the
est. 1914
TOBAN
MANI
Rainy Day Ritual and post-internet music ARTS & CULTURE Alex Braun, staff
Rainy Day Ritual is the brainchild of Samwauw, or just Sam, a young artist with a lot on his mind. Since releasing its first mixtape last year and a new EP About August in February, Rainy Day Ritual has started picking up attention in the Winnipeg indie scene, nabbing an opening spot for Montreal’s Braids and Winnipeg’s Living Hour at the West End Cultural Centre on March 26, a high-profile slot for such a new project.
After releasing some music under the name Samwauw, the Rainy Day Ritual project started in order for Sam to build a space where he could bounce ideas off others freely, but without the constraints of working in the structure of a band.
Listening to their music, it’s easy to tell why they’ve started picking up heat. Each song is overflowing with ideas — distorted synths, guitars, hyperactive beats, auto-tuned vocals and unexpected samples careen out of the mix at a rapid clip. It’s exciting stuff, conveying this wide-eyed feeling of the thrill of creation. Talking to Sam over Zoom, his excitement and ambition are palpable.
Most of the collaboration Sam does with Rainy Day Ritual is inherently idea-based, rather than musical.
Sam got his start as a drummer in a band, but when he took it upon himself to buy home recording equipment, he was excited by the possibilities of recording and making music on his own. “I got into synths and got […] Reaper, just some freeware [stuff] […] It’s just been a process of expanding for the past four years.”
“I’m always in the process of trying to sort this out,” he said. “I think four months ago it was a band, and now I think it’s just me getting my friends to help me write stuff.”
“I guess [it’s] still collaboration nonetheless, but I don’t think in that regard I would call it a band,” he said. “You think of a band, there’s like two to four people up there with their guitars and then there’s the drummer and I’ve been trying to almost get away from that […] I loved playing in a band as I did, but I know I’ve got more stuff to do.” Instead, Sam bounces ideas and tracks off friends in a Discord server, allowing for a wider collaboration on the grounds of ideas and aesthetics, while he still writes and records everything the project puts out.
image / Rainy Day Ritual / provided
New musical project looks to break down artistic barriers
Talking about this idea-based work on artistic ideology and aesthetic consideration, Sam brings up a series of rants he wrote about the project “The Re-Think” volumes one through three. “I talked a lot about how I can’t shy away from what I grew up on […] [808s & Heartbreak]-era Kanye, T-Pain, Kesha, all this stuff that we see right now and we’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so out of date, that’s so uncool,’ but I love [it] to death,” he said. “I can’t shy away from that because that’s my formation as a musician […] like Black Eyed Peas, ridiculously over-the-top hard synth pop stuff, and I love that stuff.” “Nothing is really uncool now — we’re in a great place where everything is sort of ‘in’ and that’s wonderful and horrifying but it allows you to do whatever […] you want, and so that’s
what I do. I want to be, or at least I wanted to be on the last EP, like a sort of bridge between T-Pain and Kesha and Animal Collective and Deerhunter.” While the project is still just beginning, Sam made sure to note there is much more to come. “I’ve got cool ideas and I think a lot about this […] And maybe if it’s not as awesome as I want it to be now, it will be.” The new Rainy Day Ritual EP About August is available on all streaming platforms. Tickets for the show on March 26 are available at reallovewpg.com.
arts@themanitoban.com
’Toban turntable ARTS & CULTURE Alex Braun, staff
3.5/5 stars Multidisciplinary artist Maylee Todd has had a wild, varied career. Beginning her career as a comedian, she has since branched out into performance art, animation and music. All these elements come together on her ambitious new project Maloo. The record is pitched as a sort of concept album, with a storyline as baffling as the uncanny digital avatar that appears on its cover — a smooth, grey humanoid creature with massive aquatic ears. According to the press materials, “Maloo tells the story of a conscious AI observer summoned into being by the Children of Ew, creators of the metaverse. In this Age of Energy, empathy, mental health and creativity are the core elements for survival. [Maloo] travels to the Infinite Program, a planet whose sustainability is dependent on the well-being of
14
its inhabitants.” Given her comedic background and her work with notorious absurdist Eric Andre, it can be assumed the silliness is intentional, but the album also has serious intentions of interrogating our encroaching sci-fi metaverse reality. She examines the impact of the virtual space on our lives and explores identity, sexuality and mental health. Musically, Maloo notably draws from Japanese ambient and environmental music, applying the glassy, melancholy and retro-futurist sounds of early digital synthesizers to more modern pop structures with a healthy dose of neo-soul and jazz influence as well. It is reminiscent of Mac DeMarco or labelmate Jerry Paper’s woozy songwriting. The third track “Grab Your Guts” looks at the loneliness of virtual living, as well as the dichotomy of living more and more in a virtual space while still having a physical body to take care of, with a repeated mantra of “I grab my
image / Take Aim Media / provided
Maylee Todd — ‘Maloo’
guts and my hardwire, still manning up.” Other songs, like the slow jam “No Other,” seem to abandon the sci-fi plotline, muddying Todd’s overall concept. Considering how all-in the rest of the album is, “No Other” is a glaring oversight. The metaverse largely fills me with dread and confusion, but Todd seems to have an optimistic view of our virtual future. Even as the album
contains melancholy and skepticism, she chooses to end the album with “Absolute Time and Space,” a comforting song about getting through confusing, troubling times by holding on to the ones you love. And maybe in the metaverse, all we need is love.
arts@themanitoban.com
