#8 on the 'Top 10 Albums of 2019' for Edmonton (Michael Senchuk - gigcity.ca)

"Trent Hemingway was headed to Jasper to meet his wife, Amy, for their anniversary. When she doesn't show up for the agreed upon time he sets off down Highway 93, heading south to Banff - hoping to retrace her footsteps.

Amy works for an outdoors tour company known as Good Living Foundation. 
GLF are known for their deep-woods adventures all between Jasper and Banff.
Upon contacting GLF it was revealed that no one had a straight answer to her last whereabouts...

The tension and panic picks up and fatigue sets in as Trent hits up all the famous tourist spots down Highway 93, which are used as start/stop points for the GLF tours.
As the mystery gets closer to being solved it becomes apparent that Trent is not alone in the woods. There is a creature that is following him and seems to be behind his missing wife.

What will become of Amy and Trent?
What lies in wait beyond the tree line??"



Good Living Foundation is a bit of an experimental album that uses both the lyrics and musical textures to tell the story.
Due to the fact the band went through 3 members leaving in 2017, Matt made his best attempt to fill in the missing pieces with a dual-amplifier system, a loop pedal and some vocal effects; Brendan picked up a synthesizer. 
Halfway through the recording process the band reached out to Blair, who had made a cameo role in the group for 2015's 'The Revealor - Side B'. 
Blair provides the soundscape synth and samples that stir around in the background, as well as bridge the songs and story together as the album progresses.

There are a lot of "noise" textures in this album - a lot of overdriven tubes & tape machines and was mastered entirely with analog gear (Aria Mastering). 
There was an attempt to use a warm noise to fill in some of the missing pieces from the lack of band members; the tubes and tape machine became a band member, in a sense.

The album intentionally starts fairly clean (There Before, Neil Young Once Said) and adds some dirt and overdrive and aggression throughout the album (Time Away, Strange Familiars) in order to advance the plot line. 
By the end the album reaches and climax and resolve with the bands longest song to date,  'Another Diamond Way' which clocks in at 8:27
GLF comes full circle on the final track 'Here Before'.
These last 2 mentioned songs add the talents of Olivia Ostrom - she does a duet with Matt on both tracks.
Olivia portrays the "missing persons" character that has been found at the end of the story (hence the last 2 songs) - so as to end on a happy note, as well as introduce a new band member in a unique way.

Stew Kirkwood is back again to help out with the mixing; he did the heavy lifting to focus the somewhat noisy recording into a cohesive piece.
Matt did the engineering and editing - all production was done in Electric Soil Recordings.

This is the 5th release from the GLF camp since 2012's Vs.
The release of the first single 'Time Away' is slotted for September 17th, the album is to be released on October 4th.
The bands new offering, as well as their entire back catalogue, will be available on all major streaming sites as of November 9th - an event that will be exclamation-pointed by a show at Edmonton's Blakbar, the same night.


Song breakdown / plot points :

THERE BEFORE :
location - Pocohontas Cabins
plot point - about to meet up for anniversary, Amy doesn't show up
feel - upbeat, excited

NEIL YOUNG ONCE SAID :
location - Jasper
plot point - attempt to contact and find out where Amy is, no answers
feel - mixed reactions, resentment, worry

TIME TO REPAIR :
location - Athabasca Falls 
plot point - hopeful that he is on the right track, feels he's close
feel - hope that turns to shock

HOUNDS OF OCTOBER :
location - Columbia Icefields
plot point - first night alone in the woods
feel - lonely, uneasy 

TIME AWAY :
location - Mistaya Falls
plot point - made it through the night, sunny morning
feel - hope restored, self-reflective, forgiving

STRANGE FAMILIARS :
location - Peyto Lake
plot point - it is apparent where Amy is, but there is more to the situation than first suspected (creature reveal)
feel - strange vibes, bordering on psycadelic, a frenzy type buzz 

SOMETHING MIGHT BE GAINING :
location - Lake Louise
plot point - last leg of the search, very close to solving the mystery
feel - edge of sanity, over tired, horror

ANOTHER DIAMOND WAY :
location - Castle Mountain
plot point - confrontation with creature, rescue and escape 
feel - exhausted, determined

HERE BEFORE :
location - Banff
plot point - take two for anniversary night 
feel - elated, euphoria