Vancouver indie pop project Rec Centre will release Monster of the Week on November 18, but Exclaim.ca has got you covered with an advance stream of the entire album a week early.
The brainchild of Alex Hudson (full disclosure: yes, Exclaim! contributor Alex Hudson), Rec Centre ditched the guitar focus on the new album, primarily composing the songs on synthesizer and bass. The instrumental change-up seemed natural, given Hudson's gig as a multi-instrumentalist in fellow Vancouver popster Jay Arner's live band.
Arner helped out with recording and performing duties on Monster of the Week, which is categorized in a press release as "hook-filled synth-punk, sparkling dream-pop, crunchy rock and spacious sci-fi."
According to Hudson, the new record draws a wide range of inspiration from "The X-Files, Fringe, his 10-year high school reunion, piano lessons with Chris-a-riffic, Cloud Nothings, Enya, the Pacific Northwest, driving to California in the summer of 2012, outsider art (in theory but not in practice) and punk (in practice but not in theory)."
Opening on "Like I Care," the album's embrace of bass is immediately heard, while tunes like the title track and "Laser Floyd" go all-out '80s with the synths. Traces of more traditional indie rock seamlessly work their way onto the album too, on numbers like "Initials" and "Provincials."
Monster of the Week is a collection of songs that shimmers from the get go and doesn't burn out until the final synthesized note of closer "Vowel Shift." It will be available digitally and on cassette as of November 18, but you can hear it first right here, right now, in the player below.
The brainchild of Alex Hudson (full disclosure: yes, Exclaim! contributor Alex Hudson), Rec Centre ditched the guitar focus on the new album, primarily composing the songs on synthesizer and bass. The instrumental change-up seemed natural, given Hudson's gig as a multi-instrumentalist in fellow Vancouver popster Jay Arner's live band.
Arner helped out with recording and performing duties on Monster of the Week, which is categorized in a press release as "hook-filled synth-punk, sparkling dream-pop, crunchy rock and spacious sci-fi."
According to Hudson, the new record draws a wide range of inspiration from "The X-Files, Fringe, his 10-year high school reunion, piano lessons with Chris-a-riffic, Cloud Nothings, Enya, the Pacific Northwest, driving to California in the summer of 2012, outsider art (in theory but not in practice) and punk (in practice but not in theory)."
Opening on "Like I Care," the album's embrace of bass is immediately heard, while tunes like the title track and "Laser Floyd" go all-out '80s with the synths. Traces of more traditional indie rock seamlessly work their way onto the album too, on numbers like "Initials" and "Provincials."
Monster of the Week is a collection of songs that shimmers from the get go and doesn't burn out until the final synthesized note of closer "Vowel Shift." It will be available digitally and on cassette as of November 18, but you can hear it first right here, right now, in the player below.
