Fresh Five | May 2025

In the second edition of our local Fresh Songs segment, we mix the singer-songwriter with the electronic, without ever going full avant-garde.

Leizel: "Last Words"

Tess Meckling performs often as a vocalist in our jazz scene, has a piano background, and makes indie pop as a leader-songwriter with the band Sugarfungus. She's also the artist Leizel, where she unites all three of those sides. "Last Words". beginning with just Meckling's voice and the keys, adds a beat and rocks gently in 6/8. The amount of R&B seasoning evolves over the pleasantly long runtime of over five minutes. The bass and overdubbed backing vocals are key ingredients. Breaking away from addressing the song's "you", Meckling sings, "How many more hearts will I break / while blindly ignoring my own?" (Streaming)

The Shorties: "17"

Cindy Dai-Thiessen, Kaya Kurz, and Sydney Tough have been congregating a generation of CapU friends via their indie folk group The Shorties for years, and they finally have an album (plus a release show at the Wise) on the way. "17" is their debut single and contains the album's title in the first three words of this line: "In every season you'll bring me home again." With Tough's lead vocal up-front on this track, the group compares childhood innocence as an "endless sky" versus today's clouds, but they find comfort in the pals they still hold near. They're backed by Francis Henson on acoustic guitar, Dean Thiessen on piano, Katie Stewart on fiddle, and Jamison Ko on drums. (Streaming)

Mary Ancheta: "Minokawa (ft. Kimmortal)"

Mary Ancheta's opening set for BADBADNOTGOOD at the 2023 jazzfest was just the beginning of a well-deserved heater for the busy composer-keyboardist; she has led her quartet, as well as a bigger band playing the music of Betty Davis, all over town and beyond in the two years since. Kimmortal, who has a new release of their own coming June 11, has employed Ancheta in their band previously. This collab single is an odyssey, ranging from Massive Attack piano chills to indie-trap to a upbeat slice of orchestrated pop. The two artists of Filipino descent are donating all Bandcamp proceeds from "Minokawa" to those impacted by the Lapu Lapu Day Festival tragedy. (Buy | Available on streaming)

David Hodgson: "Purpose"

Since his teens about a decade ago, North Shore-raised saxophonist David Hodgson has been a favourite of his peers for both his technical prowess and personality. He's gone on to make his name in Toronto and NYC too while coming back here annually. He plays Frankie's on June 19, but I bet it won't sound anything like this under-10-minute collection of solo home-recorded sounds. Hodgson dropped a bootleg-style, straight-ahead chordless trio session last year; he now brings the same DIY spirit out of the confines of jazz, into electronic and ambient settings. "Purpose" is the longest track, featuring reeds that dance with synths and harmonize with washes and blasts of sound: clever arranging. (Spring Break, Buy | Streaming)

Jonny Tobin: "Super Smash Bros. Melee Theme (ft. Marlon Petronio)"

Keyboardist-producer Jonny Tobin has often leaned into the sounds and art styles of retro gaming across his six solo albums to-date. Here he turns up the drum machines and fattens the groove underneath one of the GameCube's most famous menu soundtracks, bringing in Sweden-based guitarist Marlon Petronio to rip a solo after his own. Video game compositions are the 21st century's standards, and our scene continues serving up popular live shows for this repertoire, like missingNo. at the Kingsway Club and RJ Abella's band playing Sonic at Tyrant to name a couple on the way. The cover art's background is subtle but cute, and Tobin's nod to game rating systems in the bottom-left doesn't lie. (Streaming)