As well as representing a step forward in the evolution of the Teethe project, the style is also fitting for the themes of the record. The “band’s four distinct songwriters, singers, and artists ask a series of interlocked questions about what it means to build a life in a time of shared collapse,” as the label explains, each of Boone Patrello, Grahm Robinson, Madeline Dowd and Jordan Garrett bringing their own sensibilities and concerns to create something capable of conjuring hope and despair within the same breath.

Latest single ‘Holy Water’ is the perfect example. A nineties-inspired alt rock song which marbles lightness and weight, Dowd taking on vocal duties to add extra sincerity to the sound. “Water’s a-drippin’ / Take a sip and you’ll believe / In something better / In something bigger than me,” as the opening lines go. “The holy water / Yeah, I will drink to believe / In something better / When you fall down on your knees.” The result might be bathed in distortion but is anything but trapped beneath it, the upbeat tempo and heartfelt vocals suggesting transcendence of the grim present might be possible if only we have a little faith.

Cover photo by Alex Montenegro. Album Artwork by Madeline Dowd, Layout & Design by Alan “Rickman” Official

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Following a series of collaborations with Joel Johnston of Far Caspian, 22° Halo are now releasing a new single with Johnston’s label Tiny Library Records. Titled ‘Bird Sanctuary’, it finds Kennedy doing what he does best, a gentle duet with wife Kate Schneider that sparkles like a gem. He describes the song as one “about listening and not listening,” taking material he wrote around the theme of his wife’s experiences with severe illness. This is referred to only elliptically, with short, sentence-long “verses” that Kennedy delivers in between Schneider singing the chorus. “The thing you try and tell me breaks up with the wind,” he sings at the very beginning. “Say it again.”

But ultimately the heavy stuff is not the lasting feeling. Or at least it doesn’t drag you down in the way you might expect. It’s leavened into something uplifting with that trademark 22° Halo sense of almost naive wonder at the simple things all around us. “Saw the sparrows in alley picking twigs up,” Schneider sings during the chorus. “Are you listening?” It’s as if, at some very basic and intuitive level, Kennedy taps into the stuff that’s really important. Getting lost in the present, side by side with those you love.

‘Bird Sanctuary’ is out now via Tiny Library Records.

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With a ninth album coming later this year, Orchid Mantis is back with a brand new single ‘Another Life’. A song which not only explores new styles but also continues the trend of Howard enlisting outside help. Offering a morose intimacy typical of the best bedroom pop and slowcore, the song plays like inner longings as murmured to an empty room. Lyrics written and performed by Sign Crushes Motorist, one of Belfast artist Liam McCay’s several projects, elevate the mood further, and raise the Orchid Mantis sound to new levels of melancholic charm. It’s reportedly the first song from a forthcoming album, so stay tuned for more info in the near future.

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“When I was young living with my parents, my mother would be worried about my mental state because of the music coming from my room,” Faurholt explains. “One album I listened to again and again was Sophia’s sadcore masterpiece Fixed Water. Indeed the music was gloomy, but to me it felt like a warm soothing blanket, and it resonated in me. ‘Comforting Sounds’ is a salute to the music that has meant so much to me over the years.” In the song’s lyrics he name-drops the bands that form what he calls the soundtrack of his life. “Galaxie 500, Low, Red House Painters,” slowcore/sadcore heavyweights that nevertheless provide comfort rather than desolation.

The mood is therefore downbeat but coloured by an overriding fondness. The kind of melancholy you can wrap yourself in. The tempo is heavy and unhurried, surrounded by a sense of homemade silence that recalls Down Colorful Hill-era Red House Painters. But, in spite of that, its not a dark song per se. The overwhelming feeling is one of grateful nostalgia, the lasting message a positive one. “Do you think music can save your soul?” Faurholt asks, before affirming, “I think music can save our souls, at least it did for me.”

When the Spiders Crawl will be released via Raw Onion Records in the second half of 2022. You can get ‘Comforting Sounds’ now from the Jacob Faurholt Bandcamp page.

Artwork by Nadia & Polly Faurholt

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[Docks create] something at once grand and languid, the guitars weaving a wide ocean over which we float and bob in somnambulant motion, while also conjuring a sense of the size and depth, as though that around and beneath us is worthy of respect and awe.

The band are back with a brand new release, Ballast EP, which sees Docks undergoing subtle change and evolution. Things kick off with ‘Œuvres vives’, a taut, lean song that threatens to expand into heavy territory yet never quite does, and ‘Kiosk’ follows in a similar manner, the foreboding of the opening never quite precipitating into the storm it promises.

This is something of a theme on the record, though that’s not to say the tone remains entirely understated. The subversive, noir-ish tone of ‘Œuvres mortes’ certainly pushes into dark territory, while the slow tick of ‘Nafarros’ does swell across its smouldering length, though again the songs stop short of the post rock depth of previous releases. Even ‘Motorhome’, with its mean, electrically-charged air, does not allow the reverb to take over, and indeed it is absent from ‘Pan Bleu’, which heralds a return to the even tone of the opening.

In this way, the songs feel more mature and confident, relying on the implied and withheld to convey atmosphere rather than merely burying us in noise. Think the centre of a venn diagram between Mogwai’s Les Revenants soundtrack and Yo La Tengo’s for Old Joy—a simplicity that belies its own nature, born as it is from a struggle between melancholic beauty and needling dread.

Ballast EP is out now via Youth Riot Records! and you can get it from the Docks Bandcamp page.

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The new tape is similarly atmospheric, shrouded in a grey translucent graininess, sounding like heartfelt slowcore run through an antique tapedeck. ‘pb’ begins with a droning fuzz, like a giant mosquito at the other end of a long distance call, before the entry of turbulent guitar and clipped downbeat vocals, a combination that brings to mind Brian Borcherdt’s work as Dusted. Meanwhile, ‘cherry tomatoes’ is slow and murky, with a Trace Mountains-style slacker drawl, Lyons sounding stretched beyond caring into apathy, or perhaps beyond hurting into an emboldened state of nothing to lose.

“I’ll pick the cherry tomatoes out myself
swear I’ll knock those restaurant fuckers down”

‘bus’ sounds like a bedroom-recorded Low song, existing in a slo-mo freefall, all quietly desperate vocals and blown out drum rumble, while ‘inside yourself’ is warbly and distorted, a lo-fi pop track bubbled through some cloudy liquid. In comparison, closer ‘plastic bag’ sounds positively cavernous, a wonky lo-fi rock song with thumping percussion and squawking feedback.

The tape is a strangely satisfying mix of bummed out minimalism and expansive experimentalism, occasionally erupting in big staticky towers of noise. The lo-fi homebrew vibe adds rather than detracts, the blurry introspection sounding somehow very real, without a single molecule of sugary production to mask what Lyons is trying to say. Basically, it does what Lily Tapes & Discs have become very good at doing, and is a worthy addition to their catalogue.

yy is out now on cassette via Lily Tapes and Discs and name-your-price download via the ylayali Bandcamp page.

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“I Sleep Alone is a beautifully human, sounding simultaneously hushed and impassioned, delicate and raw. The negative space that intersperses each guitar note has an emotional heft, an almost tangible substance that snakes around like fog. The lyrics are superb, and the whole thing has a depth that requires repeated listens to even begin to appreciate.”

Obvious + Unafraid is the latest release from Psalmships, which sees Britton enlist the help of Chelsea Sue Allen and Brad Hinton. The album is comprised of Psalmships originals and a handful of cover song, all of which hit that same note of resonant melancholy, the vocals as raw and powerful as ever.

If a man is judged by his influences then Britton is pretty much impeccable, with his choice of covers pretty much matching the dream lineup for the genre. From his noirish and grand version of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s ‘Death to Everyone’ (which we featured on our Haints Stay playlist), to a beautifully composed take on ‘Old Black Hen by Songs:Ohia. As if those two weren’t enough, there is also a Damien Jurado cover and a wonderful piano-led rendition of Phosphorescent’s ‘Cocaine Lights’.

But of course Psalmships is by no means just a covers project, with Britton’s songwriting holding its own even in such great company. From the subdued opener ‘Eulogy’, where his vocals are sometimes barely more than a strangled whisper, to the slow-burning ‘Revocation of the Elk’, each original song is suffused with a sense of pain and sorrow. Perhaps my favourite track is a song that originally appeared on I Sleep Alone, though this rendition of ‘Patience to Undo the Patience’ sounds of lot warmer and upbeat than the original. That said, the track still has shadowy and almost mystical Molina-esque imagery.

“Hardly ever does the moon not shine for me
and, rarer still, that he sings like a priest
so what kind of dreams are the best to have?
what if I never wake up again?”

There are similar themes on ‘Yven’, the song which gives the album its name (“What if I was just a cliff side, obvious and unafraid? Would I travel through the tremors as they made the hills separate?”), while ‘Impossible’ is perfectly gloomy and morose, just soft guitar and Britton’s vocals and wide open spaces. But things aren’t entirely dark either with a thread of something bright running through (at least some of) the tracks. Let’s revisit ‘Patience to Undo the Patience’ for an example, one of my favourite lines from the album.

“If you find heartbreak don’t come undone
because there are these shadows in everyone
what kind of light should I hold onto?
There is the moon, shining off of you”

Obvious + Unafraid sees Psalmships doing what Psalmships does best. Britton’s style is sometimes referred to as “ghostfolk” and I couldn’t come up with a better tag if I tried for a hundred years. This is folk music in its most distilled form, coalescing from the shadows on a moonlit night.

You can get Obvious + Unafraid on a name your price basis from the Psalmships Bandcamp page.

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Admissions of weakness and misery paradoxically suggesting bravery or strength in a weak-to-be-strong sort of way. The whole thing is admirable and relatable and impressively moving, holding a flame to the inherent confusion and grief of being young in the twenty-first century.

Hansford is back with a new track, ‘Open Casket Hidden Meaning’. The song, inspired by the first open casket funeral he attended as a child, as well as the death of his first dog, Noah. As you might expect, the sound is sad and remorseful in a child-like sort of way, the existential anxiety of adults not yet formed so that his grief can occupy a pure, selfless sort of level.

“It’s my fault I don’t believe,
don’t waste time in saving me.”

You can listen to the song now thanks to the good folks over at Indoors Outdoors.

Be sure to grab your copy of Deeply Flawed over on Bandcamp. If tapes are your thing then you can grab one at a show, or I believe you can get in touch which Hansford personally to strike a deal.

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The point that I immediately noticed was, despite being labelled with tags such as minimal and slowcore, there is actually some pretty electrifying rock music on display. A good example is opener ‘Reinforced/Delicate’, which starts with some sparse guitar, but eventually blossoms into a fully-fledged rock song. Amundsen and backing singer Margo May offer the repeated refrain of “Are you ready now?” as some kind of plea and guitars swirl around everywhere and big drums come crashing in as the track hits a crescendo around the 2:35 mark. It sounds “big”, almost like the loudest moments of Hospice-era Antlers, or something Strand of Oaks would have shredded his way through before aiming at more conventional indie rock.

Another great track is ‘Ride On, Molina’, presumably a tribute to the great man which is primarily a really good rock song, seven and a half minutes of catharsis. The second half is almost devoid of vocals, an entirely instrumental guitar jam. But despite these louder, rock leanings, the song never strays from what Amundsen has carved out so far in his career. There is a sense of patience and of space, and this is perhaps a testament to the confidence of a musician who knows exactly what he is trying to do in his music. Imagine one of Molina’s Magnolia Electric Co. tracks beamed through the prism of the whole minimal/slowcore canon, and you come close to describing it.

‘My Favourite Drug is Sleep’ is a hibernation anthem for the oncoming winter, in which Amundsen sings, “Now that night is getting cold enough, to go to bed with all the windows shut, under blankets I can burrow deep, and be reminded that my favourite drug is sleep.“ And this goes some way to describing Amundsen’s work as a whole. I Remember Everything always maintains that wistful air of sadness, but often in a glorious, life-affirming way. It’s melancholy as comfort, be it through kinship or catharsis or both. It’s an album that you could play to tap your feet and silently rock out on the train, but also one to listen to when your soul is hurting and you just want to stare out of a window to make things seems okay. This is a difficult combination to achieve and one which signals a very, very good album.

You can buy I Remember Everything from the Rivulets Bandcamp page, either as a digital download or on limited edition 12” vinyl. Europeans can get it via Jellyfant Records.

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The Meanest Creature Ever Known is Matthew Healy and Oliver Roditi from Edinburgh, and they have just put out their first album, You, Having Fun. Apparently the album is about “being alive and a bit sad.” As you might expect from that description, You, Having Fun is folky slowcore release that brings to mind quite a range of influences, from Phosphorescent to talons’

The album is available on a pay-what-you-can basis over at bandcamp.

Kississippi – I Can Feel You in My Hair Still

Kississippi is a sad girl from Phildelphia. She writes songs that are not mere catchy ditties, but instead full blown poetry. Stuff like this:

“You were swallowing god damning dogmas 
rough palmistry your hands could not align 
unsexed you borrowed callow spit, not lost 
no, looking for a space, just not mine 

redolent with skin of unknown 
unwary hands, nomadic ghost 
levied words from my spiteful throat 
understanding where my thoughts go 
you’d build a boat out of my bones.”

You can buy her album on Bandcamp for whatever you can afford.

James Junius – I’ll Hide Myself/Sleepers

Salt Lake City’s James Junius combines folk, ambient and jazz music to make atmospheric tracks “in an attempt to portray the world as he sees and the people he has met in various late night conversations out under the ferments.” Further details on Junius are few and far between, but you can download both tracks via Bandcamp.

Thad Kopec – Noble Neighbor

I stumbled across Thad Kopec’s cover of ‘Fake Empire’ a few days ago (and included it on our latest mix), and as luck would have it, he has a new(ish) album out right now. If folk music (with a touch of ambient music thrown in) complete with Biblical lyrics is your thing, Thad Kopec is probably your thing too. You can buy the album from Bandcamp, or grab it for whatever donation you can muster via Noisetrade.

Sea Wolf – Song Spell, No. 1: Cedarsmoke

The first release from Sea Wolf frontman Alex Brown Church’s Song Spell series, Cedarsmoke is a welcome reminder of how good Sea Wolf are. My listening relationship with the band is eerily similar to that of Jeremy over at HI54LOFI, and I am very much enjoying catching up with what I have been missing. There will be more Song Spell releases in between the ‘proper’ studio albums, so keep your eyes peeled and ears open for what Sea Wolf have to offer. Don’t make the same mistake we did.

Miss America By Wheary – All is Not Lost

Miss America by Wheary have been whetting our appetite over the past few weeks with singles from the EP All in Not Lost. Well you can stop dribbling and chow down on the full release. They make a brand of Americana that brings to minds acts like Jason Isbell and Water Liars, with an added experimental/ambient lilt which gives the whole thing a nice cinematic feel.

You can grab this one from Bandcamp too.

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