Robb Paniconi releases ‘For Lack of Trying’, a new EP under his Damn Shame moniker. Its songs combine elements of electronic and folk music, found sounds, field recordings and layers of loops.

There’s an engagingly quirky and DIY feel to the EP opener ‘Splinter’. Sounding somewhat akin to Jonathan Richman fronting The Flaming Lips, it’s filled with quirk and incidental noises as Robb delicately recalls how ‘You were standing out at the time’. ‘Hyperfocusing’ follows with talk of unfinished projects amidst acoustic strums. The lyrics again are both soulful and searching, with love at its core: ‘Was that another obsession?’; ‘I’m on my way down’.

‘Two Big Hemlocks’ is distorted and atmospheric, with flourishes of 8-bit noise chipping in. It’s like a bedroom Battles that finishes with a burst of birdsong. The closing ‘Making Habits’ veers back into dream pop territory – complete with defiant statements about breaking through and making change: ‘Just because we made it, it’s like we actually did something.

Falling somewhere between early Adam Green, Sparklehorse and Magnetic Fields – with plenty of emo flourishes along the way – ‘For Lack of Trying’ is an effortless listen it’d be a Damn Shame to miss.