Back in 2022 we featured ‘Metamorphosis’, a single from Chicago-based outfit Daarling which we described as “a simmering, brooding number which dwells on the inevitability of change and the friction which results.” This month saw the release of Daarling’s debut album The Deep Within, which develops the style seen on ‘Metamorphosis’ further to occupy a space between dream pop and post-punk. Take the way recent single ‘Cherish//Flourish’, which again builds from modest beginnings into something both spacious, detailed and prone to sharp rises in intensity, Erin Lyle’s vocals more than a match for the dramatic soundscape which results.

The Duke of Norfolk & This Is A Kit – The Yeast in the Sugar

“An ode to an uncertain relationship, finding beauty and joy in the present despite the lurking doubt, attempting to be grateful no matter how fragile or transient the tie.” That’s how we described The Duke of Norfolk‘s ‘As The Heralds Revere You‘ back in 2019. The track was typical of peripatetic folk musician and multi-instrumentalist Adam Howard’s project, exploring the porous border between reality and myth with a careful, compassionate tone. New song ‘The Yeast in the Sugar’ is a collaboration with This Is the Kit, and continues this style with a decidedly patient quality. A meditation on what it means to wait, to develop slowly in a world which demands immediate gratification.

James Jonathan Clancy – Had It All

Perhaps best known as lead of art punk ensemble His Clancyness (plus noise group Brutal Birthday), it has been seven years since James Jonathan Clancy released a record. In the interim he founded the record label Maple Death Records, and slowly but surely worked to refine his own creative work. The result of that period of focus and innovation is Sprecato, a record Clancy will release on his label early next year, the first under his birth name. Written and recorded between London and Bologna and featuring a transnational ensemble of collaborators, the album takes inspiration from the ‘apocalyptic pastoralism’ of Michelangelo Setola’s Gli Sprecati, though ends up pushing into a territory all of its own. Single ‘Had It All’ is a good place to jump in, taking equal parts cosmic folk and spacious ambient styles and applying them to a more traditional singer-songwriter sound.

Joseph Shabason – Welcome To Hell

“Soundscapes full of detail, movement and laidback swagger, which get at something almost intangible, the spirit of the era.” So we described Joseph Shabason’s Welcome to Hell, an album on Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records which uses the eponymous Toy Machine video as a jumping off point to paint a sonic picture of the nineties skate scene. With the record now available, the final single and title track is a fitting point of entry, taking the most rewound part of the tape—the bail segment—and reimagining the soundtrack as an out-of-body ambient chill. The resulting video presents a strange mix of ballet and body horror which Shabason’s soft vocals instil with all the longing and glory of the best memorial.

Welcome To Hell is out now via Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records.

The Juniper Berries – Role Model

Fronted by Josh Stirm, The Juniper Berries are an Austin-based outfit preparing to release their album Death and Taxes next spring on Earth Libraries. Lead single ‘Role Model’ introduces what to expect from the album, with the upbeat country rock style mapping the complicated edges of grief and attempting to use loss as an impetus to keep on living. Storytelling is a big part of the record, with fictional narratives employed as a kind of distancing force, but the single holds up intensely personal circumstances to ground the themes of the record. The experience of going through the process of mourning as it is made all the more difficult by the knotty relationship shared in life.

I got a little bit closer to the edge last night than I had planned
you were running through my mind,
you’re up there all the time
but now I’ll never, ever, see you again

Looms – Hologram

The Dogs of Doubt, the latest EP from Brooklyn‘s Looms, is the kind of release which most fully rewards the patient and curious. For while the tracks are immediately impressive in their careful craft and emotional resonance, those willing to return to them will witness Sharif Mekawy’s songs unfurl with graceful depth. Take the understated build of single ‘Hologram’, which presents itself as a tender folk song, though is complicated by its subtle layers. The track’s true nature seems to be revealed by its outro, like a book which only makes perfect sense on reading the final chapters. The wise listener will return to the beginning to repeat the process, thereby lowering themselves more fully into the beguiling world of Looms.

Malachi Graham – Together for the Kids

What she calls “a hymn for the exhausted,” Caretaker is the forthcoming new album from Portland singer-songwriter Malachi Graham. The record was inspired by a bad breakup and its aftermath, in which the scales fell from Graham’s eyes and she began to see pathological behaviour everywhere—be that in others and herself. Single ‘Together For the Kids’ introduces the record’s uncompromising exploration of these behaviours and heralds the more rock-oriented style Graham has embraced to capture the experience in all of its chaos, starting tense and bitterly wistful before blooming into a gloriously noisy catharsis.

Caretaker is out on the 15th January and you can pre-order it now.

nudista – Different Eyes

We last wrote about London band nudista early last year, calling single ‘inasmuch’ (from debut EP Halfway Here) “a clarified dream pop which seeks to communicate directly and honestly.” Now the duo, Pilar Matji Cabello and Robbie Carman, are back with a new single ‘Different Eyes’, released by the ever-reliable Sad Club Records. The song explores what Carman calls “a distrust of my own narrative […] a gradual realisation that I have outgrown some previously held opinions,” and again focuses on communicating as directly and plainly as possible. This is delivered with a little more verve and rough edges, adding a country-gaze rock swagger to their careful emotion. Oh, and the chorus is a killer.

You never want to be here
You’re always somewhere else
You’re always chasing something
Trying to be someone else

‘Different Eyes’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available from the nudista Bandcamp page.

Sierra Ferrell – Fox Hunt

“Well, take the path down to the river, it is hunting time / Clothe the kids and feed the children, oh, the meat is fine.” So opens ‘Fox Hunt’, the new single from country artist Sierra Ferrell, a track which harks back to bygone days to capture the thrill of the hunt. But this is no sleepy, sepia-toned pastoral scene, its racing strings and stomping percussion capturing the breathless rush through a forest in all of its boisterous, full-blooded glory. “The lyrics may be straight old time,” Ferrell says of the track in a piece for Rolling Stone, “but the music is pure adrenaline… and maybe that’s what I’m here for.”

Watch the animated video (hand drawn by Rob Fidel) below:

‘Fox Hunt’ is out now and available via streaming services.

Teenage Halloween – Melodrama

“Burning through the bullshit to occupy your space in the world.” That’s how we described Teenage Halloween’s new LP, Till You Return, in a preview of single ‘Armageddon Now‘. With the album now out via Don Giovanni, the New Jersey outfit have unveiled latest single, ‘Melodrama’. A sub-two-minute ripper which lives up the same spirit, refusing the slide towards pessimism and nihilistic tendencies with a bracing sense of momentum. Life is hard and things are often beyond our control, but with enough propulsive force we might fight to keep our heads above water yet.

Watch the video by Alex Cihanowic below:

Till You Return is out on the 20th October via Don Giovanni Records and you can pre-order it now.

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

First single ‘Getting Bitter‘ saw bassist Tricia Marshall take on vocal duties to “[channel] the love and angst of the Teenage Halloween sound into a picture of addiction in all of its tangled complications,” as we described in a preview. “Where a desire to help a loved one struggling with such issues is counterbalanced by an unavoidable frustration.” In contrast, latest track ‘Armageddon Now’ hands the reins back over to Eli Frank and Luk Henderiks for a searing take on the pitfalls of avoiding the difficult parts of life.

“‘Armageddon Now’ urges the listener to find strength to speak their truth in the face of adversity,” as Henderiks explains. “It channels the feeling that others are steamrolling your thoughts and actions and how you have to just follow your own path in the end. The only way to feel heard at times is to keep on pushing your voice, even when it’s not the loudest one in the room.” And Henderiks is more than willing to live up to their own advice, the vocal delivery harnessing the sound’s momentum to achieve a tone both caustic and cathartic. Burning through the bullshit to occupy your space in the world.

I could never charm
Could be good to speak up
Maybe just show honesty
Avoid armageddon now
In the end you’ll leave
Get over it in time
Even when you were entitled to my mind

The song comes complete with a video directed by Chris Warner and director of photography Alex Korpi. “‘Armageddon Now’ is a collaboration born out of our shared love for the Queer Punk Outlaws wrestling nights that take place in Brooklyn; and which our bassist Tricia’s cousin Judith Henry is involved in,” Henderiks continues. “We invited Judith, our old friend (and previous Teenage Halloween touring member) Mem Pahl, and long-time scene acquaintance Reid Worrol to come bring some of their righteous moves to this celebration of queer strength and an embracing of chaos.”

Till You Return is out on the 20th October via Don Giovanni Records and you can pre-order it now.

Photo by Okie Dokie Studios

The post Teenage Halloween – Armageddon Now appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“With… tender and confessional vocals, the track paints a vulnerable, open-hearted mood which longs for certainty within the painful fervour of love.” So we described ‘Enough‘, the previous single by San Francisco‘s Bad Tiger. Latest single ‘Obedience’ follows the same mood, but whereas its predecessor bloomed into something brighter, the track fails to break from its atmosphere of understated melancholy. A song somehow both intimate and spacious, as though tapping into the heart of relationship and finding the internal landscape windswept and barren.

All I wanted was a little more time
Before I thought it died
Paranoia, unable to decide
If what we’re holding is alive

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

Con Davison – Look At Me That Way

There’s long been a bittersweet quality to the music of Con Davison, with tracks like ‘Sofa Bed‘ and ‘Postcard‘ marked by the way they use languid pop warmth to explore personal difficulties. Latest single ‘Look At Me That Way’ is no different, its laidback brightness belying the loneliness at its heart. The track “is about my struggle to connect and understand my closest loved ones when life gets hard,” Davison explains. “It’s so easy to isolate and not make an effort when you’re going through some shit. It’s childish and I think LAMTW is my reminder to give it a go at trying to understand and empathize with people, and allow them to understand and empathize with me.”

 Luce Rushton – Night Drive Through

Having risen to prominence under the moniker TV Room, Luce Rushton has now adopted her own name, and single ‘Night Drive Through’ serves as our first impression of what this change might mean. Released via Sad Club Records, the song offers a picture of early-relationship suspicion, as if unable to believe good things might happen, or perhaps anticipating their eventual end right from the beginning. “Being gay, I never thought I would ever find love and so when I did I was convinced at first it was someone playing a prank on me,” as Rushton explains. “Although a love song, I wanted this song to show how every event was clouded by fear.” Watch the video by Amy Ryder and edited by Olly Ryder below:

‘Night Drive Through’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available via the Luce Rushton Bandcamp page.

Middle Priest – Fingernail

Back in July we wrote about Middle Priest, the songwriting project of Raleigh-born, LA-based Colson Dorafshar, describing single ‘Act Your Age’ as “a bright and emotionally charged sound that lands somewhere between the rich, country-inflected rock of the likes of The Wooden Sky and probing resonance of someone like Sinai Vessel.” With EP I thought that I was far away coming soon, Dorafshar has unveiled latest single ‘Fingernail’. Driven by another pressing momentum, the track embraces this style, though within the certainty of its rhythm lies a far more conflicted picture. As though the motion might not be that of impetus but rather the anxious thrashing of a directionless life.

I thought that I was far away is coming soon. Find Middle Priest on Spotify.

Nathan Graham – Somebody Else

With debut album Saint of Second Chances due in October on Pravda Records, Chicago‘s Nathan Graham has released a new single ‘Somebody Else’. It’s a showcase of his signature style, which combines the Blues of Chicago’s South Side with Nashville’s guitar-based Americana to form something both sincere in emotion and smooth in its delivery. Latest single ‘Somebody Else’ is the perfect place to start for the uninitiated, exuding an earnest, soulful confidence despite the uncertainty of its themes. “‘Somebody Else’ is not a relationship song,” as Graham explains. “Well, not in the traditional way. I wrote this to personify the relationship between a person and their art… It’s that pull to keep going and one day you will catch up with your dreams.”

‘Somebody Else’ is out now and is available from the Nathan Graham Bandcamp page.

smol fish – Sweet Taste

A self-described “band of best friends” from Borloo/Perth, smol fish make indie pop that’s at once playful and wryly cutting. They’ve just released their sophomore EP, Crocodile Tears, what they call “a meditation on the themes of childhood nostalgia, showing up for your friends and the anxiety that surrounds both new and old love.” The opening track seems like as good a place as any to start, and ‘Sweet Taste’ delivers right up front. Many a song has taken on the bittersweet nature of life, but smol fish invert the classic view, not finding sadness within the everyday but rather homing in on the good. “Even sour has a sweet taste,” as the song’s refrain states, embracing sensitivity not as some flaw or vulnerability but rather the key to appreciating every day.

I think it’s beautiful the way
that hair turns grey
That nervous feet sway
That eyes full of dust still stare at the day
Still happy in the rain

Teenage Halloween – Getting Bitter

Following on from their self-titled debut, New Jersey punks Teenage Halloween are preparing to release their new full-length, Till You Return on Don Giovanni Records. The act have established themselves as key figures in the contemporary emo/pop punk scene, and latest single ‘Getting Bitter’ shows the new album promises to amp up the emotion and melodies. Bassist Tricia Marshall takes on vocal duties, channelling the love and angst of the Teenage Halloween sound into a picture of addiction in all of its tangled complications. Where a desire to help a loved one struggling with such issues is counterbalanced by an unavoidable frustration. “You grow somewhat resentful of this person who takes family and sobriety for granted,” as Marshall explains, “when in reality it’s not entirely their fault, so you’re left in an uncomfortable crossroad.” Watch the video by Preston Spurlock below:

Till You Return is out on the 20th October via Don Giovanni Records and you can pre-order it now.

There Will Be Fireworks – Classic Movies

“Will this shadow ever leave me? / Does my heart again deceive me?” So asks Nicholas McManus near the beginning of ‘Classic Movies’, the lead single from Summer Moon, There Will Be Fireworks’ first album in a decade. The lines are distillation of the record’s mood. The sense of something starting again, or perhaps the voicing of something which never ceased. There Will Be Fireworks emerged within the noughties golden age of Scottish indie rock, more than holding their own with their characteristically atmospheric and impassioned sound, and the new album is both a continuation of this style and something of an evolution. A collection of songs subject to the elastic nature of time, where the weight of years is always matched by a kind of disbelief that barely a minute could have gone by.

Summer Moon is out on the 3rd November and you can pre-order it now.

Quinn Tsan – Once I had a picture of us

Writing of single ‘Roses‘ back in April, we described how the music of Quinn Tsan has undergone something of a transformation, with the smoky barroom style of her previous work moving towards a more reserved, intimate sound. Latest track ‘Once I had a picture of us’ continues in this new vein, a reflective ode to a relationship fading in time if not the mind. But more than a slice of pure nostalgia, the song matches the wistful reminiscence with a resistant thread too, as though the rose-tinted images are not always welcome, but rather pictures which have slipped through the various defence mechanisms built up in self-protection.

‘Once I had a picture of us’ is out now and available from the usual places.

the world famous – Everyday Fear

The first single from the upcoming the world famous album, totally famous, on Lauren Records, ‘Hollywood Pawn’ “treat[ed] the Californian metropolis with a mixture of derision and delight, both ridiculing its oddities and excesses and riding the crest of its sunny, palm-lined feel-good factor.” The mood is typical for a record which moves through the hardships of modern living—be they emotional, financial or spiritual—with a kind of carefree propulsion. As though maybe refusing to stop will prevent the realities of life weighing you down too heavily. “Afraid, I’m afraid, every single day,” Will Harris exclaims in new single ‘Everyday Fear’, though armed with a pressing momentum he aims to shake off the feeling, or else move fast enough to lift its weight.

The post Weekly Listening: September 2023 #1 appeared first on Various Small Flames.