The Go! Team
Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Memphis Industries/Fusion III)
The exclamatory band name and album title, and moreover tunes called "Panther Dash," "Ladyflash," "Junior Kickstart" and "Feelgood by Numbers," aren't overselling the zealous exuberance this young, co-ed U.K. sextet project - it ebbs and flows but never flags. A real glee club, these ones, mashing up alt-rock dissonance and mod jangle, big tasty breaks and swell swatches of strings 'n' horns, cheerleader chants and fun raps recalling hip hop's debut days. All tallied up, you get a bundle of noisy neo-bubblegum that just keeps on giving, godammit. As much as Superchunk or Salt-N-Pepa, the Avalanches or the Archies come to mind, I'm more reminded of that old PBS show Zoom. Rememeber Zoom? "Zooooma, zooma, zooma…" Pray with me now for a live Go! Team show before too long. 9.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus (Anti-/FAB)
Nick Cave and company are living large and sounding better than ever, their hell-bent howlers, enchanted blues ballads and soaring pop sway wrought with powerful arrangements to suit their bullish passion. Unlike last year's deliberately slap-dash Nocturama, these 17 songs were written labouriously and collectively, then recorded with roughly the same weather-beaten line-up, the London Community Gospel Choir and two different drummers, one way in which they've separated the sounds of torrential fury (Abattoir Blues) and all-consuming love (The Lyre of Orpheus). The discs aren't quite black and white, however, as each bears glimmers of the other's overlying down-and-dirty-ness or pastoral levity, while Cave's trademark uncouth imagery and gnarled narratives run end to end to keep listeners rapt. Abattoir 9/10 Lyre 8.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

The Blood Brothers
Crimes (V2/BMG)
The Blood Brothers may be the ones to blow the NYC skinny-tie punk-funk poseur scene sky high with this, carving amazing melodies out of nihilistic noise and bringing a sense of urgency that betrays their hardcore roots. On "the hit that no commercial radio station will ever play," "Peacock Skeleton with Crooked Feathers," these noisemongers lay down the peaks, groove and intensity like true masters, squeezing all of the glorious drama into minuscule spaces. Definitely not for everybody, but if you just got hip to fellow Seattle acts like Pretty Girls Make Graves, this is guaranteed to be your new favourite band, and if you just thought the Liars are heavy… uh, sorry, you're just plain fucked beyond repair. 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Stars
Set Yourself on Fire (Arts & Crafts)
"When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire," a touch of drama to launch this Montreal-based band's third and most ambitious album to date. Bearing the same fleecy warmth of their past releases, Stars' New Order/Smiths obsession remains, heightened by epic stylings absorbed from their buds the Dears and Broken Social Scene, sharpened by a high-end pop sparkle, a sexy groove and an urgency suggested by the album's title, a call to live through love and cleanse yourself in flames before "an ape in a cage" (aka W) has its fascist way with your ass. Brilliant! 9/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Jackalope
It Dreams (Orange/Universal)
With folks like Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor, members of Monster Magnet and Canada's own Sons of Freedom and Sloan, Skinny Puppy's Dave "Rave" Ogilvie has recruited some heavy hitters to create an album of techno-industrial pop that ranges from the painfully formulaic (opener "Feel It‚" "Pretty Life") to the middle of the road ("Go Away‚" "Don't Cry") to the pretty decent ("Screecher" and "Nothing Nowhere). Singer Katie B. has a sweet enough voice, but a more experienced singer, like Skunk Anansie's Skin or Curve's Toni Halliday, would have made this a much stronger album. 6/10 (Lateef Martin)

Elliott Smith
From a Basement on the Hill (Anti-/FAB)
This posthumous release sadly marks Smith's swansong - the more you listen to it, the more you visualize him faintly waving goodbye. Smith died by his own hand (labelled "inconclusive," but friends leaked it was suicide) before the completion of the record, so with songs like "The Last Hour," "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free" or "Strung Out Again," this can be a difficult listen. Like Nick Drake before him, Smith could always describe his internal struggles in minute detail, though his Beatle-esque melodies masked the sombre tone of his lyrics. Smith's hushed delivery and amazing harmonies are unequalled, but when he sings "I went too far into pain" it becomes harder for his harmonies to take you to brighter places. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Kokoro
Inspiration Flow (independent)
This new Montreal quartet is a bit more than just a classy, upscale jazz-funk jam-band deal. A large debt is due to brainy piano-man pop of the '70s. No guitar here, just drums, bass and keys - and the expressive voice of founder Dan Weiskopf. Whereas the vocals and lyrics in this genre are usually just icing on the cake, here they're the very heart of the matter, erudite, inventive and confident. A shortcoming would be the titular flow of inspiration coming on too fast at times, fracturing certain songs in a rush to show off chops and leaving the listener with little to hold on to. 7/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) CD launch with Sharcüt and Dave Borins at Petit Campus tonight, Thurs., Oct. 28, 9 p.m., $5

DJ Blast
Blas-T-Phème (Militant Muzik/Fusion III)
Local deck-wrecker DJ Blast has taken some time out of his busy schedule to drop his first album, a fresh foray into MTL-flavoured hip hop. You may have already heard the latest Montreal anthem "Mont Shit" featuring Stratège and Cobna, but Blast has more in the crate. "Les rues de Montréal" with Frenchi Blanco, Ray Ray and Critik also highlights our town, while Blast provides the rugged backdrop. With maybe one too many beats of the stringed variety, Blast still shows great promise as a producer and should be proud of what he's done here. Peep "Money in the Bank" with P-Dap, and "F**k 2 Much" with Poison Pen for some NYC/MTL style. 7/10 (Scott C)

Dosh
Pure Trash (Anticon)
From the opening sample of his wife intimating her feelings on being pregnant, Anticon instrumentalist Martin Dosh sucks the listener into a warmly personal album. Throughout Pure Trash, rusty, dusty drum breaks are cut up and sparsely spat out over blissed-out, post-rock piano tinklings, acoustic guitar jangle, melancholic sax and warm Rhodes keys. A mellowed-out mix of post-everything music that makes for a great quiet-evening listen. 8/10 (Raf Katigbak)

DJ Rupture
Special Gunpowder (Tigerbeat6)
The last time I talked to DJ Rupture, his tour van had just been rear-ended and over 50 of his rare and valuable reggae, experimental, hip hop, Latin, drum & bass and traditional Arabic records were smashed to pieces and scattered across the New Mexican highway. Rupture's long-awaited debut full-length sounds like the best bits of those records painstakingly scavenged and reconstructed into 50 minutes of wildly eclectic and soulful music. While, for instance, guest vocalist Wayne Lonesome's digital dancehall toasting may at first sound unrelated to Eugene Robinson's wild ranting on the track before his, Rupture's binding belief in the non-stop pluralism of music ultimately shines through. 8.5/10 (Raf Katigbak)

Alex Attias
presents Mustang Back Home (Compost/ Fusion III)
With the latest release from this Swiss future-jazzist, Alex Attias assumes one of his many aliases to bring the cinematic, dark and soulful world of Mustang to life. With dramatic orchestration and striking use of programming and strings, this record often seems a little too lofty for dancefloor application, but it has its moments. I was surprised to hear that many of the songs actually use the same drums and samples, making for some overlap listening, but a big tune like "Help Me" featuring Colonel Red, and the utterly strange "Confusion," make me think that Attias is simply thinking on another plane. This is the West London influence turned inside out. 7.5/10 (Scott C)

Ray Charles
Genius Loves Company (Concord)
Ray Charles
Ray! Soundtrack (Rhino/Warner)
When Charles passed away in June, the world lost a true musical innovator. His last album, Genius Loves Company, pairs him with a who's-who of popular music, including Norah Jones, Willie Nelson and B.B. King. While Charles is somewhat overpowered by his duet partners, a testament to his failing health during the recording process, sparks of the old Ray shine through occasionally, especially on the Gladys Knight duet "Heaven Help Us All." Conversely, listening to the joyful release of "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" or the heartbreaking melancholy of "I Can't Stop Loving You" from the soundtrack to Ray!, the biopic about the R&B legend, it's easy to see why Charles was dubbed the "genius of soul." Company is fine, but true genius shines on its own. Genius 7.5/10 Ray! 9/10 (Gerard Dee)

Brecker/Lovano/Liebman
Saxophone Summit (Telarc Jazz/Universal)
Copland/Abercrombie/ Wheeler
That's for Sure (Challenge)
The first is a recording of a sextet led by three of the most influential reedmen currently playing. Backed by Phil Markowitz, Cecil McBee and Billy Hart, Mike, Joe and Dave are in superb form over six tracks including the spirited opener "Alexander the Great," dedicated to Cleveland tenorman Joe Alexander and based on "Bye Bye Blackbird" changes. The second CD, a piano, guitar and trumpet (or flugelhorn) outing by Marc Copland, John Abercrombie and Kenny Wheeler, is of a more peaceful nature by a trio of musicians, each among the most respected players on his instrument(s). All are memorable composers to boot - nine tracks, "How Deep Is the Ocean" being the only standard here. Both well worth putting an ear to. Both 9.5/10 (Len Dobbin)

Mini CD Reviews

Harry Manx Road Ragas (Dog My Cat/Fusion III) A quite amazing live outing by Manx, who sings and plays harmonica, six-string banjo, slide guitar and the 20-string mohan veena. Not to be missed! 9 (LD)

Supersuckers Live at the Magic Bag, Ferndale, Michigan (Mid Fi/FAB) It's the Supersuckers and it's live. Now you go buy. 8.5 (JC)

Kanwar Anit Singh Saini "?!?!?!?… For Kicks" (Ganges) Some fake thug shit from the basements of the West Island. Jokes... 8 (SC)

The Music Lovers The Words We Say Before We Sleep (Marriage/FAB) In the footsteps of Scott Walker and Serge Gainsbourg, this is grand old pop from the heart, for the cocktail lounge. 8 (LC)

The New Strychnines The New Original Sonic Sound (R&R Inc./FAB) Members of Mudhoney, Gas Huffer, Young Fresh Fellows and more pay tribute to the best garage band ever - the Sonics! 8 (JC)

Massive Attack Danny the Dog (Virgin/EMI) This Bristol combo's characteristically brooding moods and roiling energy score an upcoming Jet Li film written by Luc Besson. 7.5 (LC)

Armin Van Buuren Universal Religion 2004 (Ultra) This mix is so "live from Ibiza" you can actually hear the sound of pasty British louts sizzling in the island sun. 4 (RK)

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