Despite what the introduction headline may suggest, The Besnard Lakes are not a new band. They are Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, a married couple that started a band in 2003, so not old either I guess. But what’s more relevant is that they are obscenely, colossally good. It’s amazing, but they have somehow hovered under the radar here at LB4YB, even despite being signed to Jagjaguwar, one of my favorite labels and home to brilliance like Peter Wolf Crier and Bon Iver. Even still, nobody I know seems to have ever heard of these Canadians. The same was true of me until about a month ago.
This year has not borne witness to a Besnard Lakes full-length LP release, but we were given an EP in early September. The “You Lived In The City” EP includes the soundtrack written for the interactive documentary “Welcome To Pine Point”. The film, which turned out to be my first experience with the concept of the interactive documentary, is a look at a once-thriving mining town. Now everybody’s long gone, and the film examines the ideas of community and memories in the fact-of-life light of steady, marching time.
“You Lived In The City” includes two beautiful instrumentals written for the film, as well as a total overhaul of an old Trooper song, “We’re Here For A Good Time (Not A Long Time)”. The instrumentals work seamlessly with the documentary, and the Trooper cover is exactly how a cover should be done. It’s been completely reworked in The Besnard Lakes’ heavy, deliberate post-rock style.
The last full album from The Besnard Lakes appeared in 2010, entitled “The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night”. It is one of the best full works I have heard in a very long time. I was downright blown away after buying it on nothing more than a whim. From beginning to end, it is, in my humble opinion, absolute genius, and I do not throw that term around. The album is organized into two movements, each beginning with two-part songs that open and build very slowly, using a few ambient noises to effectively allow the listener to regroup after the first half and prepare for the second. There is so much worthy melody, such heavy sound to be absorbed, that I found myself welcoming the time to digest what I had just heard. And I must admit, it took me about a week to even make it to the second movement because I just could not help going back and starting the first one over again. Turns out, unsurprisingly, that the second one is just as rewarding.
It may be true that The Besnard Lakes will not be to everyone’s taste stylistically. Theirs is a very big, lumbering, crashing sound. Their music moves with the power and weight and purpose of a storming sea. The guitars are driven and distant, and the vocals fat with harmonies. It is the un-whimsical, almost serious sound, which therefor requires a certain mood and mindset. But as long as you’re expecting what’s coming, it can satisfy to no end.
The Besnard Lakes have released two other whole albums. “The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse” was released in 2007, and their debut, “Volume 1″was released in 2003. Both are fantastic as well. My recommendation is to start with “The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night” and work your way back chronologically. It has certainly been a pleasure for me. You can listen to a couple of their best below.
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