Parricide v1.02: Jordan Robson-Cramer

I've known Jordan Robson-Cramer for a number of years now - first encountering him as the precocious youngster who showcased a Sven-Gali like mastery of his first high-school band, whom I caught playing beside city hall in the summer of 2001, and from there as excitable contributor to bands and projects in Victoria (Short Pants Romance1, for one), who maintained a studio in the basement of his mother's suburban home, and was often spotted with a bag of candy in his hand and a whole smattering of enthusiastic opinions on music he was discovering. 21st Century Fox, a small studio project, showcased a love of frantic, neu!-wave leaning art rock harkening back to the better elements of The VSS' catalogue (Nervous Circuits!), and was sold as a CD-R at Ditch Records.

Jordan, at left, with Toronto's favourite electrician, Derek. Note to Jordan's mother: he does not smoke.

Like many good people Victorian, he's since moved to Montreal, making himself known as probably the only one of the ex-pats who's French-speaking, tinkering a bit under the moniker XY Lover, and more recently, playing with fellow multi-instrumentalist Mathieu Malouf (a native Montrealer who has a knack for coining phrases that sound as if they belong in Damio Suzuki's lyric book) and devoting time to Sunset Rubdown, which is Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade's other project.2

X Y Lover - Expand Your Instants Into Oblivion

Expand Your Instants Into Oblivion fits handsomely into an aesthetic school of artists that are re-examining the ambient pop and studio wizardry of My Bloody Valentine. Like Animal Collective and Caribou, this is richly textured ear-candy: Spector-esque production techniques are utilized to force effects-heavy guitars and manipulated sheets of white-noise into fulgent waves, dreamy and rhapsodic.

X Y Lover - Your Parents' Funeral

Another fine example of JRC's studio and compositional skills, Your Parents' Funeral is a drugged and heady two minute trip that comes alive with a pair of headphones. The overdubbed half-mumbled vocals, lilting guitar lines (like that bit in Television's Marquee Moon, I envision cherry blossoms falling... Really!) and extra percussion that appear halfway through the song, as instruments and tracks slowly fade out, are the key components in this, which feels like an excerpt for a larger work that stands well enough alone.

(More tracks from X Y Lover are available on his New Music Canada site.)

I'll put a couple of more tracks within the next few weeks, specifically ones from the project that Jordan and Mathieu are involved in, after they're done adding vocals and polishing them up.

1. Short Pants Romance, named after a line in Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, feat. Arlen Thompson of Wolf Parade as the initial drummer, after a couple of tumultuous years morphed into Lakeboat.

2. Sunset Rubdown just finished recording 11 songs with Jace Lacek of The Besnard Lakes at his Break Glass Studios (where the beds for the Islands record where recorded), and from a sneak preview I've heard, it's going to be one of the highlights of 2006. Absolutely Kosher will be dropping that on May 2nd of this year, to coincide with their tour with critical and audience faves Frog Eyes.

Atlas Strategic! Again!

Atlas Strategic - The Day It Came To Earth

It's time for another one of those cred-building posts, wherein I stroke my ego, bruised as it is during this season where I, the Gentile aspiring to convert to Judaism, finds himself straddling two worlds, not quite at home in either. Consequentially, I drink, I curse, I eat lentils and rice for four days, and now, I post another track from Atlas Strategic's second album, released in a limited, limited edition, only available during a brief tour and in one record store - that indisputable heavyweight of the West Coast - Victoria's Ditch Records (635 Johnson St - go there!).

Atlas Strategic was, of course, the band that Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade fronted previously. Joining him were Johnny (on backing vocals, organ and mini-korg), Brooklyn (on bass), Steve (on drums), and later, Jeff, on drums, with occasional appearances by half-deaf, legendary producer of Victoria punk rock records since time-eternal, Scott Henderson. Released in two pressings - the first featuring some futuristic themed artwork briefly spotted on their NewMusicCanada website, and the second, a Victorian-themed Cat motif, designed by drummer Steve and printed by yours truly (cred, cred, gimme more cred!) at the expense of the BC provincial government (under the table grant program), this album ain't kicking around anywhere for your grubby little mits. Global Symphonic, however, did have the first album which was in print up until rather recently. I'm sure some random distro in Kentucky or somewhere (think Stickfigure?) has a couple of copies lying around.

I've posted stuff from this before, so astute observers of this blog should be slowly, over a period of five years or such, be able to acquire the album. What an incentive to check in daily! Anyway, this album also features the song National Flag, which would be revived as a Wolf Parade song under the title National People's Scare. Dig!

Now you're the coolest kid in your dorm!