From Pink Chocolate to Elephant Stone, This Week’s Slew of New Albums

More than 10 new releases have finished off August with a bang after a scanty past couple of months. We will look at many of them in more detail later. But here is a quick summary.

Western Canada Releases

Billboard Canadian Hot 100 charting artist Stef Lang from Vancouver Island has launched a new urban leaning EP entitled Rubix. With a pair of JUNO nominations and one gold album, Vancouver punk outfit Gob has released its latest work, Apt 13. Also cruising out from the west coast, Brill Bruisers is the new album from JUNO-winning alternative band The New Pornographers. Manitoba’s Willows is the new moniker for singer-songwriter Geneviève Toupin. An album of the same name has been released.

Eastern Canada Releases

They say that Montréal is the indie capital of Canada. Five works have come out of the city this week. Bernhari is a brand new act that blends popular tones with some shoegaze vibes. The solid debut album is a self-titled affair. Made Them Lions, or M.T.L, is a 5-piece pop/rock/reggae group. They’re new eponymous LP is excellent. Neuroplasticity is the new album from JUNO-nominated “doom soul” artist Cold Specks. Press Play is a fusion pop album from Pink Chocolate. There’s some R&B and electro in the mix. Elephant Stone describes its music as “hindie rock / psyche pop”. The album bears the title Three Poisons. Ghost is a rapper from Québec. Le gars du nord is his new album. Oxygen: Inhale is the latest from JUNO-nominated Ontario Christian rock band Thousand Foot Krutch.

International Collaboration

Sounds of Sputnik is a project by Russian artist Roma Kalitkin. His new album New Born is a collaboration with duo Ummagma comprised of Shauna McLarnon from Whitehorse, YT and the Ukraine’s Alexander Kretov. The style of music blends noisy shoegaze, space rock, and dream pop. New Born contains five songs with several remixes of a couple of them. We’ll do a special feature on the project a bit later.

Manitoba’s Willows

After a pair of studio albums, singer-songwriter Geneviève Toupin from St-Claude, Manitoba has released a new album under the moniker Willows. She chose it partly in honour of her favourite tree—the weeping willow. With the lyric poetry deeply rooted in nature and the presence of some Aboriginal rhythms in her music, Geneviève feels that her rich cultural background has helped sculpt her style: her father is Franco Manitoban and her mother is Métis of the Red River. As far as music on the mellow side goes, the album is a masterpiece with beautiful songs flowing throughout the disc. The bilingual LP was produced by the capable hands of Émilie Proulx who has garnished the work with delicate vocal arrangements and carefully measured orchestration. Second track “Entends-tu?” is being offered as a free download by iTunes. This album is highly recommended.  iTunes