The Besnard Lakes

Who knows what they put in the water in Canada, but they just seem to produce an endless stream of artists who plough their own individual musical furrow. The husband-and-wife duo of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, who formed Polaris nominees The Besnard Lakes in 2003, are no different; their choice of furrow is expansive and explosive space rock and shoegaze, a formula that makes for an incredible live experience. From debut album Are The Dark Horse to latest record Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO The Besnard Lakes has barely set a foot wrong. Lacek’s haunting falsetto is often matched by atmospheric arrangements, tracks wandering harmlessly, building almost unnoticed to the point where the song explodes in a pyrotechnic chorus, Goreas and layers of instruments combining to create anthemic tracks on which you tend to find something new after each listen. Live, it’s just the music on the record x 1000. They might open with a track like ‘This Is What We Call Progress’ which builds slowly, easing you into the show before The Besnard Lakes unleashes ‘People of the Sticks’, a shimmering and gigantic pop song with Goreas taking the lead as guitars chime around her. If you’re lucky, the band will finish on the riff assault and drum barrage of ‘Devastation’…it will leave you, ahem, devastated.