Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Vallens, and Beams
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Theory Of Ice // You’ve Changed
In 2018 Canadian audiences watched as Jeremy Dutcher, the classically-trained opera singer/composer and member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, accepted the Polaris Prize for his momentous album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. Following his historic performance, Dutcher took the stage to accept his prize and challenge the audience with these words: "You are in the midst of an Indigenous renaissance. Are you ready to hear the truth that needs to be told? Are you ready to see the things that need to be seen?"
These words rang loud and crystal clear across the Canadian landscape, further igniting the passions of Canadian- Indigenous artists and piercing the hearts of the settlers who seek to understand the reconciliation needed in this country; open your ears, settlers. The Truth is coming. Indeed, the Truth has already arrived.
We hear these truths--painful, longing, hopeful, jubilant, and never easy to swallow--spoken softly yet confidently by the unparalleled Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a Michi SaagiigNishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist. Theory Of Ice (March 2021) has received international praise as a near-perfect tapestryof spoken-word poetry, storytelling, and song. There is so much to be said about this work of art, yet I believe it is first important to acknowledge: this album is an undeserved gift. For years, the Indigenous peoples of this land have had their culture, identity, stories, children, women, men, two-spirited folks, and history destroyed, murdered, and ripped away. Yet in an astounding display of grace and strength, Indigenous artists and historians have allowed us white settlers to be moved and humbled by the creative displays of the very sacred history we sought to destroy. This is a gift we don't deserve, and should therefore not be listened to lightly. This is history, unfolding.
Theory Of Ice brings listeners to a world that ebbs and flows, is filled with loss and new life, interconnectedness and interdependence; a world seeking to be far away from the mechanical exchanges of capital; a world that freezes, thaws, dissipates, evaporates, condensates, and flows. There is a precision and detail to each song that illuminates the structured and ordered science of the natural world, yet, when superimposed with the ethereal and misty accompaniment, shows that structure and order are merely the tangible parts of avast, sacred, ubiquitous whole. We hear this at the top of the album with "Break Up", where Simpson speaks: "There is euphotic rising and falling, orbits of dispossession and reattachment achieving maximum density: 39 degrees Fahrenheit. You relax at the surface, spread apart, cooler holding warmer. Regular, repeated, ordered, locked. Lake as one mind" (punctuation mine, as lyrics are written out in a poetic structure on Bandcamp). We hear Simpson mapping out how changes, growth, and evolution are actually full of structure and repetition; what a beautiful reminder that science is never just unimportant numbers and facts, but a breakdown of the magical, supernatural experience of a cyclical life. As an aside, Simpson's ability to poetically discuss the scientific process of ice melting and freezing is a feat in and of itself. I can confidently say I have never heard lyrics like this before.
As much as this album is grounded in nature, it is also a politically-charged resistance to a lying, cheating government and a settler nation with blood on their hands. We arrive to Simpson's rendition of Willie Dunn's "I Pity The Country", unfortunately still as poignant as ever in our current political climate. Overlaid a grungy guitar and slow kick, this song seems to shift in attitude from Dunn's ironic happy-sounding-lament to a now strong, confident war-cry. It has, and will always be, a protest song, yet this instrumentation and final chorus of voices adds a forward momentum that cannot be slowed.
Steven Lambke (Constantines, Baby Eagle) recounted that Simpson had no intention for the album to be organized in alinear or chronological fashion, yet the final song of the album, "Head of the Lake" seems to act rather fittingly as a "period" for the album, or at least an "ellipses". Simpson speaks over a sung chorus: "We made a circle and it helped. The smoke did the things we couldn’t. Singing broke open hearts. I hold your hand without touching it… In realization we don’t exist without each other, she says: there’s nothing about you I’m not willing to know". The story has come full-circle, wrapping humanity up in the story of nature and order--order is sacred, sacred is order. This song is so palpable. You can see a group of people, tired eyes and sullen hearts, leaning on one another and the gifts of the earth to get by, finding strength in being completely cracked open and vulnerable with one another.
There is so much to be said about this album and about Leanne Betasamosake Simpsons books, poetry, stories, videos, lectures, workshops, and art. I encourage readers to check out her website and Bandcamp which highlight her other works which, in true Simpson fashion, all weave together in one way or another. To say that the Indigenous Renaissance is just beginning would be an oversight to the revolutionary work that has already been done for decades by Indigenous artists all across Canada--yes, we are in the midst of an Indigenous Renaissance, and again I say a thank-you to all the artists who allow their art to be interpreted and celebrated by the very ears who repeatedly refused to listen.
- Lana Winterhalt
Vallens
In Era // Hand Drawn Dracula
High grade chill out music. Hypnotic, lush, and tense tracks that don’t shy away from solid and sick beats and subby bass with a morphine-like sugary drone icing. Robyn Phillips’ vocal clarity and strength anchors and steers a cyborg beast that morphs between a panther, a bear, and a great white shark. It moves smooth, with a lot of power to draw on when needed.
It takes me all the way back to the 90s, with the Portishead, Morcheeba, Everything But The Girl, Massive Attack, etc, CD on the stereo and you sank into your weed haze on the ratty old couch that was more comfortable than it looked with your friends and you played it loud enough to make it uncomfortable to talk over. Not going to lie, this album is in that league. It is.
It welcomes you into its presence and space more and more on every listen until you feel deeply connected to it. I sincerely hope it becomes as widely heard as Dummy, it certainly deserves to. Even the points along the way where it gets too close to that line between imitation and copy like “If I Don’t” only excite me more. “If I Don’t” is a truly wonderful track that nails the “leave ‘em dangling in the space between the beat and then lift ‘em up in the power stance” motif of the sound.
“In Era”, the title and opening track, lures you down to the bottom of the warm dark sea where the cushions are soft and large as a gentle introduction to the voice, arrangements and lyrics you’ll be hearing. Gradually without you noticing, your lucid dream state becomes fraught with a building tension and you’re paralyzed in a trap.
The delicious drum textures and slick and groovy bassline of the second track “While You Are Waiting” buckle you in and you are along for the ride now, and it feels so good to feel cool for a minute. The album continues on from there down the winding path between thoughtful song arrangement and beautifully textured dubby beats and drones. Everything overlaps in fluid and dynamic ways. I will absolutely put this one in the goto pile for chill summer hangs 2021.
- Joel Klaverkamp
Beams
Ego Death // Self Released
For their third full length album, Toronto based folk group Beams takes a step back from their traditional acoustic instrumentation and turns up the volume, delivering an exciting new sound. Swapping out banjos for blaring guitars at centre stage, Beams takes us on a hero’s journey that mirrors the lead singer’s own struggles with mental health and ultimate liberation from them.
Beams has hinted at this sound before, including some bursts of psychedelic guitar in previous albums, but in Ego Death the fuzzed-out guitars, played by front-person Anna Mernieks-Duffield, provide an engine that gives the band an all-new energy. The thick textures provide an energetic and empowering driving force behind the dreamlike warmth of the traditional folk vocals. Despite guitars raging with little regard for others around them, the storyteller never lets go of the wheel; Mernieks-Duffield remains the confident vocal leader throughout, as harmonies float precisely and the band marches decisively. The rest of the engine room does an incredible job with the new pace, showing cohesion and rapport as they turn on a dime through paces and moods without stumbling or breaking the flow.
By stirring some alt-country sound into their mix of Fleetwood Mac, Waxahatchee, and Big Thief, Beams is able to take the moods to more exciting and unexpected places. There is a triumphant and empowering energy throughout that is aided by production that builds rich textures and thick walls of sound whilst still feeling live. This energy and volume is maintained for the first handful of tracks, giving us some time to get used to the new pace and sound. Once they’ve built up our trust and expectations, Beams brings things down for a number of tracks throughout the album. Even when the energy seems lower, they never lose the momentum, always making sure that we wait in anxious anticipation for whatever they have in store for us around the next corner.
All this provides the foundation for an empowering celebration of transformation and growth. A cycling narrative in which the hero returns forever changed, Mernieks-Duffield tells her own story of struggles and metamorphosis. The magic of her harmonies with Heather Mazhar are not lost or tarnished by the new sonic direction, in fact, they are only amplified by the new textures in the band, making it hit so much harder when they deliver lyrics like, “This year came in like a sledgehammer, was there ever any holiday at all? This planet cycles and circles around the sun, But I’m only ever one day away from what I’ve done.” Not only has Beams created a cathartic and relatable narrative that will make you want to sit down and see the album through on your first listen, but you’ll also return to many of these songs to jam along with their incredible hooks and energy. Ego Death is the result of a band and front person confidently becoming their truest selves.
- Clay Geddert
