Full Album Premiere & Review: Ian Blurton’s Future Now, Second Skin

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on July 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

cover Ian Blurton s Future Now - Second Skin

[Click play above to stream Ian Blurton’s Future Now’s Second Skin in full. Album is out Friday, July 15, on Seeing Red Records and Pajama Party.]

Ian Blurton on Second Skin:

While not a concept album per se, it does have reoccurring musical and lyrical ideas. Lyrically it’s mostly about moving forward from things you don’t want to live with, hence the theme of rebirth, the idea of rejecting what you don’t believe in and also saving things worth saving from destruction and the idea of progress. Cover artist Jeremy Bruneel has taken a number of these lyrical themes and painted them into the cover so they are represented visually as well.

Once we had been accepted as Artist in Residence at The NMC in Calgary we knew that we would have a proper Mellotron at our disposal so I began writing with that in mind. That brought forward the idea of making a more proggy record than the last and having three or four longer songs.

One of the themes of the record is community and that became real-life when we put out a call for amps as we were recording in Calgary/flying there. Local Calgary bands and musicians (Woodhawk, Ramblin’ Ambassadors, etc) offered up gear and we are forever indebted to their kindness. This same sense of community also made us realize that this record wouldn’t have happened the same way without the contributions of the artists, musicians, engineers, mixers, etc each who believed in it and added their own touches until the project became a whole.

In a world and a time of antiheroes, Ian Blurton is a hero. Where so much of the art that surrounds us on a day-to-day, be it commercial creative work on television, movies, videogames, music videos, and so on, or the literature and fine arts we as humans engage with, authenticity is regularly judged by the darkness of a work, the ‘grittiness’ factor that makes things that are difficult, challenging or traumatizing feel truer to life than those that aren’t. I’m not saying this is right or wrong, and I’m not calling for a change or a reversion back to some false ideal of a time when it was different. No. All I’m saying is that Ian Blurton, based in Toronto and on the cusp of releasing the second album with Ian Blurton’s Future Now, is a hero.

This is because, where so many others are not, Blurton is willing to take the risk of creating something fresh that diverts from the expectations of its own era. Something that is neither fluff to be tossed off when done, nor saccharine in its sweeter aspects, nor void of substance or message because it isn’t violent or dark or depressing. Second Skin is the sophomore long-player from this incarnation of Blurton‘s long-established persona behind 2019’s Signals Through the Flames (review here), a sweaty-summer-sun collection of nine songs playing out across 44 minutes of brazen heavy rock informed by classic metal riffs — Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, ’80s-style dual-guitar grandiosity between Blurton (also vocals, keys, production) and Aaron Goldstein — and an abiding classic groove channeled through bassist/vocalist Anna Ruddick (City and Colour) and drummer/vocalist Glenn Milchem (also Blue Rodeo).

Blurton‘s storied history as an artist and producer — working in bands like Public Animal, Cowboy Junkies, and so on, as well as being who in Toronto you want to record your heavy rock album, as demonstrated through records by Electric Magma, Cursed, Blood Ceremony and many, many others — is on display in the songwriting and performance here. But the truth is that even if you have no idea who he is or what he’s done in his career going back nearly four decades, the barriers to entry on Second Skin are nil. It could not be easier to get on board.

Like the best of pop, Second Skin is able to turn a three-minute song into an epic and make a seven-minute track feel like a breeze. It does this immediately upon pressing play, with the careening “Like a Ghost” (3:13) and the subsequent, damn-near-power-metal-except-it-isn’t title-track (7:12) establishing quickly the spaces in which BlurtonGoldsteinRuddick and Milchem will work. Urgent in their delivery but unhurried either in tempo or in their movement between verses, choruses and showcasing depth even unto Milchem‘s ride cymbal taps after the two-minute mark in “Like a Ghost” or perfectly timed snare nod amid the starts and stops of the later “Beyond Beholds the Moon.” “Second Skin” rolls out with leads over central riffs, and its shove isn’t to be understated, building metallic momentum with heavy rock fuzz and an according breadth of melody as it arrives at the title line, finally, that release. Keyboard sets up the movement into the second half of the track, and the balance in mix, the resurgent rhythm, and the intensity that ensues en route to the next chorus is nothing short of masterful. There’s a reason that in Toronto, so I’m told, he’s referred to as “Sir” Ian Blurton.

Second Skin is universally crafted at this grade. No letup. “The Power of No” (3:51) chugs and swings with graceful ease, rooted in rock traditionalism in their side A momentum build, and as the the stomping “When the Storm Comes Home” (3:12) hands out its Scorpions-via-grunge-jangle progression, the effect is a guitar highlight standing apart from a slew of compatriots, as well as a shift into “Orchestrated Illusions” (4:51). rightly placed as the centerpiece for its nestled-in groove, expansive melodicism and memorable, likewise open chorus. At the presumed end of the side A and peppered with gorgeously toned solos in its second half, “Orchestrated Illusions” feels very much like the arrival that the the first five songs of Second Skin have been pushing toward, and its long fade and resonant acoustic guitar/keyboard ending is wholly earned.

Ian Blurton's Future Now, 2022

So too is the quick reset as side B’s “Denim on Denim” (3:57). “It’s like heaven on heaven,” according to the lyrics, and kind of like “Looks That Kill” in its midsection riff, and fair enough. Another righteous hook, another metal-turned-into-rock movement, and another strong showcase of craft, pulls the listener back to ground after the hypnotic finish “Orchestrated Illusions” and before the closing trilogy of “Beyond Beholds the Moon” (6:30), “Too High the Sky” (5:03) and “Trails to the Gate/Second Skin Reprise” (6:36) round out the offering by pushing farther outward from the foundation “Denim on Denim” provides — a Mellotron early in “Beyond Beholds the Moon” is a sign of the shift into the album’s next stage, but it’s by no means the first keys, as noted. Growing burly by its finish — the aforementioned snare groove included — there’s no dip in the quality of craft.

Rather, set up earlier by “Second Skin,” “Beyond Beholds the Moon,” the harmonized unfolding of the proggy and fluid but still in motion “Too High the Sky” (with guest Sean Beresford on guitar) and the ’70s-futurist-meets-slow-Slayer finish of “Trails to the Gate/Second Skin” (with Robin Hatch on piano in its latter reaches) are in clear conversation with what preceded them on the record as well as off, and the final lyric, “It’s just a second skin,” resounds with no less vitality than the opening line of “Like a Ghost,” which was, “Do you want to believe?” If you ever did, there are no shortage of reasons to in these songs. Because that’s what heroes do. They make you believe.

The narrative of Second Skin (blessings and peace upon it) tells that Ian Blurton’s Future Now made the album on the Rolling Stones Mobile studio — used not only by Rolling Stones to create Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers, but also ultra-classics from Mk. II Deep PurpleLed Zeppelin and others — as well as a slew of accordingly pedigreed vintage gear at Canada’s National Music Center in Calgary, Alberta. Whether it was bringing energy from their live shows to this setting or Blurton‘s own vision as producer, Second Skin indeed communes with these spirits while boasting a level of class that is simply its own. Rock and roll is lucky to have it.

Ian Blurton’s Future Now, “Like a Ghost” official video

Ian Blurton’s Future Now on Facebook

Ian Blurton’s Future Now on Twitter

Ian Blurton’s Future Now on Instagram

Seeing Red Records website

Seeing Red Records on Bandamp

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Ian Blurton’s Future Now to Release Second Skin July 15

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Ian Blurton's Future Now (Photo by Rick McGinnis)

Frickin’ Ian Blurton gets it. That’s not news if you’re from Toronto, I guess, but hot damn, that is a song. I don’t mean that that it’s just catchy or whatever — it is, but that’s beside the point — but if you listen to “Like a Ghost,” which is the opening track from Ian Blurton‘s Future Now‘s upcoming second album, Second Skin, you can hear the mapped out structure, see the parts on the board as the song came together, or at least how it was arranged in the finished product, as Blurton and company remind that just because something is heavy doesn’t mean it can’t sound clean. If dude wants to be heavy rock’s own Ric Ocasek songwriter, he’s on his way.

So anyway, I dig the track, I guess.

There’s a fair amount of info below but I’m including all of it here because I’m pretty sure I’m gonna want it later. In any case, from the PR wire:

Ian Blurtons Future Now second skin

IAN BLURTON’S FUTURE NOW To Release Second Skin Full-Length Via Seeing Red Records July 15th

Second Skin will be released digitally and on black vinyl via BLURTON’s own Pajama Party label in Canada HERE: https://ianblurtonsfuturenow.bandcamp.com/

And on Aside/Bside (Color Merge) and Color-in-Color Splatter vinyl via Seeing Red Records HERE: http://www.seeingredrecords.com

Legendary Canadian artist/producer IAN BLURTON and his FUTURE NOW project will release latest studio album, Second Skin, via Seeing Red Records on July 15th, today unveiling the record’s artwork, track listing, and first single!

If you’re a fan of any kind of ’70s heavy rock – Southern boogie, NWOBHM, MC5/Stooges Detroit punk, Junk Shop glam, or straight-up classic rock – we are willing to bet IAN BLURTON’S FUTURE NOW has something for you. If you’re the kind of person who might geek out on the vintage gear used to record that music, we’ll double down on that wager.

A mainstay in the Canadian scene since the 1980s, IAN BLURTON may have come along after hard rock’s heyday, but he has parlayed his love of the era’s musical sensibilities into a career as both a musician (Change Of Heart, C’mon, Public Animal) and a producer (Cursed, Tricky Woo, Weakerthans, Cauldron). For the follow-up to his acclaimed solo debut, 2019’s Signals Through The Flames, he is pulling out all the stops, sourcing the best of the best for all elements. Formed to tour in support of Signals… FUTURE NOW features some of the top talents heard on that record: drummer Glenn Milchem (Blue Rodeo) and bassist Anna Ruddick (City And Colour). To complement the powerhouse rhythm section and recreate live the Wishbone Ash/Judas Priest–inspired harmonies that define the album, Aaron Goldstein was been recruited for second guitar.

In tandem with the Signals Through The Flames tour, BLURTON was accepted as an artist in residence at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre, in Calgary. The residency presented an opportunity to pack up the band – hot from a string of live shows – and head west to track a follow up album with the country’s most enviable collection of musical equipment.

Second Skin was recorded using the famed Rolling Stones Mobile (the studio The Rolling Stones used to record Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street, Led Zeppelin’s III and IV, and Deep Purple’s Machine Head) as well as the aforementioned National Music Centre. With the institution’s selection of rare guitars formerly owned by Randy Bachman, amps from Neil Young, and an array of vintage gear borrowed from Calgary friends, FUTURE NOW had the ingredients for a dream session. Throw in an early ‘80s Mellotron, and the band had all it needed to cook up a crushing collection of sludgy riff-driven rockers and prog epics, all with clean vocals, thunderous bass/double-kick, and the kind of guitar solos you wish you could play. Second Skin was mixed by Daryl Smith at Chemical West, mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, and features artwork by Jeremy Bruneel. The record will undoubtedly make for a fine Summer soundtrack.

In advance of the release of Second Skin, today IAN BLURTON’S FUTURE NOW unveils a video for first single and album opener, “Like A Ghost.”

Comments BLURTON, “In ‘Like A Ghost,’ poet Baudelaire and god Poseidon inhabit a world in need of shelter from the past attempting to take over their future. It is about being present in a world that doesn’t want us to be. As the first track on Second Skin, it sets up the theme of the record that sometimes it’s best and ok to leave bad ideas behind.”

Second Skin Track Listing:
1. Like A Ghost
2. Second Skin
3. The Power Of No
4. When The Storm Comes Home
5. Orchestrated Illusions
6. Denim On Denim
7. Beyond Beholds The Moon
8. Too High The Sky
9. Trails To The Gate/Second Skin Reprise

IAN BLURTON’S FUTURE NOW:
Ian Blurton – vocals/guitar/keyboards
Glenn Milchem – drums/vocals
Anna Ruddick – bass/vocals
Aaron Goldstein – guitar
Guests:
Sean Beresford – guitar on “Too High The Sky”
Robin Hatch – piano “Trails To The Gate”

http://www.facebook.com/ianblurton.futurenow/
http://twitter.com/ianblurton
http://www.instagram.com/ianblurton

http://www.seeingredrecords.com
http://www.seeingredrecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.instagram.com/seeing_red_records
http://www.facebook.com/seeingredrecords

Ian Blurton’s Future Now, “Like a Ghost” official video

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Quarterly Review: Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Black Lung, Giant Dwarf, Land Mammal, Skunk, Silver Devil, Sky Burial, Wizzerd, Ian Blurton, Cosmic Fall

Posted in Reviews on July 5th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review

Got my laptop back. Turned out the guy had to give me a new hard drive entirely, clone all my data on it, and scrap the other drive. I’m sure if I took it to another technician they’d have said something completely different, either for better or worse, but it was $165 and I got my computer back, working, in a day, so I can’t really complain. Worth the money, obviously, even though it was $40 more than the estimate. I assume that was a mix of “new hard drive” and “this is the last thing I’m doing before a four-day weekend.” Either way, totally legit. Bit of stress on my part, but what’s a Quarterly Review without it?

This ends the week, but there’s still one more batch of 10 reviews to go on Monday, so I won’t delay further, except to say more to come.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Nocebo

elizabeth colour wheel nocebo

A rare level of triumph for a first album, Elizabeth Colour Wheel‘s aesthetic scope and patience of craft on Nocebo result in a genre-spanning post-noise rock that maintains an atmospheric heft whether loud or quiet at any given moment, and a sense of unpredictability that feels born out of a genuinely forward-thinking songwriting process. It is dark, emotionally resonant, beautiful and crushing across its eight songs and 47 minutes, as the Philadelphia five-piece ebb and flow instrumentally behind a standout vocal performance that reminds of Julie Christmas circa Battle of Mice on “Life of a Flower” but is ultimately more controlled and all the more lethal for that. Bouts of extremity pop up at unexpected times and the songs flow into each other so as to make all of Nocebo feel like a single, multi-hued work, which it just might be as it moves into ambience between “Hide Behind (Emmett’s Song)” and “Bedrest” before exploding to life again in “34th” and transitioning directly into the cacophonous apex that comes with closer “Head Home.” One of the best debuts of 2019, if not the best.

Elizabeth Colour Wheel on Thee Facebooks

The Flenser on Bandcamp

 

Black Lung, Ancients

black lung ancients

Ancients is the third full-length from Baltimore’s Black Lung, whose heavy blues rock takes a moodier approach from the outset of “Mother of the Sun” onward, following an organ-led roll in that opener that calls to mind All Them Witches circa Lightning at the Door and following 2016’s See the Enemy (review here) with an even firmer grasp on their overarching intent. The title-track is shorter at 3:10 and offers some post-rock flourish in the guitar amid its otherwise straight-ahead push, but there’s a tonal depth to add atmosphere to whatever moves they’re making at the time, “The Seeker” and “Voices” rounding out side A with relatively grounded swing and traditionalist shuffle but still catching attention through pace and presentation alike. That holds true as “Gone” drifts into psychedelic jamming at the start of side B, and the chunkier “Badlands,” the dramatic “Vultures” and the controlled wash of “Dead Man Blues” take the listener into some unnamed desert without a map or exit strategy. It’s a pleasure to get lost as Ancients plays through, and Black Lung remain a well-kept secret of the East Coast underground.

Black Lung on Thee Facebooks

Ripple Music website

Noisolution website

 

Giant Dwarf, Giant Dwarf

Giant Dwarf Giant Dwarf

This just fucking rules, and I feel no need to couch my critique in any more flowery language than that. Driving, fuzzy heavy rock topped with post-Homme melodies that doesn’t sacrifice impact for attitude, the self-released, self-titled debut from Perth, Australia’s Giant Dwarf is a sans-pretense 35 minutes of groove done right. They may be playing to genre, fine, but from the cover art on down, they’re doing so with a sense of personality and a readiness to bring an individual sensibility to their sound. I dig it. Summery tones, rampant vocal melodies in layers, solid rhythmic foundation beneath. The fact that it’s the five-piece’s first album makes me look less for some kind of stylistic nuance, but it’s there to be heard anyway in “Disco Void” and the bouncing end of “High Tide Blues,” and in surrounding cuts like “Repeat After Defeat” and “Strange Wool,” Giant Dwarf set to the task before them with due vitality, imagining Songs for the Deaf with Fu Manchu tonality in “Kepler.” No big surprise, but yeah, it definitely works. Someone should be beating down the door to sign this band.

Giant Dwarf on Thee Facebooks

Giant Dwarf on Bandcamp

 

Land Mammal, Land Mammal

land mammal land mammal

Land Mammal‘s debut outing is a 14-minute, proof-of-concept four-songer EP with clarity of presentation and telegraphed intent. Marked out by the Robert Plant-style vocal heroics of Kinsley August, the band makes the most of a bluesy atmosphere behind him, with Will Weise on wah-ready guitar, Phillip PJ Soapsmith on bass, Stephen Smith on drums and True Turner on keys. On opener “Dark with Rain” and closer “Better Days,” they find a pastoral vibe that draws from ’90s alternative, thinking Blind Melon particularly in the finale, but “Earth Made Free” takes a bluesier angle and “Drippin’ Slow” is not shy about nor ashamed of its danceability, as its lyrics demonstrate. For all the crispness of the production, Land Mammal still manage to sound relatively natural, which is all the more encouraging in terms of moving forward, but it’ll be interesting to hear how they flesh out their sound over the course of a full-length, since even as an EP, this self-titled is short. They have songwriting, performance and production on their side, however, so something tells me they’ll be just fine.

Land Mammal on Thee Facebooks

Land Mammal on Bandcamp

 

Skunk, Strange Vibration

skunk strange vibration

Even before they get to the ultra-“N.I.B.” patterning of second track “Stand in the Sun,” Skunk‘s Sabbathian loyalties are well established, and they continue on that line, through the “War Pigs”-ness of “Goblin Orgy” (though I’ll give them bonus points for that title), and the slower “A National Acrobat” roll of “The Black Crown,” and while that’s not the only influence under which Skunk are working — clearly — it’s arguably the most forward. They’ve been on a traditional path since 2015’s mission-statement EP, Heavy Rock from Elder Times (review here), and as Strange Vibration is their second album behind 2017’s Doubleblind (review here), they’ve only come more into focus in terms of what they’re doing overall. They throw a bit of swagger into “Evil Eye Gone Blind” and “Star Power” toward the end of the record — more Blackmore or Leslie West than Iommi — but keep the hooks center through it all, and cap with a welcome bit of layered melody on “The Cobra’s Kiss.” Based in Oakland, they don’t quite fit in with the Californian boogie scene to the south, but standing out only seems to suit Strange Vibration all the more.

Skunk on Thee Facebooks

Skunk on Bandcamp

 

Silver Devil, Paralyzed

Silver Devil Paralyzed

Like countrymen outfits in Vokonis or to a somewhat lesser degree Cities of Mars, Gävle-based riffers Silver Devil tap into Sleep as a core influence and work outward from there. In the case of their second album, Paralyzed (on Ozium Records), they work far out indeed, bringing a sonic largesse to bear through plus-sized tonality and distorted vocals casting echoes across a wide chasm of the mix. “Rivers” or the later, slower-rolling “Octopus” rightfully present this as an individual take, and it ends up being that one way or the other, with the atmosphere becoming essential to the character of the material. There are some driving moments that call to mind later Dozer — or newer Greenleaf, if you prefer — such as the centerpiece “No Man Traveller,” but the periodic bouts of post-rock bring complexity to that assessment as well, though in the face of the galloping crescendo of “The Grand Trick,” complexity is a secondary concern to the outright righteousness with which Silver Devil take familiar elements and reshape them into something that sounds fresh and engaging. That’s basically the story of the whole record, come to think of it.

Silver Devil on Thee Facebooks

Ozium Records website

 

Sky Burial, Sokushinbutsu

sky burial Sokushinbutsu

Comprised of guitarist/vocalist/engineer Vessel 2 and drummer/vocalist Vessel 1 (also ex-Mühr), Sky Burial release their debut EP, Sokushinbutsu, through Break Free Records, and with it issue two songs of densely-weighted riff and crash, captured raw and live-sounding with an edge of visceral sludge thanks to the harsh vocals laid overtop. The prevailing spirit is as much doom as it is crust throughout “Return to Sender” (8:53) and the 10:38 title-track — the word translating from Japanese to “instant Buddha” — and as “Sokushinbutsu” kicks the tempo of the leadoff into higher gear, the release becomes a wash of blown-out tone with shouts cutting through that’s very obviously meant to be as brutal as it absolutely is. They slow down eventually, then slow down more, then slow down more — you see where this is going — until eventually the feedback seems to consume them and everything else, and the low rumble of guitar gives way to noise and biting vocalizations. As beginnings go, Sokushinbutsu is willfully wretched and animalistic, a manifested sonic nihilism that immediately stinks of death.

Sky Burial on Thee Facebooks

Break Free Records on Bandcamp

 

Wizzerd, Wizzerd

wizzerd st

One finds Montana’s Wizzerd born of a similar Upper Midwestern next-gen take on classic heavy as that of acts like Bison Machine and Midas. Their Cursed Tongue Records-delivered self-titled debut album gives a strong showing of this foundation, less boogie-based than some, with just an edge of heavy metal to the riffing and vocals that seems to derive not directly from doom, but definitely from some ’80s metal stylizations. Coupled with ’70s and ’90s heavy rocks, it’s a readily accessible blend throughout the nine-song/51-minute LP, but a will toward the epic comes through in theme as well as the general mood of the riffs, and even in the drift of “Wizard” that’s apparent. Taken in kind with the fuzzblaster “Wraith,” the winding motion of the eponymous closer and with the lumbering crash of “Warrior” earlier, the five-piece’s sound shows potential to distinguish itself further in the future through taking on fantasy subject matter lyrically as well as playing to wall-sized grooves across the board, even in the speedy first half of “Phoenix,” with its surprising crash into the wall of its own momentum.

Wizzerd on Thee Facebooks

Cursed Tongue Records webstore

 

Ian Blurton, Signals Through the Flames

Ian Blurton Signals Through the Flames

The core of Ian Blurton‘s Signals Through the Flames is in tight, sharply-executed heavy rockers like “Seven Bells” and “Days Will Remain,” classic in their root but not overly derivative, smartly and efficiently composed and performed. The Toronto-based Blurton has been making and producing music for over three decades in various guises and incarnations, and with these nine songs, he brings into focus a songcraft that is more than enough to carry song like “Nothing Left to Lose” and opener “Eye of the Needle,” which bookends with the 6:55 “Into Dust,” the closer arriving after a final salvo with the Scorpionic strut of “Kick out the Lights” and the forward-thrust-into-ether of “Night of the Black Goat.” If this was what Ghost had ended up sounding like, I’d have been cool with that. Blurton‘s years of experience surely come into play in this work, a kind of debut under his own name and/or that of Ian Blurton’s Future Now, but the songs come through as fresh regardless and “The March of Mars” grabs attention not with pedigree, but simply by virtue of its own riff, which is exactly how it should be. It’s subtle in its variety, but those willing to give it a repeat listen or two will find even more reward for doing so.

Ian Blurton on Thee Facebooks

Ian Blurton on Bandcamp

 

Cosmic Fall, Lackland

Cosmic Fall Lackland

“Lackland” is the first new material Berlin three-piece Cosmic Fall have produced since last year’s In Search of Space (review here) album, which is only surprising given the frequency with which they once jammed out a record every couple of months. The lone 8:32 track is a fitting reminder of the potency in the lineup of guitarist Marcin Morawski, bassist Klaus Friedrich and drummer Daniel Sax, and listening to the Earthless-style shred in Morawski‘s guitar, one hopes it won’t be another year before they come around again. As it stands, they make the eight minutes speed by with volcanic fervor and an improvised sensibility that feels natural despite the song’s ultimately linear trajectory. Could be a one-off, could be a precursor to a new album. I’d prefer the latter, obviously, but I’ll take what I can get, and if that’s “Lackland,” then so be it.

Cosmic Fall on Thee Facebooks

Cosmic Fall on Bandcamp

 

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Ian Blurton Sets June 7 Release for Signals Through the Flames

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

ian blurtons future now

Way back in January, you might recall a track was premiered from Ian Blurton’s Future Now called “Space is Forever.” That first single will be issued as a 7″ next month and even when that was being posted, it was intended as a lead-in for Blurton‘s upcoming solo-ish record, Signals Through the Flames. Well, I got the album yesterday and the short version is it kicks ass, which is why I’m writing about it now. It’s due out June 7 and I’m sure there will be preorders and advance public audio all that fun stuff, but consider this a heads up. If you’re not from Toronto or the surrounding area, maybe you’re less familiar with Blurton‘s three-decade-plus career in bands and producing, and that’s fine. Don’t worry about it. That context is nice, but in listening to Signals Through the Flames, the songs stand on their own. I’m going to hope to have more on the record before it’s out, but yeah, just early warning here, that’s all. It’s the kind of record that’s really going to hit with some people. I think I might be one of them.

Art and PR wire info follow:

Ian Blurton Signals Through the Flames

Ian Blurton – Signals Through The Flame – Pajama Party

Release: 7 June 2019

It’s time for a veteran to show the new generation how it’s done. After 35+ years in the Canadian music industry, playing in over 40 bands and producing, engineering and mixing over 100 albums, Ian Blurton is finally releasing a solo record. You’ve probably seen Blurton play in your town, fronting Change of Heart, Blurtonia, Bionic, C’mon, or the still-active Public Animal. If you missed those bands, his name is still likely to pop up somewhere in your record collection; you’ll find Blurton’s producer credit on career-defining albums for Blood Ceremony, Cursed, Tricky Woo, the Weakerthans and more. Or you may have caught him guest with acts as diverse as Richard Lloyd, Buffy Sainte-Marie , the Sadies, Teenage Head, Twink or The Viletones.

It’s no surprise that Blurton’s inaugural solo effort pulls from an impressive pool of talent and a range of influences. In 2017 a sudden torrent of inspiration brought him a slew of songs best suited to a power-trio format. Enlisting friends who also happened to be some of his favorite drummers and bassists, he set out on a quest to create a combination of dark pop hooks, molten riffage and ambient soundscapes that is his heaviest work to date. Between Blurton’s layers-upon-layers of guitar, a plethora of gifted musicians such as Mike Armstrong (King Cobb Steelie), PJ Dunphy (Iron Giant), Eric Larock (Tricky Woo), Glenn Milchem (Blue Rodeo), Damon Richardson (Danko Jones), Anna Ruddick (Randy Bachman), Nick Sewell (Biblical), and Darcy Yates (Flash Lightnin’) all make appearance on Signals Through the Flames. The result is a heavy music melting pot with one foot in the past and the other planted firmly in the future.

Mixed by Daryl Smith (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) at Chemical West and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, Signals Through The Flames will be released by new Toronto imprint Pajama Party digitally, on vinyl and cassette June 7, 2019.

The first single, Space Is Forever b/w Upon Yesterday, is out May 4 on Yeah Right! Records, launching at a release show at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern and can be heard here: ianblurton.bandcamp.com

The live band, Ian Blurton’s Future Now, draws from the same talent as the record, and currently features drummer Glenn Milchem, bassist Anna Ruddick and Aaron Goldstein as second guitarist. This spring and summer sees the band playing dates between Montreal and Calgary, including appearances at Sled Island and Hillside Festival.

Tracklisting
01 EYE OF THE NEEDLE 4:55
02 SEVEN BELLS 3:34
03 DAYS WILL REMAIN 3:30
04 THE MARCH OF MARS 4:18
05 NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE 3:16
06 ICQ 2:58
07 KICK OUT THE LIGHTS 4:53
08 NIGHT OF THE BLACK GOAT 4:47
09 INTO DUST 6:37

Tour dates
May 1 Montreal – Turbo Haus w/ Dead Quiet, Mountain Dust
May 4 Toronto – Dakota Tavern w/ Sick Things, Rough Spells
May 17 Peterborough – Gordon Best Theatre w/ Mokomokai
June 6 Toronto – Sneaky Dees w/ Spirit Adrift
June 7 Kitchener – The Starlight w/ Hawkeyes
June 14 Toronto – secret show NXNE
June 17 Sudbury – The Townehouse
June 18 Thunder Bay – The Apollo
June 19 Winnipeg – The Handsome Daughter
June 20 Saskatoon – Amigo’s
June 21 Edmonton – The Rec Room Edmonton South
June 22 Calgary – The Palomino/Sled Island Festival
June 23 Regina – The Club at The Exchange
July 14 Guelph – Hillside Festival
July 19 Hamilton – This Ain’t Hollywood
July 20 Toronto – The Horseshoe Signals Through The Flames record release

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Ian Blurton, “Space is Forever”

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