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BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition August 2018

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

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Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway Dictator Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love Joey Dosik - Inside Voice Into Eternity - The Sirens<br />

Once: The Lost Album is a batch of new releases<br />

from jazz icon John Coltrane. Featuring the Classic<br />

Quartet in musical mastery, the album was the<br />

result of a single day of recording on March 6,<br />

1963.<br />

The album as a whole is bound together by the<br />

Quartet’s sound, but transitions nicely from<br />

subdued rhythm-focused pieces like “Nature Boy”<br />

to up-tempo beats that demonstrate Coltrane’s<br />

technical skill, such as “Impressions (Take 3).” For<br />

those curious, the Deluxe Version also allows you<br />

to compare and contrast multiple takes of various<br />

titles, not one of which is the same.<br />

The album itself also does something new by<br />

including the vocal read of the track title in some<br />

of the pieces, giving the listener the sensation of<br />

being with the Quartet as they record in ‘63. It’s a<br />

nice touch that delivers a deeper intimacy to the<br />

music.<br />

This is the album for any true lover of the<br />

legendary saxophonist. Not because it’s a<br />

compilation of the definitive classics — it’s not —<br />

but because it provides a window into the soul of<br />

Coltrane’s creative method.<br />

• William Leurer<br />

Copperhead<br />

Touch<br />

Independent<br />

Since their debut self-titled EP in 2015,<br />

Copperhead’s been on a roll in Alberta, playing<br />

sold out shows and festivals, making well-received<br />

videos and earning a showcase slot at SXSW in<br />

Austin, Texas earlier this year. With their first fulllength,<br />

Touch, the band builds on the potential of<br />

their first effort, making strides in their signature<br />

sound of atmospheric texture over catchy, sultry<br />

torch songs. It’s a mix of post-rock and soul<br />

not dissimilar to Cat Power, or Brooklyn-based<br />

shoegazers Cigarettes After Sex.<br />

The album’s “Intro” is a rising swell, invoking<br />

a nocturnal energy as it drops into the album’s<br />

title cut. “Touch” is sweltering, like the dew of the<br />

dusky humidity on a hot summer night shining on<br />

your skin as it settles in. The rhythm groove from<br />

Rob Smeltzer and Kane Bender is steady, feeling<br />

like a dimly lit back alley with a cloud of padded<br />

organ from vocalist Liz Stevens, while guitarist<br />

Kirill Telichev makes use of the ample space with<br />

single ringing notes. The pocket is so solid that<br />

the addition of a doubled hi-hat is all it takes to<br />

lift the chorus. A turn to the chaotic side arrives in<br />

the bridge, where Jamey Lougheed adds baritone<br />

sax lines that give the whole part a supernatural<br />

Angelo Badalamenti feel. “Shadows Of Love”<br />

follows, falling in on a piano waltz like a child’s<br />

ballerina music box. Bender’s easy brush strokes<br />

are a slight double time to the pace-setting piano.<br />

Stevens is smoky and hushed, her vocal swaying<br />

through the chords, while Telichev’s guitar is mixed<br />

back, chiming through the verses before filling the<br />

choruses with harmony with subtle strings.<br />

Those same strings make a bigger appearance<br />

kicking off “More,” driving the groove over a funky<br />

pocket until a loose riff from Telichev picks it up<br />

into the refrain. Stevens keeping things subtle<br />

until she hits a mountain-high wail over a synthdrenched<br />

chorus. “Mountain Song” comes off as<br />

straightforward blue-eyed soul, though it takes<br />

some lefts through its gradual climb. Lougheed’s<br />

sax is mixed low to fill up the chords, but there’s<br />

some room for him to go a little wilder in a tune<br />

like this. Smeltzer locks the groove down hard<br />

while Bender’s calculated flailing adds controlled<br />

anarchy, and the space would have been ample<br />

and ideal for a free-jazz drum and sax freak-out.<br />

The album closes out with the airy “If It Could<br />

Be,” led off with a woody acoustic guitar backed<br />

by wavy volume swells. Stevens is plaintive and<br />

longing, every word a memory and a wish —<br />

“When the light of day pulls dark away, I say your<br />

name, and I find home again.”<br />

Copperhead’s taken their time building a<br />

sound that takes every member’s abilities and<br />

melds them distinctively. That Touch is only six<br />

cuts leaves the listener anxious to hear more. Its<br />

sonic depth and atmosphere make for more than<br />

a casual listen, and in a music business eager to<br />

throw everything at the wall and see what sticks<br />

populated by a constant string of content, holding<br />

back is a rare and bold move.<br />

• Mike Dunn<br />

Deafheaven<br />

Ordinary Corrupt Human Love<br />

ANTI-<br />

If you had to use a word to sum up the state of<br />

today’s world, everything within the title Ordinary<br />

Corrupt Human Love is a good choice. San<br />

Francisco’s Deafheaven have once again crafted<br />

an absolutely epic thesis with their fourth album,<br />

clashing mellow reflections against aggressive<br />

guitar struts.<br />

Even Elton John should be proud of the piano<br />

phrase that begins the album on “You Without<br />

End,” before the track’s spoken lyrics expose a<br />

doomsday declaration as the song descends into<br />

beautiful chaos. “Honeycomb” is the album’s pillar,<br />

exploding like a bomb with thrashing riffs before<br />

letting you down softly on a gentle ocean wave 11<br />

minutes later.<br />

Deafheaven keep the contrast between light<br />

and dark — or love and hate — within reach<br />

throughout the record, brilliantly playing-up quiet<br />

serenity before crushing it with every annihilating<br />

riff that ensues.<br />

Double kick drums pulverize your ears on “Glint,”<br />

while “Worthless Animal” builds tension with<br />

clean shoegaze guitar lines, but finishes the record<br />

with heavy head-banging distortion.<br />

Metal fans are well aware that Deafheaven is<br />

one of the best kept secrets around, but Ordinary<br />

Corrupt Human Love raises their game to an<br />

entirely new (and exciting) level.<br />

• Trevor Morelli<br />

Joey Dosik<br />

Inside Voice<br />

Secretly Canadian<br />

When it comes to smooth jazz, it doesn’t get<br />

much smoother than Joey Dosik’s debut album,<br />

Inside Voice. Coming off the heels of his two EPs,<br />

the album is a fresh and modern spin on timehonoured<br />

musical traditions.<br />

Throughout Inside Voice, respectful nods<br />

to the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter’s<br />

musical inspirations are heard, from the evident<br />

Marvin Gaye influence on the first two tracks, to<br />

the gospel elements on a kicked-up cover of Bill<br />

Withers’ “Stories.”<br />

Right off the bat, Dosik strikes the right balance<br />

F<br />

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277 PRINCE EDWARD ST<br />

BILTMORECABARET.COM<br />

<strong>August</strong> <strong>2018</strong> 27

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