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.

Tracklisting:

The New Tusk – Tarmac
Lazy Legs – Gloss
Sam Moss – Flowers
Varsity – Must Be Nice
Falcon Jane – Go with the Flow
Desert Liminal – Heavy Heads
Jamison Isaak – Sharalee
Nilein – Central Park
Pendulum Girl – crying in the carwash
Freya – Breath and Chime
Malena Zavala – A Vision That’s Changed
Alex Bayly – Wade in the Water
James Edwyn & The Borrowed Band – Pushing Statues
Tiny Fireflies – Nothing
Boreen – Halley’s Comet
Jenno Snyder – Take Care
Normal State – Summertime
Clare – Loquats
Leathan Milne – Now I Say Goodnight
John Moods – Leap of Love
Guts Club – Mustard Tears
Brianna Kelly – To Behold You
Sympathy Pain – Bless This Ugly Heart
Lung Cycles – Smoke column (Jonathan)
Be Softly – My Hands End With You Fingertips
Hour – Still New To This

Spotify:

Playmoss:

You can find all of our monthly mixes here, and be sure to check back in May for whatever April brought by way of good music.

The post March 2018 Roundup 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.

Malena Zavala – A Vision That’s Changed

Born in Argentina but raised in London, filmmaker, artist and producer Malena Zavala is set to release her debut album, Aliso, this spring. As the previous singles attest, Zavala makes a dreamy brand of indie rock coloured with a Latin dimension, and the third single from the record is no different. Slowing the tempo from the other tracks, ‘A Vision That’s Changed’ sees Zavala’s vocals suspended within a column of dusky warmth, though an underlying sadness lurks just out of view. As such, the track plays like a snatched dream of a previous love, any joy or solace shaded with the realisation that the experience will not last, and morning will bring reality back once more.

Aliso will be released on the 13th April and you can pre-order it now via Yucatan Records.

James Edwyn & The Borrowed Band – Pushing Statues

Rooted in the classic Americana tradition, Glasgow six-piece James Edwyn & the Borrowed evoke timeless tales of love and loss and moving on. After releasing their debut album, The Tower, back in 2014, last year saw the band put out the follow-up, High Fences. The second single from that release, ‘Pushing Statues’ is the perfect introduction for the uninitiated—the heartbroken tenderness conjured not just through the lyrics but the instrumentation too, the rhythm driving a sense of motion that threatens to run away with itself. In doing so, the song captures the tension of travel in this genre, the push and pull between moving on and returning home.

High Fences is out now via Dead Records Collective and you can buy it from the James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band webpage.

The New Tusk – Tarmac

Describing their sound as “lo-fidelity short attention span punk,” Brighton trio The New Tusk make short, frantic songs that smash together punk and post-punk sensibilities, the vocals darting between sardonic and snarling and shouting. New single ‘Tarmac’ is no exception, with the instrumentation whipping into a frenzy as the vocals try to keep up with a kind of pissed-off demeanour. However, by the end of the track, you wonder whether it’s in fact the vocals that are commanding the instruments, as a new, more hopeful tone emerges. It can’t promise a new start, or some deliverance to eternal satisfaction, but rather some semblance final comfort, the antithesis of a sting in the tail.

“This year’s came and went, just like the last ten of them.
In my honest uneducated opinion I believe it’s in us all to die happy.”

You can grab ‘Tarmac’ now from The New Tusk Bandcamp page, as well as a number of previous EPs.

John Moods – Leap of Love

The solo project of Fenster‘s Jonathan Jarzyna, John Moods is set to release a debut record, The Essential John Moods, this spring. The album came to life during a hiking trip along the Iberian coast, with Jarzyna recording songs each evening as he arrived in a new town, and the method informs the sound and style of the track in more ways that one. On the surface there’s the languid, psych-tinged summer aesthetic that runs across the record, but the analogy can also be applied in a metaphorical sense—each song representing a different stop in a journey, all linked by a certain structural and stylistic (think architectural) similarity, yet made distinct by differences in mood, pace and atmosphere, not to mention the small nuances and details which populate each track.

The Essential John Moods is set for release on the 20th April via Mansions and Millions.

Nilein – Central Park

Based in Kolkata, nilein make a shimmering bedroom pop that draws on both lo-fi indie rock influences and elements of shoegaze. Last year, the trio put out the short holiday ep, as well as single, ‘Dive’, and 2018 sees them return with a brand new song. ‘Central Park’ feels more weighty than its summery predecessors, the wistful opening and murmured vocals giving way to a heavier midsection, channelling the likes of Gleemer in the way that the drums pound their way over the more delicate guitars before dropping to allow pretty ambient swells. The track comes complete with a video taken from the Makoto Shinkai film, 5 Centimeters Per Second.

You can find nilein on Bandcamp and Facebook.

Alex Bayly – Wade in the Water

Following his self-released debut EP, New America, ‘Wade in the Water’ is Alex Bayly’s first single with My Little Empire Records. Drawing its name from the African-American spiritual, the track uses a rich sense of imagery and metaphor to strike a balance between pain and healing. This is clear from the allegorical visions of the natural world in the opening verse, right through to the steely optimism of the conclusion, preaching a sense of endurance and hope in the face of adversity.

“The grass is growing
on the hill
my time’s not up yet
or so I feel”

‘Wade into the Water’ is out now via My Little Empire Records.

Falcon Jane – Go With The Flow

Fronted by Ontario’s Sara May, Falcon Jane describe their sound as ‘plez rock’—”a music genre inspired by nature, truth, peace and magic.” Ahead of a full-length Feelin’ Freaky which is to be released this summer, the band have released single ‘Go With The Flow’. Described by May as  “the ultimate chill out song for freaky, anxious, over-thinkers like me,” the track is a half-paced bob down a meandering river. With the languid instrumentation and May’s lovely vocals, Falcon Jane encourage you to stop thrashing against the current and float wherever the water takes you. Check out the video, directed by Deviio, below:

Feelin’ Freaky is set for release this summer, so keep a eye on the Falcon Jane Bandcamp page.

Guts Club – Mustard Tears

Last year, London’s RIP Records ran an Introduces… series, with the likes of Dama Scout and Canshaker Pi contributing singles that were eventually released as a 12″ record. After the success of Volume One, the label are back with a second edition, including a new track from New Orleans’ Guts Club. The recording project of Lindsey Baker, Guts Club make tunes woven from the American landscape, drawing upon the likes of Scout Niblett and Patti Smith to explore the concepts of situation and place, and how all but the most privileged are more or less confined to certain spaces and lifestyles—unless they want to risk it all in an attempt to change.

‘Mustard Tears’ is to be released on RIP Records, and a new Guts Club album is set to appear later this year.

Varsity – Must Be Nice

We first featured Chicago’s Varsity back in 2016 when we wrote about the dreamy pop of their single, ‘Smash / Still Apart‘. Now the band are readying a full-length album, Parallel Person, due for release on Babe City Records at the end of April. As a taster they have unveiled ‘Must Be Nice’, another pop gem that shimmers with a gently kaleidoscopic psych edge. The lyrics are a little less sunny though, as lead Stephanie Smith delivers lines that are blurred with uncertainty.

“I know I can’t cry in front of them
But if I could…”

Parallel Person is out on the 27th of April and you can preorder it via Babe City Records and from the Varsity Bandcamp page.

Dan Michaelson – Sand

The final track to be taken from the album First Light, ‘Sand’ finds Dan Michaelson at his tender best, his throaty vocals cutting through the sparse, moving soundscape. Thanks to the work of Arnulf Lindner (Skeleton Key), the instrumentation soon develops into a full-bodied orchestral piece, juxtaposing simplicity with carefully crafted emotion to produce a hopeful, poignant track.

First Light is out now and you can get it via the Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards website.

Clare – Loquats

Houston quartet Clare is described in the press release as not so much a band, rather “a group of friends who love and support each other and help each other make sense of this crazy world through music.” Taken from a new EP, Always Afternoon, their latest single ‘Loquats’ acts as solid proof of this relationship, the energetic shimmer propelled forward by a sense of cohesive and community. Thematically, the track takes inspiration from the tangy fruit of it’s title to explore the end of a relationship, finding some nourishment in the bittersweet aftertaste that lingers on the tongue.

Always Afternoon is out now via Poison Moon Records an you can get it from Bandcamp.

Be Softly – My Hands End with Your Fingertips

Last December, we wrote about a collaboration between American poet Sam Pink and Bristol’s Be Softly, an experimental blend of spoken word and music we described as “like the fever dream manifesto of the archetypal Disillusioned Kid.” Be Softly has returned with a new single, this time the providing poetry themselves. There is a big difference between this and Pink, the words carved more out of melodrama than nihilism, though the instrumentation manages to provide moments both mean and lonely enough to prevent it becoming too sentimental or affected.

You can find on ‘My Hands End with Your Fingertips’ on Bandcamp.

Be sure to stick around for the next volume, and check out the entire Bright Sparks series here.

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