Montreal's Prism Shores Unveil Jangle-Gaze Anthem "Tourniquet" (Meritorio Records)

Prism Shores by Alex Apostolidis

Montreal “jangle-gazers” Prism Shores stretch beyond the jagged cracks of late-November sidewalks with “Tourniquet,” out now via Meritorio Records. The single marks the second off of the group’s forthcoming album Out From Underneath, which is set to release on January 17th, 2025.

Prism Shores—comprised of Jack MacKenzie, Ben Goss, Luke Pound, and Finn Dalbeth (Dresser)—are reliably impressive when it comes to crafting meditative indie freefalls, but “Tourniquet” and its cohorts hint at something more. This new era sees Prism Shores breaking out into more ambitious soundscapes, flexing some exponential overdubbing for a pleasing shoegaze wave. It also employs the band’s sonic talents in exciting ways, with each member taking a stab at vocals, guitars, and other instrumentation for a heightened sense of collaboration.

Said the band of Out from Underneath’s latest track:

“The closest we’ve come to a straight-up power pop song. The idea was to make the track sound like first record Teenage Fanclub with MBV glide guitar – I think it’s one of our favourite tracks on the album. Our drummer Luke plays the jangly lead guitar riff on this one, and Ben plays a ripping skronky solo at the end. It also has backing vocals from our friend KT Laine, one of her four contributions to the record. Lyrically, it’s about reckoning with unhealthy self-criticism and dependency on certain coping mechanisms.”

“Tourniquet” nods to the brooding grip of dream pop staples like The Sundays, burning brightly as it flails towards maturity. The single captures an airtight act’s evolution in more ways than one.

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Prism Shores

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Rebecca Judd is the features editor of Also Cool Mag.

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MTL's Prism Shores Releases Youthful Dream Pop Track "Tennis Shoes"

Prism Shores. Photo courtesy of Paul Atwood

Days away from the release of their debut album Inside My Diving Bell, Montreal-via-Charlottetown indie-poppers Prism Shores have released their latest single “Tennis Shoes”. Staying true to the band’s sonic influences of dream pop and shoegaze, the track sketches ponderances of malaise and angst that glide us perfectly into the fall’s chill.

Speaking to the track’s deeper construction, vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Jack Mackenzie shared:

“It’s one of the oldest songs on the record, [and] we’ve been playing it live since about 2019. It’s one of the more mid-tempo moments on the album; our attempt at making a more sensitive track, inspired by both the angstier side of 80s UK indie on labels like Sarah Records and the 90s dream pop of bands like Luna, Pale Saints, Cocteau Twins, and Slowdive. It’s built around a rhythm section of bass, drums, and guitar tracked live to tape. Atop that are some 12-string guitar overdubs and two interweaving, droning lead parts by our guitarist Nathan [Cann] that really cement the atmospheric qualities of this track. The lyrics, like most songs on the record [Inside My Diving Bell, out September 23], take a reflexive, maybe navel-gazing approach. This record is like a coming-of-age document; the lyrics on this song find me wrestling with the more uncomfortable emotions and headspaces I found myself in heading towards my early twenties, feeling a sense of inertia or listlessness and wanting a change.”

The brooding uncertainty of “Tennis Shoes” offers a further taste of what is to come with Inside My Diving Bell, complementing the youthful insecurity of its previous singles “Acrobat” and “Diving Bell”. The rest of the record promises to deliver higher recording fidelity and new musical avenues for Prism Shores, all while balancing with its beloved sense of shambolic character through the natural energy of its live-off-the-floor bed tracks.

Recorded throughout the pandemic at Halifax’s Ocean Floor Recording, Prism Shores teases Inside My Diving Bell as a “scrappy, yet carefully considered proof of concept” — as the band contends with late-adolescent directionality and experiments with sonic depth, their debut full-length LP pledges to chart a promising course that is bound to resonate.

Stream “Tennis Shoes” below!

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Prism Shores

Instagram | Bandcamp

Facebook | Spotify | Apple Music

Rebecca Judd is the features editor of Also Cool Mag.

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