▶︎▶︎ LPS / EPS

Brunch Club, Another Wasted Summer (Edmonton AB)
We are at that point in winter where it feels like the cold will never dissipate. Will the sun ever shine again? Will the flowers bloom? What does fresh produce even taste like? Another Wasted Summer from Edmonton trio Brunch Club is a stopgap until the warmer weather eventually (hopefully) returns. Across their eight jangly pop-punk tunes, Brunch Club reminds us how good it feels to do nothing but lie in the sun, to ride your bike, hang with pals, and hell, despite the acidic taste of heartbreak left in the mouths of Brunch Club, they even remind us how exciting having a crush can be.
Laura Stanley | RIYL The Courtneys | Have you also heard? Triples

Matthew Cardinal, Music from Digging in the Dirt (amiskwaciy [Edmonton AB])
On Music from Digging in the Dirt by nehiyawak's Matthew Cardinal, synths sigh deeply as if channelling the earth's exasperated groans. This striking collection of ambient pieces — the soundtrack for Digging in the Dirt, a film Omar Mouallem and Dylan Rhys Howard about the mental health struggles of Alberta's oil and gas workers — mixes clanking industrial noises with wraiths of sounds. A solemn weight is present, but hopefulness is here too, like within the careful notes of "It's Not Weak to Ask for Help" and the twinkling sunlight of "Process."
Music from Digging in the Dirt is available on Matthew Cardinal's Bandcamp page, and you can watch Digging in the Dirt via CBC Gem.
Laura Stanley

Liu Chang, Born Ravey (Toronto ON)
Born Ravey is an EP that proves that sometimes, walking a well-trodden path is never a bad call. Syncopated UGK-style percussion, pulsing synths, and tasteful vocal atmospherics coalesce into 23 minutes of highly-enjoyable, if not highly-familiar, house music.
Geoff Parent

Michael Davidson & Dan Fortin, Clock Radio (Toronto ON)
This review is approximately a year late in part because this semi-improvised jazz record deserved more attentive criticism than I was able to offer at the time. The general public should be in the dark no more! Both Michael Davidson (vibraphone) and Dan Fortin (double bass) are incredibly prolific performers, and they show a rare ability to listen and react in the midst of incredible solo virtuosity, creating music that evokes the contrapuntal complexity of Bach and seemingly wild abandon of Cecil Taylor while remaining intimate due to its sparse instrumentation. Fans of Bernice and the Queer Songbook Orchestra should check this record out if only to hear the vast range of Dan Fortin in his other project(s).
Jon Neher | RIYL Bernice | Have you also heard? Yves Jarvis

FRAIL HANDS, parted/departed/apart (Halifax NS)
parted/departed/apart by Halifax-based rippers FRAIL HANDS is a better spent twenty minutes than that run you were planning on going on in regards to catharsis, endorphins and sweating. It's a workout, but the twisting, turning guitars, the dizzying drumming and visceral vocals will leave you feeling refreshed and ready to take on whatever sick dark world awaits you today.
Mac Cameron

New Chance, Hardly Working (Toronto ON)
New Hands' latest offering, Hardly Working, features heady, working-class dance music perfect for opening up your mind or shutting it down to move to the grooves. May your next union feature a mandated dance party.
Mac Cameron

nomazii, Beauty of Unkempt Places (Yellowknife NT)
Yellowknife-based duo nomazii released a solid collection of ambient post-classical compositions in late 2019 that deserves your time and attention. Beauty of Unkempt Places is a finely rendered set of subtle melodies and moods. Their mix of synths, strings, and field recordings is immersive, hypnotic, and beguiling.
Jim Di Gioia | RIYL Justin Wright | Have you also heard? Merganzer

Politess, The Sound of Crowdfunding (Montréal QC)
A wildly musical hardcore album, The Sound of Crowdfunding from Montreal's Politess, is a complicated collision of sound and style. They swing from wild abandon to minimalist control across these six songs like a band hell-bent on carving their own path through a genre crowded and congested with hacks and has-beens.
Jim Di Gioia

Pursuit Grooves, Bess (Toronto ON)
On Pursuit Grooves' (Vanese Smith) latest collection of electronic/house/soul/r&b melded tracks, she pays tribute to the first Black American female pilot, Bessie Coleman. With melodies that rise and fall and a collision of mechanical clicks and airy synths, the sounds of Bess mirror the incredible aerobatic maneuvers that Coleman was known for. Buckle up.
Laura Stanley

Andy Shauf, The Neon Skyline (Regina SK)
Yes, yes, Andy Shauf is a great songwriter. His detailed, narratively rich character sketches are certainly remarkable, perhaps more than ever on his third album, The Neon Skyline. But it's his musical arrangements and immaculate production that makes Shauf's work stand out. These are some of the best sounding recordings you'll hear this, or any, year. Lush, consistent and perfectly mixed, on The Neon Skyline Shauf weaves a great tale, but more importantly, the world he creates around his words is what keeps you wanting to hear the story over and over again.
Mac Cameron

Spookyfish, Footsteps (Toronto ON)
With delicate acoustic guitar, wooshing organic textures, and droning organs, SpookyFish's album Footsteps occupies unique space in the ambient and electronic music genres. Without a tempo-setting kick yelling "DANCE" or a felt piano and orchestra quietly insisting "this is contemplative" a listener might not be sure what to do. My first instinct was close to my eyes and draw shapes with my mind's eye - many slowly unfolding orange and green zigzags on purple and blue clouds. Spooky.
Jon Neher | RIYL CFCF | Have you also heard? Jonas Bonnetta

Wolf Parade, Thin Mind (Vancouver BC / Montréal QC)
There's a thin line between being a slave to technology and being saved by it, and at many points on their fifth full-length, Thin Mind, Wolf Parade sounds like they're pogoing back and forth across either side of the divide. The formula (if a Wolf Parade record could ever be distilled down to one) is familiar: vocalists Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug tag-team on vocals while drummer Arlen Thompson keeps punk-pop time on songs that skirt the fringes of 80s synth-based pop and 90s indie-guitar rock. Now back to a lean, mean, three-piece, Wolf Parade 2020 sounds very much like they did in the early 200s: a band on the cusp of a very bright future.
Jim Di Gioia | RIYL Hollerado | Have you also heard? Corridor​

• Jordan Hughes, The Preacher (Vancouver BC)
• Local Talent, Higienópolis (Toronto ON)
• Ivan Rivers, The Fallen Ivan Rivers (Guelph ON)
• Heather Valley, Desert Message (Hamilton ON)
• Raphael Weinroth-Browne, Worlds Within (Ottawa ON)

▶︎▶︎ SONGS

“Faithless (Scarlet Shine)” by Artifiseer (Saint John NB)
“Faithless (Scarlet Shine)” is a glitchy, glimmering tone poem from Artifiseer, the solo project of producer/singer-songwriter Ian Livingstone. It's a little bit digital, a little bit droney, and very atmospheric and textured. Livingstone's pop sensibilities lie in the melody floating just below the song's synth-based surface, but it's his voice — haunting, hollow, and wounded — that grounds the track and gives it its humanity.
Jim Di Gioia

“White Walls” by Wut (Vancouver BC)
The simplest of lyrics becomes the most scathing of indictments on the sterility and steady decline of community on “White Walls”, an otherwise fuzzy, snappy tune from Vancouver three-piece, Wut. The song is the first hint of what's to come on NOW, Wut's Valentine of a debut, set to drop on February 14.
Jim Di Gioia
​

• “Expanding” by BisonBison (Toronto ON)
• “Fallen” by Cheshire Carr (Montréal QC)
• “Joy” by Scott Hardware (Toronto ON)
• “Alice” by Tianda (Edmonton AB)
• “Waiting Here” by Tough Age (Toronto ON)

 

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