November 2011
7 posts
3 tags
Adaline - Modern Romantics (Light Organ Records)
The music on Adaline’s sophomore record is pop unhinged. The mysterious charm of her voice is brilliantly offset by Hawksley Workman’s dense production, generating an almost orchestral feel to moments of pop melee. Adaline dips her toes into thick buzz and vicious sax swirls (That’s What You Do Best) and refined electronica echoing the futuristic sheen of Goldfrapp (The Noise), while late-night...
Back to the Root: The Story of Green Apple
(Photo credit: Ryan McGuigan)
Last year, pro skateboarder Mike McDermott and filmmaker Ryan McGuigan left Vancouver where they had been living for close to seven years, and returned home to Winnipeg to launch Green Apple Skateboard Shop, which opened in May 2009.
To come back and open a skate shop in Winnipeg after achieving success in Vancouver is a move that’s of particular importance to the...
3 tags
Kathryn Calder - Bright and Vivid (File Under:...
Victoria-born Kathryn Calder’s creativity is as potently electric as ever on sophomore record, Bright and Vivid. With her sonically full solo debut released only a year ago — not to mention her foremost gig playing with the New Pornographers — you would think it might be high time for some artistic refueling. Not the case for this lady. The album is elaborately textured and rupturing with fun...
3 tags
First Rate People Someone Else Can Make A Work of...
After 2010’s blogosphere buzz and the ensuing admiration of A Take Away Show’s Vincent Moon and Matt Berninger (The National), First Rate People’s second EP offers a glimpse into the group’s current state of whimsicality and fixation with bubbly pop. Sediments of the clan’s innocent campfire folk roots show up on Someone Else Can Make A Work of Art with its acoustic picks and cutsie boy-girl...
3 tags
Peter Wolf Crier - Garden of Arms (Jagjaguwar)
Physically drained after playing 100 shows in six months, Minneapolis-based indie-folk duo Peter Wolf Crier try to recreate that foggy weary-eyed air on its sophomore release. Right Away opens the avant-sound sojourn, alchemizing bent loops with textured melodies, followed by splotches of lullaby buzz and exquisite chimed taps (Having it Out). Settling it Off chills on the offbeat sonics,...
