The Dearly Bereft
Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2015 | SELF
Music
Press
The Dearly Bereft have put together a great piece of laid-back, beautiful art. Funeral Music, while dark and haunting, and sometimes completely terrifying, is a unique collection of music. Made up of pieces of several long standing bands from the Peel Region, the band really came together with a hard hitting record. From Laura Palmer, taking musical cues and title from the murder-mystery show Twin Peaks, to the ambient-folk of Some Devil, the Afghan Whigs-meets-country of Radio In The Funeral Parlour, and the rock-out finale of So It Goes, this record was short, sweet, and not a moment of filler to be found. I really loved these 7 songs, and can’t wait to see what’s still to come. December 27th, come out for a holiday matinee show at The Central, starts at 1pm sharp. - The Deli Magazine
By: Jenna Melanson
Album – Funeral Music
Release Date – November 13, 2015
Download Link – http://thedearlybereft.bandcamp.com/releases
Genre – Alt Ambient Rock
Toronto, ON based band, The Dearly Bereft is made up of five members; Ben VanBurskirk, Anna Navrota, Mike Millar, Shane Burrow and Cyrus Bapooji. The band released their debut album entitled “Funeral Music” on November 13, 2015. The album features seven tracks and it is said that the unifying factor of the songs on the album is that it’s bent towards staring morality down and accepting it.
I can’t put my finger on a specific genre that the band fits into, as some of the songs seem to have a very ambient rock feel, while others give off a punk vibe, and even some folk sounds in the mix. “Some Devil” is my favourite on the album. It evokes a calming vibe and mixes various genres. I found myself singing along with this song after one listen through.
The final song on the album, “So It Goes” is the other that stood out to me. It is more upbeat and I enjoyed the song as a whole. The chorus features these uplifting lyrics, “We’re still alive, so let’s make some noise for us.” It really has an anthem feel to it, and I could see that this would be a great song performed live.
Connect with The Dearly Bereft:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedearlybereft
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedearlybereft - Canadianbeats.ca
The Dearly Bereft – Funeral Music
9/10
Have you ever had the chance to play under a weeping willow tree? Swing from the low hanging branches or just to use the tree as shade and get away from the hot summers sun. Maybe even as a child you liked to climb up the tree or you just liked witnessing the sheer immensity and beauty of its size; leaves swaying in the wind with all its elegance. If you have, then you might understand the feeling I got while listening to the album, Funeral Music, released November 13th, 2015 by the Toronto band, The Dearly Bereft.
The vocalists, Ben VanBuskirk, Mike Millar and Anna Navrotta, the drummer, Shane Burrow, and the keyboardist, Cyrus Bapooji, all welcome you into their world of dark rock with the track, “Laura Palmer.” It’s a subtle introduction to an album filled with bold and blissfully written songs. “Some Devil” brings out more of what the band is capable of with the backing vocals kicking in a similar style to how The Dears do it. The passionate tune gets you feeling more alive than you are used to.
By the time the track, “Dig A Grave,” comes on you are ready to grab that weeping willow branch and go for a full on Tarzan swing into the great unknown. That, or hang yourself from it; it all depends on your mood and what you like really. It’s a dark, beautiful, and emotional track. Recording quality and production for that track is on point too; it sounds professional. Lyrics like, “Give yourself to me,” “Dig a grave for me,” and “Have a drink for me,” set the mood perfectly for you to bury yourself with a bottle of red wine in the company of only your fine self. It is then that, “Radio in the Funeral Parlour,” a country-twanged song comes on, and you suddenly feel the need to call your best friend on the phone to invite them over for a glass of that wine and share the listen of this album over and over.
There is so much to love about this band and album that if I haven’t convinced you yet, you’re probably the corpse at the funeral The Dearly Bereft are singing about. - bucketlistmusicreviews.com
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
The Dearly Bereft
Everyone’s heard of wedding bands, but as far as Google can tell, The Dearly Bereft are Toronto’s first funeral band. “We joke that we tried to hire ourselves out as funeral entertainment,” the band jokes, “but there were no takers, so we decided to make a record instead.”
Morbid humor aside, this is not far from the truth. Ben VanBuskirk and Mike Millar first conceived of this project when they played Ben’s father’s funeral. Working as both a tribute to Randy VanBuskirk and a way to work through the grief and confusion that comes after a loss, they started writing songs almost immediately, Not that this was a new arrangement.
The duo have been playing as one half of The Dank in Toronto for the better part of a decade. But where their previous band was known for their sonic assault and feedback-laden live shows, this new project is decidedly more atmospheric. “We started as pretty much an acoustic duo, “ says Ben, “but immediately we knew my voice wasn’t going to do the material justice.” And they knew the skeletal songs could go in a number of directions.
Enter Anna Navrota (vocals), Shane Burrow (drums), and Cyrus Bapooji (keyboards). The bands came together as friends and peers, having played (and drank) together for years through their other projects, many and varied. With a pedigree including members of Revolution Love, BingeNinja, Hormoans, et al, there’s no denying the talent on tap, there could be no doubt that the results would be interesting, to put it mildly. The twist? Each member has taken on a new instrument for the band.
After a quick warm up show, the band immediately went into the studio with local hero Shawn Hook-Carleton (Starship Experience, The John Holmes Book Club) behind the board. The band describes the atmosphere that came out of those sessions as “pure black magic.”
“The idea was to do something really droney and shoegazey,” states Burrow, “and there are still definitely elements of that, but once we started laying down tracks it turned into a very song-oriented pop record.”
By turns dreamy, melancholy, and joyous, Funeral Music is an album in an age where few artists think in long form. It’s also not an easy listen. Jumping from trip-hop to blues to folk-punk, the unifying factor is a bent towards staring mortality down and accepting it. But the message, as summed up in the album’s Vonnegut-referencing final track, “So It Goes”, is one of living in the moment. “We’re still alive,” the chorus goes, “so let’s make some noise for us.”
The Dearly Bereft have certainly done that.
The Dearly Bereft-Funeral Music is available November 13th through iTunes, Amazon, HMV, and Bandcamp.
Band Members
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