BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition July 2018

Tierra Whack - Whack World Snail Mail - Lush The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer
lyrics are frequently self-deprecating, the sunny and upbeat
instrumentation creates a stark contrast, making it difficult to feel
too bummed with Puppy Love in the headphones.
• Gareth Jones
Powerglove
Continue?
Entertainment One Music
Celebrating pop culture and all things nerdy is what “Nintendocore”
band Powerglove is all about. On Continue?, the Boston power
metal outfit offer up another collection of mostly video game
covers, executing each one with ease and precision. Energetic
guitar squeals, speedy bass lines and pulse pounding drums make
Continue? an accurate effort from start to finish. Highlights include
“Under the Sea” — yes, that one — featuring Marc Hudson from
DragonForce on vocals, “Guile’s Theme” (Street Fighter), and “Kraid’s
Lair” (Metroid). Despite the band members’ obvious technical
talent (or because of it), Powerglove’s paint-by-numbers approach
on Continue? feels a bit mechanical at times. Guitar tones blend
together with repeated listens and it all starts to feel monotonous
after a while. Continue? probably won’t do much to convert new
listeners, but Powerglove’s core audience will be happy they’ve
delivered another record of animated blips and bleeps worthy of
their all-night gaming sessions.
• Trevor Morelli
Tierra Whack
Whack World
Self-Released
Tierra Whack is a fresh beacon for contemporary hip-hop. She feels
as adept overtop of an 8-bit beat as she might in a rap cypher. And
on her debut audiovisual album, which lasts a mere 15 minutes
comprised of 15 one-minute songs, she glides effortlessly between
gorgeous harmonies and flows that rival the most celebrated rappers.
She packs more switch-ups, hooks and punches into a single minute
than many modern MCs fit into an entire mixtape. Sadly, each song
is over too soon, yet she quickly switches onto the next beat and
hook before there’s any disappointment. Such control and taunting
made her 2017 single, “Mumbo Jumbo,” infectious. On Whack World,
she takes the same experimentation further, skillfully using her
insinuating sound to land where lyrics might fail. Her quick-witted
one-liners and vivid imagination harken to an uncharted future for
rap. And that’s just the audio version.
• Trent Warner
Smoulder
The Sword Woman
Self-Released
The debut EP from Toronto-based epic doom outfit Smoulder is a
weapon of mighty force, and The Sword Woman pulled it from a
stone of ancient myth.The three-track cassette embarks with the title
track, “The Sword Woman,” bringing forth tandem guitars that mark
the slow rise of the heroic barbarian — mighty from her sword to her
scowl. Overtop thunderous instrumentation, the chorus-drenched
vocals of Sarah Kitteringham harken to the most glorious days of
epic-metal past. “Voyage of the Sun Chaser” opens to an atmosphere
of doom, but triumphant guitars and ascending vocals make it
clear that power is the name of the game. The final track features a
foreboding melody that signals the conquest of an ominous force.
Its title may state, “The Queen is Gone,” but you best stay kneeling
because the queen only just arrived.
• Matty Hume
Snail Mail
Lush
Matador Records
It’s startling to think the collection of songs contained within Lush,
the debut album by Maryland’s Lindsay Jordan, were envisioned and
executed by an artist still comfortably in her teenage years. Jordan,
the now-19-year-old frontwoman of the indie-rock outfit Snail Mail,
approaches her own compositions with a candid curiosity through
her straightforward musings atop jangly, punk power-chords,
exuding a sense of confidence rare even in veteran indie rockers.
The vocal melodies always feel effortless, but never more so than on
“Pristine,” which kicks the album off proper following a short intro.
Though concerning itself with a pesky ex-lover, the song transcends
any residual angst as it barrels towards its self-revelatory conclusion.
“I could be anything,” Jordan belts, her voice dead-set with
determination but not quivering an inch. Yes, Jordan could certainly
be anything, but she’s already spectacular, and Lush is pretty damn
convincing proof of that.
• Jason Herring
Sophie
Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
Transgressive / Future Classic
It’s difficult to create music that feels futuristic or otherworldly
without seeming like a gimmick. On Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides,
Sophie has honed her signature sound into something beyond that
expectation. Different apparitions permeate through the album.
Varying voices make themselves known to represent different
moods, atmospheres and emotions for Sophie. She sings in her own
voice on “It’s Okay to Cry,” an emotional ballad and opportunity
for her conscience to assure itself of the strength that comes with
vulnerability. It’s a strong lead-in to the album’s themes, where
Sophie expresses wonder and amazement at our ever-shifting world.
Sophie’s body of work is surreal and rooted in artificiality, but there’s
still something natural and spiritual about it. Towards the second
half of the nine-track album, the sound changes from Sophie’s more
usual harsh electronics towards an ambience of sorts. This is an
album that’s plastic-coated and unreal in feeling. Sophie has created
a magnum opus and map of who she is.
• Trent Warner
The Body
I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer
Thrill Jockey Records
The Body refuse to cling to a label. Though frequently categorized
as a doom metal act, the duo rather find themselves constantly
evolving — a trait which is perfectly exemplified on their most recent
outing. I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer combines
the duo’s propensity for noise with warped and re-contextualized
samples of their previous work. The result is a carefully crafted
(yet enthralling) trip straight to hell. The album’s opening track,
“The Last Form of Loving,” is a slow burn, never quite reaching a
crescendo before coming to an abrupt halt. From this point forward,
the listener is caught in the throes of a meticulously crafted record.
The single “Nothing Stirs” serves as an apex, with the convulsion of
industrial drums and horror samples working restlessly to deeply
disturb. With this record, The Body aim to push the limits of what is
bearable and succeed without question.
• Gareth Jones
The Midnight Hour
The Midnight Hour
Linear Labs
Legendary producers Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge
join forces to bring forth The Midnight Hour. The album sounds like
two old friends jamming in a dingy basement club in East Harlem
— the musky odour of cigarettes and weed wafting through the
crowd as their audience nods in enjoyment. The Midnight Hour tries
to keep that aesthetic flowing throughout the album, with samples
and features from the likes of Luther Vandross, Kendrick Lamar and
Cee Lo Green, yet the album fails to completely encapsulate the A
Tribe Called Quest-esque elements of jazz and retro into a modern
setting. Towards the end, the last of the songs become harder to
listen to, taking away from the overall experience of the album. In
those later minutes, Muhammad and Younge begin to cater to a
small, hardcore set of fans. The Midnight Hour unwinds like two
old friends trying to recreate the sounds of their youth for a new
generation. Then giving up halfway through because they were
simply having too much fun working together.
• Inder Minhas
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