PANDEMIC SOUNDTRACK
Music scene still humming
Summer festivals might be cancelled, but Montreal music acts are still putting out albums — hallelujah!
Four new releases contribute distinct flavours to the playlist of this most unusual summer.
Ghislain Poirier has a game he likes to play with friends: he puts on one of his songs and asks people what style of music they think it is. The veteran Dj-producer’s latest outing, Soft Power (on Wonderwheel Recordings), will leave anyone willing to play along scratching their head.
“I can identify different elements,” noted Poirier, who goes by his last name only as an artist. “But many songs on here are hard to define. It comes together naturally, but if you want to define it in one word, good luck. I think one way to describe the project is ‘pop without borders.’ ”
Poirier is mellowing with age. Two decades in, Montreal’s beloved bass-rumbling party starter arrives with perhaps his most melodious release yet. Don’t be fooled by the album title — his club-rocking instincts remain intact, but more than ever before, they’re at the service of the songs.
“I didn’t want to ignore my DJ background,” he said, “but I wasn’t seeking to power my tracks with the impact of the drums and bass. It was more about the impact of the emotional content.”
An array of local and international guest vocalists drop in. Brazilian-french sensation Flavia Coelho is downright dreamy on the soulful house jam Café Com Leite.
POIRIER: SOFT POWER (WONDERWHEEL RECORDINGS)
Old pal Boogat lends Latin spice to the gently thumping Contigo. Jamaica-via-nyc dance-hall firebrand Red Fox brings the heat on Pull Up Dat.
Paris-based Haitian- Québécois chanteuse Mélissa Laveaux adds quirk to the jaunty gem Do Kase, and Daby Touré contributes African subtleties to Nidiaye Sam.
There are numerous languages sung on the album, but little English and no French.
“There’s Jamaican patois, Creole, Spanish, Portuguese and Wolof,” Poirier said. “It’s made in Montreal. I’m Québécois, francophone, but collaborating with all these other people and it turns out those people sang in those languages. So it’s all good. The vibe came out like that. It’s a statement: my vision of the world.”
Bringing these disparate elements together are Poirier’s toned-down, but ever danceable, beats, with the rough edges sanded off to soothing yet funky effect.
“Yes, there’s a groove and you can dance to it,” he said. “But if you want to just listen, that’s cool, too. I believe in the strength of albums. People still want to have someone they can put their confidence in and listen to for 45 minutes to an hour. Now, they’re called playlists, but before that, it was albums.”
BRAIDS: SHADOW OFFERING (SECRET CITY RECORDS)
Braids has been shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize and won a Juno. So why does the Montreal indie-pop band’s fourth album feel like a coming-out party? Co-produced by former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist-songwriter Chris Walla, it finds the trio of Raphaelle Standell-preston, drummer Austin Tufts and guitarist Taylor Smith opening up and letting loose. The sound is bigger, bolder and, it must be said, slicker. Standell-preston is as introspective and melodramatic as ever, as she dwells on fraught relationships and self-doubt — but she’s also outward-looking, overwhelmed by the state of the world and her white privilege. Merging electro and rock elements with nuance and gusto, it’s exciting stuff.
CHROMEO: QUARANTINE CASANOVA (CHROMEO RECORDINGS)
Leave it to Chromeo to make a COVID-19 lockdown album you can dance to. The dynamic duo of singer Dave 1 and producer P-thugg wasted no time in whipping together this five-song EP, which comes with instrumental versions of each song. Laughs abound on Clorox Wipe as Dave 1 sings, “If I could reincarnate tonight, I would be your Clorox wipe,” over classic ’80s synths, followed in the chorus by the punchline: “So let me wipe you down.” Other titles include Six Feet Away, the G-funk-tinged Stay in Bed (And Do Nothing) and the soulful slow jam Cabin Fever. All proceeds go to the COVID -19 Relief Fund of Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp.
GHOSTLY KISSES: NEVER LET ME GO (COYOTE RECORDS)
If sitting back and spacing out is more your speed, Margaux Sauvé has just the thing. The gossamer-voiced singer-songwriter and producer Louis-étienne Santais are back with another EP of ethereal electro-pop. Fans of Massive Attack and Portishead will find lots to like in Sauvé’s intricate hymns to love lost. From the wistful longing of the title track to the brooding groove of Barcelona Boy, her emotionally raw compositions cut to the chase.