Prairie Fire/Dub Ditch Picnic

Horders – ‘Fimbulvetr’ C60
Ed. of 100. A short while after releasing the Pink Priest/Horders split cassette, we pitched an idea to our mysterious pal (known alternately as Give Up and Horders) to create a full album to celebrate the death of summer and the onset of autumn. He responded with an album that surpassed our already high expectations. Fimbulvetr, in Norse legend, refers to the three successive winters that will herald the end of the world (something that we Northerners know a little bit about). This latest Horders offering is as desolate, bleak, and isolated as the northern prairies in the middle of January. Black, dark, no hope. Forbidden and foreboding. It is the sound of the end – the music your brain makes as life slips away leaving a near frozen husk for scavengers to pick at.
 
Un – ‘Begun’ C27
Ed of 100. We’re in love. We can’t stop spinning this, cranking the volume and spilling PBR all over our desks. Un is Montreal duo Kara Keith and Jen Reimer, and they cut through the swath of lo-fi, bedroom synth pop with six expertly crafted pop songs. Yes, we said it: POP. But fear not, “Begun” is still plenty dark and moody for all you dark and moody folks out there. Big, juicy synth basslines are the vertebrae to these songs, while highly contagious keyboard hooks, tight drumming and breathy female vocals dig their nails into your back and don’t let go. Did we mention hooks? Because there are some doozies on this EP. “Wicked Child” will be stuck in your head for days, and “Lover the Pheonix” may as well be a lost track from the soundtrack for that movie about that guy that drives around all the time and wears that nifty jacket. With the odds stacked in their favour, Un deserve to be the next big thing. Snatch up this EP now while you can still claim bragging rights about knowing Un before they got huge.

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