The City Gates
Montréal, Quebec, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2009 | SELF
Music
Press
I consider Forever Orbiter the soundtrack to summer 2018. It’s dreamy and airy, yet driving and atmospheric all at the same time. Enjoy it on a road trip or just relaxing outside on a beautiful day. It’s great turned up loud or listened through headphones. - Adriana Ciccone
Playing as part of Pop Montreal's showcase, we found ourselves hooked from the first bassline. Their doom-laden post-punk reminded us of all things Comsat Angels, Chameleons, and Interpol. So much that we bought two copies of their album (Forever Orbiter, check it out) and caught their second set the following evening in Atomic. Beat that! - Dom Gourlay
Each song dynamically shifts from brooding lows to airy highs, melding gear-grinding post-rock guitar conflagration, deep bass line grooves, and propulsive drumming with spacious, exploring guitar lines that sweep high in the sky. There’s room to reflect – and rock out – amid the hazy, drawn out vocals and dense and vibrant washes of guitar. While recalling such illustrious bands like Slowdive, The Sisters of Mercy, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, The City Gates’ music still definitely sounds fresh. It’s fuzzy and ethereal: a pure delight to your ears! - Big Takeover Exclusives
The City Gates – “Checkpoint Charlie” – The Canadian post-punk/shoegaze outfit launched its second album, Forever Orbiter, on April 27th via Northern Lights Records and this LP-opener spirals to the sky with radiant waves of guitar, grinding bass line, simmering cymbals, a pushing drum beat, and gently hazy vocals. - Jen Dan - The Big Take Over
Cavernous vocals overlay a wall of guitar expanse, and if you’re a fan of the genre you immediately feel right at home. The hook draws you into the soundscape, and this feels like a song you’ve known all your life, even though you’re hearing it for the first time - DKFM
Some solid reverb-drenched gaze from The City Gates - Wild Pattern Records
If you’ve heard "Checkpoint Charlie" you already know how awesome this forthcoming EP is destined to be, if not, feast your auditory cortex on the equally as epic "Maddening Ride. - Shoegazer Sanctuary Music
“Psychedelic shoegaze Montreal band influenced by Jesus & Mary Chain and others. I love them!" - Jason Rockman
Maddening Ride" a super cool track from the The City Gates featured yesterday here on ListenLocal514 - Listen Local514
Maddening Ride - Pop is on Fire
Checkpoint Charlie is an expansive tune, shifting from introverted to anthemic. If The National decided to turn ‘gazey, I’d expect it would sound something like this! - Sounds Better With Reverb
I tend to find around a dozen new bands that I consider liking enough to buy their music, talk about them here and go to their shows. Not often though, do I find bands that I fall in love with. The City Gates conquered my heart and ears with the first note I heard from them. - La Sonotheque
Era, de repente, como escuchar a The National a duelo abierto con The Go Betweens, por decirles lo menos. - Sound & Vision
Originally released in 2013 and lifted from their first album ‘Collapse’, ‘On The Road’ by Montreal based shoegazers ‘The City Gates’ simmers within a delicious melting pot of shoegaze, psych & lo-fi rock with aplomb. The band are inspired by the 80’s & 90’s shoegaze and dream pop scene (Slowdive, MBV, Lush, JMC, Chapterhouse, Moose, etc.). The four-piece create haunting guitars, eclectic and ethereal sounds! This epic accompanying video was produced by esteemed videographer Dariy Karyakin & it enhances the overall feel of the track. - PRIMAL MUSIC BLOG
“Ingenious combination of indie rock, shoegaze and dream pop”. - Sanctuary Radio
"Recent classic from The City Gates". - DKFM Shoegaze Radio
"The City Gates will satisfy your every shoegaze craving" - Joe Shoegazer-Shoegazer Sanctuary
Algo sofisticado, não tão barulhento e nunca etéreo, talvez se o MBV tivesse como vocalista o Lloyd Cole [...]The City Gates forma a trinca de preciosidades de Montreal. Belíssimo. - The Blog that Celebrates Itself
Top 2015 Soundcloud music including The City Gates - Dean Shoegazer Bromley
"Every once in a while a track comes around that blows my mind and this is definitely one of those immensely, amazing sounds I search for on a day to day basis, spectacular!" - Joe Shoegazer- Shoegazer Sanctuary-FB Page
The City Gates played an impressive set with solid performance. In particular, their guitars were surprisingly well balanced against each other. - Stereo Embers Magazine
"Great new single by The City Gates!" - Shoegaze-Nugaze-Dreampop-Noisepop
“By using guitars with lots of fuzz, reverb, and delay pedals, the band creates an incredibly beautiful ambient and energetic sound” - Justin Lam, Antidotes Magazine
[...] Their showcase was very good. We were drawn to their excellent musicianship and emotional vocals. Would be really cool to catch a full set from these guys sometime in the future. - T-Mak
Psychedelic shoegaze Montreal band influenced by Jesus & Mary Chain and others. I love them! - Jason Rockman
The City Gates managed to give quite a performance – stunning guitar riffs and a plethora of well blended pedal effects, were reinforced by Maxime Wingender’s baritone vocals - Oblique Musique
Great Montreal shoegaze band The City Gates - Picard, Chom.fm
« The City Gates can swing easily between a dark piano ballad and a glockenspiel-inflected driving electric guitar rocker. » - Amanda Putz, CBC News Radio Host
« So understated crafty Montreal shoegaze Legends of a man! » - Sammy Younan, New Music Ten
«Vraiment un album à écouter ». - Jean-François Rioux, Les Criquets Crinqués. CISM, 89,3 FM
“The album has a great ow all around, from start to fi nish. Each song compliments and builds on the last, which is one thing that puts this album above many others. Collapse is one of those albums that you play from the start right through to the end, then play it all over again” - Kalydarow
« Des chansons qui occupent l’espace un peu comme le ferait la trame sonore d’un film - SPEC, Réseau Scène
"C’est sans aucun doute que nous accordons quatre étoiles à l’album que vient tout juste de lancer The City Gates […] On tombe sous le charme de cette formation dès la première écoute […] The City Gates nous fait penser à Coldplay et Half Moon Run pour ses atmosphères et le sens des mélodies. Après quelques écoutes, on se surprend à fredonner leurs chansons planantes comme si on les connaissait depuis des années. C’est un signe qui ne trompe pas. " - Gilles Lévesque, Le Canada Français
The City Gates n’a pas fait les choses à moitié pour signer Collapse, sa première carte de visite dans le rock indépendant. Enregistré aux réputés studios Piccolo, le premier album fait le portrait d’un monde instable tant du point de vue social, culturel que politique. - Marie-Pier Gagnon, Le Canada Français
The City Gates présentent un album bien fignolé; qui semble découler d’une passion évidente pour la musique […] Un produit qui fera tourner des têtes. - Julien-Pierre Trudeau, Sorstu.ca
-"Sous une couche épaisse d’effets de guitare de toutes sortes, le quatuor se réclame évidemment de la scène shoegaze des années 90 (pensez My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive et autres The Jesus and Mary Chain), mais s’inspire aussi de la dream pop, en plus de puiser dans le rock psychédélique des années 60 pour créer une musique plus atmosphérique que lourde, et ce même si on reste dans un registre pop, avec des mélodies bien dessinées, entonnées avec une voix qui se démarque par son caractère éthéré.” - Bruno Coulombe, Camuz
Download We Are All Boo’s – A Tribute to The Boo Radleys - Creation Records
Que de bonnes pistes qui s’enchaînent encore et encore. - Le Draveur
A true buffet of effects, as illustrated by guitarist Max’s monstrous pedal rack. And it sounded great! - Bucket List Music Review
Hailing from Montreal, Canada, The City Gates are making a name for themselves with their dynamic to reflective hybrid post-punk and shoegaze sound heavy on reverb, fuzz, and delay. Their sonic drive springs from the alternative music scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s (think The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Chameleons, The Sisters of Mercy, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine).
Their most recent album, Forever Orbiter, was released in April of this year via Northern Light Records to great critical and fan acclaim. - Rebel Noise
The City Gates - Forever Orbiter - The Blog that Celebrates Itself
The City Gates- Forever Orbiter - Shoegazer Alive
The City Gates - Forever Orbiter - Désordres sonores
The City Gates – Forever Orbiter : Un des groupes shoegaze à surveriller dans les prochaines années! Pour les fans de My Bloody Valentine et Slowdive - Jean-Francois Rioux (CISM 89,3 FM)
Our Spotify playlist featuring 50 tracks that we think stood out in 2018. Enjoy!
4. The City Gates - Forever Orbiter - From Pop 2 Top: Best of 2018
2. The City Gates - Forever Orbiter - Mathieu LeBon Boutin – Cactus Blues (CISM 89,3 FM)
Hailing from Montreal, Canada, The City Gates are “an indie rock band inspired by the 80’s & 90’s shoegaze, post-punk and dream pop scene. The four-piece creates haunting guitars, eclectic and ethereal sound.” - Noise Artists
London” is a lovely ‘dark and dreamy’ tune that radiates out a music charm that Cure fans will love, but it resonates so much more with post-punk snarling vocals, shoegazing exceptional riff smashing and swirling deliciousness and snappy rhythm kick. A vast atmospheric rock music masterpiece! - Forkster
Montreal band The City Gates have released a new video for their song ‘Sad Sad Surf’ that forges widescreen, reverb-drenched atmospheres infused with sighing laments, its the sound of looking at the horizon and pondering on past regrets, the outros final few minutes that echo early My Bloody Valentine, are a thing of crushing majesty. - God is on the TV
Discography
Forever Orbiter: Full-length album, released on April 27th via Northen Light Records (available on vinyl, cassette, CD, digitall).
All songs written by The City Gates
Mixed and produced by The City Gates
Checkpoint Charlie, London mixed and produced by The City Gates and Gautier Marinof
Dead Calm produced and mixed by The City Gates and Chris Cline
Additional keys on Dead Calm by Chris Cline
Additional vocals on Echo Radio by Krissy Vanderwoude
Mastered by Harrris Newman at Grey Market Mastering
Artwork: Richard Pyra
Checkpoint Charlie: Sold Out Limited Edition Cassette Ep (September 2017)
Maddening Ride: (Digital released single, April 2016, produced by The City Gates, Mastered by Harris Newman, Grey Market Studio)
Checkpoint Charlie: (Digital released single, November 2015, produced by The City Gates & Gautier Marinof, masterised by Harris Newman at Grey Market Studio
Collapse: Full length album, released on June 16th 2013. Available on CD and digital
-Recorded at Studios Piccolo between May and June 2012.
-Produced by The City Gates & Gautier Marinof
-Mastering by Marc Theriault at Le Lab Mastering
Second Ep; 2011 (independent)
Out of print
First Ep; 2009 (independent)
Out of print
Photos
Bio
Hailing from Montreal, Canada, The City Gates are making a name for themselves with their dynamic hybrid of post-punk and shoegaze sounds that heap on the reverb, fuzz, and delay. Their sonic drive springs from the alternative music scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s (ex- The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Chameleons, The Sisters of Mercy, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine)” – Jen Dan, Rebel Noise. The band can be described as a modern answer to Phil Spector’s infamous “Wall Of Sound”: intense, powerful, melodic, moody, textured, and raw.
Their most recent album, Forever Orbiter, was released in April 2018 via Northern Light Records to great critical and fan acclaim. Brett Miller from Somewherecold magazine genuinely described the LP as “a gorgeous mix of melancholy and euphoria as heard on the Joy Division-inspired ‘Echo Radio’, complete with Max Wingender’s throaty Ian Curtis-like delivery, ‘Checkpoint Charlie’s impending storm of distant vocals and textured guitars, and the upbeat tempo of ‘Sad Sad Surf’ that builds slowly, drawing you in until the shimmering guitars blast away the grey clouds to reveal a warm sunny day.” Forever Orbiter premiered at The Big Takeover Magazine and in-the know shoegaze and post-punk sites/blogs, like Echoes & Dust, Somewherecold, The Blog That Celebrates Itself and Drowned in Sound featured the band and their music. The opus also featured on several top albums of 2018 charts, and both singles Checkpoint Charlie and London were named “Big Shinny Tune of the Week” on the legendary Canadian CHOM.FM radio station. The opus includes some special features from Krissy Vanderwoude (Whimsical) and sound engineer Chris Cline, who has already worked with Explosions in the Sky,The Foreign Resort and And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. In April 2019, The City Gates released their new track Cape of Good Hope on the Northern Noise Vol. I compilation via Max Wingender's new DIY label Velouria Recordz.
On the live front, The City Gates have opened for the iconic French coldwave band Trisomie 21, and shared stages with notable acts like NOTHING, Actors, Blushing, Acid Dad, Heaters, shoegazer veterans The Veldt, The Stargazer Lilies, The Foreign Resort, Bootblacks,Trade Wind and more. They have also toured Canada, U.S.A. and the U.K., including playing a showcase gig at the Focus Wales Festival, in association with Pop Montreal and the Délégation générale du Québec à Londres, and live sessions at BBC Wales’s studios and at CHOM.fm studios. TCG played the Indie Week, the Canadian Music Week and the Kalamashoegazer festivals. The band is well known for their amazing live performances that truly exemplify their driving and contagious live energy, along with their epically massive searing guitar soundscapes.
Band Members
Links
