Chad VanGaalen & Cousins at Berghain Kantine Berlin / Monday, 08.09.2014

Many of us are already making arrangements to relocate to Chad VanGaalen’s universe. The world as we know it seems to be disintegrating by the minute, so any hint of a means of escape has serious currency.

Over the last ten to fifteen years, CVG has been producing living maps in songs, drawings, modified instruments, animations and performances–shifting forms pointing to another world, infinitely more liveable, maybe hidden just under the surface of our own. But until now, the access point has been fairly unknown.

httpv://https://youtu.be/PLjNJSwsF3w

Now, a father of two, the spooky-voiced multi-instrumentalist has several hundred releases to his name(s)*, has produced adventurous records and videos for some of the best bands of our time and is working on a feature-length animated science fiction film with companion book.

He plays in two bands with his kids (the improvised hardcore punk duo, Crocodile Teeth & The Snugglers, and the live techno band, Banana Bread). At one point, Chad and his daughters conspired to replace the name, “Chad VanGaalen” with “Banana Bread,” as his main performing identity.

httpv://https://youtu.be/Wy2AeicjTak

CVG’s blood flows by unrestrained creative impulses. He has never worked in a commercial recording studio. By his hands alone, one line, sound, shape or word leads organically to the next. In 2011, he wanted to score a science fiction film, so he started making one.

The first episode of his animated feature, Translated Log of Inhabitants, should be released this year, with a fully illustrated D&D-esque compendium of 150 associated characters.

Give their new album “The Halls of Wickwire” a listen and you’ll probably never guess that COUSINS are a band of two. The Canadian duo do justice to garage rock in all its simplistic, fuzzy glory.

Both hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, COUSINS bandmates Aaron Mangle (Guitar, Bass, Piano, Vocals) and Leigh Dotey (Drums, Vocals) are so in sync they may as well be related. After two full length albums and extensive north American touring with artists like Chad VanGaalen, COUSINS have their fresh, romantic rock and roll sound down to a science on “The Halls of Wickwire,” co-released by Ba Da Bing and Toronto-based label Hand Drawn Dracula (and out on Mutations in the UK).