Language-Arts has polished off another beauty with its sophomore release ‘Where Were You In The Wild?’. With a local-launch party Sept 28th and upcoming East/West tours, the Vancouver-based ensemble is bringing music to the people, making smiles contagious, all while racking up nation-wide media attention and critical acclaim by the boatload.
The follow-up to 2008’s ‘Short Run EP’ is full of lush, caringly crafted numbers, endearing, almost addictive musical wondrousness, stream-of-consciousness ‘pixie-rap’, and you might say it’s somewhat of a grower, as evidenced by bandleader, guitarist and vocalist Kristen Cudmore:
“It's jam packed with little anecdotes and collages of ideas if you listen for it, so each listen new things might pop out.”
Although the album isn’t officially released until later this month, L-A decided to give local fans and supporters a sneak peek by hosting an advance release party.
Says Kristen:
“We were playing around with dates and thought it would be special to allow our friends and listeners of Language-Arts to get a chance to hear it first. I think it's more of a thanks to them for supporting us during the process, from starting out to the new album.”
Taking the stage amid screams and chants, Language-Arts revealed an All-Star lineup to the Biltmore’s ample audience: cellist Cris Derksen (ESL), string bassist Aaron McKinney (SSRI’s, Like Animals Again), vocalist Laura Anderson (Stick Twig), singer/songwriter Hilary Grist on keys/vocals, plus the aforementioned Kristen and Gregor rounding out the cast.
This band sounds amazingly tight live, and for anyone who’s been listening to ‘Where Were You In The Wild’, you can just close your eyes and feel like you’re listening to the album. This is how a live act should sound! Beautiful harmonies, rapid-fire flow a-la Kristen, and precise instrumentation in a genre most critics would call ‘etc’.
The set was chock-full of album cuts like ‘Boxed In’, where classical guitar looping, excellent cello, 5/4 time, and a top-notch hand-clap breakdown pulled the audience in even closer.
On the lucid dream that is ‘Tuck It In’, Kristen reveals a flow that would flabbergast even the most seasoned hip hop head. Her child-like, yet firm voice is a finely tuned instrument, and with the echoes of Laura and Hilary in the midst, it sounds almost too good to be true.
The entire band was exceptional, but the one thing I can’t get over is how Kristen manages to lead you along this twisting, winding, linguistic path, all while whipping out mini-symphonies on that guitar. For me, it doesn’t get any better than that watching that balancing act. For fans of inventive, creative, inexplicable music, this was a dream performance from top to bottom.
It’s official; ‘Where Were You In The Wild’ will be available across Canada Oct 27th with an ensuing tour, and hopefully another local date or two in the near future.
To bring it home, here is a little Q&A I had with Kristen & Gregor:
NS: I see you’re wisely waiting until spring to tour Eastern Canada…
K= It's really hard touring in Canada because who knows when winter really ends? But ya, we will be going from Ontario to Nova Scotia this spring. We have tour plans for November for the west portion of the country, too. Plus it makes the drive shorter! Both Gregor and I are from Nova Scotia and we go home a lot to be with our growing families, but usually when we're touring it's a day or a dinner with family and then we're off again.
NS: You played NXNE this year. Did that work out well?
K= It did. We made a lot of new friends and connected with new listeners as well as people who are able to help us out with promoting our shows or our music. There was a nice few articles applauding our performances too, which was reassuring.
NS: I love the time signatures you use. You must be good at math!
G: Most of us are solid at adding and subtracting. Kristen does a lot of sudokus. I think she also secretly loves doing her taxes. I’m going to teach her how to use excel for her birthday. yay!
NS: What can you tell me about the title track off your new album, ‘Where Were You In The Wild?’
K= To me it's about what makes someone who they are and how petty things can get in the way of our lives and cloud our direction from time to time. "Are you a product of your parents or a product of your past? Who licensed you to carry your own mass?" are a few questions. "You can have your Rice Dream, in your ignorant igloo. I'll be sure, not to bother you.... what a silly life to have lead."
NS: New CD, new tour, and what else is coming up for Language-Arts?
K: We are just focusing on these plans at the moment but we're really excited to stomp new territory and keep creating new sounds that hopefully people find interesting. Our goal obviously is to get to a place where we can focus more energy on creating art and presenting it to new people.
Check out the music, tour dates, amazing lyrics and more at www.language-arts.net
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