More Easy Skinny Dyck

• 1 Easygoing (more easy) 04:16
• 2 No Power Over Me 02:39
• 3 Tired Out 03:02
• 4 Part of Me (more easy) 04:07
• 5 Ground Floor 03:07
• 6 One Extra Smile (more easy) 03:43
• Total Runtime 20:54

Info zu More Easy

Skinny Dyck - the playful performing artistic alias of Western Canadian artist Ryan Dyck, will release More Easy EP. The EP is a collection of alternate versions and B-Sides from his latest album, Easygoing, which was recently nominated for The Western Canadian Music Award’s Recording of the Year.

Recorded in basements and ad-hoc studio environments by Skinny and his co-producer Aladean Kheroufi, the album's diverse textures are well-balanced by twangy guitars and steel alongside less expected elements like synth hooks and congas. There is a pleasing straightforwardness to the music of Skinny Dyck. His voice is clean and clear (and usually nestled in a bed of lush reverb), the songs are held together with spacious instrumentation and smart, tasty hooks (including Dyck's signature pedal steel work), and the band is right on the money, everything in its right place and not a note wasted. This shouldn't come as a surprise, as Kheroufi (a multi-faceted musician and songwriter in his own right) applied some of the old school, minimalist recording techniques he picked up while interning at Daptone Records years ago, and he has been at the core of Skinny's live band (alongside drummer Clayton Smith) for the last handful of years. So when Dyck and Kheroufi (along with main album drummer Cameron O'Neill) hit the basement to lay down these songs, it was as easy as slipping into a pair of old jeans. And that sprightly, jazz-inflected lead guitar work comes courtesy of Winnipeg's Austin Parachoniak, who helped bring a whiff of Merle Haggard's '80s band to the mix.

Easygoing had its finishing touches applied by the prime candidate for the role, celebrated mix engineer Mark Nevers, whose credit list is a veritable who's who of fresh, forward thinking songwriters and bands that exist in the between-genre sphere. Artists such as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Silver Jews, Calexico, Andrew Bird, Bill Callahan, and Lambchop have benefited from Nevers' touch, a blend of his trusted ears and vintage analog gear. As a mixer who began working in the traditional Country & Western scenes and slowly gravitated to the more expansive world of indie music, Nevers was a fitting choice for the job.

And this notion of “country but not” courses through Easygoing in a pretty tangible way, its success partially measured by how unnoticeable it is. Take “Nosedive” for example – what might be one of the album's more traditional “boots kickin' up dust” kind of song features a deeply psychedelic spoken word outro, with enigmatic vocals bubbling through a thick web of analog delay; it's truly a unique blend of approaches – and it works. Elsewhere, things continue to pair nicely, with conga drums undercutting sparkling lead guitar and the occasional synth flourish, and “Lean In” features a delicious bass line that sounds as if it was plucked straight from a vintage James Jamerson-played Motown track. The combination of the band's cool chug and Dyck's classic songwriting moves on title track “Easygoing” recall the endless-horizon feel of classic War on Drugs, another band who've managed to successfully infuse the familiar with a jolt of something new.

Skinny Dyck, mouth vocals, guitar, steel guitar
Austin Parachoniak, guitar, backing vocals
Cameron O'Neill, drums, percussion, synth, backing vocals
Aladean Kheroufi, bass, piano

Skinny Dyck
Resist the urge to laugh at Skinny Dyck, the playful performing artistic alias of western Canadian artist Ryan Dyck, or don’t, that’s kind of the idea. Victory Pool Records is thrilled to announce "Easygoing", the new full length album from Skinny Dyck, following hot on the heels of 2022's "Palace Waiting", which “distilled the spirit of wide-cut country”, according to Exclaim! magazine.

"Easygoing" sees Dyck moving a few steps further away from the country music environs he once wholly inhabited, but fear not, twang fans, rather than replacing that sound wholesale, he and his studio collaborators have instead created their own hybrid approaches. Or, as Dyck puts it, “I still like to collect my mail at the old shack off the highway, but I no longer want to live there exclusively”.

Marinating in the success of his off brand twang is a new batch of material that sees the celebrated songwriter stepping further away from a genre defined by its traditions. It’s a sound underwritten by the richness of time that’s been unmoored by the wandering eye of creative expression. A sort of Mac Demarco meets Merle Haggard mishmash, like a 2nd mezcal negroni before dinner.

Following successful Canadian and European tours in 2023, with showcases at Reeperbahn in Hamburg and Come Together in Toronto, Skinny sets his sights on the new album in 2024. Mixed by Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Bonnie Prince Billy), it seems representative of a small retreat from country music, an extended stay at the outdated lake cabin that leaves you wondering if you ever want to come back home.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet