Further Listening:

5. Don’t Make The Mistake Of Missing The Howl & The Hum

Back in 2020, when they were a four-piece band based in York, The Howl & The Hum released the rather inaptly titled debut album, Human Contact. Like so many of us, songwriter Sam Griffith has been through something of an upheaval since then, with the breakup of his band, a relocation to Leeds, and a lot of soul-searching with regards to whether a future in music was even really for him. Thankfully for us, with the help of blog regulars Elanor Moss and Joseph Futak among others, Sam returned to The Howl & The Hum once more, creating his new album, Same Mistake Twice, and ahead of its September release, recently shared its rather excellent title track.

Same Mistake Twice is a fine introduction to the record which Sam describes as, “an album about dread”, and focuses on a discussion about, “trying to have and handle and process big messy emotions in a world that wants things to be small, simple, and quickly decided”. Listening to Same Mistake Twice, I was instantly put in mind of the stadium-sized intimacy of Frightened Rabbit, their ability to take life’s little heartaches and spin them into something vast and universal. The track begins with a gentle intent, the pulse of the bass drum accompanying fluttering guitars as Sam’s sardonic lyricism plots out a tale of repeated mistakes and his own inability to learn from them, “I never make the same mistake twice, I always aim for a third time”. From there the track just seems to build and build, the wailing saxophones a point of brightness in a sea of introspection, that swells and slowly engulfs him, “you moved to London with everyone else, I stayed in Yorkshire avoiding success”. As the song really kicks into gear, he meets Saint Peter at the pearly gates, “he will give me one more try, but we don’t see eye-to-eye, ‘cos if I had the chance, then I would always make the same mistakes twice”. There’s an almost painful honesty here, an acknowledgement that to be human is to be flawed and to be complex, to know that for everything we have learnt, presented with the same circumstances there’s a good chance we’d follow the exact same path, whether it’s in our own interests or not.

Same Mistake Twice is out September 6th via Miserable Disco. For more information on The Howl & The Hum visit https://www.thehowlandthehum.com/.

4. Lila Tristram Is Beginning To Sound A Lot Like Easter

Although she has been active for several years, Lila Tristram first came to my attention last year with the release of the subtle and superb EP, home. That record, it turns out, was something of an ending for the first chapter of Lila’s music, with the Wiltshire-based songwriter embracing her next move into something entirely musically different. Lila has spent the last two years beavering away in a remote countryside studio, putting together a five-piece band, featuring well-known faces like Adwaith-drummer Heledd Owen and Ailsa Tully, to bring her atmospheric take on folk-rock to life. With plans for more releases in the pipeline, Lila recently shared the scene-setting single, Sounds Like Easter.

A song of love and its ability to transcend loss, the song enters with a distinct brooding quality, as sparse guitar chords sway and swell beneath Lila’s shimmering vocal, reminiscent of the likes of Naima Bock or her fellow West Country folkster Maja Lena. It’s not really until later in the song that the shift in Lila’s music becomes apparent, the whole thing breaks down to little more than two voices, and then as she hits the repeated refrain, “I love you, I love you, I love you”, it explodes into a cacophony of electric guitar. Like a wave, the intensity of the vocal grows with each repetition and then breaks, becoming a pained howl and then departing, leaving the Lift To Experience-like wall of sound to take the track home with contrasting emotions of love and desperation, the way love can draw us into an emotional fire like nothing else. This is a remarkable re-introduction, a track that screams with intent, Lila Tristram returns to us a changed songwriter, and, whisper it, she might just be better than ever.

Sounds Like Easter is out now. For more information on Lila Tristram visit https://www.lilatristram.co.uk/

3. We All Belong With The Sad Eyes Beatniks

The excellently monikered project of San Francisco-based songwriter Kevin Linn, Sad Eyed Beatniks have been sharing their music with the world for the best part of a decade now, releasing numerous albums along the way. Following the release of his 2022 collection, Claudia’s Ethereal Weaver, Kevin dug back into his past and found something entirely global in its output. The record was inspired by memories of Summer’s spent with his father and step-mother on the Northern outskirts of Stockholm, the smell of incense, the sounds of recorded shamisen & koto ensembles, his father tending to his orchid collection and in particular a series of books, “graphic novels that were translated and heavily adapted versions of classic Chinese novels for young readers“. In those pages he found a connection to a part of himself and his culture he, “always had a hard time accessing“, and with his new record Ten Brocades, he attempted to recreate it. A record, “like those comic books – but maybe these characters, adventures, and settings are a little more local“. With the album arriving in July on Meritorio Records, this week Kevin shared the first single from it, You Belong With Us.

You Belong With Us, as you might guess, is a song about finding your place in the world. The title is taken from a banner outside Kevin’s local church, as he explains, “I don’t think that it’s true. Sometimes the things you love can drain you. Sometimes the people you love can drain you. Where do you look to find support?” Musically, the track has a loose indie-pop clatter, reminiscent of the likes of Johnny Boy or Peter, Bjorn and John, as the percussive quality of the glockenspiel adds a high-end shimmer over the more gutsy driving qualities of the guitars and splashy percussion. That this track, like most of the album, started life as home tape recordings should surprise no one, such is the playful, lo-fi joy that seems to spill out of the speakers and into your ears even as Kevin sings of the struggle for connection and a true sense of belonging in the modern world. The church might not be the place for the Sad Eyed Beatniks, yet a band at the top of their game like this, well that’s something well worth worshipping.

Ten Brocades is out July 12th via Meritorio Records. For more information on Sad Eyed Beatniks visit https://sadeyedbeatniks.bandcamp.com/

2. I’d Go To Hell And Back For Hannah Mohan

Although newly embarking on her first solo outing, Hannah Mohan is a voice you might well recognise from a decade spent fronting acclaimed indie-pop band And The Kids, who decided to call it a day when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020. With a lot of time on her hands, and no outlet for her creativity, the Western Massachusetts-based singer began work on the music that would become her debut album, Time Is A Walnut. The album was recorded over a sleep-deprived week with longtime friend collaborator Alex Toth, of which Hannah recalls, “it was a lot. When he left we cried, because when we finally stopped, there was so much emotion.” With the album set for a July release via Egghunt Records, this week Hannah shared the latest single from it, Hell.

A collaboration with Aly Spaltro, aka Lady Lamb, Hell is a song, “about the notion that hell can be our minds”, as Hannah explains, “perhaps at one point in everyone’s life, we have graced a season of hell”. From that introduction, you might expect something brooding and intense, yet Hell is a song painted with a contrasting lightness of touch. It almost seems to bound into being, the buoyant acoustic guitar recalling the likes of Basia Bulat or Julia Jacklin, as she sings sweetly of a relationship that already sounds worryingly co-dependent, “you can’t get out of bed without me, and I can’t get out of bed without a cigarette”. The lightness and shade really hit home in the chorus, it reverberates with a sense of sweetness, all swooping Angel Olsen-like melodies, hand claps and gentle pulsing percussion, yet the words are crushing, “hell is a real place I have been to, hell is a real place we have been through”. There’s almost a guarded quality to Hannah’s songwriting here as if she’s willing to speak of her darkest hours, yet refuses to go back to them, this is hell in a heavenly gown, the darkness posing as the light, and looking rather wonderful as it does.

Time Is A Walnut is out July 12th via Egghunt Records. For more information on Hannah Mohan visit https://www.instagram.com/hannahmohanmusic.

1. Tenci Are Forever Blowing Bubbles

A Chicago-based vehicle for the songwriting of Jess Shoman, Tenci have an impressive track record of appearing in my favourite albums lists, with 2020’s brilliant debut My Heart Is An Open Field, and 2022’s follow-up, A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing appearing in the upper echelons of their respective years. Since sharing A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing, the band have gone on to share stages with the likes of Squirrel Flower, Friendship and Wednesday, and as they prepare for a string of dates with Another Michael, the band recently shared their first new material since the album, in the shape of their new single, Bubblegum.

A collaboration with some of Jess’ contemporaries on the Chicago scene, Bubblegum is a song that as Jess explains, “ponders the cruelty of the world, life and death in relation to the ever-changing inner spirit, and how feeling uninspired can feel like your soul is fading”. Even if the starting point was a little more small scale than that might suggest, stemming from, “discovering that someone stuck gum on my windshield wiper“. Despite coming from a place of pure annoyance, somehow Jess manages to spin everything on its head, so from the opening headspace “my mind is quiet, this world is cruel”, we somehow end in a place of first gentle positivity, “I’ll look back fondly on this time, songs that mean something”, and ultimately zen-like absolution to those who have wronged us, “icing the gum on my windshield, I forgive you”. If the lyrics are a roller-coaster, the music is an equally thrilling journey, we’re greeted by bubbling horns and swells of Jess’ inimitable vocal style, before, as Jess sings, “all I want is to be new”, the whole thing collapses inward and then explodes, like the tension building in-breath before a howl of joyous, noisy expression. It’s a song of fabulous complexities, it’s visceral and crushingly loud, yet subtle, it feels simultaneously huge and oddly intimate, like dropping a pebble into a lake, a tiny splash that sends a great lake rippling away in every direction, affecting every molecule in its path. It is annoyance at Bubblegum on your windscreen wiper sure, and yet it’s also so much more than that.

Bubblegum is out now via Keeled Scales. For more information on Tenci visit https://bio.site/tenci.

Header photo is Tenci by Hank Smith.