Your call will be answered by the next available agent | DOminiONATED August 2020
🔥AMC Gremlin, Heavy Dust (Guelph ON)
AMC Gremlin's Heavy Dust was released in May 2020 but was performed, recorded, and mixed over the course of three years. The broad timeline of the record's creation helps explain the variety of styles and influences I hear when listening, but also makes it pretty impressive how cohesive the record feels while swinging wildly from moody secret-agent crooning to modular synth freak-outs.
The records Heavy Dust remind me most of are an oeuvre we don't see much of anymore — experienced professionals exploring everything a synth came do for the first time. Sure Heavy Dust isn't as unhinged from traditional timbres as The Legend of Johnny Pot by Dick Hyman (yes, really) but the eclectic electrics of AMC Gremlin have a unique sound that harkens back to an era when we hadn't codified what synths were “supposed” to sound like. Tying together retro-experimentalism with mid-century songwriting flourishes, Heavy Dust is an album pushing forward with an eye in the rear-view mirror.
Jon Neher
🔥“Your Call” by swlrnnr (Toronto ON)
“Your Call”, the debut single from Toronto producer slwrnnr, begins with a familiar voice, especially for anyone who has needed help with any government services over the past several months: “Your call will be answered by the next available agent,” she tells us without empathy or malice. A harmless bit of muzak whines underneath the disembodied voice, until slwrnnr lights a match.
Born out of a call to Service Canada and the subsequent two hours of being placed on hold, “Your Call” captures this moment of societal buffering with charm and a chuckle, spinning an at best boring and at worst excruciating experience into a hook-filled house/trap hybrid. The joy he manages to extract out of this relatable bit of modernity is a wonder. How many people could hear that endless elevator riff and determine exactly what it needs is more cowbell and a trap breakdown worthy of any of the genre’s biggest hitmakers? Who could say! But, this moment of inspiration captured so explosively is an infectious preview of what slwrnnr is capable of.
Mac Cameron
▶︎▶︎ LPS / EPS
Castle If, Beyond (Toronto ON)
Electronic composer Jess Forrest aka Castle If has an incredible knack of crafting songs that could soundtrack the movie version of a cult classic sci-fi book. On her latest EP Beyond, Forrest describes each of the three tracks herself, utilizing the excellent descriptor “spooky upbeat space anthem” on the standout song “Leap Year”. Slip into your best futuristic duds and get grooving.
Laura Stanley
Hate It Too, Lampshading (Québec QC)
There are certain luxuries that have gradually crept back into society as we enter a new phase of combating COVID-19. One thing that I'm looking forward to is access to the gym (as I'm not fortunate enough to squeeze dumbbells or machines into my tiny apartment). There's nothing better than an alternative-metal, thickly distorted fast-tempo record to help push me through the pain and soreness of a rigorous workout. Hate It Too's sophomore LP, Lampshading serves this need. It makes me want to go absolutely bananas, burning calories and finding that surge of adrenaline in a sweaty fury of ecstasy. The Quebec City four-piece's “Cold Call” makes me want to take an ice-cold shower afterwards, though the back half of the record beckons me to trounce about the gym once again.
Michael Beda
Lil Omar, Toddler Country (Fredericton NB)
If you share my feelings about children, Toddler Country sounds like a hellish place full of high-decibel shrieks and permanently sticky hands - definitely not a place you'd want to visit. But Lil Omar's (Oscar Tecu) Toddler Country is a paradise compared to the place I imagined. The album's ten tracks are a breezy mix of slacker-pop, instrumental interludes, tender folk songs, and bossa nova inspired numbers. It's a beautiful melange of sounds and nary a tantrum is thrown.
Laura Stanley
M.I.Blue, ORNG (Toronto ON)
ORNG — one of two recent releases from Toronto's M.I.Blue — is the ideal soundtrack for a heat alert. M.I.Blue's R&B/house/soul songs are dense with textured sonic layers and move at a deliciously pleasant pace. Making-out (in post-COVID times) while “SUNLIGHT” plays would probably be Very Nice.
Laura Stanley
Proper Concern, Proper Concern (Fredericton NB)
Perhaps it's an effect of being a third of a year into the COVID-19 pandemic already, but this deeply strange new album from Proper Concern scratches a heretofore unseen itch. To classify this in any coherent way is impossible: there are echoes of folk, electronica, hip-hop, and unabashed experimentation rolled into one. The songs feel like they were put into a blender multiple times, like the strangely soulful “Endor City Council Meeting 1955” or the ever-shifting “Ghetto Blaster”, which in the course of four minutes changes from industrial to warped pop-rock. By the time “The Environment” rolls around, all semblance of structure has gone out the window, mirroring the way our own minds are slowly melting as “the new normal” never feels quite normal. Safe to say there is nothing quite like this album out there.
Michael Thomas
▶︎▶︎ SONGS
“Hangin 10” by The Almighty Rhombus (Sudbury ON)
As we surf the crest of summer, the protracted days carry with them a timeless feeling of infinite potential. A feeling which is perfectly captured on “Hangin 10”, the latest single from Sudbury, Ontario's The Almighty Rhombus. It's a punchy, garage-pop anthem, packed with potent hooks and blissful harmonies. All combining to give “Hangin 10” endless replay value, which is perfect, because, much like summer, it is over before you know it.
Scott Gubb
“Lanark County” by Decoration Day (Toronto ON)
My family's cottage lies just west of the perimeter that Google defines as Lanark County but even so, I've grown familiar with this part of eastern Ontario. There's a quiet beauty about it but an unsettling air of mystery is also present — you never really know what sits at the end of those long dirt roads off of Highway 7. Fittingly, Decoration Day's “Lanark County” is a quiet beauty with an undercurrent of nervousness. With Justin Orok at the helm, the Toronto-based five-piece conjure a gorgeous chamber-folk composition that feels both soothing and spooky.
Laura Stanley
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