Disc of the week

Black Mountain
In the Future (Jagjaguwar/Sonic Unyon)
The 2005 debut of Vancouver’s Black Mountain was, hands down, one of the best Canadian records to come down the pike in far too long, but damned if they didn’t take things to a whole new level on this sophomore release. Gone are the sonic shortcomings, which truthfully lent charm to the debut, but their songs receive the hi-fi production they deserve here without ever getting lost under the veneer. This record is a monster all the way through as they continue to wear their influences on their sleeves—the Velvets drone in “Nightwalks,” Sabbath sludge on “Evil Ways,” krautrock on the cleverly titled “Wucan.” Heck, the 15-minute psychedelic workout “Bright Lights” is worth the price of admission alone. Black Mountain is simply unstoppable now. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Louis XIV
Slick Dogs and Ponies (Atlantic/Warner)
These sexual-innuendo spewing neo-garage rock revivalists are fending off career death by upping the bombast. Any band named after the most pompous of monarchs is bound to be decadent, and the San Diego quartet doesn’t disappoint by employing string sections, soulful backing vocalists and lush, White Album-era arrangements. Their hearts remain in resurrecting the MC5 (the floor-stomping guitars remain the predominant instruments), but “Air Traffic Control” works as a psychedelic ballad. It’s a wacky, desperate stab at staving off the irrelevance guillotine—and a campy triumph that would make the Sun King proud. 8/10 (Erik Leijon) With Editors, Hot Hot Heat at Club Soda on Sun., Jan. 20, 9 p.m., $24, all ages

Sleepless Nights
Turn Into Vapour (Forward/Sonic Unyon)
Indie rock sheds some flab and lets pop melody and commanding rhythm reign on the latest release by this Halifax band, not to be confused with a Maryland-based, acoustic emo act of the same name (they have 981 MySpace friends, he has three). Over eight songs, in under 40 minutes, the band succinctly makes their case with sharp hooks, a brisk pace (save for the more meditative slow jams at the end) and sing-along slacker choruses. Buy it at their show, and check their MySpace for an ode to our scene, off the band’s 2006 Hang Up EP, “Godspeed You Deathwolf.” 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) With Reversing Falls at Casa del Popolo on Wed., Jan. 23, 9 p.m.

Mahjongg
Kontpab (K/Sonic Unyon)
With their geosynchronous jumble of funk, punk, e-pop and psy-ops, Chicago’s Mahjongg seem to settle in the vacuum left by the late, lamented Supersystem, one grid-quad over from !!!. Kontpab’s hexagonal guitar patterns and gusts of grey noise, 8-bit jabs and clattering, bug-swarm polyrhythms form sturdier compounds than on its often flimsy and faltering predecessor, Raydoncong 2005—too much so on the sore, turgid “Problems.” That said, an anxious instability is held over. Mahjongg’s peculiar grooves come off less as structures than as stratagems full of feints and fishing hooks, the vocals as ghostly post-its rather than get-to-know-yas. 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Marah
Angels of Destruction (Yep Roc/Outside)
Getting the swagger down pat within soulful rock ’n’ roll can be a tricky one, but these barstool prophets from Philly are as greasy as it gets. Steering clear of lunkhead posturing, Marah cast some loaded lyrical pearls in the familiar chord sequences, with surprising results. The song styles range from rockabilly to soulful ballads and folk, and the players are spot on, but it’s the clever barbs in songs like “Jesus in the Temple” and “Coughing Up Blood” that really make this stand out. 7/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Jane Vain & the Dark Matter
Love Is Where the Smoke Is (Rectangle/Fontana/Universal)
No offence to the Stampede and all that, but it always surprises me when a quality “city” band emerges from Calgary. No cowboy boots or hats were employed in the making of this debut by Jane Vain (aka Jamie Fooks) and company, a twang-free album, but one that’s hardly bereft of tears and beers. Nuanced arrangements of strings, synths, guitar, piano, percussion and electronic beats form an elegant but vibrant base for Fooks’s lovely vocals, and melancholy, even macabre little narratives. Good one, Calgary. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Sam Shalabi
Eid (Alien8)
Initiated by a stay in Cairo, Montrealer Shalabi’s third album under his own name seeks to reconcile Arabic popular music with the outré notions fermenting in his Mile-End neighbourhood—half the population of which, apparently, contributed to Eid. Shalabi plays his plain-faced cards first, with a piece for solo oud and then the surly couscous-Western jaunt “Jessica Simpson,” suddenly marred by a pseudo-metal fret-storm. From there, one’s dragged into the irascible Shalabi’s tarpit of chaotic and ambiguous sounds, spiked with oblique humour and obscured intentions. Eid’s gambit pays off, however, on the sombre “Billy the Kid” and the sparkling “Honey Limbo.” 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) CD launch with Ghost Limbs at Casa del Popolo on Fri., Jan 18, 9 p.m.

The Scenics
How Does It Feel to be Loved
(Dream Tower/Sonic Unyon)
An awkward fit in the punk scene of their day, the Scenics played the Toronto bar circuit from 1977 to 1981, and would pepper their sets with the occasional Velvet Underground cover. This collection of their live interpretations of ten VU classics is stunning in the same way that the Byrds playing Bob Dylan was so stellar. The Scenics used Lou Reed’s songs merely as a jumping-off point and quickly make them their own. This is a must for completist fans of Simply Saucer and other Canadian psych-punkers. 8/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Malibu
Robo-Sapiens (Expansion Team)
San Francisco keyboard wizard Roger Joseph Manning Jr. is one of those supernaturally active talents who’s never not doing something—bands (Jellyfish, Moog Cookbook), session work for countless major names (Beck in particular) and scores for ads, TV and cinema (Lost in Translation, notably). Released under the moniker with which he’s remixed Soulwax, Air, his buddy Beck and even Melissa Ethridge, Manning’s Robo-Sapiens parades his penchant for reanimating myriad synth-pop strains of yore—Italo and giallo, motorik prog and Moog à gogo, new wave and b-boy flavour—to at moments embarrassing but overall ebullient effect. 7/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Faculty
Phar From Home (D&H/Phat Duck)
Oxnard, California, already has its share of hip hop notoriety, but Faculty have arrived on the scene with their own take on the Cali head-nod. This record is built to bump, featuring the duo on tracks like “Feel It” and “A Lil Sum,” produced by fixer Jake One, as well as a homegrown collab with the beat-making talents of Oh No. This is no-bones hip hop designed to get you up on your feet and in the mix, and feels distinctly like the precursor to an amped live show. Discerning heads might find it a tad nondescript, but in the end, this debut album boldly heralds the arrival of this hungry twosome. 7/10 (Scott C) With Wildchild, the Narcycist, Loe Pesci at Saints Showbar on Wed., Jan. 23, 8:30 p.m., $15

Muro & Zoro
East River Park (Rush)
DJ Muro, Japan’s self-proclaimed king of diggin’, has as much weight behind his seemingly endless international roving record digs as Gilles Peterson, Pete Rock or Kenny Dope. Known mainly for his finger-licking mixtapes, Muro dips into production mode here, aided by a bottomless pit of prime samples and graffiti pioneer Lee Quinones. Named after the famed home of the amphitheater in Charlie Ahearn’s movie Wild Style, this album was created to accompany a recent show that Quinones did in NYC. It’s a guided tour of NYC hip hop history, ranging from cardboard-on-corners b-boy breaks to tireless caps and cans on the go. This is the soundtrack of days gone by. Long live the old school. 8/10 (Scott C)

Kirk Franklin
Fight of My Life (Fo Yo Soul/Sony BMG)
After his last release, 2005’s lackluster Hero, Franklin seems to have rediscovered his drive here. In fact, it’s almost as if the inner demons he’s fighting so furiously have him on the ropes. There’s an urgency to tracks like “Help Me Believe” and “Hide Me” that has been largely missing from his most recent sets. As usual, Franklin never enters a fight alone—his posse here includes gospel stars like the legendary Rance Allen (on the stirring “Little Boy”) and contemporary singer Da’ T.R.U.T.H. Even so, on the majority of these songs, Franklin makes it clear that this fight is his to win or lose alone. 8/10 (Gerard Dee)

3 Cohens
Braid (Anzic)
Avishai Cohen
The Trumpet Player (Fresh Sound New Talent)
Three musicians to keep an ear on, these siblings from Tel Aviv are beginning to make a name for themselves on the U.S. jazz scene. Anat, best known for her clarinet playing, is heard mostly on tenor here, while brothers Yuval and Avishai (not to be confused with the bassist of the same name) are heard on soprano and trumpet respectively. They are joined on Braid by Aaron Goldberg, Omer Avital and Eric Harland, on nine originals and a standard. Avishai, an excellent trumpeter in the Booker Little tradition, proves to be a world-class player on his own session with John Sullivan and Jeff Ballard (joined on three tracks by tenorman Joel Frahm). Try Ornette Coleman’s “Giggin’.” Braid 8.5/10, Trumpet Player 10/10 (Len Dobbin)

Mini CD Reviews

Oscar Peterson Trio At Newport (Verve) A wonderful live session on CD for the first time—Sonny Stitt, Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones guest with the late pianist’s trio and, FYI, the last piece is actually “Wee,” aka “Allen’s Alley.” 8 (LD)

Rhonda Vincent Good Thing Going (Rounder) Bluegrass queen Vincent kills on harmony vocals, but her mandolin playing and songwriting prove her a triple threat. 7 (JC)

The Cake Sale self-titled (Yep Roc/Outside) Josh Ritter, Nina Persson, members of Snow Patrol, the Divine Comedy, the Thrills, the Frames and Crowded House contribute to this MOR Oxfam charity album, for a decent gift for a distant relative. 6 (LC)

Styles P Super Gangster, Extraordinary Gentleman (Koch) The NY-based rapper’s uncharismatic brand of street rhyming is remarkably consistent. 6 (EL)

Reverend Organdrum Hi-Fi Stereo (Yep Roc/Outside) Rev. Horton Heat zips it for this lightweight instrumental soul detour. Much here is vapid kitsch, but the organ-trio chestnuts borrowed from Henry Mancini and Booker T are tasty. 6 (RB)

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MIRROR ARCHIVES » Jan 17 Jan 23 2008: INSIDE - COVER | ARCHIVES INDEX | CURRENT ISSUE