So begins Lost Summer, the new EP from Talons’. If you’re not familiar with Talons’ then you should be. It’s primarily the recording work of Mike Tolan, although various others have contributed along the way. Tolan makes hushed, very sad songs which could be described as bedroom pop or post-folk or some other such phrase. All you need to know is that it’s really good. The great news is that Lost Summer is intended to precede a brand new album, After Talons’, which I am very excited about.

The EP plays like the internal musings of a normal person. That’s ‘normal’ in that their thoughts are filled with an honesty and sincerity so earnest that it comes off as a certain brand of weirdness. ‘Normal’ in that they spend the rest of their time anxious about this dysfunctionality and how apparent it must be to everyone else.

“And in between bands, I nurse my one beer and stare at the floor, wishing that I had an iPhone, so it wouldn’t be so clear that I’m not talking to anyone”

While the lyrics may seem like an internal dialogue, other sections reveal that there is a second part here, a signifcant other, and the words begin to read like a collections of worries, admissions of weakness and joy that are achingly simple. There are no grand promises, cinematic splits and reunions, no explicit declarations. Lost Summer says “I Love You” in a much more affecting way than any of that.

“When the plane went down/you were at home. But then the phone rang/but it was just me checking in from work. It slid across a road and into someone’s back yard and when it stopped- No one we knew died. No one we’d ever know died.”

Get Lost Summer on a pay-what-you-want basis via the Talons’ Bandcamp page.

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The point that I immediately noticed was, despite being labelled with tags such as minimal and slowcore, there is actually some pretty electrifying rock music on display. A good example is opener ‘Reinforced/Delicate’, which starts with some sparse guitar, but eventually blossoms into a fully-fledged rock song. Amundsen and backing singer Margo May offer the repeated refrain of “Are you ready now?” as some kind of plea and guitars swirl around everywhere and big drums come crashing in as the track hits a crescendo around the 2:35 mark. It sounds “big”, almost like the loudest moments of Hospice-era Antlers, or something Strand of Oaks would have shredded his way through before aiming at more conventional indie rock.

Another great track is ‘Ride On, Molina’, presumably a tribute to the great man which is primarily a really good rock song, seven and a half minutes of catharsis. The second half is almost devoid of vocals, an entirely instrumental guitar jam. But despite these louder, rock leanings, the song never strays from what Amundsen has carved out so far in his career. There is a sense of patience and of space, and this is perhaps a testament to the confidence of a musician who knows exactly what he is trying to do in his music. Imagine one of Molina’s Magnolia Electric Co. tracks beamed through the prism of the whole minimal/slowcore canon, and you come close to describing it.

‘My Favourite Drug is Sleep’ is a hibernation anthem for the oncoming winter, in which Amundsen sings, “Now that night is getting cold enough, to go to bed with all the windows shut, under blankets I can burrow deep, and be reminded that my favourite drug is sleep.“ And this goes some way to describing Amundsen’s work as a whole. I Remember Everything always maintains that wistful air of sadness, but often in a glorious, life-affirming way. It’s melancholy as comfort, be it through kinship or catharsis or both. It’s an album that you could play to tap your feet and silently rock out on the train, but also one to listen to when your soul is hurting and you just want to stare out of a window to make things seems okay. This is a difficult combination to achieve and one which signals a very, very good album.

You can buy I Remember Everything from the Rivulets Bandcamp page, either as a digital download or on limited edition 12” vinyl. Europeans can get it via Jellyfant Records.

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The first glimpse of the album comes in the form of a video created by Wong and Minekawa for one of the tracks, ‘Party On A Floating Cake’. The track is both fun and dreamy and certainly makes me excited to hear the rest of the album.The video was made using their own drawings and photographs, and looks like a psychedelic trip in a nursery classroom. Check it out below:

Toropical Circle is scheduled for release on the 15th of May on PLANCHA.

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