Shedding is Connor Bell, who in Tear in the Sun molds together the elongated drone with sparse vocals. Drone is often associated with minimalism, and that label works here as well, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t also substantial – it is! These songs are filled with sound; headphones on and volume at a modest three, they become all-encompassing.
From the light harmonium opening of “Perspective”, elements are added but never too many at any single point of time. This song is precisely what you can …

A while back we got a taste of something a bit different, in terms of your standard indie group. All Tiny Creatures‘ EP Segni blended shoegaze-style loops with traits of indie rock and, yes, jazz. The band is back with an LP called Harbors. On it, the band expands their sound by adding vocals while maintaining the unique elements of their EP. And an early favorite is “An Iris”, a song that capitalizes on vocals, courtesy one of Harbors‘ many guest vocalists. Here we find accompaniment …

Breathe Owl Breathe is Micah Middaugh, Trevor Hobbs, and Andréa Moreno-Beals. Together they live in a cabin in rural Michigan, which means it must be getting pretty cold there this time of year; poised to just get colder. Their new album is called Magic Central and it’s a righteous title as the album is quite magical. But perhaps a better descriptor is unexpected.

Megafaun has returned after last year’s Gather, Form, and Fly to give us their mini-album Heretofore, out now on Hometapes. On the new one, the band continues with their off-beat folk style, comparable to those they’ve toured with of late, from Bowerbirds to Akron Family to former band-mates Bon Iver. They’ve got a bit more energy though, and they’re a bit further out into the foothills and backwoods of rural America.

For those of you fortunate enough to catch Andrew Thiboldeaux and Chris Ward, the Philadelphia based duo better known as Pattern Is Movement, on their recent tour and appearance at SXSW, you may recognize this track. As well as being the title track for their upcoming album, out later this year, it was offered up on their tour E.P. “Light Of The World” is another wonderful example of this band’s eccentric hip hop style that is fused with a healthy dose of indie rock and folk, especially on …

Rare is it that you see formats outside the standard compact disc or even cherished wax vinyl. But cassettes seem to be popping up more and more as a cool retro item. With vinyl’s popularity, it seems this is the only place to go – reel to reel is out for obvious reasons, as is the 8-track. So that leaves cassette, a vestige in the vintage, a gleam of retro hope. Which brings us to today and Hometapes.

In 2009, Hometapes aptly demonstrated that they are a force to be reckoned with and a label to keep an eye on. They packed the year with great releases, some of which are likely to appear on my best of 2009 list, slated to go live late next week. To celebrate the holidays, they’ve done two things worth noting. First is Eight Days Of Christmas, which features Christmas tunes from eight Hometapes bands. Second is a Holiday sampler, which arrived in the form of a cassette …

Photographer Tim Lytvinenko joined and documented Megafaun as they toured across the states in support of their latest release, Gather, Form & Fly, out now on Hometapes. The result is a collection of experiences from the road in what they dub “part-documentary, part-sense memory.” No surprise, Lytvinenko puts this collection of shots to the music of Megafaun’s epic almost instrumental track “Impressions Of The Past”. It’s the best of the road, the fun and the fans, the antics and the hilarity of it all.

The transformation undergone by Bear In Heaven between their outstanding Home-Tapes debut, Red Bloom Of The Boom, and their sophomore release Beast Rest Forth Mouth, is, quite literally, breathtaking. Red Bloom debuted Bear In Heaven’s experimental rock with a sound that was, for the most part, entirely their own. Sure, there were traces of influence that in my opinion sided pretty heavily toward artists like Animal Collective, but it was also fairly unparalleled in its style of experimentation.

Harmony and melody aren’t exactly two terms one would associate with Bear In Heaven, at least from the standpoint of their debut LP, Red Bloom Of The Boom. But they work quite well here, for the first single off their upcoming sophomore release Beast Rest Forth Mouth, “Wholehearted Mess”. This new sound represents virtually a complete change for Bear In Heaven.