Zoon release reverb-drenched album ‘Bekka Ma’iingan,’ plus new music from Pantayo, PJ Harvey and more

Thanks for reading the Toronto Star’s Weekend Music Digest, a roundup of new music, concert listings and more.

This week’s roundup includes new music from Zoon, Pantayo, PJ Harvey, plus a collaboration between Thundercat and Tame Impala. Click here to listen along to the Spotify playlist.

Album of the Week

Zoon: Bekka Ma’iingan

It’s easy to be subsumed by the dreamy soundscapes of Zoon. The project, fronted by singer and composer Daniel Monkman, helped popularize “moccasin-gaze” — a sub-genre that combines the reverb-drenched guitar style of shoegaze with Indigenous music. But beneath the mesmerizing walls of sounds and languid stretches of ambient noise, Monkman’s music has always felt intensely personal, and tethered to the reality of their experience as an Anishnaabe artist.

On Zoon’s extraordinary 2020 debut, “Bleached Waves,” Monkman detailed his journey from substance dependency to recovery. In 2021, Monkman teamed up with Status/Non-Status frontman Adam Sturgeon to record as OMBIIGIZI — the duo’s Polaris-nominated record “Sewn Back Together” offered stirring reflections on the healing power of Indigenous resurgence.

Released Friday, Zoon’s sophomore effort, “Bekka Ma’iingan,” is an ode to Monkman’s roots. “When I recorded this album, I was missing a lot of my family and some people had passed on, and I wasn’t able to be there for funerals and stuff,” they explained to CBC’s Reclaimed. “And it made me obsess about how important family is and you really take it for granted.”

Featuring stirring strings compositions from Owen Pallett and contributions from Sunsetter drummer Andrew McLeod, “Bekka Ma’iingan” moves between blisteringly distorted guitar jams that would sound at home on a My Bloody Valentine record (“Care”), lush acoustic ballads (“Manitou”) and wonderfully sedated instrumentals (“Niizh Manidoowig [2 Spirit]” — a triumphant ambient track featuring Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo).

But “Bekka” reaches its emotional climax on the slow-motion lullaby “Dodem” — an Ojibwe word that means “your clan” or “where you come from.” Monkman wrote the song six years ago, while living in Broken Hill Ojibwe Nation Reserve with their father. “He had taken me in during one of my worst relapses and I felt very vulnerable but used my time there to write,” Monkman explained. “My uncle was there too, and I showed him this song that I wrote and he immediately was like, Daniel, this is a very special song. You should do right by it.”

Star Tracks: More of the best new music from this week

Pantayo: One More Latch (Give It To ‘Ya)

Few bands understand the expressive power of percussion quite like Pantayo, an all-women Toronto-based ensemble that fuses the sounds of kulintang — a traditional form of music played Indigenous groups in the southern Philippines — with punk, synth-pop and R&B. On their self-titled debut from 2020, Pantayo employed the unique sounds of kulintang gongs to evoke feelings of anger, solidarity and romantic attachment.

On their new single “One More Latch (Give It To ‘Ya)” — the first taste from their upcoming album “Ang Pagdaloy” — Pantayo lean into the raw strength of their drums in a simple expression of sexual desire that builds slowly toward a raucous crescendo. True to form, the track also contains an underlying political message, and, according to a press release, “serves as a means to reclaim sexuality, desire, and intimacy from the clutch of patriarchal white supremacy.”

Julie Byrne: Summer Glass

Back in 2017, singer-songwriter Julie Byrne released the track “Natural Blue,” a delicate but stunning love song brimming with achingly pretty melodies and imagery. Six long years later, Byrne has announced a new album, “The Great Wings,” which follows the death of her longtime creative partner and synth player Eric Littmann. “I swore I’d show myself so I could renew,” she sings in a rich register, her voice enveloped by vaporous synth arpeggios and feathery harp notes — think Beach House wrapped in pillows. “I want to be whole enough to risk again,” she declares, as if finally ready to emerge from the devastating grips of grief.

PJ Harvey: A Child’s Question, August

Big news for Gen X weirdos and older Millennials: PJ Harvey has announced her 10th studio album, “I Inside the Old Year Dying” — her first since 2016 — which arrives July 7. The English alt/art-rock luminary also teased fans with “A Child’s Question, August,” a brief but tantalizing single built around a bucolic rhythm and unsettling synth squirms. “Help me dunnick, drush and dove / Love Me Tender. Tender love,” Peej sings with an almost arid sturdiness on the song’s chorus. I won’t pretend I have any idea what she’s singing about, but I sure feel it.

“The album is about searching, looking—the intensity of first love, and seeking meaning,” Harvey said in press release. “Not that there has to be a message, but the feeling I get from the record is one of love — it’s tinged with sadness and loss, but it’s loving. I think that’s what makes it feel so welcoming: so open.”

Thundercat and Tame Impala: No More Lies

Thundercat, A.K.A. Stephen Bruner, LA-based bass virtuoso and prince of contemporary jazz-funk fusion. Tame Impala, A.K.A. Kevin Parker, LA-based studio virtuoso and prince of contemporary pscyh-rock fusion. It’s shocking that these two musicians, both well into their 30s, have not collaborated before — but eh, better late than never.

“No More Lies” sounds exactly like you’d imagine: cue the funky drums, duelling synthesizer and bass lines, humour mixed with technical proficiency. This is the cutting edge of retro-futurism, and the boys make it look easy.

More new releases

Newly announced concerts

Toronto Concert Calendar: A selection of upcoming shows across the city

FRIDAY, APRIL 28

The Toronto-based musician and producer Meghan Remy, who performs as U.S. Girls, is set to play her first hometown show in support of her latest record, “Bless This Mess.” The album, which Remy wrote and recorded while she was pregnant with twins, is an immaculately-crafted blast of R&B, indie pop and yacht rock. Expect dancing.

The Toronto dance-punk duo are playing a string of what will surely be sweaty and packed shows at the legendary Horsehoe Tavern this week, with the final two shows taking place on Friday and Saturday. This is a great venue to see one of the best bands to emerge out of the city’s rock scene during the 2000s.

SATURDAY, APRIL 29

Pull out your neon Wayfarers — Anthony Gonzalez, the French musician behind the enduring Millennial anthem “Midnight City,” will perform with his dream pop group M83 at History in support of the band’s ninth studio album, “Fantasy.”

TUESDAY, MAY 2

According to the Star’s resident metalhead Justin Smirlies, Spiritbox — a band from Victoria, BC, established by power couple Courtney LaPlante (vocals) and Mike Stringer (guitar) — is the genre’s “next big thing.” They’re only going to get bigger, so catch them while you can.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3

American indie rock/slowcore veterans will play every song from their 1998 album “It’s Hard To Find a Friend” and their 2002 album “Control.”

Miscellanea from around the music world

Rest in power, Harry Belafonte.

The singer and actor, who died at the age of 96 on Tuesday, was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer. But throughout his career, Belafonte was also a committed — and radical — activist. In addition to his key role in the U.S. civil rights movement, Belafonte was a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and imperialism, a supporter of the Cuban and Bolivarian revolutions and a man who had no qualms calling out complacency or hypocrisy within progressive movements.

I recommend this interview with Belafonte from 2017, in which he reflects on his life — and his relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — ahead of his 90th birthday.

“Dr. King gave me the space to pursue my rebellion against the system,” he said. “They came after Dr. King with great vigour, and they didn’t get him. They came after me with great vigour; they didn’t get me. If they’d gotten me, I’m not quite sure what they’d have done with me.”

Talking Heads frontman David Byrne is just like us. Here he is doing a bit of Prince at karaoke:

After a couple of wild Coachella performances, Charli XCX has officially killed off the “Crash” era. “R.I.P main pop girl, I buried her alive,” she wrote on Instagram. What’s next? Well, for starters, she will reportedly star alongside Barbie Ferreira in the cult horror remake of “Faces of Death,” originally released in 1978. The film is currently in production under the direction of Daniel Goldhaber who recently released the critically-acclaimed film “How To Blow Up A Pipeline.”

Superproducer Dave Albini battles the trolls on Twitter:

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