Aaron Leitko – Flip Flops (This Can’t Happen)
Yoko K. – take off
Fellow Creatures – Seance (Shuka)
Drop Electric – What Now, of Paradise?
Detox Retox – Dispatches from the Chernaya Rechka
Waltz Brigade – Strange Names
nick tha 1da – circular drizzle
Jonathan Parker – East Lorain
Abu Jibran – Not Good Enough
Sunwolf – Velvet
Extra Golden – Ilando Gima Onge
Once Okay Twice – I Have An Illness
Restoring Poetry in Music – Luba
Little Hunts – Nocturne (Part 2)
The Wine-Dark Sea – Breaking Through the Cracks of Our City
Night Kitchen – Salt Water Taffy
The Shifters – She’s So Fine
igloo two – the big ego scene
Aquarium – Slow Space
Tone P – Chandelier (Instrumental)

Evan Sheres – More of You
Jordan Clawson – The Play
Rocky Jones – Jitterbug Overnight Delivery
Tanner Carlton and the Bottle Shop – South Like
Trouble Funk – E Flat Boogie (Instrumental)
Waltz Brigade – Sarsaparilla
The Jazz Infuzion – Latina
Staunton – Spaceman
Will Copps – Rush
Nerftoss – Some Kind of Way
So Spirited – Fevers
Denis Malloy & Stanley “Z” Ng – Memories of Kelvin
DC Improvisers Collective – Unified Conspiracy Theory
April + Vista – Overture
Jon Miller – Jello
Aaron Agre – Nocturne
aerialist – computia
Ben Dransfield – Slow Motion
Cosmic Romp – BandanaJam
Tom Espinola – Gold Rush / Cherokee Shuffle

Sam Phillips – Differences
Tom Espinola – Gold Rush / Cherokee Shuffle
Alex Byrd – Jamais Vu
Wytold – Move On
Aaron Agre – Know-Say
Body Thief – Twin Flames
Mark Meadows – Know NowThe Rail Runners – The Takeback
June Gloom – dealer
Memphis Gold – Serves Me Right
Otis Infrastructure – Tearerdowner
The Soul Searchers – If It Ain’t Funky
Tideland – Desolate
Le Loup – Morning Song
B Side Shuffle – Gauntlet
Waltz Brigade – Strange Names
Mary Chapin Carpenter – Willie Short
Beach House – Lover of Mine
M.H. & His Orchestra – Cobblestone
Louis Weeks – Clementine

Trouble Funk – E Flat Boogie (Instrumental)
Kid Claws – Link
Teething Veils – Dinner Date
Protect-U – Time 2 Technique
Middle Distance Runner – The Fury
Otis Infrastructure – Oxbow
Sriram Gopal – Sink
Nick Garcia – Sun Jam
Drive TFC – Pocket Bitters
Waltz Brigade – Sarsparilla
Ken & Brad Kolodner – Skipping Rocks
B Side Shuffle – Introducing
Carolyn Malachi – Blowing Smoke
Power Pirate – Bring Them Back
Tom Espinola – Blackberry Blossom
aerialist – shputnuck
GoldLink – Palm Trees/Late Night ft. Masego
The Harry Bells – Rum and Coca Cola
The Linemen – Mystery in the Making
Bill Emerson & Sweet Dixie – Three Day Beard and a Rusty Jeep

“We had an oboe, so we wrote a part for the oboe,” says Mark Betancourt, the group’s guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter. “For us, the sounds really came out of the instruments we happened to play.”

The serendipity didn’t end there. When Waltz Brigade recorded the EP’s title track at Asparagus Media in Takoma Park, Maryland, it got an unexpected assist from a guest percussionist.

“At some point there was a Kenyan band playing next door, and the drummer saw the congas and asked, ‘Do you need someone to play those?’” Betancourt says. “He sat down and listened to a few seconds of the track then went to town. At the end of ‘Slow Mountain’ you can hear him wailing away on the congas.”

“Slow Mountain” (listen to it below) went on to become a highlight on the band’s EP, with its sprawling bass and subdued vocals standing out among more straightforward ditties. Betancourt says that’s what made it a tough but gratifying song to finish.

“It’s the intricacy. It’s much grander than the other songs, and I just love the interplay of all the different parts and how they create a single feeling,” Betancourt says.

Waltz Brigade started when Betancourt and collaborators Jocelyn Frank (oboe) and Emily Weidner (violin) realized they needed a full band to flesh out Betancourt’s songs. They began to recruit friends, like bassist Art von Lehe, who wound up helping write “Slow Mountain.”

“I started playing guitar and [von Lehe] started playing crazy, sliding bass and we laughed about it,” Betancourt says. “I came back to it and wrote a whole arrangement around that with this Beatles-y mouth trumpet sound as the horn effect.”

Then there’s the slightly askew piano accompaniment, an intriguing touch that comes courtesy of pianist and accordionist Nancy Ku.

“It was entirely hers, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the song,” Betancourt says.

When the band formally premiered the Slow Mountain EP March 14 at von Lehe’s house — also known as the Apiary — it felt like the community effort the band has been from the beginning.

“We filled it with as many people as we could fill it with,” Betancourt says of the show. “It was a really wonderful celebration of the bands, but also of our friendships.”

Now, Waltz Brigade might end as quietly as the EP does. Betancourt says the band was more interested in crafting a quality EP than racking up critical acclaim. Its members plan to return to their own musical projects, which for Betancourt includes a solo album.

“We never came at this thinking, ‘Let’s be a band,’” Betancourt says. “It was just a project for fun.”