El Hombre Al Agua, Sunglaciers, and Destroyer
El Hombre Al Agua
Memories Can Be Injected // Echodelik Records
As a figure in Canadian music over the past thirty-five years, Dave Read looms like something of a storm cloud, heavy and dangerous over the horizon. Now settled in his home in Nanaimo, he lives, and has lived, many lives, including working at a vinyl pressing plant, as a music promoter, and as head of Vinyl Record Guru, which works with record labels and clients to get records made. Since debuting in the thrash metal band Death Militia in his hometown of Toronto in 1985, he has worn many hats and collaborated in innumerable projects, notably the long running space-rock outfit Moths & Locusts, and his solo project El Hombre Al Agua.
One of the many listed inspirations for El Hombre Al Agua’s latest, Memories Can Be Injected, is 70s meditation records. On such a sinister album— whose title could be interpreted as a threat— such benign reference material may seem out of character. However, within this context, the audio narration on album opener “Three Minute Meditation” takes on new meaning. Guided meditation albums were very popular in the age of shag carpets, Hi-Fi sound systems and psychedelics. While these records were ostensibly designed to guide the listener into a state of relaxation, here that same audio is weaponized. As a disembodied voice orders you to relax, what was perhaps initially intended to be an invitation takes on the cadence of a command, and in the face of this cognitive dissonance I found myself tensing up, preparing to fend off a wave of psychic battery. The audio itself is made to feel dangerous, an insidious force that may attempt to wrest control of your mind. Immediately, Read has invited us into a sonic theater where you are not safe— as if Timothy Leary pulled off a latex mask and revealed himself to be an operative of MK Ultra.
A child of the 60s, Read is no doubt all too aware of the utopian promise of the time. Despite, or perhaps because of this, it's a ripe period for one of Read’s favorite subjects: science fiction. Read references sci-fi themes and concepts throughout his body of work, and notably here on the acid-inflected slow burner “Replicant Ice Fortress.” The heavy atmosphere of Philip K. Dick’s novel is conjured by rumbling synthesizer swells as the rhythm creeps and slouches along the filthy neon streets of the city’s underbelly. The doomy drones of “Endless” take us into the furthest reaches of space, drifting in the void between stars. Confronted with the vastness of space, all human efforts of scale become meaningless, and suddenly the distant sparks of light transform from stars to neurons, and the voyage turns inward, through the inner galaxy of thought. The skipping shuffle of “Tulpa” offers a sudden detour as overlapping rhythms tumble through one another as if the radio antenna was bumped, a transmission briefly intercepted before being lost again to the airwaves. Album closer and standout track “Memories Can Be Injected” is a masterstroke of synthesized madness, its heavy central beat sustaining glitchy electronic spasms that grab hold of your brain and shake, scrambling your perceptions, ensuring that the title has kept its promise.
- Harman Burns
Sunglaciers
Subterranea // Mothland
I had the good fortune of catching Sunglaciers video performance at Sled Island’s 2021 event as well as at Monarch Tavern on one of their stops through Toronto. Both experiences were top-notch and so it's my pleasure to review their latest release Subterranea for the Cups N Cakes Network. Sunglaciers fuse post-punk with alternative-pop to create a sonically dense sound yet easy on the ears. Subterranea was co-produced by Chad VanGaalen and mixed by Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, Yves Jarvis, The Unicorns).
When speaking about the recording of Subterranea, Sunglaciers reflect on how the outbreak of the pandemic rerouted their creative energy. “The bulk of this album came together during the pandemic and the changing of gears that we had to do. We flipped a switch and started playing music everyday. It’s a good indicator of how we were writing at the time while we wrapped our heads around some new gear and saw what came out of it. Essentially, we took all of our favourite musical tendencies and put them together. We were listening to a lot of McCartney II at the time and loved how eclectic it was, which led to us mirroring that vibe.”
Sunglaciers mentions how they adjusted their approach to songwriting for Subterranea and its result. “Subterranea spans 2-3 genres... We gave ourselves boundaries where we wanted to keep the songs short and avoided using our usual instruments when writing the main melodies and structure of a song. We tried to write vertically instead of horizontally. Our last album Foreign Bodies and the EPs that came before it had lots of long songs with different parts drifting back and forth. For this album, we decided to strip our songs down to two or three minutes with only a few ideas in each of them.”
Sunglaciers recount some of the musical inspiration that influenced the creation of Subterranea. “While writing the album, we drew inspiration from artists such as Beak>, Cate Le Bon, Deerhunter, Paul McCartney, Miles Davis and Jeff Parker. We love these artists because they’re all innovators with lots of output. Either through composing experimental music, pushing the boundaries of their respective genres, or ability to transcend genres.”
Subterranea offers a lot of variety as far as emotions and provides the listener with a versatile experience. This record comes highly recommended for fans Deerhunter, Of Montreal, Beak>, and high-quality Alberta music.
- Earl D
Destroyer
LABYRINTHITIS // Merge Records
Exactly 1:01 into Destroyer’s brand new record, Labrinthitis, you hear the familiar voice of band leader Dan Bejar. That’s when you know it’s a Destroyer record for sure.
If you’re like me, you know Bejar best from his work in the New Pornographers, where his sometimes strange and slightly askew lyrical stylings and unique voice can be found shining among the band’s many, many gems.
In fact, Bejar’s Destroyer has been around for quite some time as well. It was actually a band 2 years before he co-founded the Pornos with Neko Case and A.C. Newman in 1997.
Back to the title at hand though…
I’ve certainly dipped more than a foot into Bejar’s solo work, but I’m no expert so this was an exciting one to sit down with.
Not really a solo record (or project really) at all, Bejar’s collaboration with John Collins is more of what this record is about. They started sending bits back and forth when they couldn’t meet in person during the beginning of the pandemic but their musical relationship shines through anyway.
The record starts with the simple phrase “It’s in Your Heart Now”, repeated for effect…
The track of the same name then drifts sonically into a six minute introduction that also gives you a solid glimpse into what’s to come but also gets the blood flowing and the toe tapping.
This was the original intent as Bejar envisioned this as a sort of disco album from the start…comparing what he envisioned to something like Donna Summers’ Greatest Hits.
The record evolved, as they do, and the result is this spiralling, weaving, exploration of sound and instruments, tones and how they all flow together.
Lots of different treats for your ears on this record, from its disco era jams to the bright sound of Destroyer’s indie rock roots bursting forth.
There are even bits of spoken word that came off completely as the freestyle rants of a prolific songwriter and one that is comfortable to play around a bit.
There is wit in spades but that’s to be expected from Bejar. One of my favourite lines on the entire record is “A snow angel’s a fucking idiot somebody made” which is delivered with precision sharpness in the disco inspired “June”.
The disco feeling is strong and it’s complimented everywhere with little tasty guitar licks, bass lines and lots of cool synth treats as well.
My favourite tune of the record is the catchy “All My Pretty Dresses”. The beautiful and expressive lyrics take you into a smooth gallop as you want to sing along before you know what the words actually are.
Another stand out for me is “The States”. The imagery of sideways rain against a trippy beat with delicious bits of synth and bass rolling all around it is wonderful, then you’re stuck in the groove and you’re not coming back until Destroyer is done with you.
The album ends with just Bejar and his acoustic, sneaking in one last “sweet moment” as he likes to call them on “The Last Song”.
“And that is maybe too many words to say”.
I’ll leave you with the additional allure of the beautiful album artwork. It’s two people in a tree, one of them has an accordion. What whimsical but intense fun couldn’t happen?
This is a great record by an institution of the Northern music scene, one I’ll be exploring more and likely finding something new and delicious every time.
- Chris Vasseur
