Tag: Toronto ON

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lee Paradise Teams Up with New Chance’s Victoria Cheong on a Woozy Banger

Although best known for being one-half of Toronto-based indie electro pop duo Phédre, Dan Lee is also a solo artist in his own right, under the moniker Lee Paradise. And with the release of his Lee Paradise debut, 2020’s The Fink, Lee quickly established a sound that’s typically widescreen and is indebted to polyrhythmic psychedelia.

Lee’s sophomore Lee Paradise album Lee Paradise & Co. is slated for an October 28, 2022 release through Telephone Explosion Records. The album’s material started off as a set of mood-focused instrumental sketches. But the sketches became fleshed out songs after he sent the tracks to a an eclectic array of collaborators including Jane Inc.‘s Carlyn Bezic, Scott Hardware’s, No Frills‘ and Ducks Ltd.‘s Jonathan Pappo, Scott Hardware, Isla Craig, New Chance‘s Victoria Cheong, Jay Anderson, Mother Tongues‘ Charise Aragoza and Lukas Cheung and Moon King‘s Daniel Woodhead. The end result is an album in which every aspect of its creation eventually became open to collaboration, from musical performances, lyric writing and vocals all the way through to mixing and mastering, all while featuring material that defies genre and style conventions with a soulful panache.

“Not Practical,” Lee Paradise & Co.‘s latest single is a woozy yet accessible synth pop-leaning banger centered around copious amounts of DFA Records/LCD Soundsystem-like cowbell, layers of glistening and whirring synths and skittering beats paired with Victoria Cheong’s beguiling vocal. While being remarkably dance floor friendly, “Not Practical” evokes the swooning and wildly illogical of love.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tallies Share Shimmering and Uplifting “Memento”

With the release of 2019’s self-titled, full-length debut, Toronto-based dream pop outfit Tallies — Dylan Frankland (guitar), Sarah Cogan (vocals, guitar) and Cian O’Neill (drums) — exploded into the national and international scenes: The album received praise from the likes of Under the Radar, DIY Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, MOJO, Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim!,  KEXP and others. Adding to a rapidly growing profile, the Toronto-based dream poppers have opened for Mudhoney, Hatchie, Tim Burgess and Weaves, and they played at the inaugural New Colossus Festival.

The band’s Graham Walsh and Dylan Frankland co-produced sophomore album Patina was recorded at Palace Sound, Holy Fuck‘s Baskitball 4 Life and Candle Recording, and is slated for a Friday release through Kanine Records here in the States, Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada and Bella Union in the UK and EU. The album, which was understandably delayed as a result of the pandemic is simultaneously a labor of love and a bold step forward for the Canadian trio: Firmly rooted in their penchant in juxtaposing light and dark, the album continues to see the band drawing from Lush, Beach House and Cocteau Twins, but with a greater emphasis on shimmering guitars, earnest, lived-in songwriting — and a well-placed, razor sharp hook. 

The album will feature:

  • The previously released “No Dreams of Fayres,” an ironically upbeat single that sonically brought The Sundays‘ “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” while documenting Sarah Cogan’s struggles with depression — in particular, the moments, when she was trying to work it out, but just couldn’t find the energy to do so. “‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is a reflection of thoughts that I remember going through my mind when I stayed still in bed,” Tallies’ Sarah Cogan explains in press notes. “Feeling as though staying still in bed was the only thing that would help the sadness – basically, disconnecting myself from family, friends, and having a life. Finding the way out of depression was hard but possible. ‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is also about the realization of letting yourself feel real feelings but not mistaking them for emotions. I had to learn to get a grip of what I wanted out of life and go for it with no self-sabotage – which was music, as cliché as it sounds. It pulled me out of bed, physically and mentally.”
  • “Special,” continued a remarkable run of upbeat shoegazer-inspired jangle pop featuring Cogan’s plaintive vocals, Frankland’s shimmering, reverb-drenched guitar lines and O’Neill’s propulsive drumming paired with their unerring knack of razor sharp, anthemic hooks. Despite its breezy nature, the song is underpinned by an aching and familiar yearning: “‘Special,’ as Sarah Cogan explains “is about longing to be seen and heard by those who matter to you most. Sometimes, feeling invisible is particularly painful when the indifference comes from someone whose opinion means a lot to you.” 

“Memento,” the last single before Patina‘s release on Friday, is a slow-burning ballad featuring Cogan’s achingly plaintive and soaring vocal, Frankland’s shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar lines, and O’Neill’s simple yet propulsive time-keeping paired with the band’s penchant for rousing hooks and choruses. While sounding inspired by 120 Minutes-era MTV college rock/alternative rock, “Memento” is centered in a hopeful and powerful message — one that’s much-needed in our wildly uncertain and perilous time.

“I am a firm believer in ‘what goes down must come up’, people usually say the opposite, but this is a motto I’ve used throughout my life,” Tallies’ Sarah Cogan explains. “When things aren’t going well, they have a tendency to bounce back. ‘Memento’, to me, is my pick-up song. When I sing ‘gotta get you on your way now’, I’m saying that it’s time to move on and move forward. I’ve had many moments in my life where I’ve lost momentum and felt directionless like I’d fallen into a black hole. It’s hard to crawl out of the hole and get back on track. I think there are a lot of people who spend their time thinking about how they need to get back on track. Listen to this song and remind yourself it’s time to look forward and lean into the future.”

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Justis Karr at IMMV Productions, the accompanying video features slickly edited, nostalgia-inducing stock footage, including a mother playing with and holding her newborn, kids at school, an exhausted mom taking car of her household of screaming kids, an elderly woman playing with a cat and fixing tea and psychedelic imagery sometimes superimposed over the band performing the song. Interestingly, the visual manages to further emphasis the song’s overall themes with exhausted, broken people trying to figure out ways to push forward — sometimes on a daily basis.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Rapport Shares a Cinematic Visual For Shimmering 80s-Inspired “Can’t Get It To Last”

After a decade of playing in a number of local bands, performing with other artists and stints with Moon King and Born Ruffians, Toronto-born and-based singer/songwriter and musician Maddy Wilde’s long-felt imposter syndrome gave way to a desire to create music that she felt was largely unexplored in the Toronto scene — earnest, heart-worn-on-sleeve pop with her latest band Rapport. Around the same time, her bandmates Kurt Marble and Mike Pereira, who have played in Twist, Ducks, Ltd. and Most People had experienced a similar urge to create earnest pop, despite their professional backgrounds in garage rock, punk rock and glam rock.

With their recently released debut EP Floating Through The Wonderwave, the Toronto-based trio have embarked on an exploration of crafted and breezy pop rooted in Wilde’s intuitive sense of harmony and slick hooks paired with a desire to sincerely capture the essence of sentimentality. But just under the surface, the EP’s material possesses a dark, melancholy quality.

Thematically, the EP touches upon jealous, neuroses and self-doubt while Wilde’s narrators also explore the delicate and uneasy balance between artistic creation and self-promotion. “I had to uninstall social media apps on my phone when I realized they were a major source of anxiety and a hugely addictive waste of time which I could have spent making music,” Wilde says. “My creative practice was suffering as a result. But without these tools, how are artists meant to share their work?”

The recently released EP’s third and latest single “Can’t Get It To Last” is a shimmering bit of 80s inspired pop featuring atmospheric synths, Pereira’s percussive and chugging bass lines, Marble’s 80s rock-like guitar lines and soloing and Wilde’s achingly delicate vocal delivery paired with a soaring hook. While sounding as though it were a seamless mesh of the Stranger Things soundtrack and Brothers in Arms-era Dire Straits, the song on one level could be read as a prototypical broken heart-fueled ballad. But as the band’s Maddie Wilde explains, “On the surface, this probably sounds like your average love song. But it’s really about friendships and growing apart. Close friendships take different shapes- for example, friends who do everything together but have never actually been vulnerable with one another. It’s like maintaining a light and fluffy connection that has never really progressed further than a casual relationship. Friendships like this can go on for ages, and they are valuable, but they don’t seem to last as long.”

“Adrienne McLaren brought to life my vision of creating a music video mood similar to that scene in Grease where Danny walks around the drive-in singing about Sandy,” Wilde adds. “For the drive-in movie, we made an experimental film not unlike one that would be submitted as an art class assignment. To get even more meta, we displayed the drive-in music video itself playing on a small Panasonic TV in various locations around the city. A video within a video within a video.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Dilettante Shares Bitter and Heartbroken Pop Anthem

Toronto-based indie outfit  Dilettante can trace their origins back to 2016: During the spring, mutual dog lovers Natalie Panacci and Julia Wittman started a band so their dogs could hang out more. Along with The Black Cats’ Zachary Stuckey; Said the Whale’s, Iskwe’s, The Recklaws’ and Scott Helman’s Bradley Connor; and Candice Ng, they started For Jane, a self-described dog rock pop band with a Kate Bush meets Sinead O’Connor sensibility that prominently featured Panacci’s and Wittman’s contrasting vocals and mesmerizing harmonies.

For Jane released their debut EP, 2018’s Married with Dogs, which featured “Car,” a track featured on CBC Music and The Edge. But by early 2021, For Jane announced a name change, largely influenced by a massive lineup change that left Panacci and Williams as its creative core, and a decided shift in sonic direction.

The duo’s Maks Milczarcyk produced-self-titled, full-length debut was released earlier this year, and the album featured “Bonnie,” an 80s New Wave inspired, synth-driven confection that to my ears sounded like a sultry take on  Til Tuesday‘s “Voices Carry” as it featured glistening synth arpeggios, wiry post-punk-like guitars fed through a bit of reverb and an angular bass line paired with the duo’s plaintive and mesmerizing vocals.

The self-titled albums latest single, the Maks Milczarcyk written “Monster” is a gauzy synth bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor, burst of angular guitars, and an achingly bitter and heartache-fueled vocal delivery paired with a rousingly anthemic hook and chorus — before ending with a strummed acoustic guitar-driven coda.

While sonically bringing A Flock of Seagulls and others to mind, at its core, the song’s narrator delivers a bitter and heartbroken tell-off to an ex, she would like to forget. Rooted in a deeply personal experience, the song is simultaneously profoundly universal — to the point that I know many of us have been in the same situation and would be singing along with bitter tears streaking down our faces.

Shot by Video Business, the accompanying video follows one-half of the Canadian duo as she runs down a suburban street while singing the song past empty parking lots and a mall, where she eventually meets up with her bandmate — and they walk off together, perhaps suggesting that healing is in your friends, loved ones and in music.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Tallies Share Shimmering and Longing “Special”

With the release of 2019’s self-titled, full-length debut, Toronto-based dream pop outfit Tallies — Dylan Frankland (guitar), Sarah Cogan (vocals, guitar) and Cian O’Neill (drums) — exploded into the national and international scenes: The album received praise from the likes of Under the Radar, DIY Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, MOJO, Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim!,  KEXP and others. And adding to a rapidly growing profile, the Toronto-based dream poppers have opened for Mudhoney, Hatchie, Tim Burgess and Weaves. 

The band’s Graham Walsh and Dylan Frankland co-produced sophomore album Patina, which was recorded at Palace Sound, Holy Fuck‘s Baskitball 4 Life and Candle Recording is slated for a July 29, 2022 release through Kanine Records here in the States, Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada and Bella Union in the UK and EU. The album, which was understandably delayed as a result of the pandemic is simultaneously a labor of love and a bold step forward for the Canadian trio: Firmly rooted in their penchant in juxtaposing light and dark, the album continues to see the band drawing from Lush, Beach House and Cocteau Twins, but with a greater emphasis on shimmering guitars, earnest, lived-in songwriting — and a well-placed, razor sharp hook.

The album will feature, the previously released “No Dreams of Fayres,” an ironically upbeat single that sonically brought The Sundays‘ “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” while documenting Sarah Cogan’s struggles with depression — in particular, thee moments, when she was trying to work it out, but just couldn’t find the energy to do so.

“‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is a reflection of thoughts that I remember going through my mind when I stayed still in bed,” Tallies’ Sarah Cogan explains in press notes. “Feeling as though staying still in bed was the only thing that would help the sadness – basically, disconnecting myself from family, friends, and having a life. Finding the way out of depression was hard but possible. ‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is also about the realization of letting yourself feel real feelings but not mistaking them for emotions. I had to learn to get a grip of what I wanted out of life and go for it with no self-sabotage – which was music, as cliché as it sounds. It pulled me out of bed, physically and mentally.”

Patina‘s latest single “Special” continues a run remarkable run of deceptively upbeat shoegazer-inspired jangle pop featuring Cogan’s plaintive vocals, Frankland’s shimmering reverb-drenched guitar lines and O’Neill’s propulsive drumming paired with their unerring knack for razor sharp, anthemic hooks. But despite its breezy nature, the song is underpinned by a an aching and familiar yearning: “‘Special,’ as Sarah Cogan explains “is about longing to be seen and heard by those who matter to you most. Sometimes, feeling invisible is particularly painful when the indifference comes from someone whose opinion means a lot to you.”

Directed by Justis Krar at IMMV Productions, the accompanying video for “Special” features carefully edited stock footage from movies and home videos: The video begins with fingers and toes — dipping into water, or shampooed hair before following a troubled and bored couple, who have deeply unaddressed issues. You can read the pain and heartache in both of their faces, and it further emphasizes the themes at the heart of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s 148 Share Flirtatious and Feel Good Bop “Topeka Vibe”

Nigerian-born, Toronto-based indie pop duo 148 — Tudo Bem and McQueen — spent their formative years watching MTV, which allowed them to embrace a multitude of genres and styles of music. Their willingness to explore and play with genre conventions, as well as embracing their own vulnerability in order to take risks, learn and improve upon their songwriting is at the core of their sound and approach.

As a group, the duo is rooted in a simple principle: a belief that we all should strive to be who we truly are, rather than view ourselves through the lens of others.

The duo’s recently released full-length effort, Sampati derives its title from an old Hindu tale of two brothers who challenged each other to see, who could fly closest to the sun: The elder brother Sampati ends up risking his life to shield his younger brother, Jatayu from the sun’s flames. While Sampati’s sacrifice costs him the ability to fly, it also saves Jatayu’s life — and Jatayu goes on to a play a crucial part in the grand scheme of things. For the duo, the story brings up a number of questions. including: if you knew that there was a high possibility of failure, would you attempt the impossible? According to the duo, they’d always answer yes. Failure brings the opportunity to learn — and with the help of friends and family, the potential of a speedy recovery. The duo add that the album is the culmination of everything they’ve learned over the past six years or so.

Sampati‘s latest single “Topeka Vibe” is a breezy and slick mix of R&B, hip-hop, Afrobeats, Afro pop, dancehall and soca centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering beats paired with a soulful horn solo as a silky Quiet Storm-inspired bed for McQueen’s easygoing and flirtatious bars and Bem’s gently autotuned crooning for the song’s infectious hook. Managing to be both club and lounge friendly, “Topeka Vibe” is a summery chilled-out bop that’s one-part balling out at the club ’cause you just got paid — and one-part, chilling out with that pretty young thing that you just can’t resist. But just under the surface, there’s a subtle bittersweet sensation: the realization that nothing lasts forever, perhaps?

Directed by 148’s Tudo Bem, the cinematically shot, accompanying video is split into several sequences set in and around Topeka Drive, just outside of Toronto: we see the members of 148 in a local playground flashing cash and goofing off. We see the duo flirting with and hitting on one of the most beautiful sisters I’ve seen in some time. And we see the duo playing in a club. It’s playful yet endearingly sweet.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Weird Nightmare Teams Up with Bully on the Driving and Earnest “Wrecked”

Alex Edkins has developed and honed a reputation for being a master craftsman of sweaty, mosh pit friendly rippers as the frontman of Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ. 

Edkins’ new side project Weird Nightmare sees the METZ frontman showcasing a new side of the long-established songwriting that has won him acclaim and fans across the globe: enormous power chord driven rippers with mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses — but paired with a sugary and distorted power pop touch. 

So far I’ve written about two of Weird Nightmare’s singles:

  • “Searching For You,” a fun, straightforward power pop banger, featuring shout-along-with-upraised-beer-in-the-mosh-pit choruses, earnest lyricism and the enormous power chords Edkins is best known for but with an accessible, old-timey inspired craftsmanship that makes the song incredibly radio friendly — as though it Edkins and his METZ bandmates were covering Cheap Trick or Big Star. “It’s a fun, no nonsense rock ‘n’ roll song,” Edkins explains. “It’s about searching for meaning and inspiration all around us. In my mind, the ‘you’ in the chorus refers to something bigger than companionship or love, it’s that intangible thing we all look for but never find.”  
  • “Lusitania,” Weird Nightmare’s sophomore single is a fun, old school rock/power pop anthem centered around Edkins’ unerring ability to craft an enormous, crowd pleasing hook paired with blistering guitar work and earnest songwriting. “‘Lusitania’ was a big breakthrough for the entire Weird Nightmare album. I realized that, musically, my goal was to make songs that would make people feel good!” Edkins says in press notes. “This idea of waking up from a terrible dream or winter changing into spring. Momentary relief. We all need that feeling right now and music has always been what I turn to most.” 

“Wrecked,” Weird Nightmare’s third and latest single is a driving and ardent guitar pop anthem centered around big hooks, enormous power chords and sweetly, lived-in lyricism. It’s also the first Edkins song that I can remember that features boy-girl call and response vocals, thanks to a guest spot from Bully‘s Alicia Bogannano.

“‘Wrecked’ is about missing something,” Edkins says. “For me, it’s about missing my wife and son while on tour. Being away has become harder and harder to do. I think most people can relate to it.  Feeling impossibly far away from the ones you love and coming to the realization that you won’t feel whole again until you return. I was really happy to collaborate with Alicia (Bognanno) on this song and I love what she adds to it. Alicia has a one in a million voice. A voice that you recognize immediately and she really lifts the song way up.”

Directed by Ryan Thompson, the accompanying video for “Wrecked” follows a dog without a pack entering a dog park. Doggy hijinx ensue.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Soccer Mommy Performs “Shotgun” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”

Sophie Allison is a Swiss-born, Nashville-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and the creative mastermind behind the critically applauded indie rock project Soccer Mommy.  Allison first picked up guitar when she was six — and as a teenager, she attended Nashville School of the Arts, where she studied guitar and played in the school’s swing band.

During the summer of 2015, Allison began posting home-recorded songs as Soccer Mommy and posted them to Bandcamp, just as she was about to attend  New York University (my alma mater, no less!), where she studied music business at the University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.

While she was attending NYU, she played her first Soccer Mommy show at beloved, Bushwick-based venue Silent Barn. Allison caught the attention of Fat Possum Records, who signed her to a record deal — and after spending two years at NYU, she returned to Nashville to pursue a full-time career in music. Upon her return to Nashville, she wrote and released two Soccer Mommy albums — 2016’s For Young Hearts released through Orchid Tapes and 2017’s Collection released through Fat Possum. 

Allison’s proper, full-length debut 2018’s Clean was released to widespread critical acclaim, and as a result of a rapidly growing profile, she has toured with the likes of  Stephen Malkmus, Mitski, Kacey Musgraves, Jay Som, Slowdive, Frankie Cosmos, Liz Phair, Phoebe Bridgers, Paramore, Foster the People, Vampire Weekend, and Wilco.

Before the pandemic, Allison, much like countless other artists was gearing up for a big year: she started off 2020 by playing one of Bernie Sanders’ presidential rallies and joined a lengthy and eclectic list of artists, who endorsed his presidential campaign. That year also saw the release of her critically applauded sophomore album color theory, which she had planned to support with a headline tour with a number of sold-out dates months in advance that included a stop Glastonbury Festival and her late-night, national TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

With touring at a halt as a result of the pandemic, Allison, much like countless other artists recognized that the time off from touring offered a unique opportunity to get creative and experiment with new ideas and new ways to connect with fans. 

Combining her love of video games and performing, Allison had a digital show on Club Penguin Rewritten with over 10,000 attendees, who all had to make their own penguin avatars to attend. The show was so popular, that the platform’s servers crashed, forcing a rescheduling of the event. Of course, Allison also played a number of live-streamed sets, including ones hosted by  NPR’s Tiny Desk At Home (which she kicked off) and Pitchfork‘s IG Live Series. She also released her own Zoom background images for her fans to proudly show off their Soccer Mommy fandom. 

Allison and her backing band then embarked on a Bella Clark-directed 8 bit, virtual music video tour that saw Soccer Mommy playing some of the cities she had been scheduled to play that year, if the pandemic didn’t happen — in particular, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto, and Austin. Instead of having the virtual shows at a traditional music venue or a familiar tourist spot, the band were mischievously placed in highly unusual places: an abandoned Toronto subway station, a haunted Chicago hotel, a bat-filled Austin bridge underpass and the like. The video tour featured color theory single “crawling in my skin,” a song centered around looping and shimming guitars, a sinuous bass line, shuffling drumming, subtly shifting tempos and an infectious hook.

She closed out 2020 with an  Adam Kolodny-directed, fittingly Halloween-themed visual for “crawling in my skin” that’s full of creeping and slow-burning dread that reminds me of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe movies with Vincent Price. 

Allison’s newest album, the Daniel Lopatin (a.k.a. Oneohtrix Point Never)-produced Sometimes, Forever is slated for a June 24, 2022 release through Loma Vista/Concord. The new album reportedly sees Allison pushing her sound in new directions — but without eschewing the unsparing lyricism and catchy melodies that have won her attention across the blogosphere and elsewhere. 

Inspired by the concept that neither sorrow nor happiness is permanent, Sometimes, Forever will be a fresh peek into the mind of a bold, young artist who synthesizes everything — retro sounds, personal tumult, the disorder of modern life — into music that feels built to last for a long time. The album’s material is also partly inspired by the uncomfortable push and pull between her desire to make meaningful art, her skepticism about the mechanics of careerism, and the mundane, artless administrative chaos that comes with all of it. 

The album’s first single, the woozy “Shotgun” is an infectious banger centered around a classic grunge song structure — quiet verses, explosive choruses paired with layers of distorted guitars, Allison’s achingly plaintive vocals, an enormous hook, thunderous drumming paired with a throbbing groove. 

“Shotgun” manages to liken a young romance to a sort of chemical high — but without the bruising and sickening comedown, which always comes after. But throughout the song, its narrator focuses on small moments in a particular love affair that’s imbued with a deep, personal meaning, “‘Shotgun’ is all about the joys of losing yourself in love,” explains Allison. “I wanted it to capture the little moments in a relationship that stick with you.”

Last night, Allison and her backing band performed “Shotgun” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. After a brief break, Soccer Mommy will be embarking on a couple of Stateside festival dates including a stop at this year’s Governor’s Ball on June 12, 2022.

The band will then embark on a lengthy European tour. For information and tickets, check out the following: https://soccermommyband.com/#tour

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Joseph Shabason’s Trippy Re-work of Absolutely Free’s “How to Paint Clouds”

Acclaimed Toronto-based psych pop outfit Absolutely Free — multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Matt King, Michael Claxton (bass, synths) and Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg (drums, synths) — is an offshoot of experimental rock outfit DD/MM/YYYY, an act whose multi-rhythmic, boundary pushing raison d’être provided a springboard for Absolutely Free’s sound and approach. 

Their full-length debut, 2014’s Absolutely Free. received a Polaris Prize nomination and widespread critical applause from the likes of Pitchfork, The FADER, Stereogum, BrooklynVegan,Exclaim!, Under the Radar, PopMatters, AllMusic and countless others. 

Over the past decade, the members of the Absolutely Free have cultivated and developed a long-held reputation for an unorthodox approach to both conceiving and performing music: Since the release of Absolutely Free., the Toronto-based psych pop act have released an array of multimedia projects and releases including 2019’s Geneva Freeport EP, which features U.S. Girls‘ Meg Remy. Adding to a growing profile they’ve toured alongside the likes of Alvvays, Youth Lagoon and JOVM mainstays Preoccupations, and they’ve shared bills with Beak>, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, U.S. Girls and Fucked Up. 

Absolutely Free’s highly-anticipated Jorge Elbrecht-produced sophomore album Aftertouch was released last year through Boiled Records. Deriving its name from a the name of a synthesizer function, the album is fueled by the trio’s desire to “. . . to create an album that wasn’t bound by a physical ability to perform it live, to not only expand our palette, but also to consider the live performance as something completely separate.”

Culling from a myriad of influences including krautrock, New Wave, early electronic dance music, and an array of international psych and funk complications, the album sonically and aesthetically finds the trio shifting in, around and between analog and digital sounds, and real and fabricated images while simultaneously reveling in and refuting the loss of tactility. Thematically, the album explores narratives of hegemony, grief and exploitation in the present while sustaining curiosity for the unknown post-everything future. 

I managed to write about three of the album’s singles:

  • “Interface,” a dreamily maximalist song featuring glistening synth arpeggios, percussive and angular guitar blasts, a chugging bass line and an insistent rhythm paired with plaintive vocals that reminded me of  Amoral-era Violens — in particular, “Trance Like Turn.”
  • “Remaining Light” is a sprawling track with two distinct parts — a cinematic and atmospheric instrumental introduction featuring twinkling keys, glistening synths and clinking marimba. At around the 2:20 mark, the song slowly morphs into a slow-burning and brooding bit of pop featuring King’s plaintive, reverb drenched vocals ethereally floating over the mix. The end result is a song that — to my ears, at least — sounded like a slick synthesis of The Fixx’s “Sign of Fire” and Amoral-era Violens. 
  • “Epilogue,” a slow-burning and reflective track that slowly builds into a maximalist crescendo towards its conclusion centered around a lush, New Wave-like arrangement featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering beats, a relentless motorik groove paired with King’s achingly plaintive vocals ethereally floating over the mix. But underneath the breezy and expansive arrangement, “Epilogue” managed to possess a wistful, melancholy air.

Because of their exploratory approach, the members of Absolutely Free have revisited Aftertouch album track “How to Paint Clouds” with How to Repaint Clouds, an eight-track remix effort using on MIDI (Multi-Instrument Digital Interface) files — a digital language that contains harmonic and rhythmic blueprints, but no actual recordings.

“The song’s lyrics reflect upon the transcience of taste and how an artist’s feelings toward their work change over time,” the band says. “When a musician revisits their old songs, new interpretations are informed by changing contexts and evolving preferences. We wanted to stray from traditional modes of remixes based upon manipulating a song’s individual audio tracks, to provide the arftists with an unusual freedom from the original material, to create new sounds and reassemble the motifs of the song.”

The eight remixes interpret the track’s original structures untethered from its instrumentation, across a diverse aesthetic range from dark techno to psych rock. The first remix by Toronto-based musician Joseph Shabason turns the song into an otherworldly, woozy and ambient, New Age-like meditation centered around distorted saxophone bleats paired with twinkling synths.

How to Repaint Clouds is slated for a May 5, 2022 release through Boiled Records and will arrive with a tactile rendering: 20 one-of-a-kind AI-generated cloud painting turntable slipmats.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Weird Nightmare Returns with the Feel Good Power Pop Anthem “Lusitania”

Alex Edkins has developed and honed a reputation for being a master craftsman of sweaty, mosh pit friendly rippers as the frontman of Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ.  Interestingly, Edkins’ new side project Weird Nightmare sees the METZ frontman showcasing […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Mear Shares a Gorgeous and Expressive Visual for Cinematic “Second Sight”

Toronto-based synth pop duo Mear — Frances Miller and Greg Harrison — can trace their origins to when the pair met while working at renowned music venue Massey Hall. Shortly after meeting, Miller and Harrison began collaborating by sending tracks back and forth through social media.

Through the release of their debut EP, 2016’s Flood and a handful of singles, the Canadian synth pop duo have established a sound and approach that pairs catchy melodies and poignant lyrics with the duo’s shared love of experimental music. Their single “Perfect Mess” was released to praise by The East, edm joy and OMGblog and was named a “Song You Need to Hear This Week” by CBC Music.

Their full-length debut, Soft Chains is slated for an April 22, 2022 release. The album’s latest single “Second Sight” is a cinematic bit of pop centered around shimmering synth arpeggios and skittering reverb-drenched beats paired with Miller’s gorgeous and expressive vocals. While sonically recalling Flourish//Perish era BRAIDS, Kinlaw and ACES, the song as the duo explain “is about someone, who is grappling with a memory that holds them back. It’s about a confrontation and making it out on the other side.”

Edited by Mear’s Frances Miller, the accompanying video for “Second Sight” pairs the live action expressive dancing of choreographer and dancer Katherine Semchuk with the flowing animation of Kristen-Innes Stambolic. The visual manages to evoke a difficult and exhausting inward struggle that ends with the video’s protagonist coming out of the other side with an inner peace.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Toronto’s SATE Returns with a Hard Rocking Meditation on Fame

Toronto-based singer/songwriter and rock frontperson SATE has received attention nationally and internationally for singing empowering messages backed by a band that sonically meshes blistering hard rock and gritty blues. Along with her backing band, the Canadian rock artist has developed and honed an emotionally charged and critically applauded live show, which has toured across Canada, the States and the European Union, as well as stops across the global festival circuit, including Afropunk Brooklyn, Paris and London, Paleo Festival, Lott Festival and Secret Garden Party. 

Her full-length debut, 2017’s Red, Black, and Blue, the Toronto-based artist thematically pursued her spiritual connection to the black panther, the red robin and the blue butterfly. Last year’s sophomore album, The Fool saw the Canadian rocker pursuing her connection to the tarot: The album’s title was derived from the hero of the tarot deck, The Fool. In tarot, the Fool card is about beginnings and trust; of essentially jumping off a cliff with no real plan but an ultimate faith and trust in the universe. 

According to SATE, The Fool is an anthem for anyone who has dared to dream and work towards their greatest self. And if you had been frequenting this site last year. you may recall that I wrote about album title track “The Fool,” a slow-burning and and sultry synthesis of soul, neo-soul and arena rock centered around SATE’s powerhouse vocals.

“Famous,” The Fool‘s latest single is an anthemic, headbanger centered around buzzing power chords, a relentless motorik groove, some arena rock bombast paired with SATE’S powerhouse, ass kicking and name taking delivery. Thematically, the song sees its narrator dreaming of and desiring fame and its trappings — while asking the listener, how badly do you want it? Will you do anything to be famous?

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Canadian/American Duo Ritual Wave Share Sultry “My Sin”

This week is an extraordinarily busy week as I’ve been covering this year’s New Colossus Festival. So I haven’t been posting with the same regularity as I’d normally would. But I’m seeing live music and doing that valuable in-person networking one has to do to get by. And I’m having a ton of fun doing so. But as always, let’s get to the business at hand . . .

Ritual Wave is an emerging post-punk/dark wave duo featuring Toronto-based Judy Karacs and San Diego-based John Goodman. The Canadian/American duo bonded over a mutual love and appreciation for similar styles of music, which led to their collaboration together. Although they’ve been working on material since 2018, the duo’s work sonically sees them combining elements of old school post-punk with melodic dark wave undertones.

“My Sin” their second official single together as Ritual Wave features Karacs’ sultry cooing over glistening and icy synth arpeggios, a propulsive, angular bass line and subtle industrial clang and clatter. Sonically, “My Sin” — to my ears at least — recalls Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode and the like, but fueled by a desperate, obsessive desire.

“My Sin” as the Canadian/American duo explain uses religious themes as a metaphor to express the psychological torment and destruction of a person willing to sacrifice everything in order to be loved. And as a result, the song explores the darkest sides of obsession, control and desire as is relates to romantic affairs.

“This track was really a labour of love for us. We actually wrote ‘My Sin’ very quickly, in 2018, but ended up re-working, re-recording and re-editing it ’till we finally decided it was ready,” Ritual Wave’s Judy Karacs explains in press notes. “With the lyrics and melody I really wanted to explore the subject of obsession and how that impacts the human psyche. I likened these feelings to a strong religious devotional experience. It was the idea of having such a profound faith in someone that you were willing to sacrifice everything just to hold onto what they made you believe was love. Obviously, this belief was based more on unhealthy fixation and desire instead of genuine love.”

Edited by Ritual Wave’s Judy Karacs, the accompanying visual is shot in a gorgeous and sultry black and white, and evokes the song’s central themes: lust and obsession through religious metaphors.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tanika Charles Teams Up with DijahSB on a Strutting and Triumphant Bop

Two-time Juno Award-nominated and Polaris Prize listed, Toronto-born and-based Trinidadian-Canadian singer/songwriter Tanika Charles spent a formative part of her life in Edmonton, when energy sector opportunities brought her family there. But whether they were in Toronto or Edmonton, music was a constant presence in the Charles household: Her father would return from two weeks on site with the latest jazz records for Tanika and her brothers to play and jam out along.

Several years later, Tanika’s eldest brother would be the first to coach her on how to sing and how to record a song. As a young adult., Charles relocated to Vancouver, where she picked up gigs as a backing vocalist and got a taste of tour life. When she returned to her birthplace, the Trinidadian-Canadian artist’s long-held dreams of becoming a professional artist began to come to fruition: She assembled her first backing band, and with that band recorded her debut EP What? What! What?! With the release of her debut EP, Charles quickly became a local scene fixture.

Back in  2016, Charles independently released her full-length debut Soul Run within her native Canada. The album was sensation nationally, with the album receiving a Polaris Music Prize nomination and a Juno Award nomination for Best R&B/Soul Recording of the Year. The following year, Italian purveyors of funk and soul Record Kicks released Soul Run internationally to critical applause from the likes of Exclaim!, Music Republic Magazine and others. Album singles like “Endless Chain,” “Love Fool,” and album title track “Soul Run” received regular radio rotation on stations across Canada, the US, the UK and France.

Charles’ sophomore album, 2019’s The Gumption was released through Record Kicks. The 12-song album picked up where Soul Run left off, further establishing the Canadian artist’s sound and approach in which classic soul is mixed with modern production. Thematically, the album saw Charles tackling moments of vindication, uncertain love, forbidden fruit and the state of the world. “It’s a little more mature,” Tanika said at the time. ““It’s not feeling guilty about being up front, not being afraid to address situations that aren’t comfortable for me. I’m comfortable in my skin now in a way I never was before.” The Gumption was long-listed for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize and nominated for the 2020 Juno Awards R&B/Soul Recording of the Year.

Along with her latest backing band, The Wonderfuls, Charles has toured across Canada and eight other counties to support Soul Run and The Gumption. Those tours have prominently featured stops across the local, national and global festival circuits, including Rennes Trans Musicales, NXNE, Lärz Fusion, Pop Montreal, Canarias Jazz Festival, CBC Music Festival, TD Toronto Jazz Fest, Birmingham’s Mostly Funk, Soul and Jazz Festival, the Pan Am Games and a list of others.

The Canadian artist’s music has appeared on HBO’s Less Than Kind, ABC’s Rookie Blue, The CW’s Seed, CTV’s Saving Hope, CBC’s Kim Convenience and Workin’ Moms and a nationally broadcast KFC ad campaign. She also has appeared as a reoccurring guest on CBC Kids and as a lounge singer on Global TV’s Bomb Girls. Between a busy schedule as a touring musician, Charles appeared in the touring production of Freedom Singer in 2017. She returned to that role in February 2019’s Now We Recognize. 

Charles’ third album Papillon de Nuit: The Night Butterfly is slated for an April 8, 2022 release through Record Kicks. The album, which features guest spots from Toronto-based emcee DijahSB and multi-disciplinary artist Khari McClelland was written and recorded during and after pandemic related lockdowns and restrictions. Much like its immediate predecessor, the forthcoming album is reportedly anchored in growth and maturity. 

The album’s title is derived from an unlikely source, a creature that soars after the sun has set, but often goes unnoticed until light is shone on it. Referred to as “papillon de nuit” by some, the animal is more commonly known as a moth, possibly revealing a linguistic bias. “I always thought it was a strange insect,” the acclaimed Canadian artist says in press notes. “Once while in Paris, a friend swatted at one and I asked: ‘Was that a moth?’. I was told: ‘No, that’s a papillon de nuit.’ I thought that was the most beautiful description for this otherwise overlooked creature. When I later learned of the symbolism associated with it, I felt that really spoke to both my own situation and also what we’ve all been going through.”

Last month, I wrote about the funky, old-school soul-inspired bop “Rent Free,” a fiery tell-off to the energy sucking vampires, deadbeats, naysayers, haters, time wasters and other shitty people of life, centered around Charles’ effortless, Motown era-like delivery. We’ve all had those sorts in our lives, and this song is the sort of song that tells you that it’s okay to push those toxic people out of your life for you to feel better — or to succeed.

The album’s latest single “Different Morning” is a collaboration that features Toronto-based emcee DijahSB, whose album Head Above the Waters was featured in Exclaim Magazine‘s Top 50 Albums of the year and landed a Juno Award nomination — and a performance slot at the award show. Sonically speaking, “Different Morning” is a slick and strutting synthesis of Larry Levan-like house and neo-soul centered around twinkling Rhodes, a sinuous bass line, swinging J. Dilla-like beats, and ebullient horn blasts. And over that celebratory two-step inducing production, Charles contributes soulful vocals that gradually build up confidence with a celebratory and triumphant verse from DijahSB.

“So much of our days are spent dwelling on the same mistakes, the same misfortunes. That thing we wish didn’t happen, or what we wish we hadn’t done,” Tanika Charles explains in press notes. “‘Different Morning’ is about starting a new day without that baggage, about finding a way to correct course and move past it. What starts as a pitiful interior monologue evolves into a celebration of getting over that hump by being your biggest cheerleader. DijahSB is someone who was able to carry that triumphant spirit that the second half of the song needed. ‘I’m alive today’ is enough of a blessing, enough of an accomplishment, and enough to be thankful for.”

Directed by Cazhhmere, the accompanying video for “Different Morning” features the Canadian artists in a lush, Alice in Wonderland-like maze at night dancing and rocking out to the song. Shit, I wish I could join them because they’re having fun, and just enjoying the moment.