vitaminsforyou

Witness the evolution of Bryce Kushnier, a.k.a. Vitaminsforyou, as he further sheds his processed past in favour of a plate that offers us the best of both worlds - the acoustic and the electronic. His voice leads the charge here, prevalent throughout, backed by an array of instruments (from choirs to handclaps to strings to flutes to vibes), and beats programmed and live. This is much more an examination and expansion of a new pop sound as interpreted by this electro generation, the two strands rendered completely harmonious. - Ottawa Express

It’s a shame that Winnipegger Bryce Kushnier (aka Vitaminsforyou) won’t get the recognition fellow natives Joni Mitchell or Neil Young have received–because he shares the same lyrical and musical understanding of our land as they do, although in a new and different way. Folkies, techheads, and hip-hoppers should open up to the fusions and effort of this beautiful document (The Legend of Bird’s Hill) of prairie livin’ that’s more relevant to our times than old NFB films. - See Magazine

Go big, and bring the bug repellent. Bryce Kushnier's epic tribute to Bird's Hill, a park north of Winnipeg, is as wide and varied as a crowd swarming the semi-groomed wilderness on Canada Day. Field recordings and multitrack extravaganzas flow easily into claustrophobic electronic studies and sections of orderly mayhem that might have put a smile on the face of Charles Ives - Globe and Mail

vitaminsforyou’s ability to mix addictive beats with accessible melodies only guarantees that they'll get the crowd hopping - MUCH Music

It doesn't always pay to be first. Bill Haley might have ushered in rock 'n' roll's enduring stranglehold on the pop charts, but a receding hairline kept him from being all powerful.

Afrika Bambaataa was rapping long before Grandmaster Flash and Deborah Harry, but was far less non-threatening. And the fabulously disastrous Damned, first off the floor in England's punk-rock dream, are today remembered as mere also-rans.

Ah, but time heals most. In recent years, Haley has been celebrated for his early country-and-western swing platters. Bambaataa is hailed as the godfather of hip-hop, and The Damned, well, despite numerous "comebacks," The Damned are as ever mere also-rans. But legendary ones.

Ten years ago, Winnipegger Bryce Kushnier began fusing influences from psychedelia to electronica to acoustic folk into an infectious blend distilled through his home-computer. His lo-fi VitaminsForYou recordings, however, would not reach the masses for another five years, by which time "lo-fi bedroom electronics" had become a bona fide genre. And competition had become fierce.

"I don't want to toot my own horn, but I was there at the beginning of that crossover," Kushnier says. "There were others, but I was there.

"It seemed obvious; an outgrowth of the fact that I had these songs and I couldn't play with bands all the time. It was just easier to do it myself at home."

His 2003 album I Am Sorry For Ever and For Always was followed by an equally stunning 2006 collection, Legend of Bird's Hill, and by a growing fan base that includes collaborators such as Do Make Say Think and Emm Gryner. And as he brings a bare-bones backing band on the road with him, Kushnier is poised to release a third, much-anticipated album.

"It's not a prolific pace," Kushnier concedes. "But it's all about wanting to make sure it's right the first time." - Sun Media

This is my current favourite electronica-album and stays close to my CD-player at all times. It is so soft and warm and emotional, yet also progressive and innovative, full of beautiful melodies and impeccable sounds and structures. Like waves of a warm sea washing over you, with gentle beats and creative sounds and samples. Vitamins For You might has managed to produce the first electronic “emo-“album ever. It is hard to believe it is a debut. From the same Canadian label that brought us my favourite hip-hop-CD of right now by Ghislain Poirier.
From the first gentle electronic sounds and the voice sample to the last meandering beat and subtle crackle, “I’m sorry for ever and for always” will leave you on the edge of your couch, listening closely to the sounds of sorrow and heartbrokenness, poured into tiny but crisp speckles of music that will warm you like soft blanket on a cold night. Thankfully we have reached a time and age in which electronic music and acoustic guitars aren’t excluding each other any more. Because melodies and plucked guitars add a lot of sensibility and even sensuality to these warm and gentle electronic beats. Maybe electronic artists have been deconstructing and destructing music so much in the last years, that they have started to come back out in the other side. I know, artists on all corners of the world are working on this project together unknowingly, but Vitaminsforyou is different in more than just one aspect.

Next to the warmth and emotionality of his music, what you’ll next realise is the complex and intricate layers of sounds, beats, samples, melodies and harmonies and maybe even some effects to startle the concentration of the listener, which have been placed over one another to achieve a full and constantly satisfying production. If you read a lot of record reviews, here is a sentence you have already heard a lot: with every listening you’ll discover something new. This time around it is true. A hidden vocal sample here (e.g. in the end of “ecologie+histoire pt.3), a vocoder-effect there (e.g. in the beginning of “annie & nicki”), water trickling here (e.g. in the middle of “annie & nicki”) or a hidden frequency-mixup there (e.g. in the middle of “theme degigi”) and so on. The last one might not be intended as such, though, and only a result of my stereo-rack. Anyway, if you listen long enough to “I’m sorry for ever…” it will make The Notwist sound superficial. Can you believe that?

I guess that Vitaminsforyou works hard and long on the dynamics of his songs. And they are definitely songs. Unlike most electronic music, which produce tracks or even numbers, this album is a collection of proper songs. Some of them take their time to grow out of their electronic basis, such as “losing everything”, which features mainly echoy clicks’n’cuts during the first two minutes, until an reversed organ sets in and some whispered vocals add more and more to the atmosphere of standing in a dark cave, alone but not afraid or freezing. Very much like life, you are alone most of the time and even when you dare to raise your voice, it is not more than a whisper in the surrounding noise. But even in a song like that and with sounds like these (reversed organ!) Vitaminsforyou manages to start a melody that will stick in your head for quite some time. It takes him over four minutes to bring up a beat that deserves the name – a dark and muffled bass-sound that beats and pounds more like random fingertapping recorded with a contact-mic than something out of a drumbox. But who wants to know, how things get done, when the magic is not in the how but the what? Until the end of the song Vitaminsforyou has turned the whole thing around – all ingredients like the beats the noises the vocals or the harmonies remain, but their balance has changed so much, it feels as if you are listening to a completely different song. And maybe you are.

By the time the album has reached track #8, you will be completely lost in its fascination. But the Nick Drake-propelled-into-the-21st-century “Quand peanut fait jodo” is, to me, one of the definite highlights of this CD. Or rather, the highlight of the highlights. There is a laid-back-melody, an eighties-clapping sound, a rhythm consisting mainly marimbas interspersed with crackles, water-samples and strange sounds. It is not even a real song and over faster than most other tracks, but the subtle Latin influences make me wish it was summer again and me relaxing on a beach or at least a longer remix of that track maybe by the Thievery Corporation. But don’t get me wrong, this is still far from lounge-music. The next track starts off only with a few noises, crackles, claps, tics or whatever for about one hundred seconds before sounds break in-between the subtle rhythmical structures. And another 140 seconds before the singing sets in, and by then you have sunken so deep into the music, that the oncoming melody is like pure bliss.

Warm, emotional, subtle, fu - monochrom

"Both a product of Winnipeg's rich experimental electronic music community and its uncompromising indie-rock scene, Bryce Kushnier under the guise of vitaminsforyou has been creating music for all contexts since 1998. His unique sing-along sound might evoke whispers of the Postal Service, Manitoba/Caribou, or Schneider TM, but 99% of listeners agree that they've never heard anything resembling his shy plundering of pop, psychedelia, fey techno, and folk. The Legend of Bird's Hill is his most intricate and dizzying work yet and a nod to one Manitoba's most beautiful, diverse and inspiring parks just minutes north of the Winnipeg perimeter. Featuring contributions from Ghislain Poirier, Emm Gryner, his occasional band the Wednesday Afternoon Players, and other members of the Canadian music landscape, this album dives deeper into the psychedelic waters Vitaminsforyou has been testing for some time. Carrying over are the lush arrangements, shy vocals, and intoxicating melodies that make Vitaminsforyou a unique and indispensable element of Canadian music." - DotShop

Straight from Winnipeg's experimental electronic scene, vitaminsforyou has been developing sound and music for theatre, dance, film, video, animation and prose across Canada working with artists in a variety of genres from electro acoustic sound designers to some of Canadas darling pop practitioners. Recent performances include an invitation to play at Mexico
Citys Mutek Festival, Toronto's Canadian Electronic Ensembles Festival and the Deep Wireless Festival, Montreal's Mutek Festival, Saskatoon's Digidome Festival of contemporary sound, music, and digital video, Vancouver's New Forms Festival, and Winnipeg's Send and Receive Festival.

vitaminsforyou has also opened for such acts as The Beans from Vancouver, Spookey Ruben from Toronto, Kepler from Ottawa, My Education from Texas, Tim Hecker from Ottawa, Mitchell Akiyama from Montreal, SND from England, coingutter from Vancouver, The Notwist from Germany, Ghislain Poirier from Montreal, Schneider TM from Germany, Mendoza from Mexico, Holzkopf from Saskatoon, and duul_drv from Winnipeg.

"It's Always Raining in Dublin" features vocals by Emm Gryner. "Luxury and Hope" features vocals by Mike "Snailhouse" Feuerstack - Observatory Online