‘Patterns’ is a song that I wrote about navigating relationships while in a depressive episode,” explains Annie Schultz of their first single on Trailing Twelve Records. “My songs often subconsciously end up being letters to myself, observing shifting dynamics with the people I love and posing questions about why I choose to make certain decisions.” Having cut their teeth in the Minnesota DIY scene, the Olympia-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist set about crafting a sound somewhere between indie folk and classic goth and punk, allowing for the kind of soul-searching so apparent in the new single. A song about being there for friends when it feels difficult enough to even be kind to yourself.

‘Patterns’ is out now via Trailing Twelve Records.

Haley Blais – Matchmaker

“It’s a love song about being so confident and safe in a relationship that you start to look for cracks out of fear,” explains Haley Blais of new single, ‘Matchmaker’. The Vancouver artist has made waves with her emotive, cathartic style, though one which always possesses a certain playfulness too. Having signed with Arts & Crafts and preparing for a full-length, the single finds Blais at the peak of her powers, combing sincere emotion with a certain impish charm to explore the pressures social and cultural expectations can place on a relationship. “And I read somewhere on the internet / That if we have kids, then they won’t exist,” she sings. “And then I’m the bitch who ruined your family line / It’s nobody’s fault, though, but somebody’s pissed.” Watch the video below, directed by Jacob Pascoe and edited by Haley Blais & Jacob Pascoe:

‘Matchmaker’ is out now via Arts & Crafts.

Kylie V – Runaway

Based in Vancouver, Kylie V is a singer-songwriter looking capture the joys and angst of young life. Following on from 2021 debut Big Blue, they recently returned with The Runaway EP, a collection of four songs which further develops their self-described “overemotional indie folk rock.” The title track typifies the style, casting its eye over the trials of falling in love after one too many burns, and how romance can be curdled by the presence of anxiety and OCD. “What if we don’t get too far and I leave it in ruins cause / these days my body’s struggling to cope?” as Kylie V asks, though the rest of the track plays as a slow lesson in giving in to feelings of comfort and love. Check out the video by Malcolm MacMaster below:

The Runaway EP is out now and available from the Kylie V Bandcamp page.

Luka Kuplowsky – Sudden Reach from the Inner World

Following on from previous single ‘The Spirits Are Busy’, Toronto-based songwriter Luka Kuplowsky has returned with new single ‘Sudden Reach from the Inner World’ on Mama Bird Recording Co. and Next Door Records. The previous track offered a dappled, jazz-inflected sound around Kuplowsky’s distinctive almost-spoken vocals to conjure something at once laid back and esoteric, and this duality is again present in ‘Sudden Reach’. A song which pushes into almost ambient territory in its intuitive warmth, with Bahamas’ Felicity Williams again offering heavenly backing vocals. “This was a beautiful accident,” as Kuplowsky says of the track. “The lyrical imperative of trusting the immediacy of new love seems fitting for a song that’s creation was so sudden and surprising.”

Soft buzz of a summer day
Compassion of a silent kind
Birds meet and disperse
They astound me every time
Sudden reach from the inner world sudden reach

‘Sudden Reach from the Inner World’ is out via Mama Bird Recording Co. and Next Door Records and is available from Bandcamp.

Noah Roth – C U Tomorrow

When moving back to the Chicago suburbs after five years in Philadelphia, Noah Roth was on a bit of a downer. They’d just gone through a break-up, had to leave the place they’d called home to return to their childhood bedroom, and had been working on their last album Breakfast of Champions for so long that they’d fallen into a burnt out disillusionment. But borrowing equipment from a sibling, Roth began experimenting with Ableton and found new songs pouring forth with an unexpected ease. Three weeks later the basis of a new record, Don’t Forget to Remember, had solidified. Lead single and opener ‘C U Tomorrow’ hints at the album’s new direction, set for release on Devil Town Tapes, foregoing any agonising over fine details in favour of a direct expression. “I wanted to make something that was kind of quick and dirty, and doing it myself the way that I used to do when I was a teenager,” as Roth explains.

Plastic Cactus – Year of the Rat

Portland, Oregon outfit Plastic Cactus are gearing up to release their debut full-length album, and new single ‘Year of the Rat’ is the first taste of what to expect. Together, Brooke Metropulos (guitar/vocals), Michaela Gradstein (guitar/vocals), Bill Willson (bass) and Tyler Brown (drums) take equal parts cosmic desert rock and languid surf pop and submerge everything in vocal harmonies, creating a sound which owes as much to spaghetti westerns as it does the polish of classic pop.

‘Year of the Rat’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Rin McArdle – Something Blue

With a self-titled album coming later this summer, Naarm/Melbourne-based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Rin McArdle has released new single, ‘Something Blue’. The album spans the emotional gamut from searing anger to tender vulnerability, and the track shows off the latter side of the work, tapping into a nineties aesthetic to bring to life its searching, therapeutic sound. Camp Cope’s Georgia Maq joins on vocal duties too, charging things with an impassioned intimacy. “It’s a really personal song so I wanted to get someone close to me to sing on it in a kind of conversational way,” McArdle explains. “I thought Georgia would be perfect, our voices are quite different, there’s a contrast to them that I really like.”

The song also comes with a video directed by Louis Oliver Roach which takes imagery from  Norwegian black metal band Immortal and transplants it into the Australian bush.

Rin McArdle is out on the 28th July and you can pre-order it now.

Sea Lemon – Cellar

Having just signed with Luminelle Recordings, Sea Lemon (AKA Seattle‘s Natalie Lew) has unveiled a delightfully ethereal new single, ‘Cellar’. Dream pop in an almost literal sense, where weightless textures bely the ominous weight within, and close-held impulses make themselves known in strange ways. “‘Cellar’ was inspired by my love of really classic horror and thriller films, like Blow Out and Misery,” Lew explains, “and how loving scary movies can sometimes feel like something is wrong with you.” A compulsion to seek out the dark and disturbing aspects of life that’s often mirrored within the movies themselves. Characters who allow their morbid curiosity to get the better of them, drifting toward what they already know to be bad news as though a certain inevitability exists within the situation. Watch the video shot and edited by Natalie Lew and Abe Poultridge below:

‘Cellar’ is out now via Luminelle Recordings.

Sleepy Gonzales – Skylight / Freaking Out

With EP Mercy Kill coming next month on Light Organ Records, Vancouver‘s Sleepy Gonzales have unveiled a double single, ‘Skylight/Freaking Out’. A pair of tracks which act as a kind of yin and yang, the first slower, heartfelt and emotive, searching for illumination within an otherwise gloomy environment, while the latter is the polar opposite. A racing track which taps into darker interiors, finding catharsis in allowing the less than positive feelings out into the world. “Maybe they balance each other out, or maybe one eventually destroys the other,” as the band explain. “That depends on you.” Watch the video for ‘Skylight’ filmed by Ethan Andrews below:

Mercy Kill is out on the 30th June via Light Organ Records.

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Claire Cronin – What the Night is Thinking
Michael Cromier – Foghorn
Ylayali – little caterpillar graveyard
Forrest Moody & Jake Bellissimo – Selige Sehnsucht
Grotto Terrazza – Was Leben Will Muss Sterben
Trying – If I Don’t Get a Job
Giant in The Lighthouse – Sprinting
Soften – Iridescent
Champ Major – Abbeville
Grebes – Plum
Jack M. Senff – Old Days
Sam Lynch – Not My Body
Tyler Key – Change My Mind
Ē – Afraid of the Ocean
Dehd – Wild
Pancho and the Wizards – Rot
TV People – Healthier Days
Plastic Cactus – Mystery Boy
Bibi Club – Jean Rene
It’s Sunday – Comme Un Fool
Little Slugger – Impossible
runnner – fan on
Hostxess – Time
omes – wyd
Oliver Ray – Ol’ Coyote
Will Johnson – Cornelius
Merival – No Brakes
My Father’s Son – Dust to Rust
Jordan Klassen – Virtuous Circle
Ditty – Deathcab

Check out our previous Monthly Roundup playlists, and be sure to read or Reviews and Previews throughout the month.

The post June 2019 Roundup Mix appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Champ Major – Abbeville

Recording in her Brooklyn apartment, Madison Major writes and releases hauntingly intimate songs under the name Champ Major (the name her father had preferred for her at birth). Despite living and studying in New York, Major originally hails from Savannah, and something of the Georgian landscape worms its way into her sound—the tactile nature of the dewy air and black mud of the marshes recreated in the foggy lo-fi aesthetic.

The lead single from debut EP, Recipe For Baking Two Humans Together, ‘Abbeville’ makes this clear. A song carved out of the past, the track is a collision of childhood curiosity and anxiety, the outside world pushing into the recording even as Major’s vocals rise in feeling. The result is more of a question than an answer, but a fond one at that.

Jordan Klassen – Virtuous Circle

The prolific Vancouver songwriter Jordan Klassen first came to our attention with the 2012 Kindness EP, though has been releasing music longer than that. After a number of albums and EPs since, Klassen is preparing to release a brand new full-length later this year, and has unveiled the single ‘Virtuous Circle’ by way of introduction.

Threaded by a taut sense of forward motion, the song is a rich collision of folk and rock that utilises electronic and orchestral flourishes to fully realise its spirit. Thematically, the track is a form of prayer, a hopeful wish for change and transformation in the face of a seemingly inescapable situation. With the deft touch and light energy, the track makes such a desire seem possible, as though a vicious circle could be made virtuous with enough will and determination.

Hostxess – Time

There’s a magnetism as the heart of the music of Hostxess, some compelling force around which the dreamy instrumentation swirls. Composing, recording and mixing everything themselves, the Tuscon-based artist conjures thickly atmospheric tracks that possess a near-tangible weight, holding your hand through the misty soundscapes, drawing you toward the bright centre point.

New single ‘time’ is the form idealised, the translucent sound down-tempo to the point of stasis, the vocals close and conversational yet somehow distant too, as though the echoes of communication now passed, or else words spoken only in one’s head. The track might not culminate in a joyous crescendo, the centre might never be reached, but when the process of searching is a wondrous as this, then perhaps the journey is all that matters.

oh my darling
I want to take my

skin to skin
even these bodies
feel thick
and there’s really
no space
between us

omes – wyd

Taking inspiration from the DIY aesthetic that stretches right back to early Death Cab and Built To Spill, Omar De Col began recording lo-fi bedroom pop songs under the moniker omes. After winning a sizeable fan base through a trickle of Soundcloud singles, and appearing on the spring Z Tapes compilation, omes is now set to release a debut EP, boy, with Devil Town Records.

Lead single ‘wyd’ gives an idea of what to expect from the tape. Wrapped in a gauzy melancholy and delivered with a disarming sincerity, the track is a stellar addition to the bummed-out bedroom movement, built from layered guitars and near-whispered vocals that paint a kind of hushed loneliness.

Tied up, lost out
Found it over there
Hannah,
What are you doing?
“Nothing”

Ditty – Deathcab

An urban ecologist in the day, Goa’s Aditi Veena records under the moniker Ditty by night, crafting a delicate brand of folk that she describes as ‘earthsongs’. After debut EP Mumblings was released back in 2014, Ditty is now releasing her debut full-length album, Poetry Ceylon, via Pagal Haina Records, and the new singles display the consolidation and growth of her sound.

Inspired by ‘Transatlanticism’, ‘Deathcab’ is a great introduction for those unfamiliar with the Ditty sound. Taking the tenderness of Death Cab’s song and applying it to her own relationship, the track sees Ditty craft a subtle and snaking sense of emotion that brings to mind the languid tones of Sun June. The effect is a kind of inevitability, love painted as an organic thing, just another process of the earth’s natural rhythms.

Poetry Ceylon is out now via Pagal Haina Records.

Pancho and the Wizards – Rot

San Luis Obispo rockers Pancho and the Wizards peddle a psych-inflected brand of punk that grabs you by the ear and drags you through the other end, the breathless style only interrupted for sluggish, heavy breakdowns that club you over the head. Released earlier this spring, their latest EP Cemetery sees the formula perfected, born of a tension between the urge to race and stomp and a cocksure embrace of the resulting unpredictability.

Despite being the closing track, single ‘Rot’ is as good a place to start as any, strung along by a creeping baseline that seems to propel the rest of the instrumentation and Tristan Wildey’s fluidly conversational cadence. As such, there’s an unavoidable pull at the centre of the track that extends right to the fatalism of the lyrics, leaving you with no option but to buckle up and hold on tight.

I feel it all the time, I think I’m finally dead inside
I know, it’s starting to show
I regret everything, my visions shot and ears ring all the time
I’m on my way out

Oliver Ray – Ol’ Coyote

Having played guitar for Patti Smith since 1995, Oliver Ray has long been a man immersed in music. However, it is not until now that Ray has released music of his own, with debut record Out Passed Nowhere out via Royal Oakie on the 7th June. Not that Ray is letting his musical history go to waste, enlisting members of bands like Giant Sand, The Myrrors, Sugar Candy Mountain, Xixa and China to help craft his detailed sound, not to mention Howe Gelb and even the “high priestess and poet laureate of punk” herself.

Single ‘Ol’ Coyote’ gives a glimpse into one facet of such a collaboration. Unfurling slowly with exploratory guitar, the song is something of desert vision quest viewed through the prism of classic folk, the psychedelic hints nodding toward the more dedicated forays into the genre elsewhere on the album. With its swelling warmth and patient build, ‘Ol’ Coyote’ is a good example of a musician at the height of his ability, crafting something vast and striking from the array of experiences and influences at his disposal.

Plastic Cactus – Mystery Boy

Fronted by Brooke Metropulos and Michaela Gradstein, Portland’s Plastic Cactus make surf-rock for cowboys and desert creatures, their tropical summer vibes counter-shaded with something altogether more sunbaked and strange. After two self-released EPs in 2017 and 2018 respectively, the band are working on a brand new collection of songs to be released into the world later this year.

For now, ‘Mystery Boy’ is the only glimpse that we have of the new material, but the song provides more than enough evidence to suggest that Plastic Cactus are perfecting their sound. Starting up with a tropical sixties shimmer, the track lulls the listener into a false sense of ease before gradually twisting the dial, psych tinges heralding something eerie at the heart of the sound. After a series of slow rises, the track eventually culminates into a frantic race, making good on its promise to subvert the lazy, languorous tone.

My Father’s Son – Dust to Rust

Led by Montreal’s Mark Kulmala, My Father’s Son are an indie folk outfit who released their debut record, Heart of Wood, back in 2016. Combining the melancholic tones of the folk genre and the toe-tapping energy of country, Kulmala and co. created songs both stirring and introspective, joining the likes of Noah Gundersen and Jason Isbell in their ability to find light amid darkness and pain.

Ahead of forthcoming album The Greatest Thaw, the band are releasing a number of singles to whet our appetites. The latest, ‘Dust to Rust’, is described as both a love song and a ‘diss’ track centring on the experience of touring. Rather than being a traditional love song, the pining here is for Kulmala’s apartment during the long weeks on the road, the attack directed toward his rusty ‘02 Honda Civic. “Touring is the epitome of bitter-sweet,” Kulmala explains. “Leaving loved ones and the comfort of home behind as you drive away for weeks at a time always comes with moments of panic. The day before I leave is always the worst.”

The Greatest Thaw will be released this month, so keep an eye on My Father’s Son’s Bandcamp page.

Enjoyed Vol. 25? There’s more where that came from over on the Bright Sparks tag. If you fancy something a little more in-depth than head on over to our Reviews page.

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