Various GROOVEssentials Volume 1 (Beat Factory/EMI)

Battling the notion that Canada lacks a decisively strong urban music core, the people at Beat Factory assemble some of the finest new and established acts the nation has. With equal doses of soul, funk and R&B, GROOVEssentials really comes off on uptown joints from Camille Douglas and Denosh. Slow jams from Kuya, Daryl West and Carlos Morgan round out this great beginning. 8/10 (John Turner)

Brainiac Electro-Shock For President (Touch and Go)

You thought only Six Finger Satellite could slam punk into moog and get away with it? Dayton, Ohio's kings of rock 'n' roll electronica not only take the piss out of acts like Ministry ("Fresh New Eyes") while constantly reinventing their lunatic fringe all over the new six-song EP, they also look good and sound demented as they pummel the corporate boys to death. Electro-Shock doesn't match the hilarity of Hissing Prigs, yet Brainiac still gives a wild jolt. 8/10 (Lorrie Edmonds)

2 Foot Flame Ultra Drowning (Matador)

For those for whom Jean Smith's longer-standing band Mecca Normal isn't iconoclastic or prolific enough, there's 2 Foot Flame, the Vancouver singer/writer/artist's collaboration with New Zealanders Peter Jefferies (This Kind of Punishment) and Michael Morley (Dead C). Minimal and abrasive as always, the guitar' n' synth ambience makes room for enough pretty piano and anchored backbeat numbers to make the rub effective--and Smith's nasally intonations palatable. 7.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw)

Freakwater Dancing Under Water (Thrill Jockey)

This 1991 re-release is one of Freakwater's most up close and personal records to date. Produced once again by Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Sunny Day Real Estate), Dancing Under Water tells tales of forlorn love, getting drunk and everything else country & western. The lush harmonies are put to bed under a blanket of Flying Burrito Brothers and Patsy Cline and the corniness of New Country is nowhere in sight. 7.5/10 (Johnson Cummins) more discs...