Max T – Palm Isle

June 2, 2017, 12:12 pm

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Montreal‘s Max Taeuschel, aka Max T, positively bursts onto the scene in his debut EP, and from the opening strains of “Wonderland” quickly introduces you into his bedroom pop smorgasbord that is Palm Isle.

Playing around with dense orchestration and carnivalesque motifs, from frantic celebrations to chilled-out meditations, the album bubbles and oozes with life. T’s mellifluous soundworld constructions feel like an uncommon thing these days, and we do miss it, especially when done this well. A joyous, deeply fun listen, and chock full of fascinating twists and turns, Palm Isle is a brilliant little pop record.

Palm Isle is available now from Bandcamp.

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Premiere: Best Fern – Covers EP

June 5, 2017, 8:29 am

≫ Next: Clairmont the Second – 44 Me

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Montreal duo Alexia Avina and Nick Schofield, aka Best Fern, have been stealthily cementing their rep as one of the best emerging ambient dream-pop acts in the country, and last year’s self-titled debut EP remains a frequent visitor in our tapedeck. Today we’re excited to premiere their latest, a four-song covers EP featuring classics by Jessy Lanza, Four Tet, Panda Bear, and Majical Cloudz.

These are no casual cover versions. Throughly and creatively reimagined all, it’s often a feat to behold, such as their condensing the Four Tet epic “Morning Side” into a stunning 4-minute ambient pop treasure. And we’ve already communicated our affection for their wonderfully airy take on Lanza’s “It Means I Love You”. Rounding out the collection is a heavenly rendition of Panda Bear’s “Comfy in Nautica” that might even be more reverbed-out than the original, followed by a delicate and harmony-laden take on Majical Cloudz’ “Bugs Don’t Buzz”. It’s a superb track selection, none of them easy or natural candidates for covers, and each taken to wondrous places by the Best Fern magic touch. We can’t wait for their next move, be it original or re-interpretation.

The Best Fern EP is available now from Bandcamp via Oh Hi Records. They’re playing several shows this month, with performances in Montreal on June 7 and at Suoni per il Popolo at June 17, as well as a June 22 appearance at Sled Island in Calgary.

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Clairmont the Second – 44 Me

June 7, 2017, 8:52 am

≫ Next: FET.NAT – Trust Cops™

≪ Previous: Premiere: Best Fern – Covers EP

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Clairmont the Second has been one of our favourite hip-hop prodigies for some time now, but he’s been hitting brand new heights lately and “44 Me”, a highlight from last year’s Quest for Milk and Honey, just might be his best yet. An ominous, darkly electronic hip-hop anthem, featuring ghostly piano, clattering hi-hats, and an extremely memorable hook, it gets its turn in the spotlight with a stunning new video. Directed in black-and-white by Clairmont himself, it follows the rapper through Toronto streets and is full of expertly chosen camera angles and disorienting perspective shifts.

Clairmont’s magisterial Quest for Milk and Honey is available now, PWYW from Bandcamp.

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FET.NAT – Trust Cops™

June 7, 2017, 10:59 am

≫ Next: Wolf Saga – Summer Breeze

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Trust Cops™ When All the Animals are Dead Yesu (feat. Fae and L-SPEX) Palm Isle G2 (Acadie Country) The Grass Is Greener Carnival Saturn Swallows The Sun FROM THE VALLEY OF THE DEAD TO THE VIGOROUS STRETCH Feel Like a Man

Hull post-punk provocateurs FET.NAT are back bearing a positively fierce new release with their new 12-inch Gaoler. A-side “Trust Cops™” is a frantic franglais collage that seems to combine a dozen tracks together, featuring a rapid-fire bass, skronky sax, occasional noise explosions, and, somehow beneath it all, the deepest of unconventional grooves. Pretty damn impressive!

Gaoler is available now on vinyl (and as a PWYW download) from Boiled Records via Bandcamp. They’re on tour this summer too, check Bandcamp for details.

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Wolf Saga – Summer Breeze

June 8, 2017, 10:20 am

≫ Next: Gabe Knox – Esperanto

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Summer Breeze Falling Palm Isle Ballad 5 Let's Ride Yesu (feat. Fae and L-SPEX) Heater Zone (Prod. by AODAN) G2 (Acadie Country)

We’re so glad to have more Wolf Saga to soundtrack our summer! Epic instrumental “When the Storm has Passed” is still rattling our souls, and now we’ve got “Summer Breeze”, a slow but massive synth-pop anthem, to join it. A wonderfully psychedelic, sample-filled that literally shouts for joy, it’s tailor-made for lazy summer cycling or park hangs.

“Summer Breeze” is available PWYW from Bandcamp. And if you’re in Toronto, catch Wolf Saga at Luminato on June 21.

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Gabe Knox – Esperanto

June 9, 2017, 9:09 am

≫ Next: Premiere: Wake Island – Pleasure (Essaie Pas Remix)

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Esperanto The Grass Is Greener G2 (Acadie Country) To Be Fair Further and Further Talking About Her Ballad 5 Zone (Prod. by AODAN) Palm Isle Trust Cops™

Gabe Knox‘s solo work might be new to our ears but his synth contributions to Toronto minimal synth stalwarts Coarse Language are well-beloved by us, and so it’s no surprise we’re deeply into Knox’s second solo EP B, released a few weeks ago. One highlight among many on this collection of gloriously minimal instrumental synth-pop tracks is “Esperanto”, a blippy sequenced treat that sounds like a crystal-clear interstellar transmission from the past, a manufactured lost treasure. This one’s for the synth heads! (That’s all of us, right?)

B is available now, PWYW from Bandcamp.

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Premiere: Wake Island – Pleasure (Essaie Pas Remix)

June 12, 2017, 7:13 am

≫ Next: Premiere: New Tendencies – Monday 1

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Montreal’s Philippe Manasseh and Nadim Maghzal, aka Wake Island, have been turning heads lately with their terrific, darkly electronic new EP Sentimental Animals, which dropped back in April. It may be only three tracks long, but it’s an indispensable listen, seeing the band at their hardest-hitting, most-purely-electronic form to date. And today, we’re excited to premiere a remix of the EP’s closer “Pleasure”, produced by none other than Pierre Guerineau of Essaie Pas (who put out our #2 album of last year).

Guerineau takes the pulsing, paranoid experimentalism of the original and transmutes it into a cold-as-ice minimal synth track, featuring a simple but unrelenting drum pattern, with carefully-placed vocal shouts and ghostly synths weaving in and out of the mix. The tension is meticulously maintained, until finally, a beautifully-delayed, appropriately-massive sequenced synth arrives to take us home. A subtle, stunning creation!

Sentimental Animals is available now, PWYW from Bandcamp. If you’re in Montreal or Toronto, be sure to catch Wake Island this summer. They’re supporting !!! this Tuesday at Bar le Ritz P.D.B. in Montreal, and playing the Yalla Barra Stage at Toronto Pride on June 23, with a couple more Montreal dates at their Bandcamp.

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Premiere: New Tendencies – Monday 1

June 12, 2017, 10:03 am

≫ Next: L CON – Form of Space

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Matt Nish-Lapidus has performed under a few names over the years, including emenel and mn-l, and is also a member of Toronto post-punk provocateurs Several Futures. But his latest incarnation New Tendencies is beginning to kick into high gear with the release of his first album, Missed Month, due later this summer, and we’re proud to premiere of one of the pieces from the record, “Monday 1”.

Slightly confounding, with a beat always threatening to begin but never doing so, it’s a whorl of deep bass pulses, sequenced bleeps, and strange squelches. A tense listen perhaps, but once you relax into it and forget about searching for resolution, it’s a composition that rests comfortably in the perpetual soft chaos of anticipation. And an intriguing glimpse of what’s to come on that full-length!

Missed Month is out July 7th on Forking Paths Records. And if you’re in Toronto, New Tendencies will be performing this Sunday at Handlebar with Heraclitus Akimbo and Bachelard.

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L CON – Form of Space

June 21, 2017, 9:24 am

≫ Next: Kashka – Holding Steady

≪ Previous: Premiere: New Tendencies – Monday 1

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L CON‘s magnificent 2016 record Moon Milk hasn’t lost one iota of its avant-charm since last fall, and we’re seriously enjoying this 2017 run of videos for its finest singles. Last month we shared the stop-motion muppetry of “How Much Shall We Bet?” and now we’ve got quite the visual accompaniment for “Form of Space”. It’s cool to discover that the song is based on a story from Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics, and Victoria Long has directed a loose interpretation of it, bookended by an astronaut’s discovery of a mysterious videotape. Featuring brilliant costumes and visual effects, and lots of excellent, unusual chroeography in a massive warehouse, it’s a terribly impressive video, and a more-than-worthy accompiment to one of favourite songs in recent years. Keep ’em coming, L CON!

Moon Milk is available now on vinyl and digitally from Bandcamp via Wildlife Sanctuary Sound Recordings.

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Kashka – Holding Steady

June 23, 2017, 10:20 am

≫ Next: Premiere: Silver Pools – Farmhouse

≪ Previous: L CON – Form of Space

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Holding Steady Carnival Liar Into The Blue Talking About Her Falling Summer Breeze Esperanto Palm Isle Ballad 5

Toronto electronic indie pop proliferator Kat Burns aka Kashka is much beloved around here, and we’ve been eagerly antcipating her third record Relax, her first full-length since 2013’s excellent Bound. Seeing her venture into even more electronic places, she’s joined on the record by Lisa Conway (aka L CON) and Andrew Collins, who also co-produce. One of the clear highlights is “Holding Steady”, a darkly beautiful anthem about self-care and overcoming adversity, featuring some utterly glorious harmonies and a brilliant constantly chugging bass synth. Let this one carry you today.

Relax is available now from Bandcamp.

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Premiere: Silver Pools – Farmhouse

June 26, 2017, 8:04 am

≫ Next: Joseph Shabason – Aytche

≪ Previous: Kashka – Holding Steady

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We’ve been fascinated by Toronto dream pop explorer Todd Macdonald aka Silver Pools before, and we’re very excited to premiere his newest single “Farmhouse”, half of a two-track 10″ coming out this Friday, and the artist’s first new work since his highly memorable debut full-length of last year, Memoirs of an Oblong Sphere.

“Farmhouse” sees Macdonald heading in a more electronic direction with the help of a few comrades, and is joined on this song by Dustin Good on modular synth, with minimal techno producers Matt and Mark Thibideau co-producing the track. A dark and contemplative listen, it’s a spacious electro-ballad thats full of details and beautiful reverb tails. A lovely, weightless song that seems to float in zero gravity, but it’s not without a heavy heart.

The Bleach Cloud/Farmhouse 10-inch is available for ore-order now, digitally or on vinyl, from Bandcamp. And if you’re in Toronto, catch Silver Pools for the release show at Burdock this Friday, and he also has some summer European tour dates, listed at Bandcamp.

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Joseph Shabason – Aytche

June 28, 2017, 7:22 am

≫ Next: Best Songs of June 2017

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Aytche Esperanto The Grass Is Greener Ballad 5 Aventuras Carnival Liar FROM THE VALLEY OF THE DEAD TO THE VIGOROUS STRETCH Talking About Her Alone

Here’s something lovely and unexpected: Joseph Shabason, one of the members of Toronto reigning soft-pop monarchs Diana, is putting out a solo record! Aytche is coming out at the end of summer, but the title track is already with us, and it’s a stunning, meditative listen. Featuring muted trumpet over the most wondrous burbling synths, it’s a subtly fascinating composition that’s worthy of the ambient greats. Can’t wait for the whole album!

Aytche is out August 25, and is available now for pre-order from Western Vinyl.

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Best Songs of June 2017

July 3, 2017, 10:59 am

≫ Next: Orlando Gloom – Sports Men

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Ballad 5 Falling Summer Breeze BB Holding Steady Aventuras Aytche ether Trust Cops™ When All the Animals are Dead Esperanto

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Orlando Gloom – Sports Men

July 7, 2017, 10:21 am

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Sports Men Holding Steady Esperanto Falling Summer Breeze Ballad 5 BB Let's Ride Palm Isle The Grass Is Greener

Long-time readers know well our adoration for Winnipeg sly bedroom popster Dave Shaw aka Orlando Gloom, and today our ears are glued to this infectious Haruomi Hasono cover. “Sports Men” is a delicate, full-of-heart synthpop ballad that is a simple, delightfully sincere concoction, and we’ve already listened to it ten times today.

And our summer tapedeck just gets better with word of a new tape coming from OG! David in the Void is out August 19 and we can’t wait to wear it out. In the meantime, there’s the back catalogue.

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Premiere: p0st3rb0y – Despise (New Silence)

July 12, 2017, 10:20 am

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Kenton Smith aka p0st3rb0y has long been an essential denizen of the Toronto underground, rocking countless stages (well, floors) with his brilliantly chaotic electronic noise-pop from a dark future. And he’s set to release a new EP, his first since 2014. Get Fucked is out August 2 on cassette on Heretical Objects, and we’re honoured to premiere the video for “Despise (New Silence)”.

Directed by David Waldman with animations by Paloma Dawkins, the intimate black-and-white video captures Smith in a windowless room surrounded by musical equipment. Full of close-ups and animated tears, it pairs well with the emotional, cathartic energy of the song, which lurches unpredictably from menacingly anticipatory bass synths to explosive in-the-red noise choruses. All in all, it’s a stunning track, and one of the year’s hardest-hitting.

Get Fucked is available now for pre-order from Bandcamp. And if you’re in Toronto, be sure to check out the Get Fucked release show, which we’re co-presenting with Heretical Objects on August 10 at the Smiling Buddha, where p0st3rb0y will be joined by Silent Shout faves Lee Paradise, The Marquis, and Johnny.

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