Double On Time

For the past 30 years, Toronto's Picastro has been evolving an intense and idiosyncratic variant of indie rock songcraft, embracing unique instrumentation, unsettling dissonance, and an ultra-personal approach to form and dynamics. The vision of vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Liz Hysen has anchored the project's sound throughout these three decades, even amidst a diverse cast of collaborators that have come, gone, and sometimes returned. Among these contributors are Owen Pallett, Brandon Valdivia (AKA Mas Aya), Stephanie Vittas, Nick Storring, Matthew Ramolo (AKA Khôra), Germaine Liu, and members of beloved Toronto groups spanning Eucalyptus to Pecola. The forthcoming EP, Double On Time, is Picastro's first release for Toronto imprint We Are Bodies, which celebrated its 20-year anniversary last year. Historically, Hysen has made a habit of adopting surprise shifts in sound with each successive recording. Become Secret from 2009 stripped back the full-band sound of her first three releases to create an atmosphere of eerie spareness. 2019's Exit added a modular synth (courtesy of Matthew Ramolo) to the core ensemble, and most of the vocal duties were handed over to male guests, ranging from Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart to Chris Cummings (Marker Starling). Even when subjected to these stark contrasts, Hysen's disarming blend of vulnerability and aggression is preserved, and this remains the case in the present collection, especially given that her choice of subject matter reinforces that characteristic blend.