His latest album While You Were Sleeping, released last month on Sleepy Cat Records, draws on a lifetime spent listening to old field recordings and getting to know the region’s elders, capturing the small gestures and idiosyncrasies of the old styles and, ultimately, continuing their legacy. “I’m exploring the power and experimental possibilities of an older, weirder America,” Decosimo describes. “A site of profound, less regulated creativity and expression.”

The record opens with ‘The Fox Chase’, originally by Tennessee ballad singer Dee Hicks, who along with his wife contributed over 400 songs to the folk archives at the Library of Congress. As the title suggests, it’s a song about a fox hunt, the singer listing his dogs affectionately as they chase the fox “from old England to old Kentucky.” Like almost every song on the album, it’s shot through with an almost intangible sense of melancholy, a document of the loss of not just treasured hounds but of families, as well as a sense of belonging and a way of life.

‘The Fox Chase’ tumbles beautifully into the instrumental ‘Lost Gander’, another Dee Hicks song that was intended to evoke the sound of wild geese flying overhead at night. The two tracks come complete with a video directed and edited by Gabe Anderson//Strange Bug, with character animation and watercolors by Larissa Wood, which captures the imagery perfectly:

Decosimo approaches these songs with the innate feel of a native and the expert knowledge of a folklorist, expanding and updating them with a careful hand. There’s no pale imitation here, no wannabe folksinger posturing. The record’s authenticity is apparent in every pluck and thump and pump organ wheeze. The result feels almost mystical in the way it conjures traditions and communities, transporting the listener to a quiet porch in a secluded holler, away from the bustle of conventional twenty-first century living.

“When the old ballad singers sang, they believed in the worlds that they sang about. You can feel it,” says Decosimo, inadvertently describing the very effect he captures with his own music. “When I hear a field recording of the great Tennessee ballad singer Dee Hicks calling up the foxhounds on ‘The Fox Chase’ or recounting Napoleon’s son’s demise on ‘Young Rapoleon’, I feel like he’s inviting me into a new world—one filled with a different set of possibilities.”

Another standout is ‘Trouble’, a take on a recording by Virgil Anderson, a player from the Tennessee mountains where Decosimo grew up. Decosimo picks at the banjo and is joined by Stephanie Coleman on fiddle and Joe O’Connell on pump organ, all three coming together to sing the chorus in unison. It’s a song rich with a sense of unwavering faith, though stands relevant not just for believers but secular folks too. A mantra to hold on to as we move through this chaotic world, one suffused with a quiet joy in the knowledge that even the worst of times won’t last, that better things lie ahead.

It’s trouble, trouble. There’s trouble everywhere.
Trouble, trouble. There’s trouble everywhere.
Trouble, trouble, there’s trouble all around.
But Lord, Lord, trouble can’t last always.

The album’s title is taken from the final lines of ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’, as sung in a field recording of Retta Spradlin. “Oh while you were sleeping,” Decosimo sings, “while you were slumbering, I was sleeping in the clay.” The version harks back to the song’s earlier iterations, and the imagery of that final line lingered with Decosimo. “As we slumber our minds construct new worlds from fragments of experience,” he explains. “These dream worlds can be familiar or unfamiliar. Sometimes they’re both at once. Slumbering is a time of inactivity: We rest in oblivion as the world moves ahead in its way, inflicting fresh wounds and generating new sources of wonder.”

This quote is a poignant one, capturing the essence of what makes While You Were Slumbering such a special record. The album itself is like one of the dreams Decosimo speaks of, a place where the past is resurrected and reimagined, where people never really die, and we can find refuge and solace from the worries and woes of the waking world. Which is not to say the album is some folly or exercise in diversion. It’s a deeply serious piece of art, a collage of memories, histories and traditions overlaid like the double exposure photograph on the cover art—perhaps not quite as it was but still evocative, still beautiful.

This is the ultimate triumph of While You Were Slumbering. Joseph Decosimo has made a record that’s not derivative of traditional folk music, nor even simply inspired by it. It’s a genuine addition to the lineage, complete with the peculiarities, the eccentricities and the sense of genuine feeling. And with this authenticity comes something deeper, an intersection of art and history that is both moving and sustaining. “This music is about nourishment,” as Decosimo puts it in his liner notes. “It’s about the idea that good old things—not the burdensome stuff—can still sustain us and fill us. Maybe, in the best of circumstances, it can even help us to heal or at least connect with a healing impulse. Or maybe it just opens a clearing where we can rest a bit.”

While You Were Slumbering is out now on Sleepy Cat Records and available via their webstore or the Joseph Decosimo Bandcamp page.

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Adwaith are a Welsh-language trio from Carmarthen working at the intersection of post-punk and dream pop in a manner reminiscent of acts like Belly and Basement Revolver. This summer sees the release of their second album Bato Mato on Libertino Records and latest single ‘Wedi Blino’ (“tired”) gives a taste of their bittersweet style. “We wanted to create a big indie pop song that has a melancholy feel to it” as the band put it. “It’s about being worried that life is going too fast or the worries of a relationship, the overwhelming feeling that you’re not good enough and that you are the reason things aren’t working out.” Check out the video directed by Eilir Pierce below:

Bato Mato is out on the 1st July via Libertino Records.

Colyn Cameron – Stream

After making his name with JUNO-nominated indie folk outfit Wake Owl, Vancouver‘s Colyn Cameron is now recording under his own name. His upcoming album, Freehand, promises to explore personal themes of relationships and self-worth within the wider moment of existential anxiety and technological intrusions. Lead single ‘Stream’ is the perfect introduction, a track which confronts the lingering dissatisfaction which haunts a society built around yearly upgrades and gamified time. “Well I’ve tried prototypes, but the fruit wasn’t ripe,” Cameron sings, “I’ll pretend differently it’s a bad appetite.”

You can get ‘Stream’ now from the Colyn Cameron Bandcamp page. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for further news on Freehand too.

D.C.R. Pollock x Derek Ted – Rat’s Nest

Having signed up with Other People Records, California-based artist D.C.R. Pollock is sharing some of his previous work in anticipation of new releases. ‘Rat’s Nest’ was recorded with Derek Ted as part of a spilt release in 2020 and captures the heartfelt vulnerability of Pollock’s work. A smoked-out melancholy which nevertheless catches fire again, Pollock’s impassioned delivery salvaging heat from a charred husk. Check out the lyric video by Ted below:

‘Rat’s Nest’ is out now and available via Bandcamp.

Diatom Deli – Time​~​Lapse Nature

The project of Taos, New Mexico resident Deli Paloma~Sisk, Diatom Deli is a self-described “channel between cerebral ascension and somatic memory.” Paloma~Sisk weaves lush, cinematic soundscapes from classical guitar, layered vocals, synths and samples, textured sonic worlds that feel both organic and mystical. With its backbone of acoustic guitar, stand-out ‘Disarray’ feels like a folk song exploded into colour and pattern by a perfect water droplet in some desert oasis. Check it out below:

Time​~​Lapse Nature is out now via RVNG Intl. and you can get it now from the Diatom Deli Bandcamp page.

El Rocko – Sun Farm

The recording project of Chattanooga-based songwriter Chase Waller, El Rocko makes a down-to-earth style of music which combines the warmth of indie folk with some 90s/00s indie rock sensibilities. Ahead of new EP Daydreaming on Yellow Racket Records, single ‘Sun Farm’ offers a scene of quiet domesticity amid the burgeoning catastrophe of the wider world. A lesson in the modest work of living, maintaining a small patch of order within an otherwise chaotic space.

Young woman hovers out above her garden
Holding seeds in the palm of her hand
Feels the soil like the touch of a lover
Drops the seeds in the hole just as slow as she can

Daydreaming is out on the 27th May via Yellow Racket Records and you can find El Rocko on Bandcamp.

Fresh Pepper – Congee Around Me

Fresh Pepper is a collaborative project based in Toronto led by Andre Ethier and Joseph Shabason, who together enlist the talents of some of Toronto’s best musicians to create a truly unique style which sits somewhere at the intersection of heartfelt singer-songwriter, playful jazz and experimental indie rock. The band are preparing to release their self-titled debut on Telephone Explosion Records, and have unveiled lead single ‘Congee Around Me’ in preparation. As both album and single titles suggest, Fresh Pepper write songs about the soul-deadening experiences of working in restaurants, but there is no anxious frazzle on display. Instead, the band approach things with a disarming sense of grace that is genuinely affecting, with which they intend to “exorciz[e] past workplace woes through skillful musicianship and an earnest, slightly bizarre sense of humor.”

mushrooms in the frying pan
throw another onion in
and i’ll see when i see you
oh i know

Lost Cat – Bitch Fight

Based in LA, trio Lost Cat trio channel classic riot grrrl sensibilities to live up to their name—conjuring a sound both alluring and dangerous and beholden to no one. Ahead of their self-titled debut on Lolipop Records later this month, the band have unveiled latest single ‘Bitch Fight’ by way of introduction. A track of snarling and bared teeth, daring anyone to cross its path. Check out the video directed by Fred Joseph:

‘Bitch Fight’ is out on the 27th May via Lolipop Records.

Lou Hazel – Claude the Armadillo

After releasing the EP Carolina (Out of My Mind) under his own name, Chris Frisina adopted the moniker Lou Hazel for a brand new release on Sleepy Cat Records. First single ‘Claude the Armadillo’ follows the new-but-not-so-new vibe, as the song was first written by Chris’s uncle Ralph Frisina forty years ago in response to the looming dread of the Cold War. As history’s wheel spins and the old tensions return, Lou Hazel returns to Claude and his peace-loving attitude, all delivered with a John Prine-style blend of compassion and wry humour. Check out the cartoon video by Alex Derwick below:

‘Claude the Armadillo’ is out now via Sleepy Cat Records.

Sister Swire – I Shot The President

The recording project of Toronto’s Sarah Swire, Sister Swire is set to release a new album produced by Joel Plaskett later in 2022. In anticipation of the release, Swire has unveiled new single ‘I Shot the President’. A dark lullaby written in response to The Devil and Daniel Johnston documentary, exploring the experience of bipolar and psychosis in all of its ominous and multifaceted scope. Johnston’s presence lingers over the track, lending the vocals a conflicted tone somewhere between gentle and troubled, and the idiosyncratic lyrics are something to behold.

‘I Shot the President’ is out now and available via streaming services.

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Following on from EP Body Child Light Crime, released last year on Sleepy Cat Records, Owen Matthew FitzGerald is again working with the label to release a brand new full-length, A deep clean you can count on! The record takes on a whole host of topics, ruminating on love, addiction and loss, not to mention the curious sensation of having a body and being alive even when you might not feel quite so animated. “These nine songs are like school pictures,” FitzGerald explains. “They are wallet-sized portraits taken between 2006 and 2016. The songs on A deep clean you can count on! are frightened, sad, confused, bewildered, dislocated, hopeful, and hopeless. They’re emotional snapshots.”

Despite this apparent emotional distance, the songs retain the visceral mood and idiosyncratic details of the present moment. Something FitzGerald discovered all too readily, pulled towards the past through a renewed engagement with it. But the songs’ lesson is not to bury oneself in memories, or hope to escape them entirely. Rather to work through the present with their weight keeping your feet on the ground. “Sometimes I can’t recognize myself in the songs. Other times I’m so swept up that I’m carried back in time by strong, old feelings,” he explains. “I’m hungover and doomed. I’m an unfixable thing that hurts other people. Whenever you find an old picture of yourself in a yearbook or a sock drawer I hope you feel happy to be where you are. More than anything else, that’s how this record makes me feel.”

The album’s first single, ‘Touching the Oven at Work’ is the perfect introduction to this style. A picture of a time where every sign of life was incidental, every possible edge dulled. FitzGerald delivers this in his distinctively earnest style, his vocals plainspoken and often hushed, the edges of his desperation curling with a dark humour as he searches for proof his life is continuing despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

If my heart pumps blood through my veins…
If my eyes turn light into sight…
If it still hurts, touching the oven at work…
Why do I feel dead?

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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.