Listen: Faith Healer – “Another Fool” [2023]

Posted on August 18, 2023 by Very Warm

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It’s funny how little album announcements can brighten up your whole week. Edmonton band Faith Healer’s new album The Hand That Fits The Glove, their first since 2017, is coming October 13th via Mint Records. Their 2017 record, Try 😉, is one that still floats around my regular rotation, as it’s just a purely great, super overlooked indie pop record with plenty of grooves and a sense of humor about itself. It’s also a record that both my partner and I like to listen to together, and reminds us of times we’d visit each other when we were long distance in 2017. I had been hoping Faith Healer was still around, so seeing the news of the upcoming album last week was a great feeling.

Two songs from the record are out now: “I’m A Dog”, which came out last week, and the track I’m featuring here, “Another Fool”. I’m loving both, but the buoyant grooves and shimmering guitar + synthesizer make me feel good in a GREAT way, setting myself up for many a fall night of walking around listening to this album, much like how Try 😉 soundtracked fall days of walking around. Not to instantly bring up comparisons, but it gives me the melodrama of TOPS, another favorite band of mine, and fellow Canadians to Faith Healer. I say whenever TOPS sonics come into the equation, you’ve got something great on your hands.

Faith Healer’s The Hand That Fits The Glove is out October 13th via Mint. Listen more & pre-order via Bandcamp below.

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Listen dadá Joãozinho – “Pai e Mãe” [2023]

Posted on August 17, 2023 by Very Warm

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I’m VERY excited for the upcoming debut album from São Paulo musician dadá Joãozinho, tds bem Global, out August 31. Every taste we’ve had from the record, from the first and second singles (“Cuidado! (feat. Alceu, Bebé)” + “Ô Lulu”), to the most recent single “Pai e Mãe”, it’s something new and refreshing. dadá continually swerves into different pockets of psychedelia through the lens of Brazilian pop, at times embracing more modern pop sounds like Rosalía, then embracing space echoed guitars and synthesizers like Stereolab, then employing snappy hip hop drums and adlibs at moments. All of these elements combine for a kind of sound that constantly keeps the brain engaged. What is happening? This is amazing.

“Pai e Mãe” is the most “traditional” track he’s released thus far, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less entertaining. More like an upbeat samba ballad we’ve heard in the past, energetic guitar, forward upright bass, shuffling percussion align into a danceable rhythm, buoyed by a chintzy organ at times to really nail the era and the mood. Joãozinho’s vocals here shine the most out of the previously released singles as well, again establishing another element, another parlor trick to his already shifty approach. Listen to this song, and then check out the last two singles. You’ll be hooked.

dadá Joãozinho’s debut tds bem Global is out August 31 via Innovative Leisure. Listen more & pre-order via Bandcamp HERE.

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Listen: Glasser – “Vine” [2023]

Posted on August 16, 2023 by Very Warm

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I would be remiss if I didn’t excitedly feature a new-ish song from an artist that I posted about within the first few months of this blog even existing. Glasser, the musical project of Cameron Mesirow, is returning with a new album crux, out October 6 via One Little Independent. This is Glasser’s first full-length album since 2013’s Interiors, and prior to that her 2010 debut Ring, an album that I LOVED upon the creation of Warm Visions back in 2010, especially the lead single “Home”. I even featured Glasser as one of my “most exciting new artists of 2010”, a list I didn’t directly lift from Stereogum at the time, don’t worry about it. Interiors was also a favorite from 2013, with “Keam Theme” continuing to be a track I have in my “Favorites of the 2010s” playlists.

But back to the present. After some time away, Glasser is returning with said new album, crux. There are three singles from it out now, but I wanted to give some shine to the first one, “Vine”. It’s a beautiful, pulsating track that’s led its strings and percussion, each grabbing a hand of Mesirow’s singing voice, and thrusting it into a void that continually sinks further down, or further up and out, depending on who’s listening. The life-giving strings and thumping percussion fluctuate in the channels, weaving together (like vines, hmm?), telling a story without needing words, Mesirow is there to keep the story flowing.

I cannot wait for this album – crux is out October 6 via One Little Independent.

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Recommended Albums: July 2023

Posted on August 15, 2023 by Very Warm

Keeping it light this month with no descriptions. Sorry about that. Some good albums though.

Continue reading →

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Listen: Meernaa – “As Many Birds Flying” [2023]

Posted on August 15, 2023 by Very Warm

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On my streak of unexpected posting this week has seen, I wanted to highlight one album that’s still to come in 2023 and would love more people to have eyes and ears on. Oakland-based musician Meernaa is releasing her upcoming LP So Far So Good via Keeled Scales on October 6. I previously shared early single “On My Line” back in March, but with a few more songs out and two months out from album release, I thought I’d refresh the plot.

Meernaa’s music is a refreshing take on R&B, with each single revealing a new wrinkle into how she’s going about her songwriting. Each previous single features a band in a deep pocket, memorable melodies, and fantastic performances. This single here “As Many Birds Flying” places a heavy emphasis on the dreamy slide guitar, while beds of strings and steady drumbeat paint a cinematic, driving picture. Imagine The Blue Nile produced by Daniel Lanois. In a way it reminds me of another favorite record of this year, Westerman’s An Inbuilt Fault. It’s a soft rock that takes chances; not content to sit on its laurels, but rather take cues from cult classic records of the late 80s and 90s and bring them into the present. This is the type of music that’s been exciting me the most these days.

Meernaa’s So Far So Good is coming October 6 via Keeled Scales. Pre-order + listen more via Bandcamp below. You know I copped a pre-order on the last BC Friday.

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Listen: Courtesy – “You’re Not Alone (feat. Erika De Casier & August Rosenbaum)” [2023]

Posted on August 14, 2023 by Very Warm

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One of the more slept-on singles of 2022 was Danish artist Courtesy’s “Night Journeys II”, a delicately throbbing odyssey of blinking lights, smoothed-out textures and dreamy vocals, perfectly depicting a memory-smeared journey through darkness.

She’s now prepping her upcoming LP, fra eufori, out September 12 via Kulør. A single off the project that I neglected to post when it first arrived at the end of June is “You’re Not Alone” featuring vocals from fellow Dane + fav of the blog Erika De Casier. Like “Night Journeys II”, this track is subtle in its toned-down trance synths, glowing like stadium lights in the distance, and its pulsating low-end that synthesizes beautifully with De Casier’s smooth, almost whispered delivery. It’s a gorgeous track, with its melody in particular striking a chord within me. My favorite music from Courtesy always sounds like the moments immediately after a wild high: a free-floating numbness, coursing with endorphins. The action around you has subsided. The work is over. You’re now being caressed by the space dust that surrounds us.

Courtesy’s fra eufori is out September 12 via Kulør. Pre-order + listen more via Bandcamp below.

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Listen: Époque Selector – “INTERIOR DESIGN” [2023]

Posted on August 11, 2023 by Very Warm

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There’s a motto on Warm Visions: when there’s new music from any Badge Époque Ensemble head boss aka Maximilian Turnbull-related project, it has to be shared. This time it is no different. Here he edits the formula, similar to the “Badge Epoch” project they dropped in 2021, but with a more radical sound. This new project is putting out an EP, DOGMATIC IDEOLOGY, VOL. 1, via Toronto’s Maximum Exposure Inc. on August 11 (today!). A notable pairing: Flying Lotus’ rapping alias Captain Murphy re-emerges for this project – definitely excited to hear that.

On first track “INTERIOR DESIGN”, wild samples stew fragrantly in a steaming soup of chopped up funk breaks and sweaty organ. It’s very much a sweaty sound overall, with new layers of hazy tones washing ashore with every passing minute, providing no respite in its humidity. For those who want their funk to fall off the bone.

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Listen: Laurel Halo – “Atlas” [2023]

Posted on August 10, 2023 by Very Warm

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You know I had to give shine to my fellow Michigander Laurel Halo, as she semi-recently announced her upcoming album Atlas, coming via her own label Awe Records on September 22.

With the album announcement, she dropped a minimal piano track “Belleville”, and this week released the title track of the record, a grander, but no less nebulous track, clocking in just under seven minutes. A blanket of fuzzy strings, all layered upon each other to create a fog-like effect sets the tone. Anxious squealing of other strings, soft, jazzy piano echo in the distance, upright bass is plucked intermittently. It’s a piano and bass duo with a string quartet, still playing quiet jazz deep within the halls of an abandoned mall.

But this isn’t some hokey backrooms kind of situation. I do not feel like the main mood Laurel Halo was going for on this track was fear. More like intrigue. Despite the rather placid surface of the song, it always feels like it’s moving towards something. The strings that provide the cloudy backdrop of the song may obscure the full view of the track, but they’re constantly in motion. A flowing river, its currents occasionally revealing a glint of something at the bottom of the riverbed, pulling things it has caught in its grasp downstream.

Frankly, I cannot wait for this record. Laurel Halo has time and time again shown off her versatility through her recent work in film scores, sci-fi epics like 2012’s Quarantine, club rippers, freaky art pop, and more. Atlas is shaping up to be a new wrinkle in her catalog that further develops her composition with more “traditional” instrumentation.

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Listen: Vanishing Twin – “Afternoon X” [2023]

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Very Warm

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I’ve had quite the backlog of tracks to post about from longtime blog favs. Near the top of my list was the first new single from Vanishing Twin’s upcoming album, Afternoon X, out October 6 via Fire Records. 

This track is braced by a grooving, steady drum pattern and bass line, and buffeted by dark and mysterious keyboards that filter in and out of frame, acting as a fluctuating presence as the rhythm section pushes you further along the dusky path. I have LOVED the last two Vanishing Twin records, and this track gives me hope that they’ll go three for three coming up.

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Listen: Mary Lattimore – “And Then He Wrapped His Wings Around Me (feat. Meg Baird & Walt McClements)” [2023]

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Very Warm

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Everyone’s favorite harpist Mary Lattimore is BACK with a new album, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, coming October 6 via Ghostly International. It comes on the heels of me just seeing her and Meg Baird perform at Central Park Summerstage, a soul-healing and body-drenching show, as the clouds opened up and unleashed a torrential downpour a few minutes into their set, but thankfully lightened up significantly and yielded a wide-arcing rainbow for the remainder of the performance.

Our first taste of the upcoming record, “And Then He Wrapped His Wings Around Me”, coincidentally features Meg Baird on vocals, as well as Walt McClements on further instrumentation, providing more colors to Lattimore’s already beautifully painted canvas of sound. (Canvas of sound? Am I that cheesy?). It’s a gorgeous, glittering piece of music, with shards of harp reflecting flecks of light onto everything.

Additionally, just looking at the track list, this seems to be the first Mary Lattimore record to extensively feature collaborators, which include drummer Lol Tolhurst, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, guitarist Roy Montgomery, and violinist Samara Lubelski, a GREAT cast of players that I can tell will elevate the mood Lattimore is setting on this record. I know this will be on constant replay at my apartment upon its release, and I WILL be at least one of the upcoming Union Pool shows in November. Trust that!

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