PONDERCAST EPISODE 49: THE RHEOSTATICS

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After a 15 year hiatus, The Rheostatics have a new album, Here Come the Wolves. Produced by Chris Stringer, it’s a beauty. It has everything we’ve come to expect from a Rheos record; bite and humour, and soaring, expansive musical vistas. Their sound has been described as “orchestral psychedelia”, which makes sense to me.

On Pondercast Episode 49, you will hear Laurie Brown’s interview with Tim Vesely, Dave Bidini, Dave Clark and Martin Tielli which happened in front of a roomful of Rheo fans at Sonic Boom in Toronto at the record release. And you’ll hear tracks from the new album.

LISTEN AND SHARE EPISODE 49 : THE RHEOSTATICS

Pondercast is powered by listeners. If you’d like to share the musical love, you can start by sharing this episode. If you feel like that’s just not enough, please consider becoming a patron of the show via the Pondercast Patreon here. Patrons receive a behind the scenes look at Pondercast, first notice of new episodes, and access to monthly Ponder Playlists. 

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Recently, Killbeat Music partnered with the team at Pondercast to bring you Ponderbeat, a series of special episodes featuring selections curated by Brown from some of Killbeat’s latest releases. The fourth episode of Ponderbeat is live now, featuring music from Ada Lea, Begonia, Close Talker, FET.NAT, River Tiber, Tamino and more.

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nêhiyawak SHARES NEW SONG “disappear”

LISTEN AND SHARE “disappear” HERE

DEBUT ALBUM nipiy OUT OCT 24 ON ARTS & CRAFTS
PREORDER HERE

UPCOMING LAUNCH SHOWS IN ALBERTA AND B.C.

“a psychedelic-rock record that exceeds its hype by defying convention and building up and out from a foundation of family and Elder teachings, honouring the connections and relationships between everything from the Sixties Scoop to the flow and pace of the kisiskâciwanisîpiy (North Saskatchewan River).” - CBC Music

“This trio from Amiskwaciy in Treaty 6 is almost certain to become the next big thing in the exploding First Nations music scene in Canada.” - Vancouver Sun

“A record for and about community, and it's a thing of heavy, expansive beauty.” - The Line Of Best Fit

“... resonates with enlightenment, pulls the past into the present and offers listeners a new awakening, a new perspective” - Dominionated

Photo Credit : Levi Manchak // DOWNLOAD HI-RES

nêhiyawak hails from amiskwaciy (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 territory. On the band’s debut album, nipiy – out October 24 on Arts & Crafts – the trio of Indigenous artists – Kris Harper (vocals, guitars), Marek Tyler (drums), and Matthew Cardinal (synths, bass) – transcends a new intersection of traditional storytelling and modern sound. 

nêhiyawak today shares “disappear” – the second single and the penultimate track on the masterful twelve-song album. “disappear” is a devastatingly forlorn but beautiful reprieve that connects stories of Indigenous disappearances in Canada and Honduras. Written and arranged in 2013 shortly after Harper attended a lecture in Toronto on problems faced by Indigenous cultures, “disappear” references keynote speaker Bertha Oliva’s “stories about the impacts of the tourist industry on Honduras specifically and the tactics used to implement these geographical disruptions.” Harper recounts how the song came together:

“While just before going to record the first three nêhiyawak songs with [producer] Colin Stewart, Matthew Cardinal and I scheduled a bunch of one on one rehearsals where we were collaborating on writing arrangements. And within about three rehearsals we were very confident about the arrangement for the song, and I quickly began to write about stories I knew of Indigenous life in amiskwaciy.”

nêhiyawak fills “disappear” with both lush ambience and a sense of enormous void – the sparse wooden rhythm, wiry guitar phrases, and shimmering electronics at first barely hold up Harper’s words, which too falter with emotional weight. A major shift occurs in the song’s second half, as each element swells into cacophony and Harper’s voice strains the refrain:

put out a call, who vanned them out?
where did they go? does anybody know?
a new game in town, holes in the ground
water pulled around, families not found

LISTEN & SHARE “disappear” HERE

“disappear” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HI-RES

nêhiyawak – whose name refers directly to their nêhiyaw ancestry – is a spirited expression of Indigeneity. nipiy, which translates to water, is the title of nêhiyawak's first full length album. The flow and pace of the album, symbolic of the flow and pace of water, begins and ends with pieces dedicated to kisiskâciwanisîpiy (North Saskatchewan River), a river that flows through the center of amiskwaciy. In the band's words, “There are many important ideas and teachings that we were raised with in our lives, but few more important than water. It’s a modern conversation with complex meanings and understandings.”

WATCH “kisiskâciwanisîpiy pêyak” (Album Trailer) HERE 

Produced by Colin Stewart (The New Pornographers, Black Mountain, Destroyer), nêhiyawak’s sound combines terse post-rock soundscapes with surreal pop and sheer ambient aspects. Anchored by the hollowed pounding of Tyler’s traditional carved cedar log drums and Cardinal’s electronic inflections, nipiy combines the teachings of nêhiyawak’s Elders with the band’s own interests in music, instrumentation and lyrics. nipiy tells their story of collective experience – a band empowered by history and progress, compelled to add to the great body of work. As Harper says, “Our goal is not to build up a group of individuals, but rather keep kicking at the door built in front of many.”

Strongly inspired by the Idle No More movement, says Harper, “nipiy is for those who don’t seem to fit in for myriads of reasons. To inspire others to use their voice and to send messages to future generations.” In contrast to the first single, “ôtênaw” – the visceral, raucous apex of the album – “disappear” puts front and centre the spirituality and deep consideration held in the vast space between each note, each inflection, each word.

LISTEN & SHARE “ôtênaw” HERE

Best described in the band’s own words, drummer Marek Tyler offers this context on nêhiyawak:

“Why is nêhiyawak more than a band? Because our families, our nêhiyaw communities, and our ways of knowing and being inform our work. For me, our album nipiy represents an ongoing process of connecting, learning and growing with each other.”

PREORDER nipiy LP HERE

TOUR DATES
Oct 4 - Edmonton, AB - Aviary
Oct 5 - Calgary, AB - King Eddy
Dec 5 - Vancouver, BC - Museum of Anthropology
Dec 6 - Victoria, BC - Lucky Bar

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nêhiyawak - nipiy tracklist
1. kisiskâciwanisîpiy pêyak 
2. copper
3. page
4. somnambulist
5. secret 
6. perch
7. ôtênaw
8. starlight
9. tommaso
10. open window
11. disappear
12. kisiskâciwanisîpiy nîso

NOTES
nêhiyawak ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐊᐧᐠ
Pronunciation: NEH-hee-oh-wuk
Meanings: Cree People, People of the Plains, Plains People, Exact People, Free People
Note: There are no letters capitalized in Cree language. Please write name in all lower case.

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JACQUES GREENE SHARES VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE “FOR LOVE”

WATCH AND SHARE “FOR LOVE” HERE

DAWN CHORUS OUT OCTOBER 18 VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

PERFORMANCE DATES BEGIN OCTOBER 17

PRE-ORDER DAWN CHORUS HERE

“It’s Jacques Greene operating on an entirely new level — his fullest and glossiest work to date, from the rapturous opening track ‘Serenity’ to the outward expanse of ‘Stars.’” - The FADER

“Spacious and atmospheric, the emotive track is built around its titular vocal sample which twists and turns on a bed of breakbeats, fading in and out like a dream interrupted.”
- Billboard, on “Do It Without You”

“It’s spacious and breakbeat-heavy, leaner and more utilitarian than anything on Greene’s last album (2017’s ‘Feel Infinite’) without sacrificing that album’s sense of late-night transcendence.” - SPIN

Photo Credit: Mathieu Fortin

Today, Jacques Greene releases the video for new single, “For Love”, from his forthcoming album, Dawn Chorus, out October 18 via Arts & Crafts. “For Love” follows lead single “Do It Without You” and early single “Night Service” (Feat. Cadence Weapon). 

WATCH AND SHARE “FOR LOVE” HERE

Greene approached the making of Dawn Chorus as if he were a band. He lived in the studio for five months this past winter – half the time at home in Toronto, the other half in Hudson Mohawke’s studio in L.A. – and wrote these songs in a sprint to capture this chapter in his life. While samples played a big part in his early output, his creative process for Dawn Chorus revolved around recording a stellar cast of musicians, arranging new parts. As a result, it’s his most collaborative project to date, featuring additional production and instrumentation from film composer Brian Reitzell (Lost In Translation), cello by London’s Oliver Coates, additional production from Clams Casino and original vocal contributions from ambient artist Julianna Barwick, rapper Cadence Weapon and singers Ebhoni and Rochelle Jordan, all sampled, processed and stitched back into the album. 

WATCH AND SHARE “DO IT WITHOUT YOU” HERE

To craft the sound of the record, he thought about the artists he held dear and researched the gear they used as a means of being in dialogue with their emotional tenor. Some of the gear he sourced included the delay that My Bloody Valentine was renowned for, as well as a compressor used by French Touch producers Alan Braxe and Fred Falke. Working with mix engineer Joel Ford (of Ford & Lopatin), he created a rule book for the album’s sonics that saw each part, from the drums to the pads, be processed in a specific way, through guitar pedals and outboard equipment.

Surrounding the release of Dawn Chorus, Greene will play select shows in Europe and the UK before returning to North America. All dates can be found below and tickets are on sale now.  

PRE-ORDER DAWN CHORUS HERE

ARTWORK CREDIT: Hassan Rahim // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

DAWN CHORUS TRACKLIST
1. Serenity 
2. Drop Location
3. Do It Without You
4. Night Service
5. Sel
6. Let Go
7. For Love
8. Sibling
9. Whenever
10. Understand
11. Distance
12. Stars

TOUR DATES
Oct. 17 - Berlin, DE @ Burg Schnabel
Oct. 18 - London, UK @ St. Pancras Old Church - SOLD OUT
Oct. 18 - Manchester, UK @ Warehouse Project (DJ set) (late show)
Oct. 19 - London, UK @ Five Miles (DJ set)
Oct. 23 - Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust
Oct. 25 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Oct. 26 - Montreal, QC @ Ausgang

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