BeatRoute Magazine Alberta print e-edtion - June 2016

Royal Tusk
make dubbed out music is still in tact, but it never felt
as effortless as his work with Studio. Now, the new
father returns with his debut full-length Midnight, a
record that shows that Lissvik still has a take on dance
music that is utterly populist while still remaining
absolutely unique.
The gentle, meandering feel of Studio’s essential
West Coast returns on Midnight. The propulsive,
post-ABBA drum work and listless guitars are straight
off of “Life’s a Beach,” but that’s not to say that
Lissvik’s style hasn’t evolved since his days in Studio.
Songs like the hypnotic “D” pick up where West
Coast left off, dropping the listener into a haze of
dubbed out drums and plucky synths that would feel
right at home on a Todd Terje record.
• Jamie McNamara
Royal Tusk
Dealbreaker
Cadence Music
On their first full-length album, DealBreaker, Edmonton’s
Royal Tusk have crafted a catchy piece of
modern rock, relying on melodic hooks and catchy,
crunchy guitar riffs. Unlike many of their contemporaries,
Royal Tusk’s commitment to songwriting
is evident in the use of lyrics in their hooks, rather
than rely on the trusty “whoa whoa whoa” laziness so
often present in today’s radio rock.
DealBreaker is radio-ready, but in a way that seems
content to be further outside most programming
lists. It’s clever modern rock, with some interesting
left turns, like the head-shop-jazz-while-whistlingdown-the-road
feel at the end of the title track.
There’s some cool Slash-y guitar work on the Wurlitzer-driven
closing ballad “So Long The Buildup.”
The dance rock harmonized verse melody on
“Above Ground” takes away from the smart chorus,
but when it’s sung solo in the breakdown, the lines
have more weight in anticipation of the big finale
chorus. Royal Tusk has a sound that should set them
apart from the radio pack.
• Mike Dunn
Alexis Taylor
Piano
Moshi Moshi
Alexis Taylor is no stranger to the ballad. As frontman
of synthpop group Hot Chip, Taylor has been known
to slow the tempo to croon wistfully, but it always felt
like a brief aside before the party started again. For
his third solo LP Piano, the British musician focuses
solely on ballads sung with only piano accompaniment.
Some of the songs are covers, like Elvis’ “Crying
in the Chapel,” but most are either new works from
Taylor or reworkings of his past writing. The move
is refreshing to hear from Taylor, but his style is
largely unchanged from past work, and it’s debatable
whether or not his nasally croon can carry an album
on its own.
Indeed, the main detractor from Piano is the
fact that it’s an LP and not an EP. Lead off track “I’m
Ready” is a song about the creative process, a song
that seems fitting on an album that feels more like a
creative exercise than a cohesive vision.
• Jamie McNamara
Weaves
Weaves
Kanine Records
You can’t really blame this Toronto foursome
for wanting to cover all their bases with their
genre-defying debut. In a super-saturated musical
blogosphere of what’s cool according to culturally
“hip” types, the appeal of sounding like you’re the
missing link between the Karen O-isms of art-punk,
tUnE-yArDs’ electro-beat collages and the fringes
of Eleanor Friedberger’s goofball pop past will
probably land you some affirmative head-nodding
and a 7.5 from Pitchfork. Sure enough, tracks like
“Candy,” “Tick” and “One More” bob and weave
(pun intended) with a bombastic punch to the gut,
while “Eagle” flies high with intricate sonic interplay
between guitarist Morgan Waters and the rhythm
section of Zach Bines and Spencer Cole. “Coo Coo”
self-medicates a calmer Jasmyn Burke espousing the
object of her affection, but she returns to freak-flag
form on the seething “Shithole.” With the music
scene in the Six branching out and taking risks with
groups like Dilly Dally, The Highest Order and Darlene
Shrugg, Weaves stand to make waves amongst
their peers and then some.
• Bryce Dunn
58 | JUNE 2016 • BEATROUTE