''Feel It Break'' is the debut studio album by Canadian

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

band

Austra Austra is an island on the border between Trøndelag and Nordland counties in Norway. The island is shared between the municipalities of Bindal, Leka, and Nærøysund. The highest point is the Romsskåla. The village of Årset lies on the ...

. It was released on May 13, 2011, by

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also ca ...

. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented its production and the vocals of lead singer

Katie Stelmanis Kaitlin "Katie" Austra Stelmanis ( lv, Keitlīna "Keitija" Austra Štēlmane, born 1985) is a Toronto-based Latvian Canadian musician, who has performed and recorded both as a solo artist and with the bands Galaxy and Austra. Stelmanis identifies ...

and compared the band to artists such as

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

Cocteau Twins Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrum ...

Fever Ray Karin Elisabeth Dreijer (born 7 April 1975) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer. Dreijer was one half of the electronic music duo the Knife, formed with their brother Olof Dreijer. Dreijer released their debut solo album under ...

Zola Jesus Nika Roza Danilova (born Nicole Rose Hummel; April 11, 1989), known professionally by her stage name Zola Jesus, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her music has been noted for combining elements of electronic, industrial, ...

, and

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...

. It was shortlisted for the

2011 Polaris Music Prize The 2011 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 19, 2011

, and received a

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

nomination for Electronic Album of the Year. ''Feel It Break'' spawned three singles: "Beat and the Pulse", "Lose It", and "Spellwork". A deluxe edition was released digitally on November 29, 2011, followed by a double CD edition on December 13, 2011, limited to 1,000 copies. Additional tracks include the "Beat and the Pulse" B-sides "Young and Gay" (written by Stelmanis as a tribute to the late Toronto artist and activist

Will Munro William Grant Munro (February 11, 1975 – May 21, 2010) was a Toronto artist, club promoter, and restaurateur known for his work as a community builder among disparate Toronto groups.Whyte, Murray (August 5, 2010).Will Munro: Force of culture: ...

) and "Energy"; the "Spellwork" B-side "Identity"; the unreleased B-sides "Believe Me", "Trip", and "Pianix"; cover versions of

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

's "

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

" (a B-side to "Lose It") and

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as ...

's "

Crying Crying is the dropping of tears (or welling of tears in the eyes) in response to an emotional state, or pain. Emotions that can lead to crying include sadness, anger, and even happiness. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretom ...

"; and a remix of "Beat and the Pulse" by

Shawn "Clown" Crahan Michael Shawn Crahan (born September 24, 1969), more commonly known by his stage persona "Clown", is an American musician. He is the co-founder and one of two percussionists for heavy metal band Slipknot in which he is designated #6. Crahan he ...

of Slipknot.

Singles

"Beat and the Pulse" was released as the album's lead single on November 16, 2010. An accompanying music video was released three months later. Directed by Claire Edmondson, the video shows singer Katie Stelmanis in a room surrounded by scantily clad women dancing in a suggestive manner. The second single from the album, "Lose It", was released on May 9, 2011, a week before the album. A video for the single was released on May 4. The video shows the band posing around on a living room set dressed in different costumes. At one point, Stelmanis looks out a window and sees a missile frozen in mid-air. The video was directed by M Blash. "Spellwork" was released as the third and final single on September 5, 2011. A music video was released on YouTube four months later. The music video, directed by Yelena Yemchuk, shows the band portraying mysterious figures wandering through a forest while a group of women engage in rituals reminiscent of the opening scenes of

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...

's ''

The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as a ...

''.

Critical reception

''Feel It Break'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 75, based on 24 reviews. Heather Phares of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote that Stelmanis "shar sthe aloof beauty of

Glasser Glasser is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert Glasser (1916–1998), American composer of film scores * Arthur Glasser (1914–2009), American missiologist and missionary * Bernard Glasser (1924–2014), American film prod ...

Esben and the Witch Esben and the Witch (Danish language: ''Esben og Troldheksen'') is a Danish fairy tale first collected by Jens Kamp.Kamp, Jens. ''Danske Folkeminder, æventyr, Folkesagn, Gaader, Rim Og Folketro''. Odense: R. Nielsen, 1877. pp. 93-102. Andrew La ...

, and

. Unlike some of the band's peers, however, there's a humanity to Stelmanis' vocals that, even when distorted, keeps ''Feel It Break''s songs from feeling too remote", concluding that "Austra carve out a place of their own among their contemporaries." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''s Michael Hann agreed, stating that although the band "have been lumped in with the

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

- gothisms" of Zola Jesus and Fever Ray, "there's a cleanliness and sharpness about

ustra Ustra ( bg, Устра) is a fortress in the eastern Rhodope Mountains in southern Bulgaria. Its ruins lie southwest of the village of Ustren situated on a hill at approximately above sea level. Similarly, Benjamin Boles of ''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

'' commented that the band's "dark

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

production and soaring vocals are often compared to acts like Fever Ray and Zola Jesus, but ..Stelmanis brings a more musical sensibility to the formula, even if it's still miles away from mainstream pop", praising the album as an "extremely strong debut". Charlie Frame of '' Clash'' expressed, "The songwriting and production are strong throughout and often Stelmanis acquires a surprisingly rich amount of warmth from her dramatically sweeping sound that's rarely heard in this scene." ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

''s Tom Breihan commented that Austra "play a warm, hazy sort of electro-goth" and added that "Austra's synth

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...

s don't pound or undulate; they flutter and envelop. And Stelmanis doesn't sing over the top of their tracks; she emits sound from somewhere in the thick of it." Andy Beta of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' opined that the band's "seedy

synth pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

more often recalls

's dramatic art songs and the Knife's ghostly

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

-pop ..But from surging,

operatic Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

opener 'Darken Her Horse' to closing

piano ballad A ballade (from French ''ballade'', , and German ''Ballade'', , both being words for "ballad"), in classical music since the late 18th century, refers to a setting of a literary ballad, a narrative poem, in the musical tradition of the , or to a on ...

'Lose It', Stelmanis' voice and vision are mostly her own." ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

''s Paul Schrodt noted that the album "combines the atmospherics of darker new wave with a thumping,

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...

-type beat. It's big in scope, but clean in sound. Every detail of the production feels carefully thought out." In a mixed review, Laura Snapes of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' commended the album's first half, but felt that the second half does not "quite itsuch ecstatic peaks", adding that "although Katie's piano skills are impressive, final song 'The Beast' is too stripped back and literal, erring a ''teensy bit'' on

Evanescence Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer and musician Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording independent EPs as a duo in the late 90's, and a demo CD, Evanescence released their debut s ...

balladry." Arnold Pan of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' called the album "promising" and characterized Stelmanis' "eccentric" voice as " ique and resembling nothing except itself", but remarked that "''Feel It Break'' as a whole is a little uneven because Austra still seems to be looking to strike the right balance between its different parts."

Accolades

''Feel It Break'' was shortlisted for the

2011 Polaris Music Prize The 2011 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 19, 2011

, but lost out to

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member S ...

's ''

The Suburbs ''The Suburbs'' is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on August 2, 2010. Coinciding with its announcement, the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing the title track and "Month of May".

''. It was also nominated for Electronic Album of the Year at the

Juno Awards of 2012 The Juno Awards of 2012 honoured Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2010 and in most of 2011. The awards were presented in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada during the weekend of 31 March and 1 April 2012. A week of related events be ...

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Feel It Break''.

Austra

* Maya Postepski * Dorian Wolf

Additional musicians

* Anna-Sophia Vukovitch – violin * Anissa Hart – cello * Ewan Kay – trombone * Carmen Elle – guitar

Technical

* Jeremy Darby – piano recording * Damian Taylor – additional recording ;

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...

harmonization, level balance, tone mixing *

– production * Mike Haliechuk – co-production * Joe Lambert – mastering

Artwork

* Kate Young – photo art * Rob Carmichael – design

Charts

Release history

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2011 debut albums Austra (band) albums Domino Recording Company albums Paper Bag Records albums