This week sees the release of The Land, The Water, The Sky, the new full-length record from Black Belt Eagle Scout. he album is both a celebration and mourning, born when Katherine Paul decided to leave leave Portland and head back toward her ancestral Swinomish home. To the Skagit River with its salmon and misted cedars, to the tide flats of the Salish Sea. A land marked by colonial violence, not only in terms of the historical theft of land and its lasting legacy but the climate disaster presently unfolding as a consequence of this very imperialist folly. But however difficult Paul’s journey, there’s an affirming power within every track of the album. A sense of connection which serves as a healing force. As though to stress that even within profound loss and loneliness, she is not alone. Final single ‘Spaces’ captures the spirit perfectly, as members of Paul’s close family join and making Black Belt Eagle Scout a communal thing. As she explains:

My parents lend their voices in the chorus melody, my dad with his strong pow wow voice and my mom with her wholesome tone that sounds so similar to mine you can barely notice the distinction between me and her. I want this song to be an offering for those who need to grasp onto something and feel because through feeling and being together, there is healing.

Check out the video filmed by Evan Benally Atwood and Morningstar Angeline below, which centres on the family trade of carving to further the sense of connection:

The Land, The Water, The Sky is out on the 10th February via Saddle Creek and you can pre-order it now.

Coldwave – Spurs for Business Cards

Combining acerbic vocals and dynamic momentum, Coldwave are a post-punk outfit based on Kaurna land (Adelaide). New EP Same Window, Different House shows off the style in all of its nuanced dimensions: the genre’s menace and weight stretched by taut rhythms and some surprisingly bright tones. Take single and closer ‘Spurs for Business Cards’, which plays something like Wild Pink covering Protomartyr or the other way around, but the wry delivery lends a personality all of its own. A surreal dreamscape born of personal myths and delusions.

Dreams of horse riding on the beach
Well I’m the real cowboy
Never really liked my own teeth
Swans in antique stores are all I see
Do you see I’ve changed my hair now
Well I still wear the same hat
But now I’m wearing pinstripes
I swapped my spurs for business cards

Lael Neale – I Am the River

In April 2020, Lael Neale left behind the bright lights of LA to move back to her family’s farm in rural Virginia. While there, she wrote and recorded new material, taking advantage of the slower rhythms of her surroundings and the shelter they gave from the chaos of the period. The result was a brand new album, Star Eaters Delight, which is due for release this coming April on Sub Pop. Perhaps counterintuitively, it promises to be a louder, more dynamic affair than Neale’s previous record. “Acquainted with Night (recorded in 2019, and released in 2021) was a focusing inward amidst the loud and bright Los Angeles surrounding me,” she describes. “It was an attempt to create spaciousness and quiet reverie within. When I moved back to the farm, I found that the unbroken silences compelled me to break them with sound.” This is immediately apparent on lead single ‘I Am the River’, a dynamic yet minimalist slice of lo-fi pop that draws influence from the likes of The Velvet Underground and Suicide.

Star Eaters will be released via Sub Pop on 21st April. Pre-order it now from the Lael Neale Bandcamp page.

Shana Cleveland – A Ghost

“I am a ghost and I’m trying / to show you what I do / can I come through?” So asks Shana Cleveland on ‘A Ghost’, the opening track new LP  Manzanita, coming next month on Hardly Art Records. The lines are the perfect introduction to the album. Not only drawing attention to a portal between our world and some other, but requesting we allow the door to open. Because the record is a self-described “supernatural love album set in the California wilderness,” and those willing to submit to its charms will be greeted with a lush experience where the otherworldly and organic commingle into a seamless whole. Watch the video directed, produced and editing by Vice Cooler with director of photography Dalton Blanco

Manzanita is out on the 10th March via Hardly Art Records.

Spencer Thomas Smith – Little Apartment

Back in 2021 we wrote about Spencer Thomas Smith, with EP Tennessee Mud offering a welcoming mix of emotional immediacy and nostalgic charm. Latest single ‘Little Apartment’ once again settles in such a sweet spot. A slow-burning meditation on leaving a place you have come to love which finds itself caught between melancholic reminiscence, a fear of the unknown and the persistent hope latent within every instance of change. But what really stands out is Spencer Thomas Smith’s patience amid such a swirl of emotions. A sense of compassion and fondness which outlives any present uncertainty.

‘Little Apartment’ is out now and available on streaming services.

Sunny War – No Reason

Last week, Nashville-based guitarist and singer-songwriter Sunny War released her fourth record Anarchist Gospel on New West Records. A bruised but unflinching exploration of personal trauma, the album employs a wide variety of styles—from dusty folk and bluesy country to energetic punk and ecstatic gospel—to form a powerful expression of resilience, capturing both the pain and joy of existence in a distinctively empathetic manner. “Everybody is a beast just trying their hardest to be good,” she describes. “That’s what it is to be human. You’re not really good or bad. You’re just trying to stay in the middle of those two things all the time, and you’re probably doing a shitty job of it. That’s okay.” A sentiment captured by lead single ‘No Reason’ and its striking chorus:

“Cos you’re an angel and you’re a demon
Ain’t got no rhyme ain’t got no reason”

Anarchist Gospel is out now via New West Records. Buy it now from the Sunny War Bandcamp page.

Thavoron – Struck

“A song concerning the often difficult process of coming to understand and accept yourself brought to life with all the stark solitude of such an experience.” That’s how we described ‘Twin Sized Bed’ by Thavoron back in November. The Seattle-based Cambodian-American artist moves between a variety of genres, from indie folk and emo to something closer to commercial pop, but this sense of the personal underpins all of their work. New single ‘Struck’ approaches new love with a sense of restraint, but as the ache of the vocals offers a gravity, the sound slowly unfurls into something quietly powerful. Watch the video directed by Maddie Ludgate and Thavoron themselves below:

‘Struck’ is out now via Trailing Twelve Records.

Victoria Wijeratne – Above & Beyond (feat. niemba)

Having made a name scoring film and television, composer and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Wijeratne is no stranger to the cinematic side of music. But recent EP Graces & Muses highlights how such sounds need not stay exclusive to the screen. Released by Dragon’s Eye Recordings, the EP draws from the breadth of Wijeratne’s experience to create something transportive and ever-changing, from the careful piano and mournful strings of the title track to brooding drama of ‘A Strange Time’. Closer ‘Above & Beyond’ even introduces vocals to the mix, Wijeratne joined by singer-songwriter niemba to push her music further than ever towards a more conventional dream pop. Attempting to cover so many moods and styles within four songs might prove the downfall of less assured artists, but here the changeable tone only furthers the thematic resonance of a release crafted around ideas of inspiration and intuition.

Wau Wau Collectif – Thiaroye 1944

Back in November, Sahel Sounds released Mariage, the second album by Wau Wau Collectif, the long-distance collaboration between musicians in Senegal (led by Aurora Kane) and Swedish songwriter and producer Karl Jonas Winqvist. We missed it at the time, but discovered it recently and thought it too good not to share. A record which collides a multitude of styles, utilizing guitar, synths and hip-hop beats in addition to West African instruments like the kora and balafon. The standout is the indescribably formidable ‘Thiaroye 1944’, a song of simmering power that combines stark guitar, spoken vocals and singing children—recounting a massacre by French commanding officers of Black African soldiers towards the end of the Second World War.

The post Weekly Listening: February 2023 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Here is a list of songs from 2020 that we liked but didn’t get around to writing about.

If you find something you like, follow the link in the embed to support the artists and labels on Bandcamp. And of course, there is a whole year’s worth of pieces on releases we did manage to write about, so have an explore through our reviews, previews and interviews from 2020.

The post Music We Missed in 2020 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The record’s title, translated by Thiam into four languages on the cover (Siftorde, Fateliku, Souvenir, Remember), references both these facts. The album is an act of remembrance of otherwise ephemeral moments, capturing not just Thiam’s guitar but also the warm hum of a thousand sibilant crickets, thus eternalizing a small moment in the warm dark of the Senegalese night. This sense of place is hugely important, and sets the guitar as just one small part of a wider ecosystem.

But the title refers also to a remembrance of older methods and styles. Thiam plays and updates these songs so that they may be remembered, using his guitar to reinterpret melodies traditionally played on the hoddu, some of which date back to the seventeenth century when Senegal was part of the Mali Empire. It’s here his knowledge as a folklorist, skill as a musician and curiosity as a listener combine, resulting in a sound that is part homage, part singular vision.

While Siftorde is a showcase of Thiam’s skill and dexterity as a guitarist, it’s the emotional core that glows through brightest. From the stark honesty of the no-frills setup to the meditative melodies that unfurl and repeat, the album holds a sense of pensive serenity that is impossible to capture with words. Accentuating this are small moments of what can only be described as transcendence. Take for example the faint murmur of vocals on ‘Dannibe,’ which bubble softly to the surface like an audible memory, only to dissipate in seconds, leaving you wondering if you ever heard them at all.

Siftorde is out now via Sahel Sounds and you can get the LP or digital download from the Tidiane Thiam Bandcamp page.

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