SILVER POOLS SHARE VIDEO FOR “CRUSHED HAT”, NEW LP OUT FRIDAY

WATCH AND SHARE “CRUSHED HAT” HERE
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SILVER POOLS NEW LP, CHROMA, OUT FRIDAY, AUGUST 20 VIA MODERN LAUNDRY RECORDING CLUB

PRE-ORDER CHROMA HERE VIA BANDCAMP

Photo Credit : Calm Elliott-Armstrong // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Silver Pools new LP, Chroma, is out in a few short days. To celebrate, the band is releasing a new video for “Crushed Hat”. With Adrienne McLaren's bassline and an Elektron Analog RYTM drum beat as a starting point for the track, "I began playing around with the lyrics to Jesus Christ by Woody Guthrie as a creative exercise; viewing the theme through the eyes of an algorithm feeding us digital nostalgia,” says songwriter Todd Macdonald. For the verses, he continues, "I imagined two performance artists acting out their interpretation in the middle of a busy downtown street."

On the video, director Cashew Soda notes, "I had a couple of books that fit with the theme of the song so I turned my reading nook and some public art and advertising in my neighbourhood (Parkdale/High Park in Toronto) into a music video. I see Christianity and Capitalism as large-scale pranks pulled by the powerful and this video aims to celebrate some shining slivers of artful resistance."

WATCH AND SHARE “CRUSHED HAT” HERE
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“Crushed Hat” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Out on August 20 via Modern Laundry Recording Club, Chroma is the first album since Silver Pools’ debut in 2016, Memoirs Of An Oblong Sphere. Silver Pools began as the solo project of musician and producer Todd Macdonald (The Winks, Norvaiza) and has grown during the making of the album to include visual artist Miranda Crabtree on vocals and keyboards and video director Adrienne McLaren on vocals and bass.

WATCH AND SHARE “IN THE NIGHT”
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MORE ABOUT CHROMA
The songs are based on universal themes: relationships, dreams, mental health, politics, and mortality but are woven in the surreal and symbolist style Macdonald has been developing since his days in the 2000s dadaist baroque punk band, The Winks. Chroma features a wide spectrum of sounds, colours and textures; a delicate mixture of acoustic instruments, analogue synths, drum machines, live percussion, samples, electronics and intimate vocals. The lush production was influenced by countless recordings but the main stand outs are the album Faith by The Cure and the work of John Collins and David Carswell, most notably on Destroyer’s album Kaputt. The latter duo (also known as JC/DC) were a more direct influence on Macdonald. In the mid 2000s, JC/DC produced The Winks’ Birthday Party (2006) album and Macdonald played mandolin on two songs on the The New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema (2005) album which they also produced. 

WATCH AND SHARE “BLEACH CLOUD (LAY DOWN IN THE ROAD)” HERE
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Chroma is also greatly enriched by the talented guest musicians that appear on the album. Macdonald met many of them while working at the downtown Toronto music store and electronic music hub, Moog Audio, which has recently had to close its doors due to the pandemic. Prolific electronic music producer Matt Thibideau (Altitude, Graham Van Pelt, Regina Gently, Repair) co-produced the song “Farmhouse” and also added synths to “Crushed Hat”. Dustin Good played and programmed synths on “Farmhouse” and “Bleach Cloud (Lay Down in the Road)” and Tim Adams and Mario Anzola (Anzola) added live drums to “A Kiss For The Swimmer” and “Digital Race” respectively. Artist and designer Andy Vella (The Cure, The Rolling Stones, St. Vincent) created the stunning artwork for Chroma; mirroring the music by blending organic textures and paint brush flourishes with bright digital colours and fonts. 

LISTEN / SHARE “FARMHOUSE” HERE
BUY / STREAM “FARMHOUSE” HERE

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CHROMA TRACKLIST
01 A Kiss For The Swimmer
02 Digital Race
03 In The Night
04 Crushed Hat
05 Bleach Cloud (Lay Down In The Road)
06 Farmhouse
07 Penumbra
08 With Waiting

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MORE ABOUT MODERN LAUNDRY
Modern Laundry is a Canadian, artist-run collective record label that focuses on Bandcamp for digital distribution and only uses streaming services such as Spotify and iTunes for singles. Artists currently include: Debra-Jean Creelman (Mother Mother), Desert Bloom, Gay Hollywood (DIANA, Army Girls and Austra), Silver Pools (The Winks), and Ten Moon.

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JASPER SLOAN YIP SHARES TWO MORE SINGLE / VIDEOS FROM UPCOMING DOUBLE EP

VANCOUVER SONGWRITER JASPER SLOAN YIP TO RELEASE STRANGE CALM / BLUSHING AUTUMN - A DOUBLE EP, EACH WRITTEN WITH A DIFFERENT THEME - ON OCTOBER 26, 2021 VIA TINY KINGDOM

WATCH AND SHARE “STRANGE CALM” OFFICIAL VIDEO HERE
WATCH AND SHARE “SILVER LINING” VISUALIZER HERE

BUY / STREAM “STRANGE CALM” + “SILVER LINING” HERE

PRE-SAVE STRANGE CALM / BLUSHING AUTUMN AND GET INSTANT ACCESS TO JASPER’S PODCAST ‘STRANGE COMMENTARY’

PRE-SAVE STRANGE CALM / BLUSHING AUTUMN HERE

Photo Credit : Mackenzie Walker  // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Vancouver songwriter Jasper Sloan Yip is sharing two more tracks, “Strange Calm” and “Silver Lining”, from his upcoming double EP, Strange Calm / Blushing Autumn; two separate EPs, written and recorded at different times with different producers, each ruminating on a different theme.

The title track to the first EP reflects on the feeling that “it’s an overwhelming time to be alive,” says Jasper. “There’s too much information right now and I often don’t know what to do with what I know. It can be paralyzing, and I think ‘Strange Calm’ inhabits this feeling. It’s a song about those moments that exist outside of time, when you detach yourself from the world around you to retreat inward. I think a lot of us are doing that right now, it’s part of what it means to be alive and awake in 2021.

That’s bleak, I know, but in a way, ‘Silver Lining’ responds to that bleakness. It’s a song about the human soul. In 2017 my mom told me about the ghost that haunted her pottery studio and my bandmate Devon told me a story about an exorcism that happened over the phone. They were just casual anecdotes, but they had a profound effect on me. For reasons I don’t understand, these stories opened my mind to the possibility that some part of us goes, as the song puts it, ‘on forever’. I think about it all the time, and now, whenever I feel myself start to detach and float away, it helps me find the ground again.”

WATCH AND SHARE “STRANGE CALM” OFFICIAL VIDEO HERE
WATCH AND SHARE “SILVER LINING” VISUALIZER HERE

BUY / STREAM “STRANGE CALM” + “SILVER LINING” HERE

“Strange Calm” + “Silver Lining” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Strange Calm / Blushing Autumn is available to pre-save today. Fans who save the EPs get  exclusive access to Jasper's podcast, ‘Strange Commentary’, a collection of stories, interviews, and insight on the songs from the album.

PRE-SAVE STRANGE CALM / BLUSHING AUTUMN HERE

MORE ABOUT STRANGE CALM / BLUSHING AUTUMN

When he set out to record Strange Calm in early 2020, Yip was trying to say goodbye. “I was dealing with a lot of climate dread, and at the same time, I could feel my musical life being pulled apart by different but equally powerful forces,” says Yip. “The songs on Strange Calm reflected these anxieties, and somehow helped me make peace with them too. It’s a meditation on learning to live with the death process.”

Just as the recording session for Strange Calm wrapped, the pandemic had reached the shores of B.C. By the summer, Yip decided to record a second short collection of songs to release with Strange Calm, a decision that coincided with the start of a new chapter in his life: fatherhood. “I committed myself to recording more music, booking time at the studio before writing a single song. Almost immediately after doing that I learned that I was going to be a dad.” The result is the second EP, Blushing Autumn.

Jasper Sloan Yip and his band arrived at The Noise Floor on Gabriola Island to record their Strange Calm with producer Jordan Koop (Orville Peck, Wolf Parade, Rae Spoon) on March 14th, 2020, just as life on the west coast shut down. “It was surreal. On one hand, it felt like an isolated recording studio was the perfect place to make an album about the end of the world, but on the other, we also understood that at any moment one of us might start showing symptoms, or we may be ordered by the province to pack up and go home. This tension was infused into everything we did.”

Thankfully, the band left the studio the following week healthy and joined the rest of the world in lockdown with six completed songs. Their tentative plans to return to the Noise Floor the following month to complete the album were cancelled, and Jasper, like everyone else, started to wait. 

WATCH AND SHARE “GIN FIZZ” HERE

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With the album ostensibly finished and nothing else to do, Jasper began work on a six-episode liner-notes podcast titled ‘Strange Commentary’ to accompany the album. Spanning over 100 minutes, these audio liner notes paint an intimate picture that completes the songs on Strange Calm while extending far beyond them. “Strange Calm is shaped by its incompleteness. When I listen to these songs, I hear the music that isn’t there, and that’s ok. The podcast helped me let it be by giving me another way to finish the story,” says Yip. 

Exactly one year after arriving on Gabriola Island to make a record about the end of the world, Jasper and his band were setting up at Afterlife Studio in Vancouver with producer John Raham (Destroyer, Tanya Tagaq, Frazey Ford) to record Blushing Autumn, four songs about Yip’s upcoming fatherhood and the promise of new life. 

“We all spent a year inside. Not just in our homes, but inside of ourselves,” says Yip. “For me, it began with the surreal experience of life imitating art in a scary way. I was ready to accept certain fates... But it didn’t go the way that I expected, and now, the strange calm that I was struggling with for so long is gone, and the world feels new again.”

PRE-SAVE STRANGE CALM / BLUSHING AUTUMN HERE

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STRANGE CALM / BLUSHING AUTUMN TRACKLIST

STRANGE CALM
01 Halcyon Dream
02 Gin Fizz
03 Strange Calm
04 Silver Lining
05 Oleander
06 On The Beach

BLUSHING AUTUMN
01 Blushing Autumn
02 August
03 Anew
04 Every Night, Beside You, I Lie Awake

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SEÁN DEVLIN (叶 世民) NEW COMEDY ALBUM AVAILABLE TO STREAM EVERYWHERE TODAY

SEÁN DEVLIN’S (叶 世民) AIRPORTS, ANIMALS. OUT TODAY ON STREAMING PLATFORMS EVERYWHERE VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

BUY / STREAM AIRPORTS, ANIMALS. HERE

THE FIRST COMEDY ALBUM TO BE RELEASED BY ARTS & CRAFTS

"Canadian comic Seán Devlin just released one of the best stand-up albums of the year. He soars on his first flight, with his signature gentle delivery and incisive framing elevating the album... Devlin breaks apart Western society’s racist, capitalist structure with the elegant precision of a Michelin star chef cracking open an egg... his debut ranks among the most thought-provoking and thoroughly funny comedy releases of the year." - Paste Magazine 

“From his calm delivery to frequently hard-hitting punchlines, Devlin’s routines are often political, always funny, and never pedantic...His humour is in tune with legendary poop disturbers like George Carlin or Richard Pryor." - The Vancouver Sun

"When Devlin truly hits the big time (and it's coming, folks), you'll be able to tell your friends that you remember listening to his first album before he became a household name across North America." - The Georgia Straight

"Sean Devlin is one of those comedians who can take highly charged political subjects and pierce through the hubris to find a golden nugget of absurdity." Range

"a well-deserved moment of recognition for a comic who has spent years honing his deadpan, keenly observational and sometimes surreal brand of standup. AIRPORTS, ANIMALS. contains stories about weed and politics, but the humour defies easy categorization. The only real constant is Devlin's laidback manner and bemused delivery" - Exclaim! 

"Seán's hilarious, slyly confrontational, and able to shock in a way that somehow feels gentle. I'm a big fan." - Jason Woliner (Director: Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm, Nathan For You)

"Seán's been a whole legend to me. He's well-known for his brilliant, incisive stuff but also there's a warmth and depth to his comedy that in sum really puts him in a rare category. He's just special." - Shad (Host of Netflix's Hip Hop Evolution)

Photo Credit : Katrin Braga // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Vancouver based, Ontario born and raised comedian, filmmaker, and prankster Seán Devlin’s (叶 世民) debut comedy album AIRPORTS, ANIMALS., the first comedy to be released by Arts & Crafts, is now available to stream on all platforms as of today. 

BUY / STREAM AIRPORTS, ANIMALS. HERE
WATCH AND SHARE “AIRPORT BIRD” ANIMATION HERE

MORE ABOUT SEÁN DEVLIN (叶 世民)
Where many stand-up comedians write from distant observation, Seán Devlin’s (叶 世民) material often comes from real-world interventions and politically-charged personal confrontations. Recorded at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Gallery in 2019, AIRPORTS, ANIMALS. is the work of a comedian whose mother was raised as a squatter in the Philippines before immigrating to Canada to escape the Marcos regime. A comedian whose political provocations over climate change and migrant justice have previously landed him in jail. A biracial artist who experiences both white privilege and racial violence living in Vancouver, BC - the anti-Asian hate crime capital of North America. Yet, while political stand-up comedians typically express themselves through angry ranting, Devlin’s performances find him calmly recounting stories that would leave many people infuriated. From these intimate experiences Devlin produces a brand of grounded joy that is frequently absurdist, but never escapist. A timely balm for people seeking balance in the era of COVID-19 and glorified hatred.

AIRPORTS, ANIMALS. is the first comedy release from Toronto’s beloved indie record label Arts & Crafts. “In the 15 years I’ve known Seán, I’ve been endlessly inspired by his varied career as a comedian and performer, a filmmaker, an organizer and educator and a political provocateur,” says Arts & Crafts’ Label & Marketing Director Cameron Reed. “It’s not just his poly-math trajectory that’s impressive to me, but that his comedy is a natural product of this expansive experience. Regardless of the medium he’s working in, Seán has a distinct point-of-view that is always incisive, thought-provoking, and empathetic at the same time. Arts & Crafts couldn’t be more pleased to have Seán as our first comedy release.”

Devlin has performed stand-up for 18 years at festivals such as Bumbershoot, Just For Laughs NW, Sled Island, and Bridgetown Comedy Festival. He has shared the stage with comedians Zach Galifianakis, Tig Notaro, Reggie Watts, Hari Kondabolu, Aamer Rahman as well as musical acts like MGMT and Of Montreal. Most recently, Devlin was a Consulting Producer on BORAT: SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM (2020). His directorial debut WHEN THE STORM FADES (2018) earned him the Emerging Canadian Director prize presented by The Director’s Guild of Canada at the 37th Vancouver International Film Festival and won two international jury prizes for Best Director from festivals in Liverpool & Mumbai. 

WATCH AND SHARE “STEALING JOBS” ANIMATION HERE

From 2011 to 2015 Devlin organized a diverse group of comedians, artists, filmmakers, actors, musicians and activists to execute a multi-year tactical media campaign with the goal of engaging Canadian youth in progressive politics. ShitHarperDid.com began as a viral website that generated millions of hits during Canada’s 2011 Federal Election. The Globe and Mail described it as “a stealth campaign that's been spreading like prairie wildfire.” and The Huffington Post called it “the viral phenomenon that captured the digital zeitgeist.” As the Executive Director of the organization Devlin orchestrated an innovative combination of online content, TV ads, a feature documentary, complex media pranks and he also shocked the public by infiltrating the Prime Minister’s security detail (the most expensive in Canada’s history) not once, but twice. Devlin then organized a national network of young supporters to physically confront harmful politicians in their own communities. SHD was part of a progressive movement that catalyzed an unprecedented increase in youth voting by the 2015 election. The innovative impact created by SHD resulted in opportunities for Devlin to produce similar projects around the world with the likes of Greenpeace, Edward Snowden, and The Yes Men. 

MORE PRAISE FOR AIRPORTS, ANIMALS.

"Seán dismantles capitalism, jingoism, racism, and so many more -isms with truly such a calming delivery. The contrast is so subtly mischievous, yet so effective...a damn good debut comedy album" - The Comedy Bureau 

"a tremendous storyteller" - The Hype

"Few comics have the talent to pull something like this off... All of the material is simply gold… a superb stand-up comedy download" - The Serious Comedy Site

"Seán is a breath of fresh air; his comedy punches up and uses light-hearted humour to unearth the quotidian reality of injustice in our every day. His work is both hilarious and piercing, an astounding feat and exactly what we need in this moment." - Harsha Walia (Author of Border and Rule, Executive Director BCCLA)

Album Art Credit : Jappy Agoncillo //  DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

AIRPORTS, ANIMALS. TRACKLIST
Land Acknowledgment
On The Radio
Side Effects
Illegal Movie
Birds
Wolfgang
Waiting To Board
Worst Haircut
Boarding My Flight
Whales & Monkeys
Airplane Neighbor - Part 1
Talking To Racists
Airplane Neighbor - Part 2
Hoarders
Mama Mia
Border
Border Guard

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