
Jeremy Dutcher "Motewolonuwok"
From Secret City Records:
“There is no one making music like this” – NPR Music
Dutcher originally vaulted himself into the upper echelons of Canadian performance with his 2018 debut, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. Since winning the Polaris and JUNO Prizes, performing for NPR Tiny Desk, and collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma, Buffy St. Marie and Beverly Glenn Copeland, Dutcher returns with a moving and radiant exploration of contemporary Indigeneity and his place within it, presenting his most expansive work yet.
The Motewolonuwok album inspiration began with a poem by Cherokee writer Qwo-li Driskill. “From the heavy debris of loss, together we emerge,” a singular story of a two-spirit kin who was taken too soon, and calls us all together to witness, celebrate and heal. Jeremy sings in Wolastoqey — his native tongue, considered an endangered language — anchoring his work while he continues to reimagine the song traditions of his people from the banks of the Wolastoq River, just like he had previously done on his first full-length.
The new album also marks Dutcher’s first time writing and singing in English. A powerful invitation for collective healing and understanding. “Shared tongue is a beautiful gift, with a complicated reason,” Dutcher explains. These new English songs are also a way of singing directly to the newcomer, or settler, in their own language — a direct line of communication that seeks to platform his community’s stories of healing, resilience, and emergence to all that may hear.

'68 "Yes, and…"
From Distorted Sound Magazine:
Titled Yes, And…, the upcoming album from the Atlanta-based rock duo is the follow-up to 2021’s Give One Take One, and is scheduled to be released later this month, via Pure Noise Records.
Speaking about the upcoming new album, vocalist/guitarist Josh Scogin says, “this is by far the heaviest album ’68 has ever done. It wasn’t on purpose, it just sort of evolved into what it is. As soon as we could see the full gravitas of the album, we just leaned into it. Many of the bluesy tracks didn’t find a home and some of the parts that were on the fence, we doused with gasoline. For us, the pendulum has never been extended so far, in one direction. This is exciting because it was obvious how this album needed to turn out and it pretty much solidifies how the next album will end up as well.”

La Force "XO SKELETON"
XO SKELETON is the supple, steady, uncanny new album by La Force: a mixture of haunted pop and hot-blooded R&B that glistens at the meeting-point between life, death, and love. The album, coproduced by La Force and Warren Spicer (Plants and Animals), will be available everywhere in digital and LP format on September 29 via Secret City Records. La Force also shares Fall tour dates: three headlining shows in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa presenting the new album, as well as European support dates for Patrick Watson.

The Garment District "Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World"
On their second full-length LP, The Garment District delivers a Kunstkabinett of sound reminiscent of the Manhattan neighborhood (and others around the globe, both existing and shuttered) with which they share a name. Just as one might wander through a Garment District shop entranced by a staggering display of fabric from seemingly every era and locale, surrounded by rows of buttons, threads and trimmings, listeners will be equally entranced by the hypnotic array of textured sounds on Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World.
The album was recorded in a friend’s home studio nestled in the labyrinthian hills of Western Pennsylvania during the time warp surrounding the pandemic. For composer and arranger Jennifer Baron (who plays numerous instruments on the album), settling in at David Klug’s studio atop Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington allowed her to stretch and challenge herself, creating expansive arrangements. In another lifetime, just miles away within nearby hills and hamlets, Jennifer’s great-grandfather arrived from Zagreb, forming a family band, a tamburitza orchestra featuring her grandfather, great-aunt and great-uncles, who performed in Monongahela Valley steel towns. Jennifer’s work with her first cousin Lucy Blehar, who supplies lead vocals, continues this family music-making heritage.
Along with guitar, bass and drums, listeners will encounter a full suite of strings, horns, a variety of percussion, and finely woven keyboards and vocals. Some parts were improvised on-site, while others evolved at home, highlighting Jennifer’s collection of analog keyboards before being translated into final recordings. Having the opportunity to experiment with equipment borrowed from friends, like a rare 1970s Roland Paraphonic 505 and a 1960s UMI Buzz Tone Volume Expander, shaped the exploratory process of crafting dimensional melodies and instrumentation. The result is a gilded tapestry of pop music history that is both panoramic and idiosyncratic.