POSTS TAGGED : Faith Healer

Farewell Vancouver: Vancouver Connection Playlist

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After a couple of extremely fun years, my time in Canada is drawing to a close. As well as taking away no end of fond memories from Canada’s west coast, there is also a long, long list of local musical discoveries.

So, with that in mind and the impending return to Ireland, I decided to create a playlist of some of my very favourite artists/musical discoveries from Vancouver (and the surrounding areas). If nothing else, it will offer a taste of what this part of the world has to offer musically. Included among the 66 strong list are regulars on the blog and podcast, the likes of Kinship, Mesa Luna, Avid Walker, Bousada, The Orange Kyte, Supermoon, Soft Serve, Danny Diggs, Faith Healer, Project Pablo and more. Hopefully you enjoy the tunes as much as I do and it keeps you ticking over till the returns to normal service, once everything is settled after the move.

On that note, I shall leave you with the finest music BC has to offer.

BarryGruff Albums of the Year (2015)

BGs Albums of the year 2015So it is that time of year again, lists, lists and more lists. Well, not be out done, here are my 41 (yes 41, and yes it’s a weird number) albums of 2015.

It has been such a good year for new albums, probably the best since I started the blog back in 2010. So much so that there is very little difference between the top 5, top 10, top 15 and so on. So without further ado, here are my favourite records from 2015:

There is also a Spotify playlist of the Top 20 albums, to save you time and hassle (it’s here).

41. Only Real – Jerk At The End of the Line’

40. Rozi Plain – ‘Friend’

39. Wildling – ‘Molecules To Moon’

38. The School – ‘Wasting Away And Wondering’

37. Sweet Baboo – ‘Boombox Ballads’

36. The Stammer – ‘Days In Between’

35. SexWitch – Sex Witch’

34. Faith Healer – ‘Cosmic Troubles’

33. Girl Band – ‘Holding Hands With Jamie’

32. Joanna Gruesome – ‘Peanut Butter’

31. Fort Romeau – ‘Insides

30. Soft Serve – ‘S/t’

29. Applescal – ‘For’

28. Zefur Wolves – ‘Zefur Wolves’

27. Hot Chip – ‘Why Make Sense?’

26. Drenge – ‘Undertow’

25. The Charlatans – ‘Modern Nature’

24. Gaz Coombes – ‘Matador’

23. Bill Ryder-Jones – ‘West Kirby County Primary’

22. Drinks – ‘Hermits on Holiday’

21. The Expert – Dynamic Drift

20. Boxed In – ‘Boxed In’

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Millions Like Us: A New Podcast In Conjunction w/ 604now.com

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Delighted to announce Millions Like Us, a new music podcast in conjunction with Vancouver news & culture site 604now.

Hosted by myself & craft beer, pastie and fast-food safari enthusiast, Justin Beats, we’ll be sharing great new music, some musings and general chit-chat, with a Vancouver slant, on a fortnightly basis. This is the first of what we hope is many, many podcasts and we’re looking forward to developing it further over the coming weeks and months. Not much else to say really, aside from thanks to 604now and we hope you enjoy the show (all feedback, good or bad, is most welcome).

You can read more on it here and listen to episode #1 below, and the tracklist (with links) is after the jump.

Episode #1 Playlist:

Faith Healer – ‘Cosmic Troubles’
White Poppy – ‘Confusion’
Sales – ‘Big Sis’
Danny Diggs – ‘Wino’
The Expert – ‘Devine’
Open Window – ‘0013 (Riot Tape)’
Villagers – ‘Courage’
Anderson – ‘Things We Have In Common’
Django Django – ‘Shake and Tremble’
Energy Slime – ‘Star On The Ground’
Hot Chip – ‘Started Right’
James Deen – ‘An Unwritten Love Song To Summer Roberts’
Sh-Shakes – ‘Little To Life’
Zen Mystery Fogg – ‘Pale Horse’
DRINKS – ‘Hermits on Holiday’
If you would like to get in touch? Email at millionslikeuspodcast[at]gmail[dot]com or on Twitter.

BarryGruff’s Albums of 2015 So Far……

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I’m not exactly the best at keeping you and the site up-to-date with album reviews, to be honest, it’s the old enemy time. Discovering the hours to scribble some thoughts about this album or that has become rather elusive, but thankfully finding time to listen to albums, and music in general, is less of an issue.

Here are a list of my most listened and loved records of 2015 so far with Spotify links and playlists for overall albums of 2015. There are plenty of playlists on Spotify and Soundcloud and on the blog too. Oh, and with regards to albums *cough, cough*, you can still download GruffWuff, a 19 track compilation celebrating 5 years of BarryGruff, for FREE from bandcamp, *cough, cough*.

Top 24 albums of 2015 so far…

01. Czarface – ‘Every Hero Needs A Villain’

02. H. Hawkline – ‘In The Pink Of Condition’

03. Villagers – ‘Darling Arithmetic

04. Blur – ‘The Magic Whip’

05. Ghost Culture – ‘Ghost Culture’

06. Boxed In – ‘Boxed In’

07. Django Django – ‘Born Under Saturn’

08. Girlpool – ‘Before The World Was Big’

09. Stealing Sheep – ‘Not Real’

10. The Charlatans – ‘Modern Nature’

11. Courtney Barnett – ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit’

12. Gaz Coombes – ‘Matador’

13. Hot Chip – ‘Why Make Sense?’

14. Applescal – ‘For’

15. Public Service Broadcasting – ‘The Race For Space’

16. Jamie xx – ‘In Colour’

17. Sen Segur – ‘Films’

18. Zefur Wolves – ‘Zefur Wolves’

19. Faith Healer – ‘Cosmic Troubles’

20. Mowbird – ‘One-Offs’

21. Joanna Gruesome – ‘Peanut Butter’

22. Fort Romeau – ‘Insides’

23. Rozi Plain – ‘Friend’

24. Pale Honey – ‘Pale Honey’

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BarryGruff’s May 2015 Playlist

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A regular monthly feature to the blog; a nice, neat and handy playlist of tracks featured during the month.

May was another fine month for new music. We had an exclusive premier of The Expert’s new tune, ‘Da Wha?’, the lead single from his forthcoming LP. There were new tunes from Sleaford Mods, Girlpool, Applescal & Tame Impala, ahead of their respective, forthcoming albums. There were excellent new singles from Tomorrows, Telegram, SertOne, Roots Manuva, Foreign/National, The Adventures of Bert & Henry and PANKHABILLI.

Also featuring on the playlist are: GEM_DOS, The North Sea, Disconcerting P, Sweet Baboo, Heaters & Faith Healer. Yeah, so, May was pretty damn good.

Listen to BarryGruff’s May 2015 playlist below.

Introducing: Faith Healer

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Faith Healer is a collaboration between Edmonton singer-songwriter Jessica Jalbert and producer Renny Wilson. Together the duo recently released their wonderfully warm and dreamy debut album, Cosmic Troubles.

This is strange, boutique folk-pop, with a vitalised re-imagination of ’60s/’70s psych and power-pop. Bright, warm and melodic, it’s built on sweet, swaying melodies and understated folk harmonies, deft guitar riffs, and exquisite and bewitching vocals, which slice through the strange ramshackle flurries of experimental noise. ‘Again’ offers a gentle, jolly and sun-kissed indie pop escape, ‘Cosmic Troubles’ channels Village Green era The Kinks and the spaced-out undulations of ‘Acid’ meanwhile, are etched with a bittersweet mournfulness. It’s a dizzy, helter-skelter journey as they flit between the past and present to happen upon a gloriously happy retro-leaning psych-pop vibe all of their own – all tied together in harmony.

Cosmic Troubles is out now through Mint Records. Stream/Purchase it from here. Guaranteed, it will warm your heart.