Toronto
See: Rising Toronto electro-disco outfit Tush drop visuals for the soulful ecstasy of ‘Chrysalis’ en route to their July album
TUSH; who they? You enquire, entirely within your remit. Well, if the groove is in you, they’re someone whose acquaintance you should make forthwith. Coming from the dancefloors of Toronto with a love of disco, soul, electro, Nineties’ house and more, the twin pillars of Tush are the dulcet vocal talents of Kamilah Apong and Jamie Kidd. They’ve …
Track: The enigmatic Douglas Von Irvin’s Carnival’s ‘Vampire Lovers’ is shimmering, haunting garage pop
Douglas Von Irvin’s Carnival (DVIC) (a Toronto/LA based collective) has released a shimmering and haunting new track – ‘Vampire Lovers’ – a melodic ballad infused with a melancholic delivery and a hint of gothic horror. ‘Vampire Lovers’ has elements that reflect fellow US artists like The National, Grandaddy and Band of Horses: impassioned intelligent lyrics …
Album review: ROY -‘Roy’s Garage’: a magic carpet ride around the psychedelic pop globe
ROY does nothing exactly new with Roy’s Garage, but he does everything with a deft touch and real understanding. If you love British and American psych circa 1966 to 1968, has many an album on Bam Caruso, Edsel, Sundazed, then you should embrace this record wholeheartedly; if your experience of this particular era of psych – before what scientists call the Iron Butterfly event horizon, when pop melody and brain-feeding sonic exploration sit in balance on the scales and before the freakout totally becomes the event – then this album is a great gateway drug. ROY knows. You’d be wise to let him guide you through. It’s time to make a little more room in your psychedelic pop-lovin’ heart for him.
Track: Roy – ‘I’m Not Afraid’: a proper garage-punk pebble preludes Toronto voyager’s second album
ROY is how Toronto psych scenester Patrick Lefler likes to get dressed for a night on the town, all paisley finery, hookahs and a knack with a lazily excellent dream of Pepperland. He plies his excellent trade for Idée Fixe, a label which noted its first encounter with ROY’s aesthetic while ploughing through the demo …
Track: Canada’s Joseph of Mercury releases a grief-stricken paean to lost friends in the shimmering track ‘Pretty Blonde Boy’
Gliding over a bubbling, sparkling instrumentation, Joseph of Mercury has a gorgeous vocal style that recalls bands like The Smiths or Gene – a veritable crooner with indelible style. His new single ‘Pretty Blonde Boy’ was born out of grief for the loss of two friends: Two of my oldest, closest & dearest friends, both …
Track: ROY – ‘Where Did My Mind Go’: Toronto psychester invites you to his garage with some hazy excellence
BROTHERS and sisters: the time hath come to make a little more room in your psychedelic pop heart for a Canadian songsmith sure to seduce your Carnaby Street-lovin’ synapses; please, if you would, put your hands together for ROY. ROY is how Toronto psych scenester Patrick Lefler likes to get dressed for a night on …
TRACK: Neighbourhood Watch – ‘Focus Up’: Toronto quintet telling indie-rock tales of growing up
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH are a young five-piece outta Toronto with a really simple mission: they love making music about growing up. Clear, concise and ready in your ‘hood with melody and storytelling. Singer-guitarist Tristan Surman – who’s joined in the Neigbourhood Watch, keeping an eye on your endz, by pianist Tyler Moretti, bassist Thom Elgie, lead …
ALBUM REVIEW: Sing Leaf – ‘Not Earth’: wide-eyed psych-indie-electro bliss
NAIVETY. It’s one of those words whose power has been denuded by an overuse of a certain conjugation of it. Much like ‘awesome’, the non sequitur of teens across the English-speaking world, naivety has come to mean fey, unwise, easily led. Sing Leaf, the recording pen-name of Toronto’s David Como, is naive in all the …
ALBUM REVIEW: Yves Jarvis – ‘Sundry Rock Song Stock’: a thrilling solo quirk-psych vision
WHEN historians of future days come to write up the glowering all-round evils of 2020, they will, hopefully, take note of one glimmering shaft of light through the fog-plague; how great the sphere of quirky Canadian music has been this year. There’s been another sonically luxuriant missive from Montreal’s Braids in the shape of Shadow …
TRACK: Sing Leaf – ‘Out Of The Dream’: sleepy beauty preludes next week’s lovely LP
DAVID COMO, the Canadian musician who hides his considerable musical light under the Sing Leaf bushel for us, the recipients of his off-kilter, psychedelic synth-folk joy, has today dropped a final taster song for his new album, Not Earth, which will be released on Friday week. He’s been dropping soothing, spacey little gifts from Not …