LeftLion's Latest Listens #2: Notts music we're currently spinning

Single: Purple Suns - Between the Lines

With Between the Lines, Purple Suns deliver another chilled but undeniably bright and well-grounded song, using every element of their five-piece composition to great effect. Making the most of a 6/8-time lilt, the song pops out at you from the first moment, taking and leading you by the hand. Elisha's lead vocals are initially intimate, a touch hazy and lazy, but build beautifully with just enough energy to deliver a peaking chorus; the twin guitars each contribute jangly motifs and occasional cheeky pops of extra sound; and drums and bass give unobtrusive, well-judged support. This is a summer song which will serve equally well as we move into the next season. @purplesunsband (Phil Taylor)

Single: Modern Coven - Mist

Subtle trap beat textures are the underlying vehicle for this single, conjuring melancholic modernism and the fragility of the folk aesthetic in equal measures. Modern Coven is unnervingly mellow in their longing for gothic grandeur, Mist never straying too far from its repeated synth motifs. We’re plunged into a hazed fairy ring of digital reverbs; inescapable is the breathy tonality of the duo’s harmonies, wrapping around the shimmering nostalgia of 6/8 time they’re summoning. Hauntingly delicate is perhaps the most apt description for their upcoming EP, if this latest single is anything to go by. It’s a record that will comfort you in your wallowing, gently enticing you out of it and into the world of Modern Coven. @modern_coven_ (Talia Robinson)

Single: Sunflower Thieves - Driving Lessons

Detailing the anxieties of growing up triggered by a therapy question pondering the narrator’s childhood, Driving Lessons is a hypnotic slow dance across a tight rope of escapism and unease. Made up of childhood friends Amy and Lily, Sunflower Thieves’ sophomore single from upcoming EP, Same Blood (30th October) follows a similarly folk-tinged, lo-fi pop formula to lead single How Was America, again occupying a compelling place in a post-Phoebe Bridgers realm. The lush and occasionally minimalist production is supplemented by rich harmonies and introspective, honest lyricism; a wobbling vocoder accompaniment in the bridge seems almost desperate to resolve, texturally emphasising a yearning for contempt, a perfect contextual summary. Delicately moving synth accompaniments bolster acoustic guitars, plodding among a primarily mid-tempo movement; these swirling ideas, rigid in movement, are reminiscent to me of how anxious thoughts can encircle ones consciousness, cementing the effortless beauty of the duo’s songwriting prowess, which surely will be supplemented by next month’s show in Nottingham and their subsequent EP release. @sunflowerthieves (Tommy Robertson)

Single: Bram Bancroft - komorebi leaves

Following some impressive support sets for Notts favourites Victory Lap and Katie Keddie in the past few months, Bram Bancroft has released his first new music of 2024, komorebi leaves. It is an intricate, dreamlike composition, which provides the listener with another slice of his thought-provoking, skeletal alternative-indie sound. Blending ambient textures and intricate melodies, Bancroft continues to draw listeners in to the immersive and captivating sonic landscape that he has created throughout his musical journey. The title of the song is beautiful in itself; Komorebi, a Japanese word, is untranslatable but is used to describe “the scattered light that filters through when sunlight shines through trees”. The beauty and wonder that this image alone conjures in the mind is translated through the song’s tone, which treads the line between mellow reflection and relaxed bliss. @bram_bancroft (Gemma Cockrell)

Single: Lace Thief - Inheritance

Poignant feels like an entirely inadequate word here, as Laura Dickinson (working under her Lace Thief project name) unfurls an intensely personal story. Opening with a pure folk guitar sound, the move to dreamy alt-rock mode, with layers of instrumentation and harmonies, is a brilliant shift. Laura's voice has a crisp intensity which demands attention, and this is matched with highly skilled song-writing. There's some wonderful imagery drawn out from the words, too. Highly accomplished. Lace Thief plays a headline show at Rough Trade on 28th September. @lacethiefmusic (Phil Taylor)