Another City Now EP
Ango
(Lucky Me)
Though the plan hasn’t fully unfolded yet, our national broadcaster has the right idea (at the right time) with its emerging CBC Electronic community. Putting the spotlight on Canada’s burgeoning scene of beat-focused acts isn’t just a step in the right direction from a media perspective. Hopefully it will also discourage a brain drain of musicians, producers and DJs courting labels, publications and audiences seemingly more receptive (because they’re more aware) and excited by Canadian talent.
Glasgow’s LuckyMe is a niche dance music label/collective that’s home base for beat prodigies Rustie and Hudson Mohawke (rumoured to be working with a couple of major American R&B acts). LuckyMe is also the main backer of three Montrealer producers currently on the up-and-up: Jacques Greene, Lunice and Ango. Though their output is significantly different—spanning frenetic bass, lean R&B and honeyed dance-pop—the centripetal force that binds the three to LuckyMe is a commitment to personified dance music, the kind of stuff that takes on its own life beyond the dance floor.
Out now is Another City Now, the debut EP from producer/singer Ango (Andrew Gordon Macpherson). The six-song record is vividly emotive, conveying Ango’s tactile sense of narrative. He moves within the framework of sultry, airy pop, modern R&B and myriad dance-rooted styles, from house to a supremely slackened dubstep. And so, Another City Now is a prime example of the possibilities inherent in contemporary electronic music.
Here, Ango’s soft-focus instrumental tracking competes with his sparse vocal sections. Actually the music—strobey and humid—often dominates, heightening the sensory tales of torrid love. “All That You Can Stand” opens Another City Now with a shudder, brightening up and fleshing out a Greene-borrowed R&B glint. The kaleidoscopic funk of “Follow Me,” is punctuated with tight drum bursts and the commanding percussion carries through to the scrupulously mosaicked “Looking For Love.” But the EP’s real showpiece is “Better For You,” a minimal, roving, loose-hip swing, with softened synths and a hollowed-out bassline taking the edge off Ango’s plain-spoken vocals.
ANGO – ANOTHER CITY NOW by LuckyMe Music Art Parties
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Anupa Mistry writes regularly on music for Toronto Standard.
