Worried Mind elevates the conventional singer-songwriter sound by fusing acoustic guitar and ponderous piano with analogue synths, resulting in an evocative ambience that carries as much as Orr’s words. It exists in its own atmosphere, a hushed vacuum that excludes the outside world. The effect is something like being adrift in a car during a nighttime snowstorm, sitting in a pocket of comfort and warmth, like a snow globe in reverse.

Opener ‘Sunburned’ approaches from a near hush, barely audible piano and guitar strum backed with fluttering electronics which soon blossom to the forefront and take the place of a chorus throughout the track. When they arrive, Orr’s vocals are delicately cool and considered, delivering lines that explore the ebbs and flows of a long term relationship.

“Remember you, in that picture we took
Sunburned baby, I don’t know
We’re as high as this high can go”

‘A Memory’ is a quiet front porch folk song, the sound of watching a twilit neighbourhood pass-by slowly, while the sincerely romantic ‘Fall Apart’ lilts with an almost tropical sway, Orr declaring his love for his significant other in no uncertain terms.

But things aren’t always so pink and gold and positive. ‘Seasons’ feels like a distillation of Worried Mind, smooth and uncluttered, just simple percussion and honest sentiment. “I feel so lonely, I feel so sad,” Orr sings, “don’t wait to call me, it’s just a bad kind of season.” This changes around the two minute mark as synths add texture, a digital grainy noise that sits behind Orr’s breathy vocals. Perhaps the most difficult song on the record, finale ‘Sometime’ sees Orr reflect on his relationship with his estranged father, a perfectly gentle and minimal end to the album that flutters with very real emotion.

“Thought I was over it this time
I want to tear you apart and see what’s on the inside
I’ll never understand, how did it feel like?”

Worried Mind is out now on Other Songs Music Co. and you can get it on cassette or download via their Bandcamp page.

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Millpond Way is a three-song EP, again released by the fine folks at Other Songs Music Co. The record feels very much a natural progression from Still Lifes and debut Field Notes, melding their acoustic and electric styles into an atmospheric blend of old and new. We described how M. Grig’s previous releases were “rooted in memories and the natural world,” and while it appears a failure of the imagination to offer the same thoughts again, there is something uniquely anchored about this music.

Grigoni carves out a space to consider the things that might otherwise pass us by, or fade into the background of our experiences. Here our surroundings are brought into stark relief, an environment wrought by the constant passing of time, and as such shapes not only our memories but our very identity too. And while it’s easy to forget such things in the day-to-day trenches of life, Millpond Way suggests the value in stepping back, in contemplating where we are and were, and how that forms who we are.

Millpond Way is out on the 27th April and you can pre-order it now from the Other Songs Bandcamp page.

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The album first sparked into life over ten years ago, when Grigoni bought his first multi-track recorder while living in Seattle and set to creating layers of lap steel and pedal steel guitar in a process of experimentation. The successful pieces essentially came to form the seed of Still Lifes, an album built almost entirely out of the two aforementioned instruments. With the record being created during his move to Durham, the music can be taken as a loose chronicle of a cross-country journey, starting in Washington and finishing in North Carolina.

Ahead of the album’s release on Friday (25th August), we’re happy to share ‘Still Life I’, the first proper song on the release after the shimmering prelude. A patient track, the song places pedal steel on the pedestal it deserves, Grigoni using the instrument with all the care and clarity of a classic composer. As such, the track is bright and eloquent and comfortably sad, all the atmosphere of ambient music accentuated with a wistful Americana edge, creating something rooted in both memories and the natural world.

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A new volume will be posted every few weeks and will offer a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar. Enjoy Vol 3!

Why Not – Guided Meditation / Ground

Why Not are a math punk band from the Twin Cities. They’re currently working on their debut LP, due for release later this year, and have released two tracks to whet our collective appetite. ‘Guided Meditation’ takes around a minute to build into a mathy thrash, the slacker vocals calm and disaffected at the centre. ‘Ground’, on the other hand, is a little funkier, glowing with a quietly carefree buzz until things devolve into a cymbal heavy crescendo.

“I know that I’m on the ground right
now but I know I can take it
I know that I’m still alive right now
but that won’t last forever”

You can get both songs from the Why Not Bandcamp page.

Blood Cultures – Detroit

New Jersey duo Blood Cultures have a pretty enigmatic web presence. What we do know is that they are readying their debut album Happy Birthday, and that they’ve been steadily dripping tracks in preview. The latest, ‘Detroit’, blends 80s synths with chilled out beats and laidback pop vocals. Think the Stranger Things soundtrack run through a 21st Century synth pop filter, what their bio describes as “hypnotic, galaxy-painted synths that will put listeners into a trace as they dance along to digital beats over the milky way”.

Keep an eye on the Blood Cultures website and Facebook page for updates.

Matt Paxton – Baby Don’t Go

Matt Paxton is a member of the stellar Other Songs Music Co. roster, and this month released a new EP, Hunter Street Station Blues. Written with Thompson Wilson, opening track ‘Baby Don’t Go’ gives a flavour of the gentle heartbreak on offer here, a blend of traditional folk and an ever so slight pop edge leading to a song both catchy and wistful. 

Hunter Street Station Blues is out now via Other Songs Music Co. and you can buy it now from Bandcamp.

Blaketheman1000 – Blake

Blaketheman1000 is the recoridng project of Blake Goldberg from Nashville, TN. Goldman recently sent us the video (made by Adele Smith) for a song called Blake’. It’s about, you guessed it, Blake himself, what Goldman describes as “A fun song I made about being me <3”. It’s a super lo-fi bedroom pop song, one that’s all the more endearing for its rough-around-the-edges vibe. Think Spencer Radcliffe meets Gorgeous Bully. You can keep tabs on Blaketheman1000 over at his Soundcloud page.

Somesurprises – serious dreams

Emerging as the solo act of singer and guitarist Natsha El-Sergany, Somesurprises is a constantly shifting outfit currently operating as a full band. Such a fluid line-up matches the sound, with latest release serious dreams highlighting the shifting, shimmering nature of Somesurprises’ music, rooted in nature but also otherworldly and strange. Take ‘Late July’ as an example, operating like a semi-sentient woodland fog, its tendrils reaching for your face and head, wrapping you within its somnolescent embrace.

serious dreams is out now on Eiderdown Records and available from Bandcamp.

Ramonda Hammer – Too Much, Too Recently

LA quartet Ramonda Hammer, founded by lead Devin Davis, are following up 2016’s album Whatever That Means with a brand new EP, Destroyers. To give us a taste of their new stuff, the band have released lead single, ‘Too Much, Too Recently’, a track with a rather novel subject matter. “I’m gonna get real real here,” Devin confides. “This song is about our bassist Andy, who is also my ex-boyfriend.” From here, the song explores past lives and multiple dimensions, all channelled through a lovely 90s grunge aesthetic.

Destroyers is set for release on the 4th August via New Professor Music and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Devon Sproule – Trees at Your Mom’s

Recorded across three Canadian provinces and Scotland’s Shetland Islands, Devon Sproule’s record The Gold String feels very much a product of wide experiences and open expanses. The instrumentation is odd and often slightly off kilter, the lyrics somewhere between folk, poetry and ad-lib chanting, the words emerging perfectly formed from some unknown place. This means, as shown on ‘Trees at Your Mom’s’, there’s a curiously relaxed sort of intensity about the album, a natural flow that can meander between unhurried and frantic yet never loses that sense of momentum.

Get The Gold String from Bandcamp now (or here if you’re based in the EU).

Decoration Day – Palms

Toronto’s chamber-folk outfit Decoration Day released their debut EP, Blind Contour, back in June, a release which: “chronicl[es] a couple finding and later losing their first true love, resulting in making music together as a sort of cathartic grieving.” Utilising an array of acoustic instruments, the band create bright arrangements tinged with heartbreak, Mara Nesrallah’s vocals rising through it all with a kind of relaxed regret, fierce feelings as voiced from a late night hotel lounge, where the light is low and drink allows a certain romance to creep into the fabric of things.

Blind Contour is out now and available from the Decoration Day Bandcamp page.

Phoebe Bridgers – Motion Sickness

This autumn sees the release of Stranger In The Alps, the debut album from Phoebe Bridgers, an album of country-tinged indie rock. Single ‘Motion Sickness’ shows off her sound, introspective and laden with imagery, yet still buoyed on a firm confidence that makes for a listen at once visceral and deep. And balance seems an important part of the record: “I wasn’t trying to be too lo-fi, too hi-fi, too self-serious, too disingenuous,” Bridgers says. “I feel pretty confident that I’m finding my voice.”

Watch the home tape/karaoke-esque video, directed by Bridgers’ brother Jason, below:

Stranger In The Alps is coming out on the 22nd September via Dead Oceans.

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The album contains twenty tracks from all your favourite Other Songs Music Co. artists – in no particular order: Timid, The Brave, James Hoffman, Ruby Randall, The Good Hunters, JP Haynie, Best Wishes, Nabi, Benjamin, Matt Paxton and label leader Scott Orr. There are b-sides, demos, live recordings, remixes and previously unreleased tracks. Check out two of my current favourites below:

The digital album is available alongside a smorgasbord of extras, from guitar picks and buttons to custom records and lifetime discount coupons. It’s essentially a Kickstarter campaign run through Bandcamp, which is great news for all of you (us) nerdy Bandcamp collectors. Head to the Other Songs Music Co. Bandcamp page to order.

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William Thomas Lawrence – Doghouse of Yer Dreams

First we have some laid back summery vibes from New York’s William Thomas Lawrence. I can’t find much info on him, but he has just released an album called Doghouse of Yer Dreams and it’s great. You can get it via Bandcamp for just $4, so what are you waiting for?

Tyler Childers – Live on Red Barn Radio II

Tyler Childers is a 22 year old singer-songwriter from Eastern Kentucky. He makes classic, country-inflected folk songs which will appeal to fans of Joe Pug and John Moreland. His latest EP is a four song live recording on Kentucky’s Red Barn Radio programme. The EP opens with two covers, one a traditional song by Utah Phillips, and the other originally by John R. Miller. There are then two of Childers’s own tracks, one of which I have embedded for you listening pleasure below:

Eagle Lake Owls – Eagle Lake Owls

Next up is the brand new self-titled EP by Winnipeg’s Eagle Lake Owls. The band promise “folk songs about small town life, long winters and endless summers, filtered through a dusty car window”, and that’s pretty much what we get here. Their sound has a dash of Bowerbirds, a splash of John K. Samson and a sprinkling of the Rural Alberta Advantage. I like it a lot. My current favourite track is ‘Tall Grass Dance’, but it’s all really good. Check out ‘Sunday Morning’ below:

You can buy the EP via the band’s Bandcamp page

Small Sur – Wild Geese

Small Sur have released a brand new 7” single as part of this great feature courtesy of Singles Club. Singles Club run a subscription service, so you send some cash and they send four great records (from four different artists). Hit the play button and read the interview with lead man Bob Keal, complete with some really nice photography.

Also, if you’re not familiar with Small Sur, what are you doing?? Check out our review for the last album Labor, and then buy all their records.

Hiss Golden Messenger – Brother, Do You Know The Road?

This lovely slow-burner has been released by Merge Records in anticipation of Hiss Golden Messenger’s upcoming LP. The song won’t feature on the album though, as despite featuring in their live set, it is apparently something of a misfit. It’s a good thing it is seeing the light of day though, even for the refrain alone:  ‘And though the storm’s passed over/And the sun is in its place/Oh, it took a long time/And the rain, how I know it.’

Scott Orr – A Long Life

More than a little late on this one but Scott Orr released an acoustic album back in January that is gentle and mournful and lovely. Released on Other Songs Music Company, you can grab it here.

Best Wishes – Best Wishes EP

Finally, another (newer) release from Scott Orr. Best Wishes sees Orr team up with friends Eric Fusilier and Matt Henderson to produce a rocky, shoegazy collection of songs, a departure from his sparse fingerpicked solo material. Again out on Other Songs, you can buy it here.

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Head over to Bandcamp to buy a CD of the album for $10 CAD (£6.25), which is more than worth it just for the lovely artwork (some hasty research shows it to be an oil painting by Rockwell Kent that was completed around 1925). The album is also available for download for $8 CAD (£5 – which is a steal).

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