Zoon - Bekka Ma’iingan
Paper Bag Records
Released April 28th, 2023
Daniel Monkman is no stranger to personal transformation. The Two-Spirit Anishnaabe artist has spent 2023 pushing the boundaries of their public persona, stepping into the bright lights with a press tour that has shown new sides to their previously shrouded presence. Epitomized in a beautiful cover shoot for RANGE magazine, this turn in the spotlight has revealed a new chapter for Monkman’s artistic expression, one that has shedded previous burdens. Monkman has been open in interviews about their fears and dysphoria, their struggles with addiction, and their coming out as Two-Spirit. Monkman’s music, too, has undergone something of a reemergence, an illumination.
Monkman’s debut album under the name Zoon (short for zoongide’ewin) was 2020’s Polaris-nominated Bleached Wavves, a reverb-drenched rock expedition conceived with beat-up equipment in a little rehearsal space in Hamilton, Ontario. This album found Monkman experimenting with massive guitar sounds to glorious effect, and led to the iconic coining of the term moccasin-gaze. Their subsequent collaboration with Adam Sturgeon of Status/Non-Status resulted in the 2022 hard-hitting guitar feast Sewn Back Together, which was a personal favorite of mine from last year. Monkman’s affinity for collaboration led to work with artists like Cadence Weapon and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on the Big Pharma EP and would set the stage for Zoon’s ambitious and luminous sophomore album, Bekka Ma’iingan.
From the opening chimes of the instrumental “All Around You,” the feeling of submersion is complete. Swirling delay-loops swerve into atonality, and hammering drums rise up from the mire and recede again. The songs slide between contrasts: from the driving pulse and distorted guitar layers of “Care” to the dreamy coasting of “Dodem,” taking pleasure in the bitter and sweet. Lee Ranaldo contributes to the fantastically murky earcandy of "Niizh Manidoowig (2 spirit)" and Owen Pallett’s transcendent string arrangements are outstanding, but of far more interest is Monkman’s own expertise on display. Their ear for maximalist compositions gives fuel to the image of someone who happily labors for hours with a guitar, some pedals, and a pair of headphones, and Mark Lawson’s hand at the mixing board brings these finely-wrought textures into high definition.
Bekka Ma’iingan translates from Ojibway to mean 'slow down' and 'wolf,' the latter paying homage to Monkman’s connection to the wolf clan— a connection they share with their late father. This spirit of self-consolation suffuses the music, rendering songs that are not only beautiful, but restorative. To describe the healing power of music can be a hopelessly cliche undertaking, but here that melts away in the face of the white-hot sincerity burning at the heart of Monkman’s music. The songs are hard-won from the crucible of life and are reflected with stirring flows and ripples, shimmers and drones. Monkman’s craft has never been so finely honed, and their mastery of this process of emotional distillation has produced here an album of rare and authentic beauty.
- Harman Burns
