Canada’s music scene’s been on steroids the past few years, as further exemplified by the sophmore release from Ontario’s Great Lake Swimmers. Upon first listen, songwriter/vocalist Tony Dekker comes across as a hybrid of an early, pensive Neil Young and My Morning Jacket at their most subdued. Like My Morning Jacket, GLS use organic atmospherics to compliment their moody pallette. [The debut album was recorded in an abandoned grain silo, while the Bodies And Minds sessions took place in a lakeside church in rural southern Ontario.] Subtlety and brevity are the adjectives that come to mind here…eschewing studio tricks/wizardy for acoustic driven songs of loss, loneliness and the recesses of the human heart and mind. Sounds upbeat, no?
Caveat: I really appreciate this genre - sad bastard music/bum-out-slo-core/what-have-you , and recommend to fans of Sun Kil Moon, Iron & Wine, My Morning Jacket, Sounds Like Fall, and….Nick Drake. (Nick Drake references in the past 5 years have become both ubiquitous and super-tired, I know.)
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