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.

“I chased intimacy and simplicity above perfection and hopefully the songs are, at the very least, honest because of this”

Cooper lists Mount Eerie, Grouper and Bon Iver amongst his influences, and this make total sense once you dig in to the album. ‘Nova’ begins with ambient noise, the bird calls and lazy suburban rumble of traffic, before we get our first taste of Ocean Floor’s acoustic guitar arrangements. The atmosphere is kind of sad but in a lonely sunny afternoon sort of way. ‘Blinding Light’ is a little bleaker, with guitars that would be at home on a Psalmships record, while ‘For Someone Else’ pairs breathy vocals and negative space to create a languidly melodious track. ‘Feathers and Leaves’ is an almost instrumental track which is brighter and more peppy than those prior, fusing folk with something a little more poppy, with little yelpy wooos and la las acting like instruments of their own, reminiscent of Lord Huron.

‘Girl From the States’ is about just that, a love letter to an American girl, while ‘If You Will’ is short and relatively simple but somehow luminous, the guitars twinkling and shining as they get swept up in the pretty melody. ‘Looking at the Sun’ sounds a little like an Elliott Smith song backed with synths like those Strand of Oaks used on earlier albums, and ‘Dusk’ is another instrumental, this one clanging and echoey and vaguely oppressive, like a barely remembered bad dream. The final track is a cover of Daniel Johnstone’s ‘True Love Will Find You in the End’, which ends the album on a heartwarmingly positive note. It’s nice that an album which promises to approach the pains of young adulthood and the failures of relationships ends on a song which (to me at least – I realise people have different interpretations of this song) is as reassuring as they come.

Old Haunts is available now on a pay-what-you-want basis via the Ocean Floor Bandcamp page.

The post Ocean Floor – Old Haunts appeared first on Various Small Flames.