As with previous releases, the latest offering from Old Earth, The Friends ∴ The Gods, is several smaller songs stitched into one long track, resulting in a shapeshifting beast that moves with its own instinctive dream logic. First segment ‘Stand Me When You Can’t’ is propelled by percussion and probing guitar, Umhoefer spinning his usual opaque but apposite lyrics, arcane wisdom tangled in shards of riddles like the mutterings of some old-time sage.

“O me, O the light
Oh unlock the way
Hold me to a line
Oh unlock the way
Ivy on a pine
Oh unlock the way”

Things are pulled taut on ‘Hunting the Chime’, the drums fading to a hush as tense guitar ticks and twitches, Umhoefer urging the listener “don’t come around and don’t let ’em find you there!” Things then whip up with energy, like on ‘A Life Worth Leaving’, which clenches its jaw for a slice of echoing and mean folk rock.

The instrumental ‘In THAT Dream, She Carried Me’ is driven along by acoustic guitar, before settling into ‘Who Cures the Shaman?’ Here Umhoefer’s voice rises from the hush with characteristically ambiguous words that nevertheless possess a strange magnetism, charged with some energy that’s not quite from our realm.

“We haven’t passed a hill for days
We pass the moments on the way
I hear your voice not what you say
and you hear me counting plans to stay”

The Friends ∴ The Gods is yet another great addition to the Old Earth canon, so do yourself a favour and head to the Old Earth Bandcamp page to buy it.

The post Old Earth – The Friends ∴ The Gods appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Various Small Flames’

Songs of 2017

Anamon – Kneel Old
Android Automatic – Dark Roads*
Angie McMahon – Slow Mover
Basement Revolver – Johnny Pt. 2
Baxter Roy Long – Paribanou
Bea Troxel – Let Them Know
Big Thief – Mary
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Soft Stud
Bully – Running
Cayetana – Mesa
Charly Bliss – Percolator
Chastity Belt – Different Now
CHUCK – Happy Birthday
The County Liners – Maria
The Courtneys – Tour
Craig Finn – God in Chicago
Crumb – Locket
Crushing – Emery Board
Cut Worms – Like Going Down Sideways
David Bazan – Care
Distant Reader – First Try
Emperor X – God Save Coastal Dorset
Fits – Ice Cream on a Nice Day
German Error Message – 2017*
Gleemer – Soothe Me
Great Grandpa – Favorite Show
Haley Heynderickx – Oom Sha Lala
Hiccup – Teasin’
Horse Culture – Texaco
Illuminati Hotties – ‘(You’re Better) Than Ever’
Japandroids – No Known Drink or Drug
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
Jay Som – The Bus Song
Jeremy Squires – Night Cars
Katie Ellen – Drawing Room
Lizzie No – Monuments
Lomelda – Bam Sha Klam
Mike Pace and the Child Actors – Audits & Surveys
Meursault – The Mill
Mount Eerie – Crow
Nice Legs – Mighty Three
Oceanator – Nowhere Nothing
Ohyeahsumi – Daisy
Old Earth – Pit Dynamics
PASTEL – Stammer
Peter Silberman – New York
Phoebe Bridgers – Motion Sickness
Pope – Talk Me Out of It
Protomartyr – Windsor Hum
Rainwater – Place
Ratboys – Elvis is in the Freezer
Rick Rude – Bald & Fat in Houston, TX
Roadkill Ghost Choir – Classics (Die Young)
Rose Dorn – Dirt
See Through Dresses – Lucy’s Arm
Shannen Moser – A Funeral, A Friend, My Sanity
Sinai Vessel – Died On My Birthday
Slaughter Beach, Dog – Phoenix
SOAR – Fort Funston
Soft Fangs – Jordan // Jackson Elementary
Spartan Jet-Plex – We Believe
Strange Ranger – House Show
Strawberry Runners – Garden Hose
Timid, The Brave – Alice
Us and Only Us – Bored of Black
Vagabon – Cold Apartment
Viewfinder – Instant Moonlight
The Washboard Abs – Veil
Waxahatchee – Never Been Wrong
Wild Pink – Albert Ross
William Ryan Fritch – In Our Blood
The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters
Ylayali – Cherry Tomatoes

*Strictly released in 2016, but barely, and we covered it in Jan. 2017.

If you missed it, you can see our Favourite Albums of 2017 list here. Also, the curious can find such lists from previous years here.

The post Favourite Songs of 2017 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

Twelve Gardens – maria
Gorgeous Bully – oh why
Girl K – Neighbours
Kintsugi San – Time
Brunch – The Goose
Young Jesus – Feeling (Half Stop Session)
Wych Elm – School Shooter
Steve Maloney – Exits
Haley Heynderickx – Oom Sha La La
M.A.G.S. – Mexico
Iris Jupiter – Buzz Cut
Ylayali – Cherry Tomatoes
Anamon – Stubborn Comfort
Micah Vaultz – endless rain, for limitless pain
Pavey Ark – Leaf By Leaf
Henry Jamison – The Last Time I Saw Adrianne
Shamir – 90s Kids
SALES – Talk a Lot
Nassau – Ain’t It Time
Long Neck – Cavity
Pastel – Silhouette
Old Earth – Pit Dynamics

You can find all of of monthly mixes here, plus an assortment of other playlists and song collections. Stayed tuned for October!

The post September 2017 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Umhoefer’s latest release, Two Torches, at a Place Where Three Roads Meet, finds all the building blocks of the Old Earth sound present once again. Guitars are looped and interwoven, the lyrics opaque but pregnant with meaning, the overall atmosphere one of a strange dream or ritual. The three tracks began as “stragglers” from last year’s Six Around One, and are at once concise and wildly ambitious, with a thematic reach far beyond that of most music. Umhoefer wrote a Facebook post that introduces some of these themes, which revolve primarily around neopagan spiritualism. “Old Earth has always been a projection of matriarchal values,” Umhoefer explains. “These pieces speak to the manifestation of wisdom through the model of the Triple Goddess (Maiden, Mother and Crone).” So expect esoteric explorations rich with symbolism, from the aforementioned lyrics to the moon on the cover art, but free from any sense of performance or appropriation, the imagery not aesthetic but instinctive.

As if to prove this point, ‘Pit Dynamics’ is lean and powerful, Umhoefer’s vocals like some focused mantra as he delivers lines like “Hugging the ceiling something like a ghost / Humming around in waves.” Notions of the religious often bring to mind ideas of great complication, vast narratives fashioned into endless mazes of allegory and metaphor. For all of the references to various belief systems, Old Earth strips religion to its essence, a fundamental mystery hardwired into our souls or strands of DNA, but also much bigger, passing all around us. With this in mind, the opening lines begin to read like Umhoefer’s artistic modus operandi. “I get a feeling something like a call,” he sings. “Open the door and wait.”

Following on, ‘Quiet Your Arms’ begins with tense and reserved guitar, the vocals ringing at the centre of things, radiating outwards like rings on a disturbed pond. Again, Umhoefer’s words have a natural cadence, an almost breath-like rise and fall that conjures the same paradoxical sense of intimacy and awe—a representation of some power, great and peaceful.

“It’s the only thing we build that doesn’t break
It’s the only kind of love that doesn’t fade”

Indeed, such a force plays into a key thematic element of the collection: the ancient Egyptian concept of balance, order and justice. This is personified as a goddess who regulates not just the movement of heavenly bodies but also the early ones of us mortals too. “I’m also pointing towards Maat”, says Umhoefer, “calling for judgement above and beyond self-righteousness—instead one of righteous discernment”.

Perhaps this explains the serenity at the centre of the songs, present again on ‘Park Witch’. Layered guitars orbit careful and considered vocals repeating the same handful of words, Field Report’s Christopher Porterfield adding an atmospheric and wordless croon. So often, peace is framed as an escape, but this is peace as a confrontation—be it psychological, cosmological, theological—facing up to something incredible as a way of dismantling your trivial self.

“What cold came over us?
What depth?
What distance?
What height before we called it enough?”

The three songs are as singular as anything Old Earth has released to date, and are so thematically rich as to transcend mere indie rock. You don’t need to be fluent in the principals of ancient Egypt or neopaganism to appreciate the record, with the need for harmony and truth among chaos and disorder as prevalent now as any ancient time. It’s unlikely that Maat is going to descend from the sky and restore order, but we can all play a part, however small, to make a difference. As Umhoefer puts it in his introduction of the release:

“In order to destroy hate and inequity, we have to find peace within ourselves”.

You can get Two Torches, at a Place Where Three Roads Meet now from the Old Earth Bandcamp page.

If you’re new to Old Earth then explore the tag, and consider reading the interviews we’ve done with Todd in the past.

The post Old Earth – Two Torches, at a Place Where Three Roads Meet appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Hallelujah The Hills – A Band is Something to Figure Out
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“This is an album built from symbolism (one of the tags on Bandcamp is ‘hieroglyphics’, to give you an idea) but, like all the best mysteries, a sense of significance floats to the top, independent of any hidden code. Hallelujah the Hills reconstruct the human experience through sheer enthusiasm, using their joyous hooks and choruses as earnest expressions of emotion rather than ironic juxtapositions.  Walsh and Co. aren’t sitting us down to share a smirk and a wink, or to reel off some abstract philosophical theories, but rather taking us by the hand and running through their strange world, leaving it up to us to catch something meaningful in the breathless blur. And what a world this is, one which has been evolving since their first album, an ecosystem based on a strange molecule – twin strands of confusion and intuition tightly bound and swirled into a double helix – the DNA of Hallelujah the Hills.”

Camp Cope – S/T
(REVIEW)

“For those of us that want to hope that maybe everything doesn’t have to be shit forever, there’s an atmosphere of dissent that seeps into every line. Not in that horrible on-the-nose Billy Bragg/Frank Turner way, but more subtle, funny and heartbreaking, with throwaway lines that leave you a bit off-balanced. I think that’s what I like most about Camp Cope – the constant switch between personal and protest, heartache and anger, and all the while feeling completely and utterly helpless.”

Beat Radio – Take It Forever
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Beat Radio’s fifth album Take It Forever feels like a culmination of ideas, the product of some long, hard thinking… With a large dose of hope and a pervading sense of goodwill, Take It Forever plays like the manifesto of someone who doesn’t know all the answers but finds meaning in asking the questions, the words not of a revolutionary or prophet but an ordinary man striving to make life extraordinary, just as it should be.”

Talons’ – Work Stories
(REVIEW)

“Explores the pervasive disillusionment in a society that hasn’t yet lived up to what it promised, a society run for interests other than those of the people who make up its majority. A society that offers hopes and dreams of resplendent lives in exchange for your hard earned $$$s, education courses that leave people stranded with more knowledge but no money, opportunities or sympathy. These are songs for people who wonder ‘when did it become not okay to do what I want with my life?’ Work Stories is a reminder that it’s okay to occasionally feel afraid or sad, that the things which trouble you are probably not as much your fault as you think, and most of all that, despite how it might sometimes feel you are never, ever, alone.”

Mount Moriah – How To Dance
(REVIEW)

“Mount Moriah push past their troubles into something positive and mysterious, a conglomeration of symbolism, mysticism, universality and other cosmic forces which pretty much equates to Southern Gothic 2.0. How to Dance is crafted from spirit and faith, carved out of a high, wide hope capable of healing any wounds, giving us the courage not just to survive, but to live.”

The Chairman Dances – Time Without Measure
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“The Chairman Dances succeed in bringing characters to life in three dimensions, though on Time Without Measure the feat is even more impressive as the roster of figures are not only numerous but also known to history in decidedly superhuman terms. Now more than ever we should remember that activists and political heroes, for all of their spirit and unimaginable resolve, are as prone to doubt and death as anyone, and not half as powerful without our support and belief. Likewise, we’d do well to remember that villains and bigots are human too, flames that, however fierce and bright, will be snuffed out without the oxygen that is our backing. This album is a reminder that belief and faith can save us. It’s just a matter of choosing the right thing in which to invest our energies.”

Karima Walker – Hands in Our Names
(REVIEW)

“Hands in Our Names sees Karima Walker reconstruct an array of varied elements into something larger and more meaningful than they could ever be alone. Field recordings from her present and found recordings from someone else’s past swirl above and beneath her own words and guitar notes, drones of every pitch filling the background and stretching the songs into worlds of their own. When atomised into separate parts, the album is impressionistic, blurry and strange and difficult to describe, though when listened to as a whole, a blanket of stitches, it becomes something vivid and intuitive. As such, Hands in Our Names is able to convey things normal songs cannot, a freedom not just born of trope-avoiding experimentalism but somehow inherent in the very combinations of sounds, as though arranged into secret patterns or codes, magic spells that trump postmodern convictions. Rather than dying in open air upon leaving her mouth, Karima Walker’s communications bubble from within, stirring that dormant empathy that lies somewhere near the centre of us all.”

Sioux Falls (now Stranger Ranger) – Rot Forever
(REVIEW)

“Sioux Falls’ sound reads like a melting pot of the last twenty years of rock music. Taking the indie rock of the likes of Built to Spill et al., the band add thoughtful emo (like The Hotelier) and smart pop punk vibes (think LVL UP etc.) to create something wonderfully varied and entertaining, cycling through these genres not just between songs but within them. The narrator is centred within the stories of which they sing, sounding like another confused player in violent, unfair game operating to rules outside of anyone’s understanding. In the face of bewilderment they turn to anger and sorrow and joy, feelings easy to recognise, easy to submit to, decidedly non-ambivalent chemical reactions which remind them that they’re still alive.”

John K Samson – Winter Wheat
(REVIEW)

“The Weakerthans frontman’s first release since 2012 is everything we’ve come to expect, exploring his favourite themes of contemporary loneliness and isolation in his uniquely warm manner, his characters not ready to give up hope that connection (that is, real human connection) is still possible in our digital world.”

Nap Eyes – Thought Rock Fish Scale

“Nova Scotia’s Nap Eyes return with a sophomore album of rhythmic, ear-worming slacker folk rock songs, recorded completely live with no overdubs in just four days. Nigel Chapman’s lethargic monotone vocals give the whole thing the feel of a daydream, like the wandering high-brow thoughts of a sleepy philosophy/psychology major.”

Jeremy Squires – Shadows
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Does what the very best folk music can do, an outpouring from one human being to a multitude of others. It’s a record borne out of legitimate heartbreak, the end of a marriage and the death of a loved one, a brave and honest attempt to deal with big life-changing events. Deft songwriting allows Squires to expand these specific, individual scenes into large, engaging metaphors, in which we can find shards of our own experiences. The beauty of it is that the finished work is not just healing and revelatory for the artist. It can help us too.”

Loone & Paper Bee – Now I Know You and See How Wide You Are to the World
(REVIEW)

“Now I Know You and See How Wide You Are to the World is a terrific album. It’s as rich and as complex as life itself, steeped in passion and poetry, whirring like the universe and everything in it. There’s a line at the end of ‘Ugly, I’m Sorry’ that sums up the whole release rather nicely, capturing its in a handful of words far better than I am able to in this review: ‘And I wanna hold your hand / and go explore the pulsing humming darkness’.”

Spartan Jet-Plex – Get Some
(REVIEW)

“Taken at face value, Get Some is an indistinct album, the themes and meanings wrapped in layers of abstract lyrics and varied instrumentation. However, this vagueness itself curls and contorts and creeps into your head, eluding inclinations to describe and detail and thus bypassing the whole processing machinery most music must enter. As such, Kells’s thoughts and feelings arrive whole, unaltered, meaning that you feel what’s being said, even if it’s impossible to put into words.”

Kyle Morton – What Will Destroy You
(REVIEW)

“While Typhoon’s fourth record is still in the works, Morton last month released a surprise solo album, What Will Destroy You. Again the twin themes of tragedy and pleasure are central, as is the idea of catharsis and release. However, while mortality is an intrinsic element, the album does not tread the exact same ground as previous Typhoon releases. What Will Destroy You shifts the focus onto love, more specifically what Morton describes as “the ambivalence of erotic love,” leading to an intimate, surprisingly honest album which delves into things both more wonderful and mundane than your average love songs.”

CHUCK – My Band is a Computer
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Playing like a collaboration between Owen Ashworth and Bret Easton Ellis, the CHUCK brand of observant and at times cringe-inducingly honest indie pop will no doubt prove divisive. But there’s far more to My Band is a Computer than drugs and self-pity and empty sex. Like the Frog release that Audio Antihero brought us last year, it crams an awful lot into its run-time, covering everything that’s terrible and everything that’s not about being a young adult in the twenty-first century, somehow managing to tap into the human kernel at the centre of our zombified lurch of nostalgia and regret.”

Monarch Mtn – Everyone is Here
(REVIEW)

“It would be wrong to consider the music of Monarch Mtn as simply a two dimensional mope-fest, with Farmer’s poetic lyrics and warm delivery hint at something beyond the misery. The palette is undoubtedly gloomy, blacks and greys and deep blues, but Farmer’s warm vocals and poetic turns of phrase flicker across this twilight like threads of gold.”

Claire Cronin – Came Down a Storm
(REVIEW)

“The real success of Down Came a Storm is how Claire Cronin and John Dieterich combine to spin stories and landscapes from their combined talents, every element given equal standing to conjure not only folk tales but the worlds in which they exist. Here you can feel the wind on your skin, hear it move in the trees, smell its scent of salt and earth and ozone. You can feel it move the characters too, propelling them into dark, poetic places where nature rules and comfort can be found in the starkest of elements.”

Adeem the Artist – Kyle Adem is Dead
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“The word ‘sincere’ is often taken as synonymous for affectionate or sentimental. With Kyle Adem is Dead, Adeem the Artist strives to be sincere in every sense, finding the bravery not just to declare his love for his wife but to voice his fears, his weaknesses, his exasperation with life as we live it. With everything on the table, no lingering mysteries or secrets withheld, there is nothing left to corrupt the good things. Because, after all, Kyle Adem is dead.”

Mal Devisa – Kiid
(REVIEW)

“Kiid is a personal record and plays like condensed version of life, reaching high and falling low, crackling and bursting and simmering under the surface, at times exploding in urgent streams of consciousness as if the words and thoughts can no longer be held in. This is an album that refuses to be reduced to something easily describable, persevering in it’s complexity against the binarizing forces of anxiety or genre or gender or race. Kiid isn’t a self-doubt record or political record, nor a sad record or a happy record. It’s not jazz or gospel or indie rock. Kiid is everything. Kiid is whatever it wants to be.”

Lisa/Liza – Deserts of Youth
(REVIEW)

“Wonderfully minimal and psych-tinged songs that will doubtless appeal to fans of  soft and sad outsider folk artists such as Sarah Winchester. At times it’s gossamer thin, with Victoria’s vocals little more than hushed murmurs, though even in these quiet moments her words hold a kind of understated magnetism, a power which draws in the instrumentation and in turn becomes augmented by it. Deserts of Youth shows you don’t necessarily need to raise your voice to make a statement, that even quiet songs can be imbued with a blazing energy.”

Old Earth – Lay For June
(REVIEW | INTERVIEW)

“Trying to put Old Earth’s music into words seems futile and kind of besides the point. There’s never going to be a satisfactory way to describe art so fluid and weird and instinctive, so all we can tell you is what it sounds like to us. It’s operating on a deeper level, one not easily outlined, playing on some atavistic region of the subconscious that reacts to fear and beauty, that treats intense wonder and dread as the same emotion. It’s the same area of the brain that tells us to light candles and throw coins down wells no matter how secular our society becomes.”

What were your favourite albums of 2016? Let us know through one of the usual channels – we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram.

The post Wake the Deaf’s Favourite Albums of 2016 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“There’s never going to be a satisfactory way to describe art so fluid and weird and instinctive… It’s operating on a deeper level, one not easily outlined, playing on some atavistic region of the subconscious that reacts to fear and beauty, that treats intense wonder and dread as the same emotion”

As with anything fluid/weird/instinctive, the only way to get a true handle on Old Earth’s music is to speak to Umhoefer himself. We first asked him some questions back in 2013, though we thought the time was right to follow up with more.

Hello Todd, thanks for speaking with us. How’s life now that Lay For June is out?

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about the work! The response is the strongest and most positive I’ve ever received, so I also want to thank everyone who took the time to listen, write back, and very graciously to those who bought downloads.

It’s good to have it off my shoulders. The last EP proved to be an unexpected stumbling block- I tried recording it 3 times and really struggled with the lyrics, which slowed me down. For the sake of the larger narrative, I prefer the ladder had to come out first, though. Lay for June is deep and somewhat painful, so I was living in that darkness a little longer than I should’ve. I tend to carry art making pretty far, so I’m always surprised I’m not deranged by now.

You mentioned that the record will be “the last Old Earth record for a while”. Can you put us out of our misery and expand upon this? Are we talking a refreshing break? Indefinite hiatus? Do you have any other projects lined up?

“Indefinite hiatus” is probably the best way to describe it. This project was a vital place to work out existential concerns, but my spiritual practice has developed to a point where I don’t need to put it into music as much. Sometimes the line between solitary art making and self-absorption gets thin or moves… I just feel a call to be in more immediate service to others. I’ve been thinking that I more or less made the point I wanted to make with it, and it took me to a lot of unexpected places.

I’m still finishing the things I’ve committed to, like some local performances and a little tour in the summer. I’m not rushing out of this, as it’s my life’s work and deserves my respect.

Having proven to myself that I can write cohesive long-form pieces, I’m now excited about writing songs that stand alone, and to see how much ground I can cover in shorter running times. I have about 7 songs in varying degrees of finish, and the idea is to work on them slowly, which is a pattern of concentration I’m not used to. Also, I’m about to record a film score… When all that’s done, who knows? It’s not like I’m quitting music altogether.

Lay For June was originally scheduled for release on the 1st February, the day of Imbolc. Our review had a stab at ascertaining the relevance, but would you care to explain what the day means to you and the album?

Tying release dates with pagan holidays has been on my mind for a while, and a celebration of the simultaneous death of winter and birth of spring definitely made sense for this album. You did an exceptional job of talking about the relevance. I think you summed it up so poetically that people should refer to the review!

There’s been a growing interest in mysticism and occult knowledge for a long time, and I’m all for it. What’s wrong with viewing the planet and its inhabitants as sacred? Old Earth has always been very matriarchal, putting intuition, emotion, creativity, and a search for wisdom first. It’s about trying to ask good questions. A lot of things that took our ancient ancestors generations to discover has been destroyed, so it’s important to go back and share what’s left.

Lay For June was recorded in one take, with only the vocals overdubbed, which seems such a vital part of the sound. How much do you find things changing as you’re recording? Did the final take surprise you in any way?

Yes, single takes are definitely a vital part of the sound. I love the sense of struggle that just doesn’t show up any other way. It’s not trying to be perfect. The last song wouldn’t sound the same had I not played the entire record leading up to it, you know? It almost wouldn’t mean as much. The content on this one was especially personal and draining, and I think it would’ve been bad for me to do some of those songs over and over again.

Things don’t change much while recording because I rehearse a lot beforehand, and am focused on what I want to get done while I’m there. You won’t catch me fucking around on a phone. I’m really into how tight musicians had to be 50 or 60 years ago… There’s no faking it 20 minutes in to a 30 minute continuous take, where a single misplaced note could pull the whole thing apart. It’s a fun risk, somewhat of an ordeal, filled with moments of doubt and confidence, drifting between being lost in the music and an inner dialogue, wondering if the performance is take-worthy, should I start over, is the engineer about to punch in and say something isn’t working, what’s the next song, how far out of tune is the guitar, dare I fix it mid-take, all while trying to appreciate the moment and enjoy how special it is to be in a nice studio, recording with someone who is very good at what they do and believes in the work… I forgot a few guitar parts here and there, but also ended up making a few things up on the spot, so it all evened out. I don’t think I could’ve played it noticeably better at the time, and that’s the most I hope for.

The biggest surprise was the amp setup, which was big and loud and a real joy. It definitely affected how I was performing, because I rarely get the opportunity to play guitar at a high enough volume to feel the sound blowing through and around my body. Scott Evans at Antisleep Audio put a lot of thought into the session ahead of time, and I was happy to go with his ideas. This was the first Old Earth album I didn’t mix myself, which really speaks to my trust in Scott. He worked on it in a way that says he’s invested in the project.

I later recorded Ashley Jarrett’s vocals myself, sent the files to Scott, and then it was out of my hands! That was well outside of my comfort zone, but important… Also, it should be stated that Ashley sings like an angel and this record would’ve been lesser without her.

Even in the nebulous category of ‘experimental’ music, I consider your work unconventional. The lyrics, the structure, the sound itself, even the way you often release long songs comprising of several parts. Do you have any image of a listener in mind when recording? Or do you just work in the way which compels you?

They’re all based on intuition. The best ones develop unconsciously, indeed from feeling compelled to create. Often the challenge is to get out of the way of what the song wants to be, yet rehearsed enough so that if you’re given one of those fully-formed songs from seemingly out of nowhere, you can do it justice… A sensitivity and trust in the process develops, but it’s never dependable or predictable. I try to make up for that with a lot of time, patience, practice, and consideration. One of the experimental artists I’ve learned the most from is Tim Kinsella. He’s given some great interviews, and I’m paraphrasing here, but he basically said he creates the kind of records he’d like to see exist. That’s so simple and beautiful in intent, and it takes the power away from outside judgement or internal limiting.

Unconventional things make fair comparisons difficult, so how do you even know if you’re missing a mark? And what mark? I’m well aware that most people aren’t going to resonate with what I’m doing, so trends and a hypothetical listener/non-listenership have no impact on the music. Pandering is insulting to the listener in every way… Also, the records never turn out how I hear them in my head, which can be frustrating, but I have to remind myself that that’s just part of the deal too.Lay For June has striking art from Jamie Morgan, and Jennifer Mehigan’s painting on A Wake in the Wells was equally arresting. How do you decide on the artwork for your releases?

Visual art has been a lifelong interest, so I try to pay attention to what’s happening out there. I used to do all the art myself, but as with music, adding another voice can create counterpoint and depth. I usually play around with rough layouts while writing, and that has definitely influenced the songs, titles, and sequencing. You could also say I got a little sick of doing every single step myself, haha. I now see that it was important for me to let that go. I still do the art sometimes, the last one being …until they’re called. As for the mixtapes, I usually google the title in quotes and take an image that fits in some inexplicable way, and is obscure enough that I probably won’t get in trouble. That process is really really fun and full of surprises. It’s asking the collective consciousness for relative imagery.

Jennifer Mehigan’s work was on an art blog, and she was unbelievably giving and humble when I reached out to her… I had most of the songs done by the time I came across the image, and there are numerous reasons why it worked for me. A Wake in the Wells is somewhat centered around a house changing shape and changing hands.

I found Jamie Morgan’s work just checking out Instagram. The roadkill and flowers series is amazing, and she’s always up to something new. Also, she happens to know someone I went to school with, and he connected us. I wish I could’ve given Jennifer and Jamie a million dollars each, they’re both outstanding artists.

7) Finally, could you name four or five acts you find yourself returning to at the moment?

Shopping around Bandcamp recently, I found a wonderful record by You Are Plural called Rabbit Rabbit. I’ve been recommending it a lot lately, and it’s one of the few non-rap things I’ve been listening to.

For people who like things downtuned, plodding, yet catchy and very smart, they should hear Scott Evans’ band Kowloon Walled City. Their recent album release show performance was one of the best metal sets I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a good many over the last 20+ years. Very very inspiring…

I mainly download free legal mixtapes from Hip Hop TXL and dig through 40 garbage songs for the 10 good ones. I’ve been doing it for years and have refined a great collection from their series. That’s what’s always in my headphones.

Also counting down the days until Gucci gets released, anticipating a new prolific flow of his music and opportunities to see him perform again. Once I saw him on my birthday!

You can buy Lay For June now from the Old Earth Bandcamp page, along with the rest of his discography. Read our review here.

Photos by Scott Evans, apart from the silhouette image, which is by Adam Ryan Morris 

The post Interview: Old Earth, Part II appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. A Hospital + Crucifix Made of Plastic – Florist
2. Richmond – talons’
3. Say – Indoor Voices
4. Aeroplane – House Plants
5. When I Was an Island – David Karsten Daniels
6. The Gentleman’s Apocalypse – JR Green
7. Hitman – Mrs. Hopewell
8. sun drops – ratbath
9. A Cruise – Brian S. Cassidy
10. Orpheus – Matt Kivel
11. Your Love – Jeremy Squires (INTERVIEW)
12. Blood Moon – C.M. Slenko
13. Bake – Broken Beak
14. Brushes Like a Fox – Saint Corsair
15. daniel – francie cool
16. Baby Blue – Mount Moriah
17. For You – Free Cake For Every Creature
18. Have This Dance – Govier
19. Goodness (trailer) – The Hotelier
20. The River Because – Sawtooth
21. why are you so cool? – Dying Adolescence
22. cockroach – tall friend
23. Waiting – Faint Peter
24. Heart Destroyer – Lazy Legs
25. Take it Forever – Beat Radio (INTERVIEW)
26. Every One of Them, Dogs – Quarterly
27. like a feather or a pawprint – Field Medic
28. Lay For June – Old Earth
29. 2 old 2 broke – Gorgeous Bully
30. Funny Man Routine – Table People
31. House & Home – Arlo Aldo
32. Cave Song – Sea Ghost
33. Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac cover) – Boosegumps (from Sugar Rush)

The post February 2016 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“Sung to a tower that echoes the home,
‘Don’t knock the boat as long as it floats’

On down the row and on down the road
Killed on the row and killed on the road”

‘Ship to Ship (rough running)’ is somehow both desperate and wistful, as if sung from the strange relief experienced upon giving in to disquiet, and ‘trace parts (you, me, & us)’ emerges wide-eyed and gripped by feeling, Umhoefer’s words echoing in a pocket of crystalline silence still vibrating from past violence. “In case,” he sings, “the dust is all that’s left of us / underneath the growing rust / undone”. ‘Nothing Gives Way’ heralds the return of something, an unnamed wonder or dread which rises to a near-celestial crescendo (“Here came that breath from the cave /Here came that thing that you hold over and over again… unspeakable”), before ‘All No Few Many Any’ sees the return of the shredding click. Here the instrumentation is off-kilter and warped, played on fast-forward or out of control, threatening to break into a deep white static. Umhoefer’s words appear with sudden clarity once again, so clear and obvious it seems any problem with regard to understanding their meaning must lie with the listener.

“It was the fall-
blame it on the roof,
don’t blame it on us

led, closed, involved

You count those stars from the roof, but a light becomes mine
when I’m holding my eyes to the ground”

It seems pertinent to mention that Lay For June was first scheduled for release on the 1st February, the day of Imbolc. A celebration of the lengthening of the days, the Gaelic festival is associated with Brigid, the goddess of fertility, healing and poetry, and has been carried into Christian practice as St Brigid’s Day. Imbloc is celebrated by lighting candles and fires and visiting holy wells, by leaving coins and clooties or offering milk to the ground and porridge to the sea, by cleaning your home in preparation for longer, lighter days. Lay For June is not the easily-traceable giant spring metaphor you might expect, but the festival is relevant. The past is important here, as is the future, and particularly communication through ritual and symbolism. Questions and answers are transposed and made strange, hope and faith required for powers both internal and external, the narrator walking a tightrope of wonder and terror.

‘Woke Down’ is a wordless track from which ‘book to book (crooked on both sides)’ creeps in whispered fervour. “Didn’t you love all the other men?” he demands. “Didn’t you love a man who sang it blue?” The track is the closest thing to a traditional fingerpicked folk song, the final line delivered in near-silence, before the wheels begin turning again and ‘Named- for, or belonging to’ materialises with familiar ticking and incipient dread. “Won’t find comfort in day,” he warns, “you know what comes when you call its name / You know what comes when you dance in the forest at night”. ‘one Eye at a time’ is a haunting acapella section, while the dual vocals with Ashley Jarrett on ‘Read and Keep’ give the words an increased weight, no longer a single opinion but a shared sentiment you can’t ignore.

“You should’ve paid attention,
all of the caves gave a cause for the sound

You should’ve paid attention,
‘This is not mine, this is not what I am'”

“that thing / that haunts / that whole day” is a restrained instrumental piece, twitching and grasping before catching into a steady rhythm, from which ‘When I started walking, it was light out’ surfaces, a song as sincere and explicit as anything on the record. “Cut from the line / ageing from the wrong kind of time / and what of those ruins we climbed? / Oh how I miss you, Darlin’ I miss you”. ‘near Nothing’ continues, playing like spoken thoughts in dead houses, homes grown black and lost yet throbbing with time which passed you by (“Mom, it’s me / Mom, it’s ME”), while ‘unbonded, unbroken’ continues as if drawing energy from previous utterances, finding a groove in the sonic etchings through which something important will be found.

“There’s no kind of right mind for this.
Don’t get excited!
Close your eyes and sit down,
Leave the calls alone”

If all that sounds vague and unclear then, for once, we won’t apologise. Because, though it’s strange to say after this, the latest of several attempts, trying to put Old Earth’s music into words seems futile and kind of besides the point. There’s never going to be a satisfactory way to describe art so fluid and weird and instinctive, so all we can tell you is what it sounds like to us. It’s operating on a deeper level, one not easily outlined, playing on some atavistic region of the subconscious that reacts to fear and beauty, that treats intense wonder and dread as the same emotion. It’s the same area of the brain that tells us to light candles and throw coins down wells no matter how secular our society becomes. But that’s just us. Kick back with some decent headphones and decide what it means to you.

You can buy Lay For June now via the Old Earth Bandcamp page. There’s also a generous offer on for the entire discography, so why not pick that up?

Cover photo by Scott Evans, album art by Jamie Morgan

The post Album Premiere: Old Earth – Lay For June appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The post Wake The Deaf’s Favourite Songs of 2015 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.