Winnipeg music & culture since 1989
by Ryan Haughey
Since 1988, Washington D.C. artist Kurt Heasley has been rocking through genre and style with his band Lilys. Call them shoegaze, dreampop, post-rock, or grunge, the spirit of Lilys is to pursue the purity of art. Over the years, Kurt and Lilys have been compared to My Bloody Valentine, The Monkees, and The Zombies, but there’s no pinning down the sound of Kurt Heasley.
Continue reading “Kurt Heasley :: Lilys and Artistic Freedom”
by Phil Enns
As its title suggests, the debut album by Toronto-based saxophonist Jesse Ryan sees the gifted young instrumentalist building musical bridges between traditional jazz idioms and the Afro-Caribbean rhythms of his native Trinidad & Tobago. The improvisational nature of jazz always appealed to Ryan, as it provided, in his own words, “a space for collaboration, cultural exchange, and [a place] where old and new worlds meet.”
Continue reading “Album Review :: Jesse Ryan :: Bridges”
by Phil Enns
Jazz, like folk and blues, is a form of music in which one is largely indebted to the contributions of one’s musical forebears. Ultimately, the goal is to take the lessons learned from past traditions and inject them with new life while still paying homage.
Continue reading “Album Review :: TuneTown :: Entering Utopia”
by Ryan Haughey
Wild Pink invites listeners to a festival of sonic dancing on A Billion Little Lights. Their unique brand of synth-y folk blends strings with pads and everything in between. As one song melts into the next, Wild Pink slowly constructs a clear ambience that cerebrally targets the feeling associated with chasing bliss.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Wild Pink :: A Billion Little Lights”
by Myles Tiessen
Number One is a dreamy, heavily electronic reconstruction of pop music. Littered with industrial influences and, at times, hyper pop motifs, the debut album of Carlyn Bezic, aka Jane Inc, is one hell of a statement.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Jane Inc. :: Number One”
by Isabella Soares
Some artists are impossible to place inside a certain musical genre, for each of their songs have a life of their own. When you think you know what to expect from the next track, you are continuously surprised by the different nuances they showcase. Georgia Van Etten without a doubt fits this category. Her latest work Deep Black Water displays anything and everything from Florence + The Machine orchestrations to early 90s hits by The Cranberries.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Georgia Van Etten :: Deep Black Water”
by Sam Doucet
It was worth the wait. Empires have risen and crumbled since the last time we were treated to a new Mahogany Frog album, and the eight and a half trips around the sun that have produced Mahogany Frog in the Electric Universe were clearly well spent. Though the four members of Winnipeg’s premier prog rock juggernaut have their hands full with a variety of other artistic projects, the cohesion on display here is that of a band who never let each other out of sight. As with their albums of yesteryear, Mahogany Frog offers a style of prog rock that is not marked by showiness or affectation – but rather an unhurried determination to prod, probe, and unwrap a never-ending series of sounds.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Mahogany Frog :: Mahogany Frog in the Electric Universe”
by Daniel Kussy
Where some may say that a record is the canvas, where each track makes up the independent yet linear details that tie the painting together, Chad Vangaalen has built an art gallery made up of pieces for each track, and called his collection World’s Most Stressed out Gardener.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Chad Vangaalen :: World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener”
by Olivier La Roche
With only their third full-length project since 2011, Toronto band Bernice offer a rather stunning mix of jazz and ambient that “openly plays with the shape of a pop song,” as lead vocalist Robin Dann shares on the band’s Bandcamp page. Eau de Bonjourno marks the first collaboration between the group and the grand multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, who acts as producer. Ismaily’s impressive resume, which features work with the likes of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, comes as no surprise given the pleasant, pristine production throughout the album.
Continue reading “Album Review :: Bernice :: Eau de Bonjourno”
by Keeley Braunstein-Black
Snowdance started back in 2012 when it was unseasonably warm, and there was almost no snow. Due to the lack of snow there was no ski hill to run and there was an abundance of musicians on staff. Thus the impromptu music festival featuring staff gave birth to Snowdance.
Continue reading “Snowdance: At home”