(Supreme Echo) LP
Legendary Victoria hardcore/punk/thrash outfit that bore the first musical exploits of one Stephen McBean of Black Mountain/Pink Mountaintops/Jerk With A Bomb fame. Early rough recordings capture these then-teens doing what some say they did best. A Victoria time capsule & a must for anyone who picked up last year’s amazing book All Your Ears Can Hear.
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(Aaargh!) CD
Victoria’s best kept secret… the music of Elephant Island is a fragile swarm of melodic melancholia, a thing of sighing beauty. A musical arc of emotional depth, Don’t Say You Don’t Know… ventures through themes of hope, desire & doubt, all channeled through the aching, wandering falsetto of singer Galen Hartley. Accordion, cello, trumpet, saxophone, upright bass & mellotron all shape the sound, shaking up the arrangements a bit from the standard fair. An album for fans of mature, sincere indie pop a la Will Oldham & Shearwater.
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(Soft Abuse) CD
Solo outing from Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes & Swan Lake. It is an idiosyncratic alliance of experimental rock, avant pop & gospel celebration. Skin Of Evil sits along nicely not just with the usual art-rock proponents but the later epic opuses of Scott Walker as well. Mercer’s vocal histrionics are framed with deeper production sensibilities, a marriage of the usual guitar approach with synthetic textures & arrangements. A nice extra-curricular endeavor from one of Victoria’s finest.
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(Leisure Thief) CD
Essentially a revisit of Lee Huztulak’s last ten years of musical meandering and collaboration; Scarlet Lake collects tracks recorded and manipulated both digitally and on a 4-track. At times profusely reminiscent of Akron/Family’s self-titled debut (a group to which he warmly tips his hat), the vocals teeter somewhere between Mark Lanegan & Ariel Pink, while the music treads the sublime line between discordant experimentation & graceful melodies. Many of the tracks were born here in Victoria (Huztulak’s past home) & sound of the time when summer slips into fall & the island air seems to return from alien to indigenous. Like the mood encapsulated by Grizzly Bear, Scarlet Lake seems to capture the transition from one season to another & the melancholy & euphoria that comes with it.
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(Old Life) CD
A genuine article of note within the confines of our fun little shanty town here on Vancouver Island! Old Life Records is a meshed web of some of Victoria’s most promising new-ish groups. Swapping roles, instruments, vocal duties, styles, vibes, clothes & hi-fives, the Old Life camp inevitably recall Broken Social Scene’s tendril-like sprawl of indie-rock & some of it’s fun cousins. Label big guns Dreamboat, Colourbook, Cobras Cobras Cobras & Balacade feature here (all in fine form), but Vol. 2 also illuminates the talents of (relative) newcomers Onaping Falls, The Macadamia Brothers, Blanck, Mount Royal & Almonds, Cohen. Quiet folky ballads, twee-pop, dancey electro, laptop ditties & good ol’ rockin racket all appear here. We’re excited to hear what this collective produces over the next little while.
PS – the comp is only $3.00!
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These folks are from ‘round ‘ere. The local presence at Rifflandia was strong last year & the same goes for this year’s lineup. A lot of new faces & a couple of returning faves. Get out there & support yer pals!
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These are the “names” at this year’s festival… a great mash of bands, styles & faces.
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These are some of the faces that might be new to you. Nevertheless, do some adventuring here, there’s some great new acts to be seen & heard at RIFF09…
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