CHAD VANGAALEN

Shrink Dust

2014-04-27

Chad VanGaalen is a visual artist and musician from Calgary, Alberta. His debut album, Infiniheart, was released in 2004, featuring his eccentric artwork.  Since then, VanGaalen has released three other records, including the Polaris short-listed Soft Airplane (2008). According to his official page, over the past decade, VanGaalen has been producing "living maps in songs, drawings, modified instruments, animations and performances--shifting forms pointing to another world, infinitely more liveable, maybe hidden just under the surface of our own."  His music has evolved to become an acoustic, electronic experience into this other world. VanGaalen's fifth studio album, Shrink Dust, features an aluminum pedal steel guitar, which VanGaalen spent over a year learning. This instrument unifies the album and leads VanGaalen to call it a country record, though the album still contains heavy rock and electronic influences. Themes of death, transformation, fear, benign evil, and the eccentricity of love draw the listener into VanGaalen's strange and often disorienting lyrics. "Cut Off My Hands" opens the albums with VanGaalen's eerie vocals, disturbing lyrics, unsettling harmonies, and dissonant instrumentation. From there, the album moves into songs with clear Southern influence, like "Lila" and "Evil," yet still contain the dread of VanGaalen's vocals.
Richard Martin

Quick Links:

More reviews tagged #Rock

  • reviewed 06/2006

    Camera Obscura
    Let's Get Out Of This Country

  • reviewed 03/2009

    MATT DUKE
    Kingdom Underground

  • reviewed 04/2008

    OMAR TORREZ BAND
    The Beat Outside

  • reviewed 12/2005

    Happy Hour
    Magnetic Heart Conveyor

  • reviewed 02/2014

    CIBO MATTO
    Hotel Valentine

  • reviewed 04/2007

    Charlie Don't Shake
    America Is Our Office EP

Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.