Jared Doherty

Small Window // Factotum Cassettes & Oddities

Small Window, the debut LP by Kamloops resident Jared Doherty, begins and ends with the subtle hiss and click of a tape machine, no doubt as a tribute to a medium treasured by the psychedelic and DIY movements whose fingerprints you can hear across this record. It’s a relatively quick listen, coming in at a mere 23 minutes (between 7 songs), but it’s packed tight with a breadth of sounds that are dreamy, ambitious, and very listenable. “Flower” is a groovy pop tune in the realm of Mac DeMarco, but with some exotic percussion and reverse tape effects that add some colour to the sonic palette. “Breakfast”, which sits directly in the middle of the track listing, functions as an interlude between the more accessible and ‘poppy’ first half and more openly experimental second half of the record. The two final tracks, “Casual DD” and “Floating Boats” (both definite highlights) delve into noisier territory and wouldn’t feel out of place on a release from the now defunct Elephant 6 Recording Company. Small Window is a strong first outing for Doherty, with an unusually confident aesthetic vision that is sure to establish him as a presence in the Western Canadian scene.

- Sean Newton