Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 4/5 Released: July 31, 2007 Reviewer: Tyrone Castanho |
The beauty of the independent music scene is often in the circumstance in which a band is discovered, coupled with the genuine quality of a group making music without the high glitz and production associated with the mainstream. Ottawa’s independent scene is by no means a thriving hub for the countless outfits seeking recognition and so it was somewhat of a surprise to find a group peddling their worthy wares at an inner-city bar conveniently placed beside a strip bar. The Mohawk Lodge are an indie outfit that originally started out as a group more inclined to the windy and carefree ambience of folk music and camp fire quartets. However, the Vancouver-based group’s full-length record Wildfires coincides with a nation-wide tour to promote an album steering in alternate directions.
Wildfires is a record that not many have their hands on and that in itself is somewhat of a shame as the band boasts that genuine melodic spread across the nine songs that make up the track list. The vocals of Ryder Havdale can only be described as something resembling Chris Martin after swallowing razorblades, genuine emotion seeping through the emotional lament, ‘Calm Down.’ The stand-out presence of the epic title track makes full use of the talent-set of this band, running for a full seven minutes and at no point wearing thin on the ears. The sonic smoothness and almost silk melodies of the opening track ‘Hard Times’ stems from a three-pronged assault at the hands of the three guitarists Arch, Cory Price, and Havdale himself. And Constantines-like, ‘Heart of Lovers’ rides the audio backbone of the group with an underlying funk and lyrical precision that delivers even in the waning minutes of the record.
Having been chosen as one of iTunes’ indie stand-outs for the month of August and utilising the production talents of Darryl Neudorf (The New Pornographers), it’s hard not to buy into The Mohawk Lodge. The album lulls you in with its hooks and may even bring on a sudden introspective reflection bordering on a pre-life crisis. It seems fitting that it was pried up off the sticky floor of a trampled bar.
