Loving‘s intimate, lo-fi psychedelic folk songs inspire a sense of ease, yet are deceptively intricate. They offer a space to ruminate in life’s uncertainties and acknowledge the often strange journey of being alive.
After a highly acclaimed self-released EP, which organically found success online, Lovingreturn with their first full-length album,If I Am Only My Thoughts which sees its release today.
Victoria, BC’s Loving is the collaboration of David Parry and brothers Lucas and Jesse Henderson. With lyrics written by both Jesse and Lucas, the lush, homespun collection of songs was recorded to tape, mixed, and mastered by David in his self-described “cold, dismal” basement studio in Victoria. In contrast, these songs are balmy and inviting, comprised of a series of open-ended questions that circle existential themes.
Since breaking through on the soundtrack to the 2011 film Drive, where their A Real Hero scored pivotal scenes, Electric Youth haven’t slowed down. After releasing their 2014 debut, Innerworld, the Canadian duo spent the subsequent years working on new songs, scoring a forthcoming movie, and working again with Drive director, Nicolas Winding Refn (their song “Good Blood” appeared on the companion soundtrack for his 2016 film, The Neon Demon, while their 2017 release, Breathing, an Original Motion Picture Soundtrack From A Lost Film, was released under his ‘Nicolas Winding Refn Presents’ album series). The duo also collaborated with Gesaffelstein on his Columbia Records debut album, Hyperion, and with Oscar-winner, Ryuichi Sakamoto, on his album, Async Remodels.
Memory Emotion is the yang to the ying of their acclaimed debut: whereas Innerworld had an inward focus and the immersive atmospherics of a headphones album, the new LP looks outward, exploring a wider spectrum of sounds, moods and tempos, resulting in their most dynamic body of work yet. “Memory Emotionis much more outer-world, an album focused on the external world we live in and the way in which we interact with the world as a result of the emotions attached to our memories. Innerworld was finding that sense of self, developing and establishing a viewpoint, and Memory Emotion is us taking that viewpoint with us out into the world. The Life encapsulates the spectrum of that experience, from the dark to the light, the birth and rebirth, the destruction, degeneration and regeneration of living things on our planet, the home to all greedy megalomaniacs and generous martyrs alike,” explains Garrick. “There really is a strong link between music and memory and emotion, and Memory Emotion is what we came up with for that link.”
Vancouver’s electro dream-pop artist,Noble Oak today shares the video for his new single “Morning”. In addition to the video release, Noble Oak also announces his label debut album, entitled Horizon, slated for release in spring 2020.
“ Morning is an acknowledgment of the entrapment we feel in our daily lives”, says Noble Oak of the single. The video, directed byNancy Lee, is inspired by the 90s TV series ReBoot. Using the same software originally intended for making video games, the video features three worlds designed entirely in virtual reality. Noble Oak’s character was imported into each virtual world by recording the depths of his physical body using an infrared sensor.
Noble Oak’s forthcoming LPHorizonfollows the release ofCollapsing Together(2017),Past Life(2016) which prompted comparisons to the likes of The War on Drugs, Bob Moses, and Tame Impala and international praise from Stereogum, HYPEBEAST, Majestic Casual, DIY, Indie Shuffle, CLASH Magazine and more.
Today,Holy Fuck release their acclaimed new album,Deleter, via Last Gang Records. The project was introduced by incredible singles,Luxe(featuring Alexis Taylor), which was A-Listed on 6Music,Free Gloss(featuring Nicholas Allbrook) and finally, the album title homage,Deleters.
Having also taken their cerebral, mind-blowing show out on the road with Hot Chip, Holy Fuck’s extensive run of global tour dates for 2020 continue with stops across Canada – see complete details below.
“The song ‘Deleters,’” writes Holy Fuck, “started at a party in the woods of rural Quebec. Set up on the forest floor, literally over moss covered tree roots we decided to make up a new hour-long improvised set in front of a crowd of people dancing amongst the trees. From that session two songs emerged and found their way onto the new record. This is the first time we selected a song from the record to also be a title track- but there really isn’t a reason for it other than we thought it sounded cool, like a modern version of Fugazi’s Repeater or Depeche Mode’s Violater (or even Kiss’ Destroyer, though in name only). Our friend Angus from Liars doubles Brian’s vocals giving the track a nice punch.”
Introducing their new album in their own words today, Holy Fuck write:
“People have been saying this is our danciest record. That may be true to a point (we like dancing… who doesn’t’?) but we hope it shows a new depth as well. We’ve never identified with one particular genre or sound but rather spend our time trying to explore our own world and the things that make us vibrate. Of course we want to connect with listeners, and what better way than to make people dance, but, as heard on ‘Deleter’, we also want to put listeners in the cool spaces we see and take them on the interesting journeys we like going on as well.”
The record as a whole came together in many different stages of creativity, which is typical of how we work. This process is forced upon us by the fact that we all live in different cities from one another. Yet at the same time this process also demonstrates our enthusiasm to create whenever, wherever, and however we can. There are obviously no rules to making music, no perfect situation or time to create. There are just ideas. ‘Deleter’ was written during various sound checks on tour, on stage, while jamming at a strange art-party in a forest, at home, in various rehearsal spaces, and at many different studios along the way. Not only did this process allow us the time to sit with and ponder our ideas it also allowed us to explore different kinds of inspiration we were feeling at that particular moment. One minute we might’ve been raving to minimal techno, the next, diving into horror movie soundtracks or maybe just manipulating the sound of static noise sampled from a broken piece of equipment.
Staying true to the creative arc we seem to be finding ourselves on since the first LP, ‘Deleter’ might be our most “written” album yet. A lot of attention and care was taken to create the ‘seeds’ of ideas and starting points that we then fleshed out, and just as much care was taken to craft those ideas into the songs heard on the final record. Hopefully listeners hear that as well.”
