New music, Canada and forthcoming festivals...

Only yesterday I was thinking that I hadn't written about new Welsh music for sometime and so I did something about that. I used to write about music from Canada rather often too, indeed it was Arcade Fire that were in large part responsible for my conversion to festival-going, and therefore Latitude Festival, back in 2007.

Here are two Canadian acts that I have never seen live before but are appearing at festivals to which I'm going this coming summer. One thing I am confident about is that nobody could claim that both fall into a single genre. Both have new records to bring to the party, however.

Basia Bulat - Good Advice (Secret City Records, 12 February 2016).

This release is rather more pop-oriented than her earlier acoustic and folk-oriented material that regularly featured hammered dulcimer and autoharp. She is playing End Of The Road Festival, Dorset, UK, and hopefully we will get the best of both worlds.

The Besnard Lakes - A Coliseum Complex Museum (Jagjaguwar Records, 22 January 2016).

The Besnard Lakes is, more or less, the project of  husband-and-wife team Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas. One thing that that they do very well is psych-rock. I have all the earlier LPs too but this is the latest and in any case my liking for this is hardly breaking news. One accusation levelled against the band is that it sticks to the theme too much...  another is that the album is too short; earlier ones were criticised for being too long.
You just can't win!
Any which way, The Besnard Lakes play Green Man Festival 2016.  See what you think. See you there?

New Music 2015 - Part 36 - Slow Down Molasses - Burnt Black Cars

'Burnt Black Cars' - by one of the best bands that I have ever seen live at a festival and without any prior knowledge of it - is simply a warning that Canada is well and truly on my mind again! Here it is playing the Tipi stage at End Of The Road Festival 2011.

That band was Slow Down Molasses, from Saskatoon, SK.

The new LP, 'Burnt Black Cars', was released today.

That it was produced by Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes) and the title might tell you something about how you should expect it to sound. You should not be disappointed unless that is you expect it to sound quite like the previous works of either band. I think that I need to write nothing more about this.