Posts Tagged ‘Arbutus Records’

BRAIDS – ” Companion ” EP

Posted: December 31, 2016 in MUSIC
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There’s something new about Canadian band Braids. Since bandleader Raphaelle Standell-Preston shared her experiences with sexual abuse informed a song called “Miniskirt,” you can’t help but approach the Montreal group’s compositions with ears freshly sensitive to that courage.  More than ever, musicians like Braids and statements like their new EP Companion are what the country needs to keep hope.

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Listening to the project though, the futility of binding Braids to one event, niche, trauma, or sound becomes clear. The four songs were started during sessions for the band’s 2015 album Deep In The Iris. “At the time they felt separate to the songs that made up “Deep In The Iris,” the band wrote in an email, “strong in their own right, but left as unknowns to a larger compositional work.” Companion is not a collection of orphan tracks: all four songs lean into the same progressions in songcraft and unbridled energy the band discovered on Deep In The Iris.

Braids “Companion” EP
Out 05/20 on Arbutus Records / Flemish Eye

Here’s one case in which it is: the beautiful minimalist synth backdrop of Companion, over which Raphaelle Standell’s remarkable voice flutters between Elizabeth Fraser on Massive Attack’s Teardrop and Björk when she’s feeling an emotion really hard. Which is about the highest praise it’s possible to give a vocalist. If you don’t get chills, you must have killed before, and you probably will again.

Recorded at the same time as last year’s phenomenal Deep in the Iris, Braids’ Companion is its perfect, erm, companion piece. Here we have four songs that showcase the band’s perfect interplay between twitchy drums, deeply layered arrangements and Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s soaring whispy vocals.

BRAIDS – ” Deep In The Iris ” Albums of 2015

Posted: October 25, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Braids.

Breakup records are nothing new. They’re one of the most practiced concoctions in pop music today but every now and then, one comes along that pushes the art form in new directions. “Deep in the Iris”, the third album from Montreal trio Braids, is one such album. Rather than continuing the evolution of their former sound—as displayed on 2013’s stark, searing “Flourish//Perish” the band instead takes a softer, sunnier approach. While the lyrics are as cutting and introspective as anything you’ll come across, the music is anything but. Departing from jarring arrangements, the band employs warm Björk-esque beats and inviting rhythmic soundscapes as a backdrop to Raphaelle Standell’s stunning vocal work. Deep in the Iris doesn’t so much explore new depths as it does new heights. It isn’t the sound of fracturing, but the healing process.

Braids “Deep In The Iris” LP
Out 28th April on Arbutus Records / Flemish Eye.

There’s placid grace to Deep In The Iris, the third and latest full-length by Braids, but don’t let that fool you. Something’s churning beneath the album’s calm, cool surface. Unlike Flourish // Perish, the Montreal trio’s icy, challenging record from 2013, Deep In The Iris represents a thaw: Throughout its nine songs, singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston and her cohorts Taylor Smith and Austin Tufts art-rock with melodic allure, confessional directness and quivering warmth. Where Flourish // Perish used prickly electronics and cavernous arrangements to hold humanity at arm’s length,Deep In The Iris turns those same elements into lulling hymns to cleansing and redemption. Braids is not only more approachable than ever; it’s downright magnetic.

Her breathy vocals, as liquid and acrobatic as ever, elevate a line that in lesser hands would have seemed clichéd. Meanwhile, the band underscores the bittersweet melancholy with hypnotic patterns of percussion and synths. The hooks are subtle, but they’re huge.

That boldness, both instrumentally and lyrically, is even more striking in “Miniskirt.” In the past, Standell-Preston has couched her lyrics in a haze of poetic abstraction; here, she goes for the throat, calling out misogyny, the male gaze and the language of slut-shaming with piercing, confessional force. The song could almost pass as an epic R&B ballad, at least at first: After a sumptuous, stadium-worthy intro, it corkscrews through a tangle of jittery beats and atmospheric eeriness that never wanders into self-indulgence. Even within the album’s most complex and confrontational track, there’s an immaculate pop edge that mesmerizes.

By the time “Warm Like Summer” bursts into a dazzle of soulful croons, glimmering loops and shuffling drums, it appears that the album’s springtime release is no accident: This is the sound of renewal and regrowth, as joyful and as painful as that can be. In “Letting Go,” Standell-Preston sings with dreamy contentment, “We laid on the bank and had our fill.” On the lush, stuffed-to-bursting Deep In The Iris, Braids has done exactly that.

BRAIDS – ” Taste “

Posted: March 6, 2015 in MUSIC
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Art-tronica band Braids have dropped another track ahead of their third album “Deep In The Iris”, the gorgeous and emotive “Taste”. Braids have always had a certain grandeur about them: an appreciation for detail and majesty. A lot of their tracks sound like they’ve studied all the angels, nooks and musical hooks yet the trio’s writing never sounds forced. Most of Braids’ creative sounds are doused in such splendid dreamyness ,

Photo: Press

On “Taste” we hear a perfect balance of this organic writing paired with intricate song construction. “You’re exactly what I like/I will give you what you like”, singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston breathes on an ascending scale of classic piano chords and frenetic beats. Elsewhere, flowery guitar lines fill the void left between the stoic chords and scuttering rhythms, adding some needed body and colour.
It might be less electronic-focused than some of their previous offerings but “Taste” is no less compelling listen with its delicate, interlocking features. “Deep In The Iris” is out 27th April via Arbutus  Records. Braids – Deep In The Iris
When’s it out? April 27th  Braids’ third album “explores a number of heavy subjects, including pornography, abuse and slut-shaming” wrote the Montreal group, announcing ‘Deep In The Iris’, which if single ‘Miniskirt’ is anything to go by, should captivate and move as much as its predecessor, 2013’s ‘Flourish / Perish’.

 

GRIMES – ” Drome “

Posted: January 16, 2015 in MUSIC
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Claire Elise Boucher  better known by her stage name Grimes, is a Canadian producer, artist, musician, singer-songwriter and music video director. Born and raised in Vancouver, Grimes began recording experimental music while attending McGill University in Montréal, where she became involved with the underground music scene.

Grimes named herself after grime music after discovering the existence of the genre via Myspace. In 2010, she released her debut album, Geidi Primes on Arbutus Records (based in Montréal, Québec), followed by the album Halfaxa (2010). In late 2011, she announced that she had signed with 4AD Records, who partnered with Arbutus Records to release her third album, Visions (2012). Visions was met with critical acclaim and was hailed by the New York Times as one of the most impressive albums of the year so far

Grimes’ music has been noted by critics and journalists for its atypical combination of vocal elements, as well as a wide array of influences, ranging from electronica to pop, hip hop, R&B, noise rock, In 2013, she was awarded the Webby Award for Artist of the Year. Also in 2013, Grimes was awarded a Juno Award for Electronic Album of the year.