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Live Review: Mozart's Sister 'Enjoy'

5 June 2014 | 4:29 pm | Gavin Butler

Mozart's Sister is a greenhorn as far as her maple-leafed brethren go: but she's got the kind of flair that keeps one neck-a-neck with the best of them.

As far as Canada's contributions to the world stage go, indie music's up there with maple syrup. ARCADE FIRE, WOLF PARADE, DESTROYER, BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE: the list of indie alumni hailing from America's great white north is enough to give Portland a run for it's money.

Montreal one-piece MOZART'S SISTER (Caila Thompson Hannant) is a relative greenhorn as far as her maple-leafed brethren go: but she's already demonstrating the kind of flair that keeps one neck-a-neck with the best of them.

First impressions stir up fairly textbook associations. There's vibes of fellow countrywomen TEGAN & SARA, METRIC and GRIMES, as well as some hints of other indie-pop songstresses south of the border: think HAIM, TUNE-YARDS, and ST VINCENT.

GRIMES, TUNE-YARDS and ST VINCENT are particularly significant–simply because, in the grand scheme of things, one-woman indie outfits of this kind are a rare breed. In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Hannant herself summed it up: "The computer has changed everything... You don't need to be in a band with guys to make music." And, true to that sentiment, MOZART'S SISTER is entirely Hannant's brainchild: she does vocals, she does instrumentation, she does mixing–in her recent video single, 'Enjoy', she does dancing. And she does it all well.

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You'd be tempted to call 'Enjoy' electro-pop, but that might box it into the wrong pigeonhole. There's a certain darkness, a certain cold, nocturnal quality that pulls it away from the typical electro-pop glitz. This is closer to indie-soul, marbled with an electronic aesthetic. Hannant's smooth vocals float over the top of punchy percussion loops and drum snaps, dipping in and out of the instrumentation–occasionally snared in the layers of effects, but ultimately sustaining itself throughout. And the final product is a track that effortlessly earns its place in her homeland's regal musical sphere. Enjoy.

Words by Gavin Butler

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