By Alex Nino Gheciu

Every Tuesday, Torontoist scours record store shelves in search of the city’s most notable new releases and brings you the best—or sometimes just the biggest—of what we’ve heard in Sound Advice.

Pretty soon, when you think London, Ontario, you won’t just think Shad, Ryan Gosling, and the San Diego Chicken Mascot. You’ll also think More More: four strapping young Londoners with a debut EP that’s sure to ignite the airwaves and alter lives—or at the very least, receive approving nods from some super cool blogs.
M I N E, independently released, is a punchy, mathy, catchy slab of indie rock chocolate that melts in your ears, not in your playlist. Produced by Andy Magoffin of Raised by Swans, the EP boasts tight, breezy tunes that sound Strokes-y simple, but are actually At The Drive-In complex. Leadoff track “Forts” (streaming right) sees sunny, jagged guitars coalesce with over-the-top drumming that transitions seamlessly from displaced Stewart Copeland-esque off beats to Neil Peart–like free jazz freakouts. Stickman Ken Hume continues the Olympic workout on “Prisoners,” which sounds like an upbeat Is This It? track rewired with salsa interludes, proggy buildups, Jimmy Chamberlain fills, and Santana maraca breakdowns.
Of course, there’s more to More More than their drummer. (Though the guy really is good. Scary good.) Frontman Chris Martin (no, not that Chris Martin from that London) writes polished, well-crafted hooks with intelligent, manifold progressions. “Not Like Yesterday” manages to fuse tumbling surf rock rhythms with dexterous, fuzzed-out guitar lines, infectious vocal harmonies, and unpredictable changes. Standout song “Tiger Skin,” meanwhile, features hair-raising, innovative acoustic chords and bittersweet, lovesick melodies that eventually combust into a fiery post-hardcore-ish outro. Martin’s existential lyrics about living autonomously (most prominent on “Narrator”) are also nice, if not indistinct as the reflection off a greasy lake. But hey, that’s just the charm of a low-budget home recording.
M I N E sees More More put their stamp on that indisputably Canadian lo-fi indie sound. These are cleverly engineered tunes with tons of depth and great mileage. And did we mention how good their drummer is? Hot damn, does the man have chops.