April 2013 reviews

The following reviews ran in the Waterloo Record and the Guelph Mercury last month. Highly, highly, highly recommended: AroarA. Merely highly recommended: Rokia Traoré, Joshua Van Tassel.

AroarA – In the Pines EP (Club Roll)


Someone old, something new. You know Andrew Whiteman from Broken Social Scene, Apostle of Hustle and many other projects. You don’t know his new collaborator Ariel Engel, who sings the bulk of this material and brings out the best in Whiteman. The lyrics on AroarA’s debut EP are by American poet Alice Notley, from her 2007 book of the same name, set here to original music made with primitive cigar-box banjos and drum machines. Notley’s poems themselves reference old folk songs, and even a Bob Dylan lyric about Blind Willie McTell, so repurposing Notley’s words for modern avant-garde pop music taps into a natural continuum. If that doesn’t intrigue you enough and you need a big namedrop, it was recorded at Feist’s house.

Concept and pedigree aside, it’s the music of AroarA that compels. Like the Los Lobos side project Latin Playboys, AroarA takes traditional elements—Spanish pop, American blues, Asian melodies, PJ Harvey—and tosses them in a digital kaleidoscope that defies easy description. Engel’s compelling voice is the anchor: a confident calm presence not unlike Feist or Daniela Gesundheit of Snowblink (who all performed together at the 2012 Polaris Prize gala). The sonic density that marked Whiteman’s last album as Apostle of Hustle has been stripped back; each track contains only a few elements: sampler, two guitars and percussion, either electronic, hand-played or of unknown origin.

These five songs are as fulfilling as a full-length album, but they’re just the beginning: nine more are due on AroarA’s debut album in June. (April 4)

Download (tracks only have numbers as titles, as per the original poems; they don’t refer to running order): “#11,” “#6,” “#2”

Arts and Crafts: 2003-2013 – Various Artists (Arts and Crafts)

Many people and many artists across the country contributed to the explosion of great Canadian music in the last decade, but it’s safe to say that Toronto label Arts and Crafts were at the forefront of taking it all to the mainstream: first with Broken Social Scene, whose Kevin Drew is a cofounder, then with Feist and many others. Arts and Crafts has released many classic Canadian records, and it’s a safe bet that a decade retrospective would be a worthy time capsule.

Sadly, it’s not. The selection here appears to have been selected from a shuffle playlist, albeit one that favours Broken Social Scene, Feist and Stars, with three tracks each—odd for Stars, who have released just as many albums off the label as they have on. Many artists are relegated to the “rarities” disc, hence people like the Constantines, Hidden Cameras, Cold Specks, the Dears, Gonzales and Snowblink are not necessarily on their A game. Bell Orchestre, who put out one of the best albums in the label’s entire discography, is not found anywhere here.

Listening to the main disc gives further credence to the notion that the label has faltered the most when it recruits from outside its immediate family: The Most Serene Republic? Los Campesinos? New Buffalo? Dan Mangan? Well, at least Mangan sells a lot of records and deserves to be here. The compiler does deserve some credit, at least, for finding a listenable song by the Stills.

You probably own the best Arts and Crafts albums already, and this compilation won’t shed much light on the rest of the roster. Save your money and buy a ticket for their June 8 anniversary show in Toronto featuring a one-off Broken Social Scene reunion, Feist, Stars, Zeus, Cold Specks, Jason Collett and more—including Hayden and Bloc Party, who are also absent from the comp. (April 18)

Download: “Islands in the Stream” – Feist and the Constantines; “I Want a New Drug” – Apostle of Hustle; “Apology” – Kevin Drew

The Bicycles - Stop Thinking So Much (Aporia)

This Toronto pop band was beloved but underrated during their run in the 2000s; after a four-year hiatus, they remind us what we’ve been missing by returning from various other projects sounding entirely rejuvenated and more eclectic than ever, not unlike a ’70s K-Tel collection where the only real through line is an abundance of sunny California harmonies. Twee pop, country balladry, glam rock, even some Rolling Stones swagger weave their way through these two- and three-minute miracles, where each member brings their own songs to the table—and drummer Dana Snell nearly steals the whole show with her opening track, the lovely “Appalachian Mountain Station.” (April 25)

Download: “Appalachian Mountain Station,” “Bandana Cat,” “Goldeneye”

James Blake – Overgrown (Polydor)

This young Brit wowed plenty with his 2011 debut, with its blend of innovative electronics, live performance and Blake’s androgynous croon, as well as a dreamy Feist cover.  And yet anyone who heard Blake’s earlier instrumental EPs may well have wondered why he appeared to have dropped the ball for his coming-out party, with a collection of tracks that were neither great songs nor particularly cutting edge: clearly this man had more potential than just a great voice.

Blake more than makes up for that on Overgrown, which is both as sonically stunning and seductive as what is ostensibly a pop album could possibly be. He’s obvious invested more time into the songwriting process instead of coasting on his studio wizardry, and yet he’s not about to embrace clichés. What would have happened had Joni Mitchell fled California in the early ’70s and moved to Berlin to work with Brian Eno? They would have spawned James Blake. (April 18)

Download: “Overgrown,” “Retrograde,” “Digital Lion”

The Burning Hell - People (weewerk)

“Inside everyone one of us is a comedian, a cult leader and an amateur rapper.” So says Mathias Kom, singer and songwriter at the core of The Burning Hell. He should know: he’s all three. His band is an open invitational depending on what city he’s living in at the moment (Peterborough, Whitehorse, now St. John’s); he’s a verbose wordsmith who claims he writes songs while listening to the Wu-Tang Clan; and he’s wry, witty, and occasionally hilarious.

Kom writes songs that ask questions no one else dares to ask—never mind set to music. Why aren’t cults ever any fun? Why, as teenagers, were we prematurely nostalgic for the age we actually were at the time? Why not set the legend of Loki to a seven-minute rock epic? When Lionel Richie wrote “Hello,” was it you he was looking for and not the blind girl in the video?

As Kom has shifted from ukulele-wielding folk singer to stream-of-consciousness rock bandleader, he’s less concerned with writing songs than he is using the music as a vehicle for observational ramblings. It can be a recipe for disaster—his last album, overburdened with pop culture references, was proof of this—but here he’s a raconteur par excellence, holding court while his band keeps the party going behind him. (April 25)

Download: “Grown-ups,” “Amateur Rappers,” “Industrialists”

Dusted – Total Dust (Hand Drawn Dracula)

Pick a Piper – s/t (Mint)

Canadians seem to excel at albums tailor-made for long-haul late-night drives: spooky enough to suit the occasion, but with enough volume and pulse to keep the driver awake. And why wouldn’t we? We, especially our touring musicians, spend an inordinate amount of time in the wee hours travelling from town to faraway town. Brian Borcherdt, a rock’n’roll lifer who’s spent almost 20 years on the road, is no different, hence the sound of his new project, Dusted, made during a rare time when he was standing still.

While his all-live electronic band Holy Fuck was touring the world in the last eight years and hailed as one of the best live acts in Canada, Borcherdt was busy releasing quiet solo albums under his own name. When his bandmates took some time off to raise babies, Borcherdt threw himself into Dusted, a collaboration with producer/drummer Leon Taheny (Owen Pallett, Bruce Peninsula, Austra).

Taheny brings out the best in Borcherdt’s songwriting; while his solo work was often lovely but aimless, Taheny tightens everything up with minimal percussion and dropping in ukulele, violin and minimal keyboards when necessary. Borcherdt, who’s also in fine vocal form, plays chugging rhythm guitar with a steady hand and both feet on effects pedals, looping it and running it through various decaying levels of distortion. The result sounds unlike Borcherdt’s good pal Chad Van Gaalen (especially in a live setting), but the album successfully creates its own world, one where the late-night radio is your guiding light.

A similar vibe prevails for K-W’s Pick a Piper, though further astray from the indie rock singer/songwriter genre Dusted is working in. Waterloo drummer Brad Weber has been performing with psychedelic electronica group Caribou for the last decade, and that band’s sound inevitably bleeds through on Weber’s first full-length as Pick a Piper. Comparisons are inevitable not only because of the direct connection, but because very few, if any, other acts working today successfully merge those elements, other than Atoms for Peace, the new band from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (who is a big Caribou fan). Like Caribou’s Dan Snaith, Weber employs lovely melodies and Beach Boys harmonies, sets them to club beats on both acoustic and electronic drums, and layers in various percussive and jazz elements—and then lets you sit back and zone out. Vocalists from Braids, Ruby Suns and Enon also show up to provide additional scenery along the way, though they easily fade into the blurry background of a fascinating journey. (April 4)

Download Pick a Piper: “Cinders and Dust,” “Once Were Leaves,” “South to Polynesia”

Download Dusted: “All Comes Down,” “(Into the) Atmosphere,” “Pale Light”

Iron and Wine – Ghost on Ghost (Nonesuch)

Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam introduced himself to us many years ago as a solo, fingerpicking singer/songwriter. As his popularity grew, his arrangements swelled and he slowly shifted into swampy, New Orleans psychedelic funk that owed a few debts to Dr. John’s more outré output. Here, however, it sounds like he took a more marked left turn: by getting happy.

Ghost on Ghost is notable for sounding much sunnier than any other Iron and Wine album; the preponderance of major keys helps. For an album with “ghost” in its title, Beam has shifted from spookier sonics into opiated bliss, California soft rock that could be a funkier Fleetwood Mac. Longtime producer Brian Deck continues to provide plenty of tasty tricks underneath the steady calm of Beam’s voice; just because the music is pleasant doesn’t mean it can’t be multi-layered and sophisticated. The other key difference is the increased role of a horn section, providing not just soul shots but even embarking on bebop jazz breakdowns on tracks like “Lover’s Revolution”—didn’t see that coming.

It’s easy to underestimate Iron and Wine, but Sam Beam has just given us yet another reason why we never should. (April 18)

Download: “Joy,” “Low Light Buddy of Mine,” “Winter Prayers”

Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer, Different Park (Universal)

This 24-year-old Texas artist is notable most for what she is not: she’s far removed from the gloss of new country—no crunching guitars or synths here—yet conventional enough to target the same market; a year older than Taylor Swift, she writes poignant, homespun and youthful observations without sounding like a 15-year-old Twilight fan. Musgraves has a sweet enough voice, though unremarkable; the appeal is her songwriting. Her first single features the opening line, “If you ain’t got two kids by 21, you’re probably going to die alone / at least that’s what tradition told you.” That, and her love of minor chords, makes you wonder how she ever wound up a contestant on Nashville Star (where she placed seventh). This, her fourth album but major-label debut, sounds like the love child of Lucinda Williams and Fred Eaglesmith, with trace elements of teen angst found in a line like, “It’s a fine line between telling a joke and twisting the knife.” The album has already topped the U.S. country charts and sold half a million copies in three weeks, and it sounds like this well is just going to get deeper. (April 11)

Download: “Merry Go ’Round,” “My House,” “Dandelion”

New Country Rehab - Ghost of Your Charms (Kelp) 

The name of this band suggests that they’re tried and true traditionalists bucking against the slick new country scene. Well, they do replace gloss with grit, but the muscular, modern arrangements here aren’t all that far off from stadium-size country music—or Bruce Springsteen circa The Rising. This ain’t no Hank Williams revival act (see: Daniel Romano). Frontman John Showman is not only a convincing belter, but he’s a fine fiddler player, and its those textures that set this band apart from every other roots rock act in Canada. Producer Chris Stringer (Timber Timbre, Snowblink) captures the live energy effectively: this is a record that demands to be played loud. Too bad the performances and the production outshine the songwriting, something that matters a whole lot less on stage, which is obviously this band’s forte. (April 25)

Download: “Rollin’,” “Lizzy Dying of a Broken Heart,” “Midnight Cargo”

The Ford Pier Vengeance Trio – Huzzah! (independent)

Ford Pier is one of Canada’s musical MVPs, playing with members of the Rheostatics, NoMeansNo, backing up arty singer/songwriters Veda Hille and Christine Fellows, and serving time in punk legends D.O.A., cowpunk pioneers Jr. Gone Wild and reggae band Roots Roundup. What does Pier get up to on his own terms? Tightly controlled jazz-punk chaos in a power-trio setting that celebrates “the gift of life” one minute while decrying destruction and banality the next. Pier doesn’t do anything simply: every track here twists and turns inside out and yet never spirals out of control, thanks in part to a phenomenal rhythm section that seem to understand every synapse in Pier’s brain. It’s all overwhelming on first listen; sometimes you wish Pier didn’t feel the need to change chords every two beats. But Pier’s invention and magnetism—and brevity—carry the day. Huzzah, indeed. (April 11)

Download: “When We Were Poor,” “The Gift of Life,” “Newton and the Counterfeiters”

Cam Penner – To Build a Fire (Rawlco Radio)

Cam Penner is the kind of guy who wanders up to your folk-festival campfire and casually starts playing a few songs that sound like howling winds set to blues stomps that suddenly shut up all the drunks, until everyone is spellbound wondering exactly who this travelling stranger is. That’s just how he rolls: Penner is a wandering troubadour who has lived and worked all over the continent (“sometimes I wonder if I’m running or being chased”), performing songs with choruses like “may the good Lord take you in self-defence.” He opens this, his fifth album, with a brass instrumental; the Everlast-esque single “Memphis” drops a drum machine into the rhythm. But for the most part, Penner stays true to his cabin-in-the-woods aesthetic, drawing you in with tales of travel and dollops of inspiration for tough times. (April 25)

Download: “Whiskey Lips,” “No Consequence,” “Memphis”

The Sapphires – Various Artists (Sony)

It’s been over 20 years since The Commitments, one of the finest and funniest movies about rock’n’roll ever made, in which a band of ragged Irish misfits attempt to make American soul music. And unlike 1990, classic R&B is back in style in full force, so the idea of a new film soundtrack stacked with actors singing faithful versions of Motown and Stax classics won’t seem an overworked concept for anyone too young to remember either The Commitments or The Blues Brothers. Plus, this time the artists doing the reappropriation of African-American culture are Australian Aborigines.

But do we need yet another version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” or “Land of 1,000 Dances”? (Supplementary question: does CCR’s “Run Through the Jungle” need to appear on yet another soundtrack of a Vietnam film?) The cinematic twist this time is the ’60s story of Australian Aborgine women, who had only recently been granted political and legal rights, who were recruited to form an R&B band to entertain American troops in Vietnam. The story sells the movie, but all you really need to hear is actress Jessica Mauboy open her mouth: she is every bit the equal of Diana Ross, Carla Thomas, Gladys Knight and Mavis Staples, and she even pulls off Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” and Arthur Lyman’s “Yellow Bird.” On the one modern-sounding track here, “Gotcha,” she enters Beyoncé territory, signalling that she’s poised for much more than a fluke film role. (April 11)

Download: “Gotcha,” “What a Man,” “I’ll Take You There”

Telekinesis – Dormarion (Merge)

People continue to whine about lacklustre new Weezer albums, while young Michael Benjamin Lerner, a.k.a. Telekinesis, is now on his third flawless record of anthemic power pop. What gives? Lerner is a master of melancholic lyrics set to sunny melodies, crushing guitars, fuzzy bass and new wave keyboards, to say nothing of his own buoyant drumming. He gets production help this time out from Spoon drummer Jim Eno, like Lerner himself a multi-tasking percussionist. Eno not only brings out Lerner’s pre-existing strengths, he also drops a drum machine on him and plays up an ’80s influence on several tracks. And majestic closing track “You Take It Slowly” is the song you keep hoping the reunite Pixies would get around to writing. (April 4)

Download: “Power Lines,” “Laissez-Faire,” “Ever True”

Rokia Traoré – Beautiful Africa (Nonesuch)

This Malian musician has collaborated with novelist Toni Morrison, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and toured with Blur’s Damon Albarn. She’s the daughter of a diplomat who was posted to the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. She studied sociology in Brussels. This, her fifth album, is produced by PJ Harvey sideman John Parish. And yet after Beautiful Africa, it’s unlikely she’ll need such name-dropping to be remembered.

She’s a stunning guitar player, steeped in Malian blues (and one of the few female instrumentalists from that scene), but it’s her voice that’s entirely captivating: though she’s capable of projecting, she’s at her most powerful when she applies her strength at a lower volume, with an ever-so-slight tremolo that’s nothing short of chilling, especially on the epic nine-minute ballad N’Teri. Parish gives her a stripped-down backing: a minimalist funky drummer, an n’goni player and a bassist, all used sparingly.

Traoré recently relocated with her son to Paris from Bamako, which is threatened by Islamist insurgents who, among other atrocities, want to ban music in one of the most musically rich regions of the world. Her lyrics are in French, so I can’t assess their political content (if any), but her voice alone is resilience and beauty embodied. (April 25)

Download: “Sikey,” “Melancolie,” “Tuit Tuit”

Joshua Van Tassel - Dream Date (Backward Music)

“Dream date” doesn’t refer here to a fantasy romance; it’s about an appointment with an imaginative, abstract, haunting and playful environment. Van Tassel is an in-demand drummer and multi-instrumentalist for many Toronto singer/songwriters; left to his own devices, he constructs carefully constructed melodic and cinematic instrumentals of all varieties: propulsive, subdued, acoustic instruments manipulated electronically or left to shine on their own strengths. He believes in brevity—only one song here is longer than five minutes—and every sonic layer is entirely deliberate; there’s very little clutter. He does invite two vocalists into the fold—an uncharacteristically gut-wrenching Justin Rutledge, and a soaring Kate Rogers—for two of the album’s strongest songs, but those are by no means the most melodic. Van Tassel has charted an eclectic sonic journey where Calexico, Patrick Watson and the Rheostatics are fellow travellers. (April 11)

Download: “The Sharpest Corner,” “Sentimental Health,” “I Think You’re a Salesman”

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito (Universal)

In the first three songs of the first new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album in four years, we hear: a raw post-punk song that culminates with a full-on gospel choir: a brooding, haunting lullaby that samples a New York City subway car as a rhythm track; an unhinged, nonsensical shriekfest that hearkens back to the very first tracks that put this once-incendiary trio on the map. After the smash success of their electro-disco makeover on 2009’s It’s Blitz!, it sounds like the band has no idea what it should be anymore and doesn’t care. Neither should we, if they sound this good flailing in all directions.

No doubt it helps that singer Karen O has returned to New York from California to join her bandmates; Mosquito is much more informal and loose than this band has been since their debut full-length. Invite long-dormant Kool Keith alias Dr. Octagon to rap on “Buried Alive”? Why not. A Cramps-style sci-fi goof-off about alien conspiracy theories? Of course. And then there are the garage rock rave-ups, the ballads, the disco songs and everything in between. O has lost none of her potency as an ever-elastic vocalist—the bonus tracks include three acoustic demos where she’s pitch-perfect and gorgeous, as well as a howling, snarling live version of the title track—and her bandmates rarely resort to rock clichés.

If their former comrades in the Strokes—another band who defined New York City and rock and roll’s comeback in the early 2000s—are getting successively sleepier with each release, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs return fully invigorated. (April 18)

Download: “Subway,” “Mosquito,” “Despair”

Nov/Dec 08 reviews

Final batch of 08 reviews from the Kitchener-Waterloo Record/Guelph Mercury. Year-end picks to follow shortly--and from what I've read elsewhere so far, I'm on an entirely different planet than most of the critical consensus (other than my love of Fleet Foxes--sorry, Dave Morris). Which is fine with me.

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Amadou and Mariam – Welcome to Mali (Warner)

After decades of obscurity, this duo became international stars on their last album, Dimanche a Bamako, with the help of co-producer Manu Chao. He brought his own otherworldly sense of cross-cultural displacement to their already-rich Malian stew of influences. Chao isn’t around this time, but Welcome to Mali continues to bridge the traditional instruments and motifs of their homeland with a broad approach to international pop—with mixed success.

The album opens with "Sabali," a track produced by the Gorillaz’ Damon Albarn, which suggests the duo are going to leave not only ill-defined world music behind, but the world itself; Mariam sounds like she’s broadcasting from an alien space station atop oscillating synthesizers. Albarn sticks around for the next track, playing keyboards that imitate a balafon (the Malian marimba). But from there on in, Welcome to Mali plays it relatively safe. It sounds much like any other West African recording helmed by French pop producers: a slick, funky pop record that succeeds best when it lays back, and threatens to fail when it goes for the grand gestures—both musical and lyrical, as on the middling track "Africa," featuring Toronto MC K’naan.

As expected, the harmonies here, between Amadou and Mariam as well as backing vocals by the Barry Sisters, are exquisite. But it’s Amadou’s guitar work that shines through here much more than on Dimanche a Bamako; "Masiteladi" and "Sekebe" show off his fiery fretboard skills.

The latter track, a driving dance number, also features punchy horns and Daft Punk-ish synthesizers, and a rousing call-and-response vocals. It closes the album on a high point; coupled with the opening track, it’s the bookends here that reveal the world of possibilities Amadou and Mariam are capable of. (November 27, 2008)

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The Bicycles – Oh No, It's Love (Fuzzy Logic/Outside)

The problem with most pop songs is that they flog a dead horse; "don't bore us, get to the chorus," goes the old refrain. But once you get to the chorus, you should really get right back out again; a weak chorus doesn't get better with repetition.

The Bicycles are all about the economy, stupid. And they know your time is precious, which is why Oh No, It's Love packs 18 songs into 40 minutes. Much like their mentors Sloan, whose 2006 album Never Hear the End of It segued a series of short songs together, the Bicycles prefer to keep things moving along; unlike Sloan, the Bicycles never seem to run out of good ideas as they traipse through 70s pop, garage rock, 60s British Invasion, shades of country and even bits of glam. Every member is a multi-instrumentalist, and lead vocals are shared between them; this is one variety show where there's no time nor talent shortage to stay in one spot for too long. (November 6, 2008)

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Tracy Chapman – Our Bright Future (Warner)

The morning after Barack Obama’s presidential victory, I scanned my vinyl collection for the appropriate soundtrack to usher in a new era. For whatever reason, the first record that jumped off the shelf was Tracy Chapman’s remarkable debut album from 20 years ago; that collection of songs articulates so much of the racial, class and gender lines that still divide America, detailing aspirations of transcendence and heartbreaking realities. “Finally the tables are starting to turn,” she sang back then, “talkin’ bout a revolution.” In 1988, that was only wishful thinking.

Lo and behold, one week after Obama’s win, Tracy Chapman has an album called Our Bright Future. While obviously there’s no direct link, surely it’s a sign of something that this is not only her finest collection of songs in a very long time, but it’s also her most optimistic. She sings of days “like the first day of spring” and looks forward to a time when “our bright future is in the past.” Her character writing is in fine form, the love songs are sweet but never saccharine, and Chapman’s luxurious voice is front and centre, backed up by transparent and tasteful arrangements by a who’s-who of L.A. studio musicians.

Sign her up for the inaugural ball. (November 13, 2008)

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Castanets – City of Refuge (Asthmatic Kitty/ Sonic Unyon)

Tom Petty once told us that "you don't have to live like a refugee." But listening to Castanets' City of Refuge suggests that displacement and despair can spawn sparse yet captivating creations. Raymond Raposa is the one-man band that is Castanets, and he apparently recorded these 15 songs by himself in a motel room in the middle of nowhere. That story sounds a bit too good to be true—for starters, it doesn't explain some of the drowsy turntablism that shows up as an occasional texture here—but it does paint a picture of loneliness and desolation. Coloured primarly by dusty desert electric guitar lines, City of Refuge owes more than a few debts to Ry Cooder's evocative soundtrack work, with some spacey electronics and subtle Latin influences in the mix. There's no question that Raposa is in a bleak place; he sings, "As long as I've lived, I've wanted to die." Yet the theme of refuge prevails; he does find solace and safety in the long, empty spaces between notes here. The most optimistic he gets is when he covers the gospel standard "I'll Fly Away," which is a natural thematic fit; he doesn't dwell on it, however, placing it halfway through the song cycle, and only for 90 seconds at that. For Raposa, the City of Refuge is still a mirage that threatens to evaporate before his eyes; hopefully once he finally gets to walk those gilded streets, his music will be just as evocative. (November 27, 2008)

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Dungen – 4 (Kemado)

Swedish psychedelic rock with flutes, glockenspiels and jazzy piano riffs might not be your cup of tea—until you hear Dungen. And even if you’ve heard them before, 4 is a major step up for bandleader Gustav Estes’s ability to seamlessly weave pastoral pop music, fuzzed-out guitar rock and jazz together; think of a bizarre cross between Black Sabbath and Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, only sung in Swedish. Special credit goes to Dungen’s new drummer, Johan Holmegard, for channelling the spirit of the recently deceased Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience; like Mitchell, Holmegard possesses both a deft and delicate touch that morphs into the monstrous when necessary. Everyone else here is equally tasteful; the guitarists definitely love their solos, but they come more from the Santana school of sensitive noodling, rather than the all-out wankfests that too many psych bands indulge in. (November 20, 2008)

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Fembots – Calling Out (weewerk/Outside)

The Fembots are two Torontonian men who reside in a studio they call the Junkshop. Their earliest recordings found them playing around with all sorts of odd noisemakers that sounded like the creation of a mad inventor. This time out, they actually do have a mad inventor in the band: Iner Souster, who makes beautiful and unique instruments from recycled and reused detritus. These creations also double as sculpture; you can preview some of them here.

Souster became an honorary member of the Fembots for this recording, which also features drummer/songwriter Nathan Lawr; both get co-writing credits here. Many of the songs were written with Souster’s creations providing the initial backdrop; more conventional guitars and keyboards were layered on later, which leave the odd textures to fade into the background. Which is too bad, because—as their last album proved—the Fembots simply aren’t as interesting when they play it straight. Although “straight” is an extremely relative term here; the Fembots still hail firmly from left field.

But there’s no point in dwelling on what Calling Out could have been; what it is is a lively collection of songs that once again draw from urban observations and religious reckoning. Opening track "Good Days" sets the bar high for the rest of the album, with a rousing chorus that declares: “All you Christian soldiers and all you Muslim martyrs/ you got it wrong/ life is good.” (November 20, 2008)

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Flaming Lips – Christmas on Mars DVD (Warner)

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has spent the better part of a decade making this film in his basement and his backyard—which is incredible, considering the set design and his ability to evoke sci-fi films and Cold War paranoia from the ’50s and’60s. Unfortunately, ambition alone doesn’t make this film much more than a tedious hallucination, a disconnected dream sequence that doesn’t even succeed as lo-fi B-movie kitsch. A gallery of stills from this film is more exciting than enduring awkward, jargon-heavy dialogue. The accompanying soundtrack fares slightly better, if only because meandering instrumental sci-fi music is much easier to absorb than a meandering, plotless sci-fi movie. (December 11, 2008)

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Kocani Orkestar – The Ravished Bride (Crammed/Fusion III)

When North Americans think of brass bands, they usually think of New Orleans. Apparently, so does this Macedonian brass ensemble, whose third album finds them funkier than ever; it sounds like their tuba player has been studying the syncopated likes of the Rebirth Brass Band and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The trombones and trumpets are as fast and furious as ever, but it’s actually the clarinetist here who steals most of the solos, with the accordion player scurrying along right behind him; there’s also a couple of surf rock guitar solos that seem to come out of nowhere. But no matter who’s in the lead, this is a non-stop thrill ride—even the boozy waltzes—guaranteed to please fans of both traditional acts like Mahala Rai Banda or Taraf de Haidouks, as well as New World acts like Beirut and Balkan Beat Box who have brought these sounds to North American ears in recent years. (November 13, 2008)

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Leila – Blood, Looms and Blooms (Warp/Fusion III)

Dreams are all about distortion: of time, of sight, of sound, of context. Composer/producer Leila Arab draws heavily from dream worlds in her music, where signifiers from past eras collide with decaying futurist visions. She sets up these scenarios and then lets them disintegrate before our ears. The opening track finds her running every instrument through various levels of distortion, crafting a broken beauty that complements the descending melodic lines, and preparing us for the coming audio journey.

The cover art is also telling: a man in a crescent moon overlooks a sinister-looking tree trunk that is wrapped in a strange architectural fantasy of tubes, bells and whistles; it could be the cover of a particularly dark children's book from 50 years ago, or a still from the Caro/Jeunet film City of Lost Children.

Blood, Looms and Blooms is a rich, imaginative and evocative album that justifies every minute of Leila's eight-year absence from recording. In the interim, Leila recorded and toured with Bjork, who is an obvious kindred spirit; they are both musical omnivores with a deep love for classical music, peculiar electronics and joyous dance beats. Leila doesn't venture into clubland often here, although “Little Acorns” does boast a bouncy Brazilian hip-hop beat with tinny synth horns, a comically slippery bass line, and little girls attempting some ragga toasting.

Most of Leila's grooves are dark and ominous, like the rattling bass synth underneath the track “Mettle”; dripping tap water dictates the beat, while guitarist Andy Cox (English Beat, Fine Young Cannibals) tears into spooky guitar riffs that Leila tweaks into oblivion. For all her tendencies toward noise and dissonance, she can also play it completely straight: “Young Once” is a live recording featuring her on unadorned piano, accompanied by cello and two clarinets; the result is just as affecting as the most heavily produced material here.

The most fascinating moments are when she allows everything to collide, as she does on “Daisies, Cats and Spacement”: there, a sensual jazz vocal guides pizzicato strings playing tarantella rhythms, while manipulated harpsichords skitter over snare drums that drag the beat into dungeons of reverb. At times, these tracks recall the unrealized potential of Tricky in the mid-90s; the association is bolstered by her choice of vocalists Terry Hall (the Specials) and Martina Topley-Bird, both of whom were frequent Tricky collaborators at the time.

The only misstep here is an atrocious cover of the Beatles' “Norwegian Wood,” which not only bears no melodic resemblance to the original, but the arrangement falls flat compared to the creativity heard on every other track here.

Few artists from the late 90s electronic scene continue to push themselves forward and create albums as spellbinding as their early works, but Leila is one of them. It obviously helps to hibernate for a while; just ask Portishead. (November 6, 2008)

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Ohbijou/Acorn – split 12” single (Kelp)

These two Ontario bands have toured together many times; listening to this vinyl single that they share, it’s easy to see why. They both explore an adventurous take on folk rock, with a deep appreciation for classic pop songwriting that never falls into cliché; they both share a small-town melancholy made for Canadian winters and CBC playlists; they both love their cellos and banjos as much as their electric guitars. On this 12” vinyl single, they offer up one new song each, and cover each other.

The Ohbijou side is considerably stronger; not just featuring their new song "Tender Bones," but also The Acorn’s sympathetic reading of Ohbijou’s "Steep." The new Acorn song, on the other hand, doesn’t come close to the heights they scaled on 2007’s Glory Hope Mountain, and Ohbijou turn in a rather clunky rendition of a very early Acorn track that’s barely recognizable here. Being such close friends, these two bands would never try to compete; no wonder this comes to a draw. (November 20, 2008)

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Roxanne Potvin – No Love For the Poisonous (Alert)

Before Roxanne Potvin's performance at the Hillside Festival last summer, one of her biggest fans turned to me and started extolling the singer/guitarist's many virtues. After a minor avalanche of glowing adjectives, he stopped suddenly and said, "But she really has to cut out all those ballads."

That sentiment sums up Potvin’s second album—especially when, ten songs into it, she finally lets loose with a visceral and soulful wail on the gospel funk of "Dig Deeper." Knowing that she’s capable of that, it’s hard to understand why she exercises such comparatively polite restraint on the rest of this album.

That said, it’s hard to fault Potvin for being such a tasteful pop crooner on material that serves well as smooth Sunday morning soul music, on tracks such as "Paralyzed," "Who’s the Enemy" and "Laws of Nature." Key to this album’s success is the earthy production by Dave Mackinnon of the Fembots, bolstered by the veteran K-W rhythm section of bassist Mark McIntyre and drummer Roger Travassos, who push Potvin along with grooves that exercise considerable muscle even on the quietest moments (The Puzzle). (November 27, 2008)

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Peter Project – s/t (Fuzzy Logic/Outside)
iNSiDEaMiND – Scatterpopia (Public Transit Recordings)

These two Toronto artists are among the few who still take turntablism as a serious artform, one that owes an obvious debt to its hip-hop origins but can mean so much more than that.

The Peter Project is a playful tour-de-force that draws heavily from obtuse dialogue samples culled from TV and children’s records, matched with jazzy flute loops, walking bass lines, spy movie themes and psychedelic keyboards—as well as a few harpsichords, for good measure. “If the music got really weird, then you’d get really weird, too,” promises one of the anonymous, disembodied voices heard here, and it’s true—though the Peter Project is careful to welcome some real live human beings into his fantastical sonic playground, namely Toronto MCs such as More or Les, the Word Burglar, Zaki Ibrahim and Masia One. There’s some scratchtastic action on the turntables as well, but that takes a backseat to the beats and the oddities sandwiched in between.

iNSiDEaMiND come from more of a sound art background than the dance floor. Somewhere between the playful sonic narratives of Kid Koala and the eerie urban landscapes conjured up by the so-called “illbient” movement of the late 90s, iNSiDEaMiND are masters of mood and manipulation of sound. Although there are moments of funk and jazz here—including one collaboration with Montreal beatmaster Ghislain Poirier, and another with Toronto jazz saxophonist Colin Fisher— iNSiDEaMiND are most captivating when they set themselves adrift on a sea of crackling vinyl, to see what they will find. (November 13, 2008)

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Running Down a Dream DVD (Warner)

As Running Down a Dream begins, we’re introduced to Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers celebrating 30 years together, at a hometown concert in Gainsville, Florida. The performance is perfunctory and confirms suspicions that casual Petty fans might have about the man’s career: that he’s a competent and dependable songwriter, if not a bit bland and entirely predictable.

So why would you sit through a four-hour documentary about such an artist?

For starters, there’s much more to Petty than meets the eye. Anyone who only knows him from the last 20 years of his career—as the laid-back author of songs like "Free Falling" and "You Don’t Know How It Feels"—will be surprised to discover what a powerful rock band the Heartbreakers were in the early days, and how they bridged the worlds of 60s rock and 70s new wave. It was actually the UK, obsessed with punk at the time, that first embraced the all-American rocker before he ever found success at home.

Petty came of age at a time where his close circle of friends and collaborators could include members of the Beatles, the Byrds, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, the Eurythmics and Pearl Jam—all of whom feature prominently in this film. Yet it’s the relationships inside the Heartbreakers that are key here, especially his two right-hand men: guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench.

Petty has a reputation as a stubborn man of principle, one that once sued his record company in the late 70s, at a time when the music business was being collapsed into an oligopoly. Years later, he would help dig his commercial grave at radio by writing a single called "The Last DJ," about the death of independent programming in an age of media conglomeration. On a less endearing note, he refused Stevie Nicks’s offer to join the Heartbreakers because “there are no girls in the Heartbreakers.”

Petty’s private life as an adult is not on display; there’s little mention of his first wife or his children. His early years, however, are well documented through interviews and copious amounts of Super-8 footage taken by his family and his early bandmates.

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Running Down a Dream is far more engaging than expected—especially considering that it’s basically an extended episode of Behind the Music. But despite its length, there’s nary a rambling moment, and all of the live footage informs the narrative.

Fairweather fans will find it compelling enough; anyone with a well-worn copy of Petty’s greatest hits record will be in heaven. (December 11, 2008)

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Q-Tip – The Renaissance (Motown/Universal)

Though it’s been in the works almost as long as Chinese Democracy, The Renaisssance succeeds everywhere Axl Rose fails: here’s a beloved icon who comes back swinging like his former self while sounding entirely of the moment as well, oozing with charisma the entire time.

In the nine years since his last album, this legendary MC reunited with A Tribe Called Quest for a couple of tours, and recorded two solo albums that were shelved by the record company. And yet here it sounds like he never left; he doesn’t sound desperate to prove anything to anyone.

The Renaissance is full of the laid-back charm that built his rep in the first place, set atop boom-bap grooves and jazzy bass lines. There’s some starpower help from Norah Jones, D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq, but no other MCs to distract from Tip’s flawless flow—which is especially evident on the extended a cappella intro to "Dance on Glass," where it’s almost disappointing once the beat kicks in. Live grooves drive some of the best moments here, like the sparse, squiggly bass on the disco of "ManWomanBooogie" or the guitar-driven funk trio heard on "Good Thing."

When he rattles off the names of his hip-hop heroes on "Life Is Better," it’s a potent reminder of how few of them built sustainable careers. And maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder, but there’s every sense here that Q-Tip will still be making classic records years from now. (December 4, 2008)

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Serena Ryder – Is It OK? (EMI)

For a young woman with such a confident voice, that’s a rather insecure album title. But for a woman who can stun a room into silence with an a cappella performance, Ryder decides pulls out the big production courtesy of John Alagia (Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer); thankfully, it never threatens to overshadow Ryder’s formidable presence. With the exception of one or two subdued numbers here—including the closing "Dark as the Black," which is the highlight—Ryder is ready to leave her folkie beginnings behind and go for the all-out belting here (for better or worse), assuming a role in Canadian music that’s been vacant ever since Amanda Marshall went AWOL. Ryder set her sights high on her 2006 major label debut, If Your Memory Serves You Well, where she tackled the classic Canadian songbook with aplomb; this is meant to be her coming-out party as a songwriter and ... well, she’s still an amazing singer. In that sense, this is certainly OK. Just OK, though. (November 13, 2008)

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Spam All-Stars – Introducing (Introducing/Fusion III)

The sound of Miami’s Spam All-Stars can be explained by the resumés of the band and their extended family, which includes James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Shakira, Antibalas, Phish and many more; bandleader/songwriter/DJ Andrew Yeomanson is of British/Venezuelan heritage and was raised in Montreal, Toronto, Bogota and Miami. These are top-notch Latin funk players who were first assembled 15 years ago, and whose first five albums are compiled for this, their first international release; naturally, it’s a non-stop party that allows room for subtle shadings as well as heavy funk grooves. The production is smooth, but not entirely slick; it’s likely ten times as atomic in a live setting, and now that they’re poised to make major inroads outside of the Sunshine State, it’s more likely we’ll witness that close to home soon enough. (November 6, 2008)

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Rae Spoon – Superior You Are Inferior (Scratch)

Rae Spoon sings about being “off the grid and underground,” which befits a performer who bounces between Berlin, Montreal and his hometown of Calgary. It also suits a singer/songwriter who sings high lonesome folk songs with steel guitars and cellos and then switches to subtle synths and electronic percussion without missing a beat. Rae Spoon sounds like a naturalist adrift in the modern world, trying to find a way “to get the ocean on our side” on songs such as “Come On Forest Fire Burn the Disco Down,” and “We Become Our Own Wolves.” The songwriting and arrangements are uniformly strong; Spoon’s bell-clear and androgynous voice could use more variation, instead of sounding like a formal recital, but that’s a minor complaint as this worthy artist otherwise expands his sonic palette with great success. (December 4, 2008)

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Stompin' Tom – The Ballad of Stompin' Tom (EMI)

In a recent Globe and Mail profile of Stompin' Tom Connors, the writer says that Tom "no longer listens to country radio. It's too homogeneous, he says, with too many people trying to do the same kind of song again and again." The irony is rich, coming from a man who is nothing if not homogenous, writing the same kind of Canadiana again and again, with little more than three chords, an acoustic guitar and a Maritimers' drawl. This album features unnecessary re-recordings of three earlier songs (including the now-ubiquitous “Hockey Song”), a cover of his idol Wilf Carter's “Take Me Back to Old Alberta,” and ten new songs that mine similar territory, as well as the sweet “Bride & Groom Waltz.” Unlike his contemporaries, this 72-year-old isn't concerned with late-career grativas or matters of mortality; he's still writing about "workin' in the bush of Buctouche" and hamming it up on songs like “Chickie Pooh,” which would even embarrass Fred Penner. Most affecting is the title track, which is rich in detail from Connors' hard-luck childhood; it's also a helpful précis in case you don't have time to read his 2000-page autobiographical tome (which, sadly, is now out of print). (November 6, 2008)

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Kanye West – 808 & Heartbreak (Roc-a-fella/Universal)

Harder? Better? Faster? Stronger? Not this time. Kanye West likes to come off as invincible, both in his music and his off-stage persona, but here—his first album since the death of his mother last year—he lets his guard down to soak in melancholy, 80s pop, and self-pity. This is not a hip-hop album at all, and not a single one of these tracks is likely to be heard in a club; thankfully the timing is such that West doesn’t have to compete with the likes of 50 Cent this time out—because even a weak 50 Cent album would probably beat out a head-scratcher of a record like this one. In the words of Q-Tip, this is like “cold grits without the hot sauce.”

808 & Heartbreak finds West singing more often than not, albeit with copious help from an auto-tuner. With the kind of artists he has on his speed dial, there must be a good reason why he didn’t ask for vocal help; instead, we’re stuck with what sounds like second-rate Akon and/or T-Pain. What could have been a serious artistic left turn—not unlike Beck’s Sea Change or Mutations albums—instead falls prey to a simple production gimmick.

It doesn’t help that his musings on fame are increasingly nauseating, on "Welcome to the Heartbreak" and a horrendous solo piano bonus track with a bizarre Pinocchio analogy—he just wants to be a real boy, you see. It makes matters worse that the track sounds like it was recorded on a cellphone at the back of a stadium. And it’s not like he hasn’t been successfully reflective before—even on the subject of his mother, as he was on Late Registration’s “Hey Mama.”

This is all a shame, because West’s increased infatuation with 20-year-old synthesizers elevates some of the sub-standard pop songs here, and the Roland 808 drum machine of the title is used to maximum effect. He has plenty of fine production scattered throughout here, but it would be much more interesting to hear him apply it to a young, impressionable artist—maybe even one who can sing—rather than his own insufferable self-absorption. (December 4, 2008)