Valley Of The Giants are the latest band on the scene to feature folks from all sorts of other hipster acts. The band brings together Shalabi Effect’s Anthony Seck, Canning, Do Make Say Think’s Charles Spearin (who also happens to play with BSS), Sophie Trudeau of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and The Silver Mount Zion, Strawberry’s Deidre Smith and a fellow by the name of Raoul Tangeuy. The band apparently came together quite quickly and recorded some tracks in an old farmhouse. The results are, as one would predict, nicely moody and atmospheric.
The band’s self-titled record is due out on February 10. The disc will be released by Arts & Crafts, the same label responsible for Stars, Feist, Jason Collett and Broken Social Scene.
In this new group you have Deidre Smith of Strawberry, Sophie Trudeau of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mount Zion, and Charles Spearin of Broken Social Scene, among others. For those of you who may not know, all four of those bands are in my top 20. This is certainly a supergroup that I will be very excited to hear. Deidre has a beautiful voice and writes wonderful lyrics, so that alone would make this upcoming album one to anticipate. The addition of the other fine artists can only make for something astounding. I will definitely also make an effort to listen to Shalabi Effect, as I’m sure the quality of that endevour is also high (this review led me to discover that Deidre has worked with them as well). I’ve been meaning to hunt down some Do Make Say Think for months, so that will have to fall into the list of new discoveries as well. This is the first truly grand musical excitement of the year for me.
From the Valley of the Giants‘ official website:
Lanark Highlands, Ontario. An old cedar farm-house with a brand new 4-track. It was the dead of winter. Outside the window a black goat with devil horns stared up from the blinding snow. Ivan calls those four green walls at the top of the stars the ‘happy room’. It was where the songs were born. A dream of a white griffin appeared suggesting the fuzzy music be turned into an album. Sophie (from godspeed and silver mt zion) and I (anthony of the shalabi effect) talked about recording for years. Brendan (from broken social scene) and I talked about recording for years. Raul insisted we not overkill the preparation. We had one rehersal, and all five musicians including Charlie (from do make say think and broken social scene) fresh off the train, met for the first time in the studio. Deirdre (from strawberry) and Scott just bought the Micheal Crichton film Westworld. We sat back on the couch watching Yul Brynner all in black, with lifeless eyes and jingling spurs strutting across the mechanized psycho-desert landscape. Deidre pulled out a pen and began to write lyrics based on the lonely murderous robot cowbot. There you have it.
– Anthony Seck.
I’ve taken the time while writing this to listen to Shalabi Effect, and I must say I’m extremely impressed. On their website you can watch a fantastic video for the song “On The Bowery”, featuring Deidre. It’s a remarkably well done video for a beautiful song. I highly recommend you listen to it and watch. The other music by Shalabi Effect is also magnificent, though strikingly different without Deidre’s vocals. Their CD’s have been added to my must have list.