Slows Down – On and On

We’ve featured Slows Down, the recording project of British Berlin-based DIY solo artist and multi-instrumentalist Alexander Hawthorne, twice already here at WTD. His self-titled EP contained ” humming, moaning drones…spiky, cathartic crescendos and a dash of psychedelic hypnotism”, while EP2 sounded like “dream pop acts such as Beach House with a darker, post-punk edge”. Hawkthorne is now back with a third EP called, you guessed it, EP3, a four-track release that promises “a focus on rich and diverse tonality and texture…melodically spare and playing out in deconstructed pop structures, like post-rock that has been pulled back into traditional song formats”. First single ‘On and On’ confirms this, all snaking guitars and marching drums and blown-out bursts of noise. Check it out below and then order EP3 on cassette from the Slows Down Bandcamp page.

Folly Tree – In the Stone

Folly Tree are a folk pop band from Tel Aviv, who are readying their debut debut album, Consolidate, for release in February. To whet our appetites, the band have released a video, shot on the streets of Old Jaffa, Israel, an acoustic take on the song ‘In the Stone’. The video was shot by the folks at Albatross, and strips back the track, placing emphasis on lead Alex Moshe’s yearning vocals. If that sounds good to you then check out the full album ahead of release on the Folly Tree Soundcloud page.

Jake Levine – White Moon

Jake Levine is a folk singer from New Jersey who takes his inspiration from the greats like Dylan and Young. Levine has just released his debut album, In Country Sleep, a record he hopes “can give company to those nursing some broken part of themselves”. Now that’s a message WTD can get behind. To pique your interest, here’s ‘White Moon’, with its strong storytelling and a sense of wistful melancholy.

You can get In Country Sleep on a name-your price basis from the Jake Levine Bandcamp page.

Nam Wayne – Falling on the Waves

Self-described as an “American tape-rocker and reverb junkie of Scottish Vietnamese ancestry”, Nam Wayne (pronounced Nom Wayne) makes fast-paced indie rock covered in a glossy veneer of nostalgia. This is perhaps unsurprising, considering the journey from inception to release for Wayne’s debut album reads something like a Mark Leyner blurb. Starting writing back in 2005, he planned to get the whole thing sorted in a single week, though trials such as tape equipment failures, the vinyl manufacturing bottleneck, the economic downturn, a band mate’s coma (“no joke”, reads the press release), and Nam’s crippling perfectionism mean that the record hasn’t seen the light of day. February 7th sees that change, so keep an eye on the Nam Wayne Bandcamp page to see if it’s been worth the wait.

El Anillo de Kim – Tangerines

Georgia residents Reagan Byrd and Taylor Cotton, grew up in the same town outside of Atlanta and spent years listening to, playing and writing music together. Recently, the boys finally got their act together and made a record using two microphones and garageband. El Anillo de Kim, make lo-fi garage rock that is tons of fun but with an edge of emotion. What better metaphor for being young? This track, ‘Tangerines’, is taken from their album Books on Tape, and is half pristine, Dusted-esque, build up and half straight out fuzz.

Check out the El Anillo de Kim Soundcloud page for more.

Surf Rock is Dead – In Between

Brooklyn band Surf Rock is Dead make pedal-heavy shoegazey indie pop, a kind of fusion of NYC shadows and surfy melodies. Their latest single, ‘In Between’, was released a few weeks back and proves a great intro to their sound. In an interview with Billboard, band member Kevin Pariso said that it’s “a song about going back to where you’re from and not feeling like you belong anymore yet not feeling perfectly in place where you currently are”, kinda unsurprising for a band who’s members relocated to New York from Australia and Chicago.

You can get ‘In Between’ as a name-your-price download from the Surf Rock is Dead Bandcamp page.

Jake Aaron – Record Player

Jake Aaron is a British folk singer and guitarist. He has recently released a five-song EP, that provides a mix of classic folk (such as ‘Record Player’ with it’s brashly masculine, yet strangely poetic lyrics), emotive ballads (like the paino-led ‘1790’) and a fingerpicked guitar track (see ‘High Rolling’). It’s a nice little collection of songs and paves the way for a full-length release, hopefully in the not-to-distant future.

You can get the EP on vinyl from the Jake Aaron website. You can get digital copies too if that’s more your thing.

Caitlin Pasko – Barking Dogs

Caitlin Pasko weaves a conventional singer-songwriter sound with something altogether dreamier. Her new album, Glass Period, is due for release next month, and in preparation Pasko has unveiled the first single, ‘Barking Dogs’. The piano-led track was initially focused on Pasko’s experiences with anxiety, but tragedy struck as she was writing and the song naturally became about the immediate aftermath of the death of her father. It’s a very strong start to an album that I’m excited to hear, one which promises to be at once personal and ambitious. The blurb on the Bandcamp page page describes it thusly:

“On Glass Period, we find a small chapel to personal grief. There’s a chapel’s sense of calm, of refuge from the world, but also its starkness, its lack of cover from fear, its welcoming of the large and the small. There are small terrors that we must occasionally sit with for a while, which can be their own source of strength.”

Pre-order Glass Period now via the Caitlin Pasko Bandcamp page.

Les Bohem – When We Used to Get High

Les Bohem is a musician (and screenwriter) from Los Angeles who played in pop bands in the 80s and has written for the likes of Emmylou Harris and Randy Travis. Now Bohem has decided to step into the limelight himself and is releasing his debut solo album, Moved to Duarte. Pitched as “somewhere between Harry Chapin & Keaton Henson”, the album packs a heavy emotional punch. First single ‘When We Used to Get High’ confirms this, a bleary-eyed and reflective folk song, with Bohem’s gruffly whispered vocals front and centre.

Pre-order the album now from Bandcamp.

That’s all folks. Be sure to check back on this tag for previous things we have missed.

The post Best of the Rest: Things We Have Missed #7 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklisting:

1. Amerika – Wintersleep
2. Born Confused – Porridge Radio
3. Catchyalater – Frog
4. Water – Opals
5. Listerine – Foxall
6. Nightmare Song – Oscar Lush
7. October Mirage – Island Eyes
8. Past is Personal – West America
9. Roller – Quilt
10. Unattached – Two White Cranes
11. On the Nights You Stay Home – Donovan Woods
12. Call Out – Minor Moon
13. Consolation – The Chairman Dances (Lit Links)
14. First I’m Sorry – Haley Heynderickx
15. Waitress – Soft Lions
16. Vanitas – Hanging Hills
17. Waiting – Faint Peter
18. Farewell Navigator – Naomi Pop
19. Gifts – Real Swell
20. Future Wife – Jacob Faurholt
21. Wall – Slows Down
22. Olly Oxen Free – Creature Speak

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“Quite incredibly considering the lush and layered sound, [Slows Down EP] is an entirely solo effort. Taking inspiration from a wide range of luminaries including Swans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Radiohead, [Hawthorne] uses a diversity of techniques, from humming, moaning drones to spiky, cathartic crescendos and a dash of psychedelic hypnotism. But despite the expansive instrumentation,things never stray too far from the refined, minimalist values, the glowing core at the centre of all the tumult and noise.”

Now Hawthorne has released a second EP which sees a return of his dense and layered brand of home-recorded dream/chamber pop. The whole things feels big and monochrome from the very beginning with ‘Wall’, a droning instrumental which sets the atmosphere for what’s to come. The second track, single ‘I’m Not Inside Your Heart,’ introduces Hawthorne’s vocals and is a song which fuses the dream pop of acts such as Beach House with a darker, post-punk edge.

‘I Don’t Know’ sounds almost like a skewed country-rock song from a bad dream, all martial percussion and slashed, squawked electric guitar. ‘Machine’ closes proceedings another heavy and foreboding instrumental built on thick swirls of feedback and shadowy winding guitars. All in all EP2 is an evocative, agitated listen, a thunderhead dream dark and ripe and ready to burst.

You can get the EP on a name-you-price basis via the Slows Down Bandcamp page.

The post Slows Down – EP2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Sabbatical Wilderness – Night Life in the Lemon Town of Büshka (REVIEW)
(RIYL: experimental, narrative-driven music, J-RPGs)

Sad Girls Club – Sad Girls Clubbing
(RIYL: bedroom artists, 90s/00s pop, crying in discos)

Sailor Jupiter – S/T
(RIYL: punk, noise, Riot Grrrls)

Schapero – Girls EP
(RIYL: catchy pop, Toro y Moi, LCD Soundsystem)

Sea Ghost – SG
(RIYL: punk, powerpop, The Unicorns)

Single Colour Fields – Jaundiced Views
(RIYL: dream pop, freak folk, splits)

Sister Something – Duds EP / The Tongue Davids EP
(RIYL: indie rock, post-pop, Mac DeMarco)

Sleeping In – EP
(RIYL: shoegaze, Speedy Ortiz, Sonic Youth)

Slows Down – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: dream pop, drone, post rock)

SNCKPCK – LAVA PAL
(RIYL: Electronic, chill, positivity)

Spirit of the Beehive – You Are Arrived (But You’ve Been Cheated) (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, lo-fi, dream rock for disaffected youth)

Sports Day Records – RELAY (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie pop, bedroom pop, compilations)

Stolen Jars – Kept
(RIYL: math pop, folk, Dirty Projectors, Freelance Whales)

Strange Friends – Summer Recordings (REVIEW)
(RIYL: fuzz pop, lo-fi, Gorgeous Bully)

Stray Amour – S/T
(RIYL: indie pop, shoegaze)

Sun Hotel – Coast / Fight Off You Demos
(RIYL: folk, “swamp pop”, Lord Huron)

Sunshine Faces – Peaked / Letting You Know
(RIYL: dream pop, lo-fi, bedroom pop)

Ursidae – Tape 4
(RIYL: drone, field recordings, sonic collage)

The Wailin’ Smithers – S/T (REVIEW)
(RIYL: indie rock, laidback summer fun)

The Wandering Lake – From James’ Garden
(RIYL: psych folk, experimental, meditative vibes)

The Washboard Abs – WHATEVERLAND (REVIEW) / The Beaming Pts. 1 & 2 (REVIEW)
(RIYL: bedroom pop, folk, Mount Eerie)

Wished Bone – Pseudio Recordings
(RIYL: dreamy lo-fi, Elliott Smith, Sharon van Etten)

Yesses – S/T
(RIYL: lo-fi, pop, The Beatles)

We’ve shared a new section of the list every day this week, so be sure to check back for the complete collection. If you find something you like, or think we missed something life-changing, then why not let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr or good old email.

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Slows Down is the recording name of Alexander Hawthorne, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist from London who has just released his self-titled debut EP. He describes his music as, “between minimalist, melancholy chamber pop and dense, menacing psychedelic noise rock”. The record was written during Hawthorne’s travels in India and the USA and, quite incredibly considering the lush and layered sound, is an entirely solo effort. Taking inspiration from a wide range of luminaries including Swans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Radiohead, he uses a diversity of techniques, from humming, moaning drones to spiky, cathartic crescendos and a dash of psychedelic hypnotism. But despite the expansive instrumentation,things never stray too far from the refined, minimalist values, the glowing core at the centre of all the tumult and noise.

Opener ‘The Blues Easing’ kicks things off to a slightly ominous start, with stark guitars and a steady thudding drum beat and a haunting atmosphere snaking around everything. The music is backed by Alexander’s intimately mumbled vocals, sounding at once both sad and slightly dangerous. Next is ‘On The Street’, a meandering slow build of a track which eventually explodes into bright shining life in the last minute. ‘In My Room’ has an almost spaghetti western feel, with a militaristic drum beat and dramatic swells of instrumentation. Hawthorne cites Middle Eastern classical music as an influence and perhaps that is what comes to the fore here? On this track especially it is amazing to think that this is the effort of just one man, and I am interested to hear how these songs sound when Alexander puts together a full band to play live later this year. The EP closes with ‘The Way Down Leering’, over seven minutes of menacing post-rock-meets-lo-fi rock, something along lines of The Twilight Sad meets Liars, complete with subdued deadpan vocals and an airy, hushed lull of near-silence except the twinkling of a xylophone.

You can buy Slows Down EP on 12″ vinyl or as a pay-what-you-want download via the Slows Down Bandcamp page.

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