INITIALLY finding his feet in the music industry by way of his output with incredibly disparate bands such as The Unicorns and Clues; Alden Penner’s songwriting prowess stood out as an incredibly strong attribute for both groups. 

Having briefly reunited with the former last year and embarking on a brief jaunt in support of Arcade Fire, Penner had left fans bemused as to what his next move would be.

Luckily, they wouldn’t have to wait long for an emphatic response from the Quebec native; as his ability to produce highly original music continues to make its presence felt on Canada In Space. 

Beginning somewhat bare, ‘Breathe To Burn’ is most certainly a slow burner, but one which slowly seeps into your subconscious and instills both a sense of fear and anticipation for what is ultimately to follow. The foreboding alchemy that occurs between the perpetually recurring guitar and the equally intense synth that bubbles away in the background sest the stage for the track’s more garage punk based second act, all the while defined by the at times eccentric vocals of Penner.

The adventurous and gripping use of synthesizer alongside muddy guitar continues to play out on ‘Will I’, coming across as proggy in nature but with a more DIY ethos at its core. Yet again enabling sparseness to say more than layers of overdubbed guitars could ever hope to, he allows the track and listener to fester before a sudden resurgence brings things sharply back to life.

Refusing to eschew the ardent and painstakingly crafted sound that defines the previous tracks; warm and translucent acoustic guitar carves out a sense of dreamlike bliss on ‘Exegenis’ prior to the vehemently imposing wall of density returning to the fray. Featuring hard hitting guitar that registers as one of the album’s more outwardly immediate and least obtuse moments, the track culminates menacingly; in a manner that sounds almost cinematic and conjures deep seated dread akin to that which Giorgio Morodor captured with tracks such as ‘The Wheel’ and ‘Cacaphoney’ on the Midnight Express OST. 

Sung in French throughout the entirety of its duration, ‘Candy’ will certainly stand out as the most accessible track on the record. With noteworthy percussion that bustles around his delicate vocal performance and its engulfing vortex of keys, the vaguely jangly guitar part is one of the few fleeting allusions to anything within his back catalogue.

This is certainly not a criticism of the EP, as it’s evident that Penner is a man with untapped levels of creativity and one is prone to tangential infatuations with a certain sound or concept. This sense of musical wanderlust has often been a burden that many an influential artist has had to bear from a commercial standpoint, while those willing to ingest their output with an open mind will see what treasures reside within.

Plunging both himself and his band (which features actor Michael Cera as a multi faceted member) into a seething realm of psychedelia on closing track ‘Mediate’; he confidently plasters it everything from eastern-tinged chords to ominous bass and an abrasive climax which is adorned with a myriad of industrial aping percussion.

An exciting and refreshingly restless listen, it’ll be interesting to see whether such a constantly-evolving artist will deem this new approach to be a region in which he may reside for a while. Given his refusal to be stifled creativity and the sheer volume of material he’s managed to put out thus far, the possibility of him fleshing out this new and absorbing direction into a fully fledged record may be nothing more than a pipe dream.