Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

ADAM WENDLER – ” Deep Water “

Posted: July 29, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The strength of songwriter Adam Wendler is found in his uncanny ability to jump between genre borders to create something that is both refreshing and innovative. There are many points within “Deep Water” where you think you can describe his sound with terms like “folk” or “indie pop” but then the next verse immediately destroys any label you thought you knew. Adam Wendler is a passionate singer-songwriter from Goderich, Ontario. Blending catchy melodies with soulfelt lyrics and intricate guitar playing, he captures the hearts of listeners around the globe.

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He is currently releasing singles off his new album Never Go Unknown and we are intrigued to hear more genre bending hits. Wendler has a firm grasp on how to write a catchy hit, but refuses to settle for only that, his layered sound reveals something of more depth than the expected radio hit.

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Recorded at Beach Road Studios
Mastered by Troy Glessner

Piano/Keys/Strings – Zach Havens
Drums – Matt Varey
Bass – Anthony Strome
Banjo on tracks 5, 7 by Mike Reynolds
Backup vocals on track 9, 10 by Dean Reynolds
Additional vocals on ‘Follow Me Down’ by Morgan Landers

CHAD VANGAALEN – ” Old Heads “

Posted: July 22, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A notorious homebody, Chad VanGaalen is well known for rarely leaving his rickety house in Calgary, endlessly drawing, recording and making art. With Diaper Island, VanGaalen distills his approach, producing his most sonically cohesive album to date, and the closest thing he has done to a rock album.

Also a celebrated visual artist, VanGaalen is widely renowned for his illustration and animation work. As with his previous albums – Infiniheart, Skelliconnection and the Polaris short-listed Soft Airplane, VanGaalen illustrated all of the art for Diaper Island – and is in the midst of animating a music video as well. He has animated music videos for folks like J Mascis, Guster, and Holy Fuck, and his videos have been collectively viewed well over a million times on YouTube.

VanGaalen has been quietly building a catalogue of songs that invite listeners to gently explore his distinctive creativity. Diaper Island extends the adventure into deeper territory, tapping into VanGaalen’s lifeblood and mining the richness of his mind with sharper tools.

MAPPE OF – ” Caverns Dark / Nimblin “

Posted: July 18, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone (Pre Order)

The Canadian artist Mappe Of just released the two opening tracks of his debut’s album, A Northern Star, A Perfect Storm. With a sound that could easily remind to you of, James Vincent McMorrow or even a young Bon Iver, Mappe Of is all and none of them at the same time. A careful listen to Cavern´s Dark and Nimbin will reveal a unique sound that brings you to this ethereal, timeless atmosphere.

The sound is clear and well performed, almost minimalist. Guitar, violins, trumpets, it all helps to create these aural melodies. In his own words, “I’d like the music to be grounded in reality while simultaneously feel like it’s from somewhere else”. And he succeeds. Almost nothing for a debut album.

 

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Trying to fit this young artist’s music in a genre can be certainly uneasy. Experimental, new indie, avant-folk… call it as you want, but you have to agree with me on this: it works.

The debut album from Mappe Of. A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone will be released on limited edition white vinyl on July 28th, 2017! Each vinyl pre-order will include a limited edition 7″ of Mappe Of’s covers of ‘Pleasure’ (Feist) and ‘Dead Letter & The Infinite Yes’ (Wintersleep).

Paper Bag Record’s new bet is definitely worth a listen (or two). These two tracks are an invitation to a true sound experience. Trust me: you won’t be disappointed.

MAPPE OF – ” Cavern’s Dark “

Posted: July 7, 2017 in MUSIC
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Mappe Of is a Canadian band with a sound that fits nicely between Bon Iver’s earliest acoustic work and that project’s later, more experimental sounds. The beautiful, finger-picked acoustic guitar and angelic vocals on this cut blend into an ethereal, transfixing trip.

A young Canadian piecing his life together on the other side of the world. A German vagabond clutching a glowing orb in a hippie town in Australia, having disavowed all family ties. An old man dying slowly of Alzheimer’s who can’t recognize his own family. A troubled boy burning his family’s home to the ground.

All these characters populate the debut album by Mappe Of, an ethereal avant-folk tour de force that belongs to no time or place. Or perhaps not even of this Earth, judging by the range of haunting vocal textures or some of the interstellar synths that intertwine with trumpets, violins, kalimba, autoharp, and Mappe Of’s own intricate guitar playing. There is no traditional drum kit. No finite template of instrumentation. Maybe the less you know about the man behind the curtain, the more you’ll lose yourself in the music. “I’d like the music to be grounded in reality while simultaneously feel like it’s from somewhere else,” says the sonic architect behind what will be known to the world as Mappe Of.

A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone is a sonic world unto itself, an aural landscape steeped in experience and imagination. “I love records so much,” he says. “The record has always been paramount to me. I want to create a setting in which you can lose yourself. The ideal record for me is one where you can lie back on your bed, listen to the thing front to back and be taken somewhere.”

A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone is out July 28th via Paper Bag Records

SARAH JANE SCOUTAN – ” When the Bloom Falls From the Rose “

Posted: June 17, 2017 in MUSIC
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Sarah Jane Scouten is an acclaimed singer songwriter in her native Canada ,she’s notched two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations — and beyond, earning praise from outlets in the U.S. and U.K. alike. This Friday she’ll release a new album “When the Bloom Falls From the Rose”, that showcases her agile voice, ruminative songwriting, and love for classic country, indie pop, and everything in between.

“Thematically, this album is about the bloom falling from the rose or a loss of illusion,” Scouten says. “Sometimes this is disillusionment and sometimes it’s a revelation that is full of light, like a Milan Kundera book. Those are songs like ‘Crack in Your Windshield’ or ‘Rosehips for Scurvy,’ which seem dark at first but are actually about letting go of expected outcomes or even settling into what is not beautiful. When I was two years old my mother died giving birth to my brother, so I learned as a child to hold on too tightly to the things and people I loved, and as I grow older I’ve started to learn how to let go of the desperation of needing situations to turn out just the way I want them to.”

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RIVER WHYLESS – ” Fortunate Son “

Posted: June 9, 2017 in MUSIC
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River Whyless may employ the trappings of a typical string band — fiddle, guitar, prominent vocal harmonies — but they use those elements to surprising effect. They’re, gratefully, a far cry from the banjo-rolling Americana du jour, instead crafting tunes that would sound at home next to contemporaries like Hiss Golden Messenger and predecessors like Paul Simon.

In using footage from the Women’s March on Washington (and our hometown of Asheville) for our rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” our goal is to help speak truth to power, not for the sake of perpetuating our country’s present divisiveness, but as a way to support and encourage the need for an open, honest, and compassionate conversation about our universal rights and freedoms. We’re not asking everyone to agree, but to listen to one another. We promise to do the same.

River Whyless is named in spirit of its ongoing love affair with the natural world. Since its formation in 2009 the band has toured extensively, playing hundreds of shows from coast to coast and into Canada. Its debut album “A Stone, A Leaf, An Unfound Door” was recorded in the band’s home studio in Asheville, NC and released in March of 2012. Its sound has been described as folk-rock, nature-pop, and baroque-folk, but in the end the members of River Whyless hope only to lend craft to their passions.

LAND OF TALK – ” Loving “

Posted: April 16, 2017 in MUSIC
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Land of Talk is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2006 from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Land Of Talk came out of retirement at the end of 2015, and throughout the last year Liz Powell has been performing some new shows and has also recorded some new music, and today she’s announced a new album, her first full-length since 2010. It’s called Life After Youth and it’s due out on 19th May. Lead single “Inner Lover” sounds warped and contemplative, and even though it feels warm it projects a deeper chill. The rest of the album features some high-profile collaborators: She worked with Sharon Van Etten on a number of the tracks, and it was recorded producer John Agnello and former Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Roxy Music/Sparks bassist Sal Maida played on the album.

“Life After Youth”, the new album by Land of Talk, is available for pre-order now, out May 19th, 2017

TUNS – ” Mind Over Matter “

Posted: April 3, 2017 in MUSIC
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TUNS - Self Titled Album

Tuns is what it might sound like if The Beach Boys drank homebrew out of mason jars by the Atlantic oceanside. It’s Made up of a trio of Canadian indie-rock royalty: Chris Murphy of Sloan, Matt Murphy of the now defunct but forever beloved The Super Friendz and Mike O’Neill of The Inbreds.

Tuns may typify the Hali-pop/grunge sound that earned Halifax, Nova Scotia, high praise as Canada’s answer to Seattle in the 1990s, but it’s no nostalgia act. This band is fresh as an Atlantic breeze.

LYDIA AINSWORTH – ” Darling Of The Afterglow “

Posted: March 30, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Toronto-based artist, composer and producer Lydia Ainsworth writes orchestral pop songs that register as otherworldly yet personal. It’s a unique knack she has, “for making grand sweeping gestures feel human,” . To record Darling Of The Afterglow—the follow-up to her Juno-nominated 2014 debut—Ainsworth, who has a background in classical music and film scores, worked with a team of local Toronto musicians, fusing instrumentation with synthetic sound design. The album’s exploratory and emotional themes are informed by her studies of surrealist and philosophical works. These disparate elements all coalesce in music sophisticated, approachable, and glowing extraordinarily bright.

Afterglow is taken from Lydia Ainsworth’s new album ‘Darling Of The Afterglow’ out March 31st

The Road is taken from Lydia Ainsworth’s new album ‘Darling Of The Afterglow’ out March 31st.

As the clanging keyboard chords that open ‘The Road’ ring out like sinister church bells, it’s clear that Canadian composer and songwriter Lydia Ainsworth’s second album is going to be something very special indeed.

“Astral mirrors guide the fall /Let’s go on and on and on once more,” murmurs Ainsworth, oozing sensuality, strength and supernatural sass over dark, unctuous beats. There are hints of Bat For Lashes’ gloom and Chvrches’ wondrous way with a synth-driven melody here, but Ainsworth’s voice is indelibly her own. ‘Afterglow’ plugs into the same moody, mystical vibe, while lyrics about “the queen of angels” pitch this as a deeply female record.

ROSE COUSINS – ” Freedom “

Posted: March 3, 2017 in MUSIC
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Rose Cousins. Her previous full-length release, 2012's We Have Made a Spark, won a Juno Award for best roots/traditional solo recording.

Rose Cousins. Her previous full-length release, 2012’s We Have Made a Spark, won a Juno Award for best roots/traditional solo recording. Cousins’ wonderfully textured, emotionally nuanced fourth album, Natural Conclusion, “I feel like I have come up through my career in the folk genre; but I don’t think this record is folk, and I don’t think it’s not. It could be partly Americana; there are elements of pop ballady stuff in there. … I feel like a singer-songwriter.” Overseen by revered American recording artist and producer Joe Henry (whose credits range from Madonna to Ani DiFranco, Loudon Wainwright III, Meshell Ndegeocello and Bonnie Raitt), Natural Conclusion’s spare, intuitive instrumentation swirls around her earthy voice for an effect that is at once hazily atmospheric and strikingly intimate.

“My favourite songs are ones I can listen to lying flat on my back on the floor,” Cousins said. “I love being taken over by the experience of a song. Joe Henry has this beautiful esthetic. He cares deeply about poetry, melody and the artist. And we put together the most amazing band. I knew we picked the right characters to take these songs and make them what they were meant to be. All the space and all those floating musical notes — it’s like a dream for me. It’s the kind of music I love.”

The album was recorded live off the floor in Toronto, with a mixture of Henry’s people — engineer Ryan Freeland, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist David Piltch — and Cousins’ — pianist Aaron Davis (Holly Cole, Jany Siberry), guitarist Gord Tough (Kathleen Edwards, Sarah Harmer), pedal/lap steel player Asa Brosius (Anais Mitchell), bassist Zachariah Hickman (Josh Ritter, Ray Lamontagne) and violinist Kinley Dowling (Hey Rosetta!), with backup vocals by Jill Barber, Caroline Brooks (Good Lovelies) and Miranda Mulholland (Great Lake Swimmers).

Cousins knows about interpersonal dynamics, and she also knows about peace and quiet, having grown up as the second of five children on a seaside potato farm on Prince Edward Island.  She played volleyball and rugby in high school, keeping up with the former after moving to Halifax to study kinesiology at Dalhousie University. Music came early, and came later. She taught herself piano at a young age, but only came into her own as an artist after finishing her studies.

“It was a slow incubation,” she said. “I learned guitar while I was at school in Halifax. A few years later, I played my first open mic, and played covers and covers forever. The first time I played my own song on stage was maybe in 2001, and it just carried on from there. It’s been about 10 years that I’ve been doing it full time. It’s interesting to reflect back on.”

Winning a Juno doesn’t change you, but it feels good, she admitted. Cousins was handed her trophy during the non-televised portion of the 2013 awards. “It’s one of those things where I couldn’t even believe I got nominated, let alone that I would win,” she said. “It’s something that as a Canadian musician you might have in mind, maybe somewhere down the road, but it’s so cool that it happened with (my last album).

Rose Cousins performing “Freedom” from her new album NATURAL CONCLUSION out February 3rd, 2017

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