Homeshake - In the Shower - VINYL LP

Over his first three albums, Homeshake's Peter Sagar followed his own idiosyncratic vision, a journey that's taken him from sturdy guitar-based indie-pop to a bleary-eyed take on lo-fi R&B. Now, with Helium, Sagar is putting down roots in aesthetic territory all his own. It comes through not only in the gauziness of the production, but also in the vulnerability of the songs themselves. Everyone Sagar encounters here - including himself - seems to be a step removed from present reality, whether by technology (InchAnything At AllInch), solitude (InchJust Like MyInch), or sweet fantasy (InchLike MariahInch). Helium was recorded and mixed by Sagar alone in his apartment in Montreal in early 2018. Freed of the rigid editing process he'd endured before, he was able to lose himself in pursuit of tone and texture. A budding interest in ambient and experimental music pushed him to tinker with the micro-sounds that surround the songs here. The warm chords of a Roland Juno 60 form the album's base, and gave him a clean palette with which to work. InchNo tape hiss, no humming power outlets and shitty mixing boards,Inch as he puts it. InchEverything just came out nice and pure.Inch

Unlike most of us, Peter Sagar - also known as Homeshake - was staying at home a lot, long before the pandemic. Sagar wrote the majority of his fifth studio album, Under the Weather, in 2019, when he was going through a long, unrelenting period of sadness. InchI was in a deep, deep depression,Inch he recalls of that time period now. InchTours were breaking me. It was awful.Inch Sagar and his partner were living in Montreal and while everyone was out being social, he was inside listening to ambient music, binging Star Trek, and writing songs. (Sound familiar?) InchIt was a bit of a dark pit,Inch he says. InchThat's kind of what the whole album is about.InchUnder the Weather follows Sagar's life and the depression that consumed him in 2019 - after a brief album intro, it jumps right into InchFeel Better,Inch a reflection on attempting to buck up when the weather outside is grim. The album is hazy and moody, the pace slow as syrup, and from beginning to end, a fog falls over every synth and guitar line. In InchInaminit,Inch Sagar cancels plans when he's feeling low; the closing track, InchTenterhooks,Inch sees Sagar's deliverance into the depths of despair InchFeel myself drying up / feel myself turn into dust,Inch he sings over a funhouse mirror synth. InchOftentimes when you're in a dark place, you're supposed to journal and that helps the pressure,Inch Sagar says. InchFor me, it always found it's way into the music.InchCapturing the cloudy sound of a depressive funk was no simple feat, especially in the headspace Sagar was in for over a year. For that reason, he decided to enlist his friend, Jerry Paper's Lucas Nathan, to help with production on the record. Having Nathan contribute helped Sagar dial back some of Inchdry, pristine digital soundInch that defined his fourth studio album, Helium, and add back personal analog touches that drew people to the Homeshake pr

Homeshake - Midnight Snack [VINYL LP] date 09/18/2015