{"id":12508,"date":"2023-08-15T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/?p=12508"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:00:14","slug":"album-review-zoon-bekka-maiingan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2023\/08\/15\/album-review-zoon-bekka-maiingan\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review :: Zoon :: Bekka Ma\u2019iingan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/f4.bcbits.com\/img\/a2927957135_16.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>by Mykhailo Vil\u2019yamson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Daniel Glen Monkman\u2019s debut album <em>Bleached Wavves<\/em> could be described as elementally water-bound \u2013 saturated and immersed in dense reverb and sonorous with echo &#8211; their sophomore LP <em>Bekka Ma\u2019iingan <\/em>both soaringly transcends and at times hovers just over the surf of what came before. The latest release by Zoongide\u2019ewin (pronounced \u201cSoon-guide-a-win\u201d) is airy, textured, complex, meditative, and positively stunning. Anchored in the depths of past recordings, <em>Bekka Ma\u2019iingan<\/em> 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\u2019s eye in absolute wonderment at the swirling, many-layered, multi-hued audio skyscape created by Zoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Still primarily guitar-based, the ten songs on the album are surrounded and supported by a variety of other instruments \u2013 including an E-cello played by Michael Peter Olsen and strings by FAMES Skopje Studio Orchestra. The opening track, \u201cAll Around You,\u201d gives a glimpse into the palette of colours that Monkman uses to craft their masterpiece, and a similarly ethereal ambient feel can be found in \u201cBrave New World (Without You),\u201d the other instrumental song \u201cNiizh Manidoowig (2 Spirit),\u201d and the closer, \u201cAshes in A Vase.\u201d These are balanced out by the most distortion-heavy songs on the project, namely, the hazy west-coast shoegaze \u201cCare\u201d and the beautifully repetitive \u201cGaagige\u201d that sounds like it starts halfway through the song (and aptly means \u201cforever\u201d). As for the four remaining songs, they are absolutely captivating each in their own way: \u201cDodem\u201d has a vibe akin to gliding peacefully above the Pacific Coast Highway, the dual vocals in \u201cAwesiinh (A-Way-See)\u201d are blissfully comforting, \u201cA Language Disappears\u201d is extremely chill and instantly appealing, and everything about \u201cManitou\u201d is invitingly haunting, enticingly unsettling, and gravely introspective (including its music video, which provides a thoughtful window into the significance of acceptance, family, tradition, and nature in surfacing from what so often engulfs us as humans).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All in all, Monkman has succeeded once again in crafting a sonic environment that gives people space \u2013 along with them \u2013 to both courageously escape and to humbly stop running; to honestly deal with hurt, unrequited love, and the great mystery of life; and with respect to old versions of self, to be true to who we are today as people (individually and collectively). <em>Bekka Ma\u2019iingan<\/em> is the perfect companion to <em>Bleached Wavves<\/em> and is deserving of all the accolades it will receive, and these songs bode well for whatever new music Zoongide\u2019ewin will release next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ZOON - A Language Disappears\" width=\"1140\" height=\"641\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RowSq96ZmxU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Mykhailo Vil\u2019yamson If Daniel Glen Monkman\u2019s debut album Bleached Wavves could be described as elementally water-bound \u2013 saturated and immersed in dense reverb and sonorous with echo &#8211; their sophomore LP Bekka Ma\u2019iingan both soaringly transcends and at times hovers just over the surf of what came before. The latest release by Zoongide\u2019ewin (pronounced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12509,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12508\/revisions\/12509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}