The world at the shore, the world below the surface...

Chet Grow Old Gracefully
Himalayan Bear Sounds Are Birds
Nobody and Mystic Chords of Memory Broaden A New Sound
Beach House Master of None
Toro y Moi Master of None
Washed Out New Theory
Suicide Cheree

For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity

-- Wordsworth

"PHILOSOPHUM NON FACIT BARBA"

It was the only photo of Ryan I had...
Himalayan Bear - Aloha.mp3

Unless I'm mistaken, which occasionally happens (and how!), Vancouver Island is about as close to Hawaii as one can get in Canada... Which makes this track all the more apt. Himalayan Bear is the nom-de-chanson of silken-voiced Ryan Beattie, he of Victoria's Chet, whom (if you were watching) dropped a gorgeous album Kau'ai (Hive-Fidelity - in Europe on Labelman?) earlier last year that spent some time on the college charts and more time in my CD player. (They've apparently got another one on the way.)

Ryan's distinctive voice, capable of baritone and falsetto leaps that would injure most other human beings terribly, working with a lap-steel, makes the perfect sound for this song, which suits my current desire to escape the damnable Montreal cold for tropical beachland. Even if I have to wear a grass-skirt.

Aaargh Records will be releasing the Lo, Lonesome Island! EP, from which the above song is taken, in a month or two. Jump on it!