The answer, at least for now, is coming in the form of O Belong, a new album due for release on the 26th April (not coincidentally the second birthday of Fox Food Records). Recorded at home at the start of this year, the release feels very much like a progression for Good Good Blood. You’ll have to wait the whole thing but we are lucky enough to bring you an exclusive stream of the lead single, ‘Soak’.

‘Soak’ sounds like a song which began at the intersection of the first two albums, utilising the lo-fi folk aesthetic of the first release but with more of the experimental tendencies of the second, but quickly went off on a tangent, a new, third direction for Good Good Blood. Layering simple guitar, deep percussion and ambient drones, Smith creates something lush and warm without compromising on his lo-fi ideals, Warren Hildebrand’s production allowing the track a full-bodied feel without smoothing over any of the small details. The result is a genre-straddling gem, hovering between the Bandcamp generation bedroom pop and radio-friendly pop folk.

Lyrically, the song follows Hymnal EP‘s lead, managing to sound at once sweeping and intimate, the vague declarations both sincere and meaningful, like late night promises you’d only dare voice to a single, special person. The trick, I think, is how Smith balances vulnerability and assuredness. By lowering his guard to share personal sentiments of love and hope and faith he grows paradoxically stronger, defenceless by choice, because he no longer wants or needs the insulating, cumbersome weight of protective layers.

“Soak

Your soul in rain

I feel your pain

For what it’s worth.

I hear

You sing a song

Called ‘O Belong’

This ain’t your curse”

O Belong is set for release on the 26th April and you can pre-order it now via the Fox Food Records Bandcamp page, including on cassette.

The post Song Premiere: Good Good Blood – Soak appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Borne out of tragic loss, both of Hildebrand’s younger brother and also a dear friend of his in the aftermath, Ontario Gothic is a very personal, intimate record. But it is not intimate in the traditional sense of explicit heart-on-sleeve lyrics and sparse instrumentation. These are essentially pop songs, in which the listener finds strange, dream-like versions of themselves amongst the layers of ambience. The songs are like a thick layer of smoky fog that drifts and swirls on the currents of Hildebrand’s grief and isolation. Owen Pallett’s strings help create a soothing, spectral sound that has a certain viscosity, conveying the feeling that if you gave it your complete trust and leaned back it would support your weight.

From start to finish the album takes a blend of nostalgia and grief and spins it into something not only beautiful but genuinely comforting. The result is akin to being totally alone in an old dark cathedral that smells of damp and dust and old incense but has the most vivid stained-glass windows and it’s very early in the morning and the sun is just that moment rising to send it’s gentle rays through them.

You can get the album on a pay-what-you-can basis via Bandcamp

Orchid Tapes did release an LP, but that’s already sold out. If you really want it then pester them and perhaps they’ll do another pressing.

The post Foxes in Fiction – Ontario Gothic appeared first on Various Small Flames.