LA Priest "Gene" - Album Review

LA Priest
GENE

Writer/producer Sam Eastgate (aka Samuel Dust) cuts loose for his sophomore appearance as the ubiquitous bon vivant, LA Priest.

A sparkling follow-up to his 2015 rural isolation project, Inji, this is Eastgate’s first solo release since the dissolution of his UK dance-punk outfit Late Of The Pier. GENE probes pop-electronic territories with the same expansive curiosity that fuelled his Soft Hair (2016) collaboration with Kiwi psych-funk “Jassbuster,” Connan Mockasin.

“Beginning” coaxes the listener out from under the couch and into the realm of the absurd. Preaching the gospel of groove on the scintillating “Rubber Sky” and day-tripping through “Open My Eyes,” Eastgate sets off on a lazy backstroke through a shimmering catalogue of loungey sprawlers.

An expert improviser who grew up surrounded by his New Wave musician father’s junkheap of busted amps and wonky keyboards, Eastgate drops the pressure on exquisitely crafted tracks like the quirky confessional “What Moves,” the soul strumming “Sudden Thing,” and the atmospheric “Monochrome.” Further along, the wispy Prince-paramour “Kissing of the Weeds” segues into the crystalline lab-work of “Black Smoke,” methodically culminating in the post-coital hush of “Ain’t No Love Affair.”

A playful and self-liberating selection of sonic place settings, GENE’s super-structure is designed to dissolve even as it leads you up the double-helix staircase. Hustle without the flex, it’s a beautiful thing.

Best Track: “Rubber Sky”

By Christine Leonard

Spectres Look Back in Black With Dark Wave Reverie

Influenced by groups like The Smiths and Echo & The Bunnymen, the goth-punk quintet are consciously taking a step towards the dance floor.

BY CHRISTINE LEONARD

Arrayed with a gloomy presence and an eerie sound, Vancouver post-punk band Spectres have been haunting fans with their brilliant yet reserved brand of goth-rock severity since 2005.

Surpassing those initial stirrings, the West Coast quintet has grown from an ambitious anarcho-punk DIY entity that pushed its way onto a sceptical scene to become the vanguard of Canada’s contemporary new wave upsurge.

“We’re not trying to hide the fact that we’re making music that sounds a certain way or draws a certain era to mind. We wear it on our sleeves,” guitarist Zach Batalden tells BeatRoute. “We’re conscious of our influences and that a lot of the music is about looking back and having certain feelings about your own past at different times than where we are today.”

Beyond a backwards glance at the crushingly elegant phrasing and melodies that epitomize a time and place, Spectres latest offering, Nostalgia (Artoffact Records), immortalizes the spirit of ennui and psychic discomfort that inhabits the lyrical realms established by groups such as The Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen and The Psychedelic Furs.

“The bands that inspired us in the first place and still inspire us today. Maybe not John Hughes, but certainly the late 70s and early to mid-80s Manchester sound is pretty strong in what we’re doing with Nostalgia for sure.”

Recorded at Jacknife Sound with producer Jason Corbett (ACTORS), Nostalgia relies heavily on the dark emotional interplay between Batalden, lead singer Brian Gustavson and drummer Mitch Allen, while integrating the talents of more recent arrivals, bassist Jason Renix and guitarist Adam Mitchell. Dauntless, yet utterly prone to pursuing synth-pop romances down mysterious causeways, Nostalgia is perhaps Spectres most dance floor destined work to date.

“That’s totally a part of the goal is that people will be able to dance,” says Batalden. “Hopefully they’ll feel like moving around when they hear the music.” 

Spectres’ Nostalgia is available now via Artoffact Records.

Car Seat Headrest "Making a Door Less Open" - Album Review

Car Seat Headrest
"Making a Door Less Open"

Breaking their four-year fast with a fresh set of songs and a newly rinsed outlook on life, Car Seat Headrest conceived their latest album as a conversation between producer/drummer Andrew Katz and lead singer/guitarist Will Toledo’s split-personas. Together the two form 1 Trait Danger, a synth-based auxiliary that actively forces CSH’s restless pop-rock anthems through a futuristic electronic filter.

Keen to collaborate with himself, Toledo wanted every song to reflect his personal listening habits, which runs on singles as opposed to albums. This ‘in the moment’ perspective is strongly reflected in the disparate natures of his anti-social sonic hybrids.

CSH’s technical transformation reveals itself subtly as the dronetastic introduction, “Weightlifters,” pushes through a pool party of rippling angst and drum machine heart murmurs. Dipping below the surface, the suburban drift of “Can’t Cool Me Down” is quickly eclipsed by the full-sun sizzle of “Hollywood,” with its brassy highlights and top-down morality.

Soft-pedaled by a sensory-deprived middle section, diary burner “Deadlines” and Kodachrome snapshot “Life’s Worth Missing” pick up the pieces and the pace just in time for the closing cerebral scramble, “Famous.” Constantly switching up their climate control, Toledo believes he has struck upon a winning nu-folk formula. A malleable and reinterpretable genre with no maximum mileage or occupancy.

Best Track: “Hollywood”

By Christine Leonard