A Song For Friday: fanclubwallet

Hannah Judge's first love song is charming. Also: Hemi Hemingway, Elvis Presley, Marielle V Jakobsons, Anzû Quartet, Beam Splitter, Weston Olencki, Portland Percussion Group, Mariel Roberts Musa, etc.

The evolution of fanclubwallet from a solo project by Hannah Judge, an Ottawa-based singer, songwriter, musician, and producer, into a band became total with last year’s sophomore album, Living While Dying. While it was a “tuneful, mostly upbeat collection,” it’s taken until now for Judge to admit to writing a love song. It’s called Moving Unison (Lauren/Club), and it’s a tender little ditty, too, with a sense of suspension that mimics the bubble-like sensation of when two become one. The way the spare instrumentation of the song moves in unison is clever, too.

The video, directed, filmed, and edited by Judge, is charming. As she notes:

“The song is about me and Miki, so I wanted the video to sort of reflect what our lives are like, our favourite restaurant, favourite board game, etc. But it’s really just supposed to be about how with the right person, a normal night can be the best night ever. Also i’ve seen too many heartbreaking sad queer music videos…this one is just happy…no tragedies.” - Hannah Judge

Watch, listen, rinse, repeat, do all the things.

The lyrics combine observations from the carpool lane and inspiration from the Helping Hands game on Who’s Line Is It Anyway:

If I drive
In the carpool lane
Does that make me any less insane?

I think that we’ve
Got a shared brain
And I wouldn't have it any other way

I wrapped
My arms around you
And I’m your hands now
Move in unison

As if releasing a love song wasn’t brave enough, fanclubwallet is heading out on their first headlining tour. Be brave yourself, and buy a ticket if they’re near your town. I’m hoping to get to the April 2nd show at Elsewhere.

Listen to all the songs for Friday here or below.

Other Recent Releases

Hemi Hemingway - Wings Of Desire (PNKSLM) Moody and sentimental, with a bit of 80s gloss to some of the tracks, Shaun Blackwell’s second LP as Hemi Hemingway may reference Wim Wenders, but would also work a treat in David Lynch’s Bang Bang Bar. Feel free to dance seductively amidst the dark undercurrents and grand gestures. A pop polymath who contributes guitar, bass, piano, keys, synths, percussion, programming, and production to his record, Blackwell’s priorities are clarified by the effective use of background vocalists. Two songs are also duets, with Georgia Nott (AKA Georgia Gets By) and Vera Ellen. He may be singing about being alone, but he doesn’t want to be alone while doing it. And who can blame him?

Elvis Presley - EPIC: Elvis Presley In Concert OST (RCA) While the Baz Luhrmann film was “a stunning series of breathless highlights,” without the visuals, the soundtrack is only partially successful. Killer performances of Tiger Man, Polk Salad Annie, You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, Little Sister/Get Back, and I’ve Never Been To Spain, to name a few, remain utter barnburners. But, except for the kicky fun of A Change Of Reality (Do You Miss Me?), the remixes by Jamieson Shaw are dreadful and slow the momentum. Especially egregious is the remix of Oh, Happy Day, which takes an intimate rehearsal with the backing singers and turns it into a beat-driven mess. A little creative playlist-making will improve matters, but I still wish they had included some of the raw backstage/rehearsal material, which would have added texture in a way the electronically enhanced tracks do not. That said, see the film first, then pick up the pieces of the soundtrack.

Marielle V Jakobsons - The Patterns Lost To Air (Thrill Jockey) A decade ago, I called Jakobsons’ Star Core an “immersive glittering prize of a record” when I included it on the Best Of 2016: Electronic. While there have been “sublime” releases with pedal steel magus Chuck Johnson under the name Saariselka, this is the first album under her own name since Star Core. Long Covid and a reconsideration of her approach to incorporate more composition into her work are certainly part of the story. But art doesn’t happen on a schedule. Moreover, if you’re living in 2026 and seeking a nuanced sense of peace created by overlapping tones and textures, then this rich feast of an album has arrived at exactly the right time.

Anzû Quartet - Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin de temps (Cantaloupe) When I reviewed this superstar quartet’s fantastic debut, I noted, “Their next album will enter a crowded field by taking on Messiaen’s piece, but I’m sure their approach will be special.” While several other attempts at predicting the future have gone awry, I’m happy to say I was not wrong this time. The combined expertise and passion of Olivia De Prato (violin), Ashley Bathgate (cello), Ken Thomson (clarinet), and Karl Larson (piano) have brought a new acuity to both the dynamic range and rhythmic structures of Messiaen’s groundbreaking and intense piece. My only quibble is that they recorded this in 2021, which means we’ve had to wait five years to hear it. I’m glad they had enough confidence in the future to wait this long!

Beam Splitter - Dedicated Play: Live At Morphine Raum (TripTicks) “Play” is the operative word as the duo of Audrey Chen (voice, analog electronics) and
Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø (amplified trombone, analog electronics, sound files) catalyzes new collaborations with a wealth of adventurous musicians, including Elaine Mitchener, whose voice becomes putty in the hands of Mariam Rezaei as she manipulates turntables. That’s just one example among 18 of’em. Listen to them all at once or pick and choose for those times of day when you need a guaranteed escape from the ordinary.

Weston Olencki - Piano Studies (Dinzu Artefacts) One of Olencki’s specialties is to find a completely original perspective on a familiar instrument, whether a trombone or a banjo, and lead you to a new appreciation of its potential as a sound-making object. On the three pieces here, they’re working with a salvaged piano body, which is only part of an instrument, albeit a large one. In their words, they used “free-floating metal preparations and various mallets,” creating an “alternative hammer escapement mechanism to coax a particular inharmonic resonance from its skeleton frame.” The results are a consistently intriguing series of bell-like, serrated, and swirling tones. There are even some parts that sound like a piano. Like David Van Tieghem in his Ear To The Ground video, Olencki can truly make music out of anything. However, the novelty is not the point but rather the emotional echoes the sounds inspire within the listener.

Portland Percussion Group - Patterns & Form (New Focus) If there’s a better example of “moto perpetuo” than the Alejandro Viñao piece that gives this excellent collection its name, I’d like to hear it. With pianist Yoko Greeney joining the octet, the bright noises and sparkling patterns move ever forward for 25 delightful minutes. The recording is gorgeous, too, and the rest of the album, featuring works by Mendel Lee and Daniel Webbon, puts the group’s versatility on full display.

Stephanie Lamprea and Alistair MacDonald - Ecstatic Visions (Neuma) There’s as much Yoko Ono as Hildegard Von Bingen in this wild ride of an album for soprano and electronics. Lamprea and MacDonald fully commit to whatever Angelica Negron, Wende Bartley, Eric Chasalow, and Robert Laidlow dish out. MacDonald’s title piece blends Lamprea’s voice with the bell of Glasgow Cathedral to gleaming—and startling—effect.

Mariel Roberts Musa - Sunder (New Focus) One of the greatest cellists of our time, Roberts further establishes her compositional bona fides on this sumptuous, spiky, and atmospheric epic of an album. After the “engaging brutality” of 2021’s Armament, the sepulchral nature of the sound world comes as less of a surprise. However, the continually evolving development of the seven-movement title piece shows new mastery. Composed for piano (Conor Hanick, in bravura form), and incorporating field recordings and transducers directly from the U.S.-Mexico border wall, the unease the piece inspires is entirely intentional. The album also includes Lightning Field for two cellos (Roberts and Felix Fran), which is based on Walter De Maria’s environmental installation in New Mexico. Using De Maria’s proportional relationships as a structural base, the 17-minute piece feels like abstracted folk music and is sculptural in its own way. I like the idea of Roberts wandering our earth and illuminating the human impact—the good and the bad—on the planet with her music. Wherever she wanders next, I’ll be sure to follow.

Note: the graphic above includes an uncredited photo from fanclubwallet’s Instagram.