Boy Golden enjoys two of Canada’s main food groups, Silver Pools have their head in the clouds, The Freight take flight, Jordana Talsky could not agree more — and plenty of artists in your Tuesday Roundup should also have you nodding your head. Turn it up and move it along:
16 | Boy Golden | KD And Lunch Meat
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Comfort food for the ears, Winnipeg’s Boy Golden has an easy recipe for happiness in KD And Lunch Meat, a guide to living well in small ways. A song born of Boy Golden’s irresistible optimism and budgetary constraints, KD And Lunch Meat is a single serving of joy, a mac ’n’ cheese motto for making the most of each and every day. However you slice it, with a well-sauced chorus and breezy noodling, Boy Golden’s KD And Lunch Meat is a strong contender for stoner song of the Ssummer (were there such a title). “When I wrote this song, I was feeling good for the first time in a long time,” says Boy Golden. “As the chorus says — you’ve gotta do something for you, put your own happiness first, and the rest should follow. I didn’t know it at the time, but I wrote this song to serve as a reminder. What do I really want? All I need is a few hundred bucks, some KD and freedom — everything else is gravy.”
17 | Silver Pools | Bleach Cloud (Lay Down In The Road)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Are you riddled with questions about life, death, love, anxiety or how to fight the tightening grip of late stage capitalism? If so, Silver Pools’ new album Chroma has no answers for you. However, what it does offer is some company and a collection of catchy and dreamy songs for you to swim alongside. Out Aug. 20, Chroma is Silver Pools’ sophomore album, the first full-length since their 2016 debut Memoirs Of An Oblong Sphere. Silver Pools began as the solo project of musician and producer Todd Macdonald (The Winks, Norvaiza) and has grown to include visual artist Miranda Crabtree on vocals and keyboards and video director Adrienne McLaren on vocals & bass. Macdonald says : “A sunny morning a few years ago I opened my windows to let in some fresh spring air. (The) radio was playing a lovely Ravel piece and then a news announcement came on that a toxic bleach cloud had escaped a factory in the west end of Toronto. I closed my window and wrote the first few lines of this song which are also inspired by feelings of frustration and hopelessness at the rise of populist political leaders.”
18 | The Freight | Fly On
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Freight are keeping up their steady momentum in 2021 with their third single of the year, Fly On. It’s an ambitious, thematic anti-ballad that puts the band’s versatility and growth on full display. A spacious, ambient journey of string arrangements, percussion elements and big harmonies, the song is the band’s most ambitious production yet. This song has vibes of vintage U2 deep cuts and has an almost cinematic feel to it, building as it goes and ultimately reaching the climactic ending with big harmonies, strings and emotion coming to a peak. Fly On sends the message that enough is enough … You’ve been here for her too many times before and can’t keep playing second fiddle with her. Not when you feel the way you do … Time for her to Fly On.”
19 | Jordana Talsky | Oh Yeah
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jordana Talsky is a singer, songwriter and vocal looper who fuses multi-genre influences into her own sound. A person of several voices, her ethos is to incorporate digital means into live performance in an organic way. Accompanied by a loop machine, she creates a choir of one with no pre-recorded parts. Oh Yeah is her insightful new single, posing the question, “How often do we actively reflect on our life happening?” It’s about a moment of awakening and listening to your inner voice; like when you remember something you had forgotten about, a dream that all of a sudden comes back in a flash, that allows you to stand outside of yourself and contemplate.”
20 | Trunky Juno | Serial Killer Vibes
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Trunky Juno warmly greets us with new single Serial Killer Vibes, a lovely slice of upbeat acoustic technicolour-pop crafted in his basement studio in North-East England. The song expands on his already eclectic repertoire by dressing up an anxiety-fuelled lyric with Trunky’s trademark charming melodic hooks and balmy tones. Trunky says: “Serial Killer Vibes is a track that haunted me for a long time because I knew there was a good song in there, but I just couldn’t figure out how to present it in a way that allowed anyone else to see it too. It’s not really a song about serial killers at all, it’s about perspective, living inside your own head and trying your hardest not to be weird when you just are. It’s an ode to painfully awkward exchanges, which is going to become very relatable once we all start trying to interact with each other again.”
21 | Rögne | The Madman & the Beast (ft. Andy Razafi & Lamba Pomme)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Valentin Lemaire’s collaborative project Rögne is an attempt at producing an aural universe with the evocative power of dreams. His songs paint landscapes with vibrant colors, supernatural emanations, and characters lost between our reality and an imaginary world without limits. The contribution of other musicians and singers to the project adds variety to its sound. The participants become actors or stories of Rögne. The Madman And The Beast is an introspective and poetic musical tale. It tells an inner story that everyone can relate to, the settlement of inner conflicts. The song plays with sonorities that evoke an imaginary world yet sounds very familiar. Andy Razafi’s airy vocal melodies coupled with Rögne’s ethereal compositions take you into a colored universe filled with magic. While the sonorities of the song can remind of late-’60s psychedelic rock, it reactivates its aesthetic to create something new and unexpected.”
22 | Phurpa & Queen Elephantine | Ita Zor
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The inner-space journey Ita Zor features an international collaboration between Phurpa, renowned Russian ritualists that perform the ancient Bon music of Tibet, and Queen Elephantine, the avant-garde rock group formed in Hong Kong and now based in Philadelphia. Together they weave history with the future into an offering that reflects the present moment, slowly teasing the tension of a dense electric buzzing chaos while seeking anchor and abandon in ancient knowledge. This chant and drone work goes incredibly deep, astronomically far out, and is the sound of death as much as of healing. Phurpa provide the backbone with their transcendent thunderous throat chanting while Queen Elephantine create an otherworldly cloud around them, using gyaling horns, conch shells, gongs, flutes, ceremonial bells and bowls, drums, guitar, and electronics.”
23 | Douran | Midnight Breath
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Multi-talented cinematic electronica producer and composer Douran has shared the video for his organic track Midnight Breath. The song is taken from his recently released EP Avalanche, which contains both the A-side of his original work and a B-side of remixes. Speaking of the video, Douran tells us: “I composed Midnight Breath with a Shakuhachi flautist, using a very special Japanese bamboo flute. We wanted a video that fits the vibe of this track, going a bit further than a classic live session by inviting a Butoh dancer, Sachiko Ishikawa. This performance introduces another part of Japanese culture, since Butoh (also called Dance Experience, known to resist fixity) was born in the ’60s in Japan.”
24 | Waze | Games (ft. Faber)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “U.K. house legend Waze has dropped his first solo outing Games, a formidable groove-ridden soundtrack backed by South London singer Faber. Widely recognised for his commitment to nurturing upcoming talent, bringing through the likes of Will Easton, Mella Dee, Ejeca, Tabasko and Lauren Flax, Waze has consistently served the people, delivering quality music from his own label.”
25 | Teenage Sequence | All This Art
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “London-born, British South Asian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Teenage Sequence presents All This Art, a track that turns a scathing eye on the small indignities and hypocrisies of a music industry that doesn’t want to face its own racial shortcomings. Clocking in at 6:29 of spoken word over a dance beat as bright, tart and cutting as the song’s lyrics, All This Art disregards the rules of modern pop and alternative songwriting in favor of brutal honesty and bittersweet fun. Teenage Sequence’s Dewan-Dean Soomary had the following to share: “All This Art is as much about the systemic racism of the U.K. music industry as it is my own neurosis, as serious about these subjects as it (an attempt at being) humorous – in a sort of ‘if you don’t laugh, you’d stare blankly into the void wondering what’s the point’ way.”
26 | Mighloe | Cruel
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Emerging Canadian singer-songwriter Mighloe releases her Desperate Times EP, accompanied by a video for the focus single Cruel. Throughout this record, we are gifted with Mighloe’s unique ability to transport us inwards and paint vivid stories using powerful lyrics that double as brush strokes of emotion. Possessing an impressive range, Mighloe’s EP speaks to how both sorrow and triumph make up our existence. She tells us: “Cruel is my empowerment. It is a reminder of who I once was; Broken. And of the strength it took to put myself back together. The resilience. I am better now. I am free. I am powerful. Your cruelness will never again take a toll on me.”
27 | Cellus Hamilton | Cheo’s Song
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Cellus Hamilton, a hip-hop artist who has spent many years serving those locked away in the prison system, has done something revolutionary with his latest video. Hamilton decided to lend his voice to an inmate who has been voiceless and lonely for the past 12 years. The prisoner, recognized as Cheo, has a deep love for hip-hop and has coped with his 15-30 year sentence by writing raps behind bars. After connecting with Cellus, Cheo handed over his precious lyrics; requesting that Hamilton would bring his music to life in the world outside of prison. Cheo rapped and shared his vision with Cellus Hamiton through a zoom call broadcasting from a Pennsylvania prison. Hamilton captured a series of audio voice notes of conversations with Cheo as well as the audio of Cheo banging his fist on the prison table to mimic the drumbeat.”
28 | Muddles | Human Aptitude
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “French heavy rock band Muddles have just revealed a video for Human Aptitude, a song off the band’s first album Mind Muddling, to be released on June 11. Playing an alternative, catchy and melodic heavy rock sound inspired by acts like The Gathering, Lacuna Coil and Flyleaf, Muddles are a four-piece group from France. Mind Muddling is a rock-solid and enthralling album, where powerful and heavy riffs nicely counterbalance more ethereal and melodic passages providing the musical structure for Barbara Mogore’s heartfelt and magnificent vocals.”
29 | Wormwood | The Archive
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Wormwood offer the following comment about the release of their new album Arkivet: “Due to the spring’s problems in the Suez Canal and Covid-19, we unfortunately have to announce that the Arkivet release will be postponed. This is because the vinyl pressing plant hasn’t been able to deliver on time, due to a lack of materials from the factories. This is terribly sad news for us, but unfortunately beyond our ability to speed up. The new release date is set for Aug. 27. We apologize to all of you who have pre-ordered the album, but urge you to wait another month. It will be worth it. In the meantime, please enjoy the latest music video for the new track The Archive.”
30 | Sorrow & The Spire | My Misery Calling
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Sorrow & The Spire is the solo project of Navid Rashid, long-time driving force of U.S. progressive metal band Iris Divine. “My Misery Calling is a stomping, infectious track that updates an ’80s hard-rock vibe with modern sound and energy. It’s one of those special songs where every part is a hook. From the moment it kicks in, it inspires air-guitaring and singing along in equal measure. Navid’s passionate vocals carry the track, with big drums and guitars, a memorable chorus, melodic guitar solo and a killer outro riff that brings in a little more of Sorrow & The Spire’s metal influence. Lyrically, the track takes a clever look at what happens when we try to hide from the broken parts of ourselves by finding someone else (sometimes a little broken themselves!) to fill in the cracks, instead of looking within to heal ourselves.”
