Fresh Seven | July 2025

In this packed summer edition of our locally-focused Fresh Songs segment, enjoy a double-decker pop sandwich with Ben Millman / Alvin Brendan bread and a side of folk.

Mikey Jose: "AY NAKO!"

The titular exclamation in Tagalog sends off into the bilingual chorus, and Mikey Jose and company strut (in a video that is a shorter edit of the full track) from 4th and Manitoba to Waterfront. Jose, a dancing man of letters with a day life in science, opens the video reading a 1959 self-help classic. "AY NAKO!" is all-out pop with funky production, cranked further than Jose's earliest work like his 2020 R&B album Hindsight. It's also distinct from his intimate 2024 EP beautiful life, but that's not because he changed his team: producer and keyboardist Benjamin Millman is still right there with Alvin Brendan (who plays bass, not just the shredding guitar solo) and Trent Otter as well. Accessible and confident, it's one of several post-Lapu Lapu releases that have emerged this summer to aid a community's recovery. (Streaming)

Steph Wall: "start your engines"

Last seen here in April and having played Green Auto in late June, Steph Wall turns the mood from spring to summer, from "gusher"'s reverberant longing and tense beats to this disarmingly dry vocal and the vibe of sexy time with someone who's already familiar. Suin Park adds synth parts into the mix with Wall's regular bandmates, Stephen Nikleva on guitar and Wynston Minckler on (electric) bass. The background vocals saunter nicely, and the percussion (as on "gusher") lands just right. "Repetition sharpens the blade", Wall sings. Pretending that she's talking about music, what has she been working repeatedly to make this new era feel so fun and well-honed? It's the confidence to turn up the volume of your own -isms, defeating perfectionism, bringing more of yourself to the party. (Streaming)

Kate Yahn: "Graceland"

Kate Yahn deftly works the sidelines of classic rock, pop, and country and has star power that you know as soon as you see. She is friends with a cast of here-and-now talents, like Millman and Brendan (they're all over this Fresh Songs edition); Michaela Slinger and the Vox Rea sisters, who have co-writer credits here; and more musicians like Francis Henson, Emmett Jerome, and Karl DeJong (who plays drums on this track). Yahn went all of 2024, despite playing big gigs from Khatsahlano to BreakOut West, without dropping a new single. "Graceland" finds her back on the romantic, 70s-inspired side of things, not the forward rock of 2023's "Edge of Nothing (Take Me Home)". You don't need to notice how songwriterly the bridge's resolution is to appreciate how hard its guitars and first couple bars hit. (Streaming)

Kay Brette: "Coca Cola"

I hadn't heard of Kay Brette, who sings about "taking a hit of" the drink to get gassed for an anxious party, until this track came to my attention as one that guitarist Keith Sinclair played on. "Coca Cola" and Brette's forthcoming EP come from the same Andy "Shick" Schicter / Park Sound Studio pop-rock world as the music of Sinclair's bandleader Anna Katarina. The guitarist does it all here: atmospherics, slide playing, and an understated feature. Brette runs shimmering vocals around the harmonic circle; her lush arrangement works a contrast between two different drumbeats. (Streaming)

Raiaan: "Cigarette"

Raiaan has been dropping a handful of R&B tracks with Millman and Brendan while playing locally as part of the post-Ice Cream Truck scene, but when I saw "Thaddeus Bailey-Mai" printed on the cover of his 2024 single "Cookie Cutter", I took notice. Thad returns with Harmon-muted trumpet on this latest single, and Raiaan's overall sound has become... I don't want to say the j-word that ends with 'y', but what else do you call it when you have all these seventh chords and you sing a flat-13 in each verse? The quantized triplet beat restrains a vocal performance that could swing with a real drummer. If he headed further in this direction, we might hear him in venues on our side of the tracks. He plays the Flamingo Room August 21; we could count that. (Streaming)

Clara Rose: "After Savannah"

I first heard fiddler Clara Rose around 2018 in the folk scene and at the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival I lived near to. She then attended a music mentorship program in Savannah, Georgia and studied at Berklee, and now she plays in bands like Acoustic Nomads, whose stellar mandolinist Ethan Setiawan I heard at the Rogue Folk Club earlier this year. But this short album features her Vancouver band, recorded a few years ago. On "After Savannah", Steve Charles plays banjo and Joe Abbott plays clarinet alongside Martin Reisle's guitar and (look he's back) Minckler's upright bass. Rose, Charles, and Abbott float and improvise on a melody that's odd in meter but comforting in feel. Her hometown release show was at Tyrant Studios on July 18. (Seeking Daffodils, Buy | Available on streaming)

Harry Bartlett: "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me"

Guitarist Harry Bartlett (who we know plays in the Mountain Air and taught Chris Fraser something about Charlie Haden) delivers a solo instrumental arrangement but makes sure to include the lyrics in his Bandcamp description. He embraces the dissonant Frisellish rub of his acoustic's top string against the note below; he sits deep in the ballad and refuses to ride the sing-songy rocking chair of Oscar Isaac's version from Inside Llewyn Davis, which is where I first heard the song. It's this pursuit of revelation in tradition that has led Bartlett to Nashville, though he's still collaborating with plenty of fellow Canadians and remains a present friend to our improv-literate pop folkie scene. (Buy | Streaming)