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May 19th, 2011

New Canadiana :: Femminielli // Araignée – Chauffeur b/w Silvia

Fixture Records’ first foray into wax is a serious stunner. Sharing a split 7” with himself, Bernardino Femminielli presents a song from two different projects, revealing the dual sides of his musical personality. “Chauffeur” not only aligns itself with the best Duran Duran song but also cops its cult vibes from Carpenter scores of the ’80s late nite multiplex. Layering sensual whispers on a bed of chilly synths, it’s a leather daddy sex cave you won’t want to escape. On the flip, “Silvia” introduces the impassioned soap opera pop of his Araignée offshoot, all shuffling beats, electro gleams and water-damaged vocals, and equally jaw-dropping. Get your mitts on this now.

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Femminielli – Chauffeur

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Araignée – Silvia

November 23rd, 2009

Review :: Postcards – Postcards

Postcards - Postcards (Fixture Records) Postcards
Postcards
(Fixture Records)
Montreal, QC
::web/sounds::


Lie: Edmonton doesn’t have summers. It feels like it, though. And as we enter into another forever-long snowy paralysis, the leather pants and busty corsets begin to hide behind North Face and Sun Ice and I’m forced to question: what do goths do without summer? Segue into Postcards debut cassette on Montreal’s everything-they-do-is-beautiful Fixture Records. Postcards have little to do with goths or their creative-leathers (that I know about), but they have secretly found the intersection between The Cure and Beat Happening and it’s the real soundtrack to The Lost Boys; dreamy summery backings that push weary, emotional murmurings into popular heights, breaking all shadows cast by beach pants and trench coats. It’s the weirdest depresso party album gleaning creative vices at undiscovered crossroads. It’s also got plenty of angular pop lurking around all 12 corners (reminiscent of other releases on the label). What more can you ask for? Fixture Records have delivered yet another trophy in the pop foray. Go and buy the cassette while I make another leather beach-ball.

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Postcards – Gum

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Postcards – Tell Them

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Postcards – I Died

October 20th, 2009

Review :: Brave Radar – A Building

Brave Radar - A Building (Fixture Records, Montreal, QC) Brave Radar
A Building
(Fixture Records)
Montreal, QC
::web/sounds::


Daring portrayals of angular pop lurk around every corner of A Building. Montreal’s Brave Radar perfected the immensely difficult and hugely rewarding dialectical synthesis of jarring tonality and warm, sunday afternoon coffee-in-triplicate pop. Thus, it’s fitting they released a beautifully designed digipak on Fixture Records, Canada’s finest boutique fringe-pop emporium. Within the swirls of keyless harmonies and wasted guitar-mockery lay hidden phrases of pop’s greatest secrets; Brave Radar discovered music’s reticent obsessions and they’re not afraid to wrap it in audible mysteries, drowning them in seas of lo-fidelity. Dive right in, reveal their secret leviathan, and find yourself addicted to the manic portrait of known sounds.

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Brave Radar – Field Guide

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Brave Radar – For Sport

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Brave Radar – Steep Side

August 31st, 2009

Review :: Dirty Beaches – Horror

Dirty Beaches - Horror Dirty Beaches
Horror
(Fixture Records)
Montreal, QB
::web/sounds::

Somewhere deep within the Montreal subway system lurks the one-man-chamber that is Dirty Beaches. I say “deep” because I cannot imagine Horror being recorded outside of some disturbing corner previously forgotten by civil servants and hobos. Harking back to the cavernous solitude of Arthur Russell, Horror departs from the reverb-bellowing to relish in minor-key melodica and hazy room-scapes. Anyone who has ever picked up a melodica has wanted to make this record. They’ve also realized how difficult it is to actualize these sounds; invitational rhythms to a ruptured dystopia built on echo and cosmic background radiation. You could play this in the most horrific and terrible place on earth and we’d still be curious enough to bare the environment just to see what’s going on. Excellent material courtesy of Fixture Records.

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Dirty Beaches – Window Rail Seats

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Dirty Beaches – Sea Drift

August 26th, 2009

Review :: Cresting – An E.P.

Cresting - An E.P. Cresting
An E.P.
(Fixture Records)
Montreal, QC
::web/sounds::

I was not prepared for Cresting’s beautiful basement-pop macabre. I had a fist-full of spaghetti (dinner related) half-way through An E.P. when I suddenly realized my whole environment had changed. The combinations of cassette-warmth and sharp, repetitive percussion drenched in brilliant grey-scale low-end formed continuous sequences of pop hyperbole too advanced for my supper preparations. With this in mind, An E.P. is suitable for: late-night/early-morning bike-rides, not being homeless and waking up in a park at 2pm, realizing you got punched in the face because you’re 16 and deserved it, blowing cigarette smoke into a flashlight so you can pretend you’re film-noir, and contemplation. I’m at the contemplation stage of my Cresting cycle so let me gush: this album is thoroughly convincing, clever, innocent, wonderful, pastiche, subtle, and vivid. Do the right thing and listen while you’re sitting down. And make sure you purchase the beautifully packaged CD from Fixture Records whose aesthetic reminds me that compact discs are still a viable format.

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Cresting – Sashes

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Cresting – Sprained Ankle

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