The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night

There is something about this album that is inherently Canadian. It's slower paced than most indie rock records, and it's a little noisier, but it is extremely well orchestrated from start to finish. It's the perfect record to listen to if you're driving through the rockies in Alberta, or the farms of Manitoba, or the rolling hills of Quebec, or even the shoreline of the East Coast. It's feels like it came out of nowhere, from everywhere. This has been a good year so for Canadian music, and it's because of quality albums like this that our bands are getting international recognition. The Besnard Lakes are in the running for the coveted $20 000 Polaris Prize, and by golly, I think they might just win it, and so do other people. (read Halifax is Burning's Polaris predictions here).

Now, I talk about myself probably a little too much on here, but I don't care. Why should you listen to me if you don't have any grasp of my own experiences as a drummer right? Right.

Ok. There are two things that I used to do all of the time that I don't do so much anymore. They are:

1. Practice drums.

and

2. Play drums along to records.

However last week I found myself in an empty room with a drum kit, a PA, and an hour to kill before the rest of the guys showed up. I hooked up my iPod to the PA, put this album on, and learned how to play the whole thing. It didn't hurt that I had been listening to it non stop for the last three weeks.

It gave me a whole new respect for this album. Kevin Laing's smoothness as a drummer is really what gives this record it's relaxed but strong feel. I could lock into his playing really easily but I could never hit the transitions as well as him, the timing is flawless. He has incredible time, and he really knows how to draw out parts by adding small variables as songs progress.

He can keep songs marching forward, like And This Is What We Call Progress where he plays the same pattern through the whole song with small washes of cymbals and tom builds thrown in once in a while to accent the vocal. He can also stretch and maneuver around time fairly fluently. In Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent his snare rolls leading into the chorus give a brief taste of off time, only to come in perfectly on the first hit of the chorus.

His patience as a player also really stands out. He waits almost five whole minutes before coming in on Light Up The Night, bursting through the dense noise at the end of the song to carry the weight of it the rest of the way. The way his kick drum locks into the bass keeps everything grounded while vocal parts soar over top, definitely something that would be incredible to see live, which I'm hoping to do when The Besnard Lakes come to town with Wintersleep in the fall.

You should probably come too. it's going to be loud.