As John Peel once famously said about the Fall, perhaps the same can apply to the Besnard Lakes? Peerlessly consistent, familiar and with a purity of vision and level of quality that is hard to rival in modern music.

Except, they are not always the same. Not at all. New album The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation illustrates this perfectly. Yes, the same sound world is present; the keening, lilting vocals of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas foregrounded, but there is a lightness and optimism at play. Perhaps a somewhat disingenuous sense of hope, in a world where it is currently often in short supply.


On Internal Drone Infinity, Winnipeg’s Living Hour transforms the passage of time into something both urgent and sacred. Anchored by Sam Sarty’s vivid lyricism - shaped by years as a projectionist conjuring stories in a dark theater - the band uncovers the quiet magic hidden in everyday life. Their fourth album drifts between dreamy noise rock, folky slowcore, and fuzzy indie-pop, coining a genre all their own: “yearn-core.” With wistful vocals, textural distortion, and poetic detail, Living Hour captures the ache of memory, the mess of feeling, and the beauty in what remains.