Brave Radar
Gig Seeker Pro

Brave Radar

| INDIE

| INDIE
Band Alternative Pop

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Brave Radar - Ultramarine EP"

With a full-length out early last year and another just around the corner, Brave Radar have dropped some mid-album action with the Ultramarine EP, a seven-track, 13-minute burst of loose lo-fi pop. In some ways, this release picks up where the Montreal outfit's debut, Distracting Stranger, left off, further expanding on the innocent sophistication of the Softies and Beat Happening with soft-voiced boy-girl harmonies, jangling guitar lines and homespun tape hiss. However, this time Brave Radar have also taken their sound a little more left-of-centre and injected it with a dose of freeform avant-pop weirdness (think Tori Kudo's Maher Shalal Hash Baz). At times, this makes for some forgettable moments, such as the awkwardly paced "Beast" and "Coffee." But most often Brave Radar get it right, holding together the loose, offbeat structures with just enough hooks, like on clear standout "Sternwall." Ultramarine is by no means perfect but does make Brave Radar's upcoming album worth looking forward to. (Force Inc.)

By Brock Thiessen - Exclaim


"Exclaim Magazine"

"Montreal’s buzzing scene can always be trusted for springing pleasant surprises on us, which is exactly what boy/girl duo Brave Radar have done with this debut. The fun begins with the utterly disarming “Something,” which takes you by the hand and melts you with its gaze before slipping away all too quickly. Thankfully, this fleeting giddiness comes back again and again on these songs, as the twosome go from bouncy pop to quirky folk to distorted Yo La Tengo-type ditties ensconced in a snug lo-fi buzz without breaking a sweat. Crucially, Tessa Smith and Conor Prendergast’s brittle vocals waver to and fro with detached coolness — they’re cryptic enough to keep you on your toes but personal and vulnerable enough to feel reassuringly familiar. Homespun charm may be a trademark of many a modestly recorded debut but it’s seldom you find a record that works as well on as many levels as this one." - Pras Rajagopalan


"Montreal Mirror"

“Who knew you could be twee and noisy, pop and sketchy, simultaneously? From Sydney, Australia, and Halifax, respectively, Montreal-based Conor Prendergast and Tessa Smith deliver a debut album that jingles and jangles and feeds back politely over a three-minute outro. If only because it heightens the Velvet Underground texture of their guitars, the old-school, dirt-cheap recording techniques serve the duo well. His soft vocals lead the way on most tracks, while her clipped, girlish stylings, not unlike Julie Doiron, top a few and otherwise harmonize. Whether this will lead to more fully formed work remains to be seen.” - Lorraine Carpenter


Discography

Feb 2008: Distracting Strangers
October 2008: Ultramarine EP
March 2009: Forthcoming sophomore album

Photos

Bio

Brave radar are idiosyncartic pop group based in Montreal. They build shambolic ditties that captivate and mess about. The songs are sometimes pop deconstructions and sometimes ideas in their infancy kept short with melody the focus. Recording is often done on the fly for this reason. For the same reason the fidelity is often low.

Brave Radar began as the solo project of Conor Prendergast, then living in Sydney, Australia. After self-releasing four CD-Rs, Conor moved to Montreal where he began performing and recording with Tessa Smith. A new, livelier Brave Radar took shape. Good friend Gabe Ng now joins the two for live shows.

Brave Radar played SXSW in 2007 and have played Pop Montreal three years running. Ultramarine EP is their most recent recorded material. They are currently working on the full length follow up to 2007s Distracting Stangers to be released on Fixture Records early 2009.