The Luyas

"The Luyas are really unlike anything else going right now. They almost defy easy description. The closest I came up with was "Joanna Newsom fronting Mercury Rev" which at least gets you near the right ballpark. Singer (and member of Miracle Fortress when Graham isn't playing solo) Jessie Stein's voice has a child-like quality to it, and the band can go from intimate to epic and joyous within a song." - Bill Pearis - Brooklyn Vegan

Translation:
With a voice who's sensuality could wake the libido of a dead Pope, pieces that are as turbulent as they are spacious, suspended in a ravishing gracefulness, softly experimental and quick to become obsessive fascination, reminding us sometimes of Icelandic naturalists MUM: we are dreaming big dreams for Montreal's the Luyas.
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from the french:

Une voix dont la sensualité réveillerait la libido d’un Pape éteint, des morceaux aussi tordus que spacieux, suspendus dans une grâce ravissante, doucement expérimentaux et très rapidement obsédants, rappelant parfois dans leurs détours magiques les recherches naturalistes des Islandais Mum : on parie beaucoup de rêves éveillés sur les montréalais The Luyas.
- Les Inrockuptibles

The second night of M For Montreal featured a half-dozen artists from across the country in the nearby Juste Pour Rire. It’s always interesting watching groups perform who realize someone in the room could create a career-defining opportunity for them if they can just make a connection. This didn’t phase the showcasing artists last night. The Luyas walked away as my personal favorite new band I’ve never heard of before this week and it was great to finally see You Say Party! We Say Die! perform an intense live set, as their visa problems (the immigration kind, not the credit kind) have kept them out of the States for the better part of their existence. - CMJ

The Luyas
Faker Death
By Pras Rajagopalan

There has already been much print love lavished on the still-nascent Luyas, a product of the ever-percolating Montreal scene. This of course, may have something to do with the pedigree of the group’s members: Pietro Amato (Bell Orchestre, Torngat, part-time Arcade Fire associate), Stefan Schneider (Bell Orchestre) and Jessie Stein (SS Cardiacs, Miracle Fortress). Their first record, Faker Death, is appropriately titled; it’s a loosely strung together collection of imagined death wishes after the breakdown of a relationship. But it isn’t a break-up record — it acts more as a release for Stein, which she delivers in oblique, pretty poetry, with her equally pretty, snaking voice. Schneider and Amato, meanwhile, work well off Stein’s bare-bones guitar, confidently moving from blustering horns and percussion passages to subtle, ebbing accents. Of course, Stein remains the centrepiece, largely due to the real conviction in her mumbled daydream voice. It’s easy to see why music scribes are getting hot and bothered about this trio so early on; it’s because of the promise that they show. More time spent in the practice space and on tour should reveal fascinating results on their next effort. (Independent) - Exclaim!