Arts & Culture

’Toban tracks — study vibes

Hit the library and crack the books with these perfect study tracks

Alex Braun, staff

I t’s our back to school issue, classes are starting back up and although we’d rather not think about it, actual schoolwork and studying is back on the horizon.

Study soundtracks are a pretty personal alchemical recipe for people, and obviously a lot depends on your specific brain chemistry, so I’ve tried to go for a range of tempo and activity levels with these songs.

The first stretch of this playlist is higher energy and more hyperactive. I personally need some stimulation and background chatter to really focus, so I prefer to post up in a busy area and turn on some techno. This strategy is represented here by a few skittering beauties from Canada’s finest producers, such as Edmonton’s Khotin with “iash.xv” off his Archive 13-15 compilation, or Montreal-based Jacques Greene’s spectral breakbeat track “Do It Without You.”

One’s personal emotional vibe when studying also takes some consideration. Some tracks here are melancholic and cold, like Ouri and Zach Frampton’s haunting “figure profane,” or warm and comforting like The Golden Age of Wrestling’s “outlaw run.” I also wanted to highlight a new age hippy-tinged side of ambient and electronic music with some good vibes courtesy of Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Joseph Shabason and Yu Su.

The final stretch is where things really space out and branch into some darker vibes. If hypnotizing noise and drone gets you focused, start with local duo Ardor’s track “Spring Declares Itself” and go from there. If you like them, catch them and Texas wizard Claire Rousay at this year’s send + receive festival.

So start up this playlist and get to cracking those books fellow Bisons. Pull up to your favourite spot on campus and study easy knowing that you have the coolest study music in the world going through your headphones. iash.xv — Khotin, Archive 13-15

Do It Without You — Jacques Greene, Dawn Chorus figure profane — Ouri, Zach Frampton, bt002 : self hypnosis tape

Closed Space — CFCF, Liquid Colours

Ahora — Daphni, Jiaolong

Touch-Me-Not — Yu Su, Yellow River Blue

Old Melody — Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Keyboard Fantasies

Dallin Chicoine / staff / graphic

Escape from North York

— Joseph Shabason, The Fellowship outlaw run — The Golden Age of Wrestling, Crossface Chicken Wing

Dimension Intrusion — F.U.S.E., Dimension Intrusion (25th Anniversary Edition)

Spring Declares Itself — Ardor, Spring Declares Itself discrete (the market) — Claire Rousay, a softer focus

Hatred of Music II — Tim Hecker, Ravedeath, 1972

Diamond Cove (And Its Children Were Watching) — Kyle Bobby Dunn, Bring Me The Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn

Headache — Grouper, Paradise Valley

arts@themanitoban.com

’Toban turntable

Living Hour, ‘Someday Is Today’

Alex Braun, staff

5/5 stars

Living Hour has long been a shining star of Winnipeg’s indie-rock scene, providing us sleepwalking prairie-dwellers with dreamy, washed-out and romantic sounds since 2013.

Taking inspiration from our harsh winters and wide open skies, Living Hour’s previous efforts sometimes fell into the hedonic whiteout bliss a little too deeply, becoming dreamy to the point of drowsiness.

But on the new record, Someday Is Today, Living Hour sounds sharper and more focused than ever. Each element pops, each song captivates and the band no longer hides itself behind any reverbed-out obfuscation, adding new textures, dynamic range and lyrical specificity to their quiet romanticism.

Take the album’s lead single “Feelings Meeting,” a collaboration with bedroom pop luminary Jay Som and the first-ever Living Hour song you could feasibly headbang to. It’s a definite statement of intent, both in its altrock loud-quiet-loud dynamics and in its lyrical themes, which mirror the band’s musical expansion and newfound directness.

Singer Sam Sarty is cancelling her “glossy subscription to the void,” searching for understanding and communication in a world of “Vaseline lenses” and blinking LEDs.

Sarty spins dozens of these oddly specific lyrical gems throughout the album, such as on the carefully rendered restaurant dissociation tale “No Body,” where lyrics about laminated menus and stray sugar cubes conspire with a hypnotizing instrumental to lift you out of your corporeal form.

The second half of Someday Is Today sees the band going further afield musically. The slowcore-y “Curve” is led by a compelling, gentle vocal turn. The song slowly builds from its downtrodden beginnings to a frustrated feverdream ending, dissolving and devolving just as it reaches its peak.

The charming “Miss Miss Miss” recalls the lounge-inflected art-pop of bands like Stereolab and Antena, juxtaposing that euro-chic energy with lyrics about missing the distinctly unchic now demolished Palomino Club on Portage.

The rambling indie-pop track “Exploding Rain” showcases another new lead vocal turn, and has a distinct Broken Social Scene vibe. The song builds instrumentally to a gliding, blissed out outro as vocal and guitar lines interweave and splash against each other.

Finishing with the stunning closing combo of “No Body” and the wistful, Yo La Tengo-esque instrumental “Memory Express,” Someday Is Today leaves the listener with butterflies in the stomach and a healthy urge to turn the record back over and start

provided Killbeat / image /

again.

This album represents a big leap forward and significant artistic achievement for Living Hour. Not a song is wasted on Someday Is Today as Living Hour covers a wide swath of influences with grace while never sounding like anybody but itself.

Living Hour’s Someday Is Today is available on major streaming platforms.

International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards full of rising stars

Alex Braun, staff Winnipeg’s Exchange Event Centre hosted the second annual International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards Show Aug. 26 and 27. The awards and surrounding conference highlighted artists in the Indigenous urban entertainment world and celebrated the culture and community around Indigenous-made hip hop and R&B.

The ceremony featured performances by artists like El Paso’s Artson, Winnipeg local Kenny Murkz and J25 out of Gary, Ind.

The awards, which were voted on by the public, went to a variety of artists from around the world.

Edmonton-based horrorcore and “psycho-drug-rap” trio Psych Ward Kidz won collaboration of the year for their track “8 Bars of Deranged.”In the artist categories, Nehiyaw and Métis artist EarthChild won producer of the year, Manitoba’s own Stun took home the award for breakthrough artist of the year and Las Vegas-based artist SheRōze was chosen as songwriter of the year.

Two female artists won big in the song and album of the year categories, with Toronto-based Cree “femcee” TheRa11n getting the nod for best hip hop single and Treaty 6 territory’s Pooky G bringing home the hardware for hip hop album of the year.

Check out the complete list of winners below.

Hip Hop Single of the Year: The Ra11n, “IYKYK”

Collaboration of the Year: Psych Ward Kidz, “8 Bars of Deranged” feat. Doom Squad, Monster Loco and Poltergeist OD

Producer of the Year: EarthChild, Indian Time

Hip Hop Album of the Year: Pooky G, So Far So Hood

Songwriter of the Year: SheRōze, We Rise

R&B Single fo the Year: Melody McArthur, “Wilding” feat. Jahkota

Clothing Line of the Year: Nipîy Iskwew

Best Male Hip Hop Artist: Sten Joffi, “Thank You”

Best Female Hip Hop Artist: MzShellz, “Level Up”

Breakthrough Artists of the Year: Stun, “Gimme Love”

DJ of the Year: DJ O Show

Music Video of the Year: Savelle Tha Native, “Shoot My Shot”

Best International Hip Hop Single of the Year: Barkaa, “King Brown”

Best International Hip Hop Album of the Year: Baker Boy, Gela

Inspirational Social Change Award: TKO arts@themanitoban.com