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Articles by Jim Di Gioia
Surprise Me, Bandcamp: February 2024
Yes it is Groundhog Day, but no, you’re not experiencing deja vu. We kicked off this feature last month, and we’re back for another round of surprises from the Bandcamp algorithm. It’s pretty simple: we ask Bandcamp to randomly sort its releases from Canada, from any genre and any time, and then pick a handful from the first batch the site suggests to share with you here. Our criteria for picking these releases?
respectfulchild, 更新 re:new
Self-released • 2023 respectfulchild explores the parallels between their violin and personal identity, diving into gender dichotomies and the journey of self-discovery through music. On their second full-length release, 更新 re:new, respectfulchild 敬兒 set out to compose a suite of movements that creates a parallel relationship with their musical instrument—the violin—and their own body.
Jeremy Dutcher, Motewolonuwok
Motewolonuwok is a soul-stirring bridge between cultures and generations aiming for a lasting revival of language, culture, and unity. Elvis Costello said that a musician has their whole life to write their debut album and eighteen months to come up with their second. There’s truth to that adage, but I don’t think Costello envisioned a scenario like Jeremy Dutcher’s first and second albums.
Young Galaxy, Ultramarine
Ten years after its initial release, Ultramarine remains a go-to for effervescent and heady electro-pop. Most of my amateurish early writings about Young Galaxy have been wiped from existence, and I can’t decide if that is a good or bad thing. There was one particularly rambling blog post about 2013’s Ultramarine that still makes me wince.
Quick Before it Melts 025: 10 25 2022
Lee Paradise [ Colin Medley] Thank you for Visiting DOMINIONATED When you make a flexible one-time or monthly donation to DOMINIONATED or subscribe to PRESS PLAY, our $1/month new music feature, you join a community of supporters who are keeping DOMINIONATED’s conversations going. Your contribution ensures that our collective of writers and creators can keep producing valuable content like this in the future. Thank you for your support.
Big Rig, Big Rig
The Courtneys’ Jen Twynn Payne explores big emotions through modest means as Big Rig. My summer playlists have traditionally been full of big bangers decked out with sweltering hot bass lines. This year, I’m leaning towards a more subtle but no less stirring soundtrack that’s relied heavily on Big Rig’s punky country twang to take the edge off. Big Rig is the project of Jen Twynn Payne, who plays drums and sings in the Courtneys.
“In On The Upswing” b/w “TV Blue” by Skinny Dyck
I fell hard for “Dreamin’” from Skinny Dyck’s 2020 debut album Get To Know Lonesome, and in turn came to love the whole album, one I described a few months back as “torch and twang is so earnest it hurts — in the best way possible.” the only benefit of discovering an artist’s work well after its initial release is that you’re not waiting as long for new work. So I was pumped to learn that there is a new EP coming soon from Mr. Dyck.
Galaxius Mons, GMO
Independent • 2014 Galaxius Mons’ 2014 album, GMO, is a sandwich of sound that hits all the right taste buds. In the summer of 2014, on the occasion of his final release as Expwy, I did an email interview with multi-instrumentalist songwriter Matt LeGroulx.
Dr. Joy, by Dr. Joy
1. 2. FOLLOW YOU DOWN SWIMMING AWAY RISING FROM THE PAGE NIGHT ON YOUR FACE NO DEAL TODAY NOR TOMORROW BLINDED WIDE AWAKE LIGHT IN SORROW LEFT TO WOO THE MOONLIGHT MORE THAN TRUTH THEY SAY CRUELTY SINGS SWEETLY LEAVES NO HIDING PLACE THIS TIME TODAY CURTAINS CLOAK THE FACE STAND BESIDE THEM I’LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT HERE IN SILENCE STARS AND MOONS WILL FOOL YOU DESPAIR WILL HAVE ITS WAY THIS TIME TODAY HOW LONG MUST THE NIGHT HAVE TO BE?
Richmond Station, by JONCRO
1. The Voice in my head It won’t ever stop All through the day It tells me to drop. A sinking feeling That I know all to well Passa passa Turning my life to hell. You got a beef? Let’s take it outside Behind my back’s Not a good place to hide. Thought we were friends Now I see the light. Talk is cheap Now we have to fight. 2.
Ariane Moffatt, Incarnat
Incarnat is an emotionally invested record that resonates with both introspection and inspiration. It’s human instinct, I think, to get to a certain point in one’s career and life where the only way forward is to do a lot of looking back. Lately, we’ve been doing a lot of backward gazing ourselves, but Ariane Moffatt did something more than mining the past when she started contemplating the twenty years since releasing her debut album, Aquanaute.
Rae Spoon, Rae Spoon Songbook
For over twenty years, Rae Spoon and their music has helped countless people across the world. Now they need our help. On January 6, 2021, multi-disciplinary artist Rae Spoon released the Rae Spoon Songbook, a two-decade-spanning digital book of sheet music (along with recordings) for all eleven of their albums (109 songs in total) as a celebration of their 40th birthday. Anyone with even a passing familiarity of Spoon’s music knows just how rich and deep their catalogue goes.
"Now Or Never Now" by Metric
by Jim Di Gioia 4 days ago It totally hurts to turn the radio on these days; the TV, the phone, and the computer, too, for that matter. And newspapers, though you can’t really turn those on, per se. I’m tired of being in the present and constantly thinking that it was better to live in the past. It’s this same sense of “life on pause” that makes Metric’s “Now or Never Now” a refreshing, palate-cleansing tonic.
"The Wrong Things" by Sebastian Gaskin
I first heard “The Wrong Things” by Manitoba’s Sebastian Gaskin in the middle of a hot summer day on an encore presentation of Reclaimed on CBC radio, but I didn’t truly experience the song until much later that night. Once the sun went down, I turned the volume up and the lingering heat of the city gave the song a whole new sheen. Sexy and soulful as all get out, “The Wrong Things” is a song best suited for the night — the kind you hope never ends.
100 Mile House, Hiraeth | Albums | DOMINIONATED
Listening to Hiraeth is like leaving your front door open in the middle of the night. You won’t see what’s coming in until it comes across the threshold. Haunted memories. Long-lost loves. The dearly departed. In the dark of night, our familiars cast alien shadows and cloud our memories. Like the Welsh word it’s named for, Hiraeth is a record of reminiscence for a time, place, and people who may never have been.
AFTERLIFE: 2006-2016
The last post on Quick Before It Melts Quick Before It Melts launched 10 years ago today. In many ways this past decade feels like a lifetime, because in order to get back to the real start of Quick Before It Melts, I have to go back farther than July 26, 2006, back beyond my initial blogging experiments in the year before QBIM came online.
TUNS >> “Mind Over Matter”
Canada’s East Coast music scene in the 90s was always more about community than competition, so it’s only natural that three of its preeminent songwriters, Sloan‘s Chris Murphy, Matt Murphy of Super Friendz and The Flashing Lights, and Mike O’Neill of Inbreds, have come together as TUNS.
THE BEVERLEYS >> Brutal
My knee-jerk reaction to the word ‘brutal’ is: cruel, vicious, callous, heartless. Something or someone bruised, bloody, broken. The way “Bad Company” pummels your eardrums right off the top, you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking that in naming their debut full length Brutal, Toronto based trio The Beverleys are all about embracing those connotations. The Beverleys play loud and fast, like they’ve never met a speaker they haven’t wanted to blow up.
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