Thank You!

Soundscapes will be closing permanently on September 30th, 2021.

Open every day between Spetember 22nd-30th

We'd like to thank all of our loyal customers over the years, you have made it all worthwhile! The last 20 years have seen a golden age in access to the world's recorded music history both in physical media and online. We were happy to be a part of sharing our knowledge of some of that great music with you. We hope you enjoyed most of what we sold & recommended to you over the years and hope you will continue to seek out the music that matters.

In the meantime we'll be selling our remaining inventory, including thousands of play copies, many of which are rare and/or out-of-print, never to be seen again. Over the next few weeks the discounts will increase and the price of play copies will decrease. Here are the details:

New CDs, LPs, DVDs, Blu-ray, Books 60% off 15% off

Rare & out-of-print new CDs 60% off 50% off

Rare/Premium/Out-of-print play copies $4.99 $14.99

Other play copies $2.99 $8.99

Magazine back issues $1 $2/each or 10 for $5 $15

Adjusted Hours & Ticket Refunds

We will be resuming our closing sale beginning Friday, June 11. Our hours will be as follows:

Wednesday-Saturday 12pm-7pm
Sunday 11am-6pm

Open every day between September 22nd-30th

We will no longer be providing ticket refunds for tickets purchased from the shop, however, you will be able to obtain refunds directly from the promoters of the shows. Please refer to the top of your ticket to determine the promoter. Here is the contact info for the promoters:

Collective Concerts/Horseshoe Tavern Presents/Lee's Palace Presents: shows@collectiveconcerts.com
Embrace Presents: info@embracepresents.com
MRG Concerts: ticketing@themrggroup.com
Live Nation: infotoronto@livenation.com
Venus Fest: venusfesttoronto@gmail.com

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your understanding.

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Last Month's Top Sellers

1. TAME IMPALA - The Slow Rush
2. SARAH HARMER - Are We Gone
3. YOLA - Walk Through Fire
4. DESTROYER - Have We Met
5. DRIVE BY TRUCKERS - Unravelling

Click here for full list.

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Sunday
May292011

tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l

We’ve been fans of tUnE-yArDs since their debut came out in 2009.  We wrote a glowing review of BiRd-BrAiNs, put it into a listening post, and we (and leader Merrill Garbus) don’t think there was another tUnE-yArDs window display until we made it so. We had a hard time keeping BiRd-BrAiNs in stock for a couple of reasons, but not because it was flying off the shelves: the disc was originally a limited edition after tUnE-yArDs signed to 4AD, but reception to it was initially muted. 

That was, until a couple of things happened. tUnE-yArDs hooked up with Dirty Projectors on a leg of their Bitte Orca tour, wowing crowds with their big sound and Garbus’ giant voice. Then, when Zach Galifianakis tweeted his love for the band, linking a video of their Soundscapes in-store appearance, things started to go a bit crazy online and, yes, here in the shop too. Now approaching 90,000 views, the performance of lead-off single "Bizness" has done its little part in helping to help garner w h o k i l l enough ink and sales to place it in the running for one of the top indie discs of the year. 

This time around, Garbus has chosen to use more than her handheld recording device to produce her tunes. She still uses found sounds and drum loops, and plucks her beloved baritone uke on occasion, but her sound is now bolstered by the addition of bassist Nate Brenner, lots of blaring sax, and a much beefier sound. Normally a switch from lo-fi to bigger production can have an alienating effect on an existing fanbase, but for tUnE-yArDs it makes perfect sense. Much the same way that Beck needed to put out Odelay after Mellow Gold, the sounds reverberating in Garbus’ head clearly needed the treatment they have received here. 

On "Bizness", for example, Garbus has given us one of the fiercest vocal performances of our time with its bombastic chorus and ping-pong weave of ooh’s, ka-ka’s, and ta-ta’s clearly influenced by the Projectors' "Remade Horizon". It’s a triumph that would not have been as great under more DIY production values. Garbus is a natural experimenter in the production chair (she gets a credit for the latest Thao & Mirah album); you can see her pulling a Prince-ly studio hermit act, poring over every tiny detail to ensure maximum effect. Indeed, "Powa" cribs nicely from the Purple One in the falsetto yelp department in delightful homage. 

The centre of all the interest in tUnE-yArDs is Garbus’ audacious singing voice. It’s pretty at times, but never afraid of taking massive risks and even sounding ugly when necessary. She’s the indie-rock Missy Elliot ("Killa" and "You Yes You"), both for pure quirk value and for taking an utterly unique and stylized approach and serving it up for a potentially much larger audience. Whatever form her mass appeal takes (yet another Facebook friend posted the wildly popular "Bizness" video while I was writing this), at least her discs and tickets sell much faster here in the shop than they used to!

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