Dan Mangan, Ellen Froese, and Swamp Thing
Dan Mangan
Being Somewhere // Arts and Crafts
Dan Mangan himself described the tracks on his sixth full length album as “…tender hearted, and unfurl like an overdue conversation with a dear friend.” I struggle to find a more suitable description. Mangan exudes a feeling of familiarity and comfort, like no time had passed between conversations.
Being yet another by-product of the COVID era, the album was constructed via correspondence between collaborator/producer Drew Brown (Radiohead, Beck) over a period of 2.5 years remotely, versus their total of 3 days spent together in person. It’s one of those situations where you wouldn’t know it unless it had been brought to your attention. One might also miss the fact that a menagerie of artists were called on to contribute to Mangan’s cause including, but not limited to, Jason Falkner (Beck, St. Vincent), Thomas Bartlett (The National, Taylor Swift), and Mary Lattimore (Kurt Vile, Sharon Van Etten). Together, they arranged a mosaic of sounds that reaches beyond folk.
The track list, coming in at an easy 31 minutes, commences with “All My People”. Talking about that compilation of sounds, balanced with some airy vocals from Mangan, we are lifted to a place that seems to easier and more comfortable to traverse. This is only reiterated by the following track, “Fire Escape” where he confirms being ‘uncertain in a cosmic way’. “Just Know It” is quick and quaint little piece, interlaced with the piano as a backpiece to a simplistic lyric of ‘you’re going to wear me out’ and, similarly to “All Roads” and “Long After”, features a unique assembly of sounds that may or may not give away the eclectic contributors to the album. The album maintains a level of grounded-ness with more stripped back, acoustic and raw sounds with tracks like “Easy, “In Your Corner”, “Wish I Was Here” and “No Tragedy Please.”
At the end of the day, Being Somewhere provides us with something that most lockdown compilations don’t. Amidst the confusion and segregation, Mangan is the pal that checks in on you even though you haven’t spoken in months. He’s aware of the state of things, but he offers something a little more positive to look forward to. He accepts your shortcomings, acknowledges though that there is room to grow. I am personally thankful for this album.
Sincerely,
- Frankie Undseth
Ellen Froese
For Each Flower Growing // Victory Pool Music
Ellen Froese’s new album For Each Flower Growing holds a very special place in my heart. It represents a new beginning with her recently signed label, Victory Pool Music; nostalgia for the past year as each of the singles released captures a specific time in the Saskatchewan music scene; and a deep love and sadness, as the album is named in memory of Froese’s friend and producer, Jill Mack, who passed away this past spring.
I’ve mentioned to a few people that I think Ellen Froese is one of the best songwriters in Saskatchewan right now, and I hold true to that statement. Specifically, her tracks “In the Sun” and “Did You Have a Love Before Me”, which were the first two singles released. Both of these songs have the ability to make me dance around my bedroom one day and bawl my eyes out the next. The entire album has this effect – being whatever you need it to be in that moment.
For Each Flower Growing starts off with a beautifully crafted slow build, “Long Division” and takes its time through each track, letting each of them sit and stick with the listener. Closing off with a song that sounds unlike any of the others, “All in Its Own Time” holds a feeling that is bright and hopeful, yet simultaneously haunting. Within the first thirty seconds of listening, this song became my favourite off the album and has been put on repeat since. The guitar and vocals weave in and out of each other, neither taking the spotlight, but steadily complimenting the opposite part.
Ellen Froese is an artist constantly creating community that draws people in through her music. Whether it is playing a honky tonk show surrounded by friends on stage and in the audience, or attending fiddle jams with pals, Froese is excited to give life to the music she takes part in and pumps everyone up around her in the process.
Bringing a few friends onto the album, she has created songs that capture her magnetic personality and show off the talent of these individuals. These musicians include Clayton Linthicum of Kacy and Clayton, Chris Mason of The Deep Dark Woods, and producer Sam Corbett of The Sheepdogs.
I cannot recommend this album enough. I am so thankful to know Ellen and get to see her play regularly in the Saskatchewan music scene. Do not pass up the chance if she is playing near you. If her songs aren’t enough, her charming stage presence will win you over.
- Holly-Anne Gilroy
Swamp Thing
Noise Machine // Urbnet
Good rap is a vessel for fantastical exaggeration, blending excess into harmonic bliss, works of the highest order. No excess seems too much in the Big Tyme No Limit world of rap. But are we not going a tad deaf to rap’s blood orgy on diamond encrusted yachts, especially when it’s delivered with the energy of a spoiled rotten countess?
A thought to soothe the offended sensibility: imagine the reckoning that must take place between a rapper’s fantasies and the reality of his life: say, returning his rented watch and haggling over the price after a video shoot. Takes the edge off a bit, no?
It’s refreshing, and perhaps a bit niche, to hear rap that sources its energy from real world experience. Say, forklift operating, pleading a DUI ticket, high cholesterol. Some old regular Joe rap.
Toronto’s Swamp Thing (comprising MC's Timbuktu, Chokeules, & Savilion) emerges from the bog with the pungent stench of real life wafting, delivering their goods with character, size and girth.
“What a delightful evening/ your wifey screaming like a viking/I’m a psycho breathing like Michael Keaton in a black suit/the black tool is in your lower back like a tattoo/Catcher in the Rye mixed with Black Moon”. Preach, uncle!
Big beats that contain discernible kick-snare (produced by Toronto based beat maker LRYBRDBTZ), record scratching (turntable cuts by DJ iRATE) and a sweet hit list of guest rappers (Wordburglar, Ghettosocks, More or Les, Pip Skid and Jesse Dangerously), helps this album flow along nimbly and cohesively, a tip of the hat to the hip hop craft of yesteryear.
This stuff has brawn, and it resonates in this uncle's (evermore sensitive) 40 year old ears. I picture these dudes performing at their kid’s 10th birthday party, telling (yelling) stories of wrestling legends of yesteryear, reenactments of a Mr Perfect and Irwin R Schyster ladder match. Real life stuff you can feel like a backhand to the grill, and smell like a Brat on the grill.
“Been known to act a fool but not my actual age.” Welp, Swamp Thing, age don’t lie, and I raise a Screwdriver (what we used to call a vodka and orange juice where I come from in the 90’s) in your honour.
A point for experience.
- JD Ormond
