Tag: Ottawa ON

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ottawa’s Antigen Shift Shares a New Banger

Ottawa-based industrial/post-industrial/noise synth duo Antigen Shift — Nicholas Theriault and Jarius Khan — formed over a decade ago. And over the course of five albums, three EPs and a handful of remixes and compilation appearances, the Ottawa-based duo’s sound has evolved. “We started as a straight-up industrial power noise project, but evolved into a more diverse, complex post-industrial project,” Antigen Shifts Nicholas Theriault explains.

The Canadian duo’s latest single “Sugar and Stamps” is a accessible industrial banger featuring layers upon layers of buzzing and scorching synths, thumping beats and walls of industrial clang and clatter that sonically brings Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Fat of the Land-era The Prodigy to mind.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Acclaimed Canadian Duo Twin Flames Release a Slickly Produced and Empathetic Single

Twin Flames is a highly celebrated Ottawa-based husband and wife duo featuring:

Chelsey June, an Ottawa-born singer/songwriter, who is a part of the Mètis, a multi-ancestral indigenous group who can trace their descent from both indigenous North Americans and European settlers and can claim Algonquin Cree ancestors.

Jaaji, a Nunavik-born singer/songwriter who’s part Inuk and Mohawk.

The individual members of Twin Flames have had their own respective critically applauded, multi-award winning and nominated careers when they met, decided to work together, and fell in love during the filming of APTN’s Talent Autochrones Musical (TAM). Since the pair joined together personally and professionally, they’ve had an enviable run of success as a result of work l that meshes the contemporary and traditional with lyrics sung in Inuttitut, English and French:

They’ve been nominated for 25 awards, including two Canadian Folk Music Awards wins and three Native Music Award wins.
They’ve had two #1 hits on the Indigenous Music Countdown’s Top 40.
They’ve played 1000+ shows across Canada, the States, Australia and France
They were selected as artist-in-residence for last year’s Folk Alliance International conference.
The Canadian duo partnered with UNESCO to write the official song celebrating the International Year of Indigenous Languages.
“Human” was chosen as part of last year’s CBC’s Music Class Challenge.
The music video for “Broke Down’Ski’Tuuq was the first Inuttitut language video to be featured on Canadian music channel MuchMusic.

The indigenous duo’s third album OMEN is reportedly a sonic departure from their previously released material — with the album finding the duo’s sound incorporating edgier elements of alt pop, and indie rock as the duo explain in press notes is “concept-based around a dystopian reality, global warming, and humankind free of social classes, mental health, and addictions.”

OMEN’s first single, “Battlefields” is a perfect example of what listeners should expect from the album: shimmering and glistening synth arpeggios, big thumping beats, a rousingly anthemic hook, some indie rock-styled guitar lines and the duo’s plaintive boy-girl harmonies singing lyrics in English and Inuttitut. The end result is a slick, radio friendly and accessible pop anthem. But underneath the slick polish, the song possesses a gentle yet urgent plea to the listener — especially those within the Indigenous community — to seek help if they’re struggling. True strength is when you acknowledge you need help, that you can’t face it all alone. Along with that, there’s the tacit understanding that everyone struggles with their mental health at some point; being a caring, kind and thought personal in a morally bankrupt and nonsensical world is difficult as it is.

“Mental health is a battle that many people face in silence,” Twin Flames’ Chelsey June says. ““This song speaks to the stigma associated with it.” Jaaji adds, “In the Arctic of Canada, Inuit People face the highest amount of suicides in the world. ‘Battlefields’ is a song to remind our people we have to fight our own minds to survive, we are fighters, and together, we can feel less alone and win this battle.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Peel Dream Magazine Releases a Trippy Anachronistic Bit of Dreamy Psych

Joe Stevens is a New York-based singer/songwriter and musician and the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed psych rock project Peel Dream Magazine. Deriving its name from the legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, one of England’s preeminent tastemakers, the band’s name is meant to evoke a certain strain of independent music. “I wanted to create an outlet for subcultural wanderers. Something you can subscribe to,” Stevens explains. 

Earlier this year, the New York-based psych pop act released their critically applauded sophomore album Agitprop Alterna, an album which draws from a wide set of post-punk, shoegaze and indie pop influences while possessing a self-assured and unique sound. Building upon the attention and momentum they’ve earned earlier this year, Peel Dream Magazine recently released the Moral Panics EP, a companion effort that features previously unreleased songs from the Agitprop Alterna sessions. Far from outtakes, the EP’s material are songs that can stand on their own — while functioning as a sort of corollary to their sophomore effort. 

The EP’s title is derived from Stanley Cohen’s Folk Devils and Moral Panics, a pivotal study of the media treatment of the mod movement and the political, societal and cultural fault lines that the media panic embodied. Unsurprisingly, the EP’s material continues Stevens’  and Peel Dream Magazine’s investigations into those frought and areas where art, culture and commerce meet. 

“Verfremdungseffekt,” Moral Panics’ latest single is a fuzzy, half-remembered dream centered around layers of arpeggiated and droning keys, a chugging bass line, shimmering, atmospheric guitars and ethereal vocals — with the end result being a mod-like take on psych rock that superficially sounds as though it could have been released in 1965, 1995, 2015 or — well, yesterday. 

Centered around footage of Stevens and Company performing at Chicago’sSleeping Village and Ottawa’s Cinqhole just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the video is an eerie reminder of the things we all miss and can’t have right now — shows, bars, hanging out and bullshitting with friends. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

In the very early days of this site, I wrote quite a bit about the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada-based Steve Adamyk Band, and although it’s been some time since I’ve personally written about them, they’ve remained one of Canada’s contemporary, premier power pop/punk acts. Throughout the past decade, the band has toured Japan, North America and Europe while releasing five full-length albums and a lengthy list of seven inch singles. Back in 2016, the band’s most consistent and longest-held lineup split up, and it would have been accepted and natural to call it a day and move on with something else; however, the band has managed to continue with the same relentless touring schedule — and a new lineup featuring the band’s only remaining original member Dave Williams (guitar, vocals), The Acorn’s Pat Johnson (drums) and Uranium Comeback’s Johnny O (bass).

The newly constituted trio’s forthcoming full-length album Paradise was recorded by Mike Bond at Wolf Lake Studios and mixed by Jesse Gander in Vancouver, and the album reportedly finds the band retaining some of the same vibe that fans and critics have come to know and love — but with a larger, beefed up sound. Clocking in at a breakneck 93 seconds, Paradise‘s first single is the scuzzy and anthemic power chord ripper “In Death.” Just listening to the song brings back warm memories of dark dive bars and sweaty, foul-smelling punk rock clubs in the Lower East Side with sweaty dudes in a mosh pit, shouting along to the song’s enormous raise-your-beer-aloft hook.

The members of The Steve Adamyk band will be on tour to support the new album. Sadly, there aren’t any NYC area tour dates (as of yet at least) but check out the dates below.

 

Tour Dates:
2/15 – Ottawa, ON @ Mavericks (with Teenage Head)
2/22 – Cincinnati, OH @ NorthSide Yacht Club (with Raging Nathans,
Vacation, Dopamines)
2/23 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Berry Street Recording (with Raging Nathans)
2/24 – Madison, WI @ Mickey’s Tavern (with Raging Nathans, Proud Parents)
2/26 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Street Entry (with Mike Krol)
2/27 – Milwaukee, WI @ Back Room at Collectivo (with Mike Krol)
2/28 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle (with Mike Krol)
3/01 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx (with Mike Krol)
3/02 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison (with Mike Krol)
3/23 – Ottawa, ON @ House of Targ
4/26 – Ottawa, ON @ The Dominion Tavern
5/09 – Quebec City, QC @ Scanner Bistro (with DeeCracks)
5/10 – Moncton, NB @ The Caveau (with DeeCracks, Chiller, Phone Jerks)
5/11 – Halifax, NS @ Gus’ Pub (with DeeCracks, Outtacontroller)
5/12 – Shawinigan, QC @ Brewery (with DeeCracks)
5/16 – Ottawa, ON @ Black Squirrel Books (with DeeCracks)

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Introducing the Boundary Pushing Sounds of Ottawa’s Garçons

Comprised of Nigerian-born, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada-based singer/songwriter Deelo and Canadian-born, Ottawa-based producer and director Julian Strangelove, the up-and-coming electro pop duo Garçons can trace their origins back to when the duo initially met back in […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms
Featuring Chuck Bronson, Brodie Conley, Nicolas Hyatt and David Lacalamita, the members of Canadian indie rock quartet Future States is a band with members based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, making the band a long distance affair, reportedly held together by the band member’s long-time friendship — and the Greyhound bus. Since their formation, the band has developed a reputation for crafting material that straddle the line between accessible, radio friendly pop and experimental pop based around arrangements of keys, guitar, sampled sounds and propulsive rhythms paired with pop melodies and reverb-drenched harmonies. And while, their latest single “Heaven” will further cement their reputation for crafting propulsive, left field (and incredibly breezy) pop reminiscent of Talking Heads and others, it also reportedly finds the band experimenting with new sounds and refining their overall production as the song is centered around a tight, propulsive rhythm, and a deceptively simple chord progression and verses; however, the song features an irony-tinged skepticism — of whether heaven exists, if it would be how it’s described and if the song’s narrator would even want to go there.

 

 

 

 

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Originally beginning as Charles Tilden’s solo looping explorations, the Toronto, ON-based Delta Will expanded to a quartet, when Tilden recruited Brandon Johns (synths, samples, bass), Milan Schramek (guitar, bass, vocals) and Lowell Whitty (drums) to flesh […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Over the last few years, the Ottawa, ON-based punk band, the Steve Adamyk Band has developed a reputation for bringing a scuzzy, punk rock edge to power pop – or should I saw a power pop sheen to punk […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

February 11th will mark the release of Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold. the third full-length effort from the 22 year-old Ottawa, ON-based singer/songwriter Kalle Mattson. As the follow up to Anchors and Lives In Between, the material on […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Over the last two years, the Ottawa, ON-based punk band, the Steve Adamyk Band toured Europe twice, SXSW twice, the Awesome Fest and others, before going through an almost wholesale lineup change. Still, the band […]