JAUNT SHARES VIDEO FOR TITLE TRACK OF UPCOMING LP ALL IN ONE

16 MM SHOT VIDEO FEATURES JAUNT’S TOM HELLIWELL IN SOLITUDE, PAINTING HIS SELF-PORTRAIT

WATCH AND SHARE “ALL IN ONE” HERE

ALL IN ONE ARRIVES APRIL 16, 2020

PRE-ORDER ALL IN ONE HERE

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Photo Credit: Sylvain Chaussée // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

 Toronto-based six-piece Jaunt are set to release their debut album All In One on April 16 and today they are sharing the video for the title track. Directed by Pia Perez and Sylvain Chaussée and shot on 16mm film, the video features lead singer Tom Helliwell in solitude painting his self-portrait. This is the second video in a series of six, depicting the members of Jaunt at home within a moment of time; caught, slowed down, under a microscope, on repeat, and in reverse.

With members of the band either in self-isolation from being exposed to Covid-19, recently laid off as a result of the virus, or stuck in Mexico, “All In One,” seems somewhat prophetic. 

“The song is an optimistic ballad about what it means to be present,” says the band. “We hope it can spark a bit of joy and encouragement for those who listen in these strange times that we are collectively experiencing. In a way, the song feels mysteriously prescient for the moment. Hope everyone is staying safe, connecting with their loved ones, and keeping their head up. 

Written in one fruitful session, the band attempted to preserve the essence of the moment by keeping the original demo vocals and replaced the back track with instrumentals recorded with BADBADNOTGOOD’S Alex Sowinski. “All In One” quickly became the album’s centrepiece and began to inform the direction of the remaining nine songs. 

 Jaunt recently shared “Delighted To Be Spoken To”, the second single from the upcoming LP and a song about resisting self-pity by developing a practice of gratitude for the fleeting, simple, joyful details of life. The accompanying video video was the first in the aforementioned series of 6 tableaus – 1 for each band member – depicting mundane, yet vibrant and playful environments caught, slowed down, under a microscope, on repeat, and in reverse shot on 16mm. “Delighted To Be Spoken To” features vocalist Caitlin Woelfe-O’Brien.


Recorded over three years and engineered in collaboration with Alex Sowinski, this collection serves as a travelogue for the band’s growth. All In One celebrates connection, creativity, and adaptation all passed through the lens of desktop pop sensibilities and an endearingly adventurous spirit. Equal parts experimental and infectiously raw, faintly electric and distinctly exposed, the cornucopia of styles and sounds presented in All In One finds itself glued together by a palpable and unique sense of understanding and friendship. 

LISTEN AND SHARE “NOSTALGIA FOR THE PRESENT MOMENT” HERE

More about Jaunt

A trip down memory lane might credit Jaunt’s beginnings to an elixir of coincidence and surrendering to try something new. Pat O’Brien, now the band’s guitarist, met future lead singer and songwriter Tom Helliwell at a Halloween party, striking a friendship that manifested across a few years of jams and shared musical creations. Somewhere along the way, Pat booked a show out of the blue, the band released their first EP, Chat, and Jaunt had graduated from a digital manifest of closeted collaborations to something tangible. Keyboardist Daniel Reardon entered the fold for the band’s first performance, followed closely by the addition of drummer Duncan Hood and bassist Nick Nausbaum.

Jaunt’s artistic palette, social circle, and resume developed quickly and organically, alongside their time active in the Toronto music scene. Duncan’s friendship and collaborations with Alex Sowinski intersected with Nick’s ties to the Montreal ecosystem that produced breakouts like Homeshake and Yves Jarvis; this further fostered creative community and opportunities to tour and record on top of groundwork already established by Pat and Tom. Duncan and Nick began performing with Charlotte Day Wilson as her backing band and would cross paths with vocalist and video artist Caitlin Woelfe-O’Brien playing similar venues. A friendship was sparked, Caitlin contributed her voice to coloring the band’s second EP, Cue, and now is a full-time member of the group. By this time, Jaunt had become a well-oiled machine: a synergetic sextet fueled by earnest ambition and artistic momentum. 

The band’s origin story is the genesis for what would become their full-length debut. In name, All In One, evokes wholeness while feeling vast, a testament to the record’s breadth of musical directions and underlying cohesiveness. Thematically, it’s an homage to changes and evolution experienced by Jaunt on both an individual and collective scale throughout the album’s creation.  The unpredictable variables in the bandmate’s lives – new jobs, partners, successes, failures, Tom moving to Hawaii for love – all provided a backdrop and clear pathos as they developed a consistent collection of works. Some songs on the album are more recently recorded; others were pocketed for future use. The goal and meaning of All In One was always on the horizon as Jaunt navigated unwaveringly toward it. 

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ALL IN ONE TRACKLIST

01 All In One
02 Nostalgia For The Present Moment
03 Crushed Velvet
04 Pt 2
05 True Affections
06 Bakers Moves
07 Obvious Answer
08 Callous Standard
09 Suggestions
10 Delighted To Be Spoken To 


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TOPS SHARES NEW SONG DIRECT SUNLIGHT


TOPS SHARES NEW SONG "DIRECT SUNLIGHT"

LISTEN AND SHARE “DIRECT SUNLIGHT” HERE

NEW ALBUM I FEEL ALIVE DUE APRIL 3RD VIA MUSIQUE TOPS

PRE-ORDER I FEEL ALIVE HERE

"irresistible" Gorilla vs. Bear

"Indie pop bliss." Pitchfork

"One of the most riveting and peerless acts in indie rock" Stereogum

"One of Canada's most consistent musical exports" NYLON

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Photo Credit : Justin Aranha // DOWNLOAD HI-RES

Today, Montreal four-piece TOPS are sharing another new song from their forthcoming album I Feel Alive out April 3rd via their own label Musique TOPS. Recalling the best of Prefab Sprout, "Direct Sunlight" is classic pop songwriting highlighted by bouncy synth stabs, the ever breezy vocals of Jane Penny, and even a whimsical flute solo. The track is the latest offering from the new album following  "Colder & Closer", "Witching Hour", and the album's title-track

Speaking on the song, Penny says: "I went to this outdoor pool with Olympic style diving boards one summer day in Berlin, and when I tried to jump off the middle one, I think it was about 5 metres high, I really surprised myself when I realised that I'm terrified of heights. My whole body entered this panicked state, the phobia kicked in right away, and I had to do the walk of shame down the ladder and back to the pool. I wanted to capture that duality, the way that even the sunniest days can have this underlying darkness to them, and how it's not just the physical reaction to fear that casts the shadows, but more how the ever looming possibilities of loss or discontent are revealed. I wrote this song to remind myself that it's up to me to choose the perspective that I take."


MORE ABOUT I FEEL ALIVE

The artwork for TOPS' fourth LP sets the tone for the music enclosed. Inspired by the work of photographer Thomas Ruff, TOPS' vocalist Jane Penny stares bare-faced down the lens-simple and un-posed, yet striking with starkness and vulnerability.

The image captures the fraught nature of being alive, which the 11 tracks on the album explore. Penny's remarkably expressive voice is front and center. On this record more than any other,she sings with passion and energy, without sacrificing the honesty and introspection that gives her voice its depth. The songs cover a range of experiences but at it's heart I Feel Alive is a record about resilience, the ways we can grow from for our pain and the strength that comes from learning to stand on your own as an individual.

I Feel Alive is TOPS' fourth full-length, following 2017's Sugar At The Gate and follows singles "Echo of Dawn" and "Seven Minutes" from last year. Their trademark sound of beguiling melodies over soft-rock grooves, with touches of '80s sophisti-pop and a contemporary experimental palette is intact, but bolder and more expansive. The songs manage to be both immediately catchy and deceptively deep, with Penny's literary lyrics adding an extra dimension to the pure pop hooks. Satisfying yet far from predictable, this is a record to be savored, revealing itself slowly, gaining power and poignancy with each listen.

For I Feel Alive, the band members convened in a basement studio in Montreal, recording for the first time with keyboardist Marta Cikojevic who joined the band as a live member in 2017. "From the first time we practiced with her it was clear that we were in sync musically, and we found ourselves improvising together at the first rehearsal" says Penny. "Having Marta manning the keys allowed me to reach for my flute, and gave me the chance to integrate my flute playing with the writing process, using it as an expressive instrument rather than more production element which it has been in the past." 

She continues: "We'd spent a lot of time apart, not working on new stuff or touring, just living life, all in different cities," says Penny. When we went to make I Feel Alive we all had a good sense of what we were trying to do and a renewed energy towards playing together. The goal was to get in a room together and play, not holding anything back."

"It was a quick process," says guitarist and fellow song-writer David Carriere. "We would work all day writing a song and then demo them the same evening, relying on our natural chemistry as a band to let the songs come into their own." The band's line-up is completed by Riley Fleckon drums.

Title track "I Feel Alive" is a bracing pop gem with darker undertones. An ode to new love, Penny sings "I feel alive looking in your eyes" with the exuberance that comes with the early stages of romance, the discovery of a deep love. But love is complicated, and within the joy and happiness is the pain of leaving someone else behind. "When I saw you wanted to spend the night with someone else at home," she sings, "I knew it wasn't right." This honest admission that happiness can come at the expense of others adds another dimension to the song's ecstatic energy. True love defies us to overcome others expectations, and that's a good thing. People may be watching, but why should you care.

Opposing and it, "Colder and Closer" is a sonic departure, with programmed synths and metallic drumming, the song shimmers. A tribute to seeking meaning in an increasingly confusing world Penny sings "Searching constellations/seeing if the stars align." But she doesn't take comfort in the stars, rejecting fate as something arbitrary, though not quite meaningless. "Signs are myths like nations/shapes drawn over crooked lines."The song is swift and lean, a pop confection, but it's also ripe with meditations on the social isolation that plagues casual intimacy. It's a prime example of the way TOPS layer meaning within pop songwriting. Beneath the soaring melodies and crisp production, I Feel Alive balances the giddiness of a new relationship with the agony of leaving old things behind. It's an introspective record that you can dance to, music that hits in an immediate rush but sticks around, lingering like the memory of a perfect doomed love affair-both the joy and the pain, until it becomes a part of your life forever.

PRE-ORDER I FEEL ALIVE HERE

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1. Direct Sunlight
2. I Feel Alive
3. Pirouette
4. Ballads & Sad Movies
5. Colder & Closer
6. Witching Hour
7. Take Down
8. Drowning In Paradise
9. OK Fine Whatever
10. Looking To Remember
11. Too Much

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PANTAYO SHARES NEW VIDEO FOR HETO NA FROM UPCOMING SELF-TITLED DEBUT ALBUM

PANTAYO OUT MAY 8 VIA TELEPHONE EXPLOSION

WATCH AND SHARE “HETO NA” HERE

PRE-ORDER PANTAYO HERE

“the total sophistication with which (Pantayo) introduce traditional instruments (kulintang, agongs, sarunays, gandingan, bandir, and dabak) into their music, which embraces elements of  neo-soul, punk and art pop” CBC Music

Pantayo combine kulintang gong music of the Southern Philippines with soft-focus devotional R&B. … chiming percussion and shimmering electronics, produced in crystalline clarity by Yamantaka // Sonic Titan drummer Alaska B. It’s a fusion that sounds fresh and undeniably easy on the ears. NOW Magazine

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Photo Credit : Sarah Bo // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today Pantayo is sharing the video for the new single “Heto Na” from their upcoming self-titled album out May 8 via Telephone Explosion. 

“Pantayo, in Tagalog, means “for us.” In their song, Heto Na, they sing, “Umindak ka na kaya. Kaliwa dalawang paa. Pakapalan no mukha. (Ready, set, go strut your stuff. To the left, lock in both your feet. Own up to that funky shit).” Inspired by OPM (Original Pilipino Music) disco songs from the 70’s, this song gently nudges listeners onto the dance floor; a space where vulnerability and bravado are seamlessly entangled. This invitation to let loose and “own up to that funky shit” seeks out a reparative encounter that is at once full of confidence and concession. Heto Na means “here we go” and is one of Pantayo’s many songs that is oriented towards hope, justice and a commitment to seek out an ethical relation to Filipinx history, geography, migration and the queerness that knots all of these sites together.

WATCH AND SHARE “HETO NA” HERE

Pantayo explores what’s possible for contemporary kulintang music with the atonal blend of kulintang ensemble instruments with vocals and electronic production. The album features eight diverse songs speaking to Pantayo’s musical influences as queer diasporic Filipinas. Produced by Yamantaka // Sonic Titan’s alaska B, Pantayo was written and recorded from 2016-2019 in Toronto. 

LISTEN AND SHARE “DIVINE” SOUNDCLOUD / SPOTIFY

PRE-ORDER PANTAYO HERE

Pantayo is an audio diary of how the ensemble has grown together as writers and performers. The songwriting process started with members workshopping and performing traditional kulintang pieces from the Southern Philippines, often instrument-switching on the kulintang, agongs, sarunays, gandingan, bandir, and dabak. Adapting kick drums and synths to the modal tuning of the gongs further expanded Pantayo’s ability to incorporate modern musical expressions such as punk and R&B. “If you listen to the recordings of our rehearsals and songwriting sessions, you can hear us deconstructing the kulintang parts section-by-section and practicing our songs in different styles” says keyboardist and vocalist Eirene Cloma. “You can also hear how close we’ve gotten and how our creative workflow strengthened over the years.” 

Grounded in the interpretation of kulintang music, Pantayo can be a vehicle for discussions around diasporic Filipino identity. All five members have different experiences of settling in Canada and with that comes their relationships with music. Kat Estacio, co-founder of Pantayo, says “One way that we can make this world feel like home for folks like us is to mix the kulintang music that we learned with different sounds and song structures that feel familiar to us." 

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PANTAYO TRACKLIST
1. Eclipse
2. Divine
3. Heto Na
4. Bronse
5. V V V (They Lie)
6. Taranta
7. Kaingin
8. Bahala Na

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