Jon McKiel’s Hex (You’ve Changed Records) isn’t quite prog, folk, Americana, alt rock or jazz, and yet somehow it’s all those and more. It finds the New Brunswick artist and his co-producer Jay Crocker expanding on the sonic collage of 2020’s BobbyJoeHope, weaving a mesmeric off-kilter tapestry that combines studio dexterity and spontaneous creation. The title track conjures mystery in moments, arriving with clanking guitar and expanding with languid sax and back-and-forth vocals. Every ensuing track is garlanded with subtle other worldliness, double-tracked vocals, Californian harmonies, varispeed grooves, processed effects and warm-blanket melodicism. Small wonder that Hex made the long list for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize in McKiel’s native Canada: with successive listens, it gradually reveals itself to be one of 2024’s most captivating surprises.
James Elkington and Nathan…
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Prog Italia (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 153