Thirteen Exquisite Corpses | DOminiONATED November 2019
My heart crushed when I learned that Jakob Rehlinger, the guiding force and main “weirdo” behind Arachnidiscs Recordings, was closing down the micro-label after a twenty-year run. In my time writing about music, Arachnidiscs has consistently blown my mind (and maybe a few speakers, too) with utterly unclassifiable music that would otherwise likely never find a home or audience. From Rehlinger's own work under the BABEL moniker to the psycho-disco sounds of Semen Priest to the gothic blues of Reverend Moon, Arachnidiscs' catalogue is peppered with one-of-a-kind albums that Rehlinger often assembled by hand for customers.
In a piece written for Toronto's NOW Magazine last month, Rehlinger lists streaming platforms and the rise of Bandcamp as the cause of his label's demise: “...a band doesn’t need a record label to put out their album, because an album doesn’t need to be a record. It can exist completely virtually as a download... Physical records themselves are a sort of affectation left over from the old model.” He's right, sadly. No matter how many times some arts and culture writer pens a “vinyl is back, baby!” article, the creation and consumption of music has moved off the physical plane and into our online virtual world.
While he ends his piece by saying that he happily admits the world “can now get by without Arachnidiscs Recordings,” I'd argue that the musical landscape could use more people like Jakob Rehlinger: radicals who devote an inordinate amount of time and energy in the pursuit of the art that provokes conversation, pokes holes in popular culture. It likely won't be in the form of a record label, but some time soon, someone is going to find a way to give a voice and platform to the “weirdos making music for weirdos”.
To Jakob Rehlinger and everyone ever associated with Arachnidiscs, thanks for “twenty years of weirds, queers, and existential fears.”
Jim Di Gioia
Vienna, Getting Around To It (Montréal, QC)
This eleven-track instrumental jazz/hip-hop creation clocks in just under twenty minutes. Vienna’s beats and compositions may not grow to be the most sizeable of trees, but the seeds planted into each brief groove exemplify the term “quality over quantity”.
Michael Beda | RIYL Saxsyndrum | Have you also heard? Shahdeaux
Artemisia, Sweet Touch (Montréal, QC)
To open her sophomore EP Sweet Touch, Sara Shields-Rivard (Artemisia) quietly sings: "I don't want to be alone but I would be alone with you." The rest of the EP finds Shields-Rivard continuing to navigate the push and pull of romance all while wading through soft pop and r&B infused sounds. In all, Sweet Touch makes for a sensual listen.
Laura Stanley | RIYL Charlotte Cardin | Have you also heard? Sylo Nozra
Bird Parade, From the Basement (Vancouver, BC)
Bird Parade’s debut EP is a return to the Vancouver music scene for Francis Baptiste after a lengthy hiatus. This five-track release contains sparkling synths and rhythmic guitar sections, though the vocals took some time to get used to.
Michael Beda | RIYL Glass Tiger | Have you also heard? Nico Paulo
French Class, EP (Winnipeg, MB)
The debut EP from French Class (the solo electronic project by Winnipeg's Megumi Kimata) is nothing like a boring high school french class. Kimata crafts snippets of playful, sometimes chaotic, electronic bops that throb, crunch, and squeal and doesn't assign any homework.
Laura Stanley | RIYL Castle If | Have you also heard? Matthew Bailey
Merin, Coral Island (Winnipeg, MB)
Merin's recent EP Coral Island is like slipping into a dream. But not the blissfully soft kind that a lot of dream-pop bands will pull you into. Merin, who describe themselves as a "melancholy power pop quartet," make dreams whose colours have been warped by sunlight and have an undercurrent of anxiety; "Sometimes when I'm asleep, it feels like I'm falling," Cole Neusteaeder sings on "Mystic Dream Reader." But even so, Coral Island is a dream world that you will want to return to again and again. Plus the EP has some nice shout-outs to Neko Case and the late, great David Berman.
Laura Stanley | RIYL Shotgun Jimmie | Have you also heard? Mulligrub
- Soft Thoughts, Soft Thoughts (ARACHNIDISC RECORDINGS) (Toronto, ON)
- Science is Fiction, Don't Everybody Thank Me At Once (Calgary, AB)
- Trace Italian, Down in the Weeds (Edmonton, AB)
- Mimico, Hi-Action (Toronto, ON)
▶︎▶︎ SONGS
“New Tide” by Toui Manikhouth (Hamilton, ON)
If you are in need of a new addition to your soft-spoken folk playlist, a song that will fit next to Iron & Wine's or Gregory Alan Isakov's respective discographies, look no further than "New Tide" by Hamilton singer-songwriter Toui Manikhouth.
Laura Stanley | RIYL Donovan Woods | Have you also heard? Scott Orr
“Ivory” by Dylan Menzie (Charlottetown, PE)
I personally think the phrase “rock-tinged” needs to be stricken from all music writing, but I'll give PEI singer-songwriter Dylan Menzie a pass as he's got the chops to make the kind of catchy, hooked-laden pop that sticks to your synapses long after the song is done.
Jim Di Gioia | RIYL Tegan and Sara | Have you also heard? Micah Erenberg
“Sacred Cow” by The Ferns (Hamilton, ON)
With "Sacred Cow," Hamilton band The Ferns continue their streak of making delicious jangly pop-rock that would probably be best heard live at a house show in somebody's basement.
Laura Stanley | RIYL Mauno | Have you also heard? Nutrients
“Culture Bomb” by Funeral Lakes (Toronto, ON)
“Culture Bomb” would have been quite the hit if it was composed during the late 1960s. Many folks during the original Woodstock festival would have been enthralled, given that the tune is environmentally friendly, written by a romantically-linked couple, and urges for peace and love.
Michael Beda | RIYL Brazda Brothers | Have you also heard? Tripper and the Wild Things
- “Fall (Despite What You Do)” by The Wilderness (Kingston, ON)
- “Whatever You Do Kid” by Once A Tree (Toronto, ON)
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