Critiques CD: Thus:Owls | Harbours

Featuring guitarist Simon Angell of Patrick Watson’s band and his Swedish wife Erica Angell, enigmatic Thus:Owls is poised to top their 2009 debut, Cardiac Malformations. Harbours is a potent combination of European and Montreal approaches to the haunting downtempo sound, with buzzing bass lines like in “Museum” channeling English band Portishead’s Third (2008); though Mrs. Angell’s vocal delivery is softer around the edges, like in dreamy “I Weed the Garden”, more reminiscent of the late Broadcast frontwoman Trish Keenan. The instrumental arrangements are at once minimalist and eclectic, building stark landscapes with unadorned but reverberant keys and guitar, electric violin and autoharp, and anxious, cataclysmic drumming. Each stylistic influence Thus:Owls draws from works in their favor, as Harbours succeeds in establishing a sound all their own. October 3rd at Lion d’or.