There aren't a lot of bands like Tiny Hazard floating around these days. Their brand of avant-pop is quite unique and that's certainly also due to the fact that the music they've strived to master is difficult to conceive, let alone perform. Maybe that's why their new record "Greyland" took about five years to be finalized. Alena Spanger's vocals are the core of the record, leading the tracks' twists and turn with her beautiful soprano, never afraid to get downright complex/intense. There's a paradoxical stance taken with the composition, with the melodies pivoting back and forth from sweet to dissonant, and the arrangements from orchestral to utterly noisy. The songs are sparse in their instrumentation but tease the ear with their stops and starts, time changes, odd tempos, and dynamic and melodic shifts. There's so much to be worked out for the listener of this album that a repeated close listening is required to appreciate it fully: it's truly a gift that keeps on giving. Be sure to pick up a copy of "Greyland," it's a worthy investment, and don't miss the band live at The Silent Barn on April 14. - Andrew Strader

Intimate shows in living room (or other comfortable small spaces not strictly set up to host live music) are gaining steam these days - and not only in NYC. In Brooklyn, Hypnocraft has booked several shows for series held at the cozy (as in charmingly small) Manhattan Inn restaurant in Greenpoint. Gone are the old-school pianists entertaining diners with watered down cover songs, replaced by respected local artists like Sam Cohen and Shilpa Ray playing songs from their original repertoire. Crowds are often so reverent you can hear a pin drop. Hypno’s second series is called “The Hum.” Its mission, says founder Rachael Pazdan, “is to connect a diverse community of women making music in New York City.” Those words couldn't fall on deaf ears here at The Deli, therefore, we decided to sponsor these events!

On The Hum's first night this upcoming Monday (10.05) half a dozen of talented local ladies will grace the stage of the Manhattan Inn - we are particularly excited because the majority of them has received generous coverage in this very blog. Being a collaborative night, the performances are organized in couples: accomplished singer-songwriter Larkin Grimm (previously a member of Dirty Projectors) will perform together with drummer Lia Simone (ex drummer for The Butcherettes and Gothic Tropic). Mercurial singer and composer Alena Spanger of Tiny Hazard (a band we celebrated in 2013 with a "Deli NYC Video of the Month") will surely try something quirky during her shared performance with dreamy folksinger Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief. After them, we should expect some electronic instruments on stage, when Nandi Rose Plunkett of Half Waif and Johanna Cranitch of White Prism will join forces (and their beautiful voices) to entertain us. 

Hear each artist's own music in the playlist below, and don't miss their creative interaction on Monday October 05 at the Manhattan Inn - we'll be there!

I really didn't know what to expect when Tiny Hazard took the stage last Tuesday at The Silent Barn.  My ultimate description of this band ended up somewhere around "surrealist nightmare fairy tale music."  Alena Spanger set the tone not just with her appearance - barefoot, a white dress, she looked young, like she was straight out of a cartoon - and her vocals, which would change on a whim from operatic disney to demon lord fury. 

Spanger and Tiny Hazard don't want us to have any expectations, actively fooling us into thinking they're one thing until they're not.   They'll be in the middle of a soft, dainty melody until someone hits the tritone on the piano and everything goes dark.  When you barely have time to adjust to the sudden change they'll plunge into heavy, distorted, no-wave inspired insanity.  But there's a method to the madness, their recordings and their live sets are both highly contained and controlled atmospheres, where every move has a purpose.

Their most recent single, "Silhouette" is a further demonstration of their eclecticism.  The song is disguised as a highly accessible pop song, but it's clear that we're in a confusing mid-point between light and dark. "All of those sick faces/Crooked and vacant/Mounting is your unrest/Warping silhouette," Spanger sings over a R n B/soul inspired synth melody, it seems almost out of place until someone turns on the 'evil' switch on and we're shot into hell and the lyrics aren't as out of place.  Stream the track below (one of their slower ones) and check them out at The Mercury Lounge on 11.22.

INTERVIEW: Read Emilio Herce's interview with Tiny Hazard.

When we see an emerging NYC band play three local shows in a week we wonder whether they are starting to get a bigger following or simply... don't know what they are doing (it's very hard to get out the fans when playing shows so close to each other, and empty rooms are bad for bands and venues). But either way, Tiny Hazards - a Deli Artist of the Month earlier in 2014 led by visionary songwriter Alena Spanger - is so good that they deserve a bigger following. The Brooklyn quintet plays what ove here we call "Avant-Indie," i.e. the more experimental variety of indi rock, and they do it by blending anything from math rock to pop to noise rock. Check out this insane single entitled "Silouhette," which is at once enjoyable, bizarre and friggin' scary. Schizopop, indeed... You can see Tiny Hazard live at Silent Barn on November 11 and 16, and at Pianos on the 14th.

At the end of 2013 Brooklyn quintet Tiny Hazard caught us off guard with this song and video - so much so that we had to invent a new "Best of" just for the occasion (we don't do Video of the Month here at The Deli). The band is now releasing a new track ('Silouhette' - streaming below) that fully confirms their talent and - dare we say - uniqueness of sound. Presenting themselves as 'experimental pop' (we are always suspicious when we hear the word 'experimental' - it seems like everybody wants a piece of that pie in Brooklyn) Tiny Hazard offer complex, unpredictable songs that definitely deserve the 'Avant-' appellation, while Alena Spanger's beautifully contrived melodies keep the overall sound well inside the 'pop' territory. This is a band that deserves attention, don't miss their next live show at Le Poisson Rouge on 09.26 opening for Kneebody and Kimbra.