11.07.2017 Views

Beatroute Magazine BC Print Edition - July 2017

BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics. Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute (BC) #202 – 2405 E Hastings Vancouver, BC V5K 1Y8 P. 778-888-1120

BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics.

Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute (BC) #202 – 2405 E Hastings Vancouver, BC V5K 1Y8 P. 778-888-1120

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

88 Fingers Louie - Thank You For Beig a Friend<br />

Boris - Dear<br />

Cashmere Cat - 9<br />

Ex Eye - Ex Eye<br />

88 FINGERS LOUIE<br />

Thank You for Being a Friend<br />

Bird Attack Records<br />

It’s been 19 years since Chicago-based punk rockers,<br />

88 Fingers Louie have released a new album,<br />

but the wait is finally over and our begging and<br />

pleading has paid off.<br />

While 88 Fingers' early career may have been short<br />

lived, they quickly became a staple in the 90’s hardcore-punk<br />

scene. Forming in 1993, they released a<br />

couple full-length records during their quick stint.<br />

Their last, Back on the Streets, was released on<br />

Hopeless Records in 1998.<br />

Fast forward 19 years and Thank You for Being a<br />

Friend fits seamlessly into 88 Fingers’ small, but<br />

stellar discography. Slightly more polished than<br />

previous albums, Thank You showcases the band's<br />

growth - something which is expected after 19<br />

years - but it also refines the band's signature style<br />

that fans adore. Hard-hitting bass lines, progressive,<br />

catchy and up-tempo riffs and drums, and of<br />

course, the heavy, melodic vocals of Denis Buckley.<br />

“Meds,” the first track on Thank You, displays these<br />

characteristics flawlessly. Songs like “Advice Column”<br />

and “2810” will remind listeners of past 88 albums,<br />

while “Our Tired Voices” and “Knock It Off”<br />

are great examples of what the band has become.<br />

Thank You for Being a Friend will not disappoint<br />

fans or first-time listeners and will surely become<br />

an album in your regular rotation. We might have<br />

waited 19 years, but it was worth it.<br />

•Sarah Mac<br />

Boris<br />

Dear<br />

Sargent House<br />

Dear was supposed to be, if not the end of Atsuo,<br />

Takeshi and Wata’s 25-year career, then at least<br />

the end of an era - a Dear John letter firing their<br />

audience. Then, at some point in the recording<br />

process, they changed their tripartite mind, reaffirmed<br />

their commitment to all-caps ROCK and<br />

made… a Boris record. Not as good as their breakthrough<br />

Pink, maybe a little better than Noise; not<br />

a self-conscious (or maybe not) pop pastiche like<br />

New Album and Attention Please and also not a<br />

four-part drone saga like The Thing Which Solomon<br />

Overlooked. It is at times ethereal, at other<br />

times like the final strung-out moments of The<br />

Stooges’ “L.A Blues.” It’s post-everything all of the<br />

time, but not totally inaccessible, and if you want<br />

to jump onboard with one of the consistently least<br />

annoying experimental rock bands then start here<br />

and circle back to Pink.<br />

•Gareth Watkins<br />

Cashmere Cat<br />

9<br />

Interscope Records<br />

Cashmere Cat (née Magnus Høiberg) is a Norwegian<br />

producer who has specialized in weird sounds<br />

in pop music. On his debut album, 9, Høiberg recruits<br />

all his big name friends and collaborators<br />

(MØ, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd). Only one track<br />

is instrumental. Unlike most producer-billed output<br />

though, 9 is not a curated showcase of pop<br />

stars over the producer’s music. Instead, Cashmere<br />

Cat succeeds in turning these Billboard Top 40<br />

mainstays into instruments and extensions of his<br />

own wonky soundscapes.<br />

This is not the only he breaks away from the mold<br />

with 9. He frequently baits his listener with tense<br />

builds, of rapid fire beats and increasing key shifts,<br />

leading the listener to expect a clichéd "drop". Instead,<br />

he forgoes it and builds towards a soft cloud<br />

of blissful melody and strange percussive sounds<br />

you can rest your head on.<br />

That relaxed atmosphere runs through the whole<br />

record, and the few exceptions are abrasive rather<br />

than poppy pandering.<br />

9 is not an EDM album because you can’t dance to<br />

it. It isn’t a pop album, its song structure, sounds<br />

and style are too off kilter for that. It’s also not<br />

experimental, as these are the same sounds Cashmere<br />

Cat and his imitators have been playing<br />

with since his Mirror Maru EP in 2012, just refined<br />

through experience and the star quality of his collaborators.<br />

What 9 is, is an excellent debut from a<br />

producer who will continue to be at the centre of<br />

pop and mainstream electronic’s future.<br />

•Cole Parker<br />

EX EYE<br />

EX EYE<br />

Relapse Records<br />

I’m calling it: saxophones do not belong in metal<br />

music. I know that somebody is going to jump right<br />

into the comments section to defend John Zorn or<br />

Candiria, but c’mon. Maybe a dozen musicians (all<br />

of whom are now dead) can turn them into fonts<br />

of transcendent brilliance, but mostly they’re shiny<br />

tubes that make fart sounds.<br />

EX EYE, are Colin Stetson, low-key indie rock’s<br />

go-to guy for some sax; a guy from forgettable experimental<br />

rock concern Secret Chiefs 3 and the<br />

drummer from perennial hipster-metal punchline<br />

Liturgy. If you’ve heard post-rock and post-metal<br />

recently then you’ve heard this, but better or, in<br />

Liturgy’s case, pretty much the same but with vocals<br />

instead of an overgrown and overcomplicated<br />

kazoo. Yes, Greg Fox is a skilled drummer, but skill<br />

is not soul, and if you’re fucking with the sax, even<br />

in the context of blackened post-metal you’re inviting<br />

comparisons to John Coltrane, who had both.<br />

•Gareth Watkins<br />

The Guaranteed<br />

The Guaranteed EP<br />

Independent<br />

As a fixture in the Edmonton roots scene for two<br />

decades, Darrek Anderson of The Guaranteed has<br />

been the pedal steel player of choice for some of<br />

the city’s most influential underground acts. Having<br />

spent time with Old Reliable, The Swiftys, The<br />

City Streets, and Eamon McGrath, Anderson’s<br />

steel playing has featured on countless releases and<br />

tours. Now a member of The Dungarees, Anderson<br />

has put together an excellent EP of alt-country<br />

songs, his first release since 2007’s Places You Used<br />

To Go.<br />

The Guaranteed forgoes the currently common<br />

expressive masculinity of modern country for a<br />

more laid back feel, trekking to the higher emotional<br />

ground of acts like Jason Isbell, expressively<br />

honest in Anderson’s softly sung tenor with a<br />

plaintive Jeff Tweedy feel. “Rest Easy” leads off with<br />

a classic roadhouse guitar riff from Nathan Mc-<br />

Murdo over a Waylon-phased rhythm guitar, and<br />

rather than aim for explosive choruses, Anderson<br />

and the band settle into an easy groove driven by<br />

the chill touch of drummer Bradford Tebble that<br />

suggests wizened confidence; more content to<br />

sit back and play together than to show you any<br />

or all of their cards at once. The steel and electric<br />

guitar interplay on “Hear From You” is classy in its<br />

understatement, and the harmony vocal on the<br />

32 REVIEWS<br />

<strong>July</strong> <strong>2017</strong>

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!