A sprawling, groove-heavy collision of blistering horn lines, meditative melodies, and the emotional messiness of being human.
Lethbridge, Alberta’s Midnight Channel aren’t just playing jazz—they’re reimagining it, tearing it apart, and letting the pieces orbit through time, memory, and love. Their new album, Alien Love Songs, is a sprawling, groove-heavy collision of blistering horn lines, meditative melodies, and the emotional messiness of being human. Featuring the monstrous, mystifying focus track “Shelly,” the record explores romantic, platonic, spiritual, and self-love as well as the aching absence of it. It’s as inspired by anime and inside jokes as it is by Don Cherry, Makaya McCraven, or Miles Davis’s electric era. The result? A chaotic, transcendent, deeply personal take on the jazz album.
Alien Love Songs was recorded live-off-the-floor in an empty church and later refined at Studio One at the University of Lethbridge. The result is a sonically raw but emotionally rich document of the band’s collective evolution. “We’re lucky to have a community of talented friends and producers who helped us bring this to life,” says drummer Drake McCheyne. “The whole thing felt collaborative, grounded, and real.” As the album explores themes of longing, grief, joy, and disconnection, it never loses its sense of mischief or play. “When we first started playing original music, we’d joke before going on: ‘Ready to scare them?,’” says tenor saxophonist Stuart Dalby. “That attitude actually helped us stay true to what we want from songwriting and performing. It reminds us to focus on what we love, not what other people might think.”
“Shelly” itself emerged from a harmonizer-pedal sax jam that evolved into a shapeshifting freak-jazz anthem – anchored by tribal percussion, howling horns, and an unlikely inspiration: a giant crab-like beast from Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. “This tune kind of became the soundtrack to the first encounter with the creature where three super-soldier type characters take it on in stunning fashion,” says saxophonist Brandon deGorter. “The shots in the chorus kind of become freeze frames characteristic of comic book panels in my mind.” Drummer Drake McCheyne adds: “This tune kept resurfacing – one of those jams we kept circling back to but couldn’t quite land. Brando and Chris (keys) ended up collaborating on it, and that’s when it finally clicked into place. It feels whole now.”
From its circular-breathing sax solo to its deep synth grit, “Shelly” combines natural and synthetic textures with ease. It also features the ngoni – a traditional West African harp – played live and on record by multi-instrumentalist Matt Erdmann. “It just sits so well with the tribal rhythm feel of the tune,” says McCheyne.
Alien Love Songs is full of left turns: dubbed-out noise, samba breakdowns, soft waltzes, layered percussion, surprise samples, and heart. By the time the record ends with “Celebration,” a spiritual anthem that fuses chaos with joy, it’s clear what Midnight Channel is really about: survival through sound. Love through noise. Weirdness as lifeforce.
Alien Love Songs was recorded live-off-the-floor in an empty church and later refined at Studio One at the University of Lethbridge. The result is a sonically raw but emotionally rich document of the band’s collective evolution. “We’re lucky to have a community of talented friends and producers who helped us bring this to life,” says drummer Drake McCheyne. “The whole thing felt collaborative, grounded, and real.” As the album explores themes of longing, grief, joy, and disconnection, it never loses its sense of mischief or play. “When we first started playing original music, we’d joke before going on: ‘Ready to scare them?,’” says tenor saxophonist Stuart Dalby. “That attitude actually helped us stay true to what we want from songwriting and performing. It reminds us to focus on what we love, not what other people might think.”
“Shelly” itself emerged from a harmonizer-pedal sax jam that evolved into a shapeshifting freak-jazz anthem – anchored by tribal percussion, howling horns, and an unlikely inspiration: a giant crab-like beast from Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. “This tune kind of became the soundtrack to the first encounter with the creature where three super-soldier type characters take it on in stunning fashion,” says saxophonist Brandon deGorter. “The shots in the chorus kind of become freeze frames characteristic of comic book panels in my mind.” Drummer Drake McCheyne adds: “This tune kept resurfacing – one of those jams we kept circling back to but couldn’t quite land. Brando and Chris (keys) ended up collaborating on it, and that’s when it finally clicked into place. It feels whole now.”
From its circular-breathing sax solo to its deep synth grit, “Shelly” combines natural and synthetic textures with ease. It also features the ngoni – a traditional West African harp – played live and on record by multi-instrumentalist Matt Erdmann. “It just sits so well with the tribal rhythm feel of the tune,” says McCheyne.
Alien Love Songs is full of left turns: dubbed-out noise, samba breakdowns, soft waltzes, layered percussion, surprise samples, and heart. By the time the record ends with “Celebration,” a spiritual anthem that fuses chaos with joy, it’s clear what Midnight Channel is really about: survival through sound. Love through noise. Weirdness as lifeforce.
