Do Make Say Think make a stunning, picturesque return to post rock after eight years of absence

Do Make Say Think ready their performances for situations outside the realm of normal listening. There are numerous songs over the ten minute mark. As such, most of their records offer a subtle, slow beckoning into the cabins, basements, and general cold-weather-avoidance locations that happen to double as a DMST studio. Their very first song with lyrics, ‘A With Living’, from their 2007 album You, You’re A History In Rust, squeaks by with quiet drums and scattered acoustic strums for several minutes before coalescing into anything resembling a head or chorus. Like a creepy, yet interesting childhood neighbor whose parents listened to Blue Oyster Cult, the band say “you’re welcome to come join us if you like.”

Ten years ago, You, You’re a History in Rust did exactly this with its production (not unlike many other Canadian mainstays like Stars, Arcade Fire and, most certainly, Godspeed You! Black Emperor). It was a record that extended Montreal’s penchant for churning out mesmerizing indie jazz performances over to Toronto. The drums and arrangements sound perfect. A huge list of friends show up to play horns and pianos. The dynamism in opening track ‘Bound to be That Way’ alone has more controlled fire than most bands put on a whole record. It’s not that DMST’s previous output didn’t share these qualities, it’s that it culminated here. The record has aged wonderfully.

DMST’s first new album since 2009, Stubborn Persistent Illusions, is excellent in a different way. Gone are the rustic looking, red wine-tasting moments of their 00s output. This is music for nature. No longer are DMST saying “Want to join us for something cool?” It’s now “Can you believe all the cool stuff out there!?”

A travel companion that mostly operates during the day (‘Horripilation’ is decidedly nocturnal), Illusions is a meditative journey. Its melodies are rapid fire, yet simple. Sibling tracks ‘Bound’ and ‘And Boundless’ represent an extending skyline you’d see in a nature film, whereas their climaxes are the part where there’s an epic chase between predator and prey. The 12 minutes that the tracks share repeatedly return to gleeful one and five chords strums that not only are produced wonderfully, but show how the band aren’t beyond modest compositions.

Since the guitars utilize such digestible melodies, the drums perform most of the musical dialogue. This is mostly done with multiple kits. The exception is ‘War on Torpor’, the grandest album opener in DMST’s catalogue, and the origin of the biting synths on ‘And Boundless’. It sets fire to the notion of the band putting out another sleepy record. Absent is the jazzy nuance of David Mitchell and James Payment’s usual dual performance; instead we get at 120bpm attack that could be found on a Sonic Youth release. It’s perfect fodder for the shimmering guitars that glow like a reef underneath it all.

Instead of worming their way into your ears, Illusions’ melodies are transparent. Sometimes this is unaffecting, like on the indulgent noodling of ‘As Far As the Eye Can See’, but usually it works wonders. The main riff of ‘Horripilation’ first arrives as a rhythmic exercise. Slowly but surely, other guitars and picking patterns absorb the idea, inviting the drums to join in the syncopation instead of the other way around. Usually a repetitious trick on a 10-minute song is played into a massive crescendo, but here DMST keep the pattern reeled in. With each passing section, there’s an expansion and option on the original melody. As much as I love long, drawn-out crescendos, ‘Horripilation’ magically holds attention without pandering to my love for Swans and Godspeed’s louder output. I feel like clapping whenever it ends.

The curtain of nature’s boundlessness is peeled back for ‘Her Eyes on the Horizon’. Like sunlight coming in a thrown-open window, the track juxtaposes a blast beat with a harmonious arrangement that has enough guitar and violin overdubs at the end to constitute an orchestra. And that’s really what this band feels like. They’re a well-insulated arsenal of sound.

With no lyrical content to distract from the themes, it’s just as hard to throw shade on Stubborn Persistent llusions as it is any other DMST record. So we’ll just skip it. This record reduces you to an infantile perception of the world around you. As a baby will be distracted if you keep its eyes absorbing new information, this record operates on ears. Just like there’s a music to the way certain visuals come together in a piece of art, there’s a visual component to the intricacies of the production on this record. Even if you can’t picture a landscape as complex as the arrangement of ‘War on Torpor’, you can at least catch a glimpse of some of the things in the foreground. The artwork functions this way as well, with its animal subjects moving about in a purgatory of crisp imagery. If you find yourself not seeing the whole picture, there’s plenty the band do to help you along the way.

Real Estate make a successful fourth record after losing founding guitarist Matt Mondanile to Ducktails

Real Estate are boring. Their landscapes are dotted with unassuming flora and fauna like a Bob Ross painting. They’ve got a dozen wonderful songs nestled into three albums that piece together their boring-ness in a way that’s hard to decry. Their debut captured the “beach” band trend and the early releases on Captured Tracks, though it sounded clearer and less liquid. What was revealed in the reverie was that life is simple; and that Martin Courtney is happy to talk you through its banalities with a comforting manner.

The two following records were even more contented, containing specifics of Courtney’s healthy, yet “careless lifestyle” on “Green Aisles.” In Mind is an even clearer-sounding Real Estate – one that sees neither the minimalism of Real Estate nor the peaceful haze of Days. What comes through in the production is a Courtney that says many more words, but relates just a little as he always has: “I’ll meet you in the morning/Beyond that, I’ve got no plans”, he sings on centerpiece “Two Arrows”, as if we needed a reminder that he likes to keep things simple. This track contains an extended outro complete with sounds that could be found on a Quilt record. Through Courtney’s past-producer, Woods’ Jarvis Taveniere, there’s a connection between the two bands. It’s simultaneously cheap and heartwarming that they’d borrow styles. But, the instrumental here is so good, you could easily sink in and forget about the sad departure of longtime guitarist Matt Mondanile.

His absence is felt more strongly elsewhere. The relatively staid “Holding Pattern” has a pocketed lead guitar line from Jules Lynch, who compliments Courtney’s playing in a perfunctory manner on In Mind. “What this is is not real life/at least it isn’t boring”, sings Courtney mid-verse. His lyrics float about nicely, but all too often wind up containing four phrases. “White Light” is particularly victim to this pattern, giving the song a drudging predictability. Half way through one listen, it’s tiring enough to skip.

Apart from “Two Arrows”, there’s a lovely arrangement on closer “Saturday” that distracts from the formulism. Opening with soft pianos before a Real-Estate-album-closing-banger kicks in, it’s easy to remember the reasons why we’ve been enamored with this band for so many years.

Still, In Mind all too often feels like part two of Courtney’s 2015 solo record, Many Moons. The difference is that it’s more than him and Taveniere pulling the strings on this outing. The basslines of Alex Bleeker are as great as they’ve always been, but they’re further down in the mix than usual. Bleeker sings along to a chugging melody on “Diamond Eyes.” This track breaks things up from the Martin Courtney-show much like “How Might I Live” did for Real Estate’s last record, Atlas. Provided you make it to track nine, you’ll get the needed break from Courtney’s consistent vocal range.

It’s just as hard to throw shade on Real Estate as it always has. Particularly, it’s a new lineup, and the band deserves to be considered just as well as they were with Mondanile in tow. Though it sounds pristine from a studio perspective, it’s still the sound of a band that’s working through the changes. As such, the prospect of In Mind’s follow-up is very exciting.

Whether In Mind is a laborious or enchanting listen, it kicks off with “Darling”, which sounds just as great as it did when it dropped as the first single. The entire band pulls their rock and roll weight, and move through the broken time signature as if the song was as rollicking as “Beach Comber” was back in 2009. Though the rest of the record is conservatively written and performed, it is in a bold way. If your life needs to be stripped of its bombast for a little while, Real Estate remain a steadfast companion for a little R&R. Just don’t beat yourself up if you can’t sit through the whole thing.

Yoni Wolf and WHY? enter a positive new phase of their career on the headstrong Moh Lhean

Though Yoni Wolf always employs as many instruments as he can get his crooked fingers on, few of the sounds are unnecessary. From the toy pianos on Oaklandazulasylum to the full strings on his latest opus as WHY?, Moh Lhean, there’s care and attention in his arrangements. You could blame this on his wonderful list of collaborators. But, only his brother Josiah joined him for production, and they are here proving that they’ve been the band’s backbone all along.

The one thing that tops Wolf’s proclivity toward ornamentation is his lack of a filter. We’ve heard rants about the type of soap he’s used to masturbate, oral sex in order to gain fans, and the plans to utilize retirement to the ends of listening to Garrison Keillor while stoned. Incidentally, Wolf lives a succinctly healthy lifestyle outside of his lyrics. There is a lot of documentation of him working out; an essential element to combating his Crohn’s disease. Furthermore, the man doesn’t even drink.

On Moh Lhean, we are hearing from a Wolf that has synchronized his art and his reality. It’s all wrapped up on opening track ‘This Ole King’; Yoni’s thoughts are preoccupied with death, but entertain “this one thing” that can be relied upon for peace of mind. Time has worn on the guy, and he is greeting it with esteem: “We know who we are/ from beyond to the veiled intentions between our cells.” He’s even saluting his body chemistry, which left him staring at his reflection in disapproval on 2009’s Eskimo Snow.

Playing into this theme is ‘One Mississippi’: “I know I gotta submit to whatever it is in control,” says Wolf. Where he once audaciously fought the bleakness that Midwestern life threw at him, he’s now adhering to major religious tenets. It’s well known that Wolf grew up in a Jewish household, but there’s never been any direct information suggesting he followed it. It’s livening to hear him be so accepting of the world. Where Bradford Cox and Deerhunter had their Fading Frontier, a celebration of life having turned out as it did, Wolf has ‘The Barely Blur’, where Son Lux joins him for a séance to man’s mysterious beginnings: “What mad stork brought us/ with no schematic and no map/ where every perfect nest disintegrates/ into the barely blur beyond.”

‘The Water’ is similarly submissive; a lurching bass reminiscent of Alopecia’s hip hop backdrops hovers over the song. Just when you think Wolf is ready to rap again, he sagaciously shrugs off the urge and tells a simple story: “out on the water/ me and my little brother/ we don’t say shit for hours/ maybe even longer.” The minutiae of this tale are akin to the hyper-specific set of details Wolf usually rolls out. The exception here is that there are far fewer words.

There’s a grace to the brothers Wolf having pared things down like this. You won’t find wordless tracks on previous WHY? records, but here there are two of them. So, even though we’re not hearing nearly as many sentiments, Moh Lhean sounds just as complete as any other WHY? record. This album is the mark of a man who knows where he is in life.