Print Edition: January 9, 2013
Unspooled
Demo #1/Kimitro
Unspooled is three guys named Connor, Luke, and Marcus from North Van. Since September, they’ve quietly been hacking out three sets of homespun mumblecore via their bandcamp page. Unspooled’s half-whispered, half-spoken vocals feel like shared secrets with deep, personal meaning. They are cocooned in a constant layer of warm mic noise and bolstered with varied and sad low-key instrumentation. It’s so unadorned, with little concern for fidelity, traditionally good takes, and regular running times that it feels naked. What’s important here is mood, simple melodies and unfiltered feeling. One of Unspooled’s singers dips into a mode that suggests a great debt to Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, particularly on “Sarajevo” and “Paraloga,” but the band also draws on other inspirations from Neutral Milk Hotel (“Peacherine”) to faux waltzing Bal-Musette accordion (“The Cane Family”) to The Velvet Undergroud (“Readles”). So what if it’s imperfect and a little bit derivative? Unspooled is a young band crafting their own world for their own enjoyment. I mean, who has the audacity to write a 38-second number called “Hey Jude” that features the line “Oh, did I mention/ That I worship Satan?”
Expwy
Expwy in the Sky
With five releases between December 2011 and December 2012, Matt LeGrouix has proven himself to be a prolific song-writing machine with his experimentalist project Expwy. The Montréal based singer-songwriter has released a slew of music spanning a couple different genres, which includes a low-fi boss nova record entitled Little Hand Fighter released in the summer. His latest double EP Expwy in the Sky can be confusing at times, but it can be exhilarating, too. Even with standout pop gems like “Dust will settle in the cracks” and “A militia of anxious eyes,” the band’s moody and dynamic indie-rock sound sustains a tension that extends throughout the record. For those wondering, the reason Expwy in the Sky is called a double EP and not simply an LP is because tracks 1-6 and tracks 7-12 can be played at the same time. Although this exercise initially sounds like a cacophony of wild instrumentation and melody, eventually the fuzz-coated clouds of melody and noise swell to send the listener to a distant dreamlike place. The second EP in this collection serves as a fine companion piece to the first, and however chaotic, the intention of the LeGrouix is understood.
HAIM
Forever
Titling a release (that is all of three songs) Forever might seem a mistake from the start, but rather than fall into one or the other side of a spectrum, the ‘80s-inflected pop/rock of sister group HAIM walks through sincerity and irony, doubling and selecting and working through an unillusioned construction of past/future consciousness. “Go Slow,” “I’m going crazy trying not to forget,” and “Forever” contains the wish “get out of my memory,” and “Better Off” falls into “flashing back” as a mixture both unavoidable and chosen – but if their songwriting emphasis is familiar and endless in scope, what sets HAIM apart is the way Danielle Haim drags and cuts out sentences, a cadence that sounds like spontaneity and builds on Este and Alana Haim’s backing, synth lines and clapping rhymes. Given this short first release, the tendency might be to say this points to a promising future or better music to come, but taken with the stuttering beat (“T-t-tell me”) of recent single “Don’t Save Me,” HAIM’s collected 2012 is complete – replayable and memorable because of, not in spite of, a sense of finality.
Joshua Radin
Underwater
With his fourth release, Underwater, Joshua Radin turns to the familiar soft spoken sound found in his first two albums, after having strayed some in his third outing. While I’m glad he’s opted to return to the fold here, there’s mixed feelings to be felt on this album. It is very much Radin in his comfort zone: slow, intimate, reminiscent and romantic. Unfortunately, upon first listen it becomes apparent that much of the album never really peaks on any particular standout song. Instead it progresses along where each is similar and blends into the next. With that, he falls short on delivering anything near on par with what could be considered his best work, 2006’s We Were Here. However, finally after allowing for some time away, an appreciation is found in the whole of the album. This is regardless if any particular song lacks the punch to be a single. And you do, in the process, become encompassed in an atmospheric sound – be it one that maybe not everybody is drawn to. Fortunately I’m one of those that—even when it’s not his finest—find that sound to still be pretty intoxicating.
