Jeremy Young - Cablcar

A Closer Listen

The press release for Cablcar celebrates its Canadian origins so much that US listeners will be hoping it doesn’t get a tariff slapped on it. Although Jeremy Young, based in Tiohtià:ke / Montréal, has released music through several labels – Beacon Sound, Eliane Tapes and Home Normal to name just three – this is his first album on a Canadian label. Halocline Trance is the Toronto-based label founded by Egyptrixx, for a range of artists that make hip hop, pop, and ambient music – and more – and call Canada home. What may seem like a limited approach to A&R has resulted in both off-kilter pop songs and experimental albums with one collective characteristic.

Cablcar may be at the more experimental end of Halocline Trance’s discography, but it shouldn’t scare off fans who follow the label on Bandcamp for the more mainstream tracks. The album notes mention ‘Cageian chance processes’ and ‘the Fluxus expressionism of Joseph Beuys’ (and indeed, one of the tracks is dedicated to Beuys) – and yes, there are elements of both in the recording process – but it is, at heart, a playful and accessible work. Built upon scraps of reel-to-reel tapes found on eBay and eschewing digital trickery in favour of analogue equipment, there’s a sense that any of these pieces could fall wildly out of sync and collapse at any moment; a detectable frisson which sets Young apart from many of his contemporaries who take a more digital approach.

The nature and origin of the found recordings mean there’s ambient tape hiss on most of the pieces. It’s immediately obvious from the opening of “Whirld, Pt I”, which also has a couple of moments of stretched tape sound that owners of cassette decks fear to this day. Much of the album’s success stems from the mystery of the sources. Who is playing that piano? Where did that snippet of speech originate? In addition to the uncovered clips, Young adds a couple of contemporary voices to his work – whether they are reciting pieces from old tapes or providing new words is unclear. YlangYlang is a sort of travel guide on the title track as we hit the slopes, while Deanna Radford’s contribution on “Hydrometeor” is a spiritual heir to Rickie Lee Jones’s appearance on The Orb’s “Little Fluffy Clouds” – both are a bit spaced out at the spectacle of nature.

Cablcar is getting released on vinyl to enhance its analogue-focused approach; there’s no tape release yet, which is disappointing – perhaps Halocline Trance might do a limited run if the vinyl sells well. If the gentleman sampled on the penultimate track is to be believed, Young is happy with smaller gains; ‘if just one person – one person, mind you – receives a little extra joy… then this album is a huge success.’ We hope a few more people than that will get a little extra joy in the company of Cablcar. (Jeremy Bye)