Take for example Friends For Equality, the benefit compilation in support of Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU and Planned Parenthood put together by Nancy Kells and Fox Food Records. Collecting the talents of 42 acts, the release features a diverse range of unreleased tracks from all over the world, including WTD favs such as Henry Demos, Henoheno, PAT MOON, Rainwater, Francie Cool, Lewtrakimou, Slumbers and Monarch Mtn, not to mention songs from the creators themselves in the form of Spartan Jet-Plex and Good Good Blood. As you might expect, it’s also a great way to discover new artists, and while there are too many to write about properly, there’s enough variation in style and genre to ensure every music fan will find something to their liking.

Not content with the compilation, Nancy is organising a benefit show at Strange Matter in Richmond, VA on the 17th February, and working to put together a zine for which the theme is “social justice/civil rights – so anything related to that – drawings, photographs, comics, editorials, poetry, short story, etc.” Submissions are currently open until the 2nd January, so email spartanjetplex@gmail.com if you want to participate or help in any way.

You can buy Friends For Equality now via Bandcamp, and be sure to remember that the $5 price tag is a minimum suggestion (and impossibly generous for 42 tracks). Equally, if you don’t have cash to spare, you can help by spreading the word or getting involved (just contact Spartan Jet-Plex via the email address provided above).

Artwork by Ryan McCardle

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Places to Sleep opens with ‘You in the Night’, whch begins as slow motion lo-fi rock but picks up momentum as it goes, becoming increasingly dynamic with ringing guitar and slapped drums, King’s vocals slow and troubled:

“i like you lying
your knees and shoulders bare
like a wild animal
in the shade resting”

‘The Attic’ is on the quiet and unassuming end of the indie rock spectrum, with background oohs and lyrics about pining for someone, full of “whats?” and “woulds?”. ‘Find You’ is a similarly heartsick lo-fi rock song, all mumbled happy memories and unfulfilled wishes, closing with the lines “i’d like to come home and find you in my bed / rather than watching movies alone instead”. Tales of cold and lonely nights litter ‘Empty Bed’, the repetition of the line, “nights just go so slow when you’re in an empty bed / and the snow trucks keep you up / like how your shadows used to”, suggests such feelings are not uncommon, that each night plays out like a bad memory of the one just gone. ‘Winter Shadow’ comes at the halfway mark and feels like the album’s focal point, with its crunchy guitar and King’s dreamily sad and lonely lyrics about life in a small and icy Northern town, about missing someone far away. But despite the longing and the gloom, the chorus is almost catchy and hints at hope, at hidden reserves of strength and patience in the narrator.

“i just close my eyes and think about all the nights i’d like to be with you
while i’m just painfully here lying on the floor”

King’s vocals get a chance to soar on ‘Aaron in the Basement’, perhaps the most cathartic track on the record, all lo-fi grumble and dreamy vocal effects as King sings, “says he’s staying at someone’s house i wouldn’t know / says he’s named greg and i don’t have his telephone / nobody sees him he hides all alone on his own”. ‘Together in the Darkness’ is much more sedate, like an electrified take on the typically acoustic bedroom pop formula, building in intensity until it billows like dry ice across an almost empty basement. ‘My Sisters House’ feels brighter with crashing drums and noodly guitars, as does ‘The Rocking Chair’ which almost has a stomp-along air behind King’s introverted vocals. “tell me that we’re not doomed” she sings, “i just wanna hear your voice in my ear”.

‘Videos of You’ has chugging guitars and cymbal-heavy percussion, before closer ‘Winter Shadow (Revisited)’, a stripped down take on the earlier song and the album’s only acoustic track. It feels like a distillation of all of the thoughts and feelings on the album, the lo-fi fuzz cleared away allowing the sentiments to stand front and centre, a clear-eyed profession of both desire and devotion. Places to Sleep is DIY rock ‘n roll for the hordes of people pining for someplace (or someone) else.

You can get Places to Sleep as a name-your-price download via the Family Video Bandcamp page.

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Naomi Pop – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, indie rock, other Z Tapes artists)

naps – one hundred percent confident (REVIEW)
(RIYL: ambient, experimental, naps with an uncapitalised-n)

Naps – You Will Live in a Cool Box (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, garage rock, indie pop, Naps with a capitalised-N)

Nadia – I’m your protector now
(RIYL: dream pop, healing, electronic)

Newfoundland – Good News is Too True (REVIEW)
(RIYL: atmospheric folk, dream pop, Youth Lagoon, Meursault)

Noël – ’10
(RIYL: punk, emo, indie)

Ocean Floor – Old Haunts (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, lo-fi, Mount Eerie)

Oddigtl – solarium
(RIYL: beats, lo-fi, electronic, laidback summer soul)

Old Gray – dex
(RIYL: sad, bedroom pop, slo-mo emo)

Pasture Dog – Southern Gothic (REVIEW)
(RIYL: lo-fi, hymnals, all things Southern Gothic)

Prairie Empire – Sad Winter Songs (Outtakes and Demos)
(RIYL: folk, acoustic, sad bastard music)

Pet Cemetery – dietary requirements (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, ambient, Coma Cinema)

Phargo. – Rende’s
(RIYL: emo, Braid, anime)

Plums – Jen
(RIYL: dream pop, summer crushes, nostalgia)

PONY – CRUSHED (REVIEW) 
(RIYL: indie pop, Best Coast, Vivian Girls)

Pope – Fiction
(RIYL: noise, grunge, No Age)

Porridge radio – im not sure anymore
(RIYL: lo-fi, sadcore, bedroom pop)

The Pretty Greens – Lonely Hearts Club No Jerks Allowed
(RIYL: The Raincoats, Bratmobile, Brill Building pop)

Radiator Hospital & Martha – Split EP
(RIYL: indie rock, power pop, Radiator Hospital, Martha)

rchrd prkr – it’s getting worse
(RIYL: emo, punk, lo-fi)

Robbie Bankes – Through February Snow (REVIEW)
(RIYL: folk, Tyler Butler, winter)

Romantic States – s/t
(RIYL: minimalist pop, garage rock, blends of quiet & loud)

Ruth & Trudy – Still Pond (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, experimental, lo-fi)

We’ll be sharing a new section of the list every day this week, so be sure to check back for the complete collection. If you find something you like, or think we missed something life-changing, then why not let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr or good old email.

The post Favourite Free Music of 2015: N-R appeared first on Various Small Flames.

[Quiet Energies] takes the suffocating, nebulous shadow of grieving and distils it into something small and hard and strangely tactile, a mysterious object that will always be there in your pocket, radiating its secret and peculiar brand of comfort.

We were lucky enough to ask Bonnetta a few questions about the record and his musical career, exploring his influences, plans for the future and listening habits. Enjoy.

Jon: Hi Jonas, thanks for chatting with us! How has life been treating you since the release of Quiet Energies?

Jonas: All is well! Been getting ready to tour the new record around Canada a little bit and have been working on a bunch of new projects.

The album saw a shift in tone, with many tracks more cathartic and upbeat (for want of a better term). Do you have a better time when playing these songs live? And do you think the changes set a trajectory for where Evening Hymns are headed in the future?

Well I haven’t toured them long enough to understand them live yet so that’s kind of nice. Our current live setup allows us to explore the songs more than in the past and so that’s been satisfying so far. I’m not a huge fan of touring a record for a long time though so talk to me in a year from now and we will see. I’ve been writing so much new stuff that I’m itching to just keep developing new material live. I don’t think the next record will sound like Quiet Energies though. I’ve been working on some piano music that’s more rooted in soul and R&B so who knows… haha…

In my review of Quiet Energies I mention how you retreated into the countryside at various points, and recorded the album in a rural home studio. Is this escape an important part of your creative process? Are we talking escape-the-city rural or cut-off-wilderness rural?

I just need to be left alone with my thoughts. It’s too easy for me to get distracted and so forcing myself into solitude is my solution to fighting writer’s block. It’s not so much as escape now as a way of life as I moved out here permanently. And it doesn’t feel so much as an escape but more of a homecoming. This is how I grew up and it’s what resonates with me.

What else do you consider as influences on your writing and sound? Are there any musicians/writers/artists you consider important in your development? I’ve seen Jaan Kaplinski’s name bandied about, although it wasn’t clear if it came from you or a reviewer.

Huge Kaplinski fan. I own everything that has been translated to English and even recently acquired some Estonian books of his from a friend. He’s been a large shadow on my work since the beginning almost.
Space and environment are crucial to my work. I always come back to trying to explain this project as less a songwriting project and more of trying to create spaces for people to exist in.
And I’ve really recently been truly inspired by art itself. Just recognizing that I’m very fortunate to make a living by conjuring up things from nothing. I feel very lucky.

Recent months have seen you take a crack at the silver screen, what with an Evening Hymns song in the latest Cameron Crowe film and your score for the documentary Strange and Familiar. How did these projects come about, and how does the experience of making a soundtrack compare to recording as Evening Hymns? Is it something you’d like to do more of?

Well the Crowe film came about cause he got into the last record Spectral Dusk and we became Twitter buddies and chatted a bit. Next thing you know I got an email from Sony requesting the song for an upcoming picture. It was a trip. Very cool and I’m super thankful for that. The doc I scored I’m equally excited about it. It’s about this charming little island off the coast of Newfoundland. The first trailer for that film was cut to my music by an editor friend and the directors really liked it and they reached out. I’m working on mixing that music to release it sometime in 2016. That kind of work really suits my lifestyle right now. I have a home studio that I’ve just added a second room on and so I can work quietly on my own out there. I’m hoping I get to do more score work.

You can buy Quiet Energies now from Outside Music (US/Can), Tin Angel Records (UK/EU) and Kütu Records (France).

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Farther Reaches was first released in January of 2013 and is a perfect example of what Aaron Powell strives to with the project. It’s lo-fi pop for the drone kids, sometimes atmospheric and echoey, sometimes blissfully dreamy, with faraway vocals and a warm gauzy ambience, like a downer version of Youth Lagoon’s début.

Virgo Indigo was released more than a year later, and this is reflected in the production quality, although the album still retains Fog Lake’s signature solitary and inward-gazing aura. Think the doleful bedroom pop of Coma Cinema meets the experimental pop music of Broken Social Scene. The album was originally released on cassette by Orchid Tapes, but has long sold out, so this is a great opportunity for anyone who missed it first time around.

You can get Virgo Indigo / Farther Reaches right now on double cassette via Z Tapes.

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‘Renegade’ is a placid intro, just Powell’s hushed voice and piano and atmospheric background vocals, the vague lyrics dealing with old mistakes and current worries, while ‘Andy’, a short and sweet track that clocks in at under two minutes. sets gentle, almost whispering, vocals in front of layers of instrumentation.  ‘Shanty Town’ is a slight change of direction with its looped drum sample, athough Powell’s morose vocals are still present, creating (in a typically opaque manner) a sense of regret and refusal to move on. Next up is ‘Antidote’, a lo-fi pop song which is all slapped drums and minimalist off-centre poetry:

“chew me out of this hole dear
ward me off with amethyst
half built walls still setting in
sold my soul to the devil yeah”

The title track is piano-led with earnest vocals, a sad song but one with something intangibly upbeat, some glimmering glow that suggests things aren’t all bad. Following that is ‘Running Out Fast’, with its echoey vocals and clinking percussion and dreamy vocals gliding through the gloom. ‘No Innocents (Bad Moon)’ is slow and winding, inching along in an eerie, shadowy ambience, and ‘Autumn 1998’ is led by acoustic guitar and sits on a backdrop of minimal piano and atmospherics, ending in an extended outro that buzzes and hums and whines. ‘Disposable Comatose’ sounds like a dream pop Coma Cinema track played at half pace, and ‘Bury My Dead Horses’ has chilled-out shambling rock and roll drums and sad mumbling vocals, eventually building with squealing electric guitars, as if something has come unloose and broken through the thick murk. ‘Midnight Cross’ is sad and sedate, with breathy floaty background vocals and an audio sample. It’s a lovely track and feels like sweetly sad, like a dream about a loved who has been dead for a long time. Closer ‘Dog Years’ is a slow and melancholy finale, with synth lines which swing around in slow motion.

Victoria Park is perhaps Fog Lake’s most accomplished effort to date, a complex collage of nebulous angst and heartfelt nostalgia, although not the rosy golden kind you might be used to. The cassettes are sold out, but you can still get it on a pay-what-you-want basis via the Fog Lake Bandcamp page.

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Opener ‘Border Line’ begins with percussion like clattering metal and the little pop of fireworks, with the whole thing draped in a dreamy gauze of piano and lo-fi faraway vocals. The result sounds something like Meursault meets Youth Lagoon’s debut album. ‘Good Shepherd’ has an Eastern mystic vibe and reminds me a little of Chad VanGaalen, while the acoustic guitar on ‘Eserkiel’ makes for an assured and comforting dream pop track. The final song, ‘Dear Friends’ is my current favourite. As the title suggests, it is about the importance of loved ones. “I could never make it on my own,” he sings.

The whole thing feels like a not-unpleasant dream, not the twisting dark corners of a nightmare but a reassuringly familiar (if somewhat incoherent/illogical) set of memories, all spliced together in sepia tone. The sort of dream you are disappointed to wake up from and try to chase back through the layers of consciousness to no avail.

You can get Good News Is Too True via the Fox Food Records Bandcamp page, either on limited edition cassette (for a measly £3!) or on a pay-what-you-want download.

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