Radiohead Amnesiac (EMI)
The Whereabouts Pop Filter (Ozone Records) On their debut full-length album, this local Brit-inspired band weaves a pleasant pop tapestry, fusing new wave, Britpop and punk influences. Strumming guitars, some conspicuous '80s keyboards and light strings produce a lush, retro sound (Smiths, Cure, P-Furs), while rock riffing, semi-ska beats and singer Andrew MacNeill's raspy whine inject punk energy into other songs (Buzzcocks, Clash, Green Day). With a bit of balladry for good measure, this is a pretty steady collection of silly pop-rockers, despite its sometimes derivative tendencies. And don't miss the idiotic Sea-Monkey bonus track. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) CD launch at l'Alizé, Tues., June 12, 9pm, $6
The Fearless Freep And Fall Is How You Sleep (Mag Wheel) The powerful nostalgia here seems unintentional, more a consequence of the listener's need to place this laid-back, washy, slightly goofy, half-sentimental pop triumph somewhere between "been there, done that" and "that's interesting." This writer finds songs like "Corrections" sending his ears back to the golden days of Canadian indie, Eric's Trip or the Inbreds, but that could be chalked up to the similar scrappiness in recordings. Of course, songs like the title track, featuring a warm soup of Papa M-style guitar tones, look to the future (or at least present). It'll bring you back without bringing you down. 8/10 (Boss Sambosa) CD launch at Casa del Popolo, Thurs., June 7, 9pm, $5
Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush Eye of the Storm (Just a Minute/Fusion III)
Of Montreal Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: a Variety of Whimsical Verse (Kindercore)
Puffy AmiYumi Spike (Epic/Sony)
RedmanMalpractice (Def Jam/Universal) I've never been one to really front on the Redman over the years, primarily because there's not a whole lot of MCs who enjoy the underground/commercial-appeal teeter-totter like he does. With no shortage of memorable lines, Redman returns with perhaps his most clubbed-out record to date, a record that probably won't sell through the roof but will definitely remind the people at Def Jam that Reggie Noble is nothing but an asset. What MC can pull the thugs, the club-heads, the ladies and the rhyme-animals and keep them all happy? Redman. Malpractice is a loud record, thanks in part to Rockwilder, who went a little crazy this time, but there's always room for another Sooperman Lover. 7/10 (Scott C) VariousMUTEK 2001 (Mutek/Fusion III)
Various Sundays Vol. 01 (Nude/Fusion III) Sundays--an apt title for the latest offering from local label Nude, a compilation of downtempo and broken beats so sublime it could charm a tiger into a tabby cat. This collection of lazy, liquid grooves is to perfect Sunday afternoons spent doing nothing what a saucer of warm milk is to the tabby--as good as sex. The perpetrators in this crime of musical beauty are Van-city's masters in the art of aural seduction, E.D. Swankz, plus the Verbrilli Sound and Gavin Froome, and alterations by Jaffa and Hidden Agenda. 9/10 (Krista) Les Biberons Bâtis OK! C'est Correct! (Tir Groupé/Fusion III)
Olivia self-titled (BMG) In her bid to become the new ghetto queen, newcomer Olivia Longott combines the sweetness of a Toni Braxton with the roughness of a Lil' Kim. The result is an R&B style in song, a hip hop flavour in verse. Like lead single "Bizounce," Olivia represents for the females, trashing players ("Silly Bitch in Love") and slack lovers ("Woop-T-Woo"). Every now and then she delves into more romantic fare, like on tracks "It's On Again" and "When 2 Souls Touch." 7/10 (Gerard Dee) Various High Fidelity Dub Sessions presents Roots Combination (Guidance/Fusion III) Got your ears open for some soulful, ambient and progressive dub? Producer Victor Axelrod, otherwise known as Ticklah, has engineered an album that doesn't preoccupy itself with trying to capture the elusive sounds of ol' time reggae. The sounds are here, though. They just don't sound forced, like many next-generation dub-liners often sound. Ticklah assembled a group of more than capable musicians and singers to help him arrive at the finished product, all of 13 songs that work together to solidify a strong, relaxed vibe from start to finish. I wish more next-level dub mixed the sounds of old and new the way this record manages to. 7.5/10 (Scott C)
Jackie McLean A Fickle Sonance (Blue Note/EMI) Two CDs, the first a remastered 1961 session in the "Rudy Van Gelder" series, the other a 1999 outing. Common to both is the excellent drumming of the late Billy Higgins. The first consists of originals played by a quintet of McLean, Higgins, Tommy Turrentine, Sonny Clark and Butch Warren. The other is a quartet date with Cedar Walton and David Williams, all standards including the title tune and a great version of "Star Eyes." Both are first class! Both 9/10 (Len Dobbin) |
Attention, breakspotters! This is where the Dust Brothers scammed half the material for Paul's Boutique, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. From the most ignoble of origins (formed to record a single chase theme for the reprehensible film Thing With Two Heads, 1972), Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band has gone on to earn a hallowed place in the hearts of beat vultures and film-funk freaks alike. A common thread of frenzied but focused percussion ties together exercises in ballsy, brassy crime funk and acid rock (i.e. the exquisite cover of "Inna Gadda Davida"), narced-out surf reversals ("Wipeout," "Pipeline") and sprawling drum jams with titles too long and ridiculous to repeat here. As the now-legendary "Apache" illustrates, wild ambition and careful control meet over familiar tunes, to spectacular ends. 9.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Initially hyped as the pop main course to Kid A's oddball hors d'oeuvre, this hasty follow-up is essentially Kid B. It'll be no shock that the album was drawn from the same sessions as its predecessor, with little flurries of precise beats, voice-as-instrument exercises, lots of piano, atmospheric heaviosity, minimal guitar use and orchestration, and Thom Yorke's now trademark sad-sack mumblings. Kid A's "Morning Bell" is even reprised here, all chimed-up. Lacking its mother album's moments of manic energy (and shock value), Amnesiac is nevertheless another fine album with solid songs and equally solid experimental fragments. Try it with headphones. 8.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
It would be too easy to dismiss Marino as a has-been clutching at straws. Eye of the Storm shows a man returning to form after a bout with cheez metal and doing some serious out-there psychedelia. With songs clocking in at 10 or 11 minutes, there is of course a whole lot of gee-tar picking going on, but Marino seems to relish working without a net and improvises with the best of 'em. He's still copping a lot of Jimi on songs like "Learned My Lesson Well" but can also modernize, as on the title track. If you're not scared of heartfelt, extended guitar solos, you may like this. 8/10 (Johnson Cummins)
A detective story, an 18-minute piano solo and a jumble of jaunty pop with surreal lyrics and a fleet of instruments. What kind of euphoric hallucinogens have these people got their hands on? Album six by this Atlanta collective makes a mess out of innocent '60s pop, frequently skewing time signatures and instrumentation as well as injecting absurd samples they obviously concocted in "inspired" moments. The intensely busy, colourful and abundant artwork is the perfect mirror for the music, and both run the risk of bringing on intense confusion and/or "the creeps." Nice one. 7/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) At Casa del Popolo, Sun., June 10, 9pm, $12
Five years in, this Japanese duo are huge at home and moving in hard on Hong Kong, so it's high time for a proper North American domestic release. They've thrown the J-pop scene for a loop, no pun intended, by countering the sterile synth-chintz current with noisy, almost lo-fi garage rock ditties and Utopian prog-pop (Andy Sturmer, once of Jellyfish, is their svengali). Their groupie-chic fashion sense and cute mugs no doubt helped, considering that they don't so much sing as yelp enthusiastically. Special bonus: P5's Konishi Yasuharu remixes "Wild Girls on Circuit," the rambunctious number that first sold me on them. 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Mutek (myoo-t'k): 1. Annual festival which takes place in Montreal and is dedicated to exposing cutting-edge electronic music and sound creation, in the age of digital tools, to the general public. 2. CD compilation consisting of works by artists featured at this year's Mutek Festival, like Montreal's own Akufen, AELab, Jetone and Mitchell Akiyama, as well as Thomas Brinkmann, Closer Music, Jonas Bering and more. 3. Experiments in sound ranging from obscure needle scratches and blips 'n' bleeps sequenced into song to hypnotic, minimal soundscapes backed by flutters of subsonic bass. 9/10 (Krista)
Correct, according to who? This is flat out the most fucked-up thing I've heard in ages. The brainchild of the demented Satan Bélanger (aka local vinyl pimp Bruno Tanguay), this is the product of three years of basement buffoonery that would be just plain silly if it wasn't frightening and occasionally brilliant. Loads of dinky synths, some dub and a little rock raunch get Moulinexed into a confusing, almost nauseating aural mush that's anywhere from catchy bizarro-pop to excruciating noise assault. Satan Bélanger: comedy genius or unconfined nut? You decide. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) CD launch at l'Alizé, Mon., June 11, 9pm, free