Album Review: Homeshake – Fresh Air

Peter Sagar was perhaps best known once as the former guitarist from Mac DeMarco’s live band, However, Edmonton’s Peter Sagar is creating a new name for himself quite literally with his new solo project. Redefined in his new guise of musical project ‘Homeshake’, the Montreal-based singer-songwriter and musicians’ new album is intended to ‘’clear his listeners’ minds of negativity’’. Out now on Sinderlyn ‘Fresh Air’ is full of smokey, laid back love songs and airy productions that will resonate with fans of artists like Les Sins and Toro Y Moi, as well as appealing to those with a taste for the tongue in cheeky end of releases by recognisable labels such as Company, Grand Central and Death Row productions.

‘Fresh Air’ continues Sagar’s exploration of dreamy, downtempo bedroom R&B we heard in the recent singles from the album and draws inspiration from such disparate artists like Sade, The Band, Broadcast, Prince, and Angelo Badalamenti. You could say Beastie Boys too as the haze of opener ‘Hello Welcome’ bends in on stretched out bluesy guitar notes and out into random technologic greeting. ‘Call Me Up’ is a late night, Miami neon, twilight, ring ring booty drive that backs up into the Doc Octagon p-funk gas panic of ‘Not U’. Whose eerie Bontempi tones wouldn’t be amiss on Wendy Carlos ‘Clockwork Orange’ soundtrack. ‘Every Single Thing’ has a spooky Grand Theft Auto San Andreas cut scene styling to its seductive rhythmic symmetry. Its stoney subtlety is nonetheless hypnotic and beguiling.

‘Wrapping Up’ has 808 bass rasps that wrinkle like rustling papers under some loved up Minaj’y synth sparkles and retro timpani. At this point in the album we’re really ‘Getting Down’ and stuck, caught on the counterpoint of guitar licks and funky kickdrums. It is all about ‘Timing’ and the authentic b-boy hip hop metronomic sits well at the centre of some quite spooky Kubrick synthsperimentation! ‘TV Volume’ is a soulful insert, like a mid Dre album skit, with added nate Dog chorus harmony atop Commodores fuzz licks. ‘KHMLWUGH’ or kissin’, huggin’, makin’ lovin’, wakin’ up and gettin’ high, needs no explanation, If it does, then follow those exact instructions on first waking!

Title track ‘Fresh Air’ cyclically breathes both mellow and melancholy. If you’ve ever dreamt you were drunk, then this would be the soundtrack to that dream-drunk cerebral scene, and comes with more than enough cowbell too. Sonically ‘Serious’ perhaps settles somewhere central to Prince and Coldcut or Herbie Hancock and Simply Red. Alarmingly, I remain undecided as to whether that’s a good or a bad thing, or if it is even a binary choice in the first place. ‘So She’ offers more definition in the mix theres a more, present, vocal and follows more of palatable structure than the previous track, still in keeping with that Prince vibe, but with a Homeshake shroom trip dripped over it. Penultimate track ‘This Way’ is a quite beautiful ‘last dance’, icy in its melodies, slow and sensual in its tempo, seducing the listener with its Rhodes tendrils and falsetto chorus signing to heartache before blossoming into psychedelic release. ‘Signing Off’ does just that, which is what I’ll do now too.