Further Listening:

5. Carpet Revels In The Thrill Of The Chaste

With two EPs released, and two appearances in my favourite EPs of the year list, Carpet is something of a favourite around these parts. The project of musician and recording engineer Rob Slater, and a rotating cast of bandmates and collaborators, Carpet was formed in the quiet moments at his own Greenmount Studio in the Armley district of Leeds. For his next move this November, Rob shares a new EP, Fruit, his first release since becoming a father, a life event he explores this week with his new single, Chaste.

Described by Rob as, “an overshare”, Chaste was a song he’d never really planned to release, it was written before the birth of his child but feels, “especially strange”, following it, “as if written by a prior version of myself. As if parents shouldn’t be having such feelings“. Musically the track leans heavily into the gorgeous tones of baritone guitar, overlaying the slow metronomic tick of the drums as Rob enters initially alone before being joined by the brighter tones of current bandmate Sop Satchwell. Throughout Rob seems to explore his lowest ebbs, struggling to allow himself the grace of a clean slate, “the outcome of action, all spoilt because of me, horrified by its permanence, how I can do bad things?” The music Rob makes as Carpet has a wonderful freedom to it, as if Rob is making this entirely for his own sense of artistic expression and is just kind enough to let us have a glimpse every now and again, art for art’s sake, that has never sounded more vital.

Fruit is out November 1st via Launchpad Music. For more information on Carpet visit https://linktr.ee/carpetsongs.

4. All The Best Five-Year Plans Involve Plenty Of Night Swimming

Hailing from between Bath and Bristol, Night Swimming are a band going through a particularly rapid rise. With just a couple of singles under their wing, the band have already shared stages with the likes of The Orielles and Coach Party and appeared on all the right websites and radio shows. Next month will see the band release their debut EP, No Place To Land, recorded at Middle Farm Studios in Devon with acclaimed producer Peter Miles. Ahead of the release this week the band shared their latest single, Five-Year Plan.

Described as being, “about the feeling of being dropped suddenly, without much explanation, by someone you were really close to“, Five-Year Plan was a song vocalist Meg Jones wrote quickly, “and without a lot of conscious thought“, seeking to capture, “the difficult emotions I was experiencing at the time”. As with all the tracks on No Place To Land, Five-Year Plan was recorded live to analogue tape, before thickening it out with layers of studio experimentation. The result is like all the best bits of dream-pop history melded into one, from the chiming Beach House-like guitars to the driving shoegaze-inspired drums and the swirling, soaring vocals, the lyrics hard to pick out of the fog, yet Meg sings them as if at this moment they mean the world. It’s easy to see why so many seem to be falling for Night Swimming’s charms, an exterior shimmer hiding some real songwriting prowess underneath is a combo that’s hard to beat.

No Place To Land is out September 27th. For more information on Night Swimming visit https://linktr.ee/nightswimmingband.

3. Idea For A Best Selling Whodunnit : Murder At The Adeline Hotel

The music of Dan Knishkowy, aka Adeline Hotel, has always been an evolving beast, taking in everything from psych-rock to piano-led song cycles, solo-guitar pieces and jazz. The co-founder of Ruination Records, Dan has always been able to follow his own musical path and rewrite the rules with every new release. For his latest project, Dan decided to put the words front and centre, exploring the end of his marriage while avoiding the cliches of the breakup playbook, and embracing what he describes as, “cosmic curiosity”. The resultant album, Whodunnit? will arrive next month, and this week Dan shared the record’s fantastic, sprawling title track.

For the title track, Dan built a metaphor for a relationship about his favourite kind of mystery novels, books where, “by the time you find out who’s responsible for the crime, it sort of doesn’t matter anymore. What’s compelling is watching the dialectic circumstances in the plot reacting to and causing each other“. Musically, this is a track that makes you lean in close, turn up the speaker and for six minutes let your mind go nowhere else, Dan’s hushed vocal has a story to tell, and you’d do far worse than to listen intently. The accompaniment isn’t spare per se, there are guitars, pianos, bass, and some frankly delicious backing vocals from Jackie West, and they’re all swelling and breaking around Dan, yet somehow they all feel like they’re there to serve rather than to star. In his words, Dan finds all the complexities of endings, the turning points that allow us freedom and room to grow, yet with a reluctance to let go, there’s sadness sure but also possibilities, “you were a planet in my ribcage, now I’m orbiting you with grace”. Like the titular whodunnit, this isn’t a story just about the a-ha moment of clarity, yet as the song closes it does seem to slide into understanding, “in another phase, another life, only then I start to wonder if it’s strange to need somebody?” That Dan was going through an objectively difficult experience is not denied here, yet it’s also not wallowed in, there’s a sense that with this ending came the chance to reframe a relationship with the self, as Dan puts it, “I was being freed to find myself, to build my own connection with the world that had been lost”. Intriguing and rather beautiful, Whodunnit? is the latest chapter in this most intriguing of songwriter’s musical story, and it might just be the most rewarding one so far.

Whodunnit? is out September 27th via Ruination Record Co. For more information on Adeline Hotel visit https://adelinehotel.bandcamp.com/

2. Shower Curtain’s Wishes Are All Coming True

Our second act named after a particularly unexciting household object of the week, Shower Curtain are the New York-based band led by the songwriting of Brazilian-American artist Victoria Winter. Still a solo project at the time, they appeared back in 2021 with their debut EP, Something Instead, before returning last year with two new singles, that saw them move into a full-band sludge-rock style. This new sound will come to fruition later this year when Shower Curtain team up with Angel Tapes / Fire Talk for the release of their debut album, Words From A Wishing Well. Alongside that announcement came the release of the near title track, Wish U Well.

A song Victoria suggests is, “about the feeling of having the rug swept from underneath you“, Wish U Well is something of a turning point for Shower Curtain, the mid-point of their bedroom-pop beginnings and the melding of shoegaze and grunge showcased on their more recent material. As Victoria explains, “I think this song is a lot of what my teenage self wished the project could create“, a sort of emotional outpouring, the vocals mixed high above layers of guitars that go from shimmering sweetness to fizzing intensity, like the fertile middle ground of Alvvays’ sheen and Wednesday’s crunch. While the song’s title might lead you to expect Victoria only wants the best for her previous confidant, the reality is a little more excellently bitter, leaning into the potential platitude of the phrase when it’s not backed up by their actions, “all about yourself, over again, I thought you wished me well?” Listening to Shower Curtain, they feel like a band on the cusp, a potent blend of grungy nostalgia that somehow feels very in keeping with the zeitgeist of 2024, and with the right breaks they might just be stars in the making.

Words From A Wishing Well is out October 18th via Angel Tapes / Fire Talk. For more information on Shower Curtain visit https://www.showercurtainband.com/.

1. Lerryn Sings In Her Mother Tongue

Hailing from South East London, Lerry has been something of a stalwart in her local music scene for the last decade as the founder of the creative space Lerryn’s Cafe and the frontwoman of post-punk band Dead Arm. Lerryn’s creative journey though spans a much wider area, a childhood spent in the West Country, time spent in New York, and being taught to play guitar by her late Argentinian father on one of the instruments from her grandma’s Spanish imported guitar stall in Camden Market. All of these experiences amalgamate alongside the more recent experience of motherhood on Lerryn’s upcoming EP, As A Mother, out next month via Redundant Span, the title track of which she shared this week.

Described by Lerryn as, “the hardest song to make on the whole record“, As A Mother deals with subject matters, “unresolved and hard to confront“, touching on ideas of, “lost identity and the pull for home whilst wanting to be out in the world“. The track features the vocal talents of fellow South London songwriter, and a favourite of mine, Naima Bock, described by Lerryn as her studio birthing partner, and briefed to acts, “as a reminder that it is the unity of other mothers and women that often pulls me out of these lost moments in motherhood“. Musically, the track seems to exist as a series of delightful curve balls, just as you think it’s settling into one thing it jags sideways into something else, whether it’s the way the meticulous opening Rhodes-like chords are suddenly joined by the arresting pulse of the bass, or the playful melding of tempos, where it often sounds like the drums are working in double-speed compared to the more relaxed attitude. Despite the difficulties that Lerryn found in making this track, the result sounds contrastingly joyous. This is a beautifully honest reflection of what we lose and what we gain in becoming parents, whether it’s the “books upon shelves” that feel like part of a lost identity, or the importance of finding moments to be the people we were, explained in the lyric, “to take time for you, I need time for me”. As with all the best songwriters, Lerryn takes something specific to her own story and makes it into something relatable, a song about motherhood yes, but not one just for the mothers, the feelings she expresses here, love, loss, change, guilt, self-expression, they’re universal and whoever you are, Lerryn thoroughly deserves your ears.

As A Mother is out September 13th via Redundant Span. For more information on Lerryn visit https://www.instagram.com/lerryn____/.

Header photo is Lerryn by Barney Pitt.