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 Bachelorette
My Electric Family (Drag City)
“Psychedelic pop” and “sci-folk,” they say, but these descriptors don’t quite do justice to the music of Christchurch, New Zealand’s Annabel Alpers. On her third release, the inherent coldness of synths and computers is undercut by sultry falsetto, fireside strings and sweet pop and doo wop melodies. If Syd Barrett, Broadcast and Lush’s Miki Berenyi had cut a record in 1961… 9/10 Trial Track: “Mindwarp” (Lorraine Carpenter)
 Telekinesis
Telekinesis! (Merge)
Having written such upbeat boyish pop, it comes as no surprise that Michael Benjamin Lerner is a graduate of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, or that he’s a protégé of Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla, who produced this debut record (and wrote the bio), which is destined to be picked over for the next feelgood indie-ish film. 8/10 Trial Track: “Coast of Carolina” (Lorraine Carpenter) With An Horse, Harvee at Club Lambi, Thurs., June 11, 9 p.m., $12
The Lovely Feathers
Fantasy of the Lot (Love Your Diary/Sparks)
Three years after a splash with their debut, Hind Hind Legs, and subsequent radio silence, Montreal quintet the Lovely Feathers resurface in fitter form. Mark Kupfert’s punctilious lyrics and delivery, less shrill now, suit the band’s knack for enterprising melodies that seem like lost memories at first hearing—dig the bittersweet, baroque bubblegum of “Long Walks.” 8/10 Trial Track: “Ossified Homes” (Rupert Bottenberg) CD launch with Parlovr, Rah Rah at Il Motore tonight, Thurs., June 4, 8:30 p.m., $8
Phoenix
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Ghettoblaster/Glassnote)
Phoenix may be French, but they make pure Britpop music, and frankly do it better than most of her Majesty’s Loyal Subjects. Maybe starting out as electronic musicians better equipped them to create epic, lush, theatrical pop music. Or maybe being on the periphery of Britpop made them less self-conscious and more attuned to what makes it great. Either way, they’ve out-Englished the English. 9/10 Trial Track: “Girlfriend” (Erik Leijon)
 Spookey Ruben
Mechanical Royalty (Hi-Hat/Sonic Unyon)
As prog rock gains purchase with the hipsterati, Toronto’s perennial contrarian Ruben unleashes a new batch of elaborate, affected parade-pissing. Despite the quarter-hour titular suite’s mock mythopoeia, it’s the ’80s stuff and onward—latter-day Genesis, Toto, Styx, Primus—that Ruben draws on here. He has the chops to pull it off—but did he have to? 5/10 Trial Track: “Mechanical Royalty” (Rupert Bottenberg)
Ignatz and Harris Newman
Bring You Buzzard Meat (independent)
The meeting of these two fingerpickers is nothing short of stunning. Montrealer Newman plays the perfect straight man to the dementia and drama of Ignatz (aka Brussels-based Bram Devens). Nice nick on a Minutemen title on “Political Song for Carla Bruni to Sing (With Synthesizer),” but these songs hardly dash to their destination, rather stretching out and breathing over this excellent psych-folk. 8/10 Trial Track: “Rise While You Fall” (Johnson Cummins) At la Sala Rossa, Mon., June 8, 9 p.m., $10
Sunn O)))
Monoliths & Dimensions (Southern Lord/Sonic Unyon)
This is Sunn O)))’s heaviest record ever. A lofty statement indeed, but this duo’s bowel-emptying drones have plunged to new depths, tempos lumbering and oozing, while the gothic baritone growl of Mayhem’s Attila Csihar (think Laibach) is guaranteed to give you the willies. Choirs, strings and horns all add density to the minimalist power drone. This new one even makes 2 by Earth—the previous kings of doom and dirge— seem like a ska record. 9/10 Trial Track: “Aghartha” (Johnson Cummins)
 Marilyn Manson
The High End of Low (Interscope/Universal)
Although original guitarist/bassist Twiggy Ramirez has returned to the decaying fold, and lyrically, “We’re From America” is classic Manson, the riffage and licks here can no longer tear you a hole—glamwise, metalwise or otherwise. Self-indulgent, tedious and no longer relevant, Manson should have graduated to producer after Holy Wood, passed the torch to a new shit disturber, sung back-ups once in a while and stuck to his (pretty good) watercolour paintings. 6/10 Trial Track: “We’re From America” (Lateef Martin)
 Passion
Pit Manners (Frenchkiss/Sony)
Manners is an endurance test for how much falsetto one can withstand in one sitting, but amid the endless synth fuzz, upbeat melodies and vocalist Mike Angelakos’s best castrato impersonation, a routinely simplistic pop record hides in the nauseating cuteness. Passion Pit take the giddy, poppy charm of most current fun indie dance groups, vampirically sucking out the dance and fun parts. 5.5/10 Trial Track: “Eyes As Candles” (Erik Leijon)
The Crystal Method
Divided By Night (Tiny e)
Thank God for the Crystal Method, really. It’s no easy feat to coerce millions of angst-ridden adolescents, vapid film directors, gun-toting white trash and ad execs that downtempo synth-pop is cool and that Peter Hook and Emily Haines belong in the same room as poop-heads like LMFAO and Ill Bill (all four co-star here). A harmless confirmation of everything we already know about L.A. 4.5/10 Trial Track: “Sine Language” (Jack Oatmon)
Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara
Tell No Lies (Real World/EMI)
It was Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant who unearthed and championed Tinariwen’s left-handed Saharan blues-rock, and now his band’s guitarist Adams injects some Zep zip (and Clash crunch) into often-comparable jams with Gambian spike fiddler Camara. Weaker tracks here have that worldbeat wimpiness common to coffee-chain compilation CDs, but the darker, dirtier moments—delirious Afro-blues and thunderstorm rockers like “Sahara”—earn their keep. 7/10 Trial Track: “Kele Kele (No Passport No Visa)” (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Gary Beals
The Rebirth of… (Liberated Entertainment)
On his sophomore effort, the 2003 Canadian Idol runner-up returns with big, brassy pop sounds. The production is top-notch, even if the music sometimes degenerates into generic blather. Beals’s forceful vocal style is best served with heartfelt midtempo tracks like “I’m Sorry.” He also takes wing when he puts his gospel roots on display, like on the soaring “Giving You All.” 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Waiting” (Gerard Dee)
 Grant Stewart
Plays the Music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (Sharp Nine)
Canadian-born tenorman Stewart is among the cream of the current crop of young players, and an entire CD of Ellingtonia cannot be faulted. Recorded in January, it includes “Raincheck,” “Angelica” and “Something to Live For” with the piano of the great Tardo Hammer, a definite bonus. Paul Gill is the bassist and Joe Farnsworth the drummer, a must for lovers of the sax and Ellingtonia. 10/10 Trial Track: “The Feeling of Jazz” (Len Dobbin)
Mini CD Reviews
The Human Quena Orchestra The Politics of the Irredeemable (Crucial Blast) The ultimate meeting of dark ambience, extreme frequency noise and blackened metal. Crucial Blast is killing it right now. 8.5 (JC)
Marie-Fatima Rudolf Transparence (independent) A fine debut by this Montreal pianist, ably assisted by Martin Heslop and Eric Thibodeau. 8 (LD)
Jef and the Holograms Truly Contagious (independent) With such pristine ’80s creations as “A Hipper Pop” and “The Truth About Candy,” something is definitely catching. 7 (LC) CD launch at Zoobizarre tonight, Thurs., June 4, 9 p.m.
Violent Kin Bitter Blood (independent) Saskatoon-based brother-sister electropop duo trade vocal jousts within an atmospheric, post-punk environment. 6.5 (EL)
Art of Time Ensemble feat. Sarah Slean Black Flowers (Pheromone/Universal) A dignified (perhaps overly so) collection of Can-con covers, from Cohen to Sexsmith to O’Hara to Harmer to Feist. 6 (LC) Sarah Slean plays at Metropolis (Savoy room) tonight, Thurs., June 4, 8 p.m., $18
The Dudes Blood Guts Bruises Cuts (LOADmusic/EMI) When these Calgarians rock with a bit of blue-eyed soul, they’ve got blood and guts. When they simply rock out, they’re just dudes. 6 (EL)
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