strickland – Invoice

New York’s Caroline Strickland unveiled her debut single, ‘Invoice’, this month. A confessional track which pits deceptions and truths against one another, exploring the ways in which honesty can hurt the hardest, and lies hold small victories of their own. All set within a swirling moment of love persisting beyond a relationship, and a job with zero fulfilment or worth, Strickland’s vocals burning with a smoky intensity as she navigates both. “It makes you feel devastated, feel like letting go,” as Strickland’s own perceptive take puts it, “feel like California, feel like rock and roll.” Coming clean might be cathartic, but creating fictions might just be the best escape route.

Maybe with the extra cash
I’ll take a trip Ireland
Pretend my name is Marianne
play some music I can drown in
Remind myself it’s over
Standing on the streets of Sligo

Dignan Porch – Electric Threads

Led by South London’s Joe Walsh, Dignan Porch made a name across the 2010s with a distinctive blend of psych rock and fuzz pop, working with labels such as Captured Tracks and Art Is Hard along the way. With Walsh having now moved to Manchester, next February sees the release of a brand new album Electric Threads, this time a joint release by the stellar trio of Hidden Bay, Repeating Cloud and Safe Suburban Home Records. The title track gives a glimpse into the newest iteration of the project. A combination of earnest emotion and off-kilter playfulness which refuses to recognise any distinction between fun and melancholy.

Electric Threads is out on the 23rd February via Repeating Cloud, Hidden Bay and Safe Suburban Home Records and you can pre-order it now.

Lina K.O. – Two-Player Mode

Brooklyn-based artist Lina K.O. is gearing up to release new EP Earth Apple next month, and the latest single serves as a great introduction to her sound. Falling on the rockier side of what she herself describes as “digitally-infused melancholic indie,” the song combines Bridgers-esque indie folk with a grungy weight to achieve its delightfully ambiguous tone. Where doubt and assurance act as perfect counterbalances against one another, Lina K.O. singing with reflective wisdom even within the confusing immediacy of the moment. Check out the video by Mike White and Lina K.O herself below:

Earth Apple is out on the 13th January and you can pre-order it now.

Luke De-Sciscio – The Tourist

There are prolific songwriters and then there is Luke De-Sciscio. Reaching double figures of full-length albums at only thirty, De-Sciscio has consistently honed his work and challenged prior expectations, forever circling around that elusively perfect way in which to communicate what needs saying. Through a series of highs (e.g. being booked to support the likes of Cat Stevens and Jose Feliciano) and lows (the COVID-induced cancellation of said shows), he has not stopped in this search, and new album if one thing were different, nothing would be the same feels like the closest he’s yet come to reaching that mythical ideal. Take closer ‘The Tourist’, seven minutes plus of stark passion and poignance. The culmination of everything which has been before.

Niall Summerton – Human, Dying

You would be forgiven for taking a quick listen to the work of Leeds-based songwriter Niall Summerton and concluding his work to be that of warm, easy-going assurance. But as the name of new single ‘Human, Dying’ gives away, his work uses this welcoming richness as way into the weightier, darker themes of the human experience. With new album What Am I Made Of? coming soon via Tiny Library Records, the new song offers the perfect example of this style. Confronting the heaviest question of them all, Summerton threads anxieties around mortality into the textures of the everyday, and in doing so not only captures a compassionate view of the subject but also something of its pervasive, ever-present weight.

What Am I Made Of? will be release in April 2023 via Tiny Library Records.

Stella Rose – Angel

Following on from the success of debut single ‘Muddled Man’ a few weeks ago, New York-based singer, poet, and musician Stella Rose has shared brand new track, ‘Angel’, via Kro Records. After the insistent energy of the first single, ‘Angel’ offers an altogether more reflective tone, swapping out the electrified intensity for something slower and richer. What results is a strange ode to melancholy, exploring how sadness can serve as the shadow to highlight the brighter parts of life. The song comes with a video directed by Primordialfreaks, who explains how the film aimed to capture the light and dark of the song. “It’s a sad but also triumphant song, like a celebration of loss and loneliness and how the most difficult things can make life more pure in a strange sort of way.”

‘Angel’ is out now via Kro Records.

Sun Kin – I Know This One

We’ve written a fair bit about Kabir Kumar’s Sun Kin this year, from the upbeat pop of single ‘I Wanna Believe‘ to the deep, thematically rich ambient styles of painting whales part 1  and 2. Somewhere in the mix Kumar found the time to release another single, ‘I Know This One’, ironically a song about the creative frustrations which emerge when you set the bar too high and push every new piece to be a genre-bending prototype. Luckily, there’s an antidote to such a malady—dropping any notions of genius and appreciating the simple joys of life. Namely hanging out with your cat.

i’m always saying
how i can’t behave
right in front of you
there sits a bowl of your food
i poured in the morning
of this blessed day

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Real Life Buildings – Racing the Sun
Nice Apple – Are You Still There?
V.V. Lightbody – Babe, Honestly
Nico Hedley – Late Bloomer
Gracie Gray – Morphine
Spencer Radcliffe & Everyone Else – Bloodletting
Pleasure Systems – Heirloom
Ana Roxanne – Slowness
Kin Hana – Fog
Rainwater – Pink Flowers
Christelle Bofale – U Ouchea
Prudence – Smile & Nod
Operators – Faithless
Belaver – Driver
Mr Husband – Friends
Rose Hotel – Running Behind
Jeremy Squires – Somersault
Bad Books – Lake House
Yammerer – Poisonous Reptilian Colleague’s & Co
Britt – Trial Period
Wild Yawp – Femme Girl
Forest Management – Blue Leaves
Robert Stillman – Ritual
Everyone is Dirty – Hit-Girl
Merin – Coral Island
Lavender Bones – Over Again
Luke De-Sciscio – R.O.B.Y.N.
Anna Wiebe – Fortune
Young Elk – Gossip Magazines
Emma Frank – I Thought
Eamon McGrath – GUTS
Jacob Faurholt – The Dark Isn’t Right

Like what you hear? Catch up with the rest of our Monthly Mixes.

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The lonely vulnerability is clear on opener ‘Winsome’, its intense rhythm sounding like a confession to midnight itself, and though the tempo is more meandering on ‘Plumb Loco’, the melancholy remains. ‘R.O.B.Y.N.’ is somewhat brighter, hope leavening the guitar’s strum and allowing a sense of renewal to emerge in De-Sciscio’s distinctively wordy delivery.

Never neglect the marrow of your head in the clouds
in favour of your desire to stop being unstoppable
I melted with stream and fought with the current
asking to turn on a tuppence
in favour of clean I could not hold down
if not for expending my woman

R.O.B.Y.N.

Tracks like ‘Told You’ possess the lush sadness of Jeff Buckley, the lo-fi recordings haunted by the empty spaces of the room in which they were written, while ‘I May Never Fall In Love With Everyone’ creates the kind of paradoxical balance between bashful and confident that Keaton Henson made his own. ‘Small Flames’ is warmed by a nostalgic fondness and ‘Two Way Doors’ is playful despite its haunting tone, something that Luke De-Sciscio uses to his advantage to avoid becoming overwrought.

Indeed, a certain awareness and self-deprecation is threaded through the record, something that’s a little cleverer than the tortured doubt that is so often present in the genre. The existential meditations are interspersed with clever turns of phrase, from TV to vomit-inducing loop-the-loops and even the album’s title itself, earning Luke De-Sciscio his more morose moments without everything smudging into self-pity. As such, tracks like ‘I’m A Dream Fighting Out Of A Man’ hit harder, the listener more attentive to the nuances within the sound:

I’m walking on a mirror
I’m biting my hand
I’ve swum in your spit
and pawed at your plans
I’m listing still in flow divided
my Captain will that this is what time is

Good Bye Folk Boy is being released in sections via the Luke De-Sciscio Bandcamp page.

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Tracklisting:

1. Hold That Thought – Joyride!
2. Betsy’s Back – Bloody Death Skull
3. Cold Spell – Lunar Quiet
4. Go To Sleep – Skinny Blonde
5. Limbaud – American Enthusiasm
6. Saurkraut – Your Dog
7. Ache – Dæva
8. Bound By Blood – Hollow Twin
9. Florida’s Warm – Day Joy
10. The Dark Side of the Holy Ghost – Young Elk
11. The Park Behind Walmart  – Boy Scouts
12. Fear & Force – Vagabon
13. Stanton Park – Luke De-Sciscio
14. uuu – Field Medic
15. Meeting Points at 2AM – dné
16. The Rain Thief – Honey Stretton
17. The Stranger – Tyler Butler
18. Nervousness Fangs – Will Johnson
19. Constellation – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
20. The Dark Streets of Newark – Monarch Mtn
21. Violet – Roddy Hart & the Lonesome Fire
22. Work – naps
23. Passage of Old – Seabuckthorn
24. We’re Stuck With The Beauty – Winter Villains
25. Why They Call You Blue – Jordan Buchell

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Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire – Violet

Glasgow’s Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire are back with a new single, ‘Violet’, a track which blends delicate melancholy with a human warmth in a way reminiscent of The National.  The song is taken from their forthcoming album, Swithering, which you can pre-order right now.

Winter Villains – We’re Stuck With The Beauty

Taken from the Cardiff band’s sophomore album Once there were sparks, now there are ashes, ‘We’re Stuck with the Beauty’ is a strange, orchestral chamber pop song both striking and beautiful. A certain oddness underpins both the sound and the lyrics, a sense that the world is not quite as it seems, the angles not quite logical, the imagery shot through with an obscure sense of meaning.

dné – Meeting Points at 2AM

The recording project of Czech Republic’s Ondrej Holy, dné is a neo-classical project born not of formal training but an innate musicality, drawing upon piano, strings and vocals as well as lush field recordings and other sampling techniques. The result is new album These Semi Feelings, They Are Everywhere, a critique of “today’s world of Internet driven hyper-realities, superficial connections and the increasing elusiveness of romance and relationships”, though as ‘Meeting Points at 2AM’ shows, there is hope and light aplenty. The album is out via Majestic Casual Records.

Mitski – ‘Your Best American Girl’ live on Colbert

We wrote a preview post about Puberty 2 and ‘Your Best American Girl’ back in , and while we’d planned to give the album the full review it deserved, it was difficult to find the time and space to write something interesting about Mitski that hasn’t already been said. So, in the likely event that the review never appears, here’s a spellbinding live session from Colbert to remind you that Mitski is special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkvE_0k_2q0

Luke De-Sciscio – Stanton Park

Luke De-Sciscio describes his latest album Gossamer Rose as one about “growing to the point you can face yourself candidly – about recognising your flaws and intricacies such that you can contribute to this journey through life in the most positive way… it’s a record about eye contact.” This idea shines through on ‘Stanton Park’, a suitably intimate folk song where every imperfection only reinforces the sense of authenticity, drawing on the likes of JBM and adding warmth and nostalgic poetry.

Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt – New Friend

San Diego’s Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt are soon to release a new 6″ lathe-cut single with Brooklyn’s Already Dead Tapes and Records, ‘New Friend’ sounds sunny and gentle, with strummed acoustic guitar and warm choral vocals. With the cartoony, wish-you-were-here style novelty postcard artwork, it’s a welcome relief from the frosty mornings and biting north wind. Pre-order the single now from Bandcamp, and get bonus download codes for four (!) Hypocrite in a Hippy Crypt albums.

Jordan Burchel – Why They Call You Blue

Gainesville, Florida resident Jordan Burchel makes electrically and emotionally charged indie rock that’s infused with a sense of mass and negative space. He’s soon to release his sophomore album, Vowel Sounds, and has recently unveiled a single, ‘Why They Call You Blue’. The song is the perfect introduction to Burchel’s sound and has certainly whet our appetite for the LP. Be sure to keep an eye on his website ahead of release in December.

Century of Ecstasy – Bus

The recording project Stockholm’s Joakim Persson, Century of Ecstasy produces sparse, lonely songs with nothing more complicated than an acoustic guitar and piano. Taken from his latest EP, I’m Leaving, Who Cares?, ‘Bus’ is a lesson in insular music, sounding like a late-night lament as heard from an empty room, so reflective and melancholic that it comes off almost as a ghost story, or rather a story from a ghost.

Skinny Blonde – Hi Annie

New York’s Skinny Blonde blend power pop and garage rock together with wry humour and deadpan vocals to tell stories of wasted youth, coming off like BOAT might have sounded in their high school years. ‘Hi Annie’ is the perfect introduction, the tale of a introverted, peace-loving admirer following their beloved, party-going Annie from a distance, thinking that their differences need not get in the way of romantic love (“I can wait in the car Annie, and you can have a real good time / you and me could go far Annie, I can push on through and I don’t mind / Lord knows I’ve got the time, Annie”). The song is taken from their new album, Precious Cargo, that you can get from Bandcamp.

David Stone – Sound of a Spark

David Stone is a songwriter from Ontario who recently wrote and recorded ‘Sound of a Spark’, a song about his great uncle Sid, a belly gunner in the Second World War. While the whole Remembrance Day thing has become a bit of a commodity, today of all days we should remember the human side of war, and this song does just that.

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