The Most Serene Republic Underwater Cinematographer Arts & Crafts, 2005 amazon

Something is going on in the great white north. Whereas three years ago New York City had reclaimed its status as the center of gravity for indie music, lately a host of fantastic bands seem to be emerging from our Canadian neighbors. First it was Broken Social Scene and their genre-defying masterpiece You Forgot It In People, then came a parade of brilliant acts like the Dears, Stars, and the Arcade Fire. The latest to make its way to my ears is the Most Serene Republic, labelmates of Broken Social Scene on Arts & Crafts but apparently the first A&S artist not to share members with the burgeoning BSS collective. Alternately sounding like the Postal Service and the sparser, acoustic side of BSS, the band has produced a fine debut in 2005's Underwater Cinematographer. Swathes of layered synths and drum machine beats are worked to great effect in "Content Was Always My Favorite Colour", as singer Adrian Jewitt lilts in a tone eerily similar to Postal Service and Death Cab frontman Ben Gibbard. The singer can't be faulted for his singing voice though, and the music is not simply a rehash of the Postal Service's landmark album. As with BSS, the band adopts and discards musical styles from verse to verse, chorus to chorus, song to song. "Proposition 61" centers on overlaid acoustic guitar lines, while Jewitt riffs vocals at a frenetic pace in a delivery similar to the Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)". "King of No One" would be right at home in a set featuring "The Girl from Ipanema". The parallels to Broken Social Scene are plain to see, right down to the background musician conversation on when the guitarist should come in on "Proposition 61" (a similar gimmick was used to great effect in "Looks Just Like the Sun"). Both bands use an echoed, chorused guitar lick formerly employed by a host of shoegazing bands to create a tidal wave of reverberating noise. However, where Broken Social Scene's music explores the bleaker moods, the Most Serene Republic manage to generate an upbeat tone from a similar set of tools. While easy to dismiss as derivative of other groundbreaking outfits, Underwater Cinematographer deserves a deeper listen and the Most Serene Republic merit and will undoubtedly receive further attention as they develop.

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