“Where You Got Your Shoes” by The Gregories
“Pseudoscience Fiction” by Kristian North
“I Will Never Marry” by Sister Ray
“James Gandolfini” by Single Mothers
“LIGHTS DOWN LOW” by Yessica Woahneil
“God Universe Magic (G.U.M) ft. SATE” by Witch Prophet
“Grow (ft. Edzi’u & Kinnie Starr)” by Julia Sound
“Out of Control” by Night Court
“Blurry” by Beatings Are in the Body
“Rules Are Bourgeois Porn” by Western Bloc
Intriguing experimental post-everything track from Solid Brown.
“George Thorogood” by Grimelda
“Everything Where It Should Be” by The Holy Gasp
“Slouching Toward Bethlehem” by Devon Church
“Tiny Devil” by divorcer
“Play” by Fang and the Toe Beans
“Piccolo Lina” by God’s Mom
“The One” by Caveman & The Banshee
“Waiting For The Light To Quit” by ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT
“Mom Jeans/Mom Genes” by miesha & the spanks
“Learning to Say No” by Valiska
Drift away in “Cycles”, as it ascends sonic heights in never-ending (well, seemingly) waves.
Sound artist KillMiDi catches the ears with some smooth techno.
Cassia Hardy of Wares looks care-free and easy on roller skates but the lyrics (““Was it our sour breath / or faded makeup mess, / turned her smile to a shudder?”) are far from it.
From the Edmonton band’s latest EP ‘Graceless/Cloudless’.
Calgary’s Valiska creates crazy, ambient harmonies, which the video accentuates in glorious black and white.
From the EP ‘Wolf Moon’.
“Autopilot Disengage” by 5th Projekt
“On My Bed” by Eiyn Sof
“Fountain, Growth (ft. Tess Roby)” by Khotin
“Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” by BRIA
“Motorik” by Patche
“Artificial Light” by Uncanny Valley
“1.49 Day” by Night Plow
“Sour Cherry Jam” by Red Mass
“Trickle Effect” by Stelar Door
“Robot Sex Doll” by Fresh Wax
Edmonton singer/songwriters Mallory Chipman and Frédrique “Freddi” MacDougall ply their musical wares as The Goddamsels.
Mallory says of “Sorry”: “It’s pretty standard to write songs from a place of heartache, joy or love, but this one was something different. ‘Sorry’ is a song that wrote itself from a place of frustration, honestly. Frustration with people in power and with the seemingly unbreakable institutions that tend to stubbornly uphold unhelpful traditions in a world where these traditions desperately need re-imagining. It was a really cathartic tune to write, and continues to be a cathartic one to play night after night. The rockier edge to this tune came really naturally as a result of the emotional place I was in while writing it, and that’s made it a really fun tune to play with the band, as a lot of our band mates come from a rock background.”
By Mark Anthony Brennan
We caught up with Clea Anaïs on tour in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
MB: Is this your first tour?
CA: I do a lot of work as a cello player for other people, so I have been on tours before. This is the anniversary of my first solo record ‘Circle Zero’. So this year is really my first year touring as my own project. It’s been amazing so far.
MB: So, ‘Circle Zero’ is your first solo project?
CA: I’ve been in collaborations before but ‘Circle Zero’ was to test to the limits of what I could do on my own and really contextualize what I wanted to write about in a more personal way, which working with other people doesn’t always allow.
MB: You are from Calgary?
CA: I was born in Calgary. I’ve also lived in Toronto and attended school in Moncton, but I’m now back in Calgary.
MB: ‘Circle Zero’ is a dreamlike realm. Despite the variety in the music there is a certain cohesion. Was that intentional?
CA: Maybe it’s because it emanates mostly from one person. I don’t know that I consciously made that a priority but I am really attracted to evoking colours around the intent of what a song means. I am considerate of having lyrics nested in a harmonic story-line that is elaborated by the music and moves you in the same way that the words. Another thing is that the same person, Nyles Spencer, who mixed seven or eight of the tracks. “Stars Still Dying”, the single’s edit, I actually returned back to the original recording engineer, Graham Lessard. He was very much attuned to my intent with that song, he just got the picture I was trying to translate.
MB: How do you approach writing a song?
CA: There is not one recipe or approach. Lyrically, I’ll write about things that move me. A lot of this record had to do with my own life and what I was going through at the time. Musical ideas often just appear. If I’m fortunate enough I’ll be sitting at a piano and something will come out. But also I do share a lot melody and harmony when I’m just existing in life, so I do my best to record those ideas or make a note and come back to them later. Also, a lot of the lyrics I wrote while I was on a different tour in Japan, and in the morning I’d do stream of consciousness writing. The nice thing is that the writing is not limited by sentence formation or structure or grammar — it’s more a flow of imagery and vocabulary and sounds, that don’t need to be processed yet. Then there is the availability of pulling material that has a feeling, or the way the word sounds, that is nice to pull into music.
MB: What’s up next?
CA: I will finish touring in two weeks and then it’s back into the studio to start working on new material. Reflecting on this past year, it has been so busy every step of the way, it doesn’t feel like an old record. I’m also a student and I have a job, so I’m looking forward to have a moment to actually reflect on things. To focus and re-orient all of the knowledge I’ve gained this year towards where we are going next.
Irregular Dreams 