As you continue making your way through the chocolate eggs you probably just searched for and found in the hallowed aisles of a Shoppers Drug Mart, we have some more sweet treats that you also don't have to look too hard to find in our post-Easter edition of Exclaim!'s Staff Picks. This week, we have the supergroup giving our current cover stars an ambient run for their money, two Toronto acts to watch, the powerviolence band shaping a better future and more.
As always, stay up to date on more notable new releases in our reviews section.
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily
Love in Exile
(Verve)
With seven tracks stretching out into a luxurious 75 minutes (including a brief reprise), this collaborative trio blend jazz piano and hypnotic Urdu vocals into a spellbinding ambient soundscape. It sounds fresh and adventurous while still being a mellow listen that melts sweetly into the background like the best ambient music should.
Alex Hudson
Tasha Angela
Who I Am
(Public Records)
A debut album tends to be tasked with being both a life story and a thesis statement. On her fittingly titled first LP Who I Am, Toronto-based Exclaim! New Faves alum Tasha Angela effortlessly combines the two and rises to the occasion of showing us who she is. Her primary method is in detailing the ebbs and flows of relationship dynamics, driven by airy atmospheric layers of her gossamer voice and grounding bass grooves that let the topline levitate. Angela makes the muddied process of becoming sound crystal clear.
Megan LaPierre
Cheekface
"Popular 2"
(Independent)
I had the pleasure of watching the live debut of "Popular 2" at Cheekface's Toronto show, making this week's Staff Pick extra special. Maybe I'm just cynical, but it felt like so long since I'd seen a crowd cling to every executed guitar lick, lyric and ad-lib the way they did on April Fool's Day at the Velvet Underground. This didn't wane even in the face of a brand-new track, likely thanks to a roaring chorus and nods to what the L.A. indie rockers do best — toying with a deep irony that hints toward subtle yet radical earnestness.
Sydney Brasil
Allie Kelly
"GUNSHY"
(Living and Loving Pugs)
Allie Kelly's "GUNSHY" is a dropped cake; a fumble at the shooting range. It's the moment when everything should come together easily (finger on the trigger, bullet flying straight for the target), but suddenly it doesn't. A smear of summery guitar pop that shifts gears into a stomping, hair-shaking chorus, "GUNSHY" finds the L.A. songwriter navigating the insidious doubts and painful insecurities that dismantle relationships from the inside. "Gunshy / Like I never could guess / If you'd / Say no or say yes," she sings — and at the very least, she makes indecision sound electrifying.
Kaelen Bell
The Neighbourhood Watch
"Walking on the Water (Midnight Duet)"
(Independent)
Toronto-based indie pop band the Neighbourhood Watch are indeed watching out for the neighbourhood with their latest offering. They originally released the acoustic folk-infused "Walking on the Water" as part of their 2017 debut project Community Protected. On the "Midnight Duet" version, they've enlisted local singer/songwriter Emma Campbell, who goes back and forth effortlessly with frontman Tristan Surman before the pair settle into goosebump-inducing harmonies to fill out the track.
Ben Okazawa
Zulu
A New Tomorrow
(Flatspot)
The future belongs to Zulu. On debut album A New Tomorrow, the Los Angeles-based powerviolence outfit champion Black unity in the present while honouring the togetherness found in the rich Black musical lineage of the past: their forceful hardcore is set alongside samples of Curtis Mayfield's "We the People Who are Darker Than Blue," a cover of Nina Simone's "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," and the all-important reggae airhorn, as well as moments of jazz-funk and rap reprieve. As they assert on "Where I'm From," "We've been here / And we ain't going nowhere."
Calum Slingerland
As always, stay up to date on more notable new releases in our reviews section.
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily
Love in Exile
(Verve)
With seven tracks stretching out into a luxurious 75 minutes (including a brief reprise), this collaborative trio blend jazz piano and hypnotic Urdu vocals into a spellbinding ambient soundscape. It sounds fresh and adventurous while still being a mellow listen that melts sweetly into the background like the best ambient music should.
Alex Hudson
Tasha Angela
Who I Am
(Public Records)
A debut album tends to be tasked with being both a life story and a thesis statement. On her fittingly titled first LP Who I Am, Toronto-based Exclaim! New Faves alum Tasha Angela effortlessly combines the two and rises to the occasion of showing us who she is. Her primary method is in detailing the ebbs and flows of relationship dynamics, driven by airy atmospheric layers of her gossamer voice and grounding bass grooves that let the topline levitate. Angela makes the muddied process of becoming sound crystal clear.
Megan LaPierre
Cheekface
"Popular 2"
(Independent)
I had the pleasure of watching the live debut of "Popular 2" at Cheekface's Toronto show, making this week's Staff Pick extra special. Maybe I'm just cynical, but it felt like so long since I'd seen a crowd cling to every executed guitar lick, lyric and ad-lib the way they did on April Fool's Day at the Velvet Underground. This didn't wane even in the face of a brand-new track, likely thanks to a roaring chorus and nods to what the L.A. indie rockers do best — toying with a deep irony that hints toward subtle yet radical earnestness.
Sydney Brasil
Allie Kelly
"GUNSHY"
(Living and Loving Pugs)
Allie Kelly's "GUNSHY" is a dropped cake; a fumble at the shooting range. It's the moment when everything should come together easily (finger on the trigger, bullet flying straight for the target), but suddenly it doesn't. A smear of summery guitar pop that shifts gears into a stomping, hair-shaking chorus, "GUNSHY" finds the L.A. songwriter navigating the insidious doubts and painful insecurities that dismantle relationships from the inside. "Gunshy / Like I never could guess / If you'd / Say no or say yes," she sings — and at the very least, she makes indecision sound electrifying.
Kaelen Bell
The Neighbourhood Watch
"Walking on the Water (Midnight Duet)"
(Independent)
Toronto-based indie pop band the Neighbourhood Watch are indeed watching out for the neighbourhood with their latest offering. They originally released the acoustic folk-infused "Walking on the Water" as part of their 2017 debut project Community Protected. On the "Midnight Duet" version, they've enlisted local singer/songwriter Emma Campbell, who goes back and forth effortlessly with frontman Tristan Surman before the pair settle into goosebump-inducing harmonies to fill out the track.
Ben Okazawa
Zulu
A New Tomorrow
(Flatspot)
The future belongs to Zulu. On debut album A New Tomorrow, the Los Angeles-based powerviolence outfit champion Black unity in the present while honouring the togetherness found in the rich Black musical lineage of the past: their forceful hardcore is set alongside samples of Curtis Mayfield's "We the People Who are Darker Than Blue," a cover of Nina Simone's "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," and the all-important reggae airhorn, as well as moments of jazz-funk and rap reprieve. As they assert on "Where I'm From," "We've been here / And we ain't going nowhere."
Calum Slingerland
