“Black water, black water / I am still your daughter.” So sings Claire Cronin on the lead single and opening track of her new full-length The Bruise, immediately positioning the record as a continuation of the project established across a series of releases dating back at least as far as 2015’s Over and Through. Cronin’s music, much like her 2020 memoir-cum-film-study Blue Light of the Screen, collapses the distinction between the worldly and the otherworldly, the living and the dead. A study of personal experience which functions as both ritual and lament, always bending towards the uncanny, loaded with eerie symbols, ominous portents and the shining glint of transcendence. As ever, Cronin is joined by Ezra Buchla, who contributes viola, piano and synth as well as vocals and processing, plus a handful of other guests, resulting in a sound that pushes folk towards its most atmospheric frontiers, be that haunted drone or crushing doom metal. The Bruise will be released via Orindal Records and Cronin’s own new imprint A Moth Object in October, complete with a booklet of lyrics and art, but for now submerse yourself in the somber glory of ‘Black Water’ and we’ll have more to say soon.

The Bruise will be released on the 9th October via Orindal Records and A Moth Object and you can pre-order it now.

Cloudbelly – Oh, Antarctica!

We last covered Western Massachusetts band Cloudbelly back in 2024 with the release of i know i know i know, an album driven by “a sense of hard won conviction,” as we put it. “Lessons learnt not via bright epiphany but the slow grind of living through difficult circumstances. Understanding how to not only roll with the punches but rise from knockout blows.” With a new LP on the horizon, Cloudbelly have now returned with lead single ‘Oh Antarctica!’ to whet appetites. Like its predecessor before it, the track find Corey Laitman and co. facing down challenges with a sense of determination, not least the dispiriting experience of mourning the future in a present world which seems to be tilting in a bad direction. As ever, the result unafraid of darkness yet always charged with energy, and as attuned to the personal moments as the wider global scene.

‘Oh, Antarctica’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Great Klons – Visions of Exile

We have featured several singles from Great Klons, the recording project of Rochester‘s Scott Klon, in recent months. ‘More Beauty in the Rain’, explored “devasting wildfires, parental illness [and] the encroachment of pernicious technology… [with a] decidedly mid-00s feel”, while ‘Hidden Signage’ was “a vivid slice of indie pop rooted in both driving percussion and fresh guitar.” Both songs were taken from an EP, Visions of Exile, which was released last week. The record sees Klon joined by Ben Morey, Katie Morey and Billy Martin, who together whip up a singular style that they say draws on “krautrock, psychedelic surf and indie dream pop.” Tonally it lands somewhere between wistful and weary, everyday worries and self-deprecation sitting side by side with something that feels dangerously like hope. Nowhere is this more apparent that on the title track, a grooving psych pop song about the unease that sits beneath a comfortable surface. “It’s a song that touches upon a common theme in Great Klons’ work,” as the press release puts it. “Hell is often having something to lose.”

koleżanka – Single Wooden Bullet

Following on from 2023 album Alone with the Sound the Mind Makes, Kristina Moore’s koleżanka is set to return this September with brand new record Zone 2, a release which explores the liminal space between trauma and health in the wake of an injury. After lead single ‘Lessons in Textiles‘ worked towards reworking oneself in the wake of loss, subsequent track ‘Levers and Pulleys’ furthered the style. The song “plays like recovery unfolding in real time,” we wrote in our preview. “A process not necessarily as joyous nor neatly linear as we might hope, rather something won hour by hour, day by day as the cells replicate and repair themselves, and the body relearns the world according to its new shape.” With the release of Zone 2 coming soon, koleżanka has shared brand new track ‘Single Wooden Bullet’, a song which takes inspiration from Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch to imagine a life after death, be it figurative or literal, and the embrace of imperfection which such a state might demand.

Lael Neale – Slip Away

Last year Lael Neale released Altogether Stranger, an album which “seem[ed] to promise more of the tight, electrical minimalism established across previous LPs [but] in reality holds some of Neale’s most adventurous work to date,” as we wrote in our review. “Because scratch the sleek surface and you’ll find a dizzying concoction of moods and influences, the album a mirror of the odd, alluring city which serves as its setting, enemy and muse.” Refusing to rest on her laurels, Neale is preparing to return with new LP As Killers Do, the inaugural release from her new label Consensual Sound, and the album promises to be every bit as ambitious. Take lead single ‘Slip Away’, a track which uses her trademark blend of dreaminess and urgency to explore the transience inherent within any human existence, though one which focuses not on the fear or grief of such a fact of life, but the reassuring justice mortality will inevitably mete out, regardless of a person’s status. “We act as little gods. Assuming great import. All that we build, create, collect and become, to be taken away,” Neale explains. “We are not gods. The only consolation I have in a world of megalomaniac billionaires and sociopathic leaders. They all will die. We all will die. The Earth will go on.”

Watch the video below featuring analog stop motion paintings by Neale herself and camera by Guy Blakeslee:

As Killers Do will be released on the 20th November via Consensual Sound and you can pre-order it now.

Marika Che – Bonfire of Tragedy

“Packs an emotional punch yet delivers it within a breezy warmth, drawing the audience in with an easy-going rhythm and assured vocal style. A debut this might be, but there’s clear experience within its craft, and you’d be hard pushed to find a more pleasant soundtrack as summer blooms.” So we wrote of ‘Edge of the Storm’, the lead single from Marika Che‘s LP Bright Flame back in June, the track positioning the LA-based songwriter somewhere between dream pop and Waxahatchee-esque folk rock. With the release of the record approaching, Che has now returned with latest single ‘Bonfire of Tragedy’ to further introduce the emotional depth of the release. “The first song I wrote on the album, shortly after my dad passed away,” Justad explains. “I felt a little lost, and very lonely in my experience of grief.” But from this low point comes a moment of catharsis, as she continues:

I was driving home one night and had this vision of a massive bonfire and all these people being drawn to the warm glow in various states of wellbeing. It was a place to drink, dance, sing, tell stories, unburden yourself without worrying about judgment. A place to howl at the moon and befriend a stranger. It’s pretty sentimental, I guess, but it’s what I needed at the time. This song became that for me, and I feel the cure of it every time I sing it onstage for a room full of people.

Nick Bellerose – About Us

Back in July, we introduced the work of Nick Bellerose, a former international diplomat who decided to pivot more fully towards songwriting in response to a period of personal upheaval. With elements of Elliot Smith, Sparklehorse and Nebraska-era Springsteen, first single ‘maybe i think’ was “characteristically bittersweet,” as we wrote, “the track explor[ing] heartbreak with a world-weary acceptance, ultimately landing somewhere life-affirming,” and latest track ‘About Us’ is no less emotive. This time, Johnny Cash classic ‘Ring of Fire’ serves as inspiration, the song painting the experience of falling in love in all of its overwhelming glory with Bellerose’s trademark style, where cinematic richness meets the intimacy of DIY folk.

NOIA – As Per My Last Email

The recording project of Barcelona-born, Brooklyn-based artist Gisela Fullà-Silvestre, NOIA released her debut album gisela to acclaim in 2023, though has since had to endure one of the most difficult periods of her life, navigating personal loss amid a wider picture of turmoil across the world. The first NOIA release since the debut tackles this experience head on, using a distinctively experimental style of pop to evoke the absurd contemporary phenomenon of never switching off. “It’s what happens when ‘just circling back’ becomes a way of life,” Fullà-Silvestre explains. “A song about the slow collapse of hyperfunctionality, that state of being permanently ‘on,’ answering messages at midnight, running on notifications instead of sleep, until you’re less a person than a broken, over-wired robot still sending polite replies.”

The track comes with a video directed by Varya Rootwood with movement director Viva Soudan, which furthers the themes of the song by taking the office environment out into the natural world, representing how the boundaries between work and life have been eroded in our hypercapitalist society.

‘As Per My Last Email’ is out now via streaming services and available from the NOIA Bandcamp page.

Val McCallum – Fifty Fifty

Chances are, if you’re familiar with the name Val McCallum, it’s down to his forty-year stint as the sideman of Jackson Browne, or maybe thanks to his guitar playing with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Randy Newman and Sheryl Crow. But while he might seem most comfortable as a collaborator, he is also a stellar songwriter in his own right, his work representing something of a well-kept secret among the LA music scene (if an artist who has been covered by Phoebe Bridgers could still be called a secret). But after developing a partnership with the Berlin-based lyricist and producer Rudi Maier, McCallum looks finally set to announce himself on a wider stage with As If We Didn’t Know, a full-length which serves as a long overdue introduction for listeners unfamiliar with his talents, and merely confirmation for those who always knew. The record isn’t out until spring 2027, but lead single ‘Fifty Fifty’ is here to whet appetites. A fittingly filmic folk song about the roles we play in trying to escape our own lives and the people who help lead us back towards authenticity, all the more resonant when you consider McCallum is the son of Hollywood stars Jill Ireland and David McCallum, not to mention the stepson of Charles Bronson.

As If We Didn’t Know will be released on the 19th March 2027 and you can pre-order it now.

Winter – hide-a-lullaby (feat. Peel Dream Magazine)

We’ve featured a couple of tracks from Winter‘s upcoming Romantix Mixtape in recent times, an EP which sees the New York-based artist reimagine the songs on 2025 full-length Adult Romantix. After lead single ‘hollow (mixtape version)‘ (“A song succinct and bound by forward motion, clocking in at almost half the length of its twin sister yet no less atmospheric for it”), Winter enlisted Soccer Mommy for a new version of ‘without you‘ which offered “a cinematic representation of love, loneliness and longing.” And the star guests keep on coming, with latest track ‘hide-a-lullaby’ inviting Peel Dream Magazine to help reshape the sound, stripping things back to an intimate acoustic arrangement which foregrounds the vocals, and further amplifies the songwriting which might otherwise be submerged beneath gauzy textures.

Romantix Mixtape will be released on the 18th September via Winspear and you can pre-order it now from the Winspear Bandcamp page.

The post Weekly Listening: August 2026 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“Good luck getting back to me / I’ll go with the dead / Way down where the water’s deep / Way over your head.” The opening to ‘Mountain Stream’, the lead single from Angela Autumn‘s new LP Believer forthcoming via Gar Hole Records, signals the spirit of an album about a retreat to nature and the potential both personal and creative therein. Appalachian native Autumn left her adopted home for a variety of wild spots in order to write the record, bouncing between the Tennessee woodland, an Asheville treehouse and Chattanooga warehouse to centre the wild in the songs. “I like to put myself in extreme situations in order to write,” Autumn explains. “That’s how I wrote songs like ‘Jesus Heist’ and ‘In the South’: by leaving everything behind and going into nature. Without the earth, I probably wouldn’t have any music.” As ‘Mountain Stream’ shows, the result is both richly crafted and emotionally affirming, drawing the audience into Autumn’s natural world so that they might find peace too.

Watch the video by Ives Albert and Ash Wright below:

Believer will be released on the 11th September via Gar Hole Records and you can pre-order it now.

aument – Sam I Am

Ever been so pissed off about something you’ve written a song? ‘Sam I Am’, the title track of aument‘s new EP, originated from exactly that scenario. With the uniquely maddening experience of neighbour trouble escalating when one of the juvenile characters urinated in aument’s garden (while they were sitting mere feet away, no less), they decided to channel their anger into music. With help from Micah Prussack of Youbet (bass) and Zeb Stern of Psymon Spine (drums), the resulting track is raw, immediate and ultimately cathartic. Not a solution to the hostility of the outside world, but a declaration of opposition nonetheless. A non-binary person raising their voice against masculine cruelty and general disregard of others and somehow still finding room to spin something fun from the fury.

Black Duck – Connects By Water

“After touring across Spain with acclaimed Basque musician Elena Setién, the trio felt they had discovered someone else clearly attuned to the Black Duck spirit, and have taken this forward to not only invigorate the project, but to reimagine its very boundaries.” So we wrote of Black Duck with Elena Setién, the new album from the Chicago supergroup (Douglas McCombs on bass/guitar, Bill MacKay on guitar and Charles Rumback on drums) which looks to commit the magic of live performance to tape. After lead single ‘Land of the Many Eyes’, Black Duck and Elena Setién have returned with new track ‘Connects By Water’ to further hint at the depth of the record. McCombs’s fingerprints are clear on the sound, with the composition sharing DNA with those of projects like Tortoise, yet the others breath more space into the sound so that it becomes something altogether more ventilated and welcoming. “Somehow for me, this track is a great respite,” Setién explains. “Like finally coming to a beautiful quiet beach, knowing you can relax.”

Darren Hayman – Little Arrow, Little Sparrow (feat. The Wave Pictures & Rotifer)

Following on from the release of the expanded edition of majestic 2012 full-length The Violence, Darren Hayman‘s present project to make the full breadth of his back catalogue available online continues apace. The Violence was a “complex and emotionally resonant concept album centring on the English Civil War and the contemporaneous witch trials across East Anglia,” as we wrote in our review, but latest single ‘Little Arrow, Little Sparrow’ couldn’t be any further from those themes. Released as part of Vostok 5, an exhibition of music and art “about people and animals in space,” the track moves from base superstition to the far edges of human endeavour, at least ostensibly. Because the title is in fact the translation of Belka and Strelka, the two dogs who became the first to orbit earth and return alive after the Soviets sent them into space, hinting at the prayers and violence behind even the most futuristic of missions.

Hawk & Steel – Caroline

Melding the warm twang of Americana with the rugged drama of the Pacific Northwest, Victoria, BC-based folk rock outfit Hawk & Steel adept at both sweeping weight and emotional depth. More than a decade passed between their previous LP and recent release Ain’t Never Moving On, though the outfit return from their hiatus recharged and ready for a new chapter. Single ‘Caroline’ gives a flavour of what to expect, the song still possessing some of the fitful energy which has long marked the Hawk & Steel sound, while displaying a newfound sense of reflection which suggests the band have been evolving in the intervening years. “I tried to, forget who you were / Forget what your hair smells like,” the opening lines play, immediately introducing the yearning which permeates the track. “Still your voice, rings in my ear / Louder than it was when you were here.” Love might pass but the past is not so easy to shake.

Josaleigh Pollett – Like a River

There was a sense of conviction apparent on ‘The Witness‘, the previous single from Josaleigh Pollett‘s upcoming album If I Let It Quiet, a song about learning to look beyond the usual categories and borders of existence in order to find peace. Latest single ‘Like a River’ concerns itself with similar ideas, indeed is the track which gives the record its title, but comes from a far more uncertain place. A dispatch delivered not with the clarity of distance but the rush and chaos of the present. “’Like a River’ is about an attempt at quieting the noise of my own thoughts and of a chaotic world around me in order to try to be more resilient,” Pollett explains. “A too-late-coffee-fueled yellow-light-lit silent moment—having arrived at myself just in time to feel my pulse speed up and the news of the day sweep me away into frothing rapids. Hoping for the peace of a quiet river bank, only to remember that a river is swift, chaotic, and ever-changing the earth beneath it. Inspired by Paul Simon’s Peace Like a River—a song I’ve always held in my heart as a beautiful protest song.”

Jules Reidy – Shadow Symmetric for JACK Quartet (excerpt)

Jules Reidy‘s Thrill Jockey debut Ghost/Spirit was a deep and often dense exploration of mysticism, the Berlin-based polymath offering a narrative arc which bent through the dark of contemplation towards eventual transcendence. Therefore, while it might be tempting to view the altogether lighter tone their new record Clerestory, coming again via Thrill Jockey later this year, as something of a pivot away from its predecessor, in actuality it feels like the perfect continuation. The clue is in the title itself, a clerestory being a high wall set with windows, often in a church, which serves to imbue a space with light and fresh air. This image which embodies the sound of the release, as though the path Reidy established on Ghost/Spirit has merely continued onto a new canvas, angling upwards towards the light. Of course, with light comes shadow, and no-one familiar with Reidy’s work would expect anything other than a sound full of the weight of contradiction. But the overarching sense is a record on the edge of transcendence, one foot on earth, the other stepping towards something altogether more spiritual. Listen to ‘Shadow Symmetric’ now for a taste, recording with the renowned JACK Quartet:

Marika Che – Edge of the Storm

You might recognise Marika Justad as the frontwoman of indie rock outfit Tangerine, but she has recently returned as a solo artist, under the moniker Marika Che. Debut album Bright Flame introduces the style of this new era, displaying a warm yet confessional style of folk rock which sits somewhere between Waxahatchee’s country-inflected rock and something closer to dream pop. As single ‘Edge of the Storm’ attests, the result packs an emotional punch yet delivers it within a breezy warmth, drawing the audience in with an easy-going rhythm and assured vocal style. A debut this might be, but there’s clear experience within its craft, and you’d be hard pushed to find a more pleasant soundtrack as summer blooms.

Pale Ramon – The Mirror

Founded by Kevin Plessner and Emanuel Ayvas, Brooklyn‘s Pale Ramon have made a name with an amalgamated style of indie rock, taking the usual energy and emotional heft and adding in post-punk angles and layers of sax and strings. This autumn, they are set to release their brand new full-length The Yawn, and have recently put out the album’s lead single ‘The Mirror’ to give an indication of what to expect. Building with admirable patience, the track is indicative of the band’s craft, with a lush atmosphere gradually tipping towards something more urgent, a style followed by the vocals too. What emerges is a picture of something like desperation, told with both the immediacy of the moment and the fondness of personal history. Watch the video produced by Andrew Marfoli and Brian James below:

The Yawn will be released on the 6th November and you can pre-save it now.

Tough Old Bird – Wednesday’s Child

Founded by brothers Matthew and Nathan Corrigan and now expanded to include Ricky Bechard (drums) and Brendan O’Shea (bass), Tough Old Bird is a Buffalo-based folk rock band who offer both rich narrative lyricism and atmospheric arrangements. Latest single ‘Wednesday’s Child’, the first of what promises to be a steady stream of releases throughout the coming summer months, marks something of a new era for the project. Their first as a four-piece, and thus newly detailed and rich, the kind of sound that every prior release from the Corrigans seems to have been building towards. Another stellar entry in this year’s bumper crop of electrically charged country rock, standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Thomas Dollbaum, Sluice and Brown Horse.

Zoon – You Can’t See Me (This Low)

“There might not be an easy answer at the end of the Happy Thought School, indeed the fact that things remain unresolved might be a central facet of the project as a whole. But if Zoon has communicated anything with their releases to date, it is that the only way to reckon with difficult histories is to delve into them regardless of whether answers might be salvaged from the wreck.” So we wrote of the new album from Zoongide’ewin’s Zoon back in May, with singles ‘One Too Many Nights‘ and ‘I Was Younger’ picking through the ruins of a relationship. With the album not out via Paper Bag Records, Zoon has shared final track ‘You Can’t See Me (This Low)’, a fittingly confessional number which confronts heartbreak, relapse and recovery which characteristic candour.

Happy Thought School is out now via Paper Bag Records and available from the Zoon Bandcamp page.

The post Weekly Listening: June 2026 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.