Below the Sea The Loss of Our Winter (Where Are My Records) Fusing ambient music with the looped droning of post-rock and the ringing guitars of shoegazing, this local trio's debut is strangely fascinating, yet pretty hard to take in one sitting. Its dark and repetitive nature, particularly on epic tracks like "93 Stars," brings to mind a long car-ride through barren lands in the winter. Very Canadian. Touches of slide guitar and heavy echo add to this wide-open melancholy, while sinister synths and a few processed vocal samples make for some strange moments. Some (relatively) upbeat tracks and sweet sounds provide occasional relief, pit-stop-style. Bon voyage. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) CD launch with Headphone Overtone tonight, Thurs. April 5, at Casa del Popolo, 9pm, $7 Manishevitz Rollover (Jagjaguwar) Terminal 4 self-titled (Truckstop) Adam Busch's new lounged-out Manishevitz is pure Americana, easy-groove Chicago sing-swing and life-affirming string-horn orchestrations (arranged by post-pop cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm) beneath Busch's folk-blues guitar and deep confessional vocals. There are echoes of Jim O'Rourke's Eureka album here, maybe some Sea and Cake also. With Terminal 4, we find Lonberg-Holm on his own turf. Remarkably hideous packaging sheathes this bouncy gem from Chicago's Truckstop label. Terminal 4 is a low-profile super-group featuring, among others, Jeb Bishop (Vandermark 5) and Ben Vida (Town & Country). Smooth, weepy cello, quirky, sparse strokes on Vida's tinny guitar, classic power-trombone and a very up-front-small-room mix give this album a very post-Ellington feel. Here, the orchestration is never excessive, the mix is never saturated, and Josh Abrams' rich bass grooves melt your neck muscles. Toss in Terria Gartelos' Ella-Fitzgerald-meets-Stereolab vocals and you've got a keeper. Manishevitz 6.5/10, T4 8.5/10 (Boss Sambosa) Manishevitz and Terminal 4 play Barfly on Fri., April 6, 8:30pm, $6
The Tender Idols Distressor (E-Magine)
Rammstein Mutter (Universal) The German industrial goth-metal gang resurface with a dedication to mother (pronounced moo-tur!). Things haven't changed much, sonically, from their last album or their cover of "Stripped" on the Depeche Mode tribute album For the Masses, or even their contribution to the menacing Lost Highway soundtrack many years ago. But one fact remains about these showmen: if you like their style, they're #@*$&! consistent. Dark synth swells and haunting, choral singing with pounding drums and thick riffery backing a stiff, dry German voice will keep things loud and scary for you, but it's all smothered into silence in the end with the slow and sombre "Nebel," kinda like the music to the credits of some heavy vampire movie outta Austria. 7.5/10 (Lateef Martin) Large Professor Blaze Rhymes 12" (Matador/FAB) There is no way that I'm going to let Extra P's latest labours sour my love for the talents that allowed his name to be said in the same breath as Primo and Pete Rock. This is, after all, Large Professor--or is it? This release, along with that last song "'Bout That Time" will leave stalwart fans scratching their heads and wondering, "What the hell happened to P?" You can call it ABBS or "Aging B-Boy Syndrome" but that's hardly an excuse with colleagues like Pete Rock and Premier still able to bring it. I just think Large Pro needs to know that this shit is not gonna cut it, and if that means demonstrating in front of Matador Records with placards and bullhorns, then let's do it. P needs to get his mojo back, and soon. 6/10 (Scott C) Metamatics Midnight Sun Pig (Dot/Fusion III) If you missed Lee Norris's last project, recorded under the name Norken, fold up this paper, put it down, head to your nearest record shop, and listen to it. Maybe buy it. Soul Static Bureau, as it was called, was a perfect blend of minimal beats and warm ambient sounds, impossible to describe and impossible not to like. This latest project (ignore the terrible title) is a bit more upbeat, but equally flawless as far as crisp, precise programming and gentle atmospheric tones. Maybe it was just because I was looking at photos of futuristic, sun-drenched, eco-friendly houses, but this is the perfect soundtrack for relaxing in futuristic, sun-drenched, eco-friendly houses. 9/10 (Chris Hatherill) Various Turbo Studio Sessions Volume 2 (Turbo/Koch) Just in case you were starting to think that Montreal's Turbo Recordings were getting a touch predictable, "creative director" Tiga has gone and mixed emotions yet again. For the second instalment of the unmixed Turbo Studio Sessions, Tiga has solicited downtempo and chill-electro tracks from techno demi-gods like Adam Beyer and Joel Mull, as well as a West-Coast house tune from Canadian newcomer Shawn Ward. The T-man has gone and done his own remix of Crockett's Theme, and, if that weren't enough, Swayzak and Peter Benisch have provided two of the sexiest pieces of electronic music ever. 9/10 (Krista) Various Artists 2000 Black: the Good Good (Planet E/Nice) What a steaming cauldron of delicacies this whole nu-jazz thing has given birth to, not only opening the doors for serious arrangers and composers of electro-organic music, but making room on the dancefloor for true sequencing genius. This record runs a taut rope from one extreme to the other, from the open nod to jazz-funk king Roy Ayers on MMBlack's title track "2000 Black" (that also features Ayers) to the brash and digitally distorted offerings of the obviously angry Nubian Mindz, who contribute both "Space Junky" and "Future Past." If names like DOMU, Titonton and Somatik don't mean anything to you, they'll probably mean a whole lot more if you ever hear this record. 8/10 (Scott C) New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble Live in Europe (Stomp/Sonic Unyon)
112 Part III (BMG) On their third release, the premier quartet of Bad Boy stay true to form, delivering tight harmonies over predictable beats. Their strength lies in their vocal skills, and they excel whenever they bring that to the forefront, as on the old-school-styled tracks "Missing You" and "Player" and the thoughtful "I Think." But for the most part, Part III is 112 stuck in the same formulaic mould. In this case, the fourth time will have to be the charm. 6/10 (Gerard Dee) Alain Goraguer La planète sauvage (DC/Fusion III)
Bob Belden Black Dahlia (Blue Note/EMI) Composer/arranger Belden has come up with a beauty of a big-band CD. Twelve original compositions inspired by the never officially solved murder of Elizabeth Short back in 1947, and by the writings of James Ellroy. The music is matched by great playing from a great band, including Lew Soloff, Tim Hagans, John Clark, Conrad Herwig, Tim Reis, Joe Lovano, Gary Smulyan, Marc Copland, Kevin Hays, Ira Coleman, Billy Kilson and Belden himself. A must for anyone looking for some heady large-ensemble playing combined with solos of the first rank! 10/10 (Len Dobbin) |
Manitoba is a lot like zucchini bread and tofu ice cream. I'm referring, of course, not to the province but the person--Dan Snaith, a 22-year-old pure-mathematics major who actually lives in Toronto and whose debut album Start Breaking My Heart has been charting in Europe for months. Heralded as being "awfully clever," Manitoba's "cute and folksy electronica" and "delicate leftfield anarchy" are throwing everyone for a loop. Likened to "what MJ Cole would sound like if he were raised on Boards of Canada," Mr. Manitoba has gone and made a very tasty treat of some rather unlikely combinations. Think Miles Davis and Autechre having tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter. 9/10 (Krista)
The bio describes the sound of this Atlanta quintet as "timeless melodic hero rock," setting it apart from most U.S. product these days. The sheer amount of guitar, used in a pop-rock context, proves this, but I wouldn't call it timeless. I would call it 1996. Maybe '97. This is essentially latter-day Britpop, right down to their emotive, vaguely whiny Brit singer Ian Webber. No joke, they even lift a riff directly from Mansun on "Afraid to Move." In short: grand rock, a couple of weepy ballads, sensitive-man lyrics and that band name = Britpop revival (?!). In Atlanta. 7/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
Anyone subscribing to Darwin's survival-of-the-fittest theory will find valid supportive evidence in the rise and fall of third-wave ska. The ranks have been decimated but the true quality acts remain standing--the Slackers, Hepcat and the NY Ska-Jazz boys, a supergroup of sorts collecting the Big Apple's premier skanksters. The live disc is a nice detour for these guys, because their studio recordings always favoured a clean, discreet sound that betrayed their jazz roots. Some of the nuances in their extraordinarily fine playing are lost here, but made up for with a boisterous rawness that any who have seen them live know they can muster. Whether checking off jazz standards like "Harlem Nocturne" or working their own rock-steady angles, they've got it locked down. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
It's too bad that the trippy visuals that Roland Topor dreamed up for this '73 sci-fi film were chewed up by director René Laloux's miserably stiff and uncomfortable animation. Otherwise, this might have been an absolute classic of adult cartoon features. At least Gainsbourg collaborator Goraguer held up his end of the bargain. The score he provided ranks high in the psych-jazz-orch-prog-funk canon of early-'70s cinemaphonics--funny, scary, moving and not infrequently grooving. Full of creative surprises and clearly realized notions, this baby will have legs with the leftfield pop archaeology set. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)