BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition April 2018

LA VIDA LOCAL
HOMEGROWN VANCOUVER MUSIC RELEASES
Preoccupations - New Material
above eight minutes, Holy Wave drenches classic psych sounds on a
blotter of fresh composition.
• Tory Rosso
JJUUJJUU
Zionic Mud
Dine Alone
LA psych rock band JJUUJJUU’s debut album, Zionic Mud, opens
strong with “Camo,” firing you into a hypnotic trance of funky
basslines, accented by raucously squawking lo-fi guitars. This album
conjures images of bohemian Californians dancing barefoot. Drawing
you in with it’s siren song before sending your mind’s eye skyward,
beyond this earthship.
Zionic Mud maintains high energy through the title track with
fantastic build-ups transitioning into wild crescendos. Bookended
by “Bleck,” a straight ahead psych track, the first third of the album
is funky, spaced out, and danceable. A tempo switch, leading to a
gentle outro dove-tailing the short interlude of atmospheric space
travel in “Level.” This first instrumental has a softness that only lasts a
moment before your consciousness is transported to witness storms
on a outlier planet, amping you up and passing you down the line of
tales to come.
JJUUJJUU maintains this build up, fade away presence loyally
throughout Zionic Mud. The variation of tempo and structure build
an excellent album. The layered, airy psych, paired with thunderous
drums, moody, post-punk guitars and vocals that don’t take centre
stage creates something accessible.
• Trevor Hatter
Zeke
Hellbender
Relapse Records
Saltwater Hank
Stories from the Northwest
Independent
Is there anything more Canadian than references to beaver
pelts? On his debut album, Saltwater Hank weaves timeless
yarns of Canadiana in true bluegrass-folk fashion. Stories from
the Northwest is a lo-fi recording with a dry vocal treatment. Its
rustic sound takes a page from the O Brother, Where Art Thou?
soundtrack. But this isn’t your average bluegrass record paying
homage to American narratives. Stories from the Northwest
cheekily uses a nostalgic genre to relay perspectives that aren’t
traditionally covered in history books. Loyal to the land instead
of the colonizer, the lyrics reference B.C.’s geography. The trickster
coyote even makes an appearance in the lyrics of “Coyodel
#1,” a melody inspired by Canada’s FIPA deal, and “Coyodel #2”
is dedicated to land and water defenders who choose action
over passivity. The instrumentation of fiddles and mandolin
perfectly complements Hank’s pointedly political lyrics, but Blake
Bamford’s banjo on “Hartley Bay Rag” stands out as a shining
moment.
• Lauren Donnelly
The Shit Talkers
I Scream
Mountain Momma Records
I Scream is a raw, unapologetic, to-the-core punk rock record. The
opening track, “Ewwwww,” is a borderline-destructive offering
that draws imaginative imagery of a wild house party, moshers
romping about, shoving each other through walls with aggressive
affection. “Normal Love,” the following track, is a romantic blend
of grungy groove mixed with angsty thrash.
From there, the Shit Talkers unleash a flurry of speedy tracks
with “Shut Up,” “Late in French,” “Betty,” and “8th Dick,” before
continuing the trend with the album’s lead single, “The They,” and
ending with “Fukn Guyz.” I Scream packs a fun-filled fist to the
face and kick to the groin.
• Johnny Papan
The Orange Kyte
The Orange Kyte Says Yes!
Little Cloud Records
The Orange Kyte Says Yes! is an album that takes listeners on an
eclectic psych voyage that pulls out all the stops, even after you
thought they’d all been pulled.
The album opens with “More In,” a blissful instrumental that
features crunchy, fuzzed-out guitar and distant organs playing in
unison: a tantalizing clue for what to expect from the rest of this
sophomore outing. The album is peppered with surprises, like
when “Echolocation” introduces a folky acoustic guitar for the
first time on the record, or when “Looks Like Me to Me” launches
into dystopian, lo-fi synths and repetitive vocal mantras.
With this latest record, Stevie Moonboots and co. holed up at
Invisible Recordings to craft a perfect and measured follow-up
that starts on an incredible note – and only goes up from there.
• Mat Wilkins
Harrison Brome
Body High EP
Nettwerk Music Group
Vancouver-based R&B crooner Harrison Brome has been making
serious waves leading up to the release of his forthcoming EP,
Body High. The collection of songs features his already popular
title track, which premiered on Complex and gained traction
from media outlets like FADER and Hypebeast. The EP explores
ideas of modern romance, resentment, and courtship with tracks
like “Jaded” and “9-5.”
On the “Body High” single, it’s clear Brome has mastered the
art of anticipation: he leaves listeners wanting more by carefully
capturing the nostalgic sense of sensuality that almost makes you
feel guilty for lusting over it. With his music earning more than
22 million streams worldwide, Body High is surely going to take
Brome nowhere else but higher.
• Molly Randhawa
After a hellishly long wait, Zeke are back with their first album in
14 years. The punk legends known for mixing the gritty might of
Motorhead with the cartoon fun of The Ramones sound in great
form right off the top of the album as “On the Road” kicks out some
seriously caffeinated guitar solos. Thankfully, each song continues to
snuff out boredom with an all-killer-no-filler approach.
“Burn” literally sounds like the band is about to spontaneously
combust as the snarling vocals spat out over the whip crack of the
one-hundred-mile-an-hour snare drum will leave any punk extremist
dizzy. The fun continues on “AR-15,” with the refrain “blow it away,
blow it away” whilst the misanthropic anthem is taken even higher
with New York Dolls-like guitar leads sped up to an un-godly tempo.
The inhuman speed that these short but damaging blitzkriegs are
belted out is truly frightening and definitely makes this Zeke’s fastest
recording to date.
• Dan Potter
32
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan - Dirt
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan
Dirt
Paper Bag Records
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan are back with a vengeance after five years of relative
silence. Toronto’s distinctively pan-cultural experimental music and performance
collective have released their most ambitious, yet also their most cohesive, record
yet with Dirt, an album conceived as the soundtrack to an unreleased 1987 anime
with Buddhist and Iroquois influences. “Someplace” and “Dark Waters” set the
stage in suitably dramatic fashion with charging prog rock rhythms and sweeping
melodic passages. “The Decay” unfolds as the album’s true centerpiece, an operatic
dreamscape lead by deliberate doom metal riffage and uplifting, airy vocals. Dirt is
a phantasmagorical journey.
• James Olson
April 2018