Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - Dirt - Interview

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan:
An Explosive Force Of Nature

by Christine Leonard

Photo by Richmond Lam

Like the sound of the sky rending open, Toronto-based progressive art-rock collective Yamantaka // Sonic Titan enters the summer festival season. They are a musical meteorite streaking towards the planet’s surface and an explosive force of nature. The genre-bending experimentalists will be staging their psychedelic space-metal operas at Canadian dates including Yellowknife’s Folk on the Rocks, the River & Sky camp-out in Field, ON and Victoria’s Phillips Backyard Weekender.

Holding a mirror up to the status quo, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan appropriates elements of pop, rock and heavy metal and blends them through influences gleaned from Buddhist, Haudenosaunee and First Nations traditions, along with their own mixed Asian-European heritages. Embedded in manga art, video games and science fiction themes, their enthralling tracks are ablaze with socio-political commentary.

DIRT, their latest album released in 2018, is no exception. The album revolves around the story of abandoned turtle starship, Anowara, and the heroine Aentsik’s quest to collect the final remnant of arable soil. It’s the same edict the ecologically-minded band has espoused since the beginning: “If the trees die, we die,” says founding member and percussionist, Alaska B.

“I think we are concerned about the same things any reasonable person should be concerned with: anthropogenic climate change, plastic pollution, overuse of antibiotics, animal extinction, unsustainable agriculture, pollution, corporate and government surveillance Indigenous rights, human rights, transphobia, sexism, racism, homophobia,” continues Alaska.

“Our music is often interpreted to focus entirely around the cultural identity politics, but the lyrical content and themes in our art all deal with the suffering of living beings, environmentalism and the inevitability of death.”

It’s a tall order for humanity, let alone a fringe-dwelling Canadian rock band, but if anyone’s up to the challenge, it’s the self-defining, fire-spitting, world-shaking, dirt-venerating music collective and theatre company who has earned the surname Sonic Titan.

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan perform Thursday, July 11  at 9910 (Edmonton), Saturday, July 13  at The Palomino (Calgary) and  Sunday, July 28 at the Phillips Backyard Weekender (Victoria)

08th, July 2019 

in • Alberta, FEATURED, MUSIC

Album Review: Abbath – Outstrider

Abbath
Outstrider
[Season of Mist]

Abbath Doom Occulta is the corpse-painted face and venomous voice of black metal in his Norweigan homeland. Born Olve Eikemo, the 45-year-old multi-instrumentalist has famously served as Immortal’s lead vocalist, lyricist, guitarist, bassist, guitarist, keyboardist and drummer.

An extreme and extremely versatile artist, his eponymous offshoot metal project, Abbath, recently reformed with a fresh lineup and a renewed sense of purpose.

The aggressive quartet’s current incarnation attacks Abbath’s sophomore effort with rapid-fire percussion, caustic vocals and power guitar onslaughts. Plunging headlong into the heat of an epic fantasy battle, the album fuses the new wave of heavy metal with rhapsodic melodies and Abbath’s own dark philosophies.

Delivered with face-flaying ferocity, white-knucklers like “Harvest Pyre,” the wily “Scythewinder” and wildly imaginative “The Artifex” prove as intricate as they are intense. Occulta growls like a lion, pacing between the bars of solid steel and shadowy malice on “Bridge of Spasms,” cheering on the band’s hellish machinations.

Ominous and oozing with goblinesque screams, “Pace Till Death” hails the flames and traps the audience between inferno and abyss. Wrapping up their harrowing eight-song saga with a pang of nostalgia, Outstrider makes a grand exit with an amped-up cover of Bathory’s “Hecate.”

By Christine Leonard

 03rd, July 2019 / 11:13 

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Album Review: Tycho – Weather

Tycho
Weather
[Mom + Pop Music/Ninja Tune]

San Francisco’s dancefloor electrocutioner Tycho (aka Scott Hansen) returns with Weather, the radiant echo to the talented composer and graphic designer’s Grammy-nominated album, Epoch (2016). Introducing a new phase in Tycho’s industrial evolution, Weather drifts into previously unexplored territory for the Billboard-topping songwriter and producer and his synonymous music project with the introduction of vocals to his digital creations.

A marked departure from Hansen’s customary computerized soundscapes, the water-testing single “Pink & Blue” dips its delicate toes into the gender-fluid, bringing iridescent swirls of colour and light to the surface.

Chanteuse Hannah Cottrell’s (aka Saint Sinner) silky smooth crooning takes the chill off of synthetic spaces, infusing Weather’s cybernetic cinema with a warm breath of humanity and soul.

Expanding on the blueprint of Cottrell’s lyrical dreams, Tycho’s latest dispatch weaves its way through organic love notes like the conversational “Skate” and sleek futuristic moments such as “Japan” without differentiating between those two modes of transmission.

It’s a remarkable synthesis of flesh and fuses. An emotionally transformative formula Tycho is only just beginning to decode.

03rd, July 2019

 • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

by Christine Leonard

Album Review: The Black Keys – Let’s Rock

The Black Keys
Let’s Rock
(Easy Eye Sound / Nonesuch Records)

It’s been a hot minute since we last heard from The Black Keys, but their heavy blues rock refrain remains the same. Reunited with his better half and percussionist Patrick Carney, vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach demonstrates that getting back in their brotherly Rubber Belt groove was as easy as falling off a tandem bicycle.

Recorded from scratch at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studios in Nashville, Let’s Rock reportedly came together with very little preparation or premeditation. Edging away from the disco ball and asphalt sizzle of 2011’s El Camino and the polished tones of 2014’s Turn Blue, the stripped-down nostalgia of Let’s Rock offers a heartfelt tribute to the ultimate tool of the trade – the electric guitar. Irresistibly retro, yet tuned to a modern frequency, the album is already commanding the airwaves thanks to catchy-as-hell and radio-ready singles like “Lo/Hi,” “Eagle Birds” and “Go.” These three Cowtown-meets-Motown forerunners preface an album stacked with glossy, voluptuous ditties that bump ‘n’ grind like a preacher’s daughter.

Thumping bass notes and gliding vocals add sleek lines to “Shine a Light,” padded out by lux backups from guest vocalists Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson. Lonely forest mating ritual “Eagle Birds” gets down and dirty, while the stomping Austin gospel of “Lo/Hi” hits the album’s two sweetest spots – earnest storytelling and an unrelenting boogie beat that drives the drama towards satisfaction.

At peace with the past, the sugarcoated dirge “Walk on Water” echoes Auerbach’s time as “king of a one-horse town,” but you know you’re being lured in for the big come up when “Tell Me Lies” struts into Karmatown.
Yep, The Black Keys have returned to form nicely, which is most fortunate because we’ve been waiting.

03rd, July 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

by Christine Leonard

Album Review: Jim Cuddy – Countrywide Soul

Jim Cuddy

Countrywide Soul
[Warner Music Canada]

Kicking rocks and turning over fertile ground, Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy returned to his family farmstead in Southern Ontario to get in touch with his roots and record his latest album.
The rustic rural setting provided a respite from his hectic touring schedule and the ideal environment for capturing the authentic wire-and-wood sound he sought. Joined in his makeshift studio by members of The Jim Cuddy Band, the multi-talented singer/guitarist/producer began reimaging songs from his back catalogue through a stripped-down, yet modern, country music filter.

Unearthing tracks he felt had been previously underdeveloped, Cuddy and company pour liberal doses of draft beer and wheat dust over Blue Rodeo numbers like “Clearer View” and “Draggin’ On.” Tributes to George Jones and Glen Campbell rip a page from the past and lend a high and lonesome mood with covers of “Almost Persuaded” and the star-spangled “Rhinestone Cowboy.” Pretty western ditties two-step and sway in time as Cuddy patches up his sonic scrapbook with a fresh pair of bootcut tunes, “Glorious Day” and “Back Here Again.”

It’s the perfect parting glance for a nostalgic hayride that sets fire to the barn before riding off into the sunset. “Shane, come back!”

04th, June 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

By Christine Leonard

Album Review: Baroness – Gold & Grey

Baroness

Gold & Grey
[Abraxan Hymns]

From the opening rays of “Front Towards Enemy,” it’s obvious Baroness has risen from their own ashes and come to flourish in the aftermath of a tour bus crash that left the Savannah, Georgia-based heavy metal entity twisted and broken.

Leading the charge, guitar god John Baizley returns to the limelight with a fury. The subject of much interest and speculation, Gold & Grey presents a band that has been reinvigorated by the synergistic presence of incoming guitarist Gina Gleason.

Boasting 17 indefatigable tracks, the dual-toned album shifts smoothly between singles like the sinuous “Seasons” and the hyper-observant “Borderlines.” A naturally intense Baizley perpetuates his examination of the human condition with a long-absent sense of wonder and even enjoyment on “Broken Halo” and “Throw Me an Anchor.”

A gallery of layered vocals and intricate rhythmic patterns elevate “I Would Do Anything” and “Pale Sun” to a level of excellence commensurate with visual artist Baizley’s jaw-dropping album cover murals.

By Christine Leonard

04th, June 2019 

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Dead Quiet - Silent Interview from Beyond the Grave

Dead Quiet Shut Up and Ship Out

By Christine Leonard

Photo: Asia Fairbanks

Explosive heavy rock quartet Dead Quiet is powering up for their Downtown Canada Tour, and charismatically chaotic lead vocalist/guitarist Kevin Keegan is bursting with anticipation.

“I love performing and as a performer you put on a little bit of a character. I’m an actor as well, so I kind of treat it the same way when I get on stage. It’s still me out there but it’s a version of me that’s a little cartooned and over the top,” he says. “It’s all part of what the music does to me and makes me want to do the things I do. It’s pretty organic and it always comes from a place of exorcising some demons.”

Keegan’s magnetic personality is fuelled by his willingness to go over the top on stage. His antics and dramatic range have become a mainstay of Dead Quiet’s riveting performances and are a big part of why they’ve amassed a Canadian cult following.

That’s not to say Dead Quiet is a one-man-band. Since their huge 2017 release, Grand Rites (Artoffact Records), they’ve been steadily experimenting with new elements to expand their heavy repertoire in anticipation of a new album this October.

“The new album is going to be more or less the tone of Grand Rites. It’ll be polished to an extent, but still raw and heavy and real sounding. I’ve always been a fan of 70s style Hammond organ in rock music and I’ve really wanted a keyboard player since day one. It adds texture and thickens up the melodies — it’s definitely crucial now.”

Self-directed Keegan has come to rely on his instincts as a songwriter and as well as his bandmates to bring each composition to its full potential. The more democratic style of songwriting has opened up new horizons for Dead Quiet’s traditionally heavy sound.

“I’ll bring the guys the blueprints or skeleton of a song and they always have ideas. We work really well as a team and that’s sort of blossomed for this line-up. It’s become symbiotic, which is really nice for me. I’ve learned to lean on my dudes more.”

Dead Quiet perform Wednesday, May 8 at The Palomino (Calgary), Saturday, May 11 at Gordon Yellowfly Memorial Arbour (Siksika Nation) and Saturday, May 18 at SBC Restaurant (Vancouver)

10th, May 2019 

in • Alberta, MUSIC