Bio

Calgary, AB 

It’s hard to know what the heck happened to Sunglaciers’ four members to cause them to spawn danceable, ponderable, punky-chipped pop that sometimes sounds like an underwater Iggy Pop trying to access the PIN to your brain. Their songs rove over too many territories to piss in while featuring a subtle mosaic of emotions – not just the big ones – but the little moments of flat, stale being that make up most of one’s life. A UK review nailed it with “threads of ennui and missed connections.” 

Perhaps the key is the origins: the four-piece band formed in 2017 after founding member Mathieu Blanchard was becoming a family and addictions doctor and Evan Resnik, a fellow multi-instrumentalist, returned from hitchhiking in France. Extensive tours of Canada, the US and UK established a dedicated fan base as the band released three albums, including 2024’s Regular Nature. Their fun, furious and unpredictable songs occasionally seem like a suburban-stuck Godley and Creme screwing with you. If labels are for soup cans, Sunglaciers tear theirs off before running their brew through the checkout.   

– Mary-Lynn Wardle 

Bio

Montreal, QC

Instantly recognizable and relentlessly inventive don’t typically go hand in hand, but SUUNS have somehow managed it. The quartet of Ben Shemie, Joe Yarmush, Liam O’Neill and Max Henry turned heads with their abrasive and inventive 2010 debut, and they’ve kept them spinning ever since. In the 14 years since, the group (now officially a trio, though Henry still contributes to recordings) haven’t just refined their sound, they’ve continually reinvented it, experimenting with new sonic textures, dissolving musical structures, and pushing at the boundaries of what could generously be called a pop song.

Given the distance between the punk energy of their early releases and the deliberate minimalism of The Witness, what is it that makes SUUNS so distinctive? In a large part it’s Shemie’s vocals, recognizable even behind a mask of autotune. There are common threads in the music—the wiry guitars, hypnotic synths, the industrial drums that are threatening and danceable all at once. Those elements reappear, but they’re raw materials, things to be dismantled, distorted, and reassembled, never something to be precious about.

More than anything, though, you know SUUNS from the atmosphere. Their music is a world in itself, hazy, overcast, and sinister even in the moments that the light shines through. And wherever you find yourself in that world, it sounds like no one else.

– Peter Hemminger

Bio

Vancouver, BC

Do you love early Pink Floyd? Do you sometimes dream of a parallel soundtrack to Eyes Wide Shut? Do these things seem far apart while equally delightful? Then snuggle up to Vancouver musical conjunct Black Mountain, who since forming in 2004 have welcomed many to their flowing, amorphous fold, including members of Lightning Dust, Blood Meridian, Pink Mountaintops and Sinoia Caves.

The loose collective brings forth tight music untethered by expectation, and despite channeling some good old, new old prog rock vibes, the music is occasionally tempered by its ‘70s cousin, punk, and a dose of sweet classic rock silliness – like naming one of their albums IV – keeping the band from taking itself too seriously. While a fresh take on synths, heavy guitar riffs, and boulder-solid drumming borrows from the palettes of that era, the band offers modern themes and elegant shared male and female lead vocals that transcend any one era.

– MLW