Further Listening:

5. Haley Heynderickx Heads To The Stars

One of the year’s most intriguing returns has been that of Portland native Haley Heynderickx. Six years have passed since Haley came to the indie-folk world’s attention with the brilliant debut album, I Need To Start A Garden. The record won widespread acclaim, picked up an avalanche of end-of-year nods and started a seemingly never-ending touring cycle which saw her share stages with the likes of Belle & Sebastian, Lucy Dacus and Andy Shauf. The wait for her second record, Seed Of A Seed, has been long, with the record arriving at the start of the month via Mama Bird Recording Co. and before it arrived Haley shared a final single from it, Gemini.

Gemini seems to tap wonderfully into the record’s themes of growth and challenge, asking the listener to confront their imperfections and to understand that the journey of a lifetime is often one of twists and turns rather than a single straight line, accepting you are growing through your errors and successes alike. While previous singles Foxglove and Seed Of A Seed, found Haley in a place of perfect simplicity, here we’re treated to an altogether more urgent affair. The track fizzles with intent from the opening, a rapid-fire barrage of twangy guitar chords and Haley’s waterfall of sing-speak vocals, as the lyrics paint a surreal haze, a little like a fever dream as Haley tells of, “a woman in the corner, claiming she is just the former one of me and I am her just out of context”. Throughout as Haley is latterly joined by shuffling percussion and scything slashes of electric guitar, she keeps taking us back to the woman, who becomes a spiritual guide, always dragging Haley back into a place of appreciation, “she cuts the cord, she pulls the power and makes me sit with my baggage. All the haggard things I didn’t want to feel, she peels me back like I’m her cabbage“. When you’ve waited for something as long as we’ve waited for a new Haley Heynderickx record, it inevitably arrives with a certain pressure, yet if Haley did feel it, then it doesn’t show in Seed Of A Seed. This is a record that feels buoyant and free, bobbing along in life’s current, picking up stories and skills along the way, and now finally ready to let us swim alongside it a while and soak up some of the wonders it has seen.

Seed Of A Seed is out now via Mama Bird Recording Co. For more information on Haley Heynderickx visit https://www.haley-heynderickx.com/.

4. Slark Moan Has Demons On Their Mind

Hailing from New York, via Nashville, Slark Moan is the project of Mark Sloan, who the world last heard from on their 2022 offering, Four Horses. Previous Slark Moan offerings have seen Mark, a talented multi-instrumentalist, perform every instrument, however, for their next move, Mark decided to do things a little differently. Working with a pair of drummers and bassist, plus a string of guests, the latest Slark Moan offering is a five-track EP, The Return Of Guitar Mark, released at the end of October and previewed prior to its release by the single, Demon Brain.

A song Mark explains is, “about the part of my brain that looks for problems”, Demon Brain is about our own body’s attempts to drag us down, “and in a warped act of self preservation, hurts me before the outside world has an opportunity to”. Musically, the track is a delightful fusion of slowcore and bedroom pop, Mark’s softly spoken vocals like the middle ground of Andy Shauf and Eels, atop the steady ticking drum beat, and driving rhythm guitars. Particularly wonderful are the whispers of ghostly slide guitar, acting as textural, decorative flourishes around the gutsy blue-collar practicalities on display elsewhere. Perhaps the song is truly about accepting your humanity, acknowledging the devil and angel on either shoulder are just two parts of a complex human self, as Mark puts it, “we are a mosaic of contradicting realities“. A construction of parts good and bad, healthy and unhealthy, all of which we have to learn to live with whether we want to or not.

The Return Of Guitar Music is out now. For more information on Slark Moan visit https://linktr.ee/slarkmoan.

3. HotKid Heads Downtown

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, HotKid is the, probably best un-Googled, moniker of producer, songwriter, and guitarist Shiloh Harrison. Active for over a decade now HotKid has amassed something of a cult following across four full-length albums, a string of EPs, and a raft of shows on either side of the Atlantic. HotKid’s latest offering is the EP, Downtown, out now via Fortune Stellar Records. Ahead of the EP’s release Shiloh shared the accompanying video to the record’s sparkling title track.

Recorded straight from the floor with a live band, Downtown is something on an indie-rock maelstrom, Shiloh’s gutsy straight-talking vocals accompanied by a swirl of crunchy guitar-chords, splashy cymbals and the constant thud of the bass drum. There’s something perfectly simple about both music and message here, nodding to the likes of Rilo Kiley or The Walkmen, as Shiloh lays out her racing mind and simple desire for a snippet of recognition, “one of these days, maybe we’ll get paid to play”. A decade in and HotKid have never sounded so like they belong, a band hitting their stride and ready to thrive.

Downtown EP is out now via Fortune Stellar Records. For more information on HotKid visit https://hotkid.ca/.

2. Stephen Becker Is Coming Into Range

A multi-instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter from New York, Stephen Becker has, unbeknownst to me, appeared on the pages numerous times performing with the likes of Strawberry Runners, Katie Von Schleicher and Caroline Says. As well as performing with other people, Stephen has also been sharing his own music with the world for the best part of a decade, most recently on last year’s silent-film-inspired soundtrack, Phosphenes & Allegories. Returning to something a little more traditionally song-shaped, Stephen recently shared his latest record, Middle Child Syndrome, which was preceded by the excellent single, Range.

Range, like many others on the record, finds Stephen highlighting the talents of other musicians alongside his own, with Alena Spanger lending her pristine vocals to proceedings. One of the more openhearted moments on Middle Child Syndrome, Stephen explains Range is about, “the difference between being lost and being outside your comfort zone“. While it might be a song about stepping outside your comfort zone, Range is contrastingly the music equivalent of wrapping yourself in a duvet, it’s built largely around a three notes keyboard pattern, with the closest thing to a rhythm coming from Stephen’s vocal itself, an almost metronomic delivery, the emphasis punching out every other syllable, giving it an almost lullaby like lilt. The simplicity of the main musical players allows the subtle shifts to shine, whether it’s the shifting distortion of both main and backing vocals or the warped flourishes of strings, that suggest he might have spent time listening to the intricate details of Kid A-era Radiohead somewhere along his musical journey. As Stephen sings of feeling, “not lost, just outside my range”, he summarises the dilemma at the song’s heart, to sit in a space of comfort or to push outside of it, a gentle hand to guide you towards the growth that can only come if we face a new challenge with an open mind.

Middle Child Syndrome is out now via Record Euphoria. For more information on Stephen Becker visit https://linktr.ee/stephenzbecker.

1. Clara Mann Has Stadium Sized Ambitions

Something of a blog regular, Clara Mann first came to my attention back in 2020 when she teamed up with Sad Club Records for the release of her stunning debut single, I Didn’t Know You Were Leaving Today. Since then the London-based songwriter has gone on to release two EPs 2019’s Consolation and 2022’s Stay Open, as well as sharing stages with the likes of Bat For Lashes, Daniel Rossen and Skullcrusher. Now working with the state51 label, Clara shared her first new music of the year in the shape of the new single, Stadiums.

In some ways, you could think of Stadiums as a love triangle, however rather than a third person in the relationship, the other entity is ambition, as Clara explains the song is about, “running towards someone who’s running towards something else. Loving someone whose passion, whose driving force, is creative“. While acknowledging the draw of other creative people, the song also finds Clara questioning her own role, asking what it means to be passionate beyond your relationship, and whether indeed that makes Clara herself difficult to love. Raised in rural France before moving to the UK in her teenage years, Clara’s music has always felt cross-channel, here channeling Edith Piaf and Laura Marling in equal measure as slow moving piano chords provide a delicate backing to her front-and-centre vocal that seem to present her pained words with a matter of fact acceptance. Towards the song’s close Clara seems to see the never-changing attitude of her other half and comes to the realisation, she’ll never come first, “I find you the same way as always, hoping that things will come good. Dreaming of glory and stadiums, with me on the back foot”. While this should feel sad, you can almost see the mirror in Clara own eyes, she recognises that ambition, know she too would struggle to put anything above her dreams, and with a shrug of acceptance, she moves on to what comes next, who knows it might just be Wembley?

Stadiums is out now via state51. For more information on Clara Mann visit https://linktr.ee/claramann

Header photo is Clara Mann by Louise Maison