The cover painting and title, is a nod to Bottles of Hope For Gaza, where in Egypt, bottles containing rice, flour, and beans were thrown into sea in hopes that they would reach the shores of Gaza. In organizing this project, I hope to offer encouragement to anyone in the music community, to speak up in song and to utilize our collective power. I believe it is vital to our own hearts, and our lives as artists, to empathize and show empathy to this cause.

All proceeds of the release will be donated to ANERA, a charity which offers a whole suite of humanitarian aid and emergency relief in Gaza, as well as across the wider Middle East. The organisation’s motto is “Where hope finds a way,” a sentiment more relevant than ever. Because for all of the hand-wringing and well-intentioned prayers, what the people need now is action. And the only way to achieve the required response is for wide swathes of those watching on to roll up their sleeves and do anything they can. Songs of Hope for Gaza is just one small effort to add to this collective action, and one which will hopefully inspire others to lend their energy to the drive. Victoria invokes a quote from Woody Guthrie’s Bound for Glory to encapsulate the spirit of the release:

All of this talking about what’s up in the sky, or down in hell, for that matter, isn’t half as important as what’s right here, right now, right in front of our eyes. Things are tough. Folks broke. Kids hungry. Sick. Everything. And people has just got to have more faith in one another, believe in each other. There’s a spirit of some kind we’ve all got. That’s got to draw us all together.

Songs of Hope for Gaza will be released on the 28th October via Pretty Purgatory and Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now.

The post Songs of Hope for Gaza by Pretty Purgatory and Dear Life Records appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“A melodic journal recollecting my childhood and study guide to rebuilding the once broken foundation of my spiritual temple.” That’s how California’s Abraham Linkedin describes album New Castle. A collection of songs drawing on chillwave and hauntological styles to conjure the forgotten past and unrealised futures simultaneously. With its rich and textured tones overlaying the languid vocals, single ‘En Garde’ introduces the style, though New Castle’s true value is as a complete album.

Allison Lorenzen – Vale (feat. Midwife)

Back in November we wrote about Tender, an album by Allison Lorenzen on Whited Sepulchre Records. “A subversion of the traditional healing narrative,” as we described it. “A rejection of linear progress, an acknowledgement of the uneven topography of life.” Lorenzen has now teamed up with Jack Manzi’s Silver Island Studios for a series of videos, most recently for the single ‘Vale’ which sees her return to the mountains of Colorado. The landscape changes as Lorenzen walks the road, though quick cuts and close-up shots upend a simple sense of progression and speak to the song’s ethereal strangeness.

Tender is out now via Whited Sepulchre and you can get it from Bandcamp.

chemical club – Hell in a Heatwave

Ontario-based duo chemical club have made their name with a series of lo-fi bedroom pop releases, most recently following on from 2021 EP Arm’s Length with numerous singles on Arts & Crafts. The latest of these is ‘Hell in a Heatwave’, a subdued pop hit simmering beneath the surface with equal parts suffering and desire to change. The track takes “an honest look at who you are and how you can improve upon that,” the band explain. “Leaving unhealthy habits behind and holding yourself accountable for your own actions and behaviours.” Even if this requires a certain degree of discomfort in the immediate moment.

‘Hell in a Heatwave’ is out now via Arts & Crafts and you can get it from their webstore.

Faye – Teeth

Charlotte duo Faye are set to release their brand new record You’re Better on Self Aware Records, and latest single ‘Teeth’ gives an indication of the direction the band have taken since their self-titled EP. A building sense of energy, an escalation, the various elements spiralling in increasingly smaller circles like a spring coiling tighter and tighter, always threatening to explode. “I am the hand, you are the teeth,” sings Sarah Blumenthal, fighting to be heard above the descending noise.

Frankie Cosmos – One Year Stand

This autumn Frankie Cosmos will release Inner World Peace, their fifth full-length record via Sub Pop. In anticipation, the band (founding member Greta Kline, keyboardist Lauren Martin, guitarist/bassist Alex bailey and drummer Luke Pyenson) have released lead single ‘One Year Stand’, the album’s soft and patient centrepiece which proves the perfect introduction to a record which approaches existential questions of selfhood and quantum time with patience and kindness. The track comes complete with a video directed by Eliza Lu Doyle and starring Kline and Bailey. “It feels like an encapsulation of the record in that it’s strange and vast while also being contained and interior,” Kline explains. “Clowning and playing are a huge part of collaborating for me and Eliza. We wanted to perform a dance without dancing — the kind of movements you fall into in private, banal moments, playing without even realizing.”

Inner World Peace will be released via Sub Pop on 21st October. Pre-order it now via the Frankie Cosmos Bandcamp page.

Horatio James – they will have us

Led by singer songwriter James Gable, London‘s Horatio James write folk songs and then bend them into new and interesting shapes. New single ‘they will have us’ was written on bouzouki and takes elements of classic British folk and pop to create something that feels somehow both fresh and timeless. Gable is joined on the track by Marina Ritschel (vocals), Oli Fenton (drums) and Tristan Gable (electric guitar), fleshing out what could have been a hushed acoustic song into something dynamic and subtly infectious, an incense-scented indie pop song perfect for these long summer evenings.

Joyeria – Colour Film

Ahead of new EP FIM out via Speedy Wunderground this autumn, Canada-born, London-based project Joyeria have unveiled brand new single, ‘Colour Film’. A slacker rock gem that sits somewhere between David Berman and Nap Eyes. “‘Colour Film’ is about the mindless daily routine of being alive,” Joyeria explains. “What David Foster Wallace called ‘water’. I apparently have the ability to choose how I feel or think as I participate in being alive just as I can choose how I feel and think when I explain songs.” Of course it’s not as easy as Wallace might have intimated, something Joyeria highlights through his wry and volatile style. Check the video directed by Alex Bischof below:

FIM is out via Speedy Wunderground on 14th October and you can pre-order it now.

Tender Glue – Simple Boys

Tender Glue is the project of New York‘s Tom Gluewicki, who makes indie pop that spans the spectrum, from light and catchy to introspective and emotional. Latest single ‘Simple Boys’ sits at the breezy end of things, a summertime bop that pairs punchy percussion with laidback guitar and Gluewicki’s raw vocals. Lyrically, it’s a wryly humorous ode to the titular “simple boys”, those men who never really grow up and despite being annoying, just want the same simple things as everyone else.

‘Simple Boys’ is out now via Don’t Label Me Records and available from the Tender Glue Bandcamp page.

Thanya Iyer – leave the room and face the waves

“Rest is in many ways a reflection of myself,” explains Thanya Iyer of her latest release on Topshelf Records. An EP which asks, “who am I when it all stops?” Following on from successful debut KIND, the collection finds Iyer amid the slowdown of the pandemic and removed from the communities of making and performing music. The obligatory isolation could be faced in a variety of ways, but Iyer chose to be embrace it and use it purposefully. A period in which to examine what it means to rest in our busy world. With its slinky, jazz-flavoured tones, single ‘leave the room and face the waves’ finds much richness within the quiet, even if dreams inevitably turn toward the outside world. Check out the video Iyer created along with Sophie Grouev and Amanda Stormyr below:

rest is out on 24th August via Topshelf Records and you can pre-order it now.

Upchuck – Boss up

Based in Atlanta, punk five-piece Upchuck were brought together by “connections made in skateboarding, construction, and teenage delinquency.” Next month they will release their debut album Sense Yourself on Famous Class Records, a collection of what the label calls “haunting tales of discrimination, ignorance, and life in a doomed generation.” Lead single ‘Boss Up’ is indicative of the record as a whole, a slice of furious punk intended to empower and strengthen. As the press release continues “Only the wise and relentless will thrive in a revolutionized and radical world, and Upchuck is sternly feeding the fuel for a new gen.”

Where’s Beth – Come Inside

Based in New York, Where’s Beth creates a lush brand of folk able to weave intricate details into a seamless whole. Latest single ‘Come Inside’ is the perfect example, the gentle hushed tones belying the track’s underlying nuance, threads spun to hold the listener within a quiet space. “Come into my quiet,” implore the vocals, “there’s no one else there sometimes,” but by then we need no such offer. They are already held tightly within. Watch the animated video by James Geneser below:

‘Come Inside’ is out now and available from the Where’s Beth Bandcamp page.

Young Jesus – Ocean

Though always orbiting around the distinctive ideas and lyricism of lead John Rossiter, the music of Young Jesus is always changing. Each new release has felt like a new attempt to get closer to essence of what they are trying to say. Different angles, a reframing of things, as though never quite satisfied the last record communicated as completely and efficiently as it might have hoped. Out via Saddle Creek later this year, latest album Shepherd Head is no different, Rossiter again reshuffling the pack and dealing a new hand. He weaves a fine patchwork crafted from found sounds as though life itself lie within its constituent parts. A tapestry both vulnerable and tender, where great loss and transcendence are not so different after all. First single ‘Ocean’ invites Tomberlin aboard, and you can watch the video directed by Stuart McClave below:

Shepherd Head will be released via Saddle Creek on 16th September. You can order it now from the Young Jesus Bandcamp page.

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