Great Lake Swimmers

 

Toronto indie-folk darlings Great Lake Swimmers returned earlier this year with New Wild Everywhere, their fifth studio album and follow up to 2009’s Juno- and Polaris-nominated album Lost Channels. Lead single Easy Come Easy Go, the most upbeat and up-tempo song in the band’s history, preceded it in January.

New Wild Everywhere captures all of the excitement and intuitive musicianship of a group at the peak of their creative powers, with 12 new tracks that reveal a depth and maturity only previously hinted at by lead singer and songwriter Tony Dekker. Produced by long-time Great Lake Swimmers collaborator Andy Magoffin, New Wild Everywhere marks the first time in the band’s history that an album was recorded in a real studio (Toronto’s Revolution Recording); past albums have been famously recorded in historic churches, castles and music venues.

Featuring the touring band from Lost Channels (long-time collaborator Erik Arnesen on banjo and guitar, along with new addition Miranda Mulholland contributing backing vocals and violin, Bret Higgins on upright bass, and Lost Channels drummer Greg Millson), New Wild Everywhere thematically picks up where the previous album left off, exploring transcendence in the natural world to describe the universal themes of love, mortality and escape.

 

 

Dekker has spent the last decade entrancing listeners with his unforgettable voice and compelling songwriting. Great Lake Swimmers have long been a word-of-mouth favourite in their home country of Canada for whom critical mass was inevitable. They’ve been regarded as a national treasure, with 2009?s Lost Channels topping the charts at CBC Radio 3 and on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter Chart. The band have received public endorsements by the likes of Feist, Robert Plant and cyclist Lance Armstrong. The latter has raved about the band on his personal website; the former two have handpicked the band to open tours, while the band have also shared the stage with Calexico, Goldfrapp and Bill Callahan of Smog.

Support comes from Canada’s Dusted. After six years of constant Holy Fuck touring, Brian Borcherdt emerged from the tangled cables and broken drum machines with a slew of new songs. Looking to explore a different sound, Borcherdt teamed with producer Leon Taheny (Final Fantasy, Rituals, Bruce Peninsula) and together the pair recorded in a converted garage under the name Dusted. The resulting album, Total Dust, resides in an atmosphere that is sometimes melodic, sometimes haunting, and always clouded by a fuzzy glow. With string arrangements and half-hidden guitar feedback held together by the occasional tambourine and minimal drum machine, the stripped down mood perfectly complements a collection of songs that are more than capable of standing on their own merits. Since their stage debut this spring, the band have performed with US labelmates Deerhoof and of Montreal, while back home in Toronto the duo has been playing parties with fellow friends Army Girls and Odonis Odonis.