Winnipeg music & culture since 1989
by Mike Thiessen
“You’re all so attentive!” Bella White exclaimed to her quietly captivated audience halfway through her Sunday afternoon concert at Folk Fest’s Spruce Hollow stage. It’s hard not to be – White’s viscerally relatable lyricism and sweet and powerful vocals doused in a healthy amount of classic old-time country twang get at listeners in a way that not much else does.
Continue reading “Artist Interview: BELLA WHITE”
by Mykhailo Vil’yamson
If Daniel Glen Monkman’s debut album Bleached Wavves could be described as elementally water-bound – saturated and immersed in dense reverb and sonorous with echo – their sophomore LP Bekka Ma’iingan both soaringly transcends and at times hovers just over the surf of what came before. The latest release by Zoongide’ewin (pronounced “Soon-guide-a-win”) is airy, textured, complex, meditative, and positively stunning. Anchored in the depths of past recordings, Bekka Ma’iingan is also an emergence into another realm of sound. And amidst the sundry, mindfully bright orchestral tones that ebb and flow throughout, listeners are moved to pause and gaze upwards with their mind’s eye in absolute wonderment at the swirling, many-layered, multi-hued audio skyscape created by Zoon.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Zoon :: Bekka Ma’iingan”
by Rish Hanco
Softswitch—consisting of Suzy Keller on drums, Rob Hill on guitar, and Ryan McPherson on bass and vocals—takes you to the centre of a universe at once recognizable and surreal with their new self-titled EP. Mundane activity is set against a background of questionable perceptions of self and reality. “Memoriam,” the first track on the album, displays this uncertainty with lines like “Was she even real?” and “It was like a faded page somewhere in our cursive memory.”
Continue reading “EP Review :: Softswitch :: Softswitch”*Because I care for Amos Nadlersmith, the front man of Amos the Kid, and we’ve fussed around with songs over the years, two of which ended up on this album (I don’t write about those here for obvious reasons), don’t read this as a review proper, but as an appreciation of Amos’s songwriting and an interpretation of his work from my subjective position. *
by Noah Cain
Amos the Kid’s debut album, Enough as it Was, opens with the world on fire. Smoke hangs in the sky like clouds. In the choking heat, The Kid—the moniker I have for the album’s hero—feels drawn away from the city, to return home and reckon with what’s transpired, to square what he was taught about the world with his experiences in the world, to digest it all before riding out into a future all his own.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Amos the Kid :: Enough as it was”Reviving the New Vintage Attitude
by Albert Akimov
STELLAR’s distinctive vintage aesthetic infuses a united message in its music and visuals, a message about the past and what it could have been. Released in 2021, their first single, “Call Me Goodbye,” is a touching, melancholy track about heartache, with shimmer acoustic guitars, harmonized, reverbed vocals, and winding solos. In the same vein, they released “Stranger,” which touches on topics like unrequited love and ends with a beautiful guitar solo. “Water” is their most recent single, which has a calming, meditative vibe and continues to express a dysfunctional partnership that, ultimately, does not work out.
Continue reading “EP Review :: STELLAR :: Stages”
by Keeley Braunstein-Black
In March, Larysa Musick emerged onto Winnipeg’s music scene, releasing her first single, “Joan of Arc.”
Continue reading “Artist Spotlight: Larysa Musick”
by Daniel Kussy
Raphaelle Standell-Preston cries aloud a prolonged “Oh My God” to introduce the space-y free-flowing “Left/Right.” A sudden blink in lyrical flow once “illuminated on the mountain top: Mont Royal” spills like a panic of spacial hyper-awareness as the strings wash over the synth floor, the acknowledgement of footsteps which the song title points to. A track with such spontaneity feeds into a theme within Euphoric Recall; the abandonment of strategy, burning away the structures and embracing the impulses, and welcoming imperfections. A move seemingly necessary to exercise the pandemic demons many artists endured, Euphoric Recall follows 2020’s “Shadow Offering,” one of many albums created with hopes of support in the form of performances and subsequent touring that got washed out in the pandemic noise. In the demand for patience and space, this album is also an urgency for movement, injected from a lingering groove-based pulse from Standell-Prestons’ fluid-motion side project Blue Hawaii.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Braids :: Euphoric Recall”
by James Baines
Since 2021 when hopscotchbattlescars released their first widely available single, “god hates straight pride flags,” fans have been waiting and begging for a full-length album from the band.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Hopscotchbattlescars :: sick of you”*Article and photo from last year*
Words by Isabella Soares
Photo by Myles Tiessen
It has been quite a year for Edmonton-born hip hop superstar Cadence Weapon. Following the deluxe edition release of his latest studio album, Parallel Words, he is not only heading back to live events, but also promoting his memoir, Bedroom Rapper. Stylus Magazine had the chance to catch up with Weapon ahead of his performance at the Big Blue @ Night stage at the 2022 Winnipeg Folk Festival.
Continue reading “Artist Interview: Cadence Weapon”*Content from last Summer!*
by Myles Tiessen
TEKE::TEKE took to the Big Bluestem stage after a long and hot day in Birds Hill Provincial Park at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Heat exhaustion and dehydration were taking hold of the crowd, and engagement was low. But, as the band launched into the first song of the buzzy and feedback-heavy set, a wave of jubilation washed over attendees and everyone was locked into the mesmerizing talent of TEKE::TEKE.
Continue reading “Concert Review :: Winnipeg Folk Fest :: TEKE::TEKE”