Video for JALS by Canshaker Pi. Taken from their self-titled debut album, produced by Stephen Malkmus, recorded by Remko Schouten. Video by Robin Bekker.
An ill-fated leap. A glorious descent.
Indeed, a Canshaker Pi show can be described as one big kamikaze run. The Amsterdam-based quartet's inflammable brand of indie rock is a gleeful but high-stakes affair. The first thing you notice about Canshaker Pi is how they relish in puerile dicking about, albeit never for the sake of just 'dicking about'. Beneath their fidgety, high-strung stage antics simmers a piercing intensity, one that perhaps comes with a creeping awareness that the days of being young, wild and free will eventually pass. With upcoming eponymous debut LP – released November 11th on Excelsior Recordings –, Canshaker Pi frantically capitalize on their youthful zest with relentless now-or-never stride.
Canshaker Pi 's swoon-and-swagger racket was first introduced to us on EP Boomslang, from which two songs were issued by Tender Records on 7-inch. Firecracker tunes like Shaniqua and Looking For Love On Ibiza confound and enlighten the listener in a number of ways, the latter shrewdly swiping a line from Outkast's hit song Hey Ya for good measure. The EP's title, meanwhile, is a hilarious reference to survival-expert Ed Stafford, which goes to show that Canshaker Pi CAN and WILL draw from just about anything to serve their offbeat verbalisms.
Not surprisingly, indie rock's chief slacker-savant, Pavement's Stephen Malkmus, took a shine on Canshaker Pi's noise pop haphazardry. Producer and pal Remko Schouten flew Malkmus over to The Netherlands to record with the band. The result of those sessions is captured on second EP For Ed. Malkmus's gritty production is a nice counterbalance to the EP's rather droll cover art, putting fresh emphasis on the Canshakers' hot-blooded fervor with tunes like Naked Flower Of The Wiz 1 and Why Suffer From Art In Life. The EP's double-dealing outline is perhaps a gesture that there's indeed a method to Canshaker Pi's madness.
With Malkmus and Schouten sharing production duties on the long-awaited full-length, Canshaker Pi found a healthy equilibrium between their songwriting poise and whimsical outbursts. The second act of Naked Flower opts for a gear slower without sacrificing the small but charming blemishes: the whirring amplifiers, itchy fingers and impromptu howls of joy. Truth be told, Canshaker Pi thrives on that constant tension created between catchy-as-sin hooks and torrents of noise. The U In My Dog for instance, teeters on the tipping point between Willem Smit's playful delivery and Boris De Klerk's sinister guitar hailstorm.
Long story short, Canshaker Pi drives itself into a complete stupor within the span of eleven tumultuous tracks. The high-octane garage rock of Adolescent Profound, the manic slow burner What You're Trying To Say, the rough-and-tumble schizoid outing Crashed Car Running… boredom certainly isn't part of this equation. Canshaker Pi voluntarily allow the anxious friction of their music to boil over, until it irrevocably submits to the knee-jerk enthusiasm that makes this bunch tick.
Canshaker Pi is:
Willem Smit (vocals/guitars)
Boris de Klerk (vocals/guitars)
Ruben van Weegberg (bass)
Nick Bolland (skins)
