Crown Lands - Lady Of The Lake

“It’s the classic story,” says Kevin Comeau of the band Crown Lands. “Most musicians and artists are usually the weird kids that don’t necessarily fit in. I was a big overachiever and worked really hard in school, but it wasn’t like I was interested in anything other than music.” As the only Jewish student at his Oshawa high school, Comeau found refuge in rock and roll and a kindred spirit in Cody Bowles, a Two-Spirit Mi’kmaw from the neighbouring community of Bowmanville. “I was the only kid in my school who listened to the kind of music that I did,” Bowles says, listing off a series of prog-rockers: Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and especially hometown heroes, Rush, whom both musicians idolize. “I grew up with a lot of racism, and it was a hard time,” Bowles adds. “We were like misfit kids,  and it was kind of fated for us to find each other.”
The pair met in university in 2015: Comeau studied classical music at Western University, while Bowles studied psychology and music at York University. The duo’s origin story reads like a real-life retelling of “Subdivisions,” the 1982 Rush song about alienated suburban teenagers. Comeau echoes that song’s lyric about learning to “conform or be cast out.” “We learned not to bring it up with certain people,” he says, referring to the intolerance the duo endured. “We knew if you meet someone and you hear them say a couple of weird things, you say ‘Great’ and just walk away.”
I spoke with Comeau and Bowles via Zoom from their homes in Toronto, just after they finished recording Crown Lands’ new live album, Odyssey Vol. 1, and just before the band headed out on an eastern Canadian tour. Growing up, Comeau and Bowles were careful to mask their identities despite being able to blend in. But now, the two friends are using their musical platform to stand up, stand out, and shine a light on the plight of Indigenous people.
“Being a band called ‘Crown Lands,’ we have to talk about what’s actually going on and the fact that Crown land is stolen land,” says Comeau. “We have to talk about colonization, the ramifications that are still being felt every single day, and the fact that it’s not ancient history.” “It’s ongoing and something we wanted to bring attention to, being in Canada and being a Canadian band,” Bowles adds. The duo didn’t start with a provocative name. “We were brainstorming all these terrible band name ideas,” Bowles says. “The Kevin and Cody Cool Guy Fun Time Hour,” Comeau jokes. When a friend suggested Crown Lands, the pair took a deep dive into Canada’s colonial past and present before deciding to take a stand. However, Bowles was initially uncomfortable with the idea of writing about issues that hit so close to home; they needed some convincing. Comeau recognized that taking on Indigenous themes struck at the core of his bandmate’s identity and didn’t press. But the pair had some frank discussions, and Bowles came around: “Given our platform and being able to talk about things, I felt a sense of honouring my path as a creative musician,” they say.
The pair have written  a trilogy of songs, “Mountain,” “End of the Road” and “White Buffalo,” that focus on the past, present and future of Indigenous people in Canada. Spanning four years, two EPs and a full-length album, the songs also track the band’s evolution from a punk-blues outfit reminiscent of The White Stripes to prog rockers who can compete with the likes of Primus, Tool and spiritual forebears Rush. Set against the backdrop of Comeau’s snarling slide guitar, “Mountain” recounts the arrival of European colonizers and the beginning of Indigenous resistance. “End of the Road” has Bowles singing about the plight of murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people in a voice that recalls Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant (another major influence) and chords that echo Canadian new wave sensation Platinum Blonde. With its anthemic chorus, “White Buffalo,” the title track of the band’s most recent EP, uses the image of the creature as a call to reclaim ceded land, stand against the darkness and build a bright future: “Like a White Buffalo / Standing strong in the fading light / From deep in the shadows / Our spirits rise.”
The stark simplicity of these uplifting lyrics, combined with Bowles’ propulsive drumming and Comeau’s echo-soaked guitar solo—a tribute to Rush’s Alex Lifeson—showcase the band’s songwriting and performance skills. “White Buffalo” is a stadium-ready pop-prog gem that blends irresistible hooks, a powerful message and complex rhythmic and musical changes in a sub-four-minute song. “When we played a song like ‘Mountain’ about the horrors of colonization, Cody did a quick spoken word about missing and murdered Indigenous women, children and Two-Spirit people. Back in the days we were on tour, Indigenous women came up to us at the merch table and said, ‘Thank you for representing us,’” Comeau says. “That’s really fucking special, and that was when we realized we were absolutely doing the right thing.”
Taking a stand on Indigenous issues was a major step for the band in forging its unique identity. But expanding Crown Lands’ musical horizons was another way forward for Bowles and Comeau, one that meant embracing their prog-rock ambitions. “Kevin and I always loved prog,” says Bowles. “When we got together, we decided against going right there because it was so easy to do. But it was for a pragmatic reason, too. We thought that it would be better off to start with something easier to digest, easier to chew on.” “It’s easier to write three-minute songs,” agrees Comeau, but the band had a change of heart. “After our first record,” continues Bowles. “I was feeling more pulled to something more progressive, and we both felt that collectively. We were, like, fuck it! We’re just going to do this. We’re going to come together and really lean into what we were feeling this whole time.”
Embracing their roots and following in their heroes’ footsteps brought Comeau and Bowles into the orbit of three veteran producers who had worked with Rush. The duo recorded a demo of “Context: Fearless Pt. 1” in Toronto with Terry Brown, who helmed the first 10 Rush albums. In January 2020, they were headed to Nashville to cut a new version with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who had worked on the last two Rush albums, when they heard that Rush drummer Neil Peart had died. Devastated, Comeau and Bowles pondered cancelling the session, but the veteran producer urged them to carry the torch. When they started recording, he surprised them with Peart’s drum kit from Rush’s 2007-2008 Snakes & Arrows tour. It marked the beginning of a new chapter of Crown Lands’ existence and a return to their musical roots. “We went down there, and it was kind of like a rebirth of who we are musically. It was a high watermark for turning a new page and playing Neil’s kit was transcendent,” Bowles recalls. “It was like a return home because this was the music that Cody and I bonded over, and we were finally making music that sounded like the music we worshipped,” Comeau says. “With the people who actually made it,” interrupts Bowles. “It was absolutely surreal.” The band also penned “Right Way Back,” a lyrical tribute to Peart, during their time in Tennessee.
But the duo couldn’t return to Nashville to complete the recording session due to the pandemic, leading Crown Lands to work with a third Rush collaborator, David Bottrill, who had remixed Rush’s 17th album, Vapour Trails. Bottrill recorded the vocals for Bowles on the April 2021 single “Context: Fearless Pt. 1” and produced the band’s September EP, White Buffalo, which includes “The Oracle,” a 13-minute sequel of sorts to that earlier track. Crown Lands’ new live album, Odyssey Vo1. 1, was recorded at History, a new concert venue in Toronto’s East End, but without an audience. The show was captured on video, streamed on the Louder Sound network of websites (Prog, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, and One Louder), and is currently available on the band’s YouTube page. The album itself will be released on Dec. 2 digitally and as a deluxe vinyl package. Inspired by the soundstage live performances of classic rock bands of the 1970s, Odyssey Vol. 1 captures the raw power of the Crown Lands concert experience. On stage, Comeau and Bowles reproduce their studio compositions without the benefit of sequencers and backing tracks. One can only marvel at two musicians producing so much sound.
In concert, the bearded Comeau stalks the stage, switching between acoustic and electric guitars, slinging a Rickenbacker double neck bass/guitar combo, kicking at Moog Taurus synthesizer pedals and even playing keys. The angelic Bowles seamlessly blends multi-octave vocals with frenetic polyrhythmic drumming and percussion, and has recently added traditional flutes and mandolin to their musical repertoire. Together, the pair is visually and aurally mesmerizing. Despite Comeau’s claims that they are rougher around the edges than their prog-rock progenitors, Crown Lands’ musicianship puts them on similar footing with their heroes. “We grew up loving prog bands from right before music videos blew up on MTV,” Comeau says. “You can find all these great live performances of bands on soundstages. Instead of miming to music, they were going in to play what they’d just finished in the studio. And a great example of that is the “Villa Strangiato” official music video [by Rush]. But it’s not the studio track. It’s one of my favourite live versions of the song. We kind of wanted to capture a bit of that as well. And obviously, you know, you can tell if a band is any good by going to watch their live stuff.”
As performers and individuals, Comeau and Bowles effortlessly blur the gender binary. Comeau, who describes both of them as feminine, bristles at traditional notions of masculinity. “There’s this weird expectation to play up to the rules that you were born into, and I think it’s kind of strange.” Adopting a cartoonish Tarzan voice, he adds: “You don’t have to subscribe to the societal notion, ‘Me man. Me must carry girl.’” “There’s no rulebook,” Bowles concludes. “It’s funny that people buy into it like it’s the law. But it’s fairly new in the timescale of the Americas that this rigid dichotomy between male and female has been in force. “Gender is ancient and fluid and unrestricted,” Bowles says “It’s only these things that we put upon ourselves and these limitations that we force upon ourselves that really confine our spirit. The more we let go and detach from this thought of what should be and the perception you were born like this, therefore you must be like this… if we can detach ourselves from thoughts like that, I feel like the world will be better, and people’s mental health will be way better than it is currently. “Everyone’s different in different ways, and there’s different modalities of being. I feel like there’s a real shift in young people’s awareness of this. I feel like in the future, it’s going to be brighter, more colourful, and people are going to be more themselves than ever.”  From: https://xtramagazine.com/culture/music/crown-lands-prog-rock-comeau-bowles-213645

Pretenders - Birds of Paradise

Ah, the sophomore slump, which can happen when an artist who spent their whole life writing their first album has only a few months to write the next. Invariably, the record they rush to release pales in comparison to the debut that made them famous. This second album, often written on a tour bus instead of a bedsit (and sounding like it), habitually falls short. After that—and if they’re lucky—the artist will get a chance to rebound with the third LP, and the sophomore effort will subsequently be relegated to the cut-out bins.
The Pretenders avoided the sophomore curse with Pretenders II (which is aptly named since it is nearly a song-for-song copy of their eponymous introductory collection). Still, the album is full of energy and verve. It features the band’s signature blend of rock swagger and pop tenderness and contains one of the finest pieces frontwoman Chrissie Hynde ever wrote. It stands amongst the band’s best LPs, but it has the sad distinction of being the last recording made by the original lineup before the untimely deaths of lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon in 1982 and 1983, respectively.
Before that — in 1981 — the Pretenders were flying high from their debut’s success and were playing ever-larger venues on tour. Their manager, Dave Hill, was eager to strike while the iron was hot and release a follow-up. As Chrissie Hynde writes in her 2015 memoir, Reckless: “Dave Hill was panicking, desperate to get a second record out, but I didn’t have the songs written yet. I hadn’t had the time. I thought writing on the road would have happened, but it never does.”
They had found time to record a few tracks, including “Message of Love” and “Talk of the Town”, at Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris. These tunes (plus two new ones and a live recording of “Precious”) were released as the aptly named Extended Play stopgap EP in March 1981. Hynde felt their management had “jumped the gun” by releasing the new material. She explains, “We released it in the US and called it Extended Play to let the Yanks know that it wasn’t an album, but it was a mistake: they thought we’d gone soft in the head by releasing our much-anticipated second album, Extended Play, with only a handful of songs on it.” In the UK, the four new tracks were released as singles (“Message of Love” and “Talk of the Town” were backed by “Porcelain” and “Cuban Slide”, respectively). So, by the time Pretenders II came out five months later, two of its best songs were already known to the band’s devotees. And those weren’t the only songs that had a ring of familiarity.
“Birds of Paradise” and “Talk of the Town” are the highlights of Pretenders II, as they prove that for all her hard rock posturing, Chrissie Hynde can write the hell out of a ballad. Specifically, the former is a meditation on innocence lost and the road not taken (as seen from the vantage point of someone who’s vaulted to stardom, became prey to the vagaries of fame, and wished for a simpler time, all the while knowing there is no way back). Written in epistolary form to a long-lost friend, the song is full of melancholic regret at the chasm separating the two. I still get chills at the drum break that precedes its turning point: “One time, when we took off our clothes / But you were cryin’” and then again as Pete Farndon’s countermelody underscores Hynde’s plaintive lyrics: “Please don’t forget / Do forgive me”.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/pretenders-ii-atr-40

The Shazam - Time 4 Pie

The Shazam are a criminally under-recognized power pop band hailing from the unlikely home of Nashville, Tennessee. They released four LPs between 1997 and 2009, as well as a few EPs and contributions to myriad tribute albums. Firmly on the ‘power’ side of the power pop genre, the Shazam’s sound is an amalgam of Cheap Trick, Material Issue, the heavier tracks on the first Big Star record, and the Who, infused by a healthy dose of ˈ70s glam from the T. Rex or Sweet playbook. At their best, the band and its frontman Hans Rotenberry manage a ridiculous number of earworm hooks, particularly on their essential second album.
The band’s self-titled 1997 debut is surprisingly self-assured, alternating between boisterous rockers that seem to make a bid for arena performances and more restrained, jangly, mid-tempo pop. Not everything hits, but the ratio of sing-along (or belt-along) choruses to less memorable tracks is pretty high for a power-pop long-player. Oh No in particular makes for a compelling band introduction, an energetic anthem that quickly establishes Rotenberry’s gift for radio-ready hooks, while showing off the joyously Keith-Moon-influenced drumming of Scott Ballew (who sadly passed away a few years back). Engine Red is more straightforward pop, a clever indictment of the party-crashing drunk that shows the band to be more lyrically amusing than most of their peers. Other winners like the gentler Megaphone, the anthemic Hooray For Me, and the glammed-up Florida, highlight the band’s stylistic range.
They took a huge leap forward on 1999’s Godspeed The Shazam, arguably one of the finest, most consistent power pop albums ever recorded, nearly every song offering at least one killer hook (if not more) that will be stuck in your head for days. It’s almost impossible to choose a few favorites for a Top 10, but the most obvious pick is Sunshine Tonight, a gleeful bit of Sweet-like high-energy bubblegum, easing from the slow burn of its verse to its chorus exhortation, “Everybody’s falling on their asses, come along ‘cuz it’s a gas gas gas!” Chipper Cherry Daylily offers a similar blast of light-hearted silliness tethered to giddy bubblegum, while the goofy City Smasher veers into a bass-driven faux metal groove with a sly insertion of a Surf City shout-out, over-the-top ridiculousness that demands wall-shaking volume. But the lighter, hook-crazy Calling Sydney and infectious lighter-hoisting power ballad The Stranded Stars, not to mention the whimsical post-election Super Tuesday – another spotlight for Rotenberry’s lyrical twists – are no less compelling.
The 2000 EP REV9 was a bit of a stop-gap pending their next album, a grab-bag of relative oddities. Lead-off track On The Airwaves is heavy-duty glam-pop that would have worked fine on Godspeed, with its blend of spooky theremin and a nicked Rush riff; and Month O’ Moons is cowbell-driven fun. But there are also some quiet ballads and stranger, more experimental tracks, most notably the studio goof Revolution 9, which updates the Beatles’ original with a rocking outro.
They returned in 2003 with Tomorrow The World, shaking off some of the daftness of the EP for a worthy (if less consistent) successor to Godspeed. Tomorrow’s peaks replicate the amped-up pop glory of its predecessor. Gettin’ Higher, like Sunshine Tonight before it, sounds like perfect fodder for Top 40 radio in an alternative universe where riveting guitar rock still has a place on the AM dial (plus, more cowbell!). We Think Yer Dead is rollicking fun, reprising the goofiness of City Smasher, while Nine Times stands firmly in comfortable power pop territory. Goodbye American Man (borrowing a riff from Big Star’s Don’t Lie To Me) and New Thing Baby sound like great lost 70s FM dial hits, all power chords and thunderous rhythm section.
The band took a few years off after that, returning in 2009 for the somewhat lackluster Meteor. Rotenberry comes up a bit short in the hooks department, resulting in a few tracks that feel more like underwhelming hard rock than the effervescent power pop of past work. Still, the album offers a few solid tracks. Hey Mom I Got The Bomb is silly fist-pumping fun, as is lead-off track So Awesome and NFU (as in, “not f*cked up enough”).
Sadly, Meteor was to wind up the band’s final proper album. However, it received a surprising coda with 2010’s Mountain Jack, which paired Rotenberry with the Shazam’s longtime producer Brad Jones (a power pop legend in his own right, with a lengthy resume as an artist and production whiz). It’s much more laid back than the heavy Meteor, peppered with acoustic guitars, and the hooks are more abundant. While the duo share vocal duties, it sounds like a stripped-down Shazam record, songs like Froggy Mountain Shakedown in particular worthy of inclusion in the Shazam discography.
Over the years, scattered among various tribute albums and online releases, the band also put together a nice assortment of covers worth tracking down, ranging from the Who’s I Can See For Miles to Shoes’ Hangin’ Around With You to Teenage Fanclub’s The Concept, all faithful to the originals with jolts of added energy. Word was that the band regrouped later in the decade for a new album, but Ballew’s passing in 2019 seems to have put the kibosh on further work, though one song from the sessions, the moody It’s Doomsday, Honey, streams on Spotify.  From: https://www.toppermost.co.uk/the-shazam/

Niyaz - Minara

Singer Azam Ali was born in Iran, raised in India, and now lives with her Iranian husband, Loga Ramin Torkian, in Los Angeles. Their journey across oceans can be heard in their music. With producer Carmen Rizzo, they created a group called Niyaz, which means "yearning" in both Farsi, the language of Iran, and Urdu, the main language in Pakistan. Niyaz released it second album, "Nine Heavens," this year. It begins with a piece called "Beni Beni," which combines a mystical 18th-century Sufi poem with a traditional Turkish folk song and electronic music.

LIANE HANSEN: Azam and Loga are in our studios at NPR West. Thanks so much for coming to the program. Welcome.

Ms. AZAM ALI (Singer, Niyaz): Thank you so much for having us. It really is an honor to be here.

Mr. LOGA RAMIN TORKIAN (Singer, Niyaz): Yes, thank you so much for having us.

HANSEN: This is an interesting blend of modern electronica with a traditional folk song and sufi mysticism. Remind us briefly what Sufi mysticism is.

Mr. TORKIAN: Sufi mysticism came from Islamic tradition. It essentially developed in Iraq, about something around like 11th century.

Ms. ALI: If I may just add to that, one of the elements that's very appealing to us about Sufi poetry is that it does transcend cultural and religious specificity, because it really is more about the struggles of the human soul, the struggles of the human experience and something that we all share. It really is a universal struggle.

HANSEN: What does "Beni Beni" mean?

Ms. ALI: It means, to me, to me.  "Beni Beni" is really about man struggling with his soul, and he's asking God, well, you put me in this world with all its beauty and yet all I want is to find my way back to you. So you have put me here, and you have not shown me how - how I can find this way back to you. So just please show me, give me some sign, show me how I can find my way back to you.

Mr. TORKIAN: And if I may add, you know, even today, in a lot of Sufi gatherings is always complemented by rhythm and dance. And in fact, the most revered Sufi poet, Rumi, composed his poetries most of the time to the rhythm of what was being played in the gathering along - when the dancers were dancing.

HANSEN: Loga, let me ask you, because the instrumentation on this album is really impressive. Some of the instruments, what are we hearing?

Mr. TORKIAN: For example, I used saws. Saws is a Turkish instrument. I used the lafta, which is also a Turkish instrument. Then from Iran I used the sitar, and also I have created a new instrument called kamman, which is - comes from the family of spike fiddles, and a lot of the bold or the legato sounds were created by that instrument. And then, you know, we've had Indian instruments, the bansuri, which is a flute instrument, tabla, which is a percussive instrument.

HANSEN: Azam, I understand you trained with a Persian master and you're an accomplished hammered-dulcimer player.

Ms. ALI: Yes. Thank you.

HANSEN: Well, this is an instrument that many know because of its use in American folk music. You know, it's essentially a stringed instrument, and you play it almost like a Marimba with four small covered sticks. Is there a difference in the playing or the instrument itself when you play this music on the hammered-dulcimer?

Ms. ALI: Well, the technique is very different, and you know, almost every part of the world has a different variation of this instrument. The Persian style of playing is very much - you know, we mute the mallet, which, you know, trying to get the sound more softer and almost - if you open a piano, it looks identical, you know, it has the muted mallets. So in Persian classical music they try to make it sound more like a piano, but I prefer the bit more folky, sort of rough sound, so I just play it with the stick side.
 
HANSEN: Let me read the English lyrics, too. Faraghi, the separation has caused me immense sorrow. Destiny has me chained to this state. O beloved, release me from these chains for I am bound with the dust in this estranged land. What is it you seek from me that you cast your chains upon a free man?

Ms. ALI: It's very, very easy talking about a physical exile of being far from your homeland, or is it just the exile of a soul being separated from its creator?

HANSEN: Both of you are Iranian and you now live in the United States. Azam, you were raised in India. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself because on the cover of the album it looks like Los Angeles meets New Delhi meets Iran.

Ms. ALI: Yeah, well, you know, my mother sent me to India when I was four years old to study in an English boarding school, and then the Revolution happened, I was pretty much stuck in India. My mother was in Iran, and I didn't see her for a good six years. And then my mother escaped after, you know, during the Revolution, and she came to India. She lived there for two years. And when I was 15 years old, we came to the U.S. under political asylum because my mother didn't want to go back to Iran.  So, you know, I've been here since 1985, you know, just trying to do the best that I can. It's been very challenging. I came during a difficult time, you know, soon after I was here, you know, Desert Storm. I mean, since I can remember, always, there is so much negative media around Iran and especially nowadays. It's virtually impossible to turn on the news and not hear something negative about Iran. And it's really a struggle for, I would say, every Iranian. You know, in many ways my life's work has become about this. You know, create something that hopefully transcends religion and culture and show people that, you know, at the core, we are all the same.
I tried so hard to just be American and just sort of almost reject my heritage. And it got to a point where I realized, you know, I'm never going to be 100 percent American. I'm never going to 100 percent fit in. So then I began to process within myself of sort of going back and learning about my own culture, embracing my culture. And once I did that, you know, I began to feel much more, sort of, whole. This music is an honest, honest manifestation of who we are as Iranian immigrants.

HANSEN: Azam Ali and her husband Loga Ramin Torkian are members of the ensemble, Niyaz. Their recording, "Nine Heavens," is available on Six Degrees Records. They spoke to us from our studio at NPR West. Thank you so much.

Ms. ALI: Thank you very much for having us.

Mr. TORKIAN: Yes, it's our honor to be here.

From: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/95607779

Daisy House - Leaving The Star Girl

Just stepped out the Tardis, back from a quick trip to San Francisco circa 1967 and I could swear I heard Daisy House blasting out of some greasy spoon on the Castro. They’re that authentic. Welcome to Daisy House. If you love Joni Mitchell, the Mamas and Papas, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, then you are going to want to stay awhile. I went to their bandcamp site to download just a few choice cuts but ended up buying it all – they’re that good. It’s not just that they emote a particularly addictive blend of 1960s folk rock and killer harmony vocals; the songwriting is also first class. Daisy House are a father and daughter duo, Doug and Tatiana Hammond, with dad writing and playing on nearly all the songs while both provide vocals. Over four albums, they have developed their clear influences into an impressive body of work.
The debut is simply 2013’s Daisy House. The basic formula is here: twelve string acoustic and electric guitars, a celtic twist in the songwriting, with vocals reminiscent of Joni Mitchell (on “Ready to Go” and “Cold Ships”), the Mamas and Papas (on “Two Sisters”), and Richard and Linda Thompson (on “The Bottle’s Red”). The Byrdsian influence is particularly strong with dad’s vocal on “Statue Maker.” 2014’s Beaus and Arrows reproduces the ambience of the debut, with a few new surprises, like a very early solo Paul Simon atmosphere on the Salinger-inspired “Raise the Roof Beam Carpenter.” I agree with Don over at I Don’t Hear a Single, the first two albums draw heavily on 1960s British and American folk idioms.
Things break out in new directions with 2016’s Western Man. There is an eerie mystery to the musical ambiance of the opening track, “Lilac Man,” that signals a significant stylistic shift. “Yellow Moon Road” expands the duo’s palette to include more 1960s garage rock sounds, particularly some cool organ. And the songs are amazing. “Like a Superman” has a clear Mamas and Papas stamp, “She Comes Running to Me” is lathered with great harmonies, while “Twenty One” opens with a deliberate homage to “When You Walk in the Room” before branching into its own original sound. But the album’s highlight is undoubtedly the hit single-worthy “The Boulevard.” You can just hear Mama Cass belting it out while the Wrecking Crew provides the crisp, swinging backdrop – except that it is not those amazing performers, it is these amazing performers: Daisy House.
This year’s Crossroads is another breakthrough for the duo, putting their sound more solidly on the rock side of folk rock. On “Languages” Tatiana sounds like a young Chrissie Hynde. This is the hit single, but there are many more highlights. The title track, “Crossroads,” has some Tom Petty Wildflowers-era bite while “Leaving the Star Girl” ramps up the Byrds influences. Dad is featured vocally on the evocative Paul Simon-esque, acoustic-based “Pristy Lee” and the more Byrdsian “The Girl Who Holds My Hand,” both strong songs and performances. But the highlights for me, beyond the obvious single (“Languages”), are two Tatiana vocals, the Kate Bush-like atmosphere on the beautiful and haunting vocal of “Albion” as well as the more Chrissie Hynde delivery of “Night of the Hunter.” Daisy House are a fully formed artistic wonder, inspired by the electric folk music and harmonies of the 1960s but entirely their own thing in terms of original material and performance. Visit them online, buy their music, see them live, now.  From: https://poprockrecord.com/2017/06/28/welcome-to-daisy-house/

Children of the Sün - Sunchild

I am not a child of the 60's or 70's. I am, however, a child of a child of the 60's and 70's, and that has made all the difference in my current state of musical appreciation. Not to say the hippie aesthetic is my thing--far from it--but folk and proto-rock planted a certain something, and every once in a while, it's fun to revisit. Enter Flowers, the forthcoming debut LP from Sweden's Children of the Sun.
Sonically and thematically, Children of the Sun's brand seems, at first blush, easy to place. Vocal harmonies? Check. Liberal application of hammond-esque keys? Check. Pitter-pat percussion? Check. Airy acoustics? Check. Back-to-the-earth sentimentalism? Double check. Take your favorite carefree folk rock--Traffic or perhaps Blind Faith as several examples among many--and mix, sparingly, with the modern edge and vocal prowess of MaidaVale or Halos and Hurricanes-era Avatarium. The latter may be a stretch, but Josefina Berglund Ekholm and Jennie-Ann Smith certainly share similarities in syrupy-yet-grounded delivery.
Why “first blush,” however? As it turns out, the acoustic intro and the hooky highlight “Her Game” are but a fraction of the unique genre stew offered across the breadth of the Flowerpatch. Take “Hard Working Man” as a prime example, which feels more out of the Dixie Chick's country-pop playbook than anything (and this, I hasten to add, is far from an insult.) And then we've got the intriguing “Like the Sound,” which sounds like Church of the Cosmic Skull with a dangerous case of confident vocal gravitas. The swell and fall of Josefina's croon on this track is haunting--dare I say goosebump inducing--and cements it as the album's standout track. This presents a thin margin, however, as the choral “Emmy” as well as the aforementioned “Hard Working Man” and “Her Game” are absolutely brilliant tracks as well. Like the best of their feather-in-the-hair influences, these tracks have meaty hooks, standing on the merit of massive songwriting chops, rather than an established ambiance.
Critically, there are two aspects that stand out after repeat listens. Firstly, the variety, while an obvious strong suit, means that some distinct instrumentation is employed once, and thus feels more like an outlet than a piece of the album's fabric. I'd love, for example, to hear more of that twangy guitar, for example, but the other tracks are so unique in their identity that there really is no room. Eclecticism is a strength, but it's a fine line between “establishing individuality” and “sabotaging the bond that holds the album together.” That said, am easy solution next time around is simply throwing in a few more tracks--at 35-ish minutes, there's room to play.
I've gone back and forth on my justification of Flowers’ inclusion in the Village annals...because it obviously made the cut, albeit not on the merits of an intrinsically heavy nature. Rather, Children of the Sun appears herein because the traditional from which they are born informs, on many levels, what we listen to on a regular basis. And that's not to mention the sheer strength of the songwriting and their technical chops, which certainly deserve recognition. If you typically dwell under the umbrella of the heavy, aggressive, and loud, this album may not be your cup of tea--and I get it. But if you don't mind taking basking in a grassy meadow from time to time, give Children of the Sun a well-deserved chance. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.  From: https://www.sleepingvillagereviews.com/olde-reviews/children-of-the-sun-flowers

Antiprisma - Um Minuto Desse Ano

Antiprisma is a band that has been standing out on the Brazilian indie scene for a few years now. The striking folk sound of the duo formed by Victor José and Elisa Moreira has been gaining ground since the band's first self-titled EP, released in 2014. After that, the first full album, Planos Para Esta Encarnação, already showed the greater possibilities that the two were able to create based on their vocal melodies, their guitars and Victor's interventions on the caipira viola, played in a very unique and interesting way.  For 2019, the band decided to shake up its sonic possibilities and brought four singles throughout the year which, last Friday, joined together with six other songs to form Hemisférios, Antiprisma's second album. Guitars, bass and drums accompany Victor and Elisa through tracks that, even though they bring a new approach to the band's proposal, still show their essence and identity. To better understand the paths that led Antiprisma to reach Hemisférios, we chatted with the band via email, and you can check out this conversation here:

TMDQA: Firstly, I would like to know about the launch process for Hemispheres. Before the full album even came out, you already released four singles that would become part of it, why did you decide to show so much about what this new work would be about in advance?

Victor: Firstly because it had been a while since we released music. Furthermore, we noticed this tendency to emphasize more on working single by single, so we wanted to try this idea, as some tracks were ready a little earlier. There's also a bit of a curiosity factor, right... we wanted to know at least how these new songs might sound from other people's perspectives. We spent so much time on the project that releasing these songs earlier was a bit of a relief, you know? As we were already thinking about releasing 11 or 12 tracks, we thought it would be reasonable to release four songs in advance, because when the full album was released there would still be a lot of material to listen to.

Elisa: I think the singles are tracks that exemplify the new paths we followed on the album, and the most current look of Antiprisma. The launches served to keep the "wheels spinning" (laughs). I think we managed to release new things and still bring other new sounds to the album. Furthermore, in fact the tracks that were released as singles are part of a whole, and may even gain a different perception within the context of the album.

TMDQA: Still about these singles: "Fogo Mais Fogo", "Só Causa Você Não Se Encontrou", "Caos" and "Planície Sem Nome". Why were these the tracks chosen to preview the album? And how do you believe they were able to translate the idea of ​​Hemispheres  to those who were waiting for it?

Victor: For me, there are other tracks on the album that could have come out as singles before, but these four tracks in a way sum up what's recorded there. I think I see in them the paths we ended up taking. It has a bit of calm and harmony as well as a more aggressive and incisive streak.

Elisa: We chose "Just Because You Didn't Meet" because we noticed a good reception when we played it in shows, still as a duo. We noticed that people paid attention to the song itself and the lyrics, which have a strong message. "Planície Sem Nome" we noticed right away that it would have potential as a single, as it has a more pop melody. "Caos" would bring folk and acoustic, which are important elements of our identity, but with a darker approach, a different mood than what we had presented before. And we decided to open everything with "Fogo Mais Fogo", which immediately brought a vibe that would break with the expectation of an acoustic, calm Antiprisma release... this track is very strong and features Gabi (Gabriela Deptulski, from My Magical Glowing Lens ) took a more psychedelic approach. We think it's a good milestone to start our new phase.
 
TMDQA: Now about the album as a whole. Anyone who follows Antiprisma already knew that the band was accompanied by more musicians in their performances, and you could already imagine that this would also be seen in the final result of Hemisférios. How did this accession of new members happen and how did it impact the new work?

Victor: We simply realized one day that maybe it was time to try playing with a full band, with a conventional lineup. You see, although from the beginning we followed this acoustic vibe, based more on vocal harmonies, it was never our intention to continue like this forever. We kind of knew that this aspect would always be present in anything we did, but we also knew that at some point this moment would come to play with a band. Sometimes we need to play a guitar, and a kitchen with bass and drums opens up another world for us to explore. It has been very good and very interesting to maintain both formats, duo and quartet, the music benefits a lot from this.

Elisa: When we started recording this album, we already had the idea of ​​playing live with a full band, but we hadn't yet finalized a lineup. So, on the album we recorded ourselves, and invited our friend Marlon Marinho to do the drums. Our idea live is not to literally reproduce what is on the record - although it doesn't deviate much from what is there -, but to transmit our "vibe", which is on the record, in a less introspective way than as a duo.

TMDQA: Something very curious about this new album is the presence of more intensely instrumental tracks, with some even entirely without vocals. What was it like composing these songs and how did the decision to include them in Hemisférios come about?

Elisa: All of our strongest references have important instrumental moments, so for us it was a natural decision.

Victor: Recording instrumental things has always been a great desire. For Hemisférios we separated two tracks like this, "Lunação" and "Cenário" . The first is a composition that came from Elisa, we broke down the whole thing and in the end it had this post punk feel. We even embraced the idea of ​​using a Cocteau Twins sample to make the beat. This was one of the ones I most enjoyed doing. "Cenário" came from a riff I made on the viola and that ended up taking on an interesting look; I think it turned into an emotional sound, and it was a great addition to the album's tracklist. Despite paying a lot of attention to the lyrics, in general the instrumental on this album was very rich. It has many moods in it.

TMDQA: And finally, how is the band feeling about leaving their comfort zone, experimenting with other sounds and now playing with electric instruments and other members in their performances? Tell us about this experience that the new album is providing for you.

Elisa: We felt this desire to try a full band, but we ourselves didn't really know how we would sound... One concern we had was to arrive at a sound that didn't "swallow" the personality of either of us, that maintained the balance that we always strive for - we are a girl and a guy playing and composing, side by side, in equality. And that for us reflects in our sound. One of the fears about playing with a band was that it could "unbalance" the sound, for example leaning too much towards Victor's references, sounding more masculine, or towards mine. Look at the girls (laughs) We did some shows with different lineups until life made us bump into Ana and Rafa, who are currently doing our "kitchen" live. Together with them, we are increasingly polished in our band version, discovering and creating our electric face for live shows

Victor: This entire period of composition, recording and rehearsals has been Antiprisma's most intense. Honestly, it's a great relief to be able to create in other ways, express yourself in other ways. We feel very comfortable at Antiprisma, and I think that although we have changed a lot in some aspects, our style is definitely there. And even though it's different, there's a good part of the album that has the feel of the EP or Planos Para Esta Encarnação. I think this new job has given us even more of an ability to see other things about ourselves from a different perspective, and it's really crazy that playing live with this electric approach makes it feel like a "fresh start" for us.

From: https://www-tenhomaisdiscosqueamigos-com.translate.goog/2019/09/03/antiprisma-entrevista-hemisferios/?_x_tr_sl=pt&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc