Electro-soul Adrian Underhill will shine over Hillside Friday July 13

By Will McGuirk

Pay attention to this chap - I'm a fan, and I am so because Adrian Underhill manages to build something human into his synth-sized jams. When we talk about soul we can says its a genre, we all know it, Stevie, Smokey, - but there's also the other soul music, the spiritual, we know that too,  Marvin, Nina. Adrian Underhill is of the latter, the spirit in the machinery of his debut album "CU Again" available on Indica. He will be bringing that spirit to the gathering, to Hillside this weekend. Its a festival he is quite familiar with. 

Slowcity.ca: I saw you wrote you were a volunteer at Hillside and are now of course playing onstage, how excited are you for this weekend and do you feel as if this is the culmination or a beginning?

AH: "Yes, that's true! I was a volunteer at Hillside for a number of years and it is my favourite music festival I've been to so I'm really looking forward to playing this year.  Hopefully this won't be the last time I play the festival, so yes, perhaps it is a beginning :)" 

SC: What will the live show look like - just you or do you have other players with you?

AH: "I'm playing with 2 good friends who are both extremely talented songwriters in their own right.  Charlotte Cornfield will be playing drums and Anna Horvath (who writes music as Merival) will be singing backup vocals."

SC: There's an elegance to your songs which to me broaches Bon Iver as well as Hall 'n Oates, where do you draw your inspiration for sound?

AH: "Hmm. I think you've hit on something there. I definitely have a fondness for soft pop and things like Blood Orange, Martika, Prince, early Phoenix, The Doobie Brothers, Todd Rundgren."

SC: There seems to be an old soul lurking in your songs, how does a young man in 2018 find himself writing songs which harken back to the late 60s, early 70s classic soul sound?

AH: "Before I started writing this batch of songs that became 'CU Again' I was pretty obsessed with 60s soul for a few years so I that has found it's way in there."  

SC: The tracks seem to be deeply layered, are they?, what is your process for building up a song? Where do you begin and how do you know when you've finished?

AH: "Yes, there is a lot of layering on these tunes. I worked on this record with Adam Bainbridge (aka Kindness) and he brought a lot of that approach to the recording process.  The songs started with my demos that I had been working on for a number of years already.  Once Adam came on we started working from those demos, remixing them, stripping the drums away, programming new elements, sometimes speeding things up.  After we had had a few weeks to do that we took the songs down to LA where we worked with some amazing live players: Damon Riddick (aka DāM-FunK) on drums, Keith Eaddy on bass and Brandon Coleman (Kamasi Washington) on keys.  That added a lot and lots of the outros came from their live playing.  Then Adam and I took the sessions back to Montreal and decided on a track by track basis what songs needed live playing vs. programmed electronic elements or a combination of both.  It was a really interesting process and one I couldn't fully conceptualize until I saw it happen!"

Mappe Of to release 'Celestial Version' of his debut album on Paper Bag Records

By Will McGuirk

Mappe Of will release 'Celestial Version' on June 22 2018. The all instrumental ambient interpretation of his debut album "A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone" will be available on Paper Bag.

"One of my aims with "A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone" was to allow each song to occupy a unique environment," says Mappe Of in a press release. "With the "Celestial Version", I wanted to revisit these environments as though floating above them, in a dream state of sorts. The textures are familiar and the melodies float by like faint memories, but the absence of the human voice suspends you from reality. It was composed as one piece, each environment blending into the next as you pass through them. I wanted to create something simultaneously meditative and adventurous."

Mappe Of will be playing a series of festivals over the summer.

July 6 - Quebec City, QC - Festival D’Été de Québec
July 7 - Winnipeg, MB - Winnipeg Folk Festival
July 13 - Guelph, ON - Hillside Festival
July 27 - Calgary, AB - Calgary Folk Festival
Aug 10 - Kingston, ON - Wolfe Island Music Festival

A Tribe Called Red to close out Hillside 2018

By Will McGuirk

No skipping out early at Hillside this year, nope, phone in something on Monday because the Halluci-Nation are taking over Sunday evening and it is going to be a spectacular celebration not to be missed.

A Tribe Called Red have been announced as the closer for the Guelph-based music festival taking place on Guelph Island July 13-15.

And thats in addition to one of the most exciting and varied line-up in some time with Destroyer, Lido Pimienta, Hollerado, Plants and Animals, U.S. Girls, Cadence Weapon, Tamarack, Chad VanGaalen as well as Slowcity.ca pals Mappe Of, Annie Sumi and Crown Lands.  Plus of course so much more, three days of so much more!

Check here for  highly recommended tickets. 

Crown Lands, Mappe Off and Annie Sumi announced for Hillside, runs July 13-15 2018

By Will McGuirk

Hillside 2018 is going to be a lot of fun. The annual music fest in Guelph always is really but with three of my fave Durham Region acts on the bill its going to be even more so. All three, Crown Lands, Mappe Of and Annie Sumi are doing fine work, building and garnering even more attention as the days go by.

Crown Lands retro-psyche rawk, Mappe Of's prog-folk ramblings and Sumi's darling meditations are just a few of the great acts coming outta the Region, count Dizzy, Chastity, West Hammock, Matlock Expressway, Rory Taillon among those you will see and hear more of at festivals this year.

Its a good time in the D-Rawk however its odd I am also engaged in a FB conversation about how the Oshawa city staff are failing local acts by not booking them for their city-run events. Lot of work to do yet I guess but at least other communities are digging our kats and giving them a stage.

Hillside announced its full line up for its stages today and as per usual its as much on the edge as it ever was.  Destroyer!! Yes!! Adrian Underhill, Chad Van Gaalen, U.S. Girls, Partner, Walrus and Cancon classy folk trio Tamarack. Too many for me to bother typing but reality is Hillside is one of the highlights of the summer and more so when spent seeing pals get the accolades so justly deserved. Get your tickets, get your camping sites, get on it.