Claire Cronin – What the Night is Thinking
Michael Cromier – Foghorn
Ylayali – little caterpillar graveyard
Forrest Moody & Jake Bellissimo – Selige Sehnsucht
Grotto Terrazza – Was Leben Will Muss Sterben
Trying – If I Don’t Get a Job
Giant in The Lighthouse – Sprinting
Soften – Iridescent
Champ Major – Abbeville
Grebes – Plum
Jack M. Senff – Old Days
Sam Lynch – Not My Body
Tyler Key – Change My Mind
Ē – Afraid of the Ocean
Dehd – Wild
Pancho and the Wizards – Rot
TV People – Healthier Days
Plastic Cactus – Mystery Boy
Bibi Club – Jean Rene
It’s Sunday – Comme Un Fool
Little Slugger – Impossible
runnner – fan on
Hostxess – Time
omes – wyd
Oliver Ray – Ol’ Coyote
Will Johnson – Cornelius
Merival – No Brakes
My Father’s Son – Dust to Rust
Jordan Klassen – Virtuous Circle
Ditty – Deathcab

Check out our previous Monthly Roundup playlists, and be sure to read or Reviews and Previews throughout the month.

The post June 2019 Roundup Mix appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The follow up to 2017’s Seen + Unseen, Soften have just released a new EP which sees them perfect this formula. Titled Soften Forever, the record is intended as a statement of solidarity, created after the band survived what they describe as “a year of bad breaks, break ups and turmoil writ large.”

‘Undo’ opens with a messy squall of feedback and battered drums, but soon settles into the current that directs the EP’s flow, a beguiling rhythm that makes even the harshest moments oddly accessible. The song confronts many of the album’s key themes immediately, haunted by a sense of fragmenting relationships and personal anguish. But nevertheless, it somehow manages to remain composed and empowered. “I wish I knew now what I knew back then,” Kelly sings, equal parts wistful and accepting, “and I wish I knew then what I know now.”

The record’s centre-point in more ways than one, ‘Sun Comes Out’ is an emotive slow build, wrapped in a hazy murk, that explores the shadows that loom over us, that come creeping up even when everything seems okay.

when the sun comes out
when I stand on solid ground
make some meaning in the clouds
well it starts slipping like a rock
out from under my feet
crashing like a landslide into the sea

Puncturing the gauzy bubble, ‘Iridescent’ is more direct and immediate, rich and velvety shoegaze that nevertheless maintains the emotional core of the Soften Forever. “But I can’t, I can’t keep you for myself,” Kelly sings in what might be the most romantic break-up song of the year, “no I can’t, I can’t keep you at all.”

A +7 minute epic, closer ‘Forever, Completely’ ends with the EP’s most nakedly earnest moment, beginning wrapped in smoky negative space before growing into first an affecting shoegaze-pop song and then great swells of indie rock noise. It’s a great illustration of the range Soften cover on Soften Forever, and testament to their ability to make music that is at once vaporous and powerfully physical.

Soften Forever is out now and you can get it from the Soften Bandcamp page.

The post Soften – Soften Forever appeared first on Various Small Flames.