We’ve written previously about the band’s willingness to experiment and shapeshift, with 2021’s No Light in Heaven signalling a move away from the indie rock which made their name towards electronic pop. “[Strange Ranger] push and prod at their sound as if it were a lump of clay,” we wrote in our review, “moulding it into totally new shapes that feel drastic even for a band that has never stood still stylistically.” But however drastic a transformation No Light represented, the evolutionary thread could be followed back to the past releases, the old Stranger Ranger sound appearing as echoes throughout. Pure Music is less a continuation of this journey than a new beginning. Why mould your sound into new shapes when you can have the total freedom of starting from scratch?

What results is an album stylistically and thematically in concert. A conscious attempt to step outside of the usual structures, be they of geography, history and merely expectation, in search of a truly blank slate. And within this freedom comes great variety. Be it ‘Rain So Hard‘, a track we described previously as a “lush and layered sound [which plays] as some nameless immensity above the vocals, be it a looming cityscape or wide open sky,” while ‘She’s On Fire’ offers a different version of transcendence. A street-level blaze with all its intimate heat and movement and light.

With its combination of ethereality and immediacy, ‘Wide Awake’ might encapsulate the album, and indeed Strange Ranger, most fully. A sound strung out across eighties, nineties and noughties aesthetics but belonging to none, somehow sinuous and static simultaneously, both surreally dreamlike and hyper-alert. Ultimately a track which breaks new ground by foregoing any attempt mark its position on the map. “Wide awake / Still on hold,” as the lyrics go. “In line for a lifetime / And in control.”

Pure Music is out now via Fire Talk Records and available from the Strange Ranger Bandcamp page.

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The project of Gothenburg-based musician, producer and visual artist Lela Amparo, Amparo is an outlet for atmospheric and cinematic music that blends electronic, ambient and folk. Taken from new album Day and Night, out now on Bikiniwax Records, latest single ‘After Ours’ is a great example. Drawing on the likes of Bonobo and The Cinematic Orchestra, the song builds from simple guitar and plaintive strings into a rich, jazz-inflected track that’s thick with a sense of late-night drama and emotion. ‘After Ours’ is “inspired by a night spent in Paris before changing the course of my life,” Amparo explains. “It’s about being in the moment and knowing nothing will ever be the same.”

 Getdown Services – Cream Of The Crop

If John Cooper Clarke’s ‘Evidently Chickentown’ conjured the end days through pictures of a tedious, ruined Britain, then ‘Cream of the Crop’ by Bristol’s Getdown Services offers a new vision of the non-future. A world polished to within an inch of its life and then polished a bit harder. A stage of capitalism so late they’ve stopped updating the time on the board. Think branded boozers and no-change-from-a-tenner street food cuisine. The milieu is brought to life by shiny disco beats, though it is the conversational snark of vocalist Josh Law the grabs the attention. A figure who finds himself in a place so soulless he’s not sure whether to self-immolate or burst out laughing. Either way, he’s stuck there and so are you. Roll up everybody, Chickentown’s had a fresh coat of paint.

Jeffrey Silverstein – Cowboy Grass

Later this spring, Jeffrey Silverstein will release Western Sky Music, his second LP for Arrowhawk Records and first full-length since 2020’s You Become the Mountain. Promising an evolution of Silverstein’s cosmic brand of country, the album again features contributions from Barry Walker Jr (pedal steel) and Alex Chapman (bass), and also adds Akron/Family’s Dana Buoy on drums, as well as guest appearances from William Tyler and VSF fav Karima Walker. Lead single ‘Cowboy Grass’ is our first taste, a song with a little more dust and dirt and barroom boogie than anything Silverstein has made to date. Watch the video, directed by Austin Abbott and starring Eric DuRant, below:

Western Sky Music releases via Arrowhawk Records on 12th May. Pre-order a copy now from the Jeffrey Silverstein Bandcamp page.

Melati ESP – BAHASA BARU

With LP hipernatural coming soon on Carpark Records, Indonesian-American experimental pop artist Melati ESP has unveiled new single, ‘BAHASA BARU’. The record is notable in the way it draws on the breadth of Melati’s cultural influences to achieve its vivid sound (Javanese radio Dangdut, gamelan cassettes, Moving Shadow-era liquid jungle and Japanese chill-out are all listed as inspirations), and the new single serves as the ideal introduction to a style which exists outside of the usual categorization of genre or geography. “It’s a personal statement of intent,” Melati explains, “being comfortable in occupying the third space, and creating new ways of communicating that are tethered to intuition, empathy and understanding.” The song comes complete with a video, directed by Melati’s sister Kathleen Malay, which celebrates this embrace of otherness despite, as Melati puts it, “mostly feeling like a baby alien while growing up in Jakarta, always between two worlds.”

hipernatural is out on the 28th April via Carpark Records.

The Saxophones – Desert Flower

Released to announce their third album, coming early this summer on Full Time Hobby, ‘Desert Flower’ is the new single from The Saxophones. For the uninitiated, The Saxophones is the project of married duo Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdice, who make slinky Lynchian lounge music that’s dark and velvety, confronting existential concerns with a smoky sophistication. What Erenkov describes as “about avoidance and fear impeding personal growth and the deepening of relationships,” ‘Desert Flower’ is no different. Creeping and cryptic, it blends the material and the mystical, eventually swelling to emotive peaks as Erenkov’s croon gives way to radiant sax. It’s an intriguing glimpse of what promises to be a strange and sublime record.

There are symbols everywhere
signs that even I can’t deny.
Only if they aligned,
I could lift away the veil.

To Be a Cloud will be released via Full Time Hobby on 2^nd June. Pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Strange Ranger – Rain So Hard

Strange Ranger are a band who have been defined by a sense of self-reinvention. Winning initial acclaim within the spheres of indie rock, 2019’s Remember The Rockets saw the first shoots of shoegaze and pop influences breaking the surface, and by No Light in Heaven the following year they were entirely rebranded as an experimental electronic outfit. New single ‘Rain So Hard’, out via Fire Talk Records, emerges from this electro ground, its lush and layered sound playing as some nameless immensity above the vocals, be it a looming cityscape or wide open sky. This overwhelming scale registers as a kind of melancholy, the vocals adrift within something to large for them to navigate or control. “How do I get out of this movie now?” asks the repeated refrain, hoping for nothing more than another person to cling onto for the ride. Watch the video directed by Ben Turok below:

‘Rain So Hard’ is out now via Fire Talk Records.

Women Tied to Railroad Tracks – Fake Tans

Back in 2019 we wrote about Women Tied to the Railroad Tracks, describing the sound of their album And Levitating as “indie pop that sits in a strange space between mundane reality and freaky dreams.” With their debut record on the horizon with Anxiety Blanket Records, the LA outfit have shared the brand new single, ‘Fake Tans’. A bright summertime track loosely based on Doris Lessing’s novel The Golden Notebook, where the protagonist speaks of an encounter with a man with a crack in his personality: “like a gap in a dam, and through that gap the future might pour in a different shape—terrible perhaps, or marvelous, but something new.”

Yael S. Copeland – Pool

Having made a name fronting Borito, Tel Aviv’s Yael S. Copeland is setting out alone for her first solo release. If the Borito sound occupied a colourful, retro bracket of the dream pop/rock genre, then Copeland’s solo work turns more toward the intimate and lo-fi, having more in common with Alex G and Elliott Smith. With an album set for release later this month, latest single ‘Pool’ shows how this stripped back style is no less immersive or heartfelt, the lyrics playing like something between a daydream and a poem in their gentle reflection, the sound still managing to envelop the listener in its lush layers.

big sky
like a big pool
blue and clear
but I can’t see my
reflection when I look down here

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Described as a mixtape rather than an album, latest release No Light in Heaven finds Strange Ranger again breaking new ground. It represents their most ambitious shape-shift to date, a collection of experiments that see Strange Ranger push and prod at their sound as if it were a lump of clay, moulding it into totally new shapes that feel drastic even for a band that has never stood still stylistically.

Originally self-released last autumn, the record is getting an expanded re-release, including an exclusive LP edition, via the fine folks at Fire Talk Records. It’s a welcome move, not least because, despite its experimental nature, the mixtape somehow holds together as a whole. The surreal industrial nightmare of opener ‘In Hell’, with its splintered screams and distorted drum machine, sits surprisingly well next to the laidback alt R&B of ‘Stopping Threshold’ and the 80s pop tones of ‘Pass Me By’. With its forays into punchy punk rock (‘Demolished’) and chilled-out dance (‘Cheap Returns/Back To My Home’), shadowy electronica and euphoric art pop, the chaos starts to make sense on some higher level, like fiddling with a radio dial to curate your own disparate playlist (something the band directly imitate on ‘Tales of Romance’, complete with staticky feedback).

One song that didn’t appear on the original release is the oddly melancholic ‘Raver Explanation’. Built on synths, drum machine and digitally-modulated vocals, it feels like a very contemporary pop song, focusing on difficult human connection in our technological age. “This song is sort of about an uneven power dynamic between two people,” Strange Ranger describe. “All that longing with no ability to communicate.” Check out the video by Richard Smith/Powered By Wind below:

No Light in Heaven is out now digitally via Fire Talk Records, with the physical release following in October. Order your copy now via the Strange Ranger Bandcamp page.

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The EP welcomes a variety of friends and collaborators too. Jacob Crofoot, Nick Sebastiano and Alenni Davis (Another Michael), Corey Witchlin (Spirit of the Beehive), Sean Hallock (Rozwell Kid), Sam Amidon and members of Hour all lend a hand, with mastering done by Stephen Steinbrink. Indeed, such a collaborative spirit is intrinsic to the Thank You Thank You sound, and something in which Bussey feels strongly. “I really do believe in community and lifting other people up, not as a concept, but as a daily practice,” he explains. “It comes just from loving music and wanting to make music with musicians you love. It’s as simple as that.”

Lead single ‘K P’ serves as the first taste of the Thank You Thank You style, and shows a shared creative process can result in a detailed and cohesive sound. The track explores the precarious and callous healthcare system in the US, and it is telling that its pervasive melancholy is underpinned by a biting urgency, a kind of desperation. “You always just see people crowdsourcing what they should do about some issue they’re having, because that’s their only choice,” Bussey says. “There’s this bleak, everyday cruelty of being left to fend for yourself or to rely on your friends and family for things that should just be basic, guaranteed rights, especially when we have more than enough resources to provide for everyone.”

when you’re asking everyone you know
what they do to get to sleep
everybody knows something that you don’t
‘there’s a million little tricks to it’
‘here’s another one you have to try’
am I the only one I know that doesn’t know
that never figured it out

Photo by Emily Burtner

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Tracklisting:

Restorations – Nonbeliever
Goshen Electric Co. – The Grey Tower
Horse Culture – Follow
Yowler – Where Is My Light?
Desert Liminal – Gauze Cave
Anamon – In 3
Adeline Hotel – Lightning
Lea Thomas – Upstream
Scott Orr – No Phone
Advance Base – Christmas in Nightmare City
Blue Wilson – Golden Eyes
The Sofas – Nothing Major
Lazy Legs – Nosebleed
All Boy/All Girl – Bomb
Strange Ranger – New Hair
Elly Swope – Idea
Dweller – Running
Will Henriksen – Halo
Knuckle Pups – Bottom Baby
Ian Wayne – Guessing
Massage – Crying Out Loud
Recluse Raccoon – Mother America
Interbellum – Ink
Marc Ferrino – Like a Spark
Katie Kuffel – As the Crow Flies
Emily Brown – Sometimes
KASHKA – Holding Steady
Philippe Bronchtein – Me and the Moon
Spencer Segelov – Sacred Songs
Annie Dressner – Fades Away
Belaver – Grave Robber
Of The Valley – Ride Alone
Hour – Give thanks in a special way

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As Delaney Mott describes in a bio for Tiny Engines, How it All Went By is “influenced by predecessors like Third Eye Blind and Oasis, [forming] the band’s most radio-ready release yet.” As if to immediately prove this point, ‘New Hair’ comes crashing to life and rushes through in a burst of heavy and catchy emo-tinged melodic rock. “I have new hair though I make no decisions,” Eiger sings, “show up and glare what if I ever listened, they told me it’d all be so great someday.”

The tone is decidedly more heartfelt feel on ‘I Want It To Be Dark’, the vocals rising above a bed of heavy guitar work to give a buoyant atmosphere. As such, the song is like a confession or secret shared after much silence, the words carrying a great weight which leave the speaker, free of them, as light as air.

There’s a slower, plodding 90s vibe on ‘The Wires’, Fred Nixon taking over vocal duties as the raw and chaotic emo elements are smoothed over in favour of straight indie rock.

“I can see you
know just how to throw your weight around
But I’m keen to
keep my feet planted firmly on the ground”

The final third of ‘Remember’ treads definitively into hardcore, the vocals a distorted rasping screech. The moment plays as a final release of the vulnerability and emotion that lies latent on the rest of the record, Eiger almost literally screaming into the abyss as drums crash and guitars blare with a post-rock apocalyptic snarl. The EP then ends with ‘Birdies’, a short instrumental outro that woozes and wheezes its way through its 80 second run-time, ending with the cawing of crows.

You can get How It All Went By now on cassette via Tiny Engines, or the Strange Ranger Bandcamp page.

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Various Swell Sounds is a new collaborative playlist series from Shana Hartzel of Swell Tone, Jon Chin of Cereal and Sounds, and myself. Instead of constantly exchanging tracks amongst each other, we have decided to work together to bring them to more ears. Every month, we will match a selection of our old and brand new favourites to a specific theme, as decided on a revolving basis month by month.

It only comes around every four years, so this month we’ve hopped aboard the World Cup hype train. We encountered a bit of a hitch when realising that there aren’t a wealth of football/soccer related indie tunes, especially when 2/3 of the curating team reside in the US. Thus, Beautiful Games was born, a playlist that widens the net to encompass all sports, and plays a little loose with the sound and style, meaning this might not the most cohesive list you’ll ever get from us. Still, that’s cool. The World Cup is all about a diverse clash of styles, after all.

Find the tracklisting below, though due to Spotify’s limited library, that version isn’t quite complete.

1. Parquet Courts – Total Football
2. Speedy Ortiz – Basketball
3. Ex Hex – Don’t Wanna Lose
4. Amyl and The Sniffers – Cup of Destiny
5. Queen Moo – Goals
6. Darla – Hey Ref, Let the Boys Play!
7. Varsity – Smash
8. Gulfer – Baseball
9. The Lagoonas – Beach Golf Course
10. Summer Flake – Shoot and Score
11. Methyl Ethel – Shadowboxing
12. John Maus – Touchdown
13. The Fall – Kicker Conspiracy
14. Slow Ref – Playing the Game
15. Stephen Malkus and The Jicks – Chartjunk
16. Hello Shark – Big Game
17. The Mountain Goats – Song for Sasha Banks
18. Another Michael – Football
19. Deerhoof – Basketball Get Your Groove Back
20. Super Furry Animals – Venus & Serena
21. Sports Coach – I’d Trade My Whole Team for a Dog
22. Ian Sweet – #23
23. Mothers – No Crying in Baseball
24. Spartan Jet-Plex – Sport
25. Strange Ranger – Sioux Falls
26. Her’s – Speed Racer
27. Frog – Nancy Kerrigan
28. Belle & Sebastian – The Stars of Track and Field
29. Natalie Prass – Short Court Style
30. Songs: Ohia – The Big Game is Every Night

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Various Small Flames’

Songs of 2017

Anamon – Kneel Old
Android Automatic – Dark Roads*
Angie McMahon – Slow Mover
Basement Revolver – Johnny Pt. 2
Baxter Roy Long – Paribanou
Bea Troxel – Let Them Know
Big Thief – Mary
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Soft Stud
Bully – Running
Cayetana – Mesa
Charly Bliss – Percolator
Chastity Belt – Different Now
CHUCK – Happy Birthday
The County Liners – Maria
The Courtneys – Tour
Craig Finn – God in Chicago
Crumb – Locket
Crushing – Emery Board
Cut Worms – Like Going Down Sideways
David Bazan – Care
Distant Reader – First Try
Emperor X – God Save Coastal Dorset
Fits – Ice Cream on a Nice Day
German Error Message – 2017*
Gleemer – Soothe Me
Great Grandpa – Favorite Show
Haley Heynderickx – Oom Sha Lala
Hiccup – Teasin’
Horse Culture – Texaco
Illuminati Hotties – ‘(You’re Better) Than Ever’
Japandroids – No Known Drink or Drug
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
Jay Som – The Bus Song
Jeremy Squires – Night Cars
Katie Ellen – Drawing Room
Lizzie No – Monuments
Lomelda – Bam Sha Klam
Mike Pace and the Child Actors – Audits & Surveys
Meursault – The Mill
Mount Eerie – Crow
Nice Legs – Mighty Three
Oceanator – Nowhere Nothing
Ohyeahsumi – Daisy
Old Earth – Pit Dynamics
PASTEL – Stammer
Peter Silberman – New York
Phoebe Bridgers – Motion Sickness
Pope – Talk Me Out of It
Protomartyr – Windsor Hum
Rainwater – Place
Ratboys – Elvis is in the Freezer
Rick Rude – Bald & Fat in Houston, TX
Roadkill Ghost Choir – Classics (Die Young)
Rose Dorn – Dirt
See Through Dresses – Lucy’s Arm
Shannen Moser – A Funeral, A Friend, My Sanity
Sinai Vessel – Died On My Birthday
Slaughter Beach, Dog – Phoenix
SOAR – Fort Funston
Soft Fangs – Jordan // Jackson Elementary
Spartan Jet-Plex – We Believe
Strange Ranger – House Show
Strawberry Runners – Garden Hose
Timid, The Brave – Alice
Us and Only Us – Bored of Black
Vagabon – Cold Apartment
Viewfinder – Instant Moonlight
The Washboard Abs – Veil
Waxahatchee – Never Been Wrong
Wild Pink – Albert Ross
William Ryan Fritch – In Our Blood
The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters
Ylayali – Cherry Tomatoes

*Strictly released in 2016, but barely, and we covered it in Jan. 2017.

If you missed it, you can see our Favourite Albums of 2017 list here. Also, the curious can find such lists from previous years here.

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