BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition - November 2019

MUSiC ALBUM REVIEWS
Interview
CORRIDOR TAKE
UNPRECEDENTED LEAP
OF FAITH ON JUNIOR
CORRIDOR
Junior
Bonsound/Sub Pop
The rapid rise of Montreal-based
quartet Corridor can be likened
to contemporary rock folklore,
even if the story is a familiar one.
After the band’s tour agent sent
the iconic Seattle label Sub Pop
their four-song demo, representatives
who attended their
show in New York a month later
promptly sent them a record deal
within days of the performance.
It’s an impressive trajectory.
The four-piece consisting of
Dominic Berthiaume (vocals/bass),
Jonathan Robert (vocals/synth/
guitar), Julian Perreault (guitar) and
Julien Bakvis (drums) are the first
francophone band to sign with Sub
Pop, and the first Montreal band
since Wolf Parade in 2004.
Chatting to BeatRoute over
drinks at Notre Dame Des Quilles a
quaint, cozy cocktail bar in Montreal’s
Little Italy district, Berthiaume
says their third album and Sub Pop
debut, Junior, maintains the songwriting
approach its predecessor,
Supermercado (2017), while dialing
up the production.
“Our first EP and the first two
records sounded more lo-fi,” he
says. “Junior still has this warmth
and analog feel, but it feels like a
bigger production.”
Berthiaume explains that the
album focuses more on how songs
feel rather than what sonic category
they fall under. “All of the songs
came out of jams and improvisation,
and then we structure it. We
don’t think about genre or anything,
because this is where you restrict
yourself.”
“I think one of the things that
we have [throughout] our three
albums is a unity in the songs, but
it’s really diverse too. That Corridor
signature has to be somewhere,
but the point is, if it’s a good song,
it’s a good song. We don’t mind the
rest.”
While the band took their time
constructing previous albums, Le
voyage éternel (2015) and Supermercado
(2017), they had no such
luxury with Junior.
In January, Sub Pop told them
that they needed to submit their
masters by mid-May if they wanted
a fall release. By March, they had
begun writing and recording the album’s
six remaining songs, finishing
by late April. Berthiaume describes
the sessions as “intense,” spending
a month and a half recording six
days a week. “For every song, we
kept it really simple: one, two or
three riffs,” he explains of the process.
“[We] just keep on repeating
them, adding layers and creating
something more hypnotic,” he says.
“Our producer and engineer
would never bounce anything off
in the studio, so we never listened
at home to what we were doing,”
he continues. “Every day, we did
something new, and never
looked back. It was exciting,
but at the same time, it was
weird doing that at such a quick
pace.”
The result is carefully crafted
melage of indie rock, post-punk,
shoegaze and even dance-punk
sprinkled throughout — plus
plenty of reverb, lush harmonies
and call-and-response vocals.
By the end of 2019, the
band will tour throughout
North America and in Europe.
Although the language they sing
in is a hotter topic with media
outlets in Quebec and France,
Berthiaume says that their audiences
in English markets don’t
tend to focus on language as
much, instead letting the music
speak for itself.
“When we go to the U.S., or
the U.K., or even Germany, it’s
not really a subject. They’re
more focused on music than
anything else,” he says. “We
put effort in writing lyrics, but
the most important thing is just
that we play music, and we’re a
band.”
Best Track: Agent Double
Dave MacIntyre
WOOLWORM
Awe
Mint Records
Woolworm is Icarus. The Vancouver
quartet soar so close to
the boundaries of Brit-Pop tinged
shoegaze and hardcore infected
power pop they almost get burned.
Awe, the band’s third LP, is a
terrifying balancing act between
hopeful and heavy, cool and kitsch,
merry and morose. The result is
a delicate tension of sensible vox
anchored to the ground by earth
angering rhythm. It’s a palpable
tension as they fly neither too high
nor too low.
Nowhere on the album is this
tension more prevalent than
on “Hold the Bow,” the album’s
first single. Inspired by Marina
Abramović’s performance art piece,
Rest Energy, where Abramović’s
partner holds a bow with an arrow
pointing at her heart for four whole
minutes. It’s a perfect visual metaphor
for the songs message of
total trust and unconditional love.
It’s clear Woolworm has carved
out a unique space for themselves,
one that simultaneously lands them
gigs with Orville Peck and hardcore
legends, Integrity. Perhaps that’s
why Awe seems to find the band
more open-minded and impulsive,
more varied and less symmetrical,
and even more playful. Maybe it’s
that same restless hubris that led
Icarus too close to the sun.
Best Track: Hold the Bow
Sean Orr
26 BEATROUTE NOVEMBER 2019