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It’s been two years since Toronto electro-pop artist Lowell released her debut album, We Loved Her Dearly, which we named one of the best Canadian albums of that year. Now Lowell is back with a new EP called Part 1: PARIS YK (out in August) and a brand new single called “High Enough.”
The minimal electronic number was produced by Zale Epstein, who most notably worked on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album, To Pimp a Butterfly. The music video for the track is colourful and pop art-inspired, featuring Lowell performing in a lace suit as she sings, “You’re all in my head/ you’re all in my mind./ Am I good enough?/ Am I high enough?” Watch the full video below.
A Tribe Called Red has released a new mini-documentary entitled The Manawan Session. Filmed in May 2014, the 7-minute clip shows band members 2oolman, Bear Witness and DJ NDN working in conjunction with Quebec drum group Black Bear on their Juno-nominated project Come and Get Your Love.
A Tribe Called Red's latest track "Stadium Pow Wow" released a few weeks ago is also a collaboration with Black Bear. The band's third album is due for release this fall.
"Their tribal spirit and grass roots were infectious; we clicked right away," said A Tribe Called Red member Bear Witness in a statement talking about collaborating with Black Bear. "It was a real tactile experience; we were able to be interactive with the group, exchange ideas and not just sample their music. For us, we’re often in the right place at the right time, and this was just that.”
The group also announced a series of dates for an upcoming Canadian tour starting on June 25.
A Tribe Called Red debuted their new song, "Stadium Pow Wow," a couple of weeks ago and now the group has released a visual clip to accompany the song.
The song features the Quebec drum group Black Bear and is being released ahead of a slew of tour dates for the group across the country starting June 25 in Winnipeg.
Nicolas Godin, the talkative half of French electronica duo Air, can more or less pinpoint the exact moment he knew the fire to create dreamy pop went out.
The evening in question occurred during the group’s fourth world tour, when the bassist and bandleader discovered he was simply going through the motions.
“I think I was fed up with my world,” Godin recalls. “I wanted to have new horizons.”
To alleviate his frustration, a friend suggested he look up Hereafter and The Alchemist, two Bruno Monsaingeon documentaries about a Canadian madcap pianist whose wild interpretations of Bach and outlandish personality made him a cult musical hero.
Upon his return to Paris, Godin tracked down the docs. “Suddenly I saw this video about Glenn Gould and thought, 'wow, there's another music world somewhere which is more interesting; where I don't have to play 'Sexy Boy' every night.'”
For anyone who’s followed Air’s two decade long career, that simply hearing Gould’s reinterpretations of Bach could alter the course of Godin's career seems suspicious. After all, classical influences germinate several of the band’s recordings, going all the way back to their initial 12” singles. But Godin counters that he came by those reference points dishonestly, through soundtracks by eminent composers Ennio Morricone and Michel LeGrand.
“Everything I know about classical I learned second hand,” he admits. “When I saw Glenn Gould I knew I had to find the real shit; the real source material.
"I went home, stopped touring, took a course [on playing Bach] and study, study, study for like two or three years.”
And just like that one of the biggest groups to ever come out of France (Air, along with their childhood friends in the groups Daft Punk and Phoenix, created a musical scene which dominated dance culture for most of the '00s) was on indefinite hiatus. All thanks to Glenn Gould.
Just over five years later, Godin is sitting in a makeshift studio in Paris, preparing for the initial performance of his solo album, Contrepoint. Inspired by Gould, it’s an exploration of Bach’s work, reinterpreted through the lens of Godin’s personal musical fascinations including Bossa Nova, early video games and, of course, Air’s signature retro-future electro-pop.
He’s nervous, he admits, but the good kind of nervous. Something he hasn't felt since his first show with Air in late '90s Seattle. The band was hungry and dazed then, riding the wave of its debut album, Moon Safari, which owed as much to Pink Floyd as Giorgio Moroder, and which the band had never performed. It’s a feeling he'd lost with his old group. But one which, through Gould’s inspiration, he’s come to terms with.
“It was so good man,” he says of his studious break from the group. “I was at home, I was relaxing and I was going deep, deep, deep in the music. I could put a name on everything I was feeling, I could understand the real language of music. It's like you know how to speak and then suddenly you learn how to read.”
With this calm upon him, Godin reunited with his musical partner Jean-Benoît Dunckel for a few shows in 2014, and they’re once again playing festivals this summer as well as releasing a new double disc greatest hits anthology titled Twentyears this month.
“At some point I needed a break because I was playing ‘Sexy Boy’ every day for 10 years. And now that the break is done I'm ready to play again.” he smiles. “It's like, if you’re Glenn Gould, you play the Goldberg Variations. We're Air, we play Moon Safari.”
We are not even six months into the year and 2016 has already yielded a cavalcade of stellar Canadian music. Following up on the pop domination Canadians enjoyed internationally as well as at home in 2015, through artists like Drake, the Weeknd and Justin Bieber, as well as the kudos directed towards the likes of Grimes, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Lindi Ortega, the country's musicians have continued to find widespread critical and commercial acceptance.
Groups like the Strumbellas have found significant traction since 2016 began and as of this writing, Drake has been topping the Billboard album and singles chart for weeks in a row. And soon, another indicator of the quality Canadian music has to offer will be on display when the Polaris Long List is unveiled in Whitehorse, Yukon on June 15.
In the meantime, we polled our staffers here at CBC Music to chime in on their favourite releases of 2016 so far. You will find their picks in alphabetical order below.
What are your favourite Canadian albums of 2016 so far? Which albums do you think should make the long list? Let us know by tweeting us at @cbcmusic or commenting on the CBC Music Facebook page.
Album:A Coliseum Complex Museum Artist: The Besnard Lakes
Psychedelic rock is a tough genre to pull off, but the Besnard Lakes have it down to a pure art form. A Coliseum Complex Museum gives me the same feeling I get reading an epic novel. From the ebbs and flows of "The Bray Road Beast," to the blistering solos of "Tungsten 4 - The Refugee," this album has conflict, climax and resolution, sometimes all within one song. Also, frontman Jace Lasek told q that the solos at the end of the album are inspired by the Eagles, which is just amazing. — Kerry Martin
Album:IV Artist: Black Mountain
Every music note cast by Black Mountain instantly turns to gold and no, this is not a statement that is up for debate. Very few bands can start their album with an eight-and-a-half minute song and keep you completely glued to it for every last millisecond of this album’s 56 minutes. Songs like "Florian Saucer Attack" possesses a sound that countless bands are trying to emulate, but none of them can do it justice quite like Black Mountain. It's a testament to what they are: a true rock band, through and through. — KM
Album:II Artist: Jean-Michel Blais
Jean-Michel Blais’ album II is as beautiful an album as you will find. It crosses so many barriers of what it means to be a pianist. Blais does not actually identify with many of the conservatory-driven philosophies of classical music, and because of this, he has distanced himself from that school of thought and classical practices altogether. You can hear this on every track of II. Blais has the hands of a pianist, but the heart of a punk. — KM
Album:Good Advice Artist: Basia Bulat
Every song has elements of wild abandon, as if Basia Bulat’s shaking something free, and pushing herself at every turn. Lyrically, Bulat is still exploring darkness, and still wrestling with some kind of heartbreak and grief — the very things that made her last album, Tall Tall Shadow, so compelling and resonant — but she’s reframing these themes through pop. Good Advice is the sound of Bulat at her most daring while still being true to herself. — Andrea Warner
Album:Somewhere We Will Find Our Place Artist: Jim Bryson
When Jim Bryson stopped by the CBC Music offices a few weeks ago, he told us that Kathleen Edwards proclaimed his song "Breathe" the best he's ever written. There are so many gems on this record I'm surprised Edwards could make such a claim. For this record, Bryson recruited Charles Spearin from Broken Social Scene to record with him, resulting in songs that have complex and compelling arrangements, interesting layers and beautiful poetry. There's something new revealed in every listen. My favourite lyric is from the sunny "Changing Scenery" where Bryson sings, "It became you against me instead of you and me against the world," which has lingered in my mind. Other standouts include the dichotomous "The Depression Dance" and an ode to a province "Ontario." — Jeanette Cabral
Album:Hotel Paranoia Artist: Jazz Cartier
Over the span of just two mixtapes in less than 12 months, Toronto rapper Jazz Cartier and his producer Lantz have managed to make their imprint in city lorded over by Drake. What’s more impressive is that they’ve managed this all without the coveted co-sign from the self-proclaimed “6 God.” “I am the prince of the city, I am the talk of the town,” Cartier boasts right off the top of his latest album, Paranoia Hotel, his eyes clearly on the throne. The 22-year-old rapper used the existing “Toronto sound” as a jumping off point, but has made his own lane with a combination of melodic hooks, fierce vocals and cinematic trap production. Unlike on their 2015 debut, Marauding in Paradise, the pair are less worried about making even remotely pop-friendly songs and have packed Hotel Paranoia with straight bangers. — Jesse Kinos-Goodin
Album:Soul Run Artist: Tanika Charles
The fact that it’s taken a while for Toronto singer Tanika Charles to follow up her 2010 What!What?What!? EP has helped her immensely. Not only does she deliver an infectiously timeless brand of ‘60s and ‘70s-influenced soul, but the intervening time has allowed Charles the time to fine-tune and hone her charismatic stage presence as well as justifiably develop an ever-growing audience. Featuring production from top-notch talents like Slakah the Beatchild and notable assists from Canadian R&B singers Divine Brown and Zaki Ibrahim, Soul Run underlines why Charles’s impressive vocals demand a captive audience. Featuring the dusty grooves of the immediately catchy title track, the foot-stomping “Love Fool” and current single “Two Steps” — among many other standouts — Soul Run is further proof of the adage the best things come to those who wait. — Del F. Cowie
Album:Song and Dance Man Artist: Jason Collett
Jason Collett, the well respected Troubadour & paterfamilias of Toronto singer-songwriters, might have released his sixth solo album in the winter of 2016, but Song and Dance Man is a lazy summer sounding record. Listening to its 13 songs feels like a warm summer evening spent with an old friend. The record was produced by Afie Jurvanen, a.k.a. Bahamas, and his production style is refreshing like a cool breeze cutting through that summer night. This record mines classic sounds of the late '60s and early '70s. Song and Dance Man has the melody of Abbey Road's second side, the catchy hooks of Jackson Browne's debut, mixed with the country snarl of Exile on Main Street-era Rolling Stones. The album art also has a perfect vintage feel. In a world where most digital music you buy is an intangible mess of zeroes and ones, sometimes it is nice to own a record that looks and sounds like it belongs to another time. — Pete Morey
Album:Views Artist: Drake
More than any other Drake album, Views suffered from unrealistically high expectations. It was officially announced almost a full year ago, and the on-the ground campaign in Toronto, in which “Views” and talk of the “6 God” were plastered on billboards and at airports, made it feel as if this was going to be his undisputed magnum opus. When it was released, critics said it was too bloated, too self-absorbed, even too wintery for a summer release. And it is all those things, because that’s what Drake does best. Drake and his producer Noah "40" Shebib have defined an entire sound around just that. More so than any other rapper, Drake’s turned his moody solipsism into success. Self-absorbed, overly confident albums from successful artists have a history of being met with negative reviews, only to be completely re-evaluated decades later (think Pet Sounds, The White Album). And at 20 songs, the one thing Views truly suffers from is having too much filler. But just like the Beatles’ White Album, editing down the tracklist (as many have, including me) reveals a rapper confidently at the top of his game and doing what he does best. His album’s record-breaking sales back me up there. Plus, I challenge anyone to come up with a better one-two punch than “Controlla”/“One Dance” released this year. Either song make a strong contender for 2016’s song of the summer. — JKG
Album:Sept. 5th Artist: dvsn The latest artist to come out of Drake’s inner circle of OVO Sound, dvsn is the project of producer Nineteen85 and vocalist Daniel Daley. Together with Drake’s right-hand man Noah “40” Shebib, dvsn put together Sept. 5th, one of the label’s best R&B releases. Shrouded in the same sense of mystery as the Weeknd when he first surfaced, the members of dvsn maintain a low profile and instead let their music do the speaking. Sept. 5th is a sensual and minimal work that oozes with the soul and sexuality of predecessors like D’Angelo or Usher – one of the most confident debuts of the year. — Melody Lau
Album:I Wanna Make It With You Artist: Michael Bernard Fitzgerald
Calgary's Michael Bernard Fitzgerald calls this record, "music to get a speeding ticket to." It's also music to fall in love to. Music to take off all your clothes and dance around your kitchen to. Music to curl up with a pile of Kleenex and recover a broken heart to. It's no small feat to inspire all that and more in one tight album, but then again Fitzgerald is no small talent. — Talia Schlanger
Album:99.9% Artist: Kaytranada
Over the past few years, Montreal's Kaytranada has graduated from redefining the dance floor with his cool-breeze remixes into a bonafide go-to producer for cutting-edge, high-profile acts like the Internet, Mick Jenkins and Katy B. 99.9% impressively showcases the evolution in an assured affair that's is turning heads worldwide. The album features a stellar lineup of progressive left-field stalwarts like Little Dragon, 2016 critical darling Anderson .Paak and Toronto's BadBadNotGood. 99.9% also exhibits Kaytranada's most notable trait of bringing attention to the overlooked, coaxing standout performances by Toronto rising artist River Tiber and comeback kid Craig David. — DFC
Album:Oh No Artist: Jessy Lanza
Much like fellow Canadian Grimes, Jessy Lanza has developed a serious strength in crafting pop gems using electronic instruments. On her sophomore release, Oh No, Lanza is a dance floor whiz on hyper-energized tracks like “VV Violence” and “It Means I Love You,” but she also highlights her R&B flair on more downtempo moments like the simmering take, “I Talk BB.” On the surface, Oh No may not appear to be a huge leap from her Polaris Prize shortlisted debut Pull My Hair Back, but there’s a subtle boost in confidence that makes this new set of songs even more alluring than before. — ML
Album:Cult Following Artist: Little Scream
If the only new track you’ve listened to from Little Scream, a.k.a. Laurel Sprengelmeyer, is the ultra danceable “Love as a Weapon,” you’d be forgiven — it is a definite summer jam. But you’d also be missing out on the beautiful, twisted collection that is Cult Following, the Iowa-born, Montreal-based songwriter’s sophomore release. “Every disaster has a beautiful start,” sings Sprengelmeyer on “The Kissing,” a track that features the vocals of TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone, and a layered standout among songs that feature Sufjan Stevens and Sharon Van Etten. Mary Margaret O’Hara’s vocals make an appearance on the haunting “Wishing Well,” and the full project was produced by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. No one’s calling it a concept album, but Cult Following contains 12 seamless tracks that have collected some dedicated followers. — Holly Gordon
Album:Majid Jordan Artist: Majid Jordan
If you're looking for soulful vocals and a fresh sound, then look no further. From slow jam tunes “King City” and “Love is Always There” to dance-floor grooves “Something About You,” and “Every Step of the Way,” Majid Jordan’s debut album has a song that caters to whatever mood you may be in. The record has a psychedelic R&B feel laced with a drum kit and delicate electronic piano. Together the Toronto duo compliment each other, making innovative music that’ll have you nodding your head with every beat. Majid Jordan is definitely making strides, molding their own sound. I can’t wait to see what other projects they have in store. – Kiah Welsh
Album:The Dream is Over Artist: Pup
Punk rock is to hear a doctor diagnose you with a haemorrhaged cyst on your vocal chords, tell you "the dream is over" and then you ignore their medical advice completely. That reckless spirit (and true story) fuels the thrilling sophomore record from Pup. An album full of self-loathing, self-destruction, and enough finger shredding guitar and ear splitting wails to destroy any other punk record released this year. Here's hoping the doctor hears the record. After all, her poor choice of words became the title.— Mitch Pollock
Album: All Lit Up Artist: Repartee
What makes a great pop record in 2016? Two things: slick hooks and strong statements. St. John's synth-pop group Repartee went above and beyond in their April debut, All LitUp, packing in irresistibly catchy beats alongside real-talk lyrics that you might mistake for your own thoughts. Case in point: in the standout single "Dukes," lead singer Meg Warren lays out the self-effacing mantras we pick up and repeat to ourselves, and obliterates them with her powerful, upbeat voice: "They tell us when we're little/ it's better to be quiet and to not cause trouble/ sit pretty, keep everybody happy/ and don't speak up, you don't wanna be bossy." Bossy be damned: Warren’s voice steers this sparkling record and compels you to nod along, not just because you can’t stop moving to the beat, but because you know — and feel — exactly what she’s talking about.— Emma Godmere
Album:Mosey Artist: Daniel Romano
The most challenging thing about Daniel Romano's new album is how uncategorizable it is. Daniel's past records could be seen in many ways as genre-studies – mind you, heartbreaking, genius, emotional and honest genre studies, but albums that explored worlds of punk, folk, and Atkins-era Nashville country. With Mosey, he's made one of the finest yet strangest albums ever from this country. It comes out as a fusion of country music, '60s psychedelia, the first two Leonard Cohen records, and even snippets of minuets that could be owed to Bach. However, as always, he never lets the form dictate the meaning. His song are honest, plaintive, playful, severe and quite brilliant. Regardless of your favourite genre, you'll find something to love in Mosey – they're kind of all in there. — Tom Power
Album:The Party Artist: Andy Shauf
It came as no surprise when Shauf's new album The Party was released that it would be so much more than just a group of songs put out to be listened to. As the genius songwriter that he is, he created each song as a character at The Party. I've said it before and I'll say it again; this album is a masterpiece that will ring out for years to come as we all come to realize we are dealing with one of the next true greats of song writing in Canada. — Matt Fisher
Album:Sorrow Artist: Colin Stetson
Colin Stetson's experimental saxophone records appeal to a niche audience. While he occupies a space somewhere between experimental classical music and indie rock, the music itself will never approach a pop tune. With Sorrow, Stetson goes head-first down the rabbit hole. The album is a reinterpretation of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony featuring key collaborators from Stetson's musical life. While Stetson benefits from some of the lightness of the arrangement in moments, he also accentuates its heavy moments with the addition of the deep bass of his sax and black metal guitar parts (which fit bizarrely well with the operatic singing of Stetson's sister). This is a large-scale art piece that requires to be listened to in full. It demands a great deal of its audience in many ways. But when the needle stops, this is the greatest piece of art Colin Stetson has had a hand in creating. — Alex Redekop
Album:Hope Artist: The Strumbellas
Hope is not a subtle record. It’s bold and big, polished to perfection by L.A. producer/engineer Dave Schiffman (Johnny Cash, Haim, Weezer). This is the most nakedly focused we’ve ever heard the Strumbellas before. It’s a determined, ambitious sound, but never flattened or formulaic. In fact, it’s downright thrilling to hear a vision articulated so clearly and with each listen, Hope reveals itself as a record of substance and real staying power. — AW
Album: Hold/Still Artist: Suuns
Suuns latest record is dissonant and challenging. It moves from near silence to distorted noise on a dime. The percussion moves at a rhythm that feels aggressive without resorting to being excessively loud. It's passive aggressive. These songs are minimalistic while still feeling impossibly full and immediate. This is electronic music and rock music while being neither of those things at all. This is a fresh voice in music that tears through the carefully refined pop-rock taking over the musical landscape. — AR
Album:Love You to Death Artist: Tegan and Sara
Building off of the success of 2013’s Heartthrob, Tegan and Sara double down on their synth-pop sound on Love You to Death, surely one of the best pop albums this year so far. From the infectious hook of lead single “Boyfriend” to the more personal ballads, “100x” and “White Knuckles,” Tegan and Sara have found the perfect balance between their past and future sounds on this record. If Heartthrob became the blueprint for artists such as Taylor Swift (1989) and Carly Rae Jepsen (Emotion), we can’t wait to see what Love You to Death inspires in the coming months and years. — ML
Album: Paradise Artist: White Lung
It can be tough to grow musically within the tight-knit space of punk and hardcore, but White Lung’s latest release Paradise is a graceful evolution that embraces the band’s pop sensibilities without sacrificing any of the punch they’ve been known to pack. Here, songwriter Mish Barber-Way expands her songwriting to new perspectives and attitudes to explore vicious killers and blissful lovers. On the title track, Barber-Way sweetly shouts one of the most romantic lines she has ever written over a pummelling soundscape (“I’m all about you/ You’re all about me too”). “Below” is perhaps the band’s biggest sonic departure, but a shimmering glimpse into all the promising spaces they have yet to explore. Paradise is an exciting look into the possibilities that still lie ahead for White Lung. By the end of the album you’ll be left begging for what’s next. —ML
Album:The Great Detachment Artist: Wintersleep
With the Great Detachment, Wintersleep’s sixth studio album, the Yarmouth-bred, Montreal-based five-piece is tighter than ever, delivering 11 new songs that err on the bigger, brasher side of a sound the band has honed for more than a decade. “So gimme the night, tonight/ I’m going to prove to you/ give me some time,” Paul Murphy pleads on standout single “Santa Fe,” but he doesn’t need the length of that nearly four-minute song to hook you: Wintersleep is back, and bolder than ever. — HG
Juno Award-winning Halifax producer Ryan Hemsworth has released a new track entitled "How it Felt."
Since his sophomore album, Alone for the First Time, Hemsworth has been focusing a lot of attention on his Secret Songs project, where he has been issuing tracks by up-and-coming producers.
Recently, he teamed with fellow Last Gang signee Harrison on the track "Vanilla," which was recently featured on CBC Music's Songs You Need to Hear and boasted an eye-catching animated video.
"How it Felt," however, is Hemsworth's first solo track in a while and might be a harbinger of his third album.
You won't want to miss this week's My Playlist, if only for its shear fun factor! Twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin, take turns introducing their favourite tracks and telling great stories about their choices. And yes, they sometimes finish one another's sentences!
It’s been more than twenty years since Tegan and Sara won a local college Battle of the Bands contest, when they were teenagers. Since then, their music has morphed from indie pop rock with lots of guitar, to party-charged electro dance pop with beats and bass and full-on synths.
But it still has what it’s always had, and that’s heart, authenticity and great hooks. It's also what you expect from their playlist picks with tracks by Grimes, Alessia Cara, Jessy Lanza, Rostam, Vanbot and Drake to name a few.
Tegan and Sara’s latest album, their eighth, is called Love you to Death.
A Tribe Called Red have released a new song entitled "Stadium Pow Wow." The group's last official release was the 2015 EP Suplex which yielded the Prism Prize-nominated video of the same name. A Tribe Called Red's last album, 2013's Nation II Nation, was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize.
Speaking with The Fader about the new track, Ian "Deejay NDN" Campeau notes the track features newest member 2oolman and Quebec drum group Black Bear, calling it a "new era" for the group.
"Doing that [collaboration] was the realization of a dream that the band has had for years, and we are super thankful to Black Bear for being open minded about it," said Campeau.
Every month, we look ahead at the albums coming out from across the country that we think you should hear. This month is a big one, with new albums by the Tragically Hip, Hot Hot Heat, Hannah Georgas, Tegan and Sara, Neil Young, River Tiber, Ria Mae, Case/Lang/Veirs, Peaches and Weaves.
Click through the gallery above to listen and learn more about the albums.
Montreal producer Kaytranada has been gathering widespread critical acclaim for 99.9%, his album released earlier this month. After dropping the robot-dancing video "Lite Spots" a few weeks ago, the producer unveiled a remix of Rihanna's current "Kiss it Better" single earlier today.
Kaytranada's version transfroms the mid-tempo, '80s-tinged Anti cut into a club-ready foot-stomper.
Speaking with Zane Lowe from Beats 1 Radio, Kaytranada explained working on the remix for the Barbadian pop star.
"I had it on repeat, low key, I really loved the song," said Kaytranada. "But I really wanted to remix it.... It's hard to explain what it was, I just think about it and then, boom."
Listen to the Kaytranada remix of Rihanna's "Kiss it Better" below.
Actually, on many levels, it's been kind of the worst. Death, sickness, raging infernos, natural disasters, election madness, heartbreak and general destruction, gloom and doom at every turn.
Unfortunate times call for uplifting music and luckily, the first five months of the year have offered up a bevy of bouncy, beautiful, utterly brilliant gems to help hike up our spirits and soothe our souls.
Just like our 2013 positivity playlist, everyone still needs a little sunshine, a jolt of joy to get the feet moving, the blood pumping and trigger one of those involuntary smiles that starts on the inside and transforms your face. Check out the gallery above for some great music, which we've paired with some adorable photos because you deserve a dance party and a crazy cute animal photo (or 30).
Hang out with me on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner
River Tiber is the musical project/alter ego of 25-year-old Toronto-based musician Tommy Paxton-Beesley. He's releasing his solo album, Indigo, on June 24, capitalizing on a run of increasing critical acclaim since the release of his September 2015 EP, When the Time is Right.
"I think that [Indigo] has many more colours to it," says Paxton-Beesley, discussing his progression since the EP release. "I definitely am influenced by a lot of different stuff on this. I think rhythmically it’s more diverse. It’s just bigger. And it’s like the format of the EP is more concise, so there isn’t really the chance for the energy to build up and go quite as crazy. With [Indigo] it really extends all the way."
Thematically driven by the course of a relationship, Indigo runs the emotional gamut. "It’s like a journey through my mind in a way, spiritually and psychedelically," he says. With lyrics that hint at an uneasy romantic union, the densely layered, jazz-infused lead single, "Acid Test," gives a glimpse into the musical world Paxton-Beesley has created on this new album.
Given the impressive sounds coming from River Tiber, CBC Music spoke with Paxton-Beesley to find out more about the man behind the music.
1. He wasn’t always confident about his voice
As a trained multi-instrumentalist through the Berklee College of Music — comfortable with the cello, guitar and trombone — singing wasn't instinctive for Paxton-Beesley. He gradually incorporated vocals into his repertoire, inspired by Jeff Buckley's Grace.
"I think that more and more, I’ve gravitated to putting my voice front and centre in my productions because it’s just the instrument you carry everywhere that you go," he says. "Even listening to my record I feel that I’ve developed so much since making that record as a vocalist, primarily just honing in on the clarity of it and the lyrics and what I’m saying. It’s so hard to work up the courage to sing in the first place and when you first start out, it’s washed out in the reverb and buried in the mix under these instruments. As I've become more confident, I’ve really been honing in on that clarity and I think it’s only going to be moving further in that direction."
2. Collaborations are key to River Tiber's creative process
While the release of his own EPs — The Star Falls and When the Time is Right — have been serving notice of his talent, Paxton-Beesley has been making his name even more recognizable through collaborations with artists like Daniel Caesar and Doc McKinney, the latter being an esteemed producer known for his work with the Weeknd, among many others.
Paxton-Beesley worked extensively with producer Frank Dukes and BadBadNotGood on Sour Soul, the band's Polaris Prize shortlisted collaboration with Ghostface Killah. Another frequent collaborator is Montreal producer Kaytranada, who released his own critically acclaimed album, 99.9%, earlier this month. The duo worked on the song "Illusions" together (which also featured Pusha T), with Paxton-Beesley incorporating Kaytranada's drums. Kaytranada and Paxton-Beesley will also be going on tour together for a few U.S. West Coast dates starting May 24.
"We didn’t have a mastermind plan or whatever for it but the framework for it was there," Paxton-Beesley says about working with Kaytranada.
"I love to collaborate," he continues. "The tension between two artists pushes you forward and pushes me into places I wouldn’t expect."
3. He appreciated being sampled by Drake, but hopes the long-term focus will shift to his own music
Drake producers Boi-1da and Frank Dukes sampled River Tiber's "No Talk" from his When the Time is Right EP for the Toronto hip-hop star's hugely successful mixtape If You're Reading This it's too Late.
"I think it definitely gave a big boost to the attention my music was getting but I think the main thing I realized right away that you can’t live off a co-sign or whatever," says Paxton-Beesley. "I just mean you’ve got to be able to back it up with your own story, your own music and your own art."
So while he entertained questions on the notoriety the Drake association afforded him, Paxton-Beesley was concentrating on long-term goals. "I would say now, I feel good where everything is heading. I’m carving out my own space in my music. I definitely am going to keep it rolling in terms of putting out music and keep it building. You can't let it all rest on something like that." From left to right: River Tiber, Pusha T and Kaytranada. (Carlo Cruz/Red Bull Sound Select)
4. He’s excited about Toronto’s musical future
The mix of electronic, hip-hop and R&B purveyed by artists like Drake has expanded the city's sonic identity to those on the outside looking in, benefitting artists like River Tiber, who dabble in those genres. So why all the attention now?
"I think that it’s probably because Toronto has been underrated," says Paxton-Beesley. "It’s such a big city, even population-wise. It’s massive and you would think that it would be on the level of a Chicago or an L.A. on the depth of its talent because of the population alone. And I think that it is and I think that with anything it’s a matter of expectation, really. I think people have had low expectations of Toronto, y’know. I don’t think the thing here is like New York, L.A. or Chicago — those places are still to me, meccas of culture and music. I think that we’re really in the process of developing a history as places like that. At least the way I see it. You look at the history of some of those places and it's really deep. I think we’re babies compared to that. But yeah, I think we’re getting there."
5. He could have played every instrument on his album, but didn’t
The album features a variety of intricate instrumentation, says Paxton-Beesley, including cello, violin and trombone, drawing on his classically trained background. Staying true to the one-man band his moniker conveys, Paxton-Beesley could have feasibly played all of the instruments. Instead, he decided to defer to others like live band members Thadeus Garwood, John Mavro, Danny Voicu and David Lewis, when appropriate.
"It’s not just me. I do all that, but it’s not just me," he says, of the musical arrangements on the album. "The way I play drums is so different than my guy Thadeus, who I play with a lot. I play drums on this other [album] track that definitely has a different vibe. I think that once upon a time I would have tried to do everything myself, but sometimes you just gotta serve the song. I’m definitely part of a community of amazing musicians. I think it’s pretty cool to have a lot of different voices that one person might be good at creating. I don’t want [Indigo] to sound like a bedroom record and I don’t think it does at all."
A lot of people are really excited about Jessy Lanza's new album, Oh No. And rightly so. Anticipation has been growing since her last album, Pull My Hair Back, was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize in 2014.
The Hamilton, Ont., native has been working hard recording songs for Oh No, collaborating again with her talented partner, Junior Boy Jeremy Greenspan. The new album was released last week and is getting lots of love.
We recorded a First Play Live session with Lanza a few weeks ago. Her live show is minimal, but impressive. She's joined onstage by the fleet-footed drummer Tori Tizzard. While Tizzard's socked feet pound the bass and her sticks ripple above the pads and cymbals, Lanza's voice floats and dances over the beat. The duo makes a fantastic team. Check out the videos in the playlist below:
In March, Canadian duo Majical Cloudz announced that they would be breaking up following their last string of tour dates supporting their 2015 album, Are You Alone?. In the band’s Tumblr post, frontman Devon Welsh assured fans that both he and band mate Matthew Otto will be releasing new music soon from their respective projects.
Today, Welsh made good on that promise by putting out a release called Down the Mountain, a collection of previously unreleased tracks from the past two years. On his own website, Welsh explained that some of the songs on this new album “were written during the same time as Are You Alone? but did not end up on that album for one reason or another.”
“I want to release all these songs because I like them a lot and since I am working on new music, my attention will inevitably go to that new music,” he continued. “And these songs will be forgotten, and forgotten songs are sad.”
Welsh mixed and mastered these eight tracks by himself, sans Otto, adding that he is "in the process of learning how to be better at that." You can listen to the songs off Down the Mountain below.
Montreal producer Kaytranada released his album 99.9% last week to widespread critical acclaim underlining why it was picked as one of the albums featured in our May Music Preview. Kaytranada's latest video also shows why so many people are gravitating towards his creativity.
The new clip for "Lite Spots" features Kaytranada as a mad scientist of sorts who has created a robot and teaches it to dance. It will be hard to keep the smile off your face when you watch what happens afterwards.
Some time in 2010, Jesse F. Keeler and Al-P, better known as the Toronto-based DJ duo MSTRKRFT, came to a breaking point in their musical career. On the one hand, they had never been more successful, playing Letterman with John Legend, and earning big paydays and top billings at the top echelon of EDM festivals. On the other, they had painted themselves into a corner: riding the au courant wave of genre-mashing house with hip-hop to great renown, while essentially becoming the go-to remixers for any indie artist with pop ambitions before pivoting with pop-minded sophomore release, Fist of God.
While the offers were still coming in, the duo found itself increasingly sickened by the bed they’d made. Something had to give.
Keeler, who had been through a similar revulsion with his other duo, the raucous dance-punk act Death From Above 1979, tried to mitigate the damage by eliminating the group’s live commitments. But it soon became apparent MSTRKRFT would have to go nuclear, scorching the very earth they stood on in order to reset.
“If you're not happy with the way things are, for whatever reason — internal or external — you can't just expect things to change dramatically if you don't make dramatic changes,” Keeler recalls, lighting a cigarette. “We decided to do our utmost to get out of every record deal and commitment that we had with anybody anywhere. We had to stop.”
A couple spare releases aside, by 2011 MSTRKRFT practically disappeared from public life — just in time for Keeler to reunite DFA for a new album, and for the rest of the world to write MSTRKRFT off.
It’s a sunny weekend afternoon at South By Southwest 2016 in Austin, Texas, and Keeler and Al-P are standing on the roof of a Whole Foods. Less than 24 hours removed from their return to the live stage, a truncated DJ set witnessed by several tens of stunned (or stoned) University of Texas students settling into St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Their second set, playing ahead of Third Eye Blind to a capacity crowd moments ago, went considerably better, and the duo huddles in the makeshift backstage as passersby vie for their attention.
As part of their rebirth, their new live show is in support of their upcoming album, but it’s also entirely improvised — part of the duo’s new philosophy toward music, inspired by the artistic aspirations of Sonic Youth.
“My other band played with them in Norway and it really hit me: they just exist playing the music that they want and if people like it or don't like it, it doesn't phase them either way," Keeler explains. "And yet there were 20,000 people there wanting to figure out what they were going to do. Which isn't to say if you get weird you'll have a huge fanbase like Sonic Youth, rather if there's a thing that you want to do and makes you happy, there's a chance you'll do it for 30 years," he pauses. "Or until you get divorced.”
“We reference them all the time: 'What would Sonic Youth have done in this moment?'" says Al-P. "The thing with DJing is there's a sense of contemporary thinking that you have to put into a set. The way we're playing now, I kind of look at it as if we're able to play covers of our own material within our new framework.”
“It's kind of like jazz; you'll never see the same performance twice,” Keeler adds.
“Here's a great quote,” Al-P smiles. “We're producing in real time.”
The road to rebuilding after self-destruction is purposely difficult. For the members of MSTRKRFT, the path was a form of regression therapy, rediscovering their musical agility in a kind of sensory deprivation chamber of their own making, void of any outside pressure. “Akin to how we would operate as teenagers,” Keeler says, laughing, “figuring out the way to make music that would make us excited. It's been gripping.”
“Here's a funny way to put it,” Al-P offers. “Any time me and Jesse had been away from the studio we always inevitably end up starting something called 'Having Fun Again.' And I think there's a 'Having Fun Again 1' and a 'Having Fun Again 2,' four years later. So once we reach that point of starting a session and naming that session 'Having Fun Again,' we know that we're on the right path to where we want to go.”
Ironically, while the pair slaved to rediscover their sound, the zeitgeist appeared to bend to the very concept critics were skepting of on their ill-fated second album — as pop stars like Justin Bieber revitalized their careers with the help of EDM producers.
“We just thought if this music was going to become pop music and R&B and rap music are going to become more dance music, why don't we make a record based on that theory?” Keeler says. “And it seems to have come to pass. [But] it just wasn't something we were ever going to do again.
“For us, we're just content to have predicted it successfully and occasionally get a shout-out for having called it so long ago.”
That being said, if a certain compatriot were to call, “I would happily work with Justin Bieber,” Keeler boasts. “I actually think Justin Bieber is great. He's sort of like Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield in the early '80s in terms of his interaction with the world. I'm pretty sure he also has cheques of $70,000 lying around. Like that one scene of Chevy Chase in Caddyshack.”
As for their upcoming album, if the first single," Little Red Hen," is any indication, it’s a return to the unencumbered house music of the group's earliest releases.
Both Keeler and Al-P won’t commit to anything on the record until they’re ready to give it a release date, but they say it’s been whittled down from hundreds of hours of recordings, spanning several genres governed only by their whims.
“I look at the album as a cube,” Al-P says. “There's corners of the cube that exist in slightly different genres and stylistic frameworks and approaches but it all works together and supports each other.”
For Keeler, the group’s return comes back to the Sonic Youth philosophy. “We really needed to be artists,” he says. “What we're doing now is we're improving in front of people. That's as far as I think we can go, I think: let's just make stuff up in front of people.”
Find Safety is Toronto electronic group LAL's fifth album and for their new record, Rosina Kazi and Nick Murray have revisited the sonic terrain where they began with a fresh approach.
Calling their album '4 a.m. music,' LAL's latest album is more beat-driven than their recent ambient-leaning efforts like their 2012 self-titled record and 2008's Deportation.
"It's about us being a lot more exposed to our roots," says Murray describing the sonic approach of the record. "We come from sample-based technology and the two-bar loop being the thing. I think this record was a return to that aesthetic and kind of doing away with all the music industry expectations of what we should be doing."
Consequently, Find Safety finds LAL looking back with influences as eclectic as Massive Attack, Fela Kuti and Detroit techno -- the latter being especially prevalent in lead single "Stand In My Way" — while burrowing forward with an inimitably sonically progressive modus operandi.
"We were really trying to focus on what we were good at — and not just what we were good at — but what we wanted to say and what our true intentions were," says Murray. "And a lot of that came from hearing the one or two bar loop over and over again."
A lot of what LAL wanted to say thematically about their longtime commitment to social justice causes on Find Safety came from their stewardship of Unit 2, an organic event space for creatives the duo runs in the west end of Toronto out of their home.
"I was like, I just want to hibernate and create all this great space for folks that don't necessarily always want to go to the club, for queer folks and folks of colour, to create something that was more community-based and still presented good work and that we had control over as a community," says Kazi. "And I think that's been the vibe of Unit 2 and that's always been the vibe of LAL."
And while the duo rarely performs at Unit 2 themselves, the creativity thrumming in the space has directly influenced their own work.
"Unit 2 has mostly been supporting other folks and from the energy of that and the things that we've been able to create with community, came the vibe of this record," says Kazi.
Find Safety will be released on Rae Spoon's Coax label on April 29. You can pre-order the record here and look out for an upcoming CBC Music First Play Live with the group.
Tracklist
1. "Dead Happiness"
2. "Tiny Mirrors"
3. "Rules Were Meant To Be Broken"
4. "Stand In My Way"
5. "Close"
6. "One Way"
7. "Rubbish"
8. "Towards the Door"
9. "Find Safety"
This year's Searchlight isn't just music but music and video, which means thousands of hours of entertainment. But that's also so many new bands and so many weeks of listening and how can it all fit inside our eyes and ears and now you're thinking, "Oh my God, help!" right?
We can help.
Just like last year, we've listened to a lot of music in the last few weeks and couldn't help but think, "Wow, this band could be the next ________," or, "I adore Lana Del Rey. This person sounds like a kindred!"
So think of us as your personal Searchlight recommendation engine. In the gallery above we've selected some of your favourite bands and musicians and paired them up with their Searchlight counterparts.
Follow Andrea Warner on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner
With technology more accessible than ever, it has allowed talented DJs to cut through the red tape, make music on their own and share it with the world. These days it seems like all you need is a laptop, controller, headphones and some speakers and you can call yourself a DJ. But we all know that's not entirely true.
We partnered with IFHT, a production company out of Vancouver, B.C., to co-produce a series of How To Be videos — all spoofing a common music industry archetype. We're kicking it all off with How To Be a DJ in the video above — a must-watch.
Last year was a highlight in Canadian music and that is clearly reflected in this year's Juno Award nominations. Leading the pack are some of the biggest artists not only in the country right now but in the world. Justin Bieber, Drake, the Weeknd, Alessia Cara and Shawn Mendes are all chart-toppers who have dominated this year's awards.
In preparation for this weekend's big event — taking place on Sunday, April 3, in Calgary, Alta. — we sat down and predicted who the night's biggest winners will be. Will Drake sweep the awards ahead of the release of his highly-anticipated new album, Views From the 6? Will Alessia Cara's rise to fame be her ticket to some trophies? Or will Justin Bieber redeem himself after his fan choice award win in 2014 garnered him an arena filled with boos? Flip through the gallery above to see our thoughts on who will win and who should win.
Follow CBC Music all weekend as we report live from the Juno Awards. Check us out here on the website, and also on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (CBCMusic). And let us know who you think will take home an award on Sunday night!
Listen to our Juno Awards playlist now featuring songs by Drake, Bieber, Whitehorse, Braids, Brett Kissel, Buffy Sainte-Marie and more.
From left to right: River Tiber, Pusha T and Kaytranada. (Carlo Cruz/Red Bull Sound Select)