I’ve frequently featured Winnipeg’s Efflo on this blog in the past. I had vague hopes that one day they would get big and I could be that obnoxious git who brags about liking them before they were cool. Sadly, the news has recently come down that the band has broken up.

This wasn’t entirely unexpected, as they had been silent on social media for a long time, but it’s sad all the same. I’ve adored pretty much everything they put out, and I was looking forward to seeing how they’d continue to evolve.

In theory the singer, Sayde Cage, has plans to launch a solo career, but so far there’s no movement on that front.

I wanted to feature them one more (last?) time, but even that proved harder than expected, as most of their music is no longer on YouTube. Aside from a few songs I’d already featured, all I could find was a few acoustic performances from the early days when they were still called SC Mira and didn’t yet have the line-up they’d have for most of the time I followed them.

Still a good song, at least.

My initial impression of Chvrches’ fourth album was a little lukewarm, but overtime it has grown on me. I still wouldn’t rank it in the same category as Love Is Dead or The Bones of What You Believe (which I’d rate as “masterpieces”), but I have developed an appreciation for its brooding flavour. Seeing the songs performed live helped a lot — they work much better in a darkened club.

While Lauren says Screen Violence was not intended as a “horror concept album,” it does have a decidedly spooky bent, so going back to it felt like the perfect choice for October.