Seven Songs From January So Far
Words by Jane Lai
2020 was certainly tumultuous, and with that premonition still lingering into the new year, music is one thing that still feels real. Here are some of my favorite artists who pushed boundaries just days into 2021, many of whom are making their great debut.
Katy Kirby – “Juniper”
Clocking in at less than three minutes, Katy Kirby is en route to a folk upheaval. One of my favorite things about music listening is the cadence of the word, and “Juniper” does this so disruptively, thrusting the ingredients together until they’re packed comfortably to its brim. Fulfilling the essentials of a strong poem, the track is neat and immediate, singling its caesuras and enhancing sibilance and internal rhyme with each syllable as intentional as there’s space on the page.
In the first chorus, Kirby sings:
True—blue—Ju—ni-per (pause)
never got around to asking her (pause) the
diff-erence be-tween weeds and herbs and flowers.
A sentence is as economical as a well-fitted luggage.
I first watched Kirby’s Audiotree session coming home from the dentist in an Uber. Standing with her voice, a strat, and a clean tone, there’s no embellishment here. Perhaps one of the hardest and bravest acts in music making is succeeding in reinventing a convention and Kirby does so as both a solo artist and one with a backing band. I can’t decide which one I like better. There are different types of heart in each one.
Kirby’s debut album Cool Dry Place is out February 19th via Keeled Scales.
Lande Hekt – “December”
A bustling new solo project by vocalist of UK band Muncie Girls, Lande Hekt makes dream-pop tinged alternative punk. The process is something extraordinarily nostalgic. It’s a force strong enough to modernize the early 2010’s indie pop that late suburban millennials and Gen Z kids grew up with; soundtracks to ferris wheels stirring at high school carnivals, first kisses in an older sibling’s car with no heater, driving to a hill that overlooks the town at night. There’s ownership and mindlessness in the familiarity. And that feeling is reacquainted and yearned for in “December,” where Hekt sings “what if no one ever falls in love with me/what if someone already has and they never tell me?”
The tracks on this album feel closest to The Japanese House with an augmented edge, some anthemic Best Coast and P.S. Eliot known for pinning choruses and more recently, the dream pop drenched melodies of Hatchie or Long Beard. If you like some of these, you’ll for sure enjoy Hekt’s work.
Hekt’s first solo album Going To Hell is out now via Get Better Records.
Soft Idiot – “I Want Everything”
I first saw Soft Idiot with full attention at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. They played at National Sokols while the classic 1984 film Gremlins projected behind their set. Those familiar with the venue know they combine a wrestling ring, a bowling alley, and on occasion, a stage for artists. And this is exactly the type of music Soft Idiot makes—working with the mismatched and creating something they know how to do best.
In their latest single “I Want Everything,” Justin Roth sings “go ticking clock/I count the minutes on my fingers/still older now/my younger moments flashing features” with Kennedy Freeman (Highnoon) harmonizing at “a humming song I want to sing/I want to feel everything,” all while churning guitar octave stretches and bending with power. It’s like a spell provoked, proving the group an arbiter of harmonies while simultaneously executing the sound of triumphant DIY.
The magic is never calculated. Its honesty can only be accomplished by a band as talented live as they are in the studio.
Last February, Justin played solo in the living room of my Brooklyn apartment, one year after the Gremlins set. He managed to capture the audience so tightly not a single phone was in sight.
Soft Idiot’s new (and last) album Younger Moments is out now via Cicada Choir.
GBMystical – “State” (ft. Bread Boy)
I recently caught up with frontperson Terrin Munawet on their new single "State," a soothing treat hyping up anticipation for whatever comes next in their musical career.
According to Munawet, the track is about “several meanings of the word: the ongoing state of the world, their state of mind, the governmental state, and stating feelings.” The multi-meaning approach is as representative as the lineup of friends which Munawet employs including a verse by Jacob Crofoot (Bread Boy, Another Michael), additional synths and vocal layers from Zeno Pittarelli (Certain Self/Newlywed Records) and finally, call and response chorus vocals by their partner Allison Carr.
“In all honesty it was just a nice beat that became a song that became a complex collaborative project” and it works “purposefully cyclic and the entire track is meant to be played on loop,” notes Munawet.
I’m reminded me of the looped chorus in Told Slant’s “Algae Bloom” where the word ‘down’ and the phrase “still water is still water” synchronizes, making rounds until the verse returns. There’s existing irony in moving still water. Much like the irony in a ‘state’ that keeps rolling in stagnancy, the word itself is the winning metaphor for the song.
When they’re not writing music, Munawet offers mixing and mastering services. Check them out here.
Indigo Sparke – “Everything Everything”
Indigo Sparke’s new work rings reminiscent of the freak-folk adjacent. Think Vashti Bunyan’s Just Another Diamond Day, Angel Olsen’s Strange Cacti, or Ruth Garbus’s Kleinmeister.
And like all great folk, something delicate lives here. The guitar mimicking the safety of a spider web, the piano walking on it like a tightrope, the voice guiding so nothing falls in the open. The song links, moving forward in three directions leading to the end.
Arriving at the outro, the word ‘everything’ is tracked in irregular cadence repeatedly, leaving just enough of a pocket to rest in between lines. The crawling instrumentals glow slowly, then dim themselves out.
Sparke’s new album Echo comes out on February 19th on Sacred Bones.
Comfy - “B Fun Demo”
Ringing in as the intro track, “B Fun Demo” counts-in, layers up, and doesn’t resolve--all in a notch over a minute. Overflowing with Casiotone-like drum and tone samples which have resurfaced in the past years, Comfy proves true that you don’t need fancy equipment to build your sound.
One prominent example is Owen Ashworth’s (Advance Base/Orindal Records) project Casiotone for the Painfully Lonely which garnered great appeal as the bedroom pop-esque interruption of the early to mid-2000s. Constructed primarily with the surplus of 1980s Casiotones, the genre offered versatility and affordability.
On Comfy’s Instagram, Connor Benincasa notes “this is how I demo songs out before I have the lyrics—I’ll play the vocal melody on guitar. There are two drum tracks on this song---one programmed beat and one lo-fi track of me drumming in my old basement, which has a digital guitar amp effect on it. That effect was initially on there as a mistake, but I liked the sound!” What I love about Comfy is that they have the quality of trying without trying too hard, a compliment in its highest form. Trying always emerges from a friendly accident and the potential for surprise is all it takes to for someone to start.
Comfy’s new EP Volume For is out now via Dadstache Records.
american poetry club – “Thank You x3”
Lead singer Jordan Weinstock is by far, one of the most community-oriented people I’ve met in my years of DIY. So much so that we were definitely at the same show without knowing one another yet despite the fact we were both in college a thousand miles from one another.
Weinstock and I have been close friends through the shared experiences of screaming verse next to a crackly PA powering half the band or dancing under a well-lit white sheet (hi Terror Pigeon!). And that energy certainly translates into their music.
Creating any relationship is a practice in participation and not something we take for granted because of convenience. Weinstock sings “I’m thankful you’re my friend/I’m thankful this won’t end:” an explicit and simple reminder to check on friends to maintain that intimacy and longevity.
When intimacy doesn’t always arrive romantically, it always and undoubtedly arrives in friendship. There’s no secret recipe in being a good friend; gratefulness, listening, acknowledgment, support, and thoughtful communication makes Weinstock’s intentions never one that are contrived, and they do so while interrupting the narrative of traditional, trite love songs.
So here is your reminder to call your loved ones, check-in on them, and lend a listening ear to someone who needs it.
do you believe in your heart? EP is out February 5th on This Takes Times Records.
