Disc of the week

Beck
Modern Guilt (DGC/Universal)
Mr. Hansen may be a lifelong Scientologist, but he has yet to graduate to “Clear,” judging by his titular condition. The sources of hand-wringing (or “engrams”) range from global warming to foreign policy follies to an army of personal demons. The topical material is well managed, abstract but evocative, while album closer “Volcano” openly flirts with suicidal imagery. Luckily, musical contrast lightens the album’s load. Produced by Dangermouse, the sweet pop of the title track, the tight funk of “Youthless” and the blues grooves of “Gamma Ray” and “Profanity Prayers” make this a far superior album to 2006’s The Information. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Rachid Taha
Rock El Casbah: The Best of… (Wrasse)
The bad boy of raï, punk rock’s man in the medina, gravelly Franco-Algerian Taha has been straddling the Mediterranean for two decades now, grafting together the elegance and ornamentation of Arabic pop, thumping European club sounds and swaggering, in-your-face American rock. He hit the radar in ’86 with a Maghrebi-flavoured, Front National-baiting new wave cover of Charles Trenet’s anthemic “Douce France,” included here. Since then, with his constant collaborator, Steve Hillage of Gong, Taha’s made his music more than the sum of its parts, something rich, rugged and righteous. Key tracks are the titular, kick-ass Clash cover, the sun-bleached “Bent Sahra” and “Jungle Fiction,” a salute to Lebanese-American surf-guitar potentate Dick Dale. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Grand Magus
Iron Will (Rise Above/Candlelight USA)
U.K. label Rise Above has always been known for delivering solid doom, but gets off the beaten path here with some serious new-wave-of-British-metal riffs from this Swedish trio. In keeping with Swedish metal tradition, production is as crisp as it gets without ever being overbearing. This will most definitely appeal to fans of late-period Deep Purple, but with songs like “Silver Into Steel” and the nine-minute opus “I Am the North,” this is definitely a good one for the riff hounds. 7.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Jean-Pierre Massiera
Psychoses Freakoïd (1963-1978) (Mucho Gusto)
Jean-Pierre Massiera
Psychoses Discoïd (1976-1981) (Mucho Gusto)
Montreal’s Mucho Gusto label, archeologists of the obscure and outré, re-released French producer/composer/guitarist Massiera’s utterly off-the-wall, made-in-Quebec 1968 project Les Maledictus Sound almost a decade ago. They follow that up finally with a two-record retrospective—vinyl only, though the platters come with download cards for digital copies with bonus tracks. Massiera’s a fascinating audio oddity, a rogue studio ace fashioning lurid, lysergic artifacts of soul, surf and psych-rock, pompous prog and, on the Discoïd disc, movers and shakers for the mirrorball era. What’s really eerie, though, isn’t so much how fucked up and far out the dude was, but how far ahead. Freakoïd 7.5, Discoïd 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Sigur Rós
Með Suð I Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (XL/Select)
The lead track and single off Sigur Rós’s new album (co-produced by Flood) could be mistaken for Animal Collective or Broken Social Scene were it not for the small giveaway of Icelandic vocals. Bulky percussion, driving acoustic guitar and an intimate croon don the bare-bones pop tune, signaling an emergence from the deep-end atmosphere the band has developed over four albums—there’s also one song sung in English, another first. Glacial pacing and grandeur kick in at the halfway point, however, with a symphony and choir boosting the personnel from four to 90. At once a departure and a return, a pleasure and a pain. 7/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Dead Man
Euphoria (Crusher/Meteor City)
Dead Man lay down some heavy psychedelia with a production, arrangement and songwriting prowess that is guaranteed to send you straight back to 1968. Dead Man are aptly named as their excellent noodling and B3 jams are sure to get some hippies shakin’. This should definitely be avoided by the jam-o-phobic, but if you are a card-carrying Deadhead, or better yet a fan of U.K. psych lords the Bevis Frond, this is mandatory listening while burnin’ some bad banana peels with headphones clamped on yer gourd… man. 7/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Various
French Electro (Wagram/Fusion III)
An undeniably definitive clique of primarily Parisian producers mingle here to provide a taste test of the various house and electro fads France has unleashed on the world in the past five years. Circuit monsters like Bob Sinclar and David Guetta handle the cheesy outer crust while names like Daft Punk and St. Germain keep the funky, jazzy loops abundant. Laurent Garnier marvelously showcases the classic techno feel on “Wake Up” and the new glitch-blog house gets ample play with both Para One and Justice checking in for remixes. Braxe and much of the Superdiscount crew are on there, and Alex Gopher’s dope new crunchy build-up/breakdown rollercoaster “Aurora” is happily included. There are certainly a few duds on the double disc and a lot of oversights (Mr. Oizo, for instance), but it’s not a bad synopsis, all told. 8/10 (Jack Oatmon)

G-Unit
T.O.S. (Terminate On Sight) (G-Unit/Interscope/Universal)
G-Unit’s second snoozer of a rap CD is a stark reminder of music’s law of diminishing returns. 50 Cent is a perfectly adequate rapper, even occasionally great as he was sporadically on 2007’s Curtis, but T.O.S. gives far too much airtime to his laughably untalented partners in crime—specifically Tony Yayo, Young Buck and Lloyd Banks. As is the case with every in-house G-Unit effort, the beatmakers are terrible, serving up lifeless drum-based arrangements moving at a boring mid-tempo speed and with a murky production that sounds more 8-track than authentically grimy. 50 Cent desperately needs new friends. 3/10 (Erik Leijon)

Manafest
Citizens Activ (independent)
Toronto MC Manafest (not to be confused with Montreal DJ Manifest) embodies what seems to be a constant when looking at Canadian hip hop artists who want to step up to the plate. He’s not a bad rapper, but there’s nothing here that will set him apart. The only trouble is the music. At least nine of the songs on this 11-track LP feel like they were tooled for radio, meaning there’s a wide variety of strangely familiar-sounding formulas at work. Teaming up with producer Adam Messinger (New Kids on the Block) is probably working for and against him at the same time. The LP theme is taking control of your own life, and this guy’s doing it, whether we like it or not. 6.5/10 (Scott C)

Hatchmatik
Bronzage (independent)
As unabashedly corny and idiotically catchy as the name suggests, this mix is a journey through Montreal’s current hip club jams as mixed and partly produced by one of the city’s true architects of b-more and mash-up popularity. Years of DJing Peer Pressure parties tends to make for tried and tested dancefloor fillers and the selections are all relatively palatable, even if I tend to prefer my four-on-the-floor a lot less flippant. Though the flow is disjointed and the mixes are sometimes needlessly brief, it’s a fun listen that’s perfect for huckin’ on at a house party. 7/10 (Jack Oatmon)

Erik Hove
Soundclash (Effendi)
Here comes Hove with a vengeance, determined to bring a fresh take on the total inclusion of turtablism into his ambitious jazz compositions. Flanked by his equally impressive cohorts Martin Auguste on drums, Fraser Hollins on bass and P-Love manning the turntables, Hove leads the charge on alto saxophone and doesn’t look back. “A Message From P” takes Tribe Called Quest’s “Skypager” to the next level, while “9 Lives” has P-Love riding shotgun with Hove as he navigates his way through some sudden death runs. Yes, you’ve heard of this kind of thing before, but never have you heard such attention given to framework and formation, all delivered with grit and urbanity by cats who can actually play. 8/10 (Scott C)

Mick Hucknall
Tribute to Bobby (Rhino/Warner)
After recording some 10 albums with his band Simply Red, frontman Hucknall steps out on his own to pay tribute to one of his idols, legendary bluesman Bobby “Blue” Bland. To his credit, Hucknall approaches these songs with the kind of ferocious passion that could only come from a lifetime of devotion. He re-imagines songs like “Poverty” and “Farther Up the Road” as energetic, defiant soul romps rather than melancholy blues. At times, his jubilant take on sorrowful tracks like “Stormy Monday Blues” and “Yolanda” might seem out of step, but Hucknall can gladly be forgiven for celebrating Bland’s blues with just a little too much joy. 8/10 (Gerard Dee)

HR-Bigband
Pictures at an Exhibition/Echoes of Aranjuez (hr Music)
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
Monday Night Live (Planet Jazz)
Big band fans, rejoice! The hr-Bigband is based in Germany, and “Pictures” was arranged by Clare Fischer and his son Brent while the arrangement of the famed Rodrigo piece is from the pen of Bill Holman. Jorg Achim Keller and Holman did the conducting, and Tony Lakatos is among the soloists. The Vanguard disc is dedicated to the late bassist Dennis Irwin and includes music arranged by Bob Brookmeyer (“St. Louis Blues” and “Willow Tree”), Jim McNeely, Jerry Dodgion, (a beautiful “Body and Soul,” for Gary Smulyan) and for the most part Thad Jones, the band’s original co-leader with Mel Lewis. Plenty of solo room for people like Ralph Lalama, Dick Oatts, Rich Perry and musical director John Mosca. McNeely and Michael White split the piano chair on the superb two-disc set. hr 9, Vanguard 10/10 (Len Dobbin)

Mini CD Reviews

Paul Bley Solemn Meditation (Fresh Sound) Finally, a reissue of a great 1957 session by Montrealer Bley’s quartet with Dave Pike, Charlie Haden and Lennie McBrowne, with “O Plus One” (a pun on “Opus One”), a first by Carla Bley. 8.5 (LD)

Three 6 Mafia Last 2 Walk (Sony BMG) Loud, raunchy and defiant. Old-time hip hop served with punk attitude, performed by Oscar winners. 8 (EL)

Jesse Dangerously/Fresh Kills/Timbuktu Verba Volant (Backburner) Three big Nova Scotian fans of Del tha Funkee Homosapien get together for a BBQ and pass the mic. It has its moments. 7 (SC)

Prints Just Thoughts EP (Temporary Residence) Yummy, gummy e-pop, augmented by a characteristic mix of two older Prints tracks by DFA’s dirty disco don, Tim Goldsworthy. 7 (RB)

Vancougar Canadian Tuxedo (Mint) The name’s the highlight here, but this all-girl band’s best punk-fuelled pop songs are hot on its heels (and hot for student). 6.5 (LC)

Deborah Bonham Duchess (Atco/Rhino) This effort by the sister of Led Zep’s John Bonham, the ultimate traps man, is as sad as it gets. 4 (JC)

Matt Mays & El Torpedo Terminal Romance (Sonic/Warner) The cheese and corn of these hilariously bad peacock riffs and schlock-pop choruses could feed a small village, an achievement in itself. 3 (LC)

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