Time Travel

As a member of indie-pop party-starters Think About Life and leader of the retro-futurist troupe Miracle Fortress, Graham Van Pelt has occupied a unique space in the evolution of Montreal indie rock, serving as a bridge between the ecstatic anthems of the Arcade Fire era and the arty DIY electro that Grimes made famous. But a decade on from his breakthrough moment, Van Pelt has relocated to Toronto, shed his band affiliations, and taken a deep dive into electronic music. Time Travel vividly re-creates that peak-hour moment on the dance floor when you’re so lost in the groove, you start to step outside yourself to soberly take stock of your life. Tempering the excitable angelic voice that once earned him countless Brian Wilson comparisons, Van Pelt opts for a more pensive, plainspoken delivery that serves as the grounding counterpoint to the hypnotic, hedonistic allure of the beats: “Release Yourself” sets its reflective, self-help lyrics to a mutating house thump that goes from dreamy to frantic, while the title track hitches itself to a lineage of introspective electro that spans from Arthur Russell to ANOHNI. But “One Thing” shows that Van Pelt is still a master of ascendant pop epics, unleashing a cluster of percolating analog synths to prod the song toward its splendorous slow-motion liftoff.