Finally the wait is over!
Zoon‘s debut album Bleached Wavves is out on Paper Bag Records.
The name Zoon derives from the Ojibway word Zoongide’ewin which means “bravery, courage, the Bear Spirit” and aptly describes the inspirations for the project and the lovingly crafted first full-length recording from aboriginal songwriter, Daniel Monkman.
Bleached Wavves is a brilliant album that is filled with dreamy and atmopsheric shoegaze music.
Emotional and beautiful at times, this is one of those thought-provoking album that willbe timeless.
About the album:
“Recording ‘Bleached Wavves’ was a very quick process, all in all. Everything about it was from an improvisational approach. Guitar and vocals were all done in one or two takes. I really wanted to capture the rawness of this process,” notes Daniel. “After sometime I realized that it’s a song about my experiences in Selkirk Manitoba, it’s funny how the subconscious works. It’s about heartbreak, love and compromise.”
“Some of the random lyrics paint a picture of the local fair that I use to attend in my early years, but then others remind me about the slow disintegration of soul caused by substance abuse and untreated trauma. To calm down when I’m stressing about things that are out of my control, I like to listen to nature sounds. This is why I added in the seagulls, thunder, and waves, in the intro and throughout the track. I want my music to heal.”
In the Ojibway language, the word Zoongide’ewin means “bravery, courage, the Bear Spirit.” It’s no wonder then that Daniel Monkman adopted Zoon as his musical moniker. The Hamilton-based musician has spent the better part of his 28 years channelling that strength to overcome such adversities as racism, poverty and addiction.
Music saved Monkman’s life, and now he wants to share his story. On Zoon’s debut album, Bleached Wavves, he paints a message of hope and fortitude, lessons he learned studying the Seven Grandfather teachings after experiencing the lowest point of his life.
Bleached Wavves is the first true document of what has been dubbed “moccasin-gaze,” a tongue-in-cheek nickname for the amalgamation of his shoegaze influences with traditional First Nations music. Like My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, a record that changed everything for him, Zoon pushes forward that famously quixotic, effects-laden sound with a distinctive, new approach.
A song like “Help Me Understand,” which mixes traditional hand drumming with gliding waves of droning guitar, feels like new ground has been broken for shoegaze fanatics to obsess over. As he got more into this mindset of mixing cultures, Monkman went even further with his trials, emerging with his most radical vision, the trance-inducing “Was & Always Will Be.”
Like most things in his life, making the album didn’t come easy for Monkman, however. His gear was stolen, leaving him with virtually nothing. Knowing he had to get creative, he recorded the songs in his bedroom and his jam space, using only a Fender Deville guitar, a DigiTech delay pedal and – channelling his hero Kevin Shields – some “reverse engineering.”
Once it was finished, he got music into the hands of the late publicist Darryl Weeks, who quickly became a fan of what he heard. With Weeks’ guidance and industry knowledge, Monkman found an ally willing to help out. He also found a label: Weeks passed on the record to fellow shoegaze enthusiast Trevor Larocque at Paper Bag Records, who offered to give Zoon a home.
While there is a healthy population of nu-gazers creating beautiful noise all over the world, Zoon’s debut stands out from all the others. Bleached Wavves is notable not just for its breathtakingly inimitable sounds and giving birth to a newfangled subgenre (see “moccasin-gaze”), but also for its modest, resourceful creation, the sign of a true sonic genius-in-the-making.
Bleached Wavves gets:
/10.
