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Divider imageOUT TODAY: Mantler Presents Monody On Tomlab

“Cummings’ feather-light vocals and lush instrumentation recall Timber Timbre, though in a more distinctively upbeat way. The disco beats and Isaac Hayes-style horn-and-string arrangements give the music a slight 1970s AM radio colouring.” EYE Weekly

“Cummings is an excellent songwriter with a finely honed sense of when to introduce new material.” Pitchfork Media

“A bewitching collection of pristine tunes indebted to 70s R&B, smooth jazz and hi-fi rock” Listen Dammit

MP3: “Fresh and Fair” via XLR8R

Six years after the release of his previous album Landau, Toronto’s Chris A. Cummings, a.k.a. Mantler, is set to release his anticipated fourth album Monody in April. The album will be made available via Tomlab in continental Europe, Japan and the USA, and through Tin Angel in the UK and Ireland, and Blocks Recording Club in Canada.

Continuously pushing the production envelope, each Mantler album has it’s own unique sound. Mantler’s first album, Doin’ It All (2000), was recorded almost entirely with a densely multi-tracked wurlitzer, a Rhythm Ace drum machine, and a primitive 1980s sampler. His second album Sadisfaction (2002) was more expansive, sedate and”rock”-like while the third album, Landau (2004), featured tighter pop structures and brighter production, paying tribute to the R&B sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s (frequently drawing comparisons to Steely Dan).

Mantler’s new album, Monody, combines the best elements of the previous albums to create a grander, more epic version of his sound – the density of Doin’ It All, the sedate quality of Sadisfaction, and the songwriting focus of Landau. Combining soul, rock, R&B, and jazz, the sound of Monody, which means “a sad melody” or “a single melody”, is hard to pin down. Mantler explains: “I like it when a ‘normal’ artist tries to make a ‘weird’ album, like Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, or when a ‘weird’ artist tries to make a ‘normal’ album, like Archie Shepp’s Attica Blues. Somewhere between Tusk and Attica Blues, that’s the area I’m aiming for, conceptually. Even if the end result sounds nothing like either of those two albums!”

On Monody, Mantler teamed up with a plethora of talented collaborators. Six tracks on the album were produced by longtime Mantler producer Zack G, while Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys) and Leon Taheny (Final Fantasy, Bruce Peninsula) each produced two tracks and Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) did brass arrangements on two tracks. The roster of acclaimed guest musicians includes: Constellation artist and Toronto music guru Sandro Perri, ex-Montrealer and Local Rabbit Ben Gunning, the Ohbijou string section (Jennifer Mecija and Anissa Hart), two of the mad geniuses behind The Silt (Ryan Driver and Marcus Quin), Ernest Agbuya and Matias Rozenberg of The Matias Band (of which Mantler is also a member), Sam Allison and Teilhard Frost of Sheesham and Lotus, as well as longtime backing vocalist Dennis Frey.




Divider imageToronto Troubadour Mantler To Release “Monody” On Tomlab This April


Monody, due April 13th, features contributions from Junior Boys & Owen Pallett

MP3: “Fresh and Fair” (produced by Jeremy Greenspan) via Under the Radar

“[Mantler] is an excellent songwriter with a finely honed sense of when to introduce new material.” Pitchfork Media

Six years after the release of his previous album Landau, Toronto’s Chris A. Cummings, a.k.a. Mantler, is set to release his anticipated fourth album Monody in April. The album will be made available via Tomlab in continental Europe, Japan and the USA, and through Tin Angel in the UK and Ireland, and Blocks Recording Club in Canada.

Continuously pushing the production envelope, each Mantler album has it’s own unique sound. Mantler’s first album, Doin’ It All (2000), was recorded almost entirely with a densely multi-tracked Wurlitzer, a Rhythm Ace drum machine, and a primitive 1980s sampler. His second album Sadisfaction (2002) was more expansive, sedate and”rock”-like while the third album, Landau (2004), featured tighter pop structures and brighter production, paying tribute to the R&B sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s (frequently drawing comparisons to Steely Dan).

Mantler’s new album, Monody, combines the best elements of the previous albums to create a grander, more epic version of his sound – the density of Doin’ It All, the sedate quality of Sadisfaction, and the songwriting focus of Landau. Combining soul, rock, R&B, and jazz, the sound of Monody, which means “a sad melody” or “a single melody”, is hard to pin down. Mantler explains: “I like it when a ‘normal’ artist tries to make a ‘weird’ album, like Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, or when a ‘weird’ artist tries to make a ‘normal’ album, like Archie Shepp’s Attica Blues. Somewhere between Tusk and Attica Blues, that’s the area I’m aiming for, conceptually. Even if the end result sounds nothing like either of those two albums!”

On Monody, Mantler teamed up with a plethora of talented collaborators. Six tracks on the album were produced by longtime Mantler producer Zack G, while Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys) and Leon Taheny (Final Fantasy, Bruce Peninsula) each produced 2 tracks and Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) did brass arrangements on two tracks. The roster of acclaimed guest musicians includes: Constellation artist and Toronto music guru Sandro Perri, ex-Montrealer and Local Rabbit Ben Gunning, the Ohbijou string section (Jennifer Mecija and Anissa Hart), two of the mad geniuses behind The Silt (Ryan Driver and Marcus Quin), Ernest Agbuya and Matias Rozenberg of The Matias Band (of which Mantler is also a member), Sam Allison and Teilhard Frost of Sheesham and Lotus, as well as longtime backing vocalist Dennis Frey.




Divider imageOUT NOW: Gigi Presents Maintenant On Tomlab

Maintenant
Gigi presents Maintenant; out now on Tomlab

MP3: “No, My Heart Will Go On” (via Pitchfork)
MP3: “Strolling Past The Old Graveyard (ft. Karl Blau)” from (via RCRD LBL)

Gigi is the recording project of Vancouver-based songwriter Nick Krgovich (No Kids, p:ano) and producer/engineer Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Destroyer.) In the spring of 2005 Stewart acquired two huge vintage plate reverbs and, eager to use them in a way that befit their history, he asked Krgovich to come up with a couple songs in the vein of classic Phil Spector/Brill Building pop hits and invited a large group of musician friends into the Hive Studios to record the songs live-off-the-floor. The results of that night were amazing, inspiring a string of recording sessions that took place over the following 3 years, collected here on Gigi’s debut album Maintenant.

Capturing the spirit of the pop music that flooded the hit parade in the early 60’s is a tall order, and the songs on Maintenant decidedly develop a world and language of its own. With a reverent eye on the past and a deep respect for the airtight songsmithery of artists like Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Shadow Morton (among countless others), the songs aren’t content to be throwback-y pastiches or polka-dotted retro workouts but rather stand as attempts at working within a specific and incredibly rich tradition of pop music production. There is something deeply satisfying about bringing together a large group of singers and musicians, cramming them into the studio, running through a song a couple times and then hitting “record”. The shape of the songs forming on the fly and being coloured by the entire group, the intent and heart of the song crystallizing as the tape rolls.

Gigi

By the same token, the charming flubs and missed cues swirling in a dense cloud of reverb revealing sublime harmonies, soaring brass, and all the bells and whistles one might expect from a Krgovich/Stewart helmed project.

In addition to Stewart’s engineering and production credits on albums by Black Mountain, Cave Singers and Destroyer, as well as, Krgovich’s other groups NO KIDS and P:ANO, GIGI has given the pair an opportunity to unabashedly profess their love of pop music in the most direct way conceivable, and this could not have been accomplished without the talents of the many players and singers that graciously helped out along the way.

With singing contributions from artists such as Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy), Mirah, Zac Pennington of Parenthetical Girls, Katie Eastburn of Young People, Rose Melberg and Karl Blau, the character studies in the songs are voiced from wildly distinct positions giving the narratives of lovesick loneliness, solitary walks around the neighbourhood at twilight, and friday nights at home with parents watching television in the front room, just that much more poignancy. In the end, what began as a humble experiment four years ago has ballooned into a pop extravaganza that will sit just as comfortably next to your Back To Mono box set as it will your rotary phone, waiting to ring.

“Heart-melting stuff.” – Fluxblog

“”No, My Heart Will Go On” captures that particular aesthetic breezily, building from an a cappella intro into a full Lego wall of sound.” – Pitchfork Media

“Pop like they did back in the Phil Spector days.” – Stereogum




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