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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The week saw the second such collaboration, this time with Philadelphia blog sensation Swell Tone. Curated by Shana Hartzel, Summer of Sad is a ten-song release featuring a range of styles and genres linked by the common themes of being 1) summery, 2) sad, 3) great. Or, as Shana puts it:

“Summer of Sad is about the quiet moments of the hottest season. It’s the warm breeze on a moonlit night and the mellow release of melancholia as you float down the river on an inner-tube in the hot, hot sun. A collaboration between Philly music blog Swell Tone and Slovakian tape label Z Tapes, the compilation combines 10 songs from female artists and female-fronted bands to create a dual atmosphere of summer’s brightness and the depths of longing. As if time were being kept by the creak of an old, back porch swing, the songs sway with an effortless sincerity.”

‘Icebergs’ by Bevelers opens, playing like some mountain hymn for the twenty-first century, while ‘Bad Way’ by Pop & Obachan is a slow, dreamy rock jam that seems caught between light and dark. “You arrived a surprise in the strangest way,” sings Emma Tringali, “what started as hate ended as a beautiful thing”. Lomelda’s glitchy folk rock follows, ‘Ya w/Me?’ insular and downbeat yet also somehow warm in its incredibly human heartbreak:

“So you don’t wanna be a family
You told me
Sitting at the table that my grandparents left for me
I just poured you another glass
Did ya notice
The silence that passed is all that lasts?
Where did ya go?”

Summer Flake’s ‘Shoot and Score’ is a slightly off-kilter rock tune, the vocals sliding over the music in monotone sheets, always threatening to deepen into something more dark or dangerous but never quite following through. ‘bat’ by CBMC’s ÓOR is a submerged bedroom number, the instrumentation rippling like the surface of a pond, while Queen of Jeans’ cover of Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams’ is seized by a timeless, romantic melancholy, the dramatic drums and crooned vocals conjuring that perfect tortured state unique to country singers and Hollywood actors.

The second cover, Candace’s rendition of Buffalo Springfield’s ‘Way Home’, is similarly arresting, snaking between fond sadness in the verses and the carefree forgiveness (or at least forget) in the chorus. Mia Loucks follows this with ‘summer’, a song both muffled and bright, as though sung the bottom of a swimming pool, lit electric blue during a sweaty August night. Sarah M.’s ‘t-shirt’ worms its way gradually out from beneath heavy bass, the energy rising across its run-time, before Deer Scout closes the release with ‘Haus’. Half-paced and soft, this is a song for those late summer nights where autumn comes knocking, darkness arriving a little too early, cool damp creeping into the fabric of things. Luckily, Dena Miller’s vocals are the perfect antidote, weaving a blanket in which to wrap yourself, through the night and winter both.

Working as a stellar release in its own right, as well as an introduction to ten acts that will soon be amongst your favourites, Summer of Sad is pretty much the perfect compilation, and a great example of the special things that can happen when enthusiastic people team up and combine their energies.

Summer of Sad is out now and you can get it now from the Z Tapes Bandcamp page, including a rather lovely cassette edition. All digital sales will be donated to Slovakian charity, Esther, who help people live again after domestic abuse.

Cover art drawn by Victoria Engle, colored Caitlin McCann

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