SHAME

The union of shoegaze enthusiast Daniel Monkman (aka Zoon) and grunge survivalist Adam Sturgeon (aka Status/Non-Status) isn’t so much a supergroup as a form of group therapy—a safe space for two Anishinaabe Canadian indie-rock musicians to reflect on the history of horrors inflicted upon their people and imagine a better future for them. With Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew returning to his producer post, the duo’s second album as OMBIIGIZI sees them fuse their individual aesthetics into a lustrous sound that’s both ethereal and energising. The perseverance anthem “Connecting” strikes a blissful balance between Sturgeon’s antic lead vocal and Monkman’s soothing chorus harmonies, while the distorted, heavy-breathing hook and anxious thrust of “Photograph” give way to a symphonic ambient swirl worthy of Drew’s main band. But OMBIIGIZI’s fusion of hardcore-schooled emotional bloodletting and therapeutic post-rock soundscaping is uniquely their own: On the album’s bracing finale, Sturgeon exorcises past traumas by screaming the word “shame” with throat-shredding intensity over a slow-surging hypnotic pulse, as if channelling U2’s Live at Red Rocks in a basement DIY dive.