With second album Still Life coming later this year on Lay Down Recordings, Lisbon‘s April Marmara has shared brand new single, ‘Who Knows Where the Love Goes’. It tells the tale of a love forbidden yet unyielding, persisting even through a lifetime of separation. Marmara’s warm and mysterious folk style elevates the story toward an almost mythical plane, teasing out the unknowable facets of the heart in all of their human nuance. Check out the video produced by Pipa Marinho/Lay Down Recordings and directed by Martim Braz Teixeira:

Still Life will be released later this year on Lay Down Recordings.

Clementine Was Right – Takes Tall Walks

We last wrote about Clementine Was Right, the songwriting project of poet and fiction writer Mike Young, just over a year ago when we previewed the album, Can’t Get Right With the Darkness. It was a record which left “no emotion untapped as they aim to paint the most vivid version of each story possible,” as we described in our piece, letting the shadows take their full darkness if only so that the joy might burn brighter. New single ‘Take Tall Walks’ retains this spirit while moving the style into new territory, what Young calls “a push away from Americana into full-throated Sam Fender/The Killers western emo.” A tone able to broach the weight of the topics at hand, the lyrics dealing with missed opportunities to reach out and reconnect, playing as one last chance to say what needs to be said.

Hall Johnson – OMWO

This spring, Texas-based outfit Hall Johnson are releasing Haymaker, their debut full-length via The Record Machine. Powered by an upbeat energy and seemingly fond vocals, the track plays as a confident and cheerful number, though scratch the surface of the lyrics and there’s a more conflicted mood underneath. Because ultimately the song is a meditation on a failed relationship and the accompanying missteps, packaged so as to work for any listener, no matter where along the spectrum of love and regret they might be.

July Talk – When You Stop

Toronto‘s July Talk have made a name for themselves with an expert balance of ferocity and control, and new album Remember Never Before feels like their most confident, impassioned yet. Single ‘When You Stop’ serves as a distillation of the album’s themes, and thus serves as the ideal introduction to July Talk’s vision across the record. A visceral and cathartic message of persistence delivered from within a culture all to ready to snuff out such ideas. Above all, a willingness to hope in something more. As the liner notes put it “an album of matter over mind. Instincts. Guts. Radical acceptance of who we are; giant hopefulness for who we can be.”

you say you feel
you don’t believe in anything and it doesn’t matter anyway
you say you feel there’s no one listening
been hearing that a lot these days

when you stop you’ll find out what yer running from

Check out the hand-drawn and animated video by band co-leads Leah Fay Goldstein and Peter Dreimanis below:

Remember Never Before is out now via Six Shooter Records and available from Bandcamp.

 Laveda – Clean

With their full-length album A Place Your Grew Up In on the horizon, Laveda are back with a new single, ‘Clean’. Previous track ‘Surprise’ was what we called a “juxtaposition which both embraces the nostalgia of the dream pop/shoegaze style while also refusing to retreat fully from the realties of living and working through pandemics and other challenges,” and the new track is similarly bittersweet. An examination of growing up that captures both the fondness and loss inherent in the process. “I think for the first time I truly realised that growing up was an inevitable fate,” Ali Genevich explains. “It’s such a strange thing, knowing you’re only to grow further and further from innocence as life goes on. I never wanted to think about getting older as a kid, I wanted to stay eight years old forever. I think there’s a part of that feeling that will always stay with me.”

I’m getting older
You say it’s fine though
Am I playing my cards right
Me and the devil

Check out the video directed by David Martucello, Ali Genevich and Jacob Brooks below:

A Place You Grew Up In releases on 14th April on PaperCup Music. You can preorder it now via the Laveda Bandcamp page.

Nico Paulo – Time

Nico Paulo is a Portuguese-Canadian singer-songwriter who’s based in St John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador. In April she will release her self-titled debut LP via Forward Music Group, a record that promises to follow the nuanced, tender lineage of songwriters such as Gal Costa, Feist and Victoria Legrand. Latest single ‘Time’ is the perfect introduction, a rich folk pop song full of smooth melodies and almost tropical rhythms, like a long-lost seventies masterpiece that you dig out from a crate in a garage sale. Lyrically the track is sparse on detail but strong on imagery, the narrator urging a friend to let go of inhibitions. “’Time’ is a song about friendship, admiration and change,” Nico Paulo explains. “It’s a dialogue between two characters that investigates the discrepancies between them — one is more rigid and one is more free.” Check out the video by LA creative studio Sing Sing below:

Nico Paulo releases on 7^th April and you can pre-order it on a variety of formats via Bandcamp.

Orchid Mantis x surfgoth – time and space

We’ve long appreciated the work of Orchid Mantis, with most recent release How Long Will It Take on Spirit Goth Records exploring time in all of its dimensions, from reflection to predestination. But never one to rest on their laurels, the project has teamed up with Wilmington’s surfgoth for brand new single, ‘time and space’. Another suitably glimmering slice of lo-fi pop which tempts the listener in with its wistful textures and holds them there with enveloping layers of vocals.

roman around – Comes With Age

Back in June we introduced roman around with single ‘Rhythm‘ on Trailing Twelve Records. The Fresno-based drummer, multi-instrumentalist and teacher “draws on personal experiences as a non-binary, pansexual person, as well as spiritual themes from their upbringing within Native American and Mexican communities,” as we explained, using a palette across post-punk, pop and R&B styles to do so. roman around has now released their debut full-length Tell Me All About You, and single ‘Comes With Age’ offers a glimpse at the hazy side of their sound. A gauzy space through which confessional vocals drift, though the vocals flash with deceptively sharp edges too.

Species Traitor – Acheulean Handaxe

“I used to work as a gardener, and now I’m an archaeologist,” says Joey LeBrun of Species Traitor. “That seems relevant.” The Vancouver band’s self-titled album explores the tension of climate change from this perspective, balancing the dread of an impending doom with the temptation to submit altogether, all presented with an off-the-wall energy. The result achieves the Berman paradox, sounding at once overwhelmed in the immediacy of the present and commenting from a wry remove. A gardener and archaeologist both. Inspired by the work of Anne Carson, single ‘Acheulean Handaxe’ is a good place to start—the tale of a monster who wants more than everything to be nice, only for the world to push him toward a violent end.

Throw your glass in the fire and we’ll make a whole scene
Where everything around you is pouring red to the sea

Wednesday – Chosen to Deserve

“Though Twin Plagues is a record of memories, there’s nothing polished about the experiences being relayed, no rose-tinted gloss applied through repeated telling. There’s no nostalgia either. No intention to preserve or wish to return. Rather, Wednesday portray the past as something still present. The rugged surface across which the present is overlain.” That’s how we described the previous record by Wednesday, released via Orindal Records. Having now signed with Dead Oceans, the Asheville outfit are set to return with new full-length Rat Saw God, and latest single ‘Chosen to Deserve’ suggests they are pushing this style to new heights. There’s pool hopping, Benadryl abuse, Sunday school, a loneliness everywhere and in everything. But like those of bandmate MJ Lenderman, Karly Hartzman’s lyrics offer no distinction between the good and the bad, the fascinating and the mundane, but rather recognise everything as another dimension of life in all its peculiar beauty.

Rat Saw God will be released via Dead Oceans on 7th April and you can pre-order it now.

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Last month we introduced Real Love, the forthcoming album by Beat Radio on Totally Real Records. An examination of personal turmoil against a wider context of intergenerational trauma which “prob[es] into some of the most tender areas in order to address the wound.” The first song Brian Sendrowitz wrote from the record, latest single ‘Radioactive’ not only sets the album’s fuzzed out tone but established the stakes too. “You were radioactive / And its taken its toll,” Sendrowitz sings, “But you’re learning to change / And to make yourself whole / It’s a fight for your soul.”

Real Love is out on 21st October via Totally Real Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Bollards – Crimestopping

Described as a “relentless rush of blood to the head”, ‘Crimestopping’ is the latest track from London outfit Bollards. The song is a blend of post-punk and art rock sensibilities which captures a decidedly urban milieu. Spacious atmospherics coupled with claustrophobic cul-de-sacs and an overarching instability hovering above. This semi-hysterical tone informs the lyrics too, where paranoia about surveillance is matched only by the incessant desire to surveil in turn. A world where you can trust no-one, and no-one trusts you. Check out the video co-directed by Mars Washington and Jonny Dickens:

‘Crimestopping’ is out now and is available from the Bollards Bandcamp page.

claire rousay – wouldn’t have to hurt

LA‘s claire rousay returns this month with wouldn’t have to hurt, a benefit album for the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people, via Mended Dream Records. Woven from a fabric of field recordings, midi instruments, guitars and piano, as well as guest strings from Theodore Cale Schafer, the title track sees unguarded and forthright spoken word from nurse and Youtuber Madison Van Dine. A discussion of mental health stripped of any mawkish sentiment or quick-fire solutions, just working through things and facing up to every day. An encapsulation, that is, of rousay’s intentions with wouldn’t have to hurt. Still here and communicating to others, no matter how injured, frustrated or flat.

Crooks & Nannies – control

This month saw the return of Crooks & Nannies, AKA West Philadelphia duo Madel Rafter and Sam Huntington, with their first new music in a number of years. Released via Grand Jury Music, ‘control’ is a single which explores the knife-edge of mental health and the often unseen work which goes into maintaining the balance. The gentle progression slowly ramps as discordant noises punctuate the background, soon escalating into a chaotic rhythm. “I wanted to capture the feeling of walking through an art museum and holding all of your muscles tightly because if you don’t, you might give into some crazy impulse and do something really really bad,” Rafter explains, “like pull a painting off the wall and put your foot through it.” Check out the video with art by Sam Huntington and animation by Sarah Alvarez below:

‘control’ is out now via Grand Jury Music and you can get it from the Crooks & Nannies Bandcamp page.

daarling – Metamorphosis

Chicago-based indie rock band daarling are gearing up to release their debut full-length, and new single ‘Metamorphosis’ gives an insight into what to expect. A simmering, brooding number which dwells on the inevitability of change and the friction which results, with lead Erin Lyle riding the peaks and troughs of the instrumentation to find a tone both cutting and cathartic. “Metamorphosis is bullshit / I’ll cultivate my state either way,” she sings. “Your idleness affects no one / You confuse stability for stagnation.”

Kevin Dorff – Impossible Objects

Kevin Dorff is a songwriter and playwright originally from Des Moines, Iowa and now based in Brooklyn, who recently released his debut LP Silent Reply. A record which explores the lasting impact people have on our lives, even after their death, Silent Reply combines elements of folk and Nineties indie rock into a sound that shifts effortlessly from poignant to energetic. Dorff’s style is thanks at least in part to its influences—he cites the songwriting of David Berman and Craig Finn as big inspirations, but also the novels of Rachel Cusk and portraits of visual artist Alice Neel, which goes some way to explaining a tone that’s both sincere and wryly humourous. A standout is ‘Impossible Objects’, possibly the most touching track to ever name check M. Night Shyamalan and Toy Story 3.

Orchid Mantis – Lucid Dreams

The prolific Orchid Mantis is gearing up to release their seventh album via Spirit Goth Records, and first single ‘Lucid Dreams’ gives an indication of direction Thomas Howard is taking on the new tunes. After the newfound optimism of Visitations, an album we described as “an attempt to push beyond the past, keeping a clear-eyed focus on the present and what comes next,” the song finds itself inevitably turning back toward the past, even if just in the night-time visions suggested in the title. “Back out on my friend’s porch / or down by the church,” Howard sings, “feels like a lucid dream / like it was 10pm in 2016”

and nothing feels the same
but nothing really changed
i’m filling up my head
with memories that
i don’t ever want to resurrect
i wake up again

‘Lucid Dreams’ is out now and available from the Orchid Mantis Bandcamp page. How Long Will It Take is out via Spirit Goth Records on the 11th November.

Ross Jenkins – Plain as Day

Writing back in March, we described Free All Day by Vancouver’s Ross Jenkins as a record marked by “a sense of restraint and quiet grace,” which brought to mind “the solo records of Canadian songwriting heavyweights Bry Webb and John K. Samson.” Recorded during the same period as that album, latest single ‘Plain as Day’ embraces this style once more while also leaning into the seventies-era psych sensibilities which also reared their head. The gentle rhythm belies the strength underpinning its intentions, coming off as an assured statement and worthy addition to Jenkins’s catalogue.

Sweetbreads – Out of Range

Led by Melody Stolpp in collaboration with Nick Watt, and featuring a rotating cast of musicians, Brooklyn’s Sweetbreads make a hybrid of alt-country and pop which aims to get your toes tapping and hearts swelling in equal measure. Latest single ‘Out of Season’ follows protagonist June and her quest to resist the thankless treadmill of modern living, opting for an unproductive and entirely more positive way of life. Complete with a “muppet-inspired” background chorus with over forty voices, the song celebrates breaking conventions in the most joyous way possible, and ends up as the perfect antidote to the breakneck bluster of the world we call home.

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Creating such vivid sounds comes with its own problems, especially for young bands. Not least being able to gather band members together for the required time-span at a period in their lives where other commitments and/or pervasive instability mean that planning anything any time ahead of schedule can be near enough impossible. However, rather than throw in the towel, Pastel Dream has instead adapted to use whatever time and space is available. “I’ve had some rough patches getting together all the members of the band, and I currently cannot afford any in-studio work,” Whitfield explains, “but I love both writing and music production and I decided I am not gonna let these hold the project back.”

Today we’re delighted to share a result of this determination. ‘Tuesday’, a brand new Pastel Dream single that’s being released through Spirit Goth‘s net imprint, BIRTHDIY, turns disadvantage on its head, leaning into an endearing lo-fi style that a studio cannot offer. The run-time might clock in below two minutes but still the track packs commendable atmosphere, ethereal vocals swirling around the drum machine spine as synths streak and sparkle across the frame.

An entirely solo endeavour, from writing and playing to recording and mastering, the song is a lesson in a rebellious creative ethos. Yes, there are barriers to art, and the traditional path is closed to many, but that’s not to say that things cannot flourish in the cracks, if only we take the time to nurture and support them. “I wanna be able to put things out that I make myself […] I wanna be free, and not have to worry about things out of my control. I just wanna make music and show it to people, studio or no studio. So even though the song is so short and simple, it means a lot to me. ”

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Outer Spaces – Gazing Globe

Working under the moniker Outer Spaces, Baltimore-based Cara Beth Satalino creates off-kilter pop songs that shift and shimmer, like arcane messages from some place out of sync with our own—a distinct dimension, an outer space. Released last month on Western Vinyl, new album Gazing Globe suggests that such a place might not be a deviation from reality but a more distilled form, somewhere free of projections and expectations that can shape us beyond our control.

The record is a product of great upheaval, Satalino turning to meditation in the aftermath of a relationship. “I think I was trying to get back to myself and my identity,” she explains, “separate from my relationship.” Perhaps the Outer Space does not concern some external world but something far closer, an interior nonetheless separate from the quote-unquote ‘real’ world, a space where we can find ourselves.

Kali Malone – The Sacrificial Code

Stockholm’s Kali Malone makes expansive, organ-based ambient music that pleasures in patience and precision. Released by iDEAL Recordings, The Sacrificial Code is a double album where no minute is wasted, working within a self-imposed austerity to achieve a near-hypnotic focus. “By voluntarily giving up the freedom to do whatever momentarily comes to mind,” Steve Reich once said, “we are, as a result, free of all that momentarily comes to mind.” Malone operates according to this ideal, stripping back any sense of surroundings, organ music suspended in blank space. The result is a meditative, ascetic lesson in transcendence, where open-ended does not mean nebulous.

Big Joanie – Sistahs

Consisting of Stephanie Phillips (vocals/guitar), Estella Adeyeri (bass) and Chardine Taylor-Stone (drums), London punk trio Big Joanie draw on influences from across the spectrum to form their distinctive style. Owing as much to The Ronettes as to the Riot Grrrls, and borrowing some of the weight of the post-punk movement, the band refuse to settle in any one box. “[We wanted to be] completely ourselves as black women,” they describe, “and discover what was possible to realise in those spaces.” The result is Sistahs, a full-length album released late last year via the The Daydream Library Series of records and tapes, the independent house label of Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz’s publishing imprint Ecstatic Peace Library.

Abe Hollow – Paradise

Abe Hollow is the the recording project of Oakland-based composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Adam Hirsch, and its songs display the full range of his talents. Born of an obsessive interest in family history and his Jewish heritage, debut album A Palace in Time is a collaborative, improvised journey through the many layers of Hirsch’s psyche—“a Yiddish gothic trip” according to one friend.

Single ‘Paradise’ gives some clue as to what such a thing might sound like, a single full of radiant shimmers and ethereal vocals where nothing is quite as it seems. With help from Ryan McGill (aka Ryan Von Gonten on guitar), Andrew Maguire (drums) Doug Stuart (bass) and June Hong (piano), Hirsch weaves a pleasantly surreal soundscape that’s at once forward-facing and reflective, proving that digging into one’s history can lead to discoveries as meaningful and rewarding as any other.

Slow Pulp – Big Day

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Slow Pulp bring to life dreamy soundscapes with a minimalist touch, angular riffs punctuating the gauzy space. Released with our friends at Citrus City Records, Big Day goes a long way in perfecting the style, borrowing from shoegaze and post-punk but maintaining its own unique spirit. Which is fitting, seeing as the EP is concerned with ideas of development and learning, focused on the formative years where everything is strange and new and nothing is set in stone. Slow Pulp take this idea into their music, moving forward without hesitation or preconception, letting the experience speak for itself in the present moment.

Nathalie Joachim – Papa Loko (Interlude: September 24, 1918)

Nathalie Joachim is a Haitian-American composer, flutist and vocalist who draws upon hip hop, indie rock, electronic and classical music to form a sound capable of forging new directions while maintaining an awareness and respect of cultural traditions. Joachim is set to release her debut solo record later this summer via New Amsterdam Records, an album which sees her joined by the Grammy-nominated string ensemble Spektral Quartet.

Fanm d’Ayiti, or “Women of Haiti”, is something of a celebration of Haiti’s female performers and storytellers, featuring recorded interviews with these artists, including Joachim’s grandmother and the the girls choir of her family’s home farming village of Dantan. Opening track gives a view ‘Papa Loko (Interlude: September 24, 1918)’ gives a glimpse into this vivid blend of music and oral history, and hints at what promises to be a special release.

Joyer – Here

Drawing inspiration from slowcore, 90s-era slacker rock and the contemporary bedroom pop movement, New Jersey’s Joyer make richly textured songs that often barely break a murmur. The songs exist in a crepuscular lethargy, favouring a kind of slow dawning rather than any immediacy or confrontation.

The duo are interested in movies and new album Peeled is no different, with Counterzine going into the influences of Harmony Korine and Andrei Tarkovsky on the lyrics. But there is a filmic quality to the sound itself too, with single ‘Here’ showing off the image-based, atmospheric style.

Mauno – Vampire

Montreal experimental pop duo Mauno have a new record on the way. Out later this summer, Really Well sees the band delve into high weirdness in order to explore the absurdity of life under late capitalism, where everything from art, love and even the self are assaulted by the drive for productivity and growth. With its playful tone and metaphorically ripe title, single ‘Vampire’ is the perfect example of Mauno’s style, fiercely critical yet grounded in humour, as though in wit lies a truly subversive power.

The song comes complete with a video directed by Max Taeuschel which further layers the critique, Mauno made to exercise non-stop for an hour during recording as a comment on the reality of creating and promoting music today. The duo can barely sing at times, exhausted and visibly sweating upon bikes stripped of their purpose, going nowhere.

Really Well is out on the 2nd August and you can pre-order it from the Mauno Bandcamp page.

Kate Tempest – Holy Elixir

If performance poetry and spoken word artists are experiencing something of a boom, then Kate Tempest can stake some claim for instigating a new urgency in the movement. While the form gets co-opted from all angles, popping up on every other advert as banks try to mimic a human face, Tempest stands resolute as an example of the true power of words. Recorded with Rick Rubin, her latest album The Book of Traps and Lessons builds on what has come before, its tracks alive with some electrical frisson, something related to both love and dread.

Lead single ‘Holy Elixir’ serves as a fine example, its force conjured from the unfurling sentences, as though within the correct sequence of syllables an energy can form. This energy lies at the heart of all things, both good and bad, though Tempest seeks to harness it, channel it in the right direction. “I hope that people feel connected,” Tempest explains. “I hope they connect with the work, and that this connection enables them to connect with themselves, and that this connection encourages a deeper connection to others. It might sound like high hopes. At this stage in the game, you have to know your motives. Otherwise, why even try?”

The Book of Traps and Lessons is out now via Fiction and you can get it from the usual places.

Daughter of Swords – Dawnbreaker

Daughter of Swords is the moniker of Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, who you might know as part of folk trio Mountain Man. Setting out solo, Sauser-Monnig uses Daughter of Swords to explore a break-up before it even happened, both pre-empting the sadness to come and dreaming of the things that couldn’t happen on her current course. As the title track highlights, the result is something elegiac and warmly hopeful, as though only through some great, earth-shaking catastrophe can the new shoots of life break through the topsoil.

Dawnbreaker is out now via Bella Union and Nonesuch, and you can get it from the Daughter of Swords website.

High Sunn – Our Perception

High Sunn is the recording project of San Francisco’s Justin Cheromiah, who makes an upbeat and glimmering brand of bedroom pop. New record Our Perception was released earlier this year, with Tristin Souvannarath joining to lend drums, as well as mixing and mastering duties, leading to the most vivid and immersive High Sunn tracks to date.

Indeed, the process of creating the record was the most involved too. “Never have I ever spent months on a release,” Cheromiah explains. “I’ve ached, cried, stressed, and felt joy writing these songs of love, real life experiences, struggles, and pure gratitude.” Lead single ‘Grateful’ shows off the care and attention that constitutes the release, a jangle pop so lush you can fall back into it and not hit the ground.

Our Perception is out now via Spirit Goth Records and you can buy it now.

Briston Maroney – Fool’s Gold

After a nomadic childhood strung between Florida and Tennessee, Briston Maroney eventually settled back in Nashville, laying down roots and cutting his teeth in the DIY music scene. Winning fans one living room at a time, Maroney built up a reputation and has now released an EP, Indiana, with Parlophone Records. Despite the big label, single ‘Fool’s Gold’ shows off Maroney’s grounded and intimate style. There’s a tenderness to the sound, a gilded nostalgia that drives a hope for the future, kicks of reverb hinting at the dissatisfaction with the present.  Check out the video directed by Joey Brodnax below:

Indiana is out now on Parlophone Records and available from all the usual places.

That’s all folks. Check the tag for previous editions of Bright Sparks.

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