The Hope Slide is a Canadian band formed in 2008 in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. The Hope Slide is named after the Hope Slide, a rock slide that occurred early in the morning of January 9, 1965.

History

The Hope Slide's self-titled debut album, released September 28, 2010 on Submerged Records, is something of a concept album befitting the band’s chosen name. The songs deal with disasters and upheavals of all kinds, including the ill-fated Franklin Expedition ("Passage"), the

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The ...

of 1911 ("In Ashe"), the

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster On January 28, 1986, the broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39a.m. Eastern Time Zone, EST (1 ...

, and the impact of the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

on the surrounding ecosystem ("

Red Forest The Red Forest ( uk, Рудий ліс, , ) is the area surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant within the Exclusion Zone, located in Polesia. The name "Red Forest" comes from the ginger-brown colour of the pine trees after they died follo ...

"). "In Ashe" was inspired by a landmark event in the history of workers’ rights, "Parish" confronts the U.S. government's failed response to

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

, and "Topple the Sky" deals with the

2009–2010 Iranian election protests After incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, protests broke out in major cities across Iran in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The protests con ...

. Writing in the ''Brock Press'', Marshal Hignett described ''The Hope Slide'' as "an astounding debut release which is bound to have a tremendous impact on the Canadian electronic scene in the future." The British blog indie-mp3.co.uk noted that the duo's music is "not shoegaze in it’s classic sense but is more in line with the ambient electrical stuff put out by the likes of M83 and Ulrich Schnauss." SlowdiveMusic Blog called the album "a journey through grandiose soundscapes, overwhelming undertows, and brilliant craftsmanship", declaring it "the dreampop/shoegaze monument of the year". The Hope Slide's members, Michaela Galloway (vocals, Moog) and John Lucas (guitar, bass, keyboards, beats), were formerly in

Hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...

, a band that, through its eight-year, three-album run, consistently made the Canadian college-radio charts, performed all over the country (including on a nationally broadcast TV show), and generally built a cult following. Whereas Hinterland was a five-piece rock band, however, the Hope Slide leans more toward the electronic end of things, albeit with all the moody dream-pop atmospherics for which Lucas and Galloway are known. On October 19, 2010, Submerged Records released ''The Hope Slide Remixed'', a free five-song EP, featuring remixes by Vigestol (aka Geoff Nilson, formerly of Way to Go, Einstein), the Ludvico Treatment, Area Man, Sinewave, and Killsaly.

Members

*Michaela Galloway: vocals,

Moog Little Phatty The Little Phatty is a monophonic analog synthesizer manufactured by Moog Music from 2006 to 2013, preceded by the Voyager and succeeded by Voyager Old School. Its design was conceived, in part, by Robert Moog himself, and is the last instrument ...

*John Lucas: guitar, bass, keyboards, beats

Discography

* ''The Hope Slide'' (2010) * ''The Hope Slide Remixed'' (five-song EP, 2010)

References

External links

The Hope Slide
at Submerged Records {{DEFAULTSORT:Hope Slide Musical groups established in 2008 Musical groups from Vancouver Canadian indie pop groups Canadian dream pop musical groups Canadian shoegaze musical groups Electronica music groups 2008 establishments in British Columbia