TOPS: Bury the Key Tour

TOPS — musicians David Carriere, Jane Penny, Marta Cikojevic, and Riley Fleck — write timeless music that reliably threads immediacy and depth. Bury the Key, their first full-length since 2020 and with new label home Ghostly International, is a captivating reintroduction for the Montréal band: ever refined, undoubtedly masters of their melodic craft yet unafraid of evolving and testing themselves against different, at times darker tones. The album faces feelings once locked away, engaging the give-and-take between happiness, hedonism, and self-destruction. While often inhabited by fictional figures, their glowing, grooving, self-produced songs draw from personal observations: intimacy (both inside and outside the band), toxic behavior, drug use, and apocalyptic dread. When recording started, they noticed a shift and leaned in, jokingly dubbed “evil TOPS,” says Penny. “We’re always kind of seen as a soft band or like naive or friendly in a Canadian way, but we made it a challenge to really channel the world around us.” Through the lens of a looming epoch and the clarity that comes with age, TOPS dip into a more sinister disco realm with Bury the Key, giving their soft-focus sophisti-pop a sharpened edge.

STARCLEANER REUNION

New York City-based Starcleaner Reunion is a new band of old friends. Singer Jo Roman, guitarists Pat Drummond & Neil Torman, and bassist Adam Kenter have been making music together in various configurations since they were high school students together in New Jersey, but never all together in the same group. After Drummond moved back to New York from Montreal and connecting with drummer Sam Unger through a mutual friend, the band solidified and began rehearsing in 2022.

Their new EP, Café Life, is the result of a newfound home-recording and production process, an inspired project in which the band felt they could explore and experiment for the first time. Listen closely and you’ll hear samples of rain and thunderstorms, rumbling 808 sub-bass, digital synthesizers ripped from a decade old copy of GarageBand, and ghostly spoken poetry buried deep in the mix of the 4 tracks. Café Life is indebted and dedicated to not hurrying and taking your time.

From the moment the group was formed, Starcleaner Reunion has been guided by their belief that music can be transportive and furnish a unique world. Jo Roman’s lyrics paint a captivating picture – one that prompts audiences to reckon with the impressions and colors that her imagery conjures up. Café Life is their first release that welcomes people into a world of their own.