Poulet Neige is an
awesome website that gives you a bunch of free (or pay what you can)
albums from Quebec and Canadian bands for Christmas. It's unfortunately over for this year but be sure to keep in touch with them and register for the future edition. I got many
albums thanks to this initiative and I've picked 4 of 'em for this volume. These bands all evolve in similar genres, blending indie, alternative,
psychedelic rock and progressive rock together and they're all from the
province of Québec and the Montréal area.
Poulet Neige on Facebook
Poulet Neige on Facebook
Uubbuurruu –
Swamp Ritual (2015)
The
debut EP by this Montréal quintet is quite cool. Due to the demented
purple artwork, I was expeting some hard and heavy stoner metal but
it's way more subdued than that. Dwelving into psychedelic rock,
stoner rock, shoegaze and even blues rock, the band is definitely
influenced by the excellent and popular british band Uncle Acid and
the Deadbeats. They have the same sort of buried Beatles-esque vocals
and super fuzzy riffs. While not totally metal, they deliver heavy
tunes like the speedy “I Don't Mind” or the super
psychedelic closer “Radio Waves”. With the track “Dear God”,
they proved that they're also capable of writing excellent ethereal
blues/folk as this song sounds like a mix of Dylan and My Bloody
Valentine. Highly recommended extended play, the future is bright for
these guys, you should learn how to pronounce and spell their name
already.
Uubbuurruu on Bandcamp
Richelieu
– Richelieu (2015)
The trio from Montréal
released their debut full length this summer and while I totally love
their musical abilities and the music created here, the vocals and
lyrics weren't totally convincing. They're influenced by the old prog
rock of Québec (see Harmonium or Octobre) but they also combine this
with a singer songwriter approach and some indie leanings. I thought
it was a bit kitsch but frankly it's hard to make the French language
work in a rock setting, I can count on my two hands the artists I
really like that use my mother tongue successfully (Alain Bashung
being one of them).
It's a varied album, from rougher moments like
“D'la scrap” and its garage rock feel to the soothing “Repos”.
I think Richelieu is at their best when they're instrumentally minded
and unleash their true prog rock side like on the Gentle Giant-esque
instrumental track “Dernier tableau” where the guitarist David
Chassé truly shines. The synths an mellotrons are sounding good and
can recall Supertramp at times, it's a good album but there's some
aspects I like more than others and I'd like to see some more of
those proggy harsher explorations instead of pop songs but
that's just me.
Corridor – Le
voyage éternel (2015)
After
the excellent EP, “Un
magicien en toi” released
in 2013, Corridor released “Le
voyage éternel”, their debut album, back in May. They play a vivid
genre mixing jangle pop, psych/progressive rock and indie and
it's super good! There's a lot of reverb in the vocals, a bit like
Malajube used to do, this is one tactic to make French lyrics
work in a rock environment, a recurring problem I've mentioned in the
previous review. The highly layered vocals are creating a smooth
and the duel guitars are often loud, juggling atmospheric riffs and
cool bass
licks. The musicianship is impressive but they keep things subtle,
that's something that one of their main influence (R.E.M.) always did
as well.
In the end, the songwriting is what matters the most and they truly deliver the goods. Corridor writes short song (for a psych/prog band...) but their compositions are rich, dense and rewarding. They convinced me with their unorthodox riffs by mixing a strange psych approach and an endearing romantic side. One of the best québécois albums of the year and it's much better than the last album by Tame Impala!
In the end, the songwriting is what matters the most and they truly deliver the goods. Corridor writes short song (for a psych/prog band...) but their compositions are rich, dense and rewarding. They convinced me with their unorthodox riffs by mixing a strange psych approach and an endearing romantic side. One of the best québécois albums of the year and it's much better than the last album by Tame Impala!
Renard
Blanc – Empire Onirique (2015)
After
Karkwa's impact on the Quebec music scene, it was logical to see
bands follow their paths. Renard Blanc (white fox) is one of them.
Hugely influenced by Radiohead's early stuff, the ten songs of this
debut album are atmospheric proggy rock with layers upon layers
of sounds. I really like the “La guerre des tuques” (a cult
children movie) in “Doucement”, it was an original
choice!
While it's usually a dark or introspective genre, this trio (with the help of a session keyboardist) are keeping things rooted in positivism but without being cheesy, overly sunny or saccharine. Their explorations are calm, often instrumental with interesting percussion and the Thom Yorke inspired vocals of guitarist Vincent Lepage. Certainly recommended for fans well written soothing alt rock.
While it's usually a dark or introspective genre, this trio (with the help of a session keyboardist) are keeping things rooted in positivism but without being cheesy, overly sunny or saccharine. Their explorations are calm, often instrumental with interesting percussion and the Thom Yorke inspired vocals of guitarist Vincent Lepage. Certainly recommended for fans well written soothing alt rock.
Corridor and Renard Blanc are playing with the excellent Ponctuation (another band I recently got into) in two weeks, I'll try to be there! Event: @Divan Orange
Stay tuned for a sixth volume of Local Sounds in the upcoming weeks.
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