Further Listening:

5. Lindsay Reamer’s Fruity New Number

Hailing from Philadelphia, Lindsay Reamer is both a musician, and between 2019 and 2023, a Field Scientist, gathering data on visitation across the National Parks of the USA. She would head out in the morning, armed with a guitar and a bag of books, count cars, speak to visitors and make “a temporary home wherever she landed”. As she gathered the data her job entailed, she also collected her own, observing nature and people and gradually crafting the songs that would become her debut album, Natural Science. With the record out next month via Dear Life Records, this week Lindsay shared the first single from it, Figs & Peaches.

Inspired by reading around the subject of invasive plants in the Natchez Trace in Mississippi and the folklore of an unusually warm fishing hotspot near a coal power plant in South Jersey, the song muses on “unintended consequences, which is a heavy theme within environmental history“. Lindsay here explores the power of the individual, “I think there’s something oddly comforting about knowing we can affect the things around us…for better or worse. I think this song is about me trying to remember that in my own little life; to be less passive. To reach out, pick my own fruit, and own the consequences instead of waiting for it all to come to me“. Lindsay singles Figs & Peaches out as, “definitely the loudest song on the record“, and it certainly seems to tap into the louder end of the American-folk cannon, as the track swells from it’s stripped bare introduction to a subtle sort of crescendo. At first, Lindsay is accompanied by just a single guitar, then whole thing seems to gradually swell, a master class in instrumental layering, as first banjo, them crashing waves of Eliza Niemi’s gorgeous cello, synths and blog-regular Michael Cormier-O’Leary’s excellent drum rhythms. This is an enticing introduction to Natural Science, a record that looks set to mark Lindsay Reamer out as a songwriter just as intriguing as her unusual inspirations would suggest.

Natural Science is out August 16th via Dear Life Records. For more information on Lindsay Reamer visit https://www.lindsayreamer.com/.

4. Don’t Sleeper On Knitting

A quartet hailing from Montreal, knitting have been on something of an upward trajectory in recent years, after their self-released cassette earned them slots supporting the likes of Nap Eyes, Julie Doiron and Truth Club. Last month the band announced their signing to Vancouver institution Mint Records, who will release their new album, Some Kind Of Heaven, in November. The record was written over several years as bandleader Mischa Dempsey was navigating experiences of their transition and coming into their non-binary identity, something the band lean into on their new single, Sleeper, which they shared this week.

Sleeper finds knitting speaking more directly on elements of Mischa’s transition than anything they’ve released to date, in particular, it speaks to the support offered by, and given to, other Trans people. In particular it speaks to Mischa’s sister, and her coming out experience, “it honestly kind of blew my mind – watching her ask herself questions I remember asking myself – and I feel like it really brought us closer“. The song was also influenced by Mischa’s transition in a more physical way, “I upped my dose of T and my voice dropped so much I was barely able to sing it when we went into the studio“, thankfully, with the help of a vocal coach who specialises in helping trans singers, they got there after, “multiple full-day recording sessions, several vocal lessons, and some elbow grease and studio magic“. Musically, Sleeper is a suitably hazy slice of dream-pop, bringing to mind the likes of Living Hour or Horsegirl, yet it foregoes the drifting quality of the genre for something punchier. The crashing drums and rattling, distorted slashes of guitar, all sit in luxurious contrast to the lightness of Mischa’s lead vocal, as they find comfort in shared experiences. Some Kind Of Heaven already feels like new ground for knitting, a band stitching together their influences and experiences into something that might just be very special indeed.

Some Kind Of Heaven is out November 6th via Mint Records. For more information on knitting visit https://www.knitting-band.com/.

3. Sima Cunningham’s Nothing Is Really Something

Based out of Chicago, Sima Cunningham is a songwriter, guitarist, and producer, best known for her work with the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson and Iron & Wine. Alongside her work on other people’s music, Sima has spent the best part of the last decade crafting the songs that would become her debut album, High Roller. Recorded with a who’s-who of the Chicago music scene, the album will see the light of the day at the end of next month via Ruination Record Co, and this week Sima shared the first single from it, Nothing.

Discussing the inspiration behind Nothing, Sima credits her uncle, whom she only met, “a handful of times”. Known to the family as Johnny Boy, he was born with severe cerebral palsy and spent most of his life in a care facility, and despite being unable to use his voice, loved music, “it was always about singing with him and connecting to him that way“. The song is written from a split perspective, as Sima explains, “I feel like I’m jumping between observing him from the outside and leaping into his head— swimming through his mental pictures and sensations“. For all the deep thinking and excellent lyricism, the music is just as expressive, moving through a series of styles across nearly six shape-shifting minutes. It begins with a pastoral-folky quality that brings to mind Cat Power, then makes an about turn as she sings, “inside of my head I am free”. From there it becomes a psych-folk explosion Ryley Walker would be proud of resplendent with proggy guitars and pounding cymbals. Just as you think it’s going towards a crescendo, Sima seems to rip us out again, placing us back in the room, looking at Johnny Boy, his room, his Beatles poster on the wall, his mute existence, a stark grey contrast to the vivid colourful psychedelia that Sima invites us to imagine inside of his head. There’s something genuinely moving about the way Sima observes this person with whom she couldn’t ever really communicate, it’s unflinching, and at times bleak, yet also beautiful, a stunning tribute to a life we can’t truly hope to understand but deserves to be celebrated none-the-less.

High Roller is out August 30th via Ruination Record Co. For more information on Sima Cunningham visit https://www.simacunningham.com/.

2. Mope Grooves Forever

Mope Grooves is the final project of the late Portland trans activist & DIY musician stevie, who passed away far too early back in February. This week her two record labels, Night School and 12XU announced the release of the final Mope Grooves album, Box Of Dark Roses, “a 27 song 2xLP collection that stevie prepared for release before she left”. Ahead of the October release of this extraordinary final chapter, this week saw the release of the record’s first single, Forever Is A Long Time.

Discussing Box Of Dark Roses, in her brilliantly contextualizing liner notes, stevie suggests like all her records it is, “about being a trans girl, but I don’t think I talked about it in a way cis ppl find legible”. She goes on to suggest the media have often misinterpreted her words, and as such out of respect for her wishes I’ll let the notes she left speak for themselves – https://12xu.net/mope-grooves-box-of-dark-roses/. Musically, the track seems to exist in a place of slightly uneasy joy, it rushes by on a cascade of wavering synth lines and skittering drums, pitched somewhere between the explorative qualities of Animal Collective and the retro-sheen of Lael Neale, as stevie repeatedly sings, “forever is a long, long time”. For many stevie has a special place in their hearts and they will adore this chance to say goodbye, yet for others like myself, I approach her music with fresh ears, I appreciate this music for what it is, the amazing new work of an amazing artist, fully deserving of your attention.

Box Of Dark Roses is out October 25th via Night School (UK/EU) and 12XU (US / Asia). For more information on Mope Grooves visit https://mopegrooves.bandcamp.com/.

1. There Ain’t No Shindig Like A Ynys Shindig

Hailing from Aberystwyth, bi-lingual alt-poppers Ynys first came to the world’s attention in 2022 with their Welsh Music Prize-nominated debut album. Fronted by Dylan Hughes, a former member of Racehorses and Radio Luxembourg, for the second Ynys album he gathered the band to the picturesque Mwnci Studios in West Wales and set about trying to capture the energetic flourish of the band’s live show. The result is Dosbarth Nos, translating as Night School, a record that takes songs written as short piano pieces in Dylan’s hallway and translates them into something altogether more musically adventurous. The album was released on Friday and was previewed shortly before by the excellent single, Shindig.

Reflecting on the single, Dylan admits, “I haven’t really worked out what this song is about – the lyrics jump all over the place and it’s a bit surreal“, although it features lines that still make him laugh now, and the title likely came to him via a form of osmosis, “I had a Shindig! Magazine on the piano stand for about six months (I really do need to tidy up)“. Entering on what sounds a little like the Boss Nova demo track on a 1990s keyboard, Shindig never leaves that place of playful experimentation. The track finds Ynys dialling up the Glam-swagger, with choppy sing-speak vocals and rich more-is-more instrumentation choices that bring to mind both the classic experimental pop of Roxy Music or Talking Heads, as well modern Welsh contemporaries like H.Hawkline and Dylan’s former Racehorses’ bandmate, Meilyr Jones. Modern alternative music can often tend towards the serious, yet listening to Dosbarth Nos what’s really striking is how unashamedly pop Ynys are willing to sound, without compromising their creativity they have leant into the big choruses and earworming melodies and made something we don’t hear enough of right now, a classic underground pop record, ready and waiting for the world to discover its charms.

Dosbarth Nos is out now via Libertino Records. For more information on Ynys visit https://ynysmusic.com/.

Header photo is Ynys by Trigger Happy Creative.