Lammping, Janky Bungag, Stonegrass, and The Stakes Are Us
Lammping - Never Never
Lammping is a duo from Toronto composed of composer/producer Mikhail Galkin and drummer Jay Anderson. Together they explore different musical realms, avoiding the confines of specific genres. On Never Never they begin a four album journey by enlisting Montreal’s legendary wild-man Bloodshot Bill. The album has hip-hop vibes all throughout with a rhythm section providing boom-bap beats that deliver a groove impossible not to enjoy. The musical flourishes over the beats give a retro energy with psych-rock textures and delightfully well thought-out samples. Together Galkin and Anderson craft a sound that makes the psycho-billy vocal performance of Bloodshot Bill shine in a way I’d have never expected. At its core, this is a hip-hop record and Bloodshot Bill’s one-of-a-kind voice is so well placed in this setting, something I would have never imagined. Never Never is so fucking cool, I know I’ll be going back to this record from time to time until my days are done.
Janky Bungag - DemoGrass Tapes
Vancouver underground country artist, Janky Bungag needs to be on your radar. He’s part of a surge of acts in Canada right now who are taking back country music from the putrid pop hybrid that makes me want to vomit. The more people making good country, the better chance the tides turn on pop-country. On the DemoGrass Tapes, he dives headfirst into my second favourite country genre, bluegrass… the jazz of country music. Most of the release features covers that range from well known country greats of the past like The Stanley Brothers and Doc Watson to wild reimaginings of non-country tunes like “Boom, Boom, Boom Boom”, the 1998 hit by Eurodance act The Vengaboys or Gob’s “No Regrets”. Those are fun but it’s the originals that truly shine, specifically the late album tracks “One Dead (On The Crowsnest)” and “Waiting For Me Back Home”. Hearing these two tracks has me truly excited about discovering Janky Bungag.
Stonegrass - STONEGRASS 2
Instrumental music can be a tough sell, I find there’s a lot of people who hear lyrics first when listening to music. I’ve always been a lyrics-last person so I tend to gravitate towards instrumental tunes because it becomes incumbent on the band to evoke some type of human emotion without words. On STONEGRASS 2 the quartet consisting of prolific Toronto musicians Jay Anderson (see top review), Matthew ‘Doc’ Dunn, Asher Gould-Murtag, and Harrison Forman turn up the blues. The psychedelia is still there, the gritty jam band feel still exists, and the riffs still rip, but there’s a feel to this release that sets you smack-dab in the Louisiana Bayou. Take the aptly named track “The Swamp”, its meandering repetitive rhythms with krautrock undertones sets the backdrop for the harmonica to be the primary instrument and it reeks of swampy blues. Most tracks employ guitar over the impeccable groove but no matter where the band goes, the common ground is a grimy, blues forward, psychedelic, New Orleans dive-bar-jam-band approach being executed by masters of their craft.
The Stakes Are Us - You Get To Be You
The Stakes Are Us are a Vancouver duo consisting of old dudes Trevor M Thompson (Sparkle Fuzz, Scin Laeca, Betty Kracker, The Rain and the Sidewalk) and Jeremy Todd (Night Bust, Payday Millionaire, The Weather, The Blush Response). The album is an homage to the best the 80s had to offer while peppering in some lush ambient textures from time to time. It’s hard not to hear influences of Eno era Talking Heads but the tempo is generally lower and the textures are weirder. It’s a record that came at me from out of nowhere and has me diving back in over and over and discovering cool new sounds each time. I was first obsessed with the pop approach to the opener “It's The Twilight (Of The Influencers)” and now I can’t get enough of the krautrock meets new-wave brilliance of “For Loving What Is”. Listen to each of those and you’ll get an idea of the wild sonic range found on You Get To Be You.
