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Sorry Girls

Dreamwalker

    Montreal’s fever dream pop duo, Sorry Girls, returns with their third album 'Dreamwalker' out via Arbutus Records. Their eccentric blend of nostalgic 70s power ballads and 80s kitsch breaks through new thresholds, dismantling futile illusions to brave the cold and ask what lies ahead.

    Since forming in 2015, Heather Foster Kirkpatrick and Dylan Konrad Obront have been creating their own brand of lush pleasure seeking synth-pop. With a knack for matching personal lyrics with an off-kilter sound, their Lynchian world is free and uncanny. Everything seems familiar, a tune lapping an old dreamscape, and yet something is slightly off.

    The band debuted in 2019 with the self-produced 'Deborah', earning praise from Pitchfork and Gorilla vs Bear. Their 2023 spirited sophomore album, 'Bravo!', showcased a more live-band sound. With headlining shows at festivals like Pop Montreal, SXSW, and the Red Bull Music Festival, and tours with artists like TOPS, Devon Welsh (Majical Cloudz), and Sean Nicholas Savage, they've honed their organic approach to music.

    Inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk era, the band set up camp at Montreal’s Two Sisters Recording Studio for several months to make 'Dreamwalker'. Imposing a working time constraint, their aim was more band collaboration, and quick and decisive artistic decisions to stay as true as possible to the music.

    The result is a sound that is earnest, emotional and lucid. Washy production techniques and punchy bass lines pair with softer whimsical piano trills and gentle drums, recreating the thematic push-pull between two-worlds. The lyricism toys with Idyllic visions of love objects, fantasies of future utopias, and the obsessive longing for an ease and newness to sweep in.

    'Dreamwalker' is self-aware and ironically self-effacing, trapped in the reflection of a window. The album calls for boldness—to slide open the handles and step into the unknown.


    TRACK LISTING

    1. Falling Down The Stairs
    2. Hush Baby
    3. Quiet Hands
    4. Ricochet
    5. My Utopia
    6. Holding On To Me
    7. Music For Rats
    8. Footprints
    9. Stalker
    10. It’s Only You (Holding You Back)
    11. Great White

    Visors & Moon King

    Turning (Inside Out) B/W Out Of Control

      'Turning (Inside Out)' is the new 12" dance single from Arbutus Records, a collaboration between Canadian synthpop artist Moon King and Baltimore production team Visors, with added vocals from fellow Bmore rapper DDM and, in a surprising turn of events, saxophone from the Neptunes' Chad Hugo, under his St Charles alias.

      The 'pandemic-era online collab' has given us some strange and unlikely gems, of which this record is certainly one - a mesmerizing mid-tempo groove with Moon King and DDM's call and response vocals floating above, culminating in a catchy chorus: 'feels like turning inside out, when I need you there, you're not around'.


      TRACK LISTING

      A1. Turning (Inside Out)
      A2. Turning (Inside Out) (instrumental)
      B1. Out Of Control
      B2. Out Of Control (instrumental)

      Tops

      Tender Opposites - 10th Anniversary

        Originally released in 2012,Tender Opposites is TOPS’ debut album, now celebrating it’s 10year anniversary with a special edition LP. A lush array of timelessly crafted songs, Tender Opposites gathers its strength through delicate intimacy. These are moving songs that succeed earnestly, disregarding trends and myth-making, focusing instead on pure pop craftsmanship.

        TOPS' tendency to opt towards making straight-forward, stripped down and honest recordings lets their pop songwriting shine out in the open. With a heart firmly attached to their sleeves, their songcraft delves into the emotional intricacy of personal relationships, asking questions about power and desire. Riley Fleck’s measured drumming and David Carriere’s trademark guitar licks work in tandem and in service of Jane Penny’s unmistakable, wistful voice.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Evening
        2. Diamond Look
        3. She's So Bad
        4. VII Babies
        5. Double Vision
        6. Go Away
        7. Turn Your Love Around
        8. Rings Of Saturn
        9. TOPS Theme

        Grimes

        Halfaxa - Arbutus Edition

        Claire Boucher speaks a different language. And Halfaxa, her second album, feels like the dictionary from which we might discern just where this being comes from. Halfaxa is simultaneously more human than Geidi Primes, and yet falls deeper into a hole of mystical obscurity. The lyrics, as throughout this album, are designed to be an additional instrument, and not necessarily a device that gives obvious meaning to the proceedings. There is a strong focus on primeval and simplistic percussion to Boucher’s music, though I am apprehensive to compare it directly to club music. Even with all the fog and barriers she presents us with, at the core of her music is the human heart. There is a heartbeat in every note. Her breath is often used as a percussive element. Somehow, Grimes says more about life through her methodology than through what she literally chooses to say. Like all great world music, her sound transcends language.



        TRACK LISTING

        1. Outer
        2. Intor / Flowers
        3. Weregild
        4. Sagrad прекрасныи
        5. Dragvandil
        6. Devon
        7. Dream Fortress
        8. World ♡ Princess
        9. † River †
        10. Swan Song
        11. Omega
        12 My Sister Says The Saddest Things
        13. Hallways
        14. Favriel

        Other Death was recorded in Santa Monica, Los Angeles as a collaboration with Agor, of Savage’s Arbutus labelmates Blue Hawaii, while Errhead of Doldrums plays on much of the record. Ramona Gonzalez, aka Nite Jewel, also makes an appearance, as do TOPS' Jane Penny and David Carriere. This is Savage’s highest fidelity recording to date, with daring, captivating, and as always minimal and soft production style. In contrast to his usual introspection, Other Death is immediately more upbeat, uptempo, confident, inspired and delivers more consistent pop singles than any of his previous records.

        The record begins aptly with ‘Death’, a brief instrumental in the Joe Hisaishi vein. This is followed by ‘Propaganda’, a ballad in 7/4 timing and less political as the title suggests, with a more philosophical message comparable to Radioheads' ‘Creep'. 'Casablanca' is a Prince-esque pop tune, perhaps the poppiest on the record, with a seemingly simple sentiment: a short-lived relationship that, though full of passion, is doomed by life. 'Dont B Sad', produced by David Carriere with guest vocals by Jane Penny of TOPS, is smooth and circular; a gentle pat on the necks of sad folk everywhere, with a disco beat. 'Suburban Nights' is one of Savage’s finest ballads to date, with a special new 6 time beat, fusing reggae, house and bossa nova rhythms. Other Death concludes with another bossa nova derived, and shamelessly sensitive, song titled ‘Young Again’. Epic with strings, and ending the record in a spiritually possessed skat, the principal lyric has Savage crooning: “You make me feel like something i’m not; young again, growing old again”.

        Savage is not playing to the middle. Here he gives his listeners, those who crave a harder SNS smack, the energy they crave. This is the release fans will turn to when they want to feel the sophisticated, delicate, and enchanted music of Sean Nicholas Savage at its most brave, free and loud. It’s as if upon being tossed a copy of Other Life, Savage reads the message; “Other Life?” and throws it back at us in blood red, “Other Death”.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Death
        2. Propaganda
        3. Casablanca
        4. Dont B Sad (prod. TOPS)
        5. Promises
        6. Romeo
        7. 1 More Chance (feat. Nite Jewel)
        8. Suburban Nights
        9. Delta Fresh N Breezy
        10. SOS
        11. Why I Love U
        12. Young Again


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