Sauna, Hersilia, and Busty and the Bass
Sauna
Dose Yourself // Sauna Records
“Embrace the mess.”* These words are a succinct description to an otherwise hard to describe album. Where to start? To the listener, I suggest giving the album a listen to with headphones on and in solitude. Your experience with the album changes when immersed completely with the music.
Sauna is an up-and-coming band based out in Toronto composed of members: Michael Le Riche (Fake Palms), Zach Bines (Weaves) and Braeden Craig (Greys). Dose Yourself feels like a personal memento: a small window into a specific time that’s since long past. Frontman le Riche describes it as such: “It captures a very specific moment in time […] We’re different people than who we were when writing this record.” Tone wise, listening to this album is like looking at an old photograph of oneself: you go in expecting to recognize this past self and yet with newer eyes, the old feels fresh. Different. Haunting. Sonically, the band is in sync with acts such as Men Without Hats and Phantogram. It is with their debut album, however, that Sauna ventures into newfound territory. By the end of its 38 min run time (roughly), its synth-heavy beats and punchy lyrics will stick with you.
Dose Yourself, in this reviewer’s opinion, is a bona-fide hit. It does everything a debut album should: it experiments with standard conventions & invites the listener into something new and profound while invoking lingering feelings (whether those feelings were originally intended by the creators). Like the start of a new courtship, the album starts off slow and almost shy in its meeting with the listener. ‘Only Luck’ opens as a fun, pop-introduction. Well, fun in sound. Lyrically, the track is unafraid in expressions of concern. “What do you recommend? […] to quote our apathy: past the point, no energy.” Midway, a relationship has blossomed. ‘Dose Yourself’ has echoes of Phantogram’s ‘Answer’ with both tracks opening in similar rhythms. However, whereas Phantogram embraces the melancholy of its title track and maintains its steady tempo, Sauna twists a hard left and dives wildly into a surreal sound of broken saxophones and airy synth. We’re just along for the ride. In ‘Tongue-Tied’, cracks have formed in this new relationship and now we have to say farewell to the last thirty-eight minutes. Where do we go now? “Tell me what to wait for. Tell me what to stay for. […] or are you tongue-tied?” ‘Tongue tied’ is a track the listener should listen to alone. The electric hums of the synthesizer hit a node in the brain that activates a peculiar feeling: wistfulness. Longing. Uncertainty. It’s a familiar feeling most of us have experienced, hence the genius of it acting as the closer for the album. As a listener, you beg for more. But, as the track suggests in its existential anguish, where the hell do we find that?
In an interview last month for the Cups and Cakes Network, le Riche discussed the process of creating Dose Yourself. “Everything changes,” he notes. “You think you know what you’re doing today and then tomorrow, you want to do the exact opposite. And you look back at yesterday and go, ‘I can’t believe I did that.’” Experimentation and change are key themes to the album. If we, as a collective, all start off at a certain point, the daily exploits that habit our daily lives ultimately end up changing us, often and without rest. That's the nature of the beast, isn't it? Time races on. Experiences change us. We may recognize a piece of ourselves in the memories, but this is usually with the distanced lens of the present. Sauna embraces this philosophical notion in Dose Yourself and more. “Embrace the mess.”
- Josalynn Lawrence
Hersilia
Rot and Rebirth // Grade School Records
Hersilia might be your friend. Maybe you've bumped into them at the Buck, or passed them in the hallway of your apartment. You might have pulled up beside them at a red light, listening to the same song on CJSR. Maybe you’ve bummed a smoke from them outside the Aviary between sets, or jumped around with them at a basement house party. Chances are, if you’ve spent any time in Edmonton in the last five years, you’ll know what I mean. Formed by a group of MacEwan graduates circa 2017, the rock quartet have refined their own proprietary blend of emo into a tightly-knit thrift store sweater. On their debut album Rot and Rebirth, Hersilia have firmly stamped themselves on the very heart of Edmonton’s musical landscape, wearing their hometown pride on their sleeves, their toques, and their cuffed jeans.
Nowhere is this more evident than on the flag-waving opening anthem “EAF”, a bittersweet and beer-soaked banger best heard with a can of Lucky in hand, smashing into a bunch of sweaty people in a dark room. Dana Clementine and Shea Iles’ dueling rhythm guitars are propelled by Christina Prakash’s fiery drumming, and Clementine’s lyrics hit all the marks: name dropping Steel Wheels and Daddeo’s, referencing everything from eight-month winters to that weirdly ever-present sewage smell, and delivering the surefire fan-favorite singalong line “Whyte Ave is the place to be if you consider yourself to be depressed and pretty.” A ragtag choir (credited in the liner notes as “The Winter City Singers”) joins in at the climax of the song, imparting a spirit of we’re-all-in-this-together-ness that fuels the heart of Hersilia’s music.
Dallas McInroy’s slippery bassline opens the crying-on-the-dancefloor breakup rock of “Wow! Lovely!”, and here Clementine’s earnest lyrics shine. Her voice veers right to the edge of losing control, walking the line between melodrama and authenticity with grace. “Frogface” slinks into mellower territory, with Iles’ tastefully emotive leads conjuring 80’s glam rock ballads. “La Douleur Exquise” is a full-throttle turn of the millenium emo blast, and every part of the band feels perfectly dialed in to one another, each buildup and breakdown hitting just right.
The outstanding “I Wish I Could Stay” strips away all but Clementine’s voice and guitar, all the players left the stage except our heroine, alone in the spotlight. Sean Davis Newton, who produced the album, provides subtle brush strokes to the canvas, building to an exquisitely layered climax where the delicate harmonies and textures are ultimately overcome with violent noise.
Hersilia is your cool neighbor, your favorite person to catch up with, your partner. Their music will meet you, welcome you inside, sit with you and listen, then take your hand and pull you out into the night. It is more than celebratory, more than simple fun: at its core, Hersilia’s music is a consolation for those who are young and have been swallowed by the cold, brutal industrialism of the city. In the midst of this hostile microcosm, Hersilia imparts the feeling of a circle of friends that have each other's back, make each other laugh, and fight against the odds. And while Rot and Rebirth is certainly about cycles— in cities, as they transform through the seasons, and in relationships, as they come to their end— I think it's safe to say that Hersilia is here to stay.
- Harman Burns
Busty and the Bass
KARNEVAL // Arts & Crafts
Montreal group Busty and the Bass has come in hot with a new album and a new sound. The release, KARNEVAL, is a collaboration project between Busty and the Bass and rapper STS, and features vocalist Jordan Brown on tracks “My Parade” and “Memories About You”.
Frontman of the band, Nick Ferraro, announced he was departing from the band shorty before the new album was announced, leaving the group with an opportunity to change things up and have a fresh start. KARNEVAL is the start of this new chapter and points to more of a hip-hop vibe than they had before, although this may be the result of collaborator STS.
The release is eight tracks long and sits at twenty minutes, differing from their previous albums where tracks averaged about four minutes in length. These shorter tracks have allowed them to showcase their new sound while experiment a little throughout the album.
Two tracks in particular stood out to me on the album, “Everything Comes In Waves” and “Time Bomb (Devil’s Eyes)”. These tracks balance their old sound with the new style great, pleasing long-time fans as well as folks just discovering Busty and the Bass.
“Everything Comes In Waves” features a dreamy synth and catchy chorus that has not failed to get me bopping my head along yet. This song also has a sweet instrumental section where they keys are able to let loose, showing how much talent this group oozes. “Everything Comes In Waves” is one of those tracks that you know would have everyone in the audience jumping along at a live show. It’s fun, sexy, and has a killer percussive section.
Closing track “Time Bomb (Devil’s Eyes) caught my ear from its familiar chorus style. With multiple voice singing the chant-like chorus, it has that Busty and the Bass stamp on it and brings a nostalgic feel to the song. I love when albums end with a nostalgic track – it’s almost a strategic move to have the listener connect the long-lasting feeling of nostalgia with the album.
“Time Bomb (Devil’s Eyes)” also has an instrumental section in the song, this time letting the horns go off. KARNEVAL does not feature the horn players as heavily as some of their other music, so I really enjoyed listening to them get a little crazy during this instrumental.
I am intrigued by Busty and the Bass’ new sound and am eager to see how it changes their live show. Collaborating with an artist for the entirety of the album was something new they tried, and it worked great. Their styles meshed excellently and brought something new and exciting to the table. I was quite impressed with this album throughout my first few listens and am looking forward to adding a few of the tracks to my summer playlists!
- Holly-Anne Gilroy
