With this sense of possibility comes a wider sonic palette, Howard choosing to sacrifice tightness and order so that he might encompass all of the styles which have informed his work over the the previous decade. “I sort of underwent a crisis as I became a more confident producer and instrumentalist,” he explains. “The more I could imitate or recreate a sound, the more I would confront demos I’d made and think ‘this is good, but it doesn’t feel like it’s mine.’ This was a new problem for me. I scrapped two albums worth of semi-finished material, carrying my personal favorites over to this final release. As a result, it’s probably my messiest record, but I grew to appreciate that. It’s a full genre-map of everything I’ve made over the last ten years. I made sure every song meant a lot to me.”

Fittingly, the changeable nature of the sound matches the themes of the record. In Airports was named for a period in which Howard found himself stuck in an airport for almost a week, left with nothing to do but watch people and wait. The surreal experience offered what might be the ultimate image of ephemerality, the people around him constantly changing, his own time ticking down as the delayed flight approached. Orchid Mantis has long employed a dreaminess but here it carries a confessional, reflective edge, as though newly aware of the shifting world around it, and the slow, gradual losses accumulated over time.

The idea is present from the very first track, ‘Generation Loss’, titled after the technological phenomenon where data degrades which each copying process. Howard positions personal memory as a similarly fragile thing, vulnerable to decay. But while there is sadness in the realisation, there is something warmer too. Call it fondness, call it love, the feelings all the more meaningful for the transience of their focus, and the purpose of art only deepened in its conservational efforts. “I know you / in the rearview / passage of time / falls behind you,” as Howard sings in the rich, romantic ‘Comedown Phase’. We’re constantly losing everything we’ve been given, which makes attempt at preservation all the more beautiful.

In Airports is out now via Start-Track and available from Bandcamp.

The post Orchid Mantis – In Airports appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Recorded in an old church near the birthplace of lead Daniel Hedin and taking years to bring to fruition, ‘Hideous Form’ is the new single from Det Hemliga Folket, a collaboration between Hedin and Budapest‘s Marton Fogl. The sound feels intrinsically tied to the origins of the track, offering an austere space full of shadow and cryptic weight, Hedin reaching beyond his surroundings and the present mood to re-engage with something more elemental. A song fitting for a project built around Hedin’s desire to connect with heritage, be that the ancestors who walked the land before him or the very earth of Sweden itself. Det Hemliga Folket is “a re-connection with the wild north inside me and the ancestral blues that whispers within the sound of the earth, the whispers in my head of the very fabric of the land,” he explains. “I hear the ocean and the silence of the forests that raised me like mothers and fathers. The darkness that’s been a part of me is an engine that never can die. It’s not just me, it is the earth where I am from, the deep beneath the soil of the north that is always calling me home.”

Dylan Henner – I Used To See Her On The Way Home from School and She Lit Up The Sky with her Beauty

A collection “which explores both the tactile experience of adolescence and the nostalgia of times now past.” That’s how we described Star Dream FM, the new album from Dylan Henner out via Phantom Limb, with previous singles ‘We Ditched School and Climbed Over the Neighbour’s Fence to Swim in their Pool All Day‘ and ‘We Walked all the Way to the Lake and The Water Was So Still We Jumped in Naked‘ “embracing not just a sentimental fondness for the specific moment but one wider in scope,” as we put it, “longing for the kind of curiosity and carefree spirit which marks youth.” With the album now out, Henner has shared another single and the title of the track says it all. ‘I Used To See Her On The Way Home from School and She Lit Up The Sky with Her Beauty’ is “about the frenzy and passion of love in adolescence,” as Henner explains. “About how your crush can change the whole universe with their presence, make everything feel bigger than you could possibly handle sometimes or so delicate you could lose it in an instance at others. The harp was supposed to represent the sort of angelic ascension of renaissance or classical beauty, which is the only lens you can ever see your crush with when you’re seventeen.”

ERIKA DOHI – Myth of Tomorrow

Later this week, Osaka-born, New York-based composer and pianist Erika Dohi will release Myth of Tomorrow, a brand new full-length via Switch Hit Records and Figureight Records. Described as “a sonic meditation on catastrophe, resilience, and rebirth,” the album builds upon the eclectic style of predecessor I, Castorpollux to push Dohi’s sound in new directions, utilising a variety of sensibilities from dance, jazz, ambient and classical modes to create soundscapes as singular as they are striking. The record draws its title from the Taro Okamoto’s mural of the same name, and the title track draws the clearest line between the two artworks. A song concerned with the endless cycles of existence, not only asking what they demand of us but also how we might find peace and healing within the recurring patterns of life. “For me, the song reflects on resilience and regeneration in the face of life’s relentless cycles,” Dohi explains. “Through its lyrics, I explore the contradictions of modern existence—the struggle to find happiness in repetition, the unspoken burdens we carry, and the illusions we chase in pursuit of fulfillment. Yet, amidst all of this, the song also asks us to pause, breathe, and reconnect with the beauty in the everyday: the sun rising without fail, the moon’s quiet waning, the resilience of a dandelion growing through cracks in asphalt. It’s a song of introspection that invites us to confront our disconnection and rediscover what moves us to live and hope for tomorrow.”

Myth of Tomorrow will be released on the 24th October via Switch Hit Records and Figureight Records and you can pre-order it now.

Haley Heynderickx & Max García Conover – Fluorescent Light

Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover are no strangers to collaboration, the pair releasing Among Horses III back in 2018 on Son Canciones and the anniversary single ‘How Does the Horse Go Home?‘ five years later. “The genius of both Heynderickx and Conover is their ability to draw a relatable emotion from their subject matter,” we wrote, “tapping into a universal sense of nostalgia and longing and presenting it back to us, shaping and polished into its most gleaming form.” Based on the life and work of Woodie Guthrie and this time to be released via Fat Possum, What of Our Nature is a brand new full-length by the pair which builds upon the chemistry they’ve crafted over the years to offer songs as inventive and heartfelt as anything they’ve released to date. After the verbose and sometimes frantic ‘Boar’, latest single ‘Fluorescent Light’ highlights a more delicate, restrained dimension to the record, though true to Guthrie’s spirit, there’s a seam of social commentary running through it too. A tone at once playful, melancholic and cutting, able to take aim at the banalities and cruelties of contemporary life without losing its airy brightness.

Kramies – Goodbye Dreampop Troubadour

Back in August we introduced Goodbye Dreampop Troubadour, the new album from Kramies on Hidden Shoal, with single ‘Hollywood Signs’. The track showed the album’s nuanced nature, the sound following “a newly nostalgic direction, full of dreamlike longing and evening colours,” as we put it, yet one which possesses “something strange and quietly unsettling, full of the mysterious allure which Kramies has always offered.” With the record out now, the title track has been unveiled as a new single, the cornerstone of the record which embodies all of its richness and duality. Blending autobiography with fiction, ‘Goodbye Dreampop Troubadour’ rises from relative restraint into something enveloping, Kramies moving from a spacious, drifting sound into something rich and triumphant, playing like a metamorphosis witnessed in real time.

Langkamer – Crows

Following on from 2024 album Langzamer, as well as lead Josh Jarman’s solo release under the moniker Classic Trucks earlier this year, Bristol‘s Langkamer are preparing to release their fourth album in as many years. Coming early next January via Breakfast Records, No was recorded in the Spanish hills at Zarzalico and carries some of the Mediterranean clarity in its sound, creating enough space to examine the full scale of our frenetic contemporary life. Lead single ‘Crows’ gives a taste of what to expect, a track fired by nervous energy and unanswered questions, barrelling forwards despite its clear desire to stop and change. “’Crows’ is a song about the crazy shapes we contort ourselves into trying to create art in the era of late-stage capitalism,” the band explain. “Working a thousand jobs. Writing songs with the left hand while writing emails with the right hand. Your day is already doomed the moment you open your eyes. Everything’s a bad omen.”

Orchid Mantis – Strange Heaven

Change and evolution are key features in the career of any artist, especially one as prolific as Orchid Mantis. “Over the years, Atlanta, Georgia-based artist Thomas Howard has used the [project] as a space in which to explore a host of musical styles,” we wrote back in March, “each release responding to and building upon that which came before it so that the work was always in flux.” In Airports, the second Orchid Mantis full-length to be released this year, not only continues this process but meditates on the very meaning of such an endeavour. What does it mean to commit to a life making music? And how might it help chart all that is lost and preserved over the years? The result feels like the culmination of everything Orchid Mantis has done to date, returning to old styles and techniques as readily is it breaks new ground, and thus becomes something of a mission statement for the project. A declaration of intent to give the past and future equal billing, full of the spirit which has been pieced together over the years yet open to possibility. New single and closer ‘Strange Heaven’ expresses the sentiment most succinctly:

as it fades away
we could keep drifting
we could form a star
we could be lifted

The Planes – Tear the World Apart (MFLB Version)

We last wrote about New York indie rock outfit The Planes back in 2023, describing ‘First Breath After Mask’, a single from EP Dark Matter Recycling Co., as “a song at once depressed and affirming. As though from with its own inertia stirs some last attempt at catharsis.” Now the band are back with Motel For Lightning Bug, a brand new release which sees them continue their own idiosyncratic mix of rock and pop influences, harnessing some of the energy of their livewire shows without losing a sense of emotion or reflection. It is fitting that opener and single ‘Tear the World Apart (MFLB Version)’ is a reworking of a fan favourite from live shows, what the band call label as “slacker indie rock bubblegum” which deals with loss with equal parts wistfulness and wry humour, not to mention an infectious sense of momentum which only builds across the length of the track.

Sister Wanzala – Now You’re Mine

Back in 2022 we heralded the apparently triumphant return of London sibling trio Sister Wanzala, singles ‘Perfume‘ and ‘Top Drawer‘ appearing after a three-year hiatus which started soon after the release of 2019 EP The Circus and signalling an almost reluctant determination to pursue making music in an age which can often appear to be designed to convince you otherwise. Fittingly, both tracks featured dreams as a central motif, though rather than some inspirational battle cry to all those who which to pursue their passions, they either described these dreams as full of disaster (‘Top Drawer’) or declared a desire to have them removed entirely (‘Perfume’). You can already guess what happened next. The return was a false dawn, Sister Wanzala retreated into their shells again, only… what’s that? A new track, two years later? Another self-deprecating press release declaring their career a failure and promising more of the same? You’ll understand if we don’t call ‘Now You’re Mine’ anything more than another small blip in might otherwise be a pristine half-decade of silence, but as soon as the jazzy opening unfurls with all its nineties daytime TV swagger and the cold groove settles with effortless cool, you’ll be glad you got anything from the project, no matter how alluring and brief.

The post Weekly Listening: October 2025 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Having orbited around one another in the LA music scene for a short while, Derek Ted and Braden Lawrence gradually began to collaborate, helping one another with solo work, producing other artists, then eventually writing original material as a duo. The product of the relationship is beaming, a brand new project which will release its debut self-titled EP this June via Rose Garden, and lead single ‘slow sinkin’ gives a flavour of what to expect from the outfit. With Field Medic adding guest vocals, the track possesses all of the earnestness fans of Ted and Lawrence’s solo work will know well, the bright rhythm and heartfelt tone the sonic equivalent of shaking clarity into a clouded mind. “Lyrically, it’s about looking back on the past and how easy it is to get caught up in your own BS,” the band explain. “It’s our most acoustic track on the EP, and we wanted it to feel more natural and organic.”

Watch the video directed by Olivia Alonso Gough with cinematography and colour by Michael Greenwood below:

Beaming EP is out on the 13th June via Rose Garden and you can pre-save it now.

Bouquet – Hold On

Almost a decade since their previous album was released, LA-based dream pop duo Bouquet are preparing to unveil a brand new full-length. Consisting of interdisciplinary artist, writer and composer Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and songwriter and producer Max Foreman, the project made a name with a rich and romantic style that championed restraint within a genre often prone to excesses, and new single ‘Hold On’ represents a continuation of the style. With Pennypacker Riggs providing vocals and guitar and Foreman vocals, synthesizer and drum machine, the song is a lesson in precision, not drowning the audience in reverb and haze but instead beckoning them into its ethereal, wistful world.

Course – Hue Mirror

Led by Jess Robbins, Chicago synth pop outfit Course formed in the months before the pandemic, so adapting to challenging conditions has always been part of the project’s DNA. Their third album Hue Mirror is no exception. After suffering with chronic pain for years, Robbins was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition ankylosing spondylitis, and wrote the record within the vertiginous early days of processing the news. The lead single and title track introduces the tone of the record, one delivered with equal doses of tenderness and fear. “I wrote this song during the confusion and uncertainty of my future,” Robbins explains. “The song touches on the idea of how a medicine for this disease comes at a price, the pain I had been having for so long, and the sneakiness of not knowing when the next flare will come.”

You find me again
And again
Driving fear
Comes over me
In the light of pain

Hue Mirror is out on the 25th April and you can pre-order it via the Spondylitis Association of America, with all proceeds being donated to research.

Jess Kerber – I Wonder If I’ll Forget This

Born to musician parents, and a guitarist herself since the age of twelve, Nashville’s Jess Kerber makes warm and timeless songs that feel like worthy entries to the American folk tradition. New single ‘I Wonder If I’ll Forget This’ is a case in point, a wonderfully understated track that aches with real emotion. Kerber’s vocals are flanked by acoustic guitar and the barely-there texture of organ drone, an arrangement that allows the songwriting to shine through. It’s impressively mature, particularly in the way it combines genuine vulnerability with a sense of steadfast tenacity, a sensation Kerber likens to “the feeling of being little and learning to swim, grabbing the edge of the pool.”

‘I Wonder If I’ll Forget This’ is out now via Felte Records and is available on streaming services.

JLJR – Arms For Eyes

With new EP The Rest of Your Life coming soon via Paper Moon Records, JLJR has shared new single ‘Arms For Eyes’. Building upon the mix of emotion and narrative which marked the JLJR debut, the track adopts a tone both reflective and defiant to chart the end of a distinctive kind of relationship. One troubled and difficult to live through, yet equally one whose closure takes something from you too. “It’s a reflection on the disintegration of a bad friendship,” as JLJR puts it, “and the struggle to be yourself after someone robs you of part of your identity.”

‘Arms For Eyes’ is out now via Paper Moon Records.

Luah – Wanting You

“Something like a memory, or rather several memories superimposed. A way in which to not so much return to the past as view it more vividly, somehow striking in both its intimacy and remove. That place we long for but can never return to.” So we wrote of ‘Ocean O. (home 4 the holidays)’ by Brendan Paul Sullivan’s Luah back in January. It was a song which embodied the sincerity and heart of the project, not to mention the gentle patience with with emotion is brought to life. With album Some Blue Heaven coming next month, latest new single ‘Wanting You’ takes this sense of patience even further. A layered, slow burning psych folk song that taps into the rhythms of the diurnal cycle, moving from day to night as it progresses and gradually coalescing into something almost cosmic.

Molly Ganley – Comparisons

Last week saw the release of Eldest Daughter, the debut album from NYC indie folk artist Molly Ganley. Described as “a nostalgic and honest account of finding your way,” it’s a very human record about growth and change and navigating life’s strange turns with as much grace as is possible. One standout is ‘Comparisons’, a track that sits at the centre of the album and proves the perfect introduction to what Ganley does so well. Backed by pedal steel, piano and backing vocals from country folk duo Raising Daughters, the song confronts the futile and needless woes that result from comparing oneself to others.

Monnone Alone – Dry Doubt

Eighteen months ago, Melbourne‘s Monnone Alone released single ‘Loose Terrain’, a stellar slice of jangle pop where bright playfulness was shadowed by the slightest mark of wistful longing. With three albums already under their belt, the track seemed to be a culmination of their talents and experience, only for the project to settle into a prolonged period of radio silence. Such quiet can go one of two ways in the music industry—positive or negative—but luckily for us, in Monnone Alone’s case, the answer is the former. Because while they might have have appeared inactive from the outside, the truth was they were hard at work on brand new full-length, Here Comes the Afternoon. Pencilled for early May, the release is a joint endeavour, with Lost And Lonesome (Aus), Meritorio (EU), Safe Suburban Home (UK) and Repeating Cloud (US) teaming up to spread the record far and wide. Album opener and new single ‘Dry Doubt’ suggests ‘Loose Terrain’ was anything but a flash in the pan, so the date can’t arrive soon enough.

Orchid Mantis – Spirit Circle

Over the years, Atlanta, Georgia-based artist Thomas Howard has used the Orchid Mantis project as a space in which to explore a host of musical styles, each release responding to and building upon that which came before it so that the work was always in flux. Coming this spring on Daydream Records and Start-Track, the latest Orchid Mantis full-length Possession Pact pivots towards a nineties slowcore style, channeling forebears like Low, Bedhead and Codeine to offer a new dimension to the project. Opener and lead single ‘Spirit Circle’ typifies the understated brooding atmosphere. A song bathed in shadowy textures and melancholic quiet, always threatening to rise into something more intense but for the most part maintaining its muted darkness.

Steven van Betten & Andrew Rowan – Cloud Behind the Sun

Back in 2023 we wrote about Friends and Family, the debut solo full-length by Steven van Betten on Future Gods which highlighted the LA songwriter’s distinctively compassionate, humane style. Now van Betten has returned with brand new EP Cloud Behind the Sun, though has parked the solo venture in favour of continuing a collaboration with composer Andrew Rowan which stretches back more than a decade. The lead single title track shows the three-song release to be every bit as thoughtful and heartfelt as its predecessor, taking the ostensibly ordinary experience of passing an ex on the street and mining the moment for all of its depth and weight. Something made possible not least thanks to Rowan’s almost cinematic arrangement, its intricacy revealing itself as slowly yet decisively as spring through a thawing winter ground.

Wryn – Only Thing

We’ve covered a couple of singles by Californian songwriter Wryn in recent weeks, with both ‘Snake‘ and ‘Slow Down‘ introducing the themes of change and self-actualisation which run through their upcoming full-length, Shapes. The record’s release is fast approaching on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, and Wryn has returned with new single ‘Only Thing’ to further expand upon these ideas. The song opens with a spare, almost hesitant tone, but gradually builds in momentum, as though deciding to embrace life’s inevitable forward motion. “Life is always shifting and evolving,” as Wryn puts it, “and that’s a good thing. Change is the only constant.”

Watch the suitably literal video directed by DanTroon-Sazani below:

Shapes will be released on the 28th March via Righteous Babe Records and you can pre-order it now.

Zoya Zafar – I don’t love you

Writing of release Spring Songs in April of last year, we described how Lahore-born, Orlando-based songwriter Zoya Zafar utilised a controlled, unadorned style to communicate a considerable depth of feeling. “Zafar uses minimalism not as an austere stylistic choice but as a tool to hone her music’s emotional weight,” as we put it, “suffusing it with warmth despite its direct and unfussy arrangement.” New single ‘i don’t love you’ is no less charged in its mood, beginning life with no accompaniment other than acoustic guitar before Max Helgemo helped evolve it into something richer without sacrificing the poignant spareness.

The post Weekly Listening: March 2025 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Last year, East Vancouver post-punks Aversions put out the full-length You Wanted The Bike, an album which “combine[d] heavyweight riffs, pounded percussion and acerbic vocals to comment on our contemporary moment,” as we put it in a preview. Songs like ‘Undecider‘ channelled this raw energy into a sound of “anxiety and latent violence, drawing on a whole host of political and social themes in three and a half minutes of Strummer-esque polit-punk.” Recorded at the same time as that album but not quite sitting right among the rest of the tracks, latest single ‘Wormhole’ sees the three-piece reaching further afield for their stylistic influences, dialling back some of the ferocity to allow in alt-country sensibilities. But the lyrics are as cutting and contemporary as ever, charting the rise and fall of an internet personality who, after selling their soul for recognition, is left lonely on the other side of fame, banging the locked door leading back to normal life.

Blue Canopy x A Beacon School – Bright Spot II

When Blue Canopy‘s Alex Schiff asked Patrick Smith of A Beacon School to remix single ‘Bright Spot’ after its release back in 2022, he probably didn’t quite expect the level of collaboration and vision which followed. Fast-forward eighteen months and the result has now been released as a single via Grind Select. ‘Bright Spot II’ is not so much a remix as a reimagining, a sister track which drags a cover of darkness over the original’s sunny wistfulness, carving out a nocturnal space of electronics which further amplifies the themes of regret and longing in a song about facing difficult periods with a long-term partner. “I just wanted everything to be OK between us,” Schiff explains, “and this song sorts through my feelings throughout that time, hoping for a resolution.”

The song comes complete with a video by Ebony Davies with additional edits from Chase Wagner:

‘Bright Spot II’ is out now via Grind Select and you can get it from Bandcamp.

The Dead Tongues – Body of Light

“Baby there ain’t no rules here / we can just slide / keep bending and drawing new lines / all shapes defined.” So opens ‘Body of Light’, the title track from one half of the upcoming double record from Ryan Gustafson’s The Dead Tongues on Psychic Hotline. Described as a pair of “interweaving and disparate albums,” the release embraces the diaphanous, intangible sentiment offered in those opening words, refusing to calcify into solid form in favour of something ephemeral. As the lead single suggests, the result is something intuitive and ever-shifting, mapped along the unseen currents of both our own interiors and the natural world. “Maybe you don’t know what to call it,” as Gustafson sings, “or it ain’t got a name / i’m here for it all just the same / all colors and shades / i’m just a body of light.” Watch the video by Gustafson and Cat Siravantha below:

Body of Light will be released digitally on the 14th June, and physically as a double album with I Am A Cloud on the 9th August via Psychic Hotline. Pre-order it now.

dog eyes – fair

dog eyes is the recording project of Oakland‘s Davis Leach and Haily Firstman which started when Leach helped produce Firstman’s previous project Mr Marigold. The pair soon realised their collaborative chemistry could stretch much further. Following on from the earnest, delightfully lo-fi debut good, proper sendoff on Grand Jury Music, new single ‘fair’ continues to develop the dog eyes sound. A track about friendship and its strange ebb and flow, the childlike wonder of the vocals is shaded by a lingering wistfulness, as though every perfect moment foreshadows its inevitable end. “When you’re a kid and you make a new friend you think they’ll be your friend forever and often they are not, the band explain. “They were there for a season. A love or crush can be the same.” Watch the video directed by Ev Fitzpatrick below:

‘fair’ is out now and available from the dogs eyes Bandcamp page.

Joy Guidry – I Will Always Miss You

Writing in March, we described how Brooklyn-based bassoonist and composer Joy Guidry was releasing new album AMEN via Whited Sepulchre Records, where Guidry experiments with the multitude of Black American music styles to create something new. Previous single ‘Members Don’t Get Weary’ combined jazz and gospel music into something impassioned and triumphant, whereas new track ‘I Will Always Miss You’ takes an entirely different path. Built upon a foundation of lush ambient synths and boasting some of the most evocative bassoon you are likely to hear, the instrumental piece offers a meditative space that’s rooted within the wider experience of life—where mourning and joy marble into a single whole.

Lake Michigan – Rituals

Described as an album about “love, OCD, class, addiction and probably a couple of other things too,” La Madrugada is the latest full-length release from Mexico City-based Lake Michigan on Start-track. The record continues the project’s gloomy, intimate bedroom pop style, with arrangements stripped back to their sparest elements to sound like raw messages as voiced in the latest hours of the night. Focusing on OCD and the general unease so intrinsic to the condition, single ‘Rituals’ is great entry point, its vocals emerging through the lo-fi sound as barely a murmur, heavy with weariness yet afraid of relaxing, as though compelled by the need to balance the world.

Mr. Sam and the People People – Go People Go (Part One)

This summer sees the release of Again! Again!, the new full-length album from New Orleans-based songwriting project Mr. Sam and the People People on Tape Dad (distributed by Gar Hole Records). Opening single ‘Go Baby Go (Part One)’ introduces the compassionate tone with a mindful reflection on the beauty inherent in simple things. Mr. Sam Gelband’s vocals land somewhere between Dean Johnson and Frederick Squires in their fond baritone. “I wrote ‘Go Baby Go’ to honor […] my closest people, the lake, the porch, the mountain, the shoreline, the neighbourhood, the quiet moments with myself,” Mr. Sam describes. “I know now that these things are the keepers of my truest joy, and I thank them.” Watch the video by Mayme O’Toole and Sam Gelband below:

Again! Again! is out via Tape Dad on the 11th June and available for pre-order now.

shn shn – Glimmer

We’ve covered the work of shn shn several times in recent years, always admiring how Toronto-based producer, singer-songwriter and creator Shanika Lewis-Waddell reimagines what the project might be with each release. “[shn shn] aims to do more than merely convince the listener to examine themselves,” we wrote of Form(s) last year. “Rather, it allows them to drift off to new frontiers. That is, to dream.” With its expansive ambient tones and idiosyncratic details, new single ‘Glimmer’ furthers this aesthetic. A meditation on the power of patience and understatement which coalesces into something quietly triumphant. “Building up gradually,” Lewis-Waddell sings, “unexpectedly found myself /so close yet so far / to a glimmer of hope.”

The post Weekly Listening: April 2024 #5 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

If Dirt Buyer II, the forthcoming album from Joe Sutkowski’s project on Bayonet Records, offers a clear message, it is that of survival. But any true acknowledgement of being alive can only come from brushes with mortality, and the songs see Dirt Buyer engage with the full darkness of the past in order to more fully appreciate the brighter future. Lead track ‘Fentanyl’ captures the full nuance of this process with a sound which far exceeds its relatively short length. An inky black slice of alt/emo rock which swings between stagnant gloom and bracing rolls of thunderous weight.

Dirt Buyer II is out on the 20th October via Bayonet Records and you can pre-order it now.

Eversame – Warm Flower Sided Road

Originating from jamming sessions between drummer Marek Šmidovič and guitarist Richard Špirko, Žilina’s Eversame have been in development as a band since 2018. But it was only on adding Matúš Ratveiský and then later Pauline Struhárová in 2022 that they really started working towards recorded music. After a debut standalone single, the band turned their attention to full-length Tell Me Where the Flowers Are, and the album is now being released by Filip Zemčík’s Start-track for a limited edition cassette release. Single ‘Warm Flower Sided Road’ serves as the ideal introduction for those unfamiliar with the outfit, blending brooding grunge tones with math rock invention to hint at both the weight and fluidity of the Eversame sound.

Indianna Hale – Hollow The Words

Described as “a love song to my friend family,” ‘Hollow The Words’ is an encapsulation of Indianna Hale’s hybrid country/dream pop style and the bright yet wistful mood which results. The latest song from upcoming LP Yesterday’s Glitter on Perpetual Doom, the single is typical of the album’s atmosphere, where the beauty of joyful things is shadowed by their inevitable passing. What results is an ambivalent sound which could be described as sweet, sad or even surreal, with Western overtones adding some cosmic desert spirit too. Watch the video directed by Sean Olmstead below:

Yesterday’s Glitter is out on the 1st September via Perpetual Doom and you can pre-order it now.

Meagre Martin – Please Clap

Led by Boston-born, Berlin based songwriter Sarah Martin, Meagre Martin has been described as a vehicle for survival and catharsis within our unstable world. With debut album Gut Punch, coming later this year on Mansions and Millions, Martin uses this distance from the US to better examine her home country, be it religious fundamentalism or the ever-worsening climate catastrophe, all delivered with a country-inflected brand of indie rock. Latest single ‘Please Clap’ draws on an image of Jeb Bush floundering before a crowd as an archetypal example of the strange mix of brutality, banality and insecurity which marks the present American psyche. Watch the video directed by Alessandra Corazzini and produced along with Ruby Chopping below:

Gut Punch is out on the 10th November via Mansions and Millions and you can pre-order it now.

Ocie Elliott – Free

Hailing from Victoria, BC, Ocie Elliott (that’s duo Jon Middleton and Sierra Lundy) have made their name with a compassionate and often romantic brand of folk music. Writing of previous single ‘With the Lights Down‘, we described how their intimate style conjured “a moment to remember the things you appreciate while they are still close at hand,” and the description could serve the outfit’s sound more generally. Latest track ‘Free’ is another example, again charged with the wistful fondness we’ve come to expect, welcoming the listener into their music’s mindful peace.

Head up, I’m going down
New paths on old ground
Wildflowers and bird songs
These hours, I feel strong

Pleasure Systems – Everything I Need (ft. Melody English)

His first new music since devastating 2021 album Visiting the Well, ‘Everything I Need’ is the new single from Clarke Sondermann’s Pleasure Systems. It’s a collaboration with New York‘s Melody English and sees a continuation of Pleasure Systems’ unique relationship with time. “Immediate thoughts coalesce with memories,” as we wrote of the previous album, “anguish swirls with past joys and the current stark absence muddles with a previous, very real, presence.” ‘Everything I Need’ is rooted in the present but finds itself drifting across the temporal spectrum. Flashing back to what has now passed, daring to imagine a future. And in the end, settling for what sits in the here and now.

When the evening dies
And we’re sharing the surprise
Past and present sitting softly in your eyes

Turn another day
In the getting in the way
Everything I need is here to stay

Roselit Bone – Ofrenda

Written in the aftermath of the loss of several friends and acquaintances, the title track of Roselit Bone’s Ofrenda is a song haunted by a spectre of death. “Grief would knock me down for weeks or months at a time,” as lead Charlotte McCaslin explains. “But I noticed that, for some brief little moments, the pressure of grieving would give way and I would suddenly feel ‘okay’. I would then be flooded with pangs of guilt for surviving, for not suffering alongside the dead.” The song, and indeed the album as a whole, doesn’t so much try to exorcise this spectre as step out from beneath its shadow. A blend of country and Mexican ranchera music which owes as much to Ennio Morricone as it does punk, emerging with a strangely triumphant air as it faces the most difficult question head on. How do we go on living in full knowledge of what is coming? What does it mean to live in a world which seems to be dying too?

Ofrenda is out via Get Loud Recordings on the 25th August and you can pre-order it now.

Sun June – Get Enough

Bad Dream Jaguar, the forthcoming album by Sun June on Run For Cover Records, sees the band lean further into the style they’ve established across their previous records. A mix of emotional immediacy and ethereal weightlessness, a picture where the line between the ground and the sky is blurred into insignificance. A spacious mirage that’s something like a dream, something like Texas, caught between the comfort of memory and the vertiginous realisation that memory might be all we have. New single ‘Get Enough’ appears to be aware of its position within this environment, embracing its untethered status to drift towards what could be bitter end or absolute truth.

Bad Dream Jaguar is out on the 20th October via Run For Cover Records and you can pre-order it now.

Thomas Powers – Li (ft. Chelsea Jade)

Having risen to fame as part of New Zealand synth pop outfit The Naked and Famous, Thomas Powers was gearing up to release a new record with the band just as the pandemic hit and curtailed their plans. The intervening downtime provided an opportunity to pursue solo work, and debut single ‘Li’ shows the first fruits of the endeavour. Featuring fellow Aotearoa artist Chelsea Jade, the song presents an altogether more reserved soundscape than those of TN&F, though one which nevertheless offers a considerable emotional punch. The introspection of an empty room blown up into cinematic grandeur. Watch the video directed by Thomas Powers, Chelsea Jade & Luna Shadows below:

‘Li’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Truth Club – Exit Cycle

Since the release of debut Not An Exit on Tiny Engines back in 2019, Raleigh outfit Truth Club have looked to push the boundaries of what the band could sound like. The addition of Yvonne Chazal to the line-up only furthered this motivation, the newly formed quartet deciding to work with a more communal brand of songwriting. A process intended to “hold space for criticism, critique, input, and inspiration from the rest of the band in any context.” Having now signed with Double Double Whammy, Truth Club are set to release new record From the Chase, and latest single ‘Exit Cycle’ is an encapsulation of their new methods. A track which always felt like it was missing something until collaboration kicked in, with Indigo De Souza adding vocals to finally realise its proper form. “The emotional path of the song parallels the journey of writing it,” lead Travis Harrington explains. “It begins in the most private and insular place, and finally grows into a joyfully collective outpour.” Watch the video directed by Alex Montenegro below:

From the Chase is out on the 6th October via Double Double Whammy and you can pre-order it now.

The post Weekly Listening: August 2023 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Ruth & Trudy is the recording project of Mitchell Young who lives in Houston, Texas. His latest album is called Still Pond Songs a record he describes as, “songs of earth, love, heartbreak, family, encounters with the occult, and fun”. If that doesn’t capture your attention then you’re reading the wrong music blog buddy. Luckily, the music sounds as good as its description, an unorthodox brand of lo-fi pop that blends a laidback hipness with heartfelt naivete.

The opening track, ‘Greens’ is a ramshackle indie pop song complete with keyboard, tambourine and handclaps. The song also gives us our first glimpse of Young’s vocals, which he delivers in a slightly detached manner, capturing the feigned indifference of youth. Next up is ‘Star Projector’, a brisk instrumental number that’s all playful xylophones and swirling guitars, while ‘Late Swim (tfl)’ brings a mellow lo-fi aesthetic, a drum beat emerging around the halfway mark, a beat which sometimes overtakes the guitars and sort of stutters back in time. This gives the track a slightly agitated air, like that feeling when you can’t quite get your mind to focus right. The lyrics add to this unsettling feeling,

“who was there
standing on the lake
under the moon
above you
is he your friend
do you trust him
is he even alive?”

‘Pond Scum’ begins with a warbled vocal sample which loops and loops as the track continues as a slice of lo-fi folk, bringing to mind the Lucas O’Connell album we featured last year. ‘Captain Falcon’ is a blast of sunny indie pop, complete with kid giggle samples, sounding like a lazy summer afternoon, a tall glass of icy lemonade sweating in the sun. This is followed by another instrumental track, ‘Cop Island’, an almost tropical 70 seconds of shimmying guitars and gentle percussion, before ‘Provide For Family’ announces itself with odd little rattles and squelchy sounds, like the shambling whir of some clockwork contraption. The lyrics are about what the title suggests, “make sure your mother still feels she’s needed” it begins, before the oddly uplifting chorus of:

“provide for your family
uplift their spirits
we all share the same fears
no one wants to lose their loved ones
no one wants to die”

Then we get ‘Diane’, a sweetly unpolished love song, ‘When You Can See Your Breath Outside’, which rumbles along with the now familiar echoey vocals, and the finale ‘Here Last Year (Era Crathmania)’, which switches things up with a slice of rousing, 80s-tinged electro-pop, not unlike M83 at their most shimmering. But my favourite track is number 10, ‘And You Meant the Sea’, which is just the epitome of summer, all sea and sand and surf. Even the guitars seem sun-drunk as the track strolls along, a tale of beachside romance:

“we were eating candy at the beach
and I was playing with your hands
our hair was blowing in the wind
do you remember what it feels like
when our skin in sunlight would meet?
‘come on in,’ you said
and you meant the sea”

You can get Still Pond Songs on super-limited cassette tape or as a name-your-price digital download via the Z Tapes Bandcamp page.

P.S. Stay tuned for a review of the second Z Tapes release in the very near future!

The post Ruth & Trudy – Still Pond Songs appeared first on Various Small Flames.