By Will Yannacoulias
Saskatoon experimental songwriter Noah Dimitrie has been on a prolific run of releases this fall. His dizzying sample-laden electronic project The Tennis Court Oath released an eight track album That’s What The Money’s For! on September 2nd. A simultaneous EP dropped from Dimitrie’s main project Model UN, four moody acoustic emo tracks titled The City Life. A mere month later Dimitrie and Model UN have returned with a pair of exciting new singles, “Stop The Show” and “All That’s Left Of You Is Sweet Vermouth”. A stylistic about-face, the pair of instrumental post-rock tracks are a radical departure from the sound Dimitrie explored on The City Life; interwoven samples create lush, complex, dramatic arrangements whose depth and nuance grow with each relisten.
“I considered releasing this new stuff under a different name, but I kinda felt that the spirit of it was still there” Dimitrie shared, reflecting on the choice to release the new singles as Model UN instead of as a separate project. “This is a bit more in the direction of what I would like Model UN to be. The City Life was a good experience in learning how to make a record but I don’t know if it was necessarily the record I wanted to make, as much as the record I had, the songs I had at the time. The EP felt like me figuring things out, the newer material feels a lot more satisfying, like what I really want to do.”
The City Life established Dimitrie as a candid, talented and vulnerable lyricist, making his decision to transition to instrumental music surprising. However, Dimitrie shared that he enjoys the challenge of conveying emotional ideas to the listener without words. “These songs still feel like Model UN but I wanted to reach for something a little fuller, less literal, less lyrically driven” he elaborated. “The new songs still have that same moody ironic atmosphere that connects them to me as a person. I’ve always felt, as a songwriter, you don’t need to communicate emotion with lyrics. The angst, melancholy, that philosophy I was grasping at on the EP, I tried to channel into the new album, but instrumentally.”
“Stop The Show” and “All That’s Left Of You Is Sweet Vermouth” are available on all streaming services. The two singles are part of a forthcoming album, Sorry Things, planned for release in December 2022.
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