NORTHERN EXPOSURE: Snail Party - TOPPLED PROPANE GLORY

Northern Exposure is a weekly feature where I (Mark) present you with something from the underground of Canadian music.

The rise of the the banjo in popular music has been accompanied with some pretty sleek and pristine ideas of what music with a banjo in it should sound like (*cough* Mumford & Sons *cough*). Now, if you don’t want something that sounds so shiny, or you like some dirt to your folk music, then you should probably have a listen to Sail Party. The Halifax group is complete with a banjo, violin, guitar, cello, accordion, drums and even a singing saw on some tracks. Their newest collection of five tracks, titled TOPPLED PROPANE GLORY, was released on January fourth and for the most part it has a decidedly dark and murky feel. That dark feel is coupled with some raucous punk vocals on a track like “Giants To Jellyfish”. “Wolves” has an awesome fast-paced and pulsating rhythm that’ll hopefully give you a kick in the ass. “Soph Song” has some great contrasting sweet female and rough male vocals. The release ends with “For A Walk”; a song seeped in lament. TOPPLED PROPANE GLORY on the whole sounds completely messy and off-kilter, but that’s part of what makes it so charming. You can stream TOPPLED PROPANE GLORY down below. It’s also available as a pay what you want over at Snail Party’s bandcamp site, so if you dig this then go throw them a few bucks.