Lina Tullgren has reunited with their first instrument, the violin. While featured in fleeting moments on Free Cell, Tullgren instead recasts their fate with the instrument in the form of veracious improvisations. It imparts a new language of sound, moving through the few crystalline zones with a tenderness and curiosity.
With half of its four tracks being remixes from 2019’s De Facto — and the other two sounding like they actually were on it — Lorelle Meets The Obsolete’s Re-Facto, released in 2020, was intended as a companion piece EP to the former. The previously unreleased songs drive home the point that they are independent sisters who are even better together.
Shortly after the release of Emphatically No., the ear catching power-pop filled and extremely quotable second full length from Cheekface, the band sat down for a chat via Zoom. They discussed life, methods of distraction/survival during a national pandemic, achievements and joy in music, and what venues might look like going forward.
I Had Everybody Snowed is a celebration for Skylar Sarkis, the songwriter behind the project Growing Stone. Its release date, November 30th of 2020, marked three years of sobriety for the musician. The seven year journey of conception to completion shows ten separate scenes, letting the listener come to their own conclusion.
Baltimore duo Caution are getting ready to release their self-titled sophomore EP. Due out this coming Friday, February 19th, via the great Born Yesterday Records (Moontype, Dummy, Stuck), the pair have created an album that is pop at its core, but buzzing with fuzz, noise, and psychedelic shoegaze swells.
On All Fours, from London based Goat Girl, dials up the danceable grooves under the floating psychedelic flourishes that were ever present on the previous recordings. There is a more pronounced musicality on display here with flowing rhythm and elastic bass providing a more fluid base for a new form of musical exploration.
Stay Gone, a record the band describes as five years in the making, sees the band leveling up, finally giving their songs the treatment they deserve. Everything is at the exact right levels. The guitars are huge and the vocals sound clear, but it doesn’t come at the expense of the drums, the instrument that is the driving force for the band.
Last year’s Yalc Nitsua Mailliw found Yalc123 taking on a new approach to songwriting. By writing melodies first, followed by lyrics, then chord progressions, they worked from top to bottom, essentially working “in reverse.” We were able to catch up with Yalc over Zoom about their creative process, musical inspiration, Texas and more.
Titled Somewhere, the album’s lyrics form the “somewhere,” produced by the emotional gravity marked by important places in a person’s life. The album gives off the distinct feeling of being on a journey, not simply changing of locations but being in transit due to the ever-quickening passage of time.
After six years without an album, German 'indietronica' band The Notwist return with Vertigo Days, their best effort since Neon Golden. Allowing their influences of krautrock bands such as Can or indie pop groups such as Stereolab to shine through, the band is able to make something very special here.
With over fifteen years spent playing together, three EPs, and a handful of singles and splits, the trio is set to release their debut full length, They Birds, via Controlled Burn Records. The album could only have been recorded at Electrical Audio and mastered by Bob Weston, because after all we are talking Chicago post-hardcore here.
The album that this EP accompanies was one of 2020’s most unexpected successes, a collaboration between differing shades of alternative metal that dovetailed excellently. The unique match-up between Rundle and Thou was so strong that the best compliment that could be paid to The Helm of Sorrow is that it’s able to stand on its own.
Zany and true to form, Palberta5000 connotes a souped up version of what makes Palberta, Palberta and that’s what they deliver, no loss for stripes. Plucking elements from girl groups, 80s twee, no wave, basement DIY, and beyond, the band take their keyed up, frenetic style and elasticize it into buoyant, taut, fully fledged pop songs.
It took a global pandemic to get Blessed to stop touring. The road heavy experimental quartet may not be playing shows, but they’re still busy sharpening their ever changing craft. Set to release III on February 19th via Flemish Eye, the band’s latest continues to prove why they are one of Canada’s most exciting bands.
