January 6, 2026—Our annual list of things that inspired us over the past 12 months, given you to after the year is actually over. Michael Feuerstack Music I enjoyed Skeeter Davis and NRBQ – She Sings, They PlayNot sure how I went so long without knowing about this. It was like finding out there’s another room in…
December 30, 2025—In 2025 we released 5 albums and 1 EP on 12″ vinyl, a 10″ w/ etched B-side, CDs, and Cassettes as well as several digital singles, two film scores, and an official Canada Games anthem across our three labels – Forward Music, Backward Music, and Castle Records. This music was played on terrestrial, satellite, and internet radio stations all around the world, streamed millions of times…
November 21, 2025—“landing in a spot that sounds like a vintage recording of the missing link between fellow Canadian twang-masters The Sadies and Neil Young.” – Bandcamp Sam Salmon is a bare-bones country project from Motherhood‘s Brydon Crain that aims to highlight his love for the genre while weaving in regional colloquialisms to create sometime that is both timeless and fresh. Joined by The…
September 26, 2025—“fresh and distinctive” – WXPN“deeply rooted and universally affecting” – Add To Wantlist“warmly compassionate and loaded with stark weight” – Various Small Flames Emerging from the rich cultural landscape of their Wabanaki homeland, New Brunswick, The Hello Crows are a powerful Indigenous collective, whose songs and stories are woven with the threads of personal experiences, resilience, and a deep connection to their communities…
June 27, 2025—“delicate and demanding” – LOUD Women“sour-mouthed riot grrrl energy and pulpy exuberance” – Bandcamp“a debut that grooves, thrashes and seduces.” – Sherwood Zine The Pits as in bad times, shit luck, sweat stains… but also cherries. Penny & The Pits is the new project from Maritime stalwart Penelope Stevens. Perhaps best known as one third of the feverish art rock band Motherhood,…
June 10, 2025—Mi’kmaq rapper and producer Wolf Castle has launched Castle Records, an imprint of Forward Music Group dedicated to supporting Indigenous artists in the Atlantic region. As the first Indigenous-focused label in the area, Castle aims to amplify Indigenous voices, ensuring artists have the tools and support they need to thrive on their own terms. “There are only a small…
March 21, 2025—“timeless” – CBC Music“a zen opera” – The Old Grey Cat“floats on by like a cloud against an azure sky” – Beats Per Minute“one of those mesmerizing voices that strikes within the first notes” – Spill Magazine There are moments in a life that are made of pure flux, all metamorphosis. But because of the nature of these timespans, artists typically speak…
February 19, 2025—Nadah El Shazly, the Montreal-based, the Egyptian-born, producer, vocalist, composer, and actor, has announces her highly anticipated second album, Laini Tani and shares the records closing track “Ghorzetein”. Laini Tani is set for release on June 6th via Backward Music and her One Little Independent Records. Renowned for her blending of experimental sounds with traditional…
January 24, 2025—“Wildly entertaining!” – Bandcamp“Motherhood remains a welcome, alien presence in today’s musical landscape.” – Post-Trash Playful as a puppy but smart as a whip, New Brunswick’s Motherhood has a knack for packing deeply conceptual art rock into a delightfully unpretentious package. Equal parts complex and unpredictable, the trio has assembled a bold body of work that blends the ferocity of punk,…
January 13, 2025—For many years now, Montreal’s Mathieu Charbonneau and Pietro Amato have been engaged in an unfolding musical dialogue. While the multi-instrumentalists, producers and composers have been acquainted since their school days, the electronic minimalism of 2018’s Synth Works Vol.1 and 2022’s Vol.2 marked their first recordings as a duo. The pair’s newest collaboration comes in the form of a commissioned soundtrack to Burning Man:…
January 13, 2025—Moon-Hee Kim MUSICAna Tijoux – VidaNot too familiar with her other releases but was hooked when I saw her Tiny Desk performance. Doechii – Alligator Bites Never HealLove her lyrics and style. She’s one of my fave new artists. Was also blown away watching her on Colbert. Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You MoreThis was a nice end of…
January 6, 2025—“a great display of the multifacetedness of the artist and shows that he feels connected to who he is, where he comes from, and where he is headed.” – PAN M 360 Wolf Castle’s new record begins in shadow, during a dark night of the Mi’kmaq rapper’s soul. Over the album’s 12 tracks, he traces the moon as it makes its way across the sky, unraveling his own personal anxieties in the darkness, coming to…
March 26, 2024—The songs of Jon McKiel are born of the bruised marshlands of remote New Brunswick, from the craggy shores of the Atlantic coast; places where nature is a powerful wonder and the made-world is in slow decay. His new album, Hex, is a bloodshot pop record steeped in our dystopian present, tempered, across its ten tracks, by an…
March 26, 2024—“hypnotic” – The Guardian“these glittering electro-acoustic hybrids exude a sense of awe” – Aquarium Drunkard Nick Schofield’s Ambient Ensemble sees the Canadian composer and synth maven expanding his solo practice with an ensemble, adding his signature ambient essence to contemporary-classical and electronic music. Where his previous two albums (Water Sine, Glass Gallery) were entirely solo endeavours and synth-focused, Ambient Ensemble invites gregarious group play. The compositions feature a chamber ensemble of…
January 28, 2024—“gorgeous” – Petal Motel“heaving and gorgeous…anguishing and contemplative.” – Stereogum Eternity Mongers, the upcoming album from Michael Feuerstack, is filled with some of the questions we ask ourselves as we navigate this beautiful and complicated world. What is the thing you live for? What is your strongest fear? What is it that makes you wonder? Heading into the studio to…
January 10, 2024—Nick Schofield Cri – MiraclesRomy – Mid AirDuskus – Healers vol. 1Christopher Honeywell aka Libra Rising – Every New MoonBrian Eno, Fred Again.. – Secret Life Michael Feuerstack Performances:Hatis Noit at Mutek was totally enthralling and mind-blowing.Nile Rodgers and Chic’s Tiny Desk Concert. I watch way too much Y**Tube but it is rarely as uplifting…
January 6, 2024—“extremely atmospheric” – York Calling“an ambient weighted blanket we can’t wait to slip under” – CBC Music The ambient music upon which Joshua Van Tassel has built his reputation has often been pushed by large concepts: the life cycle of a giant squid, a sci-fi folk tale, a custom score for craniosacral therapy. Those compositions lean long, psychedelic, grandiose—music for the…
January 25, 2023—After spending the last 3 years of making music in and around his home city of Montreal, Canadian songwriter Michael Feuerstack will be returning to the road to perform throughout Europe this February. The pandemic was largely spent creating 2021’s Harmonize the Moon, his “excellent” (Talkhouse), “gentle and reflective” (Americana UK) 6th LP under his own name since dropping the Snailhouse moniker, as…
January 11, 2023—Elly Hannon In my ears: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (Big Thief), Big Time (Angel Olsen), And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow (Weyes Blood), Pre Pleasure (Julia Jacklin) + revisiting: High in the Minuses (Charlotte Cornfield), Case/Lang/Viers, Wednesday Morning 3A.M. (Simon/Garfunkel). Live Music: I was lucky to catch these four intimate shows at Sourwood (my place of work) — JOYFULTALK & Cousins (December), Michael Feuerstack in the…
January 10, 2023—“beautiful” – CBC Music “enchanting and bewildering” – Cast the Dice“Heavenly…gorgeous…reminiscent of Aldous Harding or Grouper.” – CLASH Magazine Nico Paulo‘s new single, “Now or Never” arrives as a stunning introduction to the forthcoming record, fusing deftly strummed guitar with Nico’s glowing vocals that course atop, sounding somewhat reminiscent of the current change in season and turn to fall. In an effort to fully understand how things end and why, “Now or Never” looks to unpack…