Now Hear This: #010 – Dead Quiet, Mammoth Caravan, Ryland Fisher, Candy Moore

Now Hear This! This week’s under-the-radar collection of new music you need to listen to encompasses the drop-F tuning of two low and slow artists, Dead Quiet and Mammoth Caravan, along with the yummy alt-country of Ryland Fisher and the shimmering dream pop of Candy Moore.

We’ll bring you a new post each week, songs from which will regularly be added to our accompanying “Now Hear This” Spotify playlist.

Dead Quiet – “Big Beer”

Vancouver, B.C.-based progressive stoner outfit Dead Quiet recently released their new instrumental single, “Big Beer.” The standalone single follows on the heels of the band’s latest album, IV, which dropped in June.

Made up of Kevin Keegan (guitar, vocals), Brock Macinnes (guitar), Michael Grossnickle (bass), Michael Rosen (keyboards, vocals), and Jason Dana (drums), Dead Quiet’s sound conjures up comparisons to Queensrÿche amalgamated with Boston, with colour washes of Uriah Heep tossed in for piquancy.

It’s a retro sound suffused by heavy guitars, an actinic organ, and grand layers of sonic pigmentation, at once archetypal. psychedelic, and progressive.

Dead Quiet’s previous releases include four long players: Grand Rites, 2019’s self-titled album, Truth and Ruin, and IV, as well as EPs and singles.

Clearly underrated. Dead Quiet deserves attention, especially for “Big Beer,” which is well-structured from beginning to end.

Mammoth Caravan – “I, Megafauna”

Little Rock, Arkansas, seems like the last place one would expect to find an excellent sludge/doom band. Enter the three-piece outfit called Mammoth Caravan, whose lengthy single, “I, Megafauna,” highlights the sepulchral lure of slow and low.

Beginning with primordial sounds, the track flows into drifting, frigid guitars, followed by the entrance of the rhythm, which is when the song becomes interesting – seething with thick, treacly guitars pumping out grimy textures.

Brandon Ringo (vocals, bass), Robert Warner (guitar), and Khetner Howton (drums) combine their talents to forge a glacial desert, spawning umbral revelations from the cold, dark bowels of Niflheim.

Ryland Fisher – IV: Finding My Way Back Home

Alt-country singer-songwriter Ryland Fisher’s latest album, IV: Finding My Way Back Home, is a humdinger; flavoured by silky guitar-driven melodies and great, finessed percussion.

Heavier than Fisher’s previous release, Sleeping With Ghosts: Vol. 1, with this new album, Fisher, aka “country music’s black sheep,” provides listeners with captivating songs such as the title track, “Go Easy,” “Just Another Beach,” and “End of the World.”

The title track, with its lush, gleaming guitars and Fisher’s delicious, nostalgic vocals, narrates the tale of going back to the beginning because that’s where you feel content.

“Going it alone, burning miles out there looking for me / I don’t care who I’m supposed to be / Headed down a less-travelled road / Finding my way back home.”

Candy Moore – “Emotion”

Callum Newton, aka Candy Moore, who is a musician, producer, and mixing and mastering engineer in Melbourne, Australia, released his latest single, “Emotion,” on August 8. The track is from his album, Anything, Always, from which he releases a new track every three weeks.

With his DIY attitude, birthed when he began recording at the age of 14, Candy Moore has gone from using a TASCAM DP-008EX and two Shure SM57 microphones to an elaborate bedroom studio, where he creates content for TikTok, as well as recording, mixing, and producing bands in Melbourne.

Moore’s motto is “Use what you have.” The trick, of course, is using what you have well. And boy, howdy does he.

Drenched in ebbing and rising jangly tones, “Emotion” thrums atop a throbbing rhythmic flow imbuing the tune with glittering dream-pop coloration and soft, alluring vocals.