"Learn to sweat like athletes / You can fight it / Learn to hurt like police / You can find it..."
The patterned cadence, dark subversive window streaks of "Athletes" by Toronto / Tkaronto artist, singer-songwriter Alex Southey slips into your head easily but in complex ways. I mean the acoustic shapes, that feel like an iteration of medieval folk broadened with surprising spiralling riffs and left turns. As a framework for Southey's pained up front somewhat twisted poetry it draws you in like a mystery and when just the right amount of relatively sparse orchestrations flutter around it I want to know the back stories, the many (or not so many) conversations in and around this track. I adore how the plaintiff piano tumble in like falling plates and the mounful sax lines give way to electronic darkness and more playful sonic dances. Pretty amazing stuff indeed. A soundtrack that will surely haunt me for days and even inspire plots and subplots for my own stories.
"Although it begins as somewhat sparse, I consider this song to be really colourful, and by that I mean it inspires a lot of different emotions in me, depending on where I am in the song. I’m intrigued at the beginning, enjoying the ride by the second verse, confronted with the discomfiting bridge, and relieved we wind back to the initial progression." – Alex Southey
LINER NOTES:
Toronto’s Alex Southey is sharing an exploratory new EP of singer-songwriter tracks in collaboration with producer Alex Gamble and saxophonist Ben Dwyer.
The EP features focus track, “Athletes,” a contemplative and brooding piece inspired by power dynamics and careerism. The lilting acoustic piece features eerie effects that are juxtaposed with the delicate melodies of Dwyer’s saxophone playing.
Toronto’s Alex Southey is sharing an exploratory new EP of singer-songwriter tracks in collaboration with producer Alex Gamble and saxophonist Ben Dwyer.
The EP features focus track, “Athletes,” a contemplative and brooding piece inspired by power dynamics and careerism. The lilting acoustic piece features eerie effects that are juxtaposed with the delicate melodies of Dwyer’s saxophone playing.
"Athletes" is from Alex Southey's latest EP "Entertainers Bring May Flowers Collection" but at 8 tracks, I would consider it a full blown album. One I have not yet had the chance to delve into but based on this track I plan on it.
Down below, as always, learn more about this artist.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/alexsouthey/
https://www.tiktok.com/@alexsoutheymusic
https://www.facebook.com/AlexSoutheyMusic
https://www.youtube.com/@AlexSoutheyMusic
Alex Southey (he/him) is a singer-songwriter based in Toronto/Tkaronto, Canada.
Southey began as a solo acoustic artist in 2019.
With each subsequent release (2019's winter folk Christmastown LP, the 2020 bells-and-whistles follow-up You're Not Just A Body to Me LP, the 2021 moody, melodramatic ...And the Country Stirred, its 2022 idiosyncratic, glitchy little brother My Nights On the Island EP, and most recently 2023's explosive, emotive Common Fantasies EP), Southey has developed an increasingly passionate fanbase, along with positive recognition, play, and coverage from CBC Radio, Exclaim! Magazine, Dominionated, Canadian Beats, NXNE, Wintersong Festival, Tinnitist, The Sound Cafe, CHCH Morning Show, and a slew of Canadian college radio stations.
In July 2023 he released his first single and music video post-Common Fantasies called "Never Listen". In late January 2024, Southey performed and participated as a co-panelist at Stouffville's Wintersong Music Festival.
Southey released a single entitled, "I Think I Smell a Melody", on Thursday, November 23, 2023 in tandem with the release of an appearance as a guest on the Canadian-music-based podcast 20 or 20 by Dominionated.
On February 6, 2024 Southey spoke to CBC journalist Reid Southwick about Spotify, streaming, and the music industry as a whole. On February 8, 2024 Southey released his third main single, "God's Green Earth", from the upcoming EP Entertainers Bring May Flowers Collection, due out Aug 1, 2024
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