Cindy Lee/Non La/Nature Of/Calvin Love
Cindy Lee
What’s Tonight To Eternity // W.25th/Superior Viaduct
After the breakup of Calgary’s band Women and the death of Chris Reimer in 2012, the remaining members of the critically acclaimed group took two very different paths with their music. Matt Flegel and Michael Wallace would go on to form the band “Viet Cong” with Scott Munro and Daniel Christiansen. Later changing their band name to “Preoccupations”, they would tour the world with their blistering brand of angular and slick post-punk. On the other hand, Patrick Flegel of Women started releasing music by their lonesome as Cindy Lee, music that is inherently introverted marked with beautiful melodies and harsh noise. After releasing four albums that relied a little too heavily on experimental and noisy soundscapes, Cindy Lee’s new album What Tonight To Eternity is undeniably their most cohesive and accessible album to date while still retaining that signature Cindy Lee sound.
A lot of ink has been spilled about the concept of “hauntology” and “hypnagogic pop” which tends to be mainly applied to British electronic music and groups such as Boards of Canada and artists on Ghost Box records. In the musical realm, it is used to describe music that evokes a sense of cultural memory or nostalgia and elements that reflects the aesthetics of the past. Cindy Lee’s new album ticks all those boxes and is a great example of a perfect hypnagogic pop album. The songs on What’s Tonight To Eternity emanates a spectral aura that fills the listener with a sense of beauty and deep melancholy. The ember like transmissions on the record sound like they were unearthed recently from a decaying shellac. Diving into the album, the ornate shuffle of the harpsichord during seven-minute dirge like “I Want You To Suffer” is ominously juxtaposed with squalls of harsh noise halfway through the track, which further evolves into a meditative lullaby as everything drops out of the mix with the faintest of Cindy Lee’s whispered vocals slowly disintegrating into the ether. Tracks like “Plastic Raincoat” and the title track languorously float around like a grey cloud further climatizing the listeners to Cindy Lee’s sound palette.
The album highlight “Lucifer Stand” which Cindy Lee has performed live since 2017 rightfully finds its way on to this album forming the centerpiece. The track acts as a large flickering chandelier in an abandoned ballroom somewhere and perhaps also illuminating the dark recesses of Cindy Lee’s psyche. The haunting track could serve as an alternative score to that scene in the recent film Blade Runner 2049 where holographic apparitions of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and other musical ghosts of yesteryear flash abruptly among the neon lights in the derelict malfunctioning Las Vegas club. Perhaps Karen Carpenter could be added to that list of holographic celebrities as Cindy Lee cites her style, look and life’s story as a major inspiration for their own creativity. Additionally, the devastating monologue at the end of “Lucifer Stand” is perhaps most telling about Cindy Lee’s journey towards navigating queer identity and gender expression. The album’s closing track “Heavy Metal” which is dedicated to the late Women band member Chris Reimer is somber yet hopeful and ends the album on a gentle note.
The album title What’s Tonight To Eternity purposely omits the question mark at the end perhaps because Cindy Lee already knows the answer to that question.
- Piyush Patel
Non La
Not In Love // Kingfisher Bluez
“This One’s For the Queer Kids,” is stamped onto the label of the vinyl copy of Non La’s debut full-length, and it’s a hell of a tribute. Not In Love is a self-described “crash course in queer scene politics and navigating the world as a queer Chinese-Vietnamese Canadian in a mostly white, straight industry.” The theme shines through in 10 fast, bitingly funny “queerpop” tracks that you might just learn from as you’re singing along.
Non La is DJ On’s most personal music project. On has been involved in several other excellent Vancouver-based bands including Megamall, Maneater, and the sadly defunct TV Ugly and Thee Ahs. A thread that runs through all these groups has been a sharp pop sensibility that’s on ample display throughout Not In Love’s addictive hooks. Within the upbeat pop melodies there’s a ringing punk influence as well -- On credits the heaviness in part to Sal Duncan’s mixing and mastering, but it also gives a cue that these aren’t necessarily straightforward songs about love and longing.
Most of the songs start on an optimistic note: On is infatuated with someone new, wanting to be “yr man” and cook for you, or excited to bring someone home. But as we approach the chorus we usually learn that things aren’t as shiny as they might seem -- “Saviour” speaks to the disillusionment of that lesson, as On sings “I know what you’re really after/you cannot have my gay dollars.” One of the best tracks, “Not in Love” is a clever and upbeat “fuck you” to a white gaze that fetishes people of colour: “hey boy/do you think it’s so special that I am so oriental?” The song marries the irresistible hooks, standout basslines, and well-placed backing vocals that appear throughout the rest of the album. It also includes the delightful vocal trick of making the word “I” into a five syllable-long melody that’s been stuck in my head for days.
If it is love you’re looking for, there are some tender moments too: “Yr Man” is a sweet song about longing, and “Wait 4 U” might eventually have a happy ending. Besides that, between the sarcasm and sincerity, the layered vocals, and the bright guitar solos that punctuate almost every track, there’s a lot here to love.
- Natalie Corbo
Nature Of
The Mean // Independent
Soothing sounds from Nature Of are coming for you again with their new album The Mean just released on February 21st, 2020. I can’t really describe them better than how the band describes themselves on their website;
“We are Nature Of, a band from Edmonton AB, Canada”… but I can definitely say more.
Nature Of consists of four people who met through the skateboard community which explains why I think Skate-Folk is an apt description of their music and this album specifically. Any song on The Mean would make an awesome backing track to a skateboard video.
The music has a consistent smoothness and each songs flows right into the next one. Starting right from song one, an upbeat and bright acoustic piano plays supportive melodies while a fatter bass helps the surf/skate rock feel. On the third track “Tiffany” there is a rare but very appropriate and sexy saxophone solo. I’d suggest more bands use a saxophone but it’s a difficult instrument to make work. Nature Of definitely gets it right!
The acoustic piano is an underrated hero of this album. It’s never overplayed but always very important to the overall sound and feel of the band. I say underrated because I can’t find a credit to the piano player. Often indie bands have a tendency to use more of a synth style keyboard so I really enjoyed the clean full bodied keys.
Vibrato is a tool used very well throughout this album. Whether it’s the lead guitar layering dreamy melodies over the chords or the soft vocals of Steven Schneider, the subtly quivering of the different instruments makes for an extremely relaxing listen. Schneider’s vocal performance has a nice timbre and reminds me of Afie Jurvanen from the Bahamas.
Nature Of should be proud of themselves for another beautiful piece or art. The Mean is a great album for a summer day or a winter night.
- Jordan Norman
Calvin Love
Night Songs // Independent
To see Calvin Love live is an almost otherworldly experience. If you haven’t seen him before take a second and do a quick google search, you’ll see what I mean. It’s as if he came from the moon having listened to Roy Orbison the whole way down. What truly grounds Love is the sense that you’ve already been where he is taking you, on a night drive or wherever you last fell in love. It’s in his aching vibrato, sparkling synths and properly out of tune piano melodies.
Night Songs, the most recent release from Calvin Love, is an effortless unifier of nostalgia and twenty first century uncertainty. Written during the creation of Highway Dancer, Love’s newest release is a collection of B-sides and instrumental tracks. Including a stunning Stonefield cover, a Richard Swift tribute and alternates from albums past, Night Songs is an impressively crafted collage. Largely recorded at Palace Sound Studio in Toronto, Ontario, a smattering of tracks were recorded elsewhere, including “Song for Swift”, recorded on a Tascam Portastudio 414, a favorite machine of the late Richard Swift, a friend and large influence on Love. To bookend the album, “Chameleon pt. 1” and “Chameleon pt. 2” were recorded in Los Angeles, and were included as two versions of the same track, not wanting to leave one out.
Night Songs is an intimate offering, one that we haven’t yet seen from Love. What is special about Night Songs is just that. It is a photo with a blurred subject, but a perfectly in focus background with so much to explore.
- Ella Coyes
