Today, we’re really please to be able to share the debut Red Wedding record, a self-titled EP that boasts a diverse array of influences. Owing a debt to the DIY pop of Cleaners From Venus and edgy New Wave of Marianne Faithfull, as well as Stereolab, Charli XCX and the soundtracks of Piero Umiliani and Ennio Morricone, the release is cool but never cold, and atmospheric beyond its often minimalistic sound.

The record was mostly conceived while Goldfarb worked at a cinema. The tedium of the role was offset by the unique access to films it provided, something which had a tangible influence on the sound of the album. Not only do the scores of Umiliani and Morricone shape the Red Wedding aesthetic, but the very act of being around movies so often has a more pervasive influence on the perspective of the writing. “Rather than directly expressing my feelings in my lyrics,” Goldfarb explains, “I would often use the films I viewed as a lens through which to view my life. The refuge I sought in songwriting seamlessly overlapped with the escapism I found in films.”

Opener ‘Christmas Eve’ sets the tone, a slow and shimmering retro pop instrumental that heralds the Red Wedding style, before ‘Stripes’ introduces Goldfarb’s vocals that sound at once bored and defiant. Here is where Faithfull’s influence becomes apparent, the plain spoken and barely interested style feeling radically confrontational. Take ‘Bones’ as an example, the verses’ mumbled simplicity lending an intimate vibe, as though we are within Goldfarb’s head, privy not just to her poetic thoughts but the anxious, repetitive ones too. “Don’t be angry with me again,” she asks, “please don’t be angry with me again,” though the flat delivery makes it seem less like pleading with the other person, and more her own private mantra, a prayer to change reality before it comes to pass.

The tone harks back to the filmic inspiration, emotions present but detached, seen but not felt, somehow secondary. As such, the songs feel like reactions to emotions rather than emotions themselves, as though the drama and disappointment of Goldfarb’s life are projected onto a big screen and we’re next to her, watching her reaction. ‘Bugsy’ is a good example of this, the scene clearly evocative but lacking immediacy, fierce emotion transformed into a wistful longing in retrospective examination.

The track also shows Red Wedding’s inventive writing style. A classically trained cellist, Goldfarb possesses no formal training in guitar, and many of the songs resulted from this lack of rule and preconception. “My inexperience with the instrument created new songwriting possibilities for me,” Goldfarb explains. “Without a frame of reference, I would find random chords that I loved and work around them.”

Invention marks the lyrics too, with some interesting experimentation with perspective and preconceived ideas. As we wrote in our preview, ‘Lucy’s Song’ is a re-imagining of Bram Stoker’s Dracula from the point of view of the peripheral woman, centring her experience to explore new directions. “[The song] offers a revised narrative in which Lucy is granted more autonomy, challenging her victim status and lifting her character from object to subject,” we wrote. “Which is to say, Lucy is granted an awareness that is absent from Stoker’s telling, the changes to her body not some all-powerful force but a new dimension in her persona, and one which she can confront and grapple with like all personal changes.”

The idea marks the Red Wedding sound, and brings an added dimension to the influence of film. There is a cool detachment, yes, but the move is not some attempt to belittle or escape one’s own experience. Rather, Goldfarb uses the clarity offered by distance to get a better handle on things, circumventing personal hang-ups and neuroses, and also the stereotypes of our society. Which is to say, removing oneself not to become some passive viewer, but rather to increase understanding and autonomy.

Red Wedding is out now and available via the Red Wedding Bandcamp page.

The post Red Wedding – S/T appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Song list:

Options – Waiting
2nd Grade – Favorite Song
Alexander – Going to Sleep
Ryan Van Gonten – Fabrique
Haunted Continents – What Were You Born For?
Weakened Friends – Blue Again
Shybaby – Lazy Hazy
Frankie Valet – April
Primo! – You’ve Got a Million
Hypoluxo – Kentucky Smooth
Basement Revolver – Knocking
Dead Painters – Output
HALEY – Infinite Pleasure Part 2
Doe – Heated
Ing – Dust
Benjamin Shaw – Terrible Feelings!
internet boy crush – ghost friend
lowly loverboi – Dumb Phone
Dead Tooth – Liars
Kin Hana – You
Bodega – The Truth is Not Punishment
The Cordial Sins – Not Enough
Indoor Cats – Fun 2
Upstairs – Trust the Process
Sabriel’s Orb – Holding
John Atkinson – Bakwaves // Rye
Fanclub – Leaves
The Chairman Dances – Acme Parking Garage
Con Davison – Talk
Ivy Dye – Diminish
Elizabeth Owens – I Long
The Last Bison – Don’t Look Away
Our Fastest Typist – It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me

You can find all of our monthly round-up posts here, and our complete array of mixtapes here.

The post September 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The eponymous Lucy is that of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the best friend of Mina Harker who is admired for her beauty and purity. Indeed, men value these qualities so highly that Lucy earns three marriage proposals on the same day, and her life only goes downhill from there. After unexplained symptoms like sleepwalking, a thorough prodding by Van Helsing and untold blood transfusions, Lucy is left bedridden with only her mother and a good dose of garlic for company. Taking the form of a bat and a wolf, Dracula still manages to get through her window, killing the mother through shock, before exsanguinating Lucy to the point of death.

Only she stays alive long enough to grow exaggerated canines and a new lustily impatient manner, and in dying comes to look better than in life. Which is to say she becomes a vampire, leaving the tragic heroism to a series of men who ultimately stop and drive a stake through her heart in order to save her soul.

With ‘Lucy’s Song’, Red Wedding offers a revised narrative in which Lucy is granted more autonomy, challenging her victim status and lifting her character from object to subject. Which is to say, Lucy is granted an awareness that is absent from Stoker’s telling, the changes to her body not some all-powerful force but a new dimension in her persona, and one which she can confront and grapple with like all personal changes.

You can find Red Wedding on Bandcamp, and on Twitter @goldfarb232.

The post Red Wedding – Lucy’s Song appeared first on Various Small Flames.