Blue Hawaii/PLEASEBENiCE
Blue Hawaii
Under 1 House // Arbutus Records
Despite the necessary lack of touring, 2020 has been a generous year of releases by Calgarian musician Raphaelle “Ra” Standelle-Preston - first in April when she once again fronted art-pop band Braids for their fourth album Shadow Offering (along with its preceding singles). Then in September came Under 1 House, the latest mixtape from electronic duo Blue Hawaii, consisting of herself and Alex “Ag” Kerby. Composed during their most recent North American and European tours and recorded in a cabin in Quebec in 2019, production on the mixtape was interrupted by lockdown implementations and had to be finalized via remote sessions between Ra’s current homebase of Montreal and Ag’s Berlin, Germany. Despite this, Under 1 House fortunately shows no tell-tale signs of a sudden hiccup.
The tracks on this mixtape are immediately reminiscent of club scenes in the 1980s and 90s, taking such cues as the drumbeats and minimal production of house music (whose influence can especially be felt in the opener “Feelin’”), along with free and powerful vocal lines and saxophone embellishments evoking the RnB samples used in early EDM. This is all achieved while also maintaining a sense of atmosphere through the coming and going of synth pad lines and a casual, almost jazzy tone through the continuous use of suspended chords, while various effects appear to keep your attention and interest. The club influence comes to a head with the “Rhythm Is a Dancer”-esque closing track “No Drama”, which has tough competition for my personal favourite track against the instant earworm “I Felt Love”.
Whereas the lyricism of Braids seems to largely act as an exorcism of personal demons, Ra’s subject matter here consists of much more general and party-friendly themes of love and desire, and at times seem like they came out of a session of stream-of-consciousness improvisation. This is not to say they’re without substance, however, as the repeating chant of “I’m my own damn woman” in the background of “Not My Boss!” demonstrates in the form of a new feminist rallying cry.
Under 1 House is full of tracks practically made for people looking for new music to add to their playlist of songs to stream on their video conference parties, or save for when in-person house parties are safe again if they’re feeling patient. If this mixtape doesn’t make you barely able to resist the urge to get up and dance on the spot, it’s undoubtedly because you already gave in to that urge.
- Ty Vanden Dool
PLEASEBENiCE
I Love You So Much // The PLEASEBENiCE Playground
Debut albums are particularly fun to write about – mainly, because oftentimes an initial glimpse at an artist’s work is fronted with open questions, so there is not quite a framing device to fully grapple with what you are listening to or what the artist is going to do next. It so happens that I Love You So Much is PLEASEBENiCE’s debut album, and that it is an excellent example of this experience I’ve had with reviewing debuts. PLEASEBENiCE is the moniker of Iris Yakymyshyn, who an emerging trans-female artist based out of Calgary and she blends hyperpop, industrial hip-hop, and jazz driven by a dynamic lyrical prowess in all her songs. I Love You So Much was self-released on October 6th , 2020 through her record label, The PLEASEBENiCE Playground. And in consistency with her D.I.Y. ethic, the 11-track record was composed, performed, mixed, and mastered by PLEASEBENiCE and it features of other artists like DIRTY DEV and MARION. Prior to the album’s release, the promotional singles included “It Ain’t Safe (feat. DIRTY DEV),” “Skeletons,” and “Why Does Love It End?.”
I Love You So Much was worked on over the course of 2 years, which in its final product reflects a maturity in the part of the artist who so caringly has put work into every single aspect of this release. “Skeletons” returns as a humming, droning introduction to PLEASEBENiCE’s sound between the instrumental and the vocal work by Yakymyshyn. The rambling vocals just speak volumes, everything that Yakymyshyn is trying to pour out into her music mentally and physically, as once that the humming spasm of words ends, the bass adequately drops into a track that breaths out the auditory space the song has built. The artist jams us out from this introduction over to a more forward hyperpop banger with “Baby, I Feel Like a Baddie.” This track’s sound is just fitting such a title. Yakymynshyn gets the track going with a melodic hook that just screams her softness out loud. By this point, it is notable that a defining aspect of this album is the showcasing of PLEASEBENiCE’s spastic vocals – varying from the classic lyrical rhymical miracle approach to the vocal delivery over to more experimental and unconventional approaches to such a thing. “Nothing Can Stop Me, Nothing! Literally Nothing!” comes across as a rambling piece of spoken-word poetry with an industrial, experimental track that keeps things interesting, especially with the haunting sample that complements the song’s overall aesthetic. I do, however, find that there is a pretty abrupt and overstayed silence between this track and the next, as a smoother and immediate transition from one track to the next would have serviced the experimental edge of the album’s cohesion. That being said, “It Ain’t Safe” featuring Edmonton-based rapper DIRTY DEV brings together one of the odder instrumentals in the record, and in a way reminded me of Arca’s “Nonbinary” or a Nnandï track in the sound and delivery. However, the most notable thing is the political statement that the song is trying to make for 2SLGBTQ+ students in Alberta as the song is an open confrontation with the leader of the United Conservative Party, Jason Kenney – in light of the general atmosphere of disdain for these vulnerable communities, this government has removed Bill 24 which aimed to prevent school staff from outing 2SLGBTQ+ students. The song does not hold back, “Kids are going to die because of this,” and DIRTY DEV’s intervention introduces a call to action and revolutionary work to counter disenfranchising institutions and bureaucratic mechanisms that only enable this sort of violence. “Ihatemyself SomeTimes” comes out as more deconstructed track, playing on the low-ends of different stems and free-versing around the song’s disjointed soundscape. Without a doubt, this track is probably the best example of PLEASEBENiCE’s experimental edge. Now, “Why Does Love It End!” is probably my favorite track of the whole album because of how honest and expressive she gets – there is no doubt that PLEASEBENiCE is pouring absolutely everything into this song, working through separation anxieties and the melancholic moments when love feels lost even before it actually is lost. The chorus has one of the catchier hooks in the entire album, and once it rolls out, the song spreads out and builds on itself with a subtle noisescape accompanying the drums that kick in just after the first chorus. The pacing and how dynamic it gets simply exemplifies some of the best that PLEASEBENiCE has to offer. For instance, the breakbeat and half beats towards the end carry this song’s emotional weight in all its highs and lows. From this, we are brought to “Finite (So I Get Attached)” which approaches similar themes; however, the energy level is so distinct that it feels like coming down of the manic moments from separation anxiety. The whaling synths feel like they are cries much like the solemness that brings this song together. This song is just as honest as the last, Iris itches for the infinite in love while contending with the constant draw backs over to the finitude of abysmal separation, as the song is an attempt to reach out beyond these binding constraints. “Mr Rogers Went to Heaven” starts out with some nostalgic sounding samples that captivate the innocent character that PLEASEBENiCE brings out of herself; the bop feels like a shoegaze bedroom pop song that you can listen late at night to the atmosphere of dim Christmas lights decorating the intimacy of one’s childhood room – and then we are left with the title of the album being dropped as the last line. “My Bagler” feels like a transition into a more conventional rap-pop song, which is a welcomed change where we just get to focus on a consistent and catchy instrumental where PLEASEBENiCE gets to jam out and spit some bars, ending with a exciting vocal stretch that fades the song out. “I Love You So Much Aka Fuck an Outro!” is a strong song about setting boundaries and that not being mutually exclusive with loving pals, as it gets the frustration out in order to make space for compassion, and from there Yakymyshyn goes on to deliver some fun and playful free-styles that are bound to crack a smile out of the listener. And then it just ends with a quick jazz bit that leaves a strong and sudden impression. And the last track of the album is “Life So Beautiful” featuring MARION. Its hook is an open anthem to loving life and reflects on coming out as a trans-woman and embracing life as such not getting hung up by riches or status. Aside from the themes, this is probably one of the more underplayed songs in the album as, by contrast to the rest of the tracklist, it seems to hold back in some of the more experimental aspects of the track and in fleshing out the feature in the track – especially when, at large, most of the tracks take the extra mile.
This is a curious review to have written because of how thorough and critical it got – it is not often that I comment on the aspects of a release that could use some further work and development as I did with this one. And even at that, these were quarrels at most, but hopefully comments that may be beneficial for the artist’s further endeavors. I believe that my thoroughness and critical insight spans from how seriously I took this debut record. Because I cannot recommend this album more, as I don’t think I have even fully grasped the ramifications of this album’s significance for the genre. PLEASEBENiCE’s I Love You So Much is an ambitious, challenging, thoughtful, and caring cultivation of an artistic sensibility which is unmatched as far as emerging artists go.
- Simone A. Medina Polo
