Well, look at what we found! Belgian producer Faskil has done an exquisite remix of the great Gemma Hayes song which serves as our blog’s namesake. You can download it for free from his site.
November 16, 2009
[Racket]
FYI. New new new!!!
So new you don’t even know you’re reading this yet.
[This fist ain't gonna pound itself.]
November 14, 2009
Review: AIR // Love 2
Engrained
Deadly grooves. Granular synths. A hint of prog. Air returns.
Opening with Do The Joy, we can’t help but wonder if this is going to be the dirtiest Air record yet. But as if on cue, Love states the case for these 12 cuts – a little adult-contempory, a little epic, refusing to admit that yeah, sometimes its a little cheesy – but that defiance is what makes the French their bad-ass selves. And its what allows Air to be Air. Lets see you make Floyd-esque synths sound bad-ass.
Intricately woven jangly guitars surround infectious bass. Classic repetitive lyrics allow the synth-work to shine. And Bob Moog is somewhere, surrounded by rainbows, clapping his hands and jumping gleefully while listening to the bridge in Be A Bee.
Love 2 is not without its lulls – this is Air after all. It can’t be all good. Tropical Disease is ready for 70’s sitcom re-runs. And You Can Tell To Everybody may just lounge you to sleep. But these duds are few and interjected by coy raucousness via Eat My Beat and Night Hunter.
This isn’t Moon Safari or Talkie Walkie. Its much slicker. But the synth work and classic vibe make it worth repeated listens – even if its only with a martini in hand.
If you speak French, there’s a great interview and tour through their studio here.
November 14, 2009
Review: THE LYTICS // (self-titled)
Fuck ya! Cinematic and melodic indie hip-hop!
There’s a lightness, a youthfulness, a vigour, a hopefulness to The Lytics self-titled debut EP. Playful synths bounce around great flow, absolutely infectious melodies wrap around your brain, and all the while I’m wondering… they’re from here?
Big City Soundgirl is getting all the “single” attention, but its Checkin’ On My Pumas that showcases the skills of A-Nice, Munga, Ashy and B-Flat. Last Bit carries these grooves to the end.
There are Jackson 5 and Paul Simon-esque musical ideas throughout. These boys aren’t just a bunch of beat-thumping ass smackers. Worldly experience, humility (stay humble!), and great melodic sensibilities wrap around lyrics both fun and intelligent.
November 3, 2009
Review: NESTOR WYNRUSH // Trinnipeg !78
Trinidad + Winnipeg = Great Hip Hop
In the past 10 years, Winnipeg-made art and music about Winnipeg has become increasingly prevalent. From the notable records of The Weakerthans to Guy Maddin’s films, the mainstream has been treated to some of our finest exports. But the consciousness of this city pervades many more artists who fly a bit further under the radar – though hopefully not for long.
Nestor Wynrush has made one of the most poignant Winnipeg albums ever. A fitting first local review for our new blog!
Trinnipeg !78 features hints of Trinidad, roots in Toronto and a final landing place (takeoff place?) in South Winnipeg. It is an album about the roles and situations immigrants find themselves in Canada – particularly when pressed against mainstream culture, and the ignorance which can sometimes come with that. Our country does a really great job of marketing itself as a great haven for the world’s troubled – but there remains an us/them barrier – a quiet racism that pervades our cities. Nestor tackles these issues firsthand.
There is a lot of intelligent discourse in these lyrics. Too much to totally dissect in this space, so we strongly encourage you to go and buy this album right now.
Coprock – top-shelf discourse about personal engagement with Winnipeg’s “finest”. (And by finest, we mean racist, short-sighted, violence-prone motherfuckers.)
So High – “I have to confess. I’ve read diaries before.” One of the many off-hand, irreverent and comically personal lyrics. Also check out the outro to Winnipeg South Blues.
Ole Mine Town – A K’Naan-worthy torch song, a manifesto, and the thematic core of Trinnipeg.
Musically, the beats feel a bit amateur. The album’s sonics say “Winnipeg” – and though we understand the literalism of that, the mid-fi production doesn’t really support the content of the music or lyrics. Nestor has some great hooks, brit-pop-esque melodies, and gritty topics – fusing these into a cohesive production is the next step. And I look forward to it anxiously.
October 22, 2009
Review: WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS // These Four Walls
The Sound Of An Almighty Thud
We’ve been hearing rumblings about We Were Promised Jetpacks for several months now. And the earthquake has now cut my meagre office in half. Split right down the middle. We first heard them beamed in from KEXP Seattle one lazy afternoon. The name had already popped up in a few reviews here and there… the name piqued our interest – part horrible emo, part new possibilities. We figured it was the sign of a band that could go one of only two ways: absolute dreck, or uplifting and spirited.
Thank god it was the latter.
When listening to this album (and we emphasize ALBUM), its as though a dusty window is slowly been wiped clear in front of you. The mature words of young Adam Thompson revealing quiet humanisms, small moments, the trial and triumph of the human spirit.
“Right foot. Followed by your left foot.” The fury of Its Thunder And Its Lightning fuses with the story of a boy, a small town, and growing up. Conductor provides the album’s emotional and conceptual centre, a bulging emotional toure de force. Half Built House and This Is My House, This Is My Home are the most obvious of several domicile-related songs with imagery that pepper the album with youthful visions of home, and what home means. And if Conductor is the emotional take-off, Quiet Little Voices is the finger pointed in your face, telling you exactly what this is all about.
These Four Walls is everything Bloc Party wishes it could’ve maintained. It is a powerful, churning and utterly real album. In an age of fake indie and fake mainstream and bands that seem to pop up then disappear, We Were Promised Jetpacks show the promise of a band that might just stick around for awhile, to continue to speak to us, to reveal things about themselves, and in turn reveal things about us.
The warble in Thompson’s voice could be our own. Or it could be a voice from another world. Or maybe its just a voice from Scotland.
October 13, 2009
Review: CHARLES SPEARIN // The Happiness Project
The Happiness Project w/ braille on cover
Man oh man. Seriously? This is incredible. This celebrates all that is glorious and moving and human and deeply personal about music. This draws a direct line from one’s heart to one’s smile.
Charles Spearin’s The Happiness Project is everything that has been lacking in modern music for the past 10 years. No indie posturing. No ego. No cooler than thou. No self-referential bullshit. Just beautiful music celebrating what it is to be a human being, living, day by day. Each track is the musical exposition of conversations that Charles Spearin (DoMakeSayThink, Broken Social Scene) had with his neighbours on the topic of happiness. The honesty and non-pretension and immediacy of each neighbour is obvious (I think I’d like his neighbourhood).
Mrs. Morris …. “Happiness is love!” Indeed. Not only is she joyous and honest, but Charles couldn’t have found a better woman to accidentally provide the hypothesis of the project in its its purest form. Her laughter is contagious!
Vittoria is my favorite. The saxophone is being reclaimed! Big band that doesn’t sound like cheesy rehab shite! Great grooves, a seriously cute kid, and a giant smile across my face. Yeah, thats right. Bad. Ass. Saxophone.
Vanessa offers a voice that we hear so seldom – this is part pun and part sad truth – that within the music community there is surprisingly little diversity or participants with a disability. Its a heartwarming tale of a deaf woman engaging with sound. “And then I learnt that sound is electricity.”
Marisa is a little sad… her answer is cliched, the voice of a woman who has been broken by ‘the system’, by our corporate culture, by a lack of actual real connections to human beings. I feel a little sorry for her.
Mr. Gowrie is Marisa’s anti-oxident — a man who see’s our culture for what it is, as an outsider, someone who grew up in the developing world and has immigrated here. His realism and acknowledgement of the forces at play in this world is set in stark contrast to Marisa’s walled emotions.
October 10, 2009
Pop Etcetera
A new music festival has started up in Winnipeg. In the spirit of Sled Island or Halifax Pop Explosion comes Pop Etcetera – a new (and long overdue) indie festival in Winnipeg.
Library Voices, Shout Out Out Out Out, Young Galaxy and VitaminsForYou headline. Here’s to a great start and the foundation of great things to come. (We vow not to miss VitaminsForYou’s full band set this time!)
Pop! Etc!
Editor’s Note: It is the opinion of this blog that the Winnipeg Folk Festival has influenced this city’s musical direction for far too long. Yes, its a great festival. But as a result we now have way too many self-important bluegrass and roots acts, when we could put all that musical talent to better use. You may yet read some scathing reviews of folk/roots records on this blog. Except for Scott Nolan. We love Scott Nolan.
October 10, 2009
Review: VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ // Fondo
Vieux Farka Touré has BIG shoes to fill. His father Ali made the definitive African Blues album with Ry Cooder – Talking Timbuktu – and was one of Africa’s brightest international musical lights. So we were excited and intrigued to see what the young Farka Touré would bring during his Winnipeg stop in June.
Well, his dad would be proud. Not only did Vieux deliver one of the most exhilerating and inspired performances of the Jazz Festival, this record stands up to the work of his father – who was able to contribute to this album before his passing in 2006.
This is a record defined by rather aggressive guitar, strong musicality, and a sense of worldly patience. Ai Haira rocks with groove and a cutting riff. Souba Souba showcases some Bill Frissell-esque uses of delay and spaciousness. And Mali is a heartwarming homage to Vieux’s homeland. But the heartbeat of this album comes bursting forth in Cherie Le – gritty, groovy, and swaggering.
October 9, 2009
Review: THE ALBERTANS // Legends Of Sam Marco
Sometimes we get a little cynical. Sometimes we don’t allow ourselves to give in to a new act we’ve never heard of. Every now and then we get surprised.
A few weeks ago The Albertans rolled into town on their cross-Canada tour. Now based in Brooklyn and Vancouver, with a couple members who have Edmonton roots.And I must say, the opening act (The Wheat Pool) left me without much hope for the rest of the night. Cliche’d frat-rock. Boring, illiterate and best served with a Coors Lite. No thanks.
But from the first notes – The Albertans surprised. With confidence, strong arrangements, and most importantly strong vocals (reminiscent of Stars’ Torquil in tone and delivery) – the band created an inviting and intimate ambience.So, I bought the album.The record lacks the polish that the songs demand. Its mixed unevenly and fails to properly convey several songs – particularly later in the record as the momentum falters. But there is no denying its appeal, or the quality of the songwriting, or the great vocals and smart lyrics.
The female backing vocals are sweet – too sweet sometimes – but create a pleasant bed for lead singer Joel Bravo’s intimate baritone.The package design and band name don’t match the band’s indie-dance-vibe. And the Sam Marcos title doesn’t seem contextual… so we’re gonna just chalk it up to a young, inexperienced band. But its a band we’re going to keep an eye on, as this debut is stronger than anticipated.
