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June / July 2021 Stylus Magazine
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2 Stylus Magazine June / July 2021
JUN/JUL 32 2021 VOL NO. 3
Production Team Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gil Carroll editor@stylusmagazine.ca Assistant Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . Jen Doerksen assistanteditor@stylusmagazine.ca Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Campbell design@stylusmagazine.ca
On the Cover KEELEY BRAUNSTEIN-BLACK is a photographer, writer and fitness instructor who really misses live music. When she is not taking photographs, you can find her drinking tea, trying to learn ukulele, reading science fiction and fantasy novels curled up in a hammock, practicing yoga and archery. Her goal is to exercise her brain so it does not grow stagnant from lack of use in the day job; bonus points if it leads to the creation of something that someone somewhere might enjoy. Her theme song changes as fast and as often as the weather. With the lack of live music at this time and no reason to remain in the city Keeley is considering purposely wandering into the wilderness.
Cover Art . . . . . . . . Keeley Braunstein-Black Advertising Contact . . . . . . . . Rob Schmidt manager@ckuw.ca Print by JRS Print Services . . . 204-232-3558
Contributors Nigel Webber Olivier LaRoche
John Iverson Lily O’Donnell
Olivia Michalczuk
Margaret Banka
Ryan Haughey
Isabella Soares
Jason Poturica
Joel Klaverkamp
Conrad Sweatman Forty Diamonds David Tymoshchuk
Grace Hrabi Myles Tiessen Aaron Johnston
Stylus is published bi–monthly by CKUW 95.9 FM, with a circulation of 2,500. Stylus serves as the program guide to 95.9FM CKUW and will reflect the many musical communities it supports within Winnipeg and beyond. Stylus strives to provide coverage of music that is not normally written about in the mainstream media. Stylus acts as a vehicle for the work of new writers, photographers and artists, including members of the University of Winnipeg, of CKUW and of the Winnipeg community at large. Stylus reserves the right to refuse to print material, specifically, that of a racist, homophobic or sexist nature. All submissions may be edited and become the property of Stylus. All opinions expressed in Stylus are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors. Contributions in the form of articles, reviews, letters, photos and graphics are welcome and should be sent with contact information to:
Stylus Magazine Bulman Student Centre, University of Winnipeg 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2E9 Phone: 204-786-9785, Fax: 204-783-7080 Writing submissions: editor@stylusmagazine.ca Graphics submissions: design@stylusmagazine.ca www.stylusmagazine.ca
Table of Contents Winnipeg State of Mind: Max Winds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06 CKUWho: Sounds Like Music with Dave Guenette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08 CKUW Program Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09 Local Spotlight Reviews: Amos the Kid, Tired Cossack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Ulteriors Reviews: Sora, Van Allen, La Battue, Ducks LTD, & more . . 10-12 CKUW Bi-Monthly Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Features Ghost Twin: Love Songs for the End Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jorge Requena Ramos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mourning Kipp Kocay, Brilliant Winnipeg Songwriter . . . . . . . . Dill The Giant: WEED MAN SON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Contributions will be accepted in the body of an email. No attachments please. All submissions may be edited and become the property of Stylus. Unauthorized reproduction of any portion of Stylus is strongly discouraged without the express written consent of the editors.
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June / July 2021 Stylus Magazine
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Ghost Twin: Love Songs for End Times
JOEL KLAVERKAMP Ghost Twin released their newest album, Love Songs for End Times, on Friday, June 4th via Artoffact Records. Their first single and video, “Pet Cemetery,” is a real step up the magical ladder for this local heartwarming duo. The sound is dialed in and focused. It’s powerful and dark, mixing with quirky and sad lyrics. Each song works perfectly with the rest as part of a bigger picture and the visuals are so tight. I had a chance to call them up on the video phone and have a chat about it so I took it. Joel Klaverkamp: First question is the one that’s probably on everybody’s mind so I’m going to get it out of the way. When did you first learn how to levitate books and make them glow green, do you have to summon demons from the Netherworld for this and is that safe? Karen Asmundson: (laughs) wow. JK: Straight to the chase. KA: I’d say that I borrowed magical powers inherent in BJ Verot. He’s the one with the real magic. JK: He’s the person that directed the video? KA: Yes he is. JK: It’s very cool, it’s kind of creepy and gives me the Ghost Twin vibe for sure. KA: Yeah he totally got it.
JK: Clearly. All right with that one out of the way let’s do backstory time. How did you guys meet and what are your different backgrounds? Jaimz Asmundson: Oh God. (both laugh) KA: What do you remember, Jaimz? Dust off the old brain cells.
JA: Yeah we met at Wellingtons at the Goth Night which we’re totally dating ourselves saying that.
KA: because it’s been closed for a good 15 years. JK: I was there. JA: We had mutual friends and it was the time of mp3. com and I had the internet since I was like 12, I was a big nerd about computers and technology and was pretty excited about this new thing, the internet and Karen didn’t know anything about it. KA: Yeah I had recently discovered email. JA: A friend introduced me to Karen as someone who could help make an mp3.com profile page for her band.
JK: Cool, what was the band at the time?
JK: OK, next question. You both seem to have dedicated yourselves to a unique and well defined aesthetic. How do you describe what you do when normies ask? JA: We played a show in Brandon, and there were a bunch of dudebros there, we thought they hated us but they loved it. They bought a bunch of stuff and one of them compared us to a mix between The Cranberries and Nine Inch Nails. JK: Wow that’s actually not bad. KA: Those would be other artists that everyone would know about. If someone at my work asks I usually say it’s electronic pop music but it’s a little bit scary as if it was written for only Halloween and then they’re like oh ok I can kind of imagine what that would be like. JK: That’s also a pretty accurate description, that works. And if you do say The Cranberries and Nine Inch Nails and you’re talking to a younger person there’s still a very good chance they might not know who that is. So your musical background Karen, I understand, you have an education in music, is that right? KA: Somewhat yeah, I don’t have a degree or anything but I took Royal Conservatory music lessons for a very long number of years, both piano and voice. Actually I was taking them right up to pandemic time but my teacher had to shut down. I tried doing Zoom lessons but it didn’t agree with me unfortunately. JK: And I guess Jaimz, you’ve got a lot of experience with the video programming part of the show that Ghost Twin does? JA: Yeah I think all the experience I have musically is
stuff Karen has taught me over the years. Just from being a nerd, I started using different music software. My dad first got me a computer when I was 14, I just started using the Windows sound recorder and slowing things down and you could paste things in there, and then I found some freeware and I’ve just been playing around with this stuff. I’m still kind of learning from Karen what chords are.
KA: A common question is “I’ve got these chords, are there any other chords that would go well with them?” so I’ll help him with those kinds of things and then Jaimz is brilliant with sound design and production so I will write something complicated and clunky with bad sounds and get that to Jaimz and he’ll be oh boy, all right, I’ll make this into something but it might take a while.
JK: Oh yeah, I remember Querkus.
JK: That carries into the next question, which is not really a question, but just maybe talk about the writing process and the recording process for this record.
JA: Then we just started hanging out, and hanging out
JA: We didn’t mix the record, we got this person named
KA: It was called Querkus.
more.
KA: Then I invited you out for a date to see Jello Biafra. JA: And the reason for that was you wanted to make sure I wasn’t some…
KA: Some kind of right wing asshole? JA: Which I’m not. KA: No, he’s not. He passed the test. JK: He passed the vibe check with Jello Biafra. So what’s it like being Winnipeg’s coolest celebrity couple then? KA: (both laugh) I don’t know you can ask them, whoever they are.
JA: Yeah, that’s definitely not us.
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Valentin Huchon to do it. He worked with this other artist Das Mörtal that Karen sang guest vocals on one of his songs and we just liked that sound and we thought this guy just really gets this sound and would do a really bang up job with mixing this record.
KA: He helped take it a few steps more into that world than we’re able to produce ourselves. JA: I have an Access Virus TI 2 that I found at a ridiculously low price in Toronto. KA: You screamed like a 6 year old girl. JA: I was so excited, it was half the price but I still
tried to Winnipeg style haggle them “would you take 200 dollars less?” And they were like “no, you’re already getting a deal!”
JK: What is a song you’ve always wanted Ghost
Twin to cover? JA: We talk about this all the time. KA: We have very polar opposite ideas of what would be a good song. JA: We went on tour with this band NITE from Texas in 2019 and they had a cover of Sweet Dreams and I was l though Oh, this is a really good idea to do a cover because if you have a style of music that’s really hard to classify for people, if they hear that they can clearly associate it and be like “oh, so they’re like this but different in this other way.” KA: But we just can’t make a decision. We’re just going to have to use one that’s important to us and do two covers that way everyone’s happy. It’s just a lot of work. Actually we have a surprise cover, possibly debuting later this year but it’s not like a normal cover at all, it’s pretty bizzaro. JK: What would be one of your picks Karen? KA: I like the idea of covering songs that are super well known to the point of being annoying and then reproducing them to make them really interesting. I want to do some late 90s or early 2000s dance pop. JA: Like what? KA: I wanted to do that really annoying one from Night at the Roxbury. JA: (sings) What is Love? Baby don’t hurt me. KA: I want to do that song because I think it would really confuse people but it’d be a lot of fun.
JK: I can hear it, I think it’d be good. JA: There’s actually one song I was trying to cover and it went horribly wrong. It was the new theme to the remake of Suspiria that Thom Yorke wrote. I almost did the whole thing and then I played it for Karen and then I realized this is a bad idea, I shouldn’t do this. JK: If Ghost Twin was one of those 80s cartoon characters that had a tagline, what would that tagline be? (long uncomfortable silence) JA: Like the bad guys in the show or the good guys? JK: Whatever you want. (more silence) JA: One time I had this dream. There was a talking bear
that drove a car. He got really depressed and turned to drugs and became suicidal and ended up in a mental hospital and his girlfriend came to visit him and it was Karen and I was the bear and I still had my car but they had put it out of commission so I could just pretend I was driving it and when I would go to drive it I would go “ZIPPITY DO!”
KA: Let’s just go with that. JK: That far exceeded my expectations, that was a tough question and you absolutely nailed it. Next question, if hypothetically speaking, Hamlet is right and nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so, what has been a good thing about the pandemic for you? KA: Spending time with the dog. JA: I don’t think she’s ever been happier because I’ve been working at home pretty much every single day. JK: This will be remembered as the golden year for dogs. JA: Every pet is just ecstatic right now about the situation. I’ve definitely developed a language with her which is kind of becoming bizarre because I know what
she’s thinking all the time, I know what she wants. . KA: He knows all the small variances in dog language.
JA: So that’s one thing, I’ve learned to speak dog. JK: It’s a bit of a head trip realizing dogs understand language pretty well they just can’t form words. KA: It’s more like psychic prompts. JK: So you have a telepathic connection with the dog. KA: I think I found that I care a lot less about stuff. Before I would think maybe I should buy a new shirt because my clothes are not looking so good but now I really don’t care, why do I need anything? JK: Consumerism all around has gone down, people just don’t spend like they used to. I know I don’t, I don’t leave the house so what am I going to spend money on? JA: I think I realized how precious time is too, getting stuck in this loop and endless cycle of 9 to 5 and wishing my time away, wishing it was the weekend. It sounds cheesy but every moment is precious and I’ve found myself really analyzing everything like “why am I doing this certain thing that doesn’t make me happy and just going along with it? I have the power to change that situation or just remove myself from it completely.”
JK: It will be interesting to see if that takes hold on a societal level because everybody is getting more reflective about what they value from all of the increased isolation. Coming out of this maybe that will be a positive thing who knows. KA: There’s potential for lots of positives about it. The way
things were kind of going in 2019 it felt out of control before the pandemic happened.
JK: That’s true. How do you feel doing what you do
JA: We don’t really know any different. We’ve both lived here most of our lives. It has its advantages and disadvantages. There’s no-one doing what we’re doing so we’re unique in that way and if we were in a bigger city there might be more people doing similar type things and we may get lost in the shuffle I don’t know. It’s definitely hard to put on a show when there are only 2 or 3 other bands that are complementary but then it opens up more opportunities to play with bands that sound nothing like us. KA: That’s kind of a Winnipeg thing too to have a multi
band night where they don’t all sound the same and that’s ok.
JA: The nice thing about that is people’s musical tastes
are quite varied, they’re not into just one sound and here it’s not possible to be into just one sound because you’d be watching the same 3 bands over and over again.
JK: What part of the world do you think understands Ghost Twin the best? KA: Moncton? JK: I did not expect that. KA: We’ve had really interesting shows all over Canada and the US you never really know where it’s going to connect. There’s people who are into it everywhere you go as long as we’re smart enough to reach out to them so they know that we’re coming to their town. JK: Now I miss touring. Alright last question, what are your post pandemic hopes and dreams for this new album?
KA: We definitely want to get back out on the road. We’re not sure when we’ll be able to do that exactly just yet. We’re hearing that just because no one has been touring for at least a year now virtually the hope and dream of possibly touring in spring 2022 may not happen because there’s so many tours being booked for that time venues are just going to be slammed. Not really sure when we’ll be able to do that again but as soon as it seems feasible we’re definitely there. JA: Yeah there’s like 4 times as many bands wanting to tour at the same time now and I don’t know how many venues have shut down so there’s less places to play and 4 times as many people wanting to play. We’ve always wanted to go to Europe and Mexico. KA: We get a lot of sales and streams in South and Central America and in Europe so we have our sites on doing some touring there if possible. Hopefully they’ve all supported their venues in the off season trying to keep them alive. That’s something we’ve done, at possibly the detriment of our health, is eating a lot of Magic Bird. JA: The one we really want to be there after this is the
Handsome Daughter so we’ve been eating Magic Bird way too often.
KA: They’re probably wondering “how are you guys still alive?” JK: And I bet the audiences are going to be super hungry. KA: I hope so. JK: I know I will be. JA: At my work we were talking about that, are people going to be cautious or is it going to be a big party for the next decade? I hope it’s the big party. JK: Me too.
Jorge Requena Ramos
The last few years have been arts filled for Jorge Raquena Ramos. From perpetuating the 70’s Mexican sounds in his band to working as a filmmaker, it seemed nothing but fitting for him to become the Artistic Director at the WECC (West End Cultural Centre). Even though Jorge was occupying a new job post shortly before a pandemic crisis, he was able to easily transition into the role due to some of his prior experiences off-screen. “I consider myself lucky to be in this role during this time because I was able to use the years of TV production experience to pivot our programming accordingly. We were amongst the first to be ready with high quality online concerts in June last year. We have produced over 70 shows now and we plan to continue this. Navigating the pandemic has indeed been strange, but we want to be here for people when it’s time to come back to in-person shows. We are taking steps to come back with a force!” Fast forward to two years at the WECC: Jorge is appreciative of the work they continue to accomplish when it comes to providing a deeper understanding of music and culture. He also acknowledges that his occupation is much more than just booking and organizing events in Winnipeg. “The WECC has always been a beacon for cultural unity. Now with an anti-Racist/anti-oppressive mandate we are making efforts to help the people who live close to us. To celebrate our cultural wealth as Winnipeggers, Manitobans and Canadians. This job is about so much more than concerts. The WECC is a reflection of Winnipeg’s soul and we want to ensure that reflection includes everyone.” Requena Ramos was born and raised in Mexico City. When he immigrated to Canada to further his horizons in filmmaking, he also attempted to share his country’s music identity through his band’s repertoire. The Mariachi Ghost features Jorge on lead vocals, and they perform tracks that blend Spanish and English lyrics. The intent
behind the band is to present more of his culture to his local community and beyond. “The Mariachi Ghost was my first effort to try to build a new system of cultural appreciation. When we created The Mariachi Ghost, every member of the band made an effort to see, feel, understand, and musicalize this rich cultural background and we think of this as a success. We poured over many cultural details for years and tried to show them to audiences in hopes that they would understand why those details are so important to the Mexican people.” The singer detailed the importance of confronting cultural stereotypes. Despite Canada being a multicultural country, he felt that there was a lot that people didn’t know about the place he grew up in. Due to this, Jorge saw himself in the position of filling in the gaps in regards to his home country. “When our audiences have misconceptions about our cultures, not explaining those misconceptions becomes a disservice to us and to them. We were lucky to have represented Canada in international stages wearing a Mariachi suit…We also had to fight against cultural appropriation, racism and stereotypes and developed an understanding of “cultural mutual appreciation’ with other artists like us. Now that concept is guiding our work. We do it for others, so they also have a platform to showcase their culture. “ When Stylus asked him about the inspiration behind The Mariachi Ghost’s folk-led tunes, Jorge said there were too many to count. Yet, he revealed that it wasn’t the Brit-pop and blues he listened to growing up that stood out. It was his grandfather’s guitar fiddling and his mother’s singing lessons that gave the ultimate spark. “When I moved to Canada, I missed the substance of music. The soul of what my grandfather did with his raspy voice and his out of tune guitar. I wanted that back, so I made it. I focused on listening to the sultry singers
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of Mexico. Chavela Vargas, Lucha Villa, Jose Alfredo Jimenes. People who understood pain and longing. And crafted that into modern songs.” As mentioned before, Jorge has a foot in multiple creative avenues, including film. This enabled him to combine both his passion for storytelling within the lenses with his music side in an exciting project. At the end of our interview, he revealed that The Mariachi Ghost have been working on a short film, which will be out soon. “We are releasing a short film in the next couple of months and we are also releasing a symphonic instrumental track to celebrate the film’s release. Stay tuned!”
PHOTO: JASON POTURICA
ISABELLA SOARES
being Winnipeg based? Winnipeg has big enough population to have a couple of thriving scenes like an earnest indie pop rock scene and a punk and hardcore scene and then an “other” scene for everything else.
June / July 2021 Stylus Magazine
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Mourning Kipp Kocay, brilliant Winnipeg songwriter
CONRAD SWEATMAN This article was published originally in Cups N Cakes, and is reprinted with their permission. Kipp Kocay, Winnipeg musician, passed away in early April at 34. His loss represents our loss of one of the most original and sophisticated singersongwriters the prairies has produced in years. This is not hyperbole. High praise is almost always in high supply after an artist’s untimely death. And, to be frank, within Kipp’s whopping body of work (he released five albums, with a sixth written but unrecorded) there are ephemeral tunes; charming ones written when he was still a kid where guitar work is patchy and Dashboard Confessional influences had yet to entirely give way to deeper stuff. Less memorable ones, a few years later, where the tropes of wine, women and song are piled on a bit heavy. But Kipp, as he matured, also wrote some unforgettable tunes. That’s something that can be said about very, very few musicians. At his best, he crafted songs as fine as classics by John K. Samson and Lenny Breau. And he sang them beautifully, with a soulful voice hoarse from heartache (real or vicarious) and decades of late nights. His passing is devastating for those closest to him, and Kipp had many dear friends. However, Winnipeg has yet to reckon with what a void his loss leaves in our artistic community. Kipp wrote some unforgettable tunes, but unforgettability must often still defend itself against obscurity. Last week I sent an email to a veteran local music critic to inform them of Kipp’s passing. I included a link to his 2011 album Knowledge of Love. They agreed with me that he showed brilliance, although admitted he wasn’t really on their radar. I don’t bring this up to embarrass anyone. Indeed, until Kipp’s passing, I admit even I hadn’t dug back to Knowledge of Love, from his catalogue’s middle years. Judging by the album’s number of streams, too few have. Written when he was 24, Knowledge is just Kipp, a guitar, and a curious lack of reverb. At its best, where it stays for most of the album, it’s an exceptional work of a singersongwriter that the jealous musician in me resists accepting was recorded live by someone shy of 25. I’ve listened to Knowledge of Love about 20 times in the past couple weeks. Throughout, I’ve tried to stay objective about, and personally detached from, my late peer’s work. This would seem like a callous exercise under the tragic circumstances if the album didn’t emerge more impressive upon each listen, and my affection and respect for Kipp greater. It shows a prodigious grasp of jazz, folk, and country’s forms and grammars. And Kipp is always there, his personality too strong to be overwhelmed by his looming influences. Take songs like “Oceans of Blue” or “Moon-struck Blues,” throwbacks to melancholic jazz ballads of the ‘40s and ‘50s. There’s something quaint about a 24-year-old man working in this old-fangled style at a moment when indie rock still reigned supreme. Almost campy. But these ballads are delivered, in Kipp’s enviable and husky bari-
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PHOTO: AARON JOHNSTON tone, with as much sex and charisma as anything Broken Social Scene or Arcade Fire were singing at the time. They’re also a whole lot better than many of their tunes. A whole lot better, even, than some of the standards canonized by the jazz songbook. That so few Winnipeggers have nevertheless heard Knowledge of Love is one of the best refutations of musical meritocracy I can think of. Before further waxing lyrical about Kipp, I should admit to my interpersonal biases both for (and somewhat against) him. I first met Kipp when I was 17. He was an established member of the first circle of artists, or wannabe artists, I was ever introduced to. These new friends delighted me the first year I knew them. They offered refuge to a longhaired stoner like me from Kelvin High School’s hierarchies lorded over by tall Crescentwood kids wearing Roxy and Juicy apparel. I remember sharing one of the hardest laughs of my life with Kipp in the kitchen of Winnipeg West End home, surrounded by other budding musical talents like Stefan Braun and Aaron Johnston. I can’t remember the joke’s lowbrow details, but I remember Kipp kept it riffing, like the good improviser he was, until I couldn’t breathe. I also remember thinking that this cravatwearing guitarist (Kipp, I mean), who chided me for my lack of knowledge of Hemmingway while drinking wine straight from the bottle, could be a bit of a blowhard. A wit and a near-whiz at the guitar – but did this South End kid have to out-bohemian us at every turn? I gradually receded from that circle of friends owing to grudges, mine and others’, that by now (I hope) have lost all feeling. At that age, love triangles can proliferate within friend groups so much they start to resemble valknuts. I re-befriended Kipp over a decade later, after I moved back to Winnipeg. He was a close friend of a close friend. So, it was only a matter of time before one of us, being jesting and jousting types, cornered the tipsier one at a party for verbal sparring. When that happened, I confronted someone who seemed at once improved and sadder. Improved certainly as a musician. Country, jazz, rock, blues: you name it, the guy could play it on the guitar. He had a cool, new album under his belt, Heart like Mine, though he seemed quieter, more modest and self-deprecating. He still wore scarves and sang about wine (occasionally en Franglais) but his virtuosic drinking skills justified that motif. And even when he traded in old love songs’ lyrical tropes, he was infected with humour and self-parody (hear “Steely Biceps,” for instance). Modesty is supposed to be a virtue, but it’s often purchased by unpleasant experiences: artistic rejection, breakups, fall out from unsustainable lifestyle habits, dead-end jobs. Kipp had experience with those things. After working a slew of grinding jobs, Kipp had taken a job as a cook at Ruby West’s. I gather he’d come to really enjoy it, and was good at it. Of course it wasn’t his calling, though you wouldn’t have heard him making such com-
plaints. Kipp also played popular shows at venues like Forth and the Times Change(d), often doing covers of Tom Waits or Elvis Costello. These shows were lively and well received, but didn’t much address Kipp’s biggest professional problem: his growing songbook remained under-recognized outside his friends and a tight, devoted circle of fans. “Kipp always had a group of people there at his shows just to see him. And there were definitely people who wanted him to play his originals,” says Matthew Rajfur, a lifelong friend and band-mate of Kipp’s. “But it gets tiring playing your own tunes and worrying whether people will show up. So the covers were less pressure. Still, we had lots of fun and never played anything note for note.” Kipp seemed bored by the self-promotional tools that can feel like a must for getting ahead today in the Canadian music industry: grant-writing, social media advertising, loud displays of one’s progressive stances more hashtagged than they are sincere. (I’m told he once proclaimed Winnipeg to be his biggest ambition, a sentiment both touching and depressing for a talent as fine as his.) His sharp wit seemed to aim inward more than before. “Every traffic ticket, every bill… just obstacles in the way of me buying some new cowboy boots,” reads a self-satirizing Facebook post by Kipp this past February. “The next person who calls me a curmudgeon is getting a kiss,” reads another from around the same time. Kipp was known for his loyal, almost doting friendships. “He wasn’t driven by ideologies, but he was driven by people,” says Aaron Johnston, a close friend of Kipp’s since childhood. “And more than simply “people”, it was individuals around which his values revolved… Kipp had many dear friends, and one of his virtues was his way of making them all feel special, the centre of his affection.” Matthew Rajfur seconds this sentiment: “Even if I hadn’t seen him in a while, he always made me feel like the prettiest girl at the dance.” Ultimately, Kipp’s bohemianism – I think there’s no other way to describe it – didn’t seem like a snooty challenge to us basic folk with more basic middle-class aspirations. Rather it seemed like a lifeworld he was creating for himself and a select few where things like beauty, mischief, revelry, conversation, and, in particular, friendship were paramount. (And maybe puzzles, “babes”, and shitposting too.) Kipp boasted to someone I know that “pleasure” was his only guiding principle, but this seems partially like an effort by Kipp to promote his image as an aesthete. As Aaron reflects, “Kipp maintained an almost stubborn code of ethics when it came to his relationships, and what it meant to be a true friend. Relationships were everything for him.” It’s my impression that Kipp conquered his youthful pretence like most real artists do: by not just discarding the early posturing, but by authentically becoming the personas he emulated in his distinct way. Kipp mastered what at first sometimes seemed like cliché, he became the real deal. But it
took time. His first album So Wired Up (2006) is fun, and features some nifty, jazzy math rock on the acoustic guitar. It’s a poignant trip down memory lane for anyone who hung out with him in that era, and evokes the loves and longings I experienced and shared with those in my adolescent circles and Kipp’s. It’s also a spectacle of teenage vulnerability over loads of mashed open chords and power chords; in other words, pretty standard emo stuff. At one point this wired up performance of emotional insecurity becomes sort of self-referential, questioning the performer’s sincerity. “I’m a whore and a harlot, a lush and a charlatan,” he sings in a nicely alliterative line. “Why should I hope for someone as heavenly as you, girl?” He seems to fess up that the soft boi shtick is a continuation of horniness by other means, and hopes it will seduce anyway. Contrast So Wired Up’s chest-torn-openness with the more Apollonian sweet talk of later songs:
that, like Red House’s hero, he was a working guy. He laboured long hours not just as a gigging musician, but at the real blue-collar vocations. He did sing out of time and out of tune sometimes, but I didn’t mind and nor would you. His loves were legendary, and his deep if critical affection for Winnipeg and the prairie environment made him one of their ideal poetic reporters. Kipp was a romantic in the corny and the classical sense, which is to say in the term’s full sense. Although it wasn’t just the warm and fuzzy tropes surrounding the romantic artist that applied to Kipp. The tragic ones did too: self-destructive lifestyle choices, an untimely death, inadequate recognition in his lifetime. At his poppiest, Kipp wrote several songs that could have been hits for John Mayer. (A much harder feat than it sounds.) At his most sophisticated, he wrote the stuff of stan-
dards – songs like those mentioned and “Prisoner of Love,” “Apple Blossom Tree,” and “Don’t Love You” among others. There is a casualness, sometimes even clumsiness, to their production that will throw off those who prefer the totalizing engineering style that prevails over today’s pop music. But the songwriting, that endangered art, is there with these tunes. They should be heard and are begging to be covered. Kipp is missed terribly, and remembering him will be effortless for most who knew him. But it will be a struggle – against ignorance, against inertia, against stupidity – to ensure his music achieves at least part of the wider legacy it deserves.
“Give me a heart that’s golden, give me a silver dream, give me Mercury’s sandals and Michael’s wings, give me your bitter tear drops and the dew from a rose, and let me plant a kiss upon your little nose, and give me love, real love, right now” - “Spanish Dream” (2014) “I’m looking for the woman who rode away, tell me stranger, did she pass this way? She speaks broken English, and her lips are as red as scarlet sage, and when she sings the songs from her homeland, the mavis hides his head in shame” - “The Woman Who Rode Away” (2014) “A man’s gotta work, and a girl does too, ain’t no secret, everybody know it, it’s just what you gotta do, In that red house they would, stay up late drinking wine, he’d play his guitar for her a little off tune, a little out of time, in that red house in the countryside” - “Red House” (2014) Kipp’s still singing here about love, he usually did. But by now he’s developed a command of time-honoured songwriting cadences. He’s learned to sing the blues, name-drop Biblical figures he had faith in as poetic devices, and woo a more mature ear. His eclectic use of old conventions, his mild musical conservatism, could have drowned out his emerging voice. It could have made him insincere or simply postmodern – a mishmash of influences where authenticity resigns itself to the pleasure of playful pastiche. But that wasn’t usually the feel. As far as I know, Kipp never attended university and he rescued himself in the end from snobbery. Still, he possessed a deep appreciation for musical and literary canons, and lifted from them forms and fragments he could reanimate and personalize. I doubt this St. Norbert troubadour would ever have said “ain’t” unironically in conversation (though he might have, say, quoted Rimbaud in line at McDonald’s). However, no one could deny
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June / July 2021 Stylus Magazine
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WINNIPEG STATE OF MIND:
Max Winds NIGEL WEBBER “I promise if you my brother then I just want you to shine” - Mozzy A true general is a born leader and Max Winds leads his Lost Souls Entertainment army by example. Within the last year and a half, the 23 yearold Winnipeg rapper has gone from one of dozens of young artists in the city putting in work at the studio and scratching out a following to pulling serious numbers and attracting significant attention. From the outside, it might appear this success is born from a void but trust that Max Winds has put in years of work to get to where he’s at. Max Winds got into rap at an early age. Born in Windsor, Ontario, Max moved to Winnipeg as a kid, landing in the Garden City area on the north side of town. Describing rappers like DMX and Notorious BIG as some early influences, Max was still a young teenager when he bought his first mic setup and started connecting with the hip-hop community. Drawing inspiration from his birthplace for his rap name (Winds stands for When Impossible Never Doubt Success), Max Winds is now thoroughly invested in his home of Winnipeg, saying, “I’ma keep building my foundation here.” It only makes sense for Max to stay close to the veritable army of rappers, producers, and other collaborators he has built up around him in Winnipeg, including the 17 other members of Lost Souls. While he has connected with a vast array of artists over the years, Max describes the producers he works with as the key to his sound and his success, with Ryan Mendoza and QP Beatz being two names top of mind. Max describes the importance of connecting with the other artists in Lost Souls over making music, pointing out that studio sessions feeling something like a party has allowed some of the younger artists to feel comfortable or welcomed in
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PHOTO: FORTY DIAMONDS an intimidating environment. Overall, that fits the Lost Souls brand of blunts and champagne bottles that Max Winds has dutifully cultivated on social media and in videos. While Max Winds enjoys getting his mind right with a blunt, do not disrespect the man’s work ethic or knowledge of the rap game. Importantly, Max is not only deeply tapped with the under 25 crowd in Winnipeg and beyond, he is able to speak to them in their language, not only meeting them where they are but also giving validity to their lived experiences as a member of their generation. Maybe the most obvious aspect of how Max Winds is bucking past traditions is how his music can be heard. Typically, an artist would put out a single or two, then an EP/mixtape, then an LP. Max is different, saying pointedly, “nobody really listens to your mixtape if they don’t know who you are.” Instead of following the traditional route, Winds is carving a different path, one that sees him dropping a new music video every 4 to 6 weeks. The quality of the offerings always remains high, with Max explaining he’s filmed a handful of videos that were never released due to not reaching his stringent standards. Winds, channelling the rap Marshall McLuhan, describes the importance of visuals, saying, “it gives the audience a different perspective of,” his music, while also connecting with the audience on a platform they’re already frequenting. The final, more practical reason for the volume of videos Max Winds has released is to serve as a balance to the lyrical subject matter he’s presented. Winds explains that: “Most of my songs are talking about some serious ass shit, so sometimes I just want to give the people some funny shit they can laugh at and be, like, oh you’ve got a sense of humour too.” The result is tens of thousands of views on every video on the Max Winds YouTube channel and no signs of slowing down yet.
Despite many quality Max Winds videos out there, one in particular catches the eye, in part because of the featured rapper. In 2020, Max Winds put out “Man Down” featuring YK The Mayor, f.k.a. Young Kidd, one of the city’s premiere veteran street rappers. Max says that he and YK actually first connected when Max was 15 and still figuring out how to rap. He describes writing the song for “Man Down” and visualizing the concept for the video, he couldn’t picture anybody but YK being the feature. But best believe that Max Winds is not done collaborating with other local OGs and young lions alike, saying, “my focus is, I’m going to make it happen with everybody.” And while connecting and collaborating with other artists is a top priority for Max Winds, the reason he’s really out here doing it is for himself, to put his story down in the way he knows how, saying, “I’m not trying to be anybody else.” That authenticity and honesty to himself is the biggest key for Max Winds, proof that he’s not trying to impress anyone through his music, saying, “I’m just trying to tell my story, I’m just putting my pain into my music and trying to paint a picture for everybody.” While Max Winds is busy out here painting pictures with his raps, what he really wants to do is rock a crowd, connect with the fans that really fuck with him. Having only done a few shows as an opener, the pandemic has at once provided Max Winds the opportunity to cook up racks of hot tracks; it has also robbed him of the opportunity to do shows and link up with the people that support him, concluding that, “I can release all this music but I can’t promote it the way that I want to.” As the pandemic wears on with a hopeful end in sight, Winnipeg may soon be rocking to a Max Winds show.
WEED MAN SON
OLIVIA MICHALCZUK
PHOTO: BNB STUDIOS
WEED MAN SON is the second album from Dill the Giant, Winnipeg based rap artist and first generation Jamaican-Canadian. Judging by the name of the album, the most glaringly obvious theme is smoking up, and the album doesn’t fall short at every attempt to fulfill its ethos. “Especially in [the single] ‘Weed Man Son’ we kind of went in on that one, just trying to hit every nook and cranny that we could [...] all kinds of little things, we were trying to, you know, pay homage to being a stoner for sure,” said Dill. “A lot of weed was burnt during those sessions.” However, to say the album is just a dedication to being a stoner in terms of lyricism is far from the full picture. Beat maker and producer BBS Steve goes hard in producing a sonically immersive experience with reggae beats, stereo sound effects, and expertly timed instrumentals that contributes to the immersive experience of smoking a super dopey indica, the artists’ recommended strain pairing for WEED MAN SON. “I’m from the world of heavy couchlock, indica only bro,” said Dill, followed by an admitant “whatever you smoke, whatever you like, as long as you’re getting high.” The album takes you along on a trip to Jamaica;
a trip Dill took to visit with his dad. Each song is bookended with recordings of Dill’s dad, the Weed Man himself, giving sage advice with clinking pipes and bowls, clicking lighters, and big coughs in the background. “He’s just a very carefree kind of guy, you know like a rasta, like a Jamaican dude, real real down to earth, real chill, real humble, loves life you know?” said Dill. “Pretty thankful for what he’s got but doesn’t need too much.” Dill’s dad has been a part of his musical upbringing since he can remember. Some of his earliest musical memories are from preschool age via a mixtape his dad made for him, “just good music from the time, a couple rap songs, a couple Jamaican songs, definitely some oldies that I don’t know, but I respect them” said Dill. The album takes those themes and genres to a new level with a highly recognizable Jamaican influence and culture references as well as samples and found footage. The voice recordings peppered through the album usually bookend a set of songs and either set up a song or transition from one to the other smoothly. “My dad knows we recorded him for
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some reason, in regards to the album, but he doesn’t know what yet” said Dill. “It’s a surprise.” A highlight example of this is also a major contributing factor to the understanding of the album. At the end of “Coogi Sweater” Dill’s dad says “... your company shows who you are, you see? So you guys have always held it … don’t just hold it, you have things to prove, right?” followed by a skeptical “mhm” as if to mimic the nodding heads that are not fully grasping the nug of wisdom and expression of love being shared. This transitions to the next song “Going Good FT. EGG,’’ which brings the whole gang back together, “you have things to prove, right?” The local heroes and internationally traveled 3Peat come back for a reunion. BBS, EGG, and Dill the Giant hit hard at their specialties, Dill really digging in to his mellow style while EGG provided his consistently tight style and BBS sets the background right with a proper push and pull with light piano riffs dragged down with deep glass rattling bass hits in all the right places. This is for sure an album highlight. Dill has been making music for such a long time, “The beginning is really blurry, it’s so far back now,” he said. He started taking music more seriously out of highschool trying to achieve the dream and make it in rap, even when perseverance wavered, he still had a hand in making music in some way. “Linking up everyday, getting in the studio, trying to make records,” he said of his dedication to music. “The goal was to be where you see your favorite artist and just kind of tour the world and get all those dope accolades. God bless if it comes with a Grammy and like that extra stuff you see on TV or whatever, but we were just going for it, trying to make our way, still going for it trying to make a living off of this thing we do.” WEED MAN SON is an excellent shot at achieving this goal. Dill the Giant has always rapped with a mellow laid back style, however, WEED MAN SON has allowed him the opportunity to really sink into his signature style with the help of BBS Steve playing with bar shapes and sizes to match with Dill’s loose style. “I’m a chill dude and I’ll always come up with some mellow bars and stuff. I was always that way and I’m developing that in myself more so now” he said. “I’m finding better ways to bring you my mellow style and and just give my piece of mind in the way I talk, in the way I am, you know what I mean? I don’t really try to do too much extra.” “Coogi Sweater” flips back and forth between a lazy chorus, you can sing along without barely moving your mouth, to percussional raps expertly playing with the beat and bar lines. An album highlight for any stoner is only realizing that the instrumentals are completely reduced to ambient keys once the beat comes back around for the chorus. Dill admittedly credits a lot of stylistic choices to the skills of his long time collaborator BBS Steve. “It’s insane what he does.”
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The album is good ass vibey song after good ass vibey song with no gaps in consistency on the BSIDE. Dill focused on honesty with this album, speaking to experiences he knows and trying to steer clear of the uncomfortable vibes that come with telling inauthentic stories. His recent influences going into the making of WEED MAN SON were a lot of “wordy New York rappers,” a fun combination with the laid back beats and mellow vibes that have become Dill’s true signature style. “Morning Dew” really shows off Dill’s dedication to this style and proves it’s by choice while demonstrating his ability to provide tight on the beat raps before slipping back to his playful mellow rhythm. “I think that’s one of my favourite songs I ever made,” he said. By the time the album reaches the last song, “Scorsese,” you are fully primed to feel the full im-
pact of Dill’s style, almost completely stripped down with undefinable bars. He’s telling his story to his own rhythm, how he wants to tell it and it’s incredibly powerful and a perfect way to round out an album that fully scours every facet of Dill’s style. The Weed Man torch has been passed down, as Dill is also a brand new father himself, to a baby girl who he proudly showed off to me while meeting over Zoom. “She does her thing, she’s cool.” Dill is passing on the type of music that was passed down to him from his father and also heavily inspired his tastes throughout life, reflected on the album. “I play a lot of my stuff I guess, a lot of oldies as well. I tried to give her kind of what I had growing up so a lot of old Jamaican stuff is being played, some like just good vibe stuff you know? None of this rah-rah these youngsters are doing now.”
ckuWho?
Sounds Like Music Sundays With Dave Guenette 8:00-9:00 PM when listening to a radio program. The unexpected shift in the music is exciting and entertaining. I also like to sprinkle in some light humour in between songs, as a way to avoid the show from becoming too serious. Music is supposed to be fun, after all. It’s not all jokes, though. I also like to share information about songs, whether it’s interesting facts or the stories behind the songs. Listeners will feel informed and entertained at the end of the show. What got you into the music you now love and play on your show?
WORDS & PHOTO: STYLUS STAFF How would you describe your radio program? A music library on shuffle. When you listen to Sounds Like Music, you’ll never know what’s coming up next. Musical curveballs are the name of the game here, because I always enjoy being surprised
08 Stylus Magazine June / July 2021
When I was young I used to listen to a lot of different genres of music. I was really into prog rock and I always liked the various kinds of music that were fused together. Listening to artists like King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and Yes made me explore other genres such as jazz, classical, and electronic. My friends were also big into punk and metal, and I always used to listen to mainstream radio to hear all the latest bands. I was a musical sponge then and I still am today, and I like to share that with other people.
Passing down knowledge was one of the driving factors of the album and a lesson taught by his dad. “My dad’s really big on leaving stuff for the youth and passing down knowledge to the youth and sharing experiences regardless of what they were,” he said. “Good or bad, you know? Ugly or pretty, share all the nitty gritty kind of thing you know what I mean? So that was part of the driving factor I think too, just having him give this couple pieces made me feel like I should share this with everybody else,” Dill said. “I feel like my dad’s kinda like just like the voice everybody needs to have. I’m beyond fortunate to have my dad as my dad.”
How do you discover new music? One of the best things about modern technology is that it’s so easy to discover new music. Whether that’s recommendations from a streaming service, new music posted on online forums, or social media posts from local artists, there’s so many interesting artists out there waiting to be discovered. A lot of people use the cliché “no one makes good music anymore”, which is simply untrue. The “good music” isn’t going to be found on mainstream sources anymore. You have to do a little digging, but I guarantee you there’s a bunch of bands out there that are exactly what you’re looking for. How do you decide what to play each week? I try to strike a balance between local, Canadian, and international artists. Sometimes I’ll do a theme for the show, but if I’m just picking random songs, I try to look at the flow of the playlist. I like to see which artists sound good when played back-toback, and even if it’s a big shift musically from one song to the next I try to find a way to justify that. Maybe they were released around the same time, showing a snapshot of music at the time, or maybe there is a common theme between the two songs, making them an unlikely but complimentary duo. What are your aspirations for the show? When I was playing in bands in Winnipeg, I was always grateful to all the radio hosts who played our music and gave us time to talk about our ideas and feelings about music. I love playing local artists to give them a spotlight, and maybe someone listening will discover a local artist they really like and can support directly. I also like to play local artists alongside more established Canadian and international acts of all genres, to show that it doesn’t matter what you sound like or how successful you are, music is made to be played alongside other music, and maybe people will realize there aren’t as many differences between the genres as we think.
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Local Spotlight
AMOS THE KID NO MORE NEW IDEAS While the feeling of being left behind is not endemic to the modern age, there is a special brand of modern apprehension about one’s place in the world-- perhaps the lovechild, if you will, of the pandemic and social media age. With limited physical interactions it is easy to get mired down by our lives. Suddenly, every trivial issue in our life makes it seem like all the problems in the world belong only to us. The grass has never looked greener, apparently. With No More New Ideas Amos Nadlersmith of Amos the Kid departs from the comparatively lighthearted larking of his first EP to tackle a denser subject matter. The collection of somber lyrics is complimented by a shift in sound to a moodier guitar and growing bass presence which produce an overall heavier tone to the EP. But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little change!
It’s exciting to hear Amos the Kid develop acoustically, and fans of his first EP Mountain View will certainly find breadcrumbs of it in No More New Ideas. While less boppy than his earlier release, the rhythms are indeed catchy and I was delighted to hear the vocal reunion of Nadlersmith and Jensen Fridfinsson yet again. Far from being completely crestfallen, lyrics artfully present a realistic and neutral bitterness, a circling restlessness of insecurity and anxiety exemplified in “Alright” with lines such as “and my feet, they are moving in a sequence”. Or the exasperated smirk we hear repeated in the track “I Don’t Really Know Why”: “everybody will be walkin’ their dogs tonight”. Moments of solace do shine through observational honesty. These songs represent a search for satisfaction rather than a search for change, as is apparent in “You Make It So Easy”. The point is, satisfaction is not always easy to find. While a bonfire at the park or time in the woods offer refuge from the eroding grind of everyday worries, “September Song” hints that even a cherished retreat is not immune to being overshadowed by heaviness. At a glance No More New Ideas can lean towards being cheerless, but it’s not so much about rain as it is about chasing sunlight through the clouds. Margaret Banka
Ulteriors
also performs on keyboards, violin and harp. The album was produced by Vanessa Cardui, and she also contributes to the musical content of this album with backup vocals, banjo, lute, recorder, glockenspiel and various percussion instruments. Additional musicians contributing to this album are Dorothy Bishop on cello, Aaron Young on electric guitar, and Brent van Dusen on drums. Sora delineates her new album by SORA stating “Ghostlines is an album of GHOSTLINES hauntings; the lingering memories, stories and experiences that hold us Ghostlines is the latest album from captive, good or bad. It is the echoing Calgary singer, musician and songwriter reverberations of decisions made by us Sora. This album includes ten new for us.” songs penned by Sora, and in addition As I listened to this album what to lead vocals and backup vocals, Sora really grabbed my attention were the
10 Stylus Magazine June / July 2021
TIRED COSSACK СЕЛО (SELO) EP Село (Selo) is the second EP to come from Tired Cossack, AKA Stiv Halas. Meaning “village” in Ukrainian (yes, I did have Google translate that,) the title sets the conceptual tone for the EP. A village provides a binate metaphor which can be soothing and stifling all at once: a support system of love, kinship, and friendship on one hand, but also a small, stagnant coop. Appropriately set to the catchy and disarming charms of lo-fi bedroom rock, Selo speaks of the ebb and flow of feelings that flourish in this paradoxical landscape of thoughts. The opening track “Solitaire” addresses the anxiety-riddled state of being caught between the crossfire of starry-eyed design and comfort: “Everytime I look outside/ I can’t move forward/ I just get freaked and I stay”. To stay or to go is the question at hand, which is also echoed in “Bubba”.
stunning vocal harmonies beautifully crafted by Sora and Vanessa. The songs on this album cover a wide range of emotions, each with their own unique character. The accompanying music is a well-crafted palette of timbres and colours, beautifully and emotionally performed by all of the artists involved. I particularly enjoyed “Ghostlines,” “Paris,” “Clay,” “Selkie” and “Away,” but all ten songs are great. The song lyrics are cogent and well thought-out, and the instruments chosen for each song are tastefully utilized and do not overshadow the vocals. Some unique instrumentation is used throughout this recording, including glockenspiel, ocean drum, udu, and wood block. On her previous albums Sora primarily utilized a guest violinist, but on this
Escapism, something we are all familiar with these days, drives the quixotic climax in Selo, which manifests in “Dollywood”. The increasing tempo of the track transports the listener from mundane loneliness early on (“Me and myself/ Stuck here”) to the ultimate destination (“The glowing lights/ Dollywood.”) Halas admirably maintains the conflict between “here” and “there” by interjecting the lyrics about the grandiose Dollywood with morsels of a less glamorous reality, and you wonder if Dollywood is really all it’s cut out to be: “Eatin’ my meals/ At the gas station/ When your friends are gone”. Halas effectively waters down all notions of schoolboy idealism particularly by illustrating the loss that lines the underbelly of yearning. This is heard in “XV”, a layered and dreamy track about conflicting heartsongs and regret, with the echoing lyric, “This is a mess now”. However, if the rest of the EP is about being pulled away, listeners will certainly feel the pull to come home to the immense nostalgia heard in the final track “Purple Tornados”. The level of tenderness-- a reminder of the original “here”-- completes the circle of diverse shifts of longing within the EP, filling the listener with the desire to be somewhere else, and nowhere else. Село (Selo) is available on Bandcamp for download and on cassette. Margaret Banka
album she performed the violin parts herself, and she adeptly demonstrates that she can handle this part beautifully. Sora is a great songwriter, and this album showcases her growth as a musical artist. This truly is an album of hauntings as Sora herself expressed. With the album’s top-notch production and sound quality also considered, Sora has created a wellcrafted musical masterpiece. John Iverson VAN ALLEN SMALL ECLIPSE, DIGITAL LOVE THANG, and TERRAVOSSIS-M Experimental electro-pop artist Van Allen has been busy over the past few
months. With two releases in April and one in March, this already prolific musician has solidified a synthetic, drum machine sound and style. SMALL ECLIPSE Their first release this year, Small Eclipse is an explorative electronic study in groove-pop sensibilities. The phat synthesizer basslines and 90’s dance drum loops fall into place with ease with expert mixing and production. Familiar hooks ring out on “Fire of Your Love,” surrounded by plip-plop synth sequences drenched in reverb. Ethereal voices melt across ambient loops, layers stacked to the sky on “Dancer in the Window at Night” – the repeating loop rhythmically mimicking the syllables of the song’s title. Small Eclipse’s final song is an epic slow rock, titled “Phosphereous Exploratus”. The track paints with bright, intersecting synth lines, chiming, layering, and tumbling as vocoder lines double the vocal tracks all the way to the slow fade that finishes the half-hour LP. DIGITAL LOVE THANG Van Allen’s second release of 2021 waivers between styles that would resonate with fans of Gorillaz and J.J. Fad. The opener, “Level 14” could be off the soundtrack to a side-scrolling beat-em-up like TMNT Turtles in Time. Van Allen drives songs forward with unique sequences while distorted guitar-like riffs bend and scream, sending shivers down the spine. This LP’s title track is a smooth song for smooth romance. This is one instance where you can really hear the Gorillaz, especially in the falsetto vocals – raspy and soulful, again backed by vocoders in some spots. Sustained synthesizer lines are the peak on this track, perhaps inspired by the synth lines of classic hip hop jams. Van Allen’s timing is perfect throughout this album, never leaving the looped sections too stale; new ideas are introduced and reintroduced at each turn. TERRAVOSSIS-M This EP contains the most effective drops out of Van Allen’s three releases this year. The opening track, “Paradice” builds with layered and echoing pads that drop out right before the soaring lead hook takes hold of the song, earworming its way straight into the listeners’ hippocampus. Terravossis-M feels almost tropical – relaxing and engaging in all the right ways with (if I can get away with using this term) summer vibes. “Cloud9” introduces digital, randomized rhythmic pads that are emphasized by some of the most dance-inspired drum lines in Van Allen’s arsenal. The final track,
“Corner Of Earth”, is the most organic of all Van Allen’s tracks throughout this year’s three releases, and is possibly the magnum opus of the trilogy. A nostalgic, clean electric guitar line opens the song, which kicks into gear with distant beating of hands on wood and a twangy harp-like sound – maybe a mandolin? A far cry from the rest of Van Allen’s discography. This track is the most lyrically rich as well, wistfully recalling distant connections. The composition is bookended by the same guitar line which opened the track, allowing the song to come to rest with a firm sense of closure. Ryan Haughey
FOUR DIVIDED BY THREE AND WHATEVER’S LEFT TO SEE ETHAN LYRIC Ethan Lyric’s new album Four Divided by Three and Whatever’s Left to See is an interesting blend of melancholy lyrics over up-beat acoustics. This combination comes together to create a sardonic twist to the strong sitting-bythe-campfire, intimacy of the acoustic music. The lyrics and the themes of many of the songs make you have to listen closely to fully discover and see the greater story and the punchline, which elevate the songs and create new meanings. Many of the songs speak honestly and angrily about break ups, moving on and building a new perspective; while others jump to themes of death and things slowly getting worse. There’s a level of cynicism that underlines the album. It’s a twisted cynicism that is probably uplifted and redefined through the optimism of Ethan’s voice and the buoyancy of the guitar stylings. Most of the songs are short, not much longer than a minute; except for the last song “Settled for You” which spans over three minutes. Otherwise, the songs read as spontaneous musings, beautifully drawn out over the soft, homey sound of the guitar. The album begins with “The Organ Song” which plays with our relationships to our anatomy. Ethan sings, “Won’t you ask your fancy organs what they want you to do? Just your little dancing stomach and your intestines all wrapped up.” The lyrics bounce along in a bright, happy tone and then take a turn quickly to our
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mortality. He sings, “Will you be ready when your soul starts leaving and your body can’t protect from the ones who infest.. All those nasty little parasites gonna eat you.. Just like the rest.” The lyrics again spring out happily and playfully. The song introduces the album and signals that lyrics and instruments will compliment each other in an interesting way, and you must listen closely to hear the little nuances and changes in the lyrics hidden by the cheerful sound. After “Organ Song,” the album moves to songs that seem to be about a break up, moving on- or waiting for an expartner to move the hell away. The last of the break up songs is “Twenty Four Hours,” which is a short song about the speaker’s survival, and the speaker anxiously anticipating the leaving of someone. The song stays cheerful and upbeat. The song reads as deeply personal and the feeling transcends into something more intimate and relatable through the simple harmony and the emotion in Ethan’s voice; which can be said for the whole album. “Twenty Four Hours”, as well as the other songs that seem to chronicle a break up (most obviously “Your Friends” and “Moving Away”) read as deeply personal journal entries on survival, anger and changing perspectives. There seems to be an immense amount of healing that occurs throughout the creation of the album and there’s a level of that catharsis that transcends to the listener through the relatability and the honesty of the content. The final song, “Settled For You” is my personal favourite and speaks on the same themes of mortality, love and a brazen honesty. The song is about settling for a person, wanting more, but choosing safety over destiny. It’s about the great conundrum of staying with someone who brings safety, but not fulfillment; or choosing to risk being alone to find someone better. The track features Tuva Bergstrom, and the two harmonize together wonderfully, adding more to the melancholic theme of the album- while staying very sweet sounding. The lyrics are poetic and beautiful, “Like Saturn’s rings your moving ‘round my mind. You’re nothing good to look at, not like the stars in the sky.” The lyrics are slightly snarky - adding to the sardonic twist of the album as a whole and really eloquently bring the strange, upbeat bleakness of the album to a wonderful close. Overall, the album plays as very happy, upbeat and healing while hidden within the lyrics is an almost comedic cynicism that works to sometimes mock itself. It’s a very fun album to listen to casually and can also be listened to when one needs some of that uplifting music catharsis from the woes of life. Ethan Lyric has created a
very exciting new album that will be sure to be listened to everywhere from socially distanced picnics to household only camping trips this summer. Lily O’Donnell
NICHOLAS KRGOVICH THIS SPRING This Spring from Vancouver’s Nicholas Krgovich is a sixteen track album featuring the music of fellow artist and long time peer Veda Hille. The first single released off of the album, “Plants,” set the entire concept in motion, Krgovich explained in a statement: I had recently played a show in L.A. where we learned her song ‘Plants’ and a lot of people came up to me afterwards being like, ‘What the heck was that Plants song?,’ everyone going to their phones and queueing up ‘Veda Hille’ on their Spotify accounts. So, I was just like, ‘Wait, that’s what I’m gonna do! I’m gonna make a covers album of Veda’s songs!’ And then that was that, I was off to the races… Hille, whose career has spanned more than two decades and includes twenty-three albums, creates music that is theatrical, whimsical, and observational, delivered with such freshness you feel she could be composing it in the moment. After watching a few live videos and listening to some of her recordings I feel like Krgovich captured her vibe and sentiment, while his smooth vocal delivery and melding of electronic and acoustic instruments varies the characters and places we imagine. A standout track is “Lucklucky,” a song about how much we live our lives inside our memories and minds more than reality. “There is the place you know, there is the place you don’t know/ there is where I did this, this is where I did that/it took 30 years to draw this map.” The arrangement combines a modern electronic sensibility with a musical warmth that is mellow but captivating. The album closes with Hille in a breathtaking version of the title track, “This Spring.” It is interesting to hear the composer reimagine her performance over Krgovich’s lush soundscape. Grace Hrabi
June / July 2021 Stylus Magazine
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LA BATTUE GET SET, GO!
DUCKS LTD. GET BLEAK As their home country burns (quite literally) and pandemic fatigue ravages the hearts and minds of most Canadians, Toronto-based Ducks LTD. releases, or re-releases, in this case, an album that is powerfully optimistic in the face of emotional and physical decay. With lyrics that deal with confusion, disappointment, and blatant anger, the sound and overall atmosphere of Get Bleak refuses to surrender to the misanthropic themes present throughout the entire project. With a jangle-pop quality and a danceyour-heart-out attitude, Get Bleak doesn’t sound as though it belongs in the year 2021. Society as a whole feels far too pessimistic for the sonic positivity captured on these seven tracks. Get Bleak recalls a nostalgic era where dream-pop reigned supreme and optimism filled the airwaves. Reminiscent of Darklands era The Jesus and Mary Chain, most songs feature disheartening lyrics colliding with ear-worm infecting guitar riffs that
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reprieve from hardships. “Let’s settle in under that wave and then let it pull the both of us to sea again,” Mcgreevy sings a melancholic metaphor. Get Bleak doesn’t necessarily feel uniquely exceptional, and the majority of it sounds familiar. However, it feels like the album came (re-released)
when we needed it most. It’s a hopeful reminder of how we can grapple with our sorrow and confusion and learn to ultimately find solace in our despair. Myles Tiessen
RESIDUE OF THE RESIDENTS - WORD SEARCH REVIEW BY DAVID TYMOSHCHUK
With only their second EP, trio La Battue offer a sweet but confident brand of indie pop. They bring forward a more polished sound than on their first project, as well as a firmer grip on their style of math-rock infused pop, all with a certain dream pop quality. What may sound like familiar indie pop at first listen reveals more of a subtly complex nature as each bar passes. The driving drums are elaborate, simultaneously serving the song and taking on a life of their own, with the most prominent case being on the second track “Watch Me”. Ellie’s vocals throughout the project are ethereal, without being too fragile, a quality that keeps the listener grounded when they may be tempted to float off to the sound of the dreamy synth lines. The vocal melodies work in perfect contrast with the determined instrumentation, almost like a stream flows over a bed of rocks. This stream, however, knows exactly where it’s going. Hidden in between the layers of more conventional instrumentation are subtle but striking melodic devices, such as the vocal chops used as support behind the lead melody, like on the song “Acrasia,” which add a unique depth and emotion. This technique also adds an almost shoegaze-like density to the song. With their Get Set, Go! EP, La Battue bring to the table a dazzling mix of styles, along with the intricate instrumentation characteristic only of musicians who have spent more than a decade in the music scene around the world, making it one of the unmissable projects of the year. For fans of: Alvvays, Beach House, Florence + the Machine Olivier LaRoche
simultaneously make you want to lay face down on the floor of your bedroom and run outside, embracing a new and exciting world. On “Anhedonia,” lead singer Tom Mcgreevy sings, “A shag vision of an anhedonia future means all the cool teens dreams are stasis” before heartbreakingly auctioning off his talents in alienation- “if you’re ever in the mood to disassociate baby, give me a call.” “Anhedonia” is the band’s strongest song. It features the aforementioned catchy guitar riffs mixed with gloomy lyrics that showcase the band’s non-stop goal to find comfort and peace amid utter despair. The track also features the crown jewel and hallmark of dissolution songwriting by proclaiming, “maybe we should move to the country.” Despite being somewhat of a cliché, the sentiment feels sincere. Within the isolationist narrative are moments of genuine human connection. “As Big as All Outside” reminds us of how powerful music can be; a woman in the apartment next door sings as the DJ spins a 12 inch. It’s that community that brings the protagonist a much-needed
95.9 FM CKUW CAMPUS/COMMUNITY RADIO TOP 30 ALBUMS ( April 2020 - April 2021) !=LOCAL CONTENT * =CANADIAN CONTENT re=RE-ENTRY re= RE-ENTRY TO CHART #
ARTIST
1 Osees 2 Cut Worms 3 Bob Mould 4 Cloud Nothings 5 ! Slow Leaves 6 * Terra Lightfoot 7 ! The Lizards 8 Various Artists 9 ! Silver Clouds 10 Uniform 11 Silver Synthetic 12 * Zoon 13 ! Sean Burns & Lost Country 14 ! Figure Walking 15 El Ten Eleven 16 * Heaps 17 * Pharis & Jason Romero 18 Screamers 19 Osees 20 Boogarians 21 * Black Thunder 22 * Gulfer 23 Takuya Kuroda 24 Wax Chattels 25 Bailterspace 26 ! The Famous Sandhogs 27 Cabaret Voltaire 28 Negativland 29 * The Mastersons 30 * War Baby
RECORDING
Protean Threat
LABEL
Castle Face Nobody Lives Here Anymore Jagjaguwar Blue Hearts Merge The Black Hole Understands Self-Released Shelf Life Birthday Cake Consider the Speed Sonic Unyon The Lizards Eat Em Up Strum and Thrum: The Americ... Captured Tracks Silver Clouds Disintegration Shame Sacred Bones Third Man Out Of The Darkness Bleached Waves Paper Bag We Gotta Lotta Truckin To Do Srtingbreakini Vertical // Horizontal Disintegration Tautology li Joyful Noise What Is Heaps Birthday Cake Bet On Love Lula Screamers Demo Hollywood 1977 Superior Viaduct Panther Rotate Castle Face Manchaca Vol. 1 Overseas Artists La Fine Creata Transistor 66 Gulfer Royal Mountain Fly Moon Die Soon First World Clot Captured Tracks Flying Nun/ Matador Wammo [reissue] Telma Muskwa 2 Self-Released Shadow of Fear Mute The World Will Decide Seeland No Time For Love Songs Redhouse Bummer/Kingfisher Bluez You Are Not Here
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