You gotta see

VINTAGE TROUBLE

Soul music is a unique field. While people can like metal, or enjoy folk, the greats of the genre need to have soul. Unlike hip-hop or country, soul is not just a thing that a person does—it’s the essence of who they are. That’s something that Vintage Trouble has taken to heart. Transporting listeners back to the ’60s with vocals that oscillate between silky-smooth and aggressively gritty, singer Ty Taylor is as at home on the group’s gospel-backed, blues-infused stompers as its Otis Redding-esque ballads. His emotive voice is what ties together the band’s genre-spanning approach to making music. Having played with everyone from AC/DC to the Rolling Stones, the group is famed for its sweat-inducing stage show. Taylor in particular has the charisma of James Brown in his heyday, with the group’s soul ’n’ roll able to touch audiences of all generations. Vintage Trouble has the rare ability to win over crowds with its new material as much as its old, bringing thumping grooves and topnotch songwriting to the stage. Currently on the road drawing material from three fulllengths, including 2015’s 1 Hopeful Rd, the Tinseltown quartet plays the much-loved Rickshaw Theatre on Sunday (November 12).

Peregrine Falls (Drip Audio)

Although they’ve collaborated 2

in various projects for the better part of two decades, percussionist Kenton Loewen and guitarist Gordon Grdina are probably best known to fans of Dan Mangan, having made significant contributions to his critically lauded 2011 album Oh Fortune as well as 2015’s Club Meds, the latter of which saw their efforts, among sympathetic members of Vancouver’s experimental music scene, credited to Blacksmith. Peregrine Falls is a whole other kettle of fish.

Peregrine Falls’ eponymous debut was coproduced and released by Drip Audio head Jesse Zubot. Those expecting the warm, introspective insight of Mangan will be lost on this record. This is pure, unfiltered Loewen and Grdina, condensed into a barrage of hard-rocking riffs and pounding drums that assault the senses in the best way possible.

The record is largely instrumental and improvised, which works fine considering that the duo’s palpable chemistry and hard-earned skills

Try ;-) (Mint)

When Faith Healer’s 2015 2

debut album, Cosmic Troubles, was recorded, it was basically a solo project by Jessica Jalbert. She chose the pseudonym in an attempt to avoid the quaint singer-songwriter label that she was saddled with for her previous album, which was put out under her own name. That concern is a thing of the past with Try ;-).

Everything about Try ;-) is bigger. While producer, performer, and fellow Mint artist Renny Wilson heavily contributed to Cosmic Troubles, he became an official bandmate on this one, and he owns it. The production sounds far more distinguished on Try

there’s far less aping of ’60s studio tropes and way more of a dedicated ’70s psych-pop polish, with more synths and a wider stereo feel to the downtempo balladry and surreal indie rock.

Throughout the record, Jalbert’s voice sounds dreamier, drawing out emotional nuance and resonance more than simply labelling it. In effect, although their tremendous effort is apparent, it sounds like they’re trying less hard to be eclectic and being more themselves.

> ALAN RANTA