Various Small Flames

"Combines pop traditions with avant garde abstraction to explore the experience of the artist with a commodified, endlessly distracted world" 'can't we have both' from claire rousay & zander raymond's something good on @thrilljockey.bsky.social varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/27/c...

"If love has happened, it is there, permanently etched in the fossil record" Lick the Spoon, Let It Soften, the new album from Lamplight on @westernvinyl.bsky.social. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/22/l...

New Weekly Listening ft. Bayou Princess, Big Warm Bed, Cameron Keiber, Cloudbelly, Darren Hayman, Eliza Edens, Fleur Geurl, generifus, Good Wild Gods, Kin Hana, Left Tracks, Nick Bellerose & young friend. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/21/w...

"At once richly crafted and cryptically opaque... though it is up to interpretation whether this ethereal space is undergoing a process of blooming or decay" @onairlibrary.bsky.social share 'A Word From Benjamin Spock' ahead of a reissue of 2001 S/T debut varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/19/o...

Our new Weekly Listening Oct 26 ft blankette, Brimheim (@tambourhinoceros.bsky.social), @keelinmusic.bsky.social (Lost Map), Hank Tree, Karen y los Remedios, @lapecheband.bsky.social (@tinyengines.bsky.social), Party Dozen (City Slang), Samjo & Tough Old Bird varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/14/w...

"Grasps the moment with force, even if it means getting her hands dirty" @averyfriedman.bsky.social shares single 'You Move' via @audioantihero.bandcamp.com. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/09/a...

"The deranged depths of night [...] surely hold their fair share of doom and regret, yet there is magic to be found there too" Smoking the Bunny, the new LP by @wildermaker.bsky.social coming via @westernvinyl.bsky.social. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/08/w...

"Marked with a twitchy energy that feels reflexive in an almost literal sense, as though we’re listening to the track unspooling before us for the very first time" Having signed with @w1nspear.bsky.social, Auckland's Awning share single 'Little Green Book'. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/07/a...

Our first Weekly Listening of Oct 2026 features Hayden, His His, Hour (@dearliferecs.bsky.social), Karl Mattar, Ken Wohlrob, Kyla Marlena (@ideefixerecords.bsky.social), Max Bien-Kahn, Partygirl, Robbie Bennett and @thisfrontierneedsheroes.bandcamp.com. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/06/w...

"The result, like all the best collaborations, feels larger than the sum of its parts and seems to operate according to some higher logic" Amiture Music share single 'Idela' featuring Eliana Glass from new EP 2 Women vi Dots Per Inch Music. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/02/a...

"Offers the listener a more active role than most records, Bessel not so much showing the soundscape he created as inviting us to chart our own path through it" Eric Angelo Bessel shares 'Book of Astrology' from new LP Illusion of an Inland Island. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/02/e...

"Transcends his own experience and opens the line to communicate with others who find themselves in the same position" W. Y. Huang shares new single 'Afraid To Go Outside' ahead of debut full-length, On Stranger Hills. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/10/01/w...

"I go through the emotions mostly alone up here" Rayland Baxter shares 'Bolly Plateau', the latest single from new album True Violet, forthcoming via @atorecords.bsky.social. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/30/r...

Our new Weekly Listening ft. abijah, ADJENAI, Cameron Knowler, Cloudbelly, Eliza Edens, Jennah Barry, J.W. Ricci, The Male Pattern (@audioantihero.bandcamp.com), Sammy Weissberg, Sasha Adrian, Son Lux (@waxworkrecords.bsky.social), Stonefruit & Sweetbreads. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/28/w...

"Centers the mythic presence of both the past and the future, twin otherworlds which loom large over the present, warping the material of our existence with equal parts pessimism and possibility" 'Earthrise' by Kin Hana from new LP Howling World. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/25/k...

"Turning its attention to the heavens, the track mines everything from Magic: The Gathering to astrophysics to synthesise its own spirituality" JoJo Worthington shares new single 'Ever Ender Star Infinity' varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/24/j...

It's always worth checking what VSF is listening to! There's a Damn Shame track in this week's batch of picks

"Employ[s] an almost folk horror sensibility in order to represent the full haunting weight of imperialist violence, stretching out with a slow, pervasive build" Mali Obomsawin 'Triage' from upcoming album Automatic on Out Of Your Head Records. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/22/m...

"[Earns] its authenticity by stacking moment upon painstaking moment with no thought of cutting corners in the name of efficiency" This Bed Was Made For Me by Biita Houdei, out via Father/Daughter Records & Basin Rock varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/18/b...

"A rare love song from koleżanka, reflecting on the tenderness inherent within the care of another, something highlighted when our capabilities are taken from us" Kristina Moore shares 'Hook, Line, Sinker!' from forthcoming album Zone 2. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/16/k...

"With Hüsker Dü and Archers of Loaf as lodestars, the song offers a sound at once momentous and rambunctious, leaning into a chaotic energy and emerging triumphant because of it" @slowdownmolasses.bsky.social return with new single 'Life Without Buildings' varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/15/s...

Our new Weekly Listening feat. Applied Communications (@barnonerecords.bsky.social), Asha Wells (@anxietyblanket.bsky.social), Essy Sparrow, The Human Hearts, Jan St. Werner (@thrilljockey.bsky.social), Margo Cilker, Oldest Sea, Slow Rosary & Stella Dunai. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/14/w...

"Takes another incidental encounter and turns it into a meditation on the momentum of a life and the routines which maintain its forward motion" Max Bien Kahn shares 'Skipping Stones' from new album Baby Green. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/10/m...

Weekly Listening: Sept 2026 #1 ft. Carmen Quill, Charlotte Greve (@newamrecords.bsky.social), Chloë Ester, @cloudbellytheband.bsky.social, The Fourth Wall, Hour (@dearliferecs.bsky.social), How Strange It Is, John Van Deusen, Kyla Marlena & Kin Hana varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/09/w...

"He can’t quite get back on the job market, can’t keep his urine clean enough to satisying the state, has taken to carrying a gun around with the American urge that someone might give him an excuse to use it" The Male Pattern share 'Charlie (The Robbery)' varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/04/t...

"A joyous, if slightly dangerous, celebration of being alive" Listen to the title track from Death Drive, a new LP by Eliza Edens coming soon via First City Artists. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/03/e...

"While the track takes place within a personal storm, it is always reaching for a greater perspective" @shainahayes.bsky.social shares single 'Tempest' from new album Take the Case of a Rose, coming via @bonsound.bsky.social. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/09/01/s...

Big thanks to Various Small Flames for writing about In Milwaukee, my surprise live album w/ Moontype. :)

"Might open with a sense of hesitation, but what emerges is affirming in its resolve, acting in spite of vulnerability & regret in order to move towards a healthier way of living" @waltzerr.bsky.social share 'Counting Clovers' from LP Tomorrow Will Be Better varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/27/w...

"A record able to live up to its title: ambiguous in nature & all the more alluring because of it, where the hard-won wisdoms of a life well lived are matched by the flickering sense of some unforeseen possibility" Apocrypha by henry o henry on Western Vinyl varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/26/h...

Thank you @varioussmallflames.bsky.social for writing about Claire Cronin's new single "Black Water"!

"A pledge to future action in the name of care and love no matter which planets might be reversing or obstacles fall in the way" Kate Prascher shares 'Retrograde' ahead of new album Sunday Afternoon coming via First City Artists. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/26/k...

"A succinct yet potent confession [...] does not lack energy but seems to linger in the same space, like a message delivered from a chopper hovering low over your old house" 'Private Failure' from the S/T EP by King's Evil on @worrybeadrecs.bsky.social varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/24/k...

"Possesses an admirable ability to meld searching emotion with a fresh, cathartic energy, able to occupy more than one mood within the same three minutes" D.L. Forrest, the new project from Daniel Forrest of Buddie, has shared a new single, 'Can't Sleep' varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/21/d...

"Lesser acts might be overwhelmed if tasked with exploring concepts of loss & mortality [...] but with a unique blend of compassion and abstraction, it seems Hour are up to the task" Ghost Bridge, the new LP by Hour on @dearliferecs.bsky.social varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/18/h...

Not merely a repatriation but a complete reversal, taking that which has been desiccated for preservation & rehydrating it so that it might once again exist in its natural form Mali Obomsawin introduces new album Automatic, out via @ooyhrecords.bsky.social varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/13/m...

"Manages to evoke both the intimacy of personal experience & something far larger, bringing in the melancholy of the archtypal wanderer in search of meaning" Jonathan Something shares 'Gasoline' ahead of LP One More Lonesome Cowboy Song, via High Shelter varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/13/j...

"At once buoyant and bruising... seems to want to both dance with you and slap you around that face" @perennialtheband.bsky.social's share single 'Ready! Steady! Go!' ahead of LP Modernism on @ejrc.bsky.social & @safesuburban.bsky.social varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/12/p...

"More than a voicing of frustration, ‘Open Mic’ pushes deeper to meditate on the emotions underlying ambition & disappointment, & how we might show up for one another to better navigate the bumpy road" Sweetbreads share a new single ahead of LP, Punisher varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/07/s...

Bristol-based outfit The Cindys share new single 'Glass Shattered' via Breakfast Records ahead of a string of festival appeareances including @greenmanfest.bsky.social, @endoftheroadfestival.com & @boiafestival.bsky.social. varioussmallflames.co.uk/2026/08/06/t...