I can remember with perfect clarity the moment when New York based Canadian Foxes in Fiction won me over. It was, during a tragically short set during Portals’ and Stadiums & Shrines’ CMJ showcase back in 2012, when Warren Hildebrand busted out his alternate Alberto version of “Fifteen Ativan”. Normally one for atmospherics and tendency to focus on the dreamier part of dream-pop it appealed to the pop lover in me. It was astonishingly straight forward and while there were few songs like it, it was the hook I needed to really dig in to the rest of the Foxes in Fiction catalog.
The appeal of “Glow (v079)” is essentially similar to that of my visceral infatuation with “Fifteen Ativan” in that it is perhaps the most accessible of Ontario Gothic‘s 7 tracks. While others of the album’s tracks might require you to be in a particular mood or mental state to repetitively enjoy them, “Glow” is track for whenever that manages to combine Warren Hildebrand’s ethereal aesthetic with that of a quietly surging flood. Crafted from a sample of Wonder Bear’s “V079″, Foxes in Fiction manages to transform it from the sparse introspection to a glittering pop gem. It’s a slow build, delicately unfolding but in its untamed moments hits with the intensity of sudden downpour. Hildebrand essentially slips into full on producer mode – giving in completely to his more electronic leanings (Ontario Gothic for the most part eschews many of these past experimentations for a much more organic manipulation of sound). In the context of the album it hits like a mack truck though it’s a rather restrained bit of brilliant songcraft.
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