Disc of the week

Black Milk
Tronic (Fat Beats)
Detroit MC and producer Curtis Cross is the rare breed of complete-package hip hop artiste, capable of seamlessly meshing his finest neo-soul, funk and electronic beats with his most poignant, straightforward rhymes in an inextricable combo. His true strength lies in creating incredibly dense, uncommon compositions that never indicate a predilection towards one particular style or skill set. Opener “Long Story Short” is one of his most aggressive salvos yet, containing forceful drums coupled with a recurring trumpet, and it quickly segues into “Bounce”’s minimal electrofunk bassline. “Losing Out” starts with the tried-and-true Chipmunk vocal sample but is unpredictable and chaotic in Milk’s hands. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Matrix” (Erik Leijon)

Antony and the Johnsons
The Crying Light (Secretly Canadian)
Four years after his Mercury Prize-winning sophomore record, I Am a Bird Now, Antony Hegarty returns with, essentially, more of the same. But this isn’t bad news, as any patron of his stark orchestral soul will attest. As emotive and graceful as ever, his songs gently ebb and flow with beautiful arrangements and that iconic croon, always easy on the ears despite the pall laid over it all by his semi-tragic lyrics. It would be nice to see him branch out stylistically and emotionally, however, given his excellent recent work with Hercules & Love Affair. Any artist with the ability to make people cry on the dancefloor should put that power to good use. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Aeon” (Lorraine Carpenter)

Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
Forget about flirting with accessibility, this album finds the Brooklyn ensemble straddling the pop end of their spectrum, a move that’s likely to confuse lovers and haters of uneasy listening equally. If you’re like me–someone who finds the Animal Collective experience a little hollow, but is susceptible to their more openly inviting material—you’re bound to appreciate these undulating arrangements, frenetic polyrhythms and upbeat team chants. Refining, even streamlining the pseudo-psychedelic loose ends that characterize their discography, they’ve made a record that raises the stakes just enough to please all comers while remaining distinctly Animal Collective. 8/10 Trial Track: “My Girls” (Lorraine Carpenter)

Mother/Father
self-titled EP (Radical Notion)
This first effort from the Nashville mood rockers does not contain any comedic nods to Camp Grenada, unless the famously rain-drenched summer camp was located somewhere on Ian Curtis’s Macclesfield property. Dark and atmospheric with simplistic, mechanical guitars and hollow drums, this three-song sampler deviates slightly from other discs by charter members of the post-punk restoration society by providing warm, muddy production values, alt-country acoustic guitar moments and folksy, distant vocals. It gives the relatively pedestrian, guitar-driven tunes some needed American personality, even if musically, Mother/Father are more comparable to apprehensive children at this juncture. 6/10 Trial Track: “Youngest God” (Erik Leijon) With Vicious Guns & the Scroll at l’Hemisphère Gauche, Fri., Jan. 23, 9 p.m., $7

A.C. Newman
Get Guilty (Matador)
Five years on from The Slow Wonder, A.C. Newman (aka the New Pornographers’ maestro, Carl Newman) releases his second solo record, a superior set of pop songs so melodically assertive, lyrically evocative and harmonically stacked that they border on the theatrical. A stage production of this record—an idea suggested by the assembly in silhouette on the CD’s cover—would incorporate the physical features of Vancouver into its backdrops, particularly the seaside, which would lead beautifully into songs like “Submarines of Stockholm” and “Young Atlantis.” Connoisseurs of Canadian big-band pop in general, and Pornos fans in particular, check it now. 8/10 Trial Track: “The Heartbreak Rides” (Lorraine Carpenter)

Clue to Kalo
Lily Perdida (Mush/SC)
Adelaide, Australia’s Mark Mitchell directs this ambitious project, one that tells the story of the fictional Lily from a dozen points of view, from family members, love interests, eavesdroppers, friends and “the Chorus.” Wrapped around these complementary narratives are sugar-spun melodies and graceful arrangements with folk at the core, topped by layers of pop frills and filled out by some good old psychedelia around the fringes. It falls within the featherweight Steve Reich/Belle and Sebastian/Sufjan Stevens axis, but rock kicks in okay on “Which Notice to Your Next of Kin.” 8/10 Trial Track: “The Infinite Orphan” (Lorraine Carpenter)

The Gruesomes
Gruesomania (Ricochet Sound)
Yesterday’s sounds of yesterday… today! The Gruesomes were Montreal’s major export of the ’80s garage rock scene and indie-circuit trailblazers (hell, they didn’t even have zines to build them, much less blogs and Pitchfork and such). 1987’s Gruesomania was their second album, packed with raw, fuzzy nuggets like “Way Down Below” and “Leave My Kitten Alone,” and this reissue has been thickened like singer Bobby Beaton’s waistline by six bonus tracks, every bit as dumb and dirty as the rest. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Je Cherche” (Rupert Bottenberg)

Edguy
Tinnitus Sanctus (Nuclear Blast/Sonic Unyon)
In case the über-dude photos of the band weren’t a big tip-off, Edguy makes it abundantly clear from the first track, “Ministry of Saints,” that they are about as metal as Nickelback or Def Leppard. Sure, they quote the new wave of British metal, but their hard-rock stamp on duds like “Sex, Fire, Religion” or the particularly abysmal “Nine Lives” shows absolutely no innovation or even a smidgen of talent. File under limp metal. 5/10 Trial Track: “The Pride of Creation” (Johnson Cummins)

Sigh
Imaginary Soundscapes (The End)
Thankfully, the fine, furry folks at The End had the audacity to reissue this 2001 slab of demented metal. The true talent of Japan’s Sigh lies in their merging of 10 tons of traditional metal riffs and black metal lyrical matter and vocals with atmospheric passages and the unlikely elements of unabashed pop, classical, funk and cool jazz (?). It’s truly epic prog metal that avoids bite-sized categorization, and even if you were nimble enough in 2001 to pick this up, the inclusion of the unreleased “Voices” and “Born Condemned Criminal,” and the unedited version of “Bring Back the Dead,” make this worth purchasing all over again. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “A Sunset Song” (Johnson Cummins)

Sean Nicholas Savage
Little Submarine (Arbutus)
This oddity marks the debut of Arbutus, the label offshoot of the jumping art-and-show loft space Lab Synthèse, and promises much strangeness from them in the future. Savage claims to never have written a song without a hangover, but his are apparently far sunnier and pleasant than my own—these chunks of weird, wobbly-kneed strum pop hide little in the way of darkness. Warning to cynics: the gooey, single-digit synth licks present in each song, in all their sheepish good humour, really stick in the ear. 7/10 Trial Track: “You Love Me” (Rupert Bottenberg) CD launch at Lab Synthèse, Sat., Jan. 24, 9 p.m.

Rob Lutes
Truth & Fiction (Festival)
Montreal artist Lutes continues to evolve both as singer and songwriter while becoming more comfortable in the folk/blues niche he’s carved out for himself. As on his three previous discs, Lutes is the master storyteller, spinning downhome tales about everything from unwavering hope (“Bread”) to the constant need for change (“Marie”). Backed by a tight combo, he is firmly in the forefront both vocally and musically (courtesy of his acoustic guitar), giving the disc a sparse feel that ensures tracks like “Slips Away” and the moody “If the Blues Don’t Shake You” don’t sound over-produced. Lute’s forte, though, continues to be his ability to dole out musical truths and fiction in equally credible doses. 8/10 Trial Track: “Constancy” (Gerard Dee)

Swing Masters
Happy Birthday… Lionel! (Dare)
Eddie Daniels & Roger Kellaway
A Duet of One (IPO)
The first disc is wonderful salute to Lionel Hampton—15 tracks played by a septet including Warren Vache, Ken Peplowski, John Bunch, Frank Vignola and vibraphonist Chuck Redd, with appearances by Janis Siegal and violinist Aaron Weinstein. The latter is a live duet recorded at singer Ruth Price’s Jazz Bakery by two superb musicians, clarinetist Daniels and pianist Kellaway—a well matched pair. Twelve tracks, mostly standards with originals by the leaders heard alongside music by Hoagy Carmichael, Vincent Youmans and Ned Washington. Both 9/10 Trial Tracks: Happy Birthday “Stealin’ Apples,” Duet of One “Adagio Swing” (Len Dobbin)

Nicole Lizée
This Will Not Be Televised (Centre)
Quebec composer Nicole Lizée is a pioneer in reconciling turntablism and classical music, and beyond that shotgun marriage, she betrays a rich imagination and appreciation of the lowbrow and pop. The 20-minute opening piece and the follow-up “RPM” match Montreal DJ P-Love, warping and weaving cheeky extracts (yes, that’s David Lee Roth in there), with small classical ensembles working looping motifs—alternately silly, scary and sublime, the pieces bring to mind at once George Martin, Coldcut and Ligeti. The rest of the record sets the decks aside as older works for a jazz ensemble (here with Erik Hove and Miles Perkin aboard) include the vigorous, melodic “Girl, You’re Living a Life of Crime” and a nod to mod sci-fi in “Jupiter Moon Menace.” Closer “Télévision,” a percussion duo, is Lizée’s ode not to what’s on TV but the aesthetics of old models themselves. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “RPM” (Rupert Bottenberg)

Mini CD Reviews

Bill Henderson Beautiful Memory (Ahuh) A singer who’s worked with Thad Jones, Oscar Peterson and Charlie Haden, with a fine album of his own. 8.5 (LD)

Leila Blood Looms and Blooms (Warp) An eclectic electronic curiosity care of this Iranian lady producer, feat. singers Terry Hall (the Specials) and Martina Topley-Bird (Tricky). 7.5 (LC)

Sylosis Conclusion of an Age (Nuclear Blast/Sonic Unyon) Equal parts modern and traditional thrash metal, but unfortunately you can set your watch to their predictability. 6 (JC)

The Rasmus Black Roses (Playground/Universal) Tokio Hotel ups the ante on thick eye shadow and pointy haircuts, and suddenly teenage girls can’t tell these fashionable Finnish gothsters from your average Nokia salesperson. 2 (EL)

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MIRROR ARCHIVES » Jan 22 Jan 28 2008: INSIDE - COVER | ARCHIVES INDEX | CURRENT ISSUE