Ice Dragon – Born On A Heavy Morning

(RIYL: experimental, psychedelic, stoner rock)

If Thousands – For

(RIYL: drone, ambient, Low, Sigur Ros)

Ings – Dog Physics

(RIYL: bedroom pop, lullabies, Plaid Dragon)

Inlet Sound – The Romantics (Special Edition)

(RIYL: indie pop, folk, Cataldo)

Jake Klar – Rocks & Gravel EP

(RIYL: blues, country, folk, whiskey, Justin Townes Earle)

Jason Anderson – Omaha

(RIYL: folk, rock, Americana)

Julia Brown – To Be Close To You

(RIYL: bedroom pop, Teen Suicide, Coma Cinema)

Killer Whale – Giant Waves EP

(RIYL: experimental folk, ambient, summer)

Lace Bows – Bows of Summer

(RIYL: experimental, noise, field recordings)

Malpas – Where the River Runs EP (Technically 2012 but whatever)

(RIYL: electronic, folk, Tunng)

Matthew Bailey – Tendrils

(RIYL: folk, country, Bry Webb, Zachary Lucky)

Matthew Fowler – Beginning

(RIYL: acoustic, folk, Damien Rice, Dan Mangan)

Matthew Lee Cothran – Failure

(RIYL: lo-fi, downer pop, Coma Cinema)

Monster Rally – Return To Paradise

(RIYL: tropical, exotic hip hop, chillwave)

Mouca/Cartouche – MN°5 (Compilation)

(RIYL: indie rock, dream pop,summer)

Nathan K. – Dishes

(RIYL: folk, joy, family, ‘grower’ albums)

Nick Everett & Everybody – Elsethings

(RIYL: experimental folk, weird folk, Canada)

Old Amica – The Burning Dot Part 2

(RIYL: electronic folk, experimental, slowcore)

Old Earth – Live on WMSE

(RIYL: experimental, rock, folk, live recordings)

Old Haunt – 空

(RIYL: ambient folk, Townes van Zandt, Tim Hecker)

The post Favourite Free Music of 2013 (I-O) appeared first on Various Small Flames.

To describe an act called Old Haunt as haunting may sound a tad obvious, but there is something about the solemn lyrics and gentle instrumentation that invokes eerie visitations in empty rooms, be they spectral figures or just stories and emotions trickling back through time. This isn’t a terrifying/poltergeistic/levitating-bedsheet type of haunting but rather a quiet contemplative meeting of past and present, something that is thoughtful and comforting, melancholic in a nice way.

The last song on the EP is a cover of Townes van Zandt’s ‘Tower Song’, a lovely little take that works well with more hushed vocals.

空 is available on a pay-what-you-can basis over at Bandcamp.

The post Old Haunt – 空 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Huck Notari

Earlier this year Portland’s Huck Notari completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for his third album, Huck Notari and the River. Now released, the LP does not disappoint with Notari’s trademark wistful strumming and stirring lyrics. If you are new to the artist, check out ’Wall Around Your Heart’, one of my favourite songs.

Tiny Ruins

Haunts is the latest EP from Auckland’s Hollie Fullbrook, AKA Tiny Ruins. This is organic music, with simpe instrumentation supporting the main attraction – Fullbrook’s incredible vocals. It feels like she is singing in an empty room for you alone, her voice filling the space and bringing to life the tales she is telling.

Old Haunt

An offshoot of The Gertrudes, Old Haunt is a haunting blend of traditional folk and more experimental genres like electronic and drone. Herohill’s write-up states that front man Lucas Huang described the project as ‘Tim Hecker unearthing a box of Townes van Zandt demos’, which makes us very excited for the full album coming this November.

<a href=“http://oldhaunt.bandcamp.com/track/ghost-town” data-mce-href=“http://oldhaunt.bandcamp.com/track/ghost-town”>Ghost Town by Old Haunt</a>

Jason Isbell

Southeasten, the new album from the former Drive-By Truckers man, is an exceptional collection of songs. Listen to a few of them here thanks to Garden and Gun (kudos to Songsfortheday for the find).

Suntrapp

The press release accompanying the first single by Newcastle’s Suntrapp states that it intends to capture the human conditions, being ’impulsive, celebratory and cathartic in equal measure’. I think this is a perfect summation of what indie-folk-rock (or whatever) should be all about.

Glass Cake

Glass Cake aren’t particularly folky but the idea behind this series was to let us post about more good music, not constrict ourselves with rules. Lunar Caustic is like a Sharon van Etten x Twin Sister x Scout Niblett hybrid playing a raucous garage rock. It’s great.

Ben De La Cour

Ben De La Cour is a singer-songwriter based in Nashville. He has recently released his third album, Ghost Light, a really nice collection of acoustic folk songs and some country rockers. I’ve seen comparisons to Leonard Cohen and Townes van Zandt and I think these are fair. He certainly has the pedigree to be considered an oldtime-style wandering man, having travelled the world as an amateur boxer, a bartender, a janitor and farm worker. You can download the album for however much you like over at Ben’s bandcamp page.

Wes Tirey

We have featured Wes a few times recently, with a review of his EP I Stood Among Trees, and last week’s interview about his music and writing, and he has a new 3-song EP out now. False Idols is another collection of superbly written earthy songs from some old vision of America and is available for as little as $1. All funds will go towards Wes’ Indiegogo campaign to get him to Italy.

We’ll be seeing you next month.

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