Releases That Slipped Through The Cracks
We continue our “Best Of 2019” coverage with twelve releases that we believe “Slipped Through The Cracks”. We are showcasing albums that we missed completely, or albums where the limited coverage they received from us was simply not enough.
Apollo Ghosts - Living Memory
The legendary Vancouverites, Apollo Ghosts, reunited this year to tour! As well, frontman Adrian Teacher released a solo album under their moniker. The ambient album is a departure from their usual high energy jingle-jangle punk. Living Memory primarily uses piano to create space for reflection on climate change (specifically the death of western red cedar trees and this relationship to Indigenous peoples). As well, it is a homage to Teacher’s late father. Seemingly interweaving these concepts as he navigates grief and loss. The concept that our memories can be taken from us is transformed into something tangible and everlasting. Buy this album. It is beautiful and 100% of the proceeds go to the Canadian Parks and Wildlife Association as well as the UNIST’OT’TEN Legal Fund.
- Nicola Gunter
Booji Boys - Tube Reducer
If you’ve ever been to a loud and rowdy house show, Booji Boys album Tube Reducer will take you right back. They bring an “in your face” wall of sound, reminiscent of a wild time in a beer soaked crowd that is packed like sardines into a tiny room where the band is playing full blast. Huge doubled-up power chords rip melodies that interlock with catchy gang vocals shouting over the steady machine gun blast from the drums. Everything has the quality of being pushed to the limit from being totally cranked. You know… the way rock and roll is meant to be played.
- Jeshaiah David
Debate Club - Phosphorescent
This phenomenal, psychedelic garage-rock album would have completely slipped past us if it weren’t for Kent Phillips’ diligent work producing our radio show. The album has everything you want from the genre; upbeat songs that will inevitably make your head bob, and toes tap while exploring 30 minutes of hook-filled rock n roll. At times, the guitars play off each other in an angular way that gives Phosphorescent a post-punk edge. But make no mistake, this is garage-rock, and it’s the best kind of garage-rock as it’s not afraid to push the style to the limit.
- Jeff MacCallum
Delta Will - Multitudes II
Delta Will’s Multitudes II is the second in a trilogy of EPs. This Toronto band, led by Charles Tilden, open up a brand new sound on this release. They moved away from the indie-pop leanings of Multitudes I and adopted a chamber-pop aesthetic. Gently picked acoustic guitar, upright bass and piano are joined by clarinets and violin to craft an earthy music dose reminiscent of Fleet Foxes when they broke onto the music scene with their self-titled album. The rich composition was aided by Sandro Perri’s recording and mixing, showing off a heavenly musical relationship between Tilden and Perri.
- Jeff MacCallum
Jared Jackel’s Bad Vibrations - Saw-Horse Pentagrams
Jared Jackel is an interesting character, he lives off the beaten path, outside of Penticton BC, with no internet. He plays by his own rules and doesn’t need you to care about his jangly debut album that forays into psych and garage. The album is loose, the melodies sometimes seem like their held together with duct tape, ready to fall apart at any minute, but they always manage to chug along. Rest assured, that is a compliment as the record takes elements of “slacker rock” made famous by Mac DeMarco, and furthers their charm. Jackel’s odd vocal style is also a big highlight as his intoxicating, idiosyncratic delivery furthers the mystique.
- Jeff MacCallum
Chad Munson - Surface Tension
Saskatoon’s ambient wizard Chad Munson’s new album, Surface Tension comes to us as a sonic blessing from the prairie drone gods. Subtle pings, pops, and throws cut in & out, disrupting the seeming purity and calm sense of the compositions. Surface Tension's layers swell and descend effortlessly from calm to near-chaos and back, without ever breaking. Munson’s live performance, which often comes with the accompaniment of analog visual artist, Lindsey Rewuski, gives sonic and visual definition to the album's namesake and is not to be missed.
- Lenore Maier
Pudding - Pop Over
Pudding is a goddamn great punk band. But then again, I am partial to pop-punk that sounds both pretty and hard with those cherished 90s alt-rock vibes and anything that uses the loud-quiet-loud dynamic. Every one of the eight tracks on their debut full length, Pop Over, could be a single. Their sound is saucy, melodic and punchy. This three-piece from Vancouver played the always well-curated Music Waste Festival this year and let’s hope to hear more from them. With tracks like “Our Dudes of Perpetual Assault” you know they aren’t messing around.
- Nicola Gunter
RV Farms - Self Titled
Edmonton based, pop music songsmiths, RV Farms released their self-titled debut this year to little online fanfare despite the album having some of my absolute favourite singles of 2019. “July” and “Too Much” are both rhythmically inventive, slightly off-kilter pop gems with enough texture and warmth to stave off the frigid cold you’re likely experiencing as the days get shorter and shorter. The record was actually released the same day as Victoria pop group Bridal Party’s debut LP (which was also called “Too Much”), and fans of that particular brand of danceable, musically adventurous, pop-music would do well to tune in to RV Farms.
- Sean Newton
Smoky Tiger - The Premium Quality Royal Rumpus
Smoky Tiger is a techno-folk guru who has been melting minds and sparking riots on dance floors in Winnipeg for close to two decades. The tiger’s sonic explosions blow the listener through the walls of their own limitations. On his latest, The Premium Quality Royal Rumpus, the tiger does what he does best- blends elements of folk, world-beat, techno, loops and samples to create grooves over which themes of mind expansion, waterslides, bike thieves and time travel conspire to blow your wig back and dilate your pupils. Smoky Tiger is here to guide you in the spirit of life’s infinite power and bliss. Dancing Gabe will be there, so what’s your excuse?
- JD Ormond
Vanden Dool - Self Titled
It’s hard to believe that this is Vanden Dool’s debut album. Hailing from Lethbridge, the self-titled album sees Tyler Vanden Dool navigate through feelings of love, hope, heartbreak and ambivalence. The album is filled to the brim with catchy synth-pop melodies and lush production. The tracks “The Most Beautiful Songs In The World” and “Regrets” exemplify these elements in the best way possible. The themes explored in the songs along with Vanden Dool’s effervescent voice gives the album a hauntingly timeless quality. It’s as if the ghost of Vanden Dool is transmitting from the distant past and the future simultaneously and we are just lucky to be caught in the present.
- Piyush Patel
Ways In Waves - Bloodless Arches
Ways in Waves debut Bloodless Arches, released by Bent River Records, is an intoxicating blend of soundscapes and genres. The album fuses everything from IDM, Hardcore,Jazz, Math-Rock and Pop stylings with technical instrumentation and ethereal lyrics. Bloodless Arches produces an atmosphere of granular aesthetics that burst into explosive moments of intense musical flourishes. “Preservationist” is a stand-out track which highlights the impressive range of compositional and production feats. With the intro releasing a wall of guitar arpeggios punctuated by an intense underlayer of percussion, the track then transitions into clear and precise vocal harmonies, within a minute and a half you will hear the numerous boundaries that Ways in Waves successfully pushes.
- Declan Paxton
WLMRT - WLMRT FOREVER
If you have to live this life you might as well be listening to WLMRT’s, WLMRT FOREVER (before it’s time to invest in barn life). That reference lost on you? Then it’s time to listen to WLMRT’s, WLMRT FOREVER. The album is ten tracks of speedy tongue-in -cheek, synth driven punk from one of Toronto’s best punk bands. With more synth, more sax, and more features (like Eliza Niemi of the now, defunct Mauno) than past WLMRT releases. It’s a great record for when you need to just get the fuck out. Just because this album slipped through our cracks, doesnt mean it needs to slip through yours.
- Kennedy Pawluk
