Megamall, Kenton Loewen & JP Carter, and Ryan McCulloch
Megamall
Escape From Lizard City // Fanta Records
Vancouver’s Megamall comes out of the gate with big power pop energy on their debut EP Escape From Lizard City, courtesy of a lineage drawn from a number of beloved Vancouver based indie projects including Non La, Maneater, and Supermoon. Imagine the Mint Records cutecore sound coupled with the aesthetic sensibilities of NYC’s Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and you’ll arrive at a close approximation of what to expect.
I wanna give a special shout out to guitarist Dan On who normally fronts his own excellent project Non La, but here delivers an especially MVP turn, layering lyricist Alie Lynch’s stunning, idiosyncratic vocals with some brilliantly conceived guitar parts, full of atmospheric feedback and delightfully locked-in rhythm work. I’ve always been a fan of his solo project, and it’s cool to hear him flex his considerable skills as an instrumentalist.
EP opener “With Abandon” is the clear golden child of the set, sounding quite literally like Karen O fronting The Strokes, and a dizzying rush of a chorus that’s instantly memorable, the endlessly repeating refrain of “I keep running all night” making it a prime contender for sticking in the Walkman for your evening jog.
The early 2000’s NYC vibe stays strong on the following track “The Bug,” an infectiously catchy and Kafkaesque monologue with the narrator intoning “I’ll be the bug this time, I don’t mind crawling in the dirt.” Following track “Two Faced” is my personal fave of the set, a simmering blast of glorious guitar noise punctuated by breathy exultations that bounce across the stereo channels.
“Want You To Stay” brings in some genuine punk to the mix, with a thin and reedy one-two backbeat and yearning emotive chorus that felt like a collaboration between Cub and Agent Orange, while closing track “First Floor Apartment” may contain the best riff The Strokes never wrote, and yet another mantra-like repeating chorus, this time declaring “I’d do anything for you, I’d do anything for you.”
All in all, there’s a lot to enjoy here, especially for fans of the NYC 2000’s rock explosion, or of lo-fi West coast indie pop groups like Beat Happening. Every song on here is really well constructed and performed, the choruses are instantly catchy and the guitar work is absolute fire. Great little debut from a band that shows a ton of promise.
- Shaun Lee
Kenton Loewen & JP Carter
It Becomes Us // The Infidels A Record Label
First and foremost...there are no wrong notes in Jazz. Yes this is like Fight club, but we can talk about it...it’s Jazz and anything goes. Jazz pushes the boundaries of sound with improvisations takings standard rhythm and building off it a solid foundation but then being able to be free enough as a musician to play free and add flavours of improvisation and being able to work with and work off another musician. Jazz truly is a beautiful thing and I hope you will appreciate this offering from Vancouver’s Kenton Loewen & JP Carter and their new release It Becomes Us.
Kenton Loewen and JP Carter are staples in the Vancouver Free Jazz and Improv scene and are also the founding members of the 8East Collective. They have been playing together for sometime...I actually question whether they played together in other lifetimes as they just mesh that well. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. Or like a perfect pairing of Merlot and charcuterie.
Cover art featuring two astronauts exploring a new frontier while carrying band gear. Exploration not only of new frontiers in space but new frontiers in music.
It Becomes Us allows one to travel through time and space through the sounds of Jazz and is the most prolific Jazz album of 2022 by far! This album was recorded in 2020 at Demitone Studios Engineering and released on June 18th, 2022. Half of the record pays homage of the roots of Jazz with works of Sonny Sharrock, Ornette Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Wayne Shorter, and Jake Byard. Honouring culture and tradition, then blending it with new sounds is what truly makes this album a complete masterpiece.
We Used To Sing (Sharrock) begins with intricate drumming, rim shots then add a horn. The horn cries and wails. This is my favourite on the album for the way that horn really seems to talk. What one may seem as simple is far from. When you can feel the emotion behind the instruments it speaks to your soul. Love the use of dynamics and of sounds.
This record is an example of pushing those boundaries of sounds, tempo, harmonics, and dynamics. Jazz aficionados will fancy this. I envision this song being played live and having the accompaniment of a modern dancer improvising with dance as they play. I’ve seen other artists do this and it brings together the listening with the visual, and heightens the whole experience. I hope they do this one day and with this song...even for a music video...it would be completely captivating!!
Odwalla (Mitchell) Horn rings in brightly. Rattling in the distance. Horn and the rattle combine. It’s like the horn is actually rattling with the rattle. Cue jazz drum rhythms. Musically this songs tells a story at times it’s heart wrenching at times. At times it’s dark and moody. Other times it’s super spicy and zippy. Those are feeling I felt when I listened to this piece. It was moving.
I hope you enjoyed traveling through this new frontier with these geniuses of Jazz. Kenton Loewen & JP Carter gifted us with a truly brilliant offering. It Becomes Us...really is becoming and suits them quite well. I can’t wait to see where this album goes and look forward to their future works! Be good to each other.
Love Always,
Green Noreen
Ryan McCulloch
Lifestyles of the Young and Aimlesss // Self-Released
What goals did you have for yourself before you turned 20 years old? I certainly had aspirations of writing and recording original music, but my aspirations didn’t align with my sticktoitofness. The same cannot be said for Ryan Mcculloch as he has released his sophomore album, Lifestyles of the Young and Aimless. Not only did he release his second album, he also packed it with 17 songs. Impressive? Yes, just a smidge!
Lifestyles of the Young and Aimless is a thematic/concept album in that Ryan was driven to share his perception and observations as to what it is like to be a young person in 2022. I found this concept extremely interesting as it forced me to really envision how I would be handling and coping with all the shifts, uncertainties and confusion that has taken place over the past three years. Ryan’s song, “21” encapsulates his examination of what it is to be 21 years old. Here is the catch that seized my interest. Ryan may possess the mind of a 21 year old, however; his soul is at least 50 years his senior. And it was for this very reason, I wanted to review Ryan’s original works!
As I started to dig in to find out who Ryan Mcculloch was, I discovered the origin of his “old sound”. At the age of 10, it struck him as the radio in his fathers truck filled the cab with the sounds of the Rolling Stones - “Ruby Tuesday” to be exact. This spark led him to consuming as much music as he could handle.
There is one last significant piece of information I want you to grasp. Remember how I said Ryan was 20 years old and was driven? Well, for Lifestyles of the Young and Aimless, he wrote, recorded, produced and played every instrument! The significance of this massive undertaking has to be applauded and appreciated.
I leave you with this line: “Everybody’s lost inside a grocery store. The price is always higher than the time before. And now it doesn’t seem like that much fun to be 21.”
Lodge Ryan Mcculloch’s name somewhere in your mind, as I believe this is just his beginning!
‘Headphones. That’s the only way to listen to music. It’s all kinds of different emotions because you get real quiet and comfortable and just listen to it.” ~ Gregg Allamn
- Branton Langley
