New Music From Operators, “Cold Light”

I’ve been noticing things picking up quite a bit lately in the quality of new tracks hitting the web. Yesterday completely reinforced that feeling as I clicked on the highly anticipated track “Cold Light” from Operators. When seeing the band perform back at the Canadian Music Cafe during TIFF in 2014, I thought this one was the strongest of their set, and except for these sessions, I didn’t have any way to hear the finished track until now.

The track appears as Dan Boeckner (of Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits) announced the debut album from Operators, titled Blue Wave, out worldwide April 1st on Last Gang Records. Formed in 2013, the band features Boeckner on vocals, guitar, and synths and is joined by New Bomb Turks and Divine Fits drummer, Sam Brown, and electro-wiz, Devojka. Produced by Graham Walsh (METZ, Alvvays, Viet Cong), much of Blue Wave was recorded in a middle of nowhere 1850s-vintage barn in southern Ontario.

Blue Wave follows the release of EP1, an upbeat, aggressively melodic collection of synth-driven pop songs featuring the single, “True“, which gave us a taste of what was to come with the band. After a length of time on the road with the likes of Future Islands, New Pornographers and more, the band’s sound evolved from an analog post-punk project to a more live, punked-out sound, with Boeckner finding himself often strapped back into his guitar.

Operators will be on the road this Spring, having just announced a North American tour in March and April.