Nic Bragg over at Kitsilano’s Zulu Records once again present his weekly Scout feature, the Zulu Report. Within, staff from the West 4th music store provide The Track, the song that is on heavy rotation that week; The Playlist, which is pretty self-explanatory; and The Gig, the must see show of the week. From their ears to yours, enjoy…

The Track

SANDRO PERRI Love & Light

Revisiting some of the records that got away can always prove a fruitful plan. There are always a number of amazing records that come out in a year that for some reason or another fly under everyone’s general radar. One such overlooked treasure is the 2011 release from Toronto’s nibble multi-instrumentalist Sandro Perri entitled Impossible Spaces. Released on Constellation Records (Godspeed!, Do Make Say Think, etc.), this record finds Perri and pals in a definite loose jazzy-prog experimentalism mode as the songs feel more like light workouts of ideas and have an efficient buoyancy that keeps them constantly bubbling along with tons of interwoven melodies. Few bands can do this. It requires not only chops, but a focused sense of space, and like Sandro’s title implies, he’s keenly concerned with tight, restricting spaces. Looking back on this record is like a lesson in focused listening – notice the subtle guitar line that darts in and out, or the swells of pads and horns – it’s very detailed. Looking forward from this record, Sandro and Co. are slotted to open for Destroyer’s North American dates – should be awesome!

WILLIS EARL BEAL Monotony

Yes, we have been steadily pumping the tires of Willis Earl Beal and with the arrival of this first official video in support of a record that we love at the store – Acousmatic Sorcery – we are thrilled! There is an intangible quality to the talent of Willis. He is raw emotion and raw ambition. We need more of this. Life in America captured perfectly in the video…nothing fancy.

GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Easy Come Easy Go

This is actually an amazing thing! Really good to see the Vancouver Sun doing some amazing music coverage and getting bands from across the country to drop by Gastown for a quick session. Tony and company did the same for us and we will post some footage soon! In the meantime, imagine the ghosts of this old part of our town dancing around the room with this great song from New Wild Everywhere.

DUM DUM GIRLS Coming Down

Sub Pop Records darlings Dum Dum Girls have really dialed in the louder sound on their new full length – I am hearing a lot more of Mazzy Star and Jesus and The Mary Chain – which makes for a pretty intense listening experience! I think this is a nod to a Yoko Ono art piece. Yoko was way way ahead of the game!

FRANKIE ROSE Nightswim

This track comes from the number 3 best selling record in our store right now. If you haven’t heard of Frankie Rose, you probably will by the time she brings her band to the Biltmore at the end of April! There is a definite Cure production quality to this single. Filming underwater is getting easier these days.

BILL CALLAHAN Heaven Help The Child

Callahan is easily one of the most consistent songwriters practicing in America today. His deep baritone voice is the perfect vehicle for his intensely poetic writing. His clear and direct instrumentation is the perfect adornment for his songs of forlorn heartbreak. He is our generation’s Lightfoot, Cash, Van Zandt rolled into one. We salute Bill Callahan!

LEE RANALDO Angles

Lee has always played the part of the quiet foil to Thurston and Kim in Sonic Youth and has over the years filled in the gaps in various records with his own unique blasts of distorted riff rawk. We’ve only had his new solo release ‘Between The Times & The Tides’ in the store for a short while and it is already one of our faves for 2012! Nice to see him step out of the shadows!

THE DELTA SPIRIT California

This feels like a 4 minute trailer for a TV show called The Real Hipsters Of Orange County. Boredom, Parties, Problems… it’s all there if you are a kid in California. Arcade Fire hinted at these themes with their groundbreaking Suburbs release and San Diego’s Delta Spirit show us the uniquely punk version of the events.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Out of the Game

We love sneak peaks! Trust Rufus to come through big time and offer up this week’s most decadent video – a new song featuring Helena Bonham Carter playing the role of the aging librarian! Produced by Mark Ronson – this could be the Rufus Wainwright album we’ve been hoping for all along!

THE GIG

PORCELAIN RAFT Tuesday April 17th Electric Owl

For the last couple months the blogosphere has been a buzz about the work of Mauro Remiddi a.k.a. Porcelain Raft! He was quickly signed by uber-cool indie label Secretly Canadian (Bon Iver, Black Mountain, Antony and The Johnsons) and is expected to dominate on the Summer festival circuit! Sonically, Remiddi is known for huge arrangements of organ, synth and efx over-top of dreamy blissed electronic rhythms. His debut recording Strange Weekend has the kind of symphonic bombast that makes M83 so loveable, but also tackles a much darker spectrum of tones including the hypnotic drones and soundscapes that punctuate tracks like the above “Put Me To Sleep”. Check the video. Mauro also has a really sharp visual sense as he drowns himself in a bath of cold milk while the rave around him takes on nightmare proportions. Live at the Electric Owl this promises to be one of those shows people will be gabbing about afterwards.