The Recommender

There’s plenty of excellent alternative music burgeoning all over the world, but Canada continues to star, holding the heart of intelligent indie in its hands and Bravestation, a four-piece from Toronto, have stolen our attention for the immediate future.  They blend soaring, melodic indie pop into a warm, lush soundscape, with a broad, mature and consistently excellent collection of songs.  They released their debut EP back in 2009 and follow it up with a new batch of songs on their second EP, entitled 2010.  It shows us a band that are both industrious and ambitious, but comfortably reaching their own lofty aims.  There’s a broad myriad of sounds that are woven throughout each song, creating several intricate tracks in ways that show off a rare skill – of making expertise seem easy.  The song Clocks & Spears presents the type of soaring, tribal indie which has embedded inside it a sense of free-spirited bohemia; of the kind that Yeasayer have successfully produced in recent years.  It’s music that’s easily described as art, but it’s also utterly accessible and jammed with hooks and harmonies.  The tune, Their Calling, brings to mind the kind of layered, soaring choruses more familiar with The Killers or Editors, but without that misguided and rather desperate attempt to write a song whose main purpose is to sound good on the main stage at Glastonbury.  However, the strongest song on the new EP has to be White Wolves, which has some wonderful, raindropped guitaring, more familiar with the clever intricacy of Foals.  It’s a song with rumbling drums and echoing, layered voices, that peaks with a call and response between the backing and main vocals, which in turn creates a feel of two songs being played at once.  Like all the best bands, there’s no one outstanding star of the show on stage here, with each instrument propelling the song as much as any other.  A group that appears to be without weakness, creating EPs this consistently decent, makes our appetite for the debut LP akin to that of a desert orchid watching a rain cloud on the horizon.  You can download their latest EP in its entirety – for free – on their Bandcamp page here.  Um, that’s for FREE!  Like.  Now.  You still here!?   (MB)

Find them here:        Myspace

Hear them here:        BRAVESTATION – WHITE WOLVES

Hear them here:        BRAVESTATION – COLOUR US WITH YOUTH

Hear them here:        BRAVESTATION – THEIR CALLING