King Vulture, Lhasa Petik, Primp, and Billiane
King Vulture - V
Maxwell Vautour and Myles Peterman’s project King Vulture returns with V, an album which showcases their experimental industrial edge which teethers the lines between metal and electro with its sound design, instrumental, and mixing choices. Some of the elements found in this record can appeal to listeners of artists as diverse as Backxwash, Uboa, or Amnesia Scanner (I know, I am kind of casting a wide net here even among noisier types of musicians). Aside from the intensive composition and instrumental mixing, it is the vocal mixing that really stands out to me. The vocal production is certainly deploying a variety of effects at all times (pitch shifters, harsh equalization filters, modulation, doublers, you name it), but it took me a couple listens to pick up on the moments where it becomes apparent that both Vautour’s and Peterman’s vocals are lined up over each other in “Dracula.” Some real standouts in this record include “Basilisk,” “The Monolith,” “A Choir Revealing,” and “Registration” which lean into anywhere from shoegaze-inspred metal, industrial rap, and noise.
Lhasa Petik - THYMIA
After a delightful debut EP, Winnipeg’s Lhasa Petik has delivered us a debut album, THYMIA. Petik is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who has crafted a dynamic bedroom pop sound — one that verges on the end of alt pop or indie pop outright given how defined and polished her sound is from what I usually find in bedroom pop. But what keeps Petik in touch with bedroom pop can be anything from instrumentation choices to her intimate lyricism delving often into an explorative navel-gazing narrative. Lhasa Petik’s work has a solid foundation as far as her perspective and angle into songwriting goes, and she builds on that with lush and evocative sounds. You see her show off her sound right out of the gate with an atmospheric intro thriving in autotuned vocals that quickly moves into a pop song that takes an acoustic guitar loop as its foundation in “Meet U There.” A track like “Petty Torture” hits more of a traditional bedroom pop sound with swelling saw synths and breakbeats, in later tracks this type of sound is revisited in tracks “Been There Done That” and “Sentimental.” This contrasts with tracks “Be OK” and “Alibi” which give a more intensive club electropop treatment to their sound. Overall, this is an album that will appeal to fans of artists like Clairo, googly eyes, Robyn, and The Japanese House.
Primp - Primp
Born out of the lovely Helm Studios in Vancouver, Aly Laube, Kristen Frier, and Tae Whitehouse have come together to produce their final self-titled record as Primp. Primp is a soft alt rock band that often delves into riot grrrl and power pop territory over the course of its releases. This final release leans into some of the softer sounds to have come out of Primp’s catalogue with tracks that sound like something out of The Beths, early Snail Mail, or Soccer Mommy at her most indie rock. This is all to say that this album thrives in lush vocals and lyrics that delve into the wistful, the frustrating, and the anxious. Instrumentally, we get soft twangy guitars over steady drums and bass that clear the way for vocal harmonies to shine for the most part. Notably, “Market Value” is the most loud track which takes this kind of musical arrangement into an adequately chosen punky edge with bratty and knaving vocals. And even then, the sound retains this sweetness thriving on chorus driven riffs and a soft rock rhythm section across the board. This puts everything together into a generally dreamy sound, the kind which you would sit with while listening to music outdoors at the end of summer or early fall.
Billianne - Modes of Transportation
Pop folk singer/songwriter Billianne has debuted with her album Modes of Transportation. Billianne’s artistic trajectory is a curious one. After going viral on TikTok at a young age, Billianne was propelled out of her habitual orbit in Milton, Ontario and into the limelight of record label stamps and global touring. This kind of shift can be dramatically overwhelming — it was not too long ago that Chappell Roan was speaking out about her own experience with this once The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess gained major attention. Accordingly, Billianne has opened up about this tension between feelings of unpreparedness and a love-hate relationship to social media. And nonetheless, I think the thought and care she put into Modes of Transportation (along with collaborators Duncan Hood and Nick Ferrero) speaks to her grounded attitude in spite of all of the changes happening in her life. The album thrives in polished guitar-centric pop music with lush vocal production that constantly takes a good hold of the mix. Notable examples of this include tracks like “Baby Blue,” “Future Emma,” and “Crush.” At times the album delves into more sad girl indie type sound pallets in tracks like “Wishlist,” “Memories,” and “Let Me Run.” Meanwhile, the beginning and end of the album titled “Modes I” and Modes II” respectively offer some of the most discreet and gentle tracks of the album — personally, “Modes I” stands out for me for its theme setting lyricism while working in a beautiful piano track that Billianne build on top of vocally. It is easy for an artist caught in all these motions to put out music as content — I believe this has become all too common over the past decade — but Billianne takes the time to slow down and be intentional with an album that really digs into defining herself as an artist working on original music.
