Announcing Alien8 Recordings’ latest signing and the first release from Montreal’s very own Soft Canyon, Broken Spirit, I Will Mend Your Wings. We are incredibly pleased to announce the beginning of this incredible band that has risen from the ashes of Tricky Woo.

The band takes cues from across the music spectrum, but unlike many of the rock bands to achieve success recently, they shape their sound into something fresh and personal. Soft Canyon borrows heavily from the Laurel Canyon sound that spawned the likes of producer, arranger and musician Jack Nietzsche as well as absurdist popster Van Dyke Parks, not to mention the great influence it had on Arthur Lee’s Love and former Canadian Neil Young. This is most evident on the anthem style track Hope’s Great Divide, a track that is incredibly catchy and chock full of studio trickery that will have you thinking it must be one of those lost gems from the 70’s. Soft Canyon layers the sound of two or three guitars with keyboards with incredible depth in the vocal department and a drum sound that recalls the studio wizardry of Phil Spector.

The band also blends heavy influences of Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother era, with early Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers, but without falling into the trap of ripping off or rehashing the same old sounds. In this respect they are comparable to Royal Trux or Acid Mothers Temple in the sense that they are paying homage to their influences but still changing the face of rock at the same time. One listen to Broken Spirit’s epic track We Threw Our Love Into The Universe will have the listener traveling back in time recalling the glory days of prime-era Floyd. This track, through the use of incredibly powerful orchestration and unbelievably psychedelic flavored vocals, comes closest to matching that band’s undeniable live power.

Soft Canyon blend in incredibly well with the more psychedelic side of Alien8 Recordings’s roster and would make excellent touring companions along side acts like Acid Mothers Temple, Shalabi Effect, Tanakh and newcomers The Unicorns.

The recording is gorgeously housed in our custom glossy gatefold card stock jacket with beautiful artwork courtesy of Soft Canyon’s front person Andrew Dickson and his brother. Broken Spirit will also be released on the vinyl format with a beautiful printed insert. Much like many records from the glory days of rock’n’roll Soft Canyon elect to keep things brief, 11 tracks with no filler, that will keep the listener hungry and eagerly awaiting the next release.