I hear there’s some sort of big sportsing competition on this weekend. I hope your chosen uniform emerges victorious, if only so you can feel momentarily superior to those who foolishly supported the opposing uniform. Good for you. Me, I’ve got other ways to waste my increasingly precious time on this disintegrating rock — like wading through the latest batch of new Canadian singles and videos. And guess what? They came to play:
Kandle | St. Paul’s
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “A true music industry veteran, Kandle (last name: Osborne) has been a powerhouse in the scene with an impressive career spanning over a decade. Following up on the recently released Live A Lie, she is now sharing St. Paul’s, the second single off her new album to be released in spring. A hypnotic (and sexy) waltz through the corridors of pain and grief, St. Paul’s is catharsis in the face of despair. “I feel that the importance of making ‘dark’ music lies in its relatability,” says Kandle. “Throughout my life I’ve connected with the words and melodies of artists like Nick Cave, Courtney Love, Nine Inch Nails, Leonard Cohen, Nirvana, PJ Harvey and Billie Holiday. These songs mirrored my own experiences of pain, misery and loneliness, and through that connection I was granted temporary comfort and self-acceptance, even if it only lasted the length of a song.”
Con The Artist | All In
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Pushing the boundaries of music and tech, a Con The Artist live show features iCon, his live virtual assistant, that’s ‘programmed from the future.’ An artist to his core, this South African-Canadian bleeds creativity into anything he touches. From writing and producing to film scoring and sound design, Con has his hands in all aspects of his art. His latest single is in his signature vein of cheeky songwriting with a wholesome message. All In was inspired by summertime and sounds like the first day of summer with your boo. “It’s about all of the small things a partner can do for you that makes you All In to the relationship. It’s the willingness to leave behind the single life and dive headfirst into a relationship you know will be good for you. This song is about the initial first steps of that phase.”
Aloysius Bell | That Is Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Aloysius Bell is the alter ego of Winnipeg-born, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Annick Brémault. While her name is a nod to the male pseudonyms of the Brontë sisters, Bell is a persona born from intense soul-searching who aims to shed light on murky, in-between spaces. Her debut EP Warm Thing melds her distinctive songwriting with pop, R&B and electro influences. Produced with Toronto artist Driftnote and mixed by David Plowman (July Talk), Warm Thing is set for release in February. New single That Is Me reimagines herself the way she wishes she’d been in her 20s: Not wasting time trying to please other people. “I remember looking above my bed at this painting (by a friend’s mom, the artist Louise Gill) of a woman lying alone on a bed in a dark room and thinking, that is me right now. I was feeling cozy and kind of like nothing could induce me to go out at that point even if I had had somewhere to go. And that reminded me of those times I’ve gone out despite not feeling like it (because FOMO), and ended up disappointed that I wasn’t doing something more fun to me — like napping.”
Major Love | Making The Most Of It
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Major Love is the moniker of Edmonton singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Colleen Brown, and a collaboration featuring Alberta rock darlings Scenic Route To Alaska (Trevor Mann, Shea Connor and Murray Wood). Their new single Making The Most Of It was produced by Marcus Paquin. Born of pandemic times, the song reflects on the dissolution of a once-vibrant existence turned mundane, and the pressure to become a ‘productivity drone’ in place of a social life on the outside. Opening with a cathartic wail, and settling into head-bopping riffs and hand claps, with gang vocals chanting ‘making the most of it, when I feel like it’, Major Love deliver a wry and rugged indie rock anthem for the collective ennui of our times.”
Vicky von Vicky | Goodbye My Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the release of two albums in 1998 and 2000, indie-rock band Vicky von Vicky took a long hiatus in 2001. Now, after two decades, they have regrouped and made a triumphant return to stage and studio. With a renewed focus on songwriting and collaboration, they are eager to unveil fresh music and forge new connections with people who like listening to something just a little different. Their single Goodbye My Love is from the perspective of two ex-lovers and references lyrics from the R.E.M. song It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). Working with producer Nixon Boyd (Hollerado, Dizzy), they recall a 1950s style with a modern indie feel, by incorporating some unexpected but exciting doo-wop vocals to the song.”
Ruby Singh | Tooth ’N’ Claw + After The Fires
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Juno-nominated artist, WCMA winner for Global Artist of the Year and a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in Music and Art, Ruby Singh is releasing two new albums. One is a hip-hop collaboration entitled kraKIN. The other, Polyphonic Garden Suite II, explores the pulses and soundscapes of life. Tooth N’ Claw is the third single from kraKIN. This narrative track imagines a dark and stormy night in the near future. The accompanying video was created through the use of AI technologies: Future intelligence juxtaposed against the traditional and timeless intelligence of the land itself. From Polyphonic Garden Suite II, he shares After the Fires. Amidst the hottest months and largest fires in documented history, the recordings and biosonifications for After The Fires were collected from the smoldering Earth in the summer of 2021. The first growth after fires in these territories trigger synth pads, including sage, alfalfa flower, and the tender shoots of fireweed. Animations by Sab Meynert portray this beauty and power in fine balance.”
Abigail Lapell | Go To Sleep
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Celebrated songwriter Abigail Lapell just released her new album of reimagined, traditional melodies, Lullabies. Recorded by Michael Timmins at his Toronto studio, the project includes songs in English, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Yiddish, German, Japanese, and Welsh and features original guitar and vocal arrangements and, in some cases, new English lyrical adaptations. Lullabies also includes one dreamy, original song in English, Go To Sleep, based on a fragment of a half-remembered bedtime song from her mother. With its simple, infectious melody and sparse guitar-and-vocals arrangement, the song uses iconic nighttime imagery — moon, stars, a gentle night breeze — to evoke the comfort and familiarity of a restful night’s sleep.”
Just Graham | Athelone
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Just Graham is a songwriter at heart. Since picking up a box violin at age 5, he has always played by ear and listened for melody. Drawn to the intimacy and immediacy of the stage, Graham reached his 10,000 hours by performing with countless groups. A singer and multi-instrumentalist, the highlight of this chapter was co-leading Canadian orchestral indie outfit Common Deer from 2014 to 2021, touring extensively in Canada and the U.S. to support three studio releases. In the stillness of the pandemic, songwriting flooded back in. A new honesty emerged both in texture and words. Graham now knows a greater responsibility and seeks his best both in sentiment and delivery. Owning his stage name from a solo project back in 2007, Just Graham wants to remind you that love isn’t dead, and beauty lies in imperfection. “Athelone is a love letter to my partner,” he shares. “It reflects on the closest relationship in my world and sentiments that I found impossible to put into words and music for many years. Written in a state of clarity after a five-day outing into the wilderness, the song felt like it had always been there and just needed the space to become real.”
Space Kitchen | Believer Deceiver
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Space Kitchen have made a remarkable return to the world of old-school progressive rock. Our newest release; Believer Deceiver explodes with a late-1970s prog energy rarely seen since the times of Rush and Genesis. The band contains only two members that account for all the instruments, recording, and engineering; Robbie Carvalho and Rob Howell, both from Ontario. Believer Deceiver is their third single this year, not including the self-titled seven track EP released in April. The EP released to overwhelmingly positive reviews.”
Orson Wilds | Be Brave
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Orson Wilds are a seven-piece indie-rock band from Toronto. Fronted by Eric Reid and Brianna Bordihn, they recently released their second EP This Burning House (We All Fell Asleep In). New single Be Brave is about being grateful for good parents. They say: “As we get older and friends start having children, you realize who stepped up and made tremendous sacrifices for their kids, and you might also feel grateful in hindsight for your parents who gave you more than you could appreciate at the time.”
Liam Barrack | Harder To Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto singer-songwriter Liam Barrack is unveiling Harder To Love, his first new single since the release of his debut EP Sines and Symptoms. The indie-pop artist wrote this track about letting a relationship run its course, touching on many of the steps that lead to such a situation. “I think many people have experienced some kind of relationship where it has been difficult to communicate with someone because they just won’t listen, or they’re stubborn, or you sometimes feel like maybe they don’t respect you,” he says. “This song is about respecting yourself enough to be upset with them, despite how much you care about them.”
Alex Coley & Afterlove | Silent In My Car
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Alex Coley is a Nova Scotia songwriter and indie-folk musician with an affinity for novelty, big feelings and good questions. Built around his soulful, worn-in voice and wrapped in tender harmonies, Alex Coley and Afterlove explore the elemental tension between joy and pain; heartache and healing; what was and what will be. The ending of the relationship that inspired Silent In My Car felt definite, but Alex longed for the friendship they had before things were romantic. He simply missed sitting silently in her company. His vulnerable and intimate lyrics will be sure to dredge up feelings you forgot were there — inviting you to gracefully move through melancholy. The deeply emotional, stirring song offers a clarity you can often only find when you get really quiet; at the end of a long winding road traveled alone.”
Dany Horovitz | Be Good
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dany Horovitz is a Canadian singer-songwriter known for delighting audiences with his memorable melodies and beautiful storytelling through vivid lyrics of love, loss and life, drawing inspiration from ancient poets, modern philosophers, and personal experiences. Born to a middle-class Jewish family in Montreal and raised outside Toronto, Dany’s music is infused with modern takes on familiar sounds: Melodic guitar and piano chords, popping bass licks, and toe-tapping percussion. What kind of advice could you give a young kid in this world? For Dany, he wanted to be prepared if his nieces and nephews wanted to ask the cool uncle for life advice. Here’s what he came up with: Try to be your best self as much as you can; forgive yourself when you’re not your best, because that will happen, then try again; and, forgive others too whether they ask for it or not. Basically, be good. That is the essence of his new song.”
Raveen | In The Middle
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from Montreal, Raveen have flourished into a united entity since releasing their debut full-length Always in 2017. The record marks their foray into more subdued, lush songwriting and a grandiose approach to arrangement with orchestral strings, choir work and field recording. Live performances are evocative of Jeff Buckley’s dynamic peaks-and-valleys approach, while blending electronics and live instrumentation in new, innovative ways. Their releases are consistent markers of growth, with more on the way in the coming year. The group’s latest single and resurgent return after the pandemic era setbacks with In The Middle, a driving and emotive track. They say: “This song tries to provide a snapshot of the emotions we feel in those moments when love and growth fight for dominance in our lives.”
Busty And The Bass | Starstruck (ft. Jordan Brown)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Busty And The Bass just released their new album Forever Never Cares, a record which sounds, at once, of a bygone era and completely modern. The album finds the collective both broadening and distilling their influences of soul, funk, indie, and jazz, into a unified sound that is entirely their own. They’re also sharing the upbeat funk-pop single Starstruck (ft. Jordan Brown), which details the journey of straying from one’s innocence before finding your way back. Between Brown’s otherworldly falsetto and the heartfelt expressiveness of vocalist Alistair Blu, they too lure you in. “It was initially somewhat literal when Jordan and I were writing the lyrics,” says Blu. “Though it quickly drifted into more broad themes of being drawn to flashiness and glamour. The halo represents someone’s purity before being led astray to corruption. The perspective is from that of the corrupter. By the end of the tune, the corruptor kind of realizes his/her faults and gives in, leading with the advice ‘find your way home’ etc.”
Night Lovell | Freak (ft. Freddie Dredd)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ottawa rapper/producer Night Lovell shares his latest single Freak. The bass-rattling track, produced by Outby16 and featuring Freddie Dredd, is part of his upcoming album I Hope You’re Happy. The forthcoming album includes previously released singles My Day Is Ruined and Eye Spy.”
Mark Thackway | Into The Light
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From the shimmering opening notes of his first solo recording, many listeners will get a familiar feeling hearing Mark Thackway’s music. One of Toronto’s premiere guitarists, Thackway is best known within Canada’s jam band community for leading two of its pioneering groups of the 1980s and ’90s, The Other One and Days Of You. Now, after several years of tending to other aspects of his life, Thackway has returned to writing original songs that display his impressive storytelling ability along with his guitar skills, but this time in an acoustic setting. The initial results are contained on the eponymous Mark Thackway, six songs recorded live off the floor with Thackway accompanied only by longtime collaborator Steve Himel on upright bass. ”
Fellow Camper | Left To Go
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Fellow Camper are the folk duo of Lee Watson and Benjamin Roy, who met sitting around the fire on the shores of Beausoleil Island in Georgian Bay. They sing in close two-part harmony, drawing inspiration from Canadian folk pioneers who graced the stages of Toronto’s Yorkville scene in the ’60s and ’70s. Combine that with a modern sensibility, and you’ve got Fellow Camper. The song Left To Go is inspired by the desire to escape from the busy hustle and bustle of life, and looks at this both figuratively and literally. It loosely takes themes from a number of post-apocalyptic dystopian novels like Station Eleven by Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel. Left To Go is a short form of the question from the chorus, ‘Is there somewhere left to go?’ which one of the protagonists in the book asks himself as the early days of a pandemic are announced.”
The Violet Archers | Animal Song + Nobody Knows
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Violet Archers, the solo project of Rheostatics’ Tim Vesely, released two new songs today. Animal Song is about inspiration, that unknowable innermost cavern from which creativity flows. “When inspiration comes, it comes like an animal in the night,” says Vesely. With hope and earnesty, the new song runs headlong towards this subterranean, subconscious space. Rooted in the soft soil of a marching drum beat, the song’s pace is a waterfall in steady flow. With birdsong acoustic guitar and mountain airy synth, Vesely’s message is spacious and clear: “Run with the sound and when it’s done it’s gone,” it goes. On Animal Song, Vesely reunites with Sarah Harmer, who first collaborated on Rheostatics’ The Story of Harmelodia (1999). The song was released today with bonus single Nobody Knows.”
Roki | Natural
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Alt-pop artist Roki unveils her Lovable EP and the single Natural. Produced by Roki, Ben Kaplan (Mother Mother) and Winston Hauschild (Wanting Qu), Lovable heralds a new era of sound: Dreamier, brighter, and hopeful for new possibilities, and carries with it a message that we are all lovable, even in our imperfections. Natural is Roki’s second songwriting collaboration with Tea Petrovic, as well as Nat Jay. Roki wanted to write this song as a gift for someone close to her heart, to celebrate their positive relationship. Lovable’s message and core theme is of love, the ups, the downs, the desperation at times, and at other times the ease. It’s an ever-evolving, ever-changing dynamic that pulls at our emotions.”
Los Duendes | Me Recuerdas
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Vancouver Latin fusion group Los Duendes just released their debut album Me Recuerdas. To celebrate, they also released the title track as the third single. The upbeat and alluring track is an emotive journey through the pain of heartbreak. “Me Recuerdas was composed during a late-night session in the studio and takes listeners on an emotional ride through the nightmare of being broken up with and having to move on,” says vocalist Sangito Bigelow. “The track is a sultry arrangement of horn lines reminiscent of late-night traffic along rain-slicked city streets and features the distinctive sound of the Tres cubano, along with vocals from Toto Berriel and Dawn Pemberton, funk Timba bass lines, and Latin percussion. It’s an epic saga that serves as a cautionary tale to all the Don Juans out there and encourages the broken-hearted to move on, ultimately having the last laugh.”
