The songs here are heavy and brooding, Mermaidens dabbling in the darker edges of psychedelica to produce tracks which twitch and throb with something almost malevolent in nature. ‘Under the Mountain II’ is a perfect example, loud and massive, rumbling on with the momentum of a dark prophecy. There’s a shamanistic quality to the song too, the lyrics packed with loaded imagery from the natural world, esoteric symbols from which some great energy can be unlocked or governed.

“I don’t want to die in the shade
I’m a corpse on the beach
I’m a corpse on the beach
I’m a thing,
send me out to sea”

Other highlights include the title track, a song sparser in nature for all of two minutes before the drums accelerate into a fine groove, ‘Cold Skin’, with its bewitchingly off-kilter instrumentation and reptilian persona (“Let me fold around you / Taste your skin”), and the sleek ‘Wander’, a song which glides forward with grace and old world oddness. The record closes with ‘Splinter’, a song reminiscent of the intuitive mysticism of Todd Umhoefer’s Old Earth, where something both ominous and alluring bubbles under the surface, daring you to submit to its charm.

You can buy Undergrowth now from the Mermaidens Bandcamp page.

The post Mermaidens – Undergrowth appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Because we still have a fair amount of tapes left, and obviously want to raise as much as possible for Worldreader, we have decided to run a special holiday offer. So, as suggested below in stylised sans serif, entering the code ‘HOHOHO’ at the checkout on Bandcamp will get you a handsome 40% off both digital and physical copies of the compilation. This will still cover the production cost of the cassette, but remember all profits go to charity, so every extra pound you give will be a pound well spent.To refresh your memory, here’s what you’ll be getting if you put some of your hard earned cash towards Quiet, Constant Friends:

Side A

Danielle Fricke – The Well
Lotte Kestner – Cattleya
Wes Tirey – Akhnilo Blues
Pasture Dog – Everything That Rises Must Converge
Old Earth – Pretty Steep
Salt Altars – Little Big Man
Henry Demos – Not Her
Beat Radio – Mexico City
Sondra Sun-Odeon – Hair

Side B

Nathan Amundson – Haruki Murakami
Windmill – Jim & The Rather Large Nectarine
ARMS – The Book of Love
Oh, Rose & Sawtooth – TV
Free Cake For Every Creature – Don’t Go Away (Ahumpf Acgroof)
John Ross – The Overlook Hotel
Kissing Fractures – I Drank Phosphorus With Aunt Lucy
Nice Legs – Past Lives
Ben Seretan – King of Crumbs
Trouble Books – Oak and Linden Tree Abridged
Lewtrakimou – I’m a Book on Tape
Nadia Reid – Runway

Grab a download or cassette now via our Bandcamp page, and be sure to remember to use the code ‘HOHOHO’ for your discount.

The post Quiet Constant Friends: A Christmas Sale (40% Off!) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Hunch is out on the 19th of June and you can pre-order it right now both digitally and on limited-edition cassette, via Fox Food Records.

The post Fazed On A Pony appeared first on Various Small Flames.

‘Shunkan’ translates from Japanese as ‘moment’ or ‘in a moment’, and Sakimoto holds the idea close to her heart. ‘It’s how I want to live from now on,’ she says. ‘Not try and plan out the next 10 years of my life.’ The idea is close to that of Abby Gundersen and her ’never-ending struggle to remain in the present’ (which we wrote about here).

Shunkan’s debut EP, Milk, Honey & Blood, is set to be released on Art is Hard Records on the 5th May. You can pre-order it here.

P.S. Head over to her Bandcamp page to download SUMMERBLONDE: a collection of demos and homerecordings that can be yours on a pay-what-you-can basis. I mean, come on, she even writes songs about The X-Files:

The post Shunkan – Dust in Your Eyes appeared first on Various Small Flames.