Sonny Vincent
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (Acetate)
Whaddaya mean, you haven't heard of Sonny Vincent? One of the punk pioneers, Vincent has been laying it down fast and furious since the glory days of '77. On this release Vincent has enlisted the help of Stooge Scott Asheton, the Damned's Captain Sensible, MC5er Wayne Kramer, Greg Ginn, Richard Lloyd, Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke and further punk rock relics, more than you could shake a stick. This is the real thing - down 'n' dirty, sleazy NYC punk rawk from a man who was there when it really counted. The guitar slinging from Richard Lloyd, or Voidoids' Ivan Kroll and Bob Quine and the rest of the all-star lineup, are worth the price of admission alone. Really fucking great. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins) With Rocket From the Crypt and the Sexareenos at Cabaret, Tues., Mar. 25, 9pm, $16.50
The Mystery Girls
Mystery Girls (Trick Knee)
Kick-ass, stompin' garage with a honkin' harp that just won't quit. It figures something this good would come from a culturally desolate place like Green Bay, Wisconsin. If you close your eyes, you would swear you were listening to the best Back From the Grave comp yet. The Mystery Girls don't let up the rave-up throughout, which is a good thing 'cause instead of wasting time tugging at your heartstrings, they'd rather try to hook up with your little sister. If you miss the days when the Makers still kicked ass and Electric Frankenstein weren't the poor man's AC/DC, then you are going to love this. It's good to hear some rock again whose primary goal is to get wasted and laid - not necessarily in that order. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins) With the Cut Offs and BBQ at Barfly, Thurs., Mar. 27, 9pm
Bob Log III
Log Bomb (Fat Possum/FAB)
Turn up the "Hey!" - here's the latest from Tuscon, Arizona's helmet-headed army of one. The BL3 technical layout remains unshaken - bass drum with one foot, cymbal with the other, nasty slide guitar and a mic in his crash helmet. The budgetronic blues implosion he generates again carries his sermons about liquor, breasts and… uh, other stuff I can't make sense of. Liquor and breasts, anyway - beware his new "boob scotch" notion. Any way you slice it, this discount Dionysus brings it on in a trailer-park fabulous manner. He's a professional, goddamnit! He lives in a car! 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) With Bebe & Serge at la Sala Rossa
Turin Brakes
Ether Song (Virgin)
It's amazing how England turns out the same bands again and again, and no longer in palatable 20-year intervals. After arena-sized success with their relatively twee, acoustic debut, this duo hired L.A. producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air, Supergrass, etc) to beef up their folk with a wall of piano, guitars, cymbals and electronic flutters (yes, we're modern!). They attempt to sew themselves onto the same cloth as Radiohead and Coldplay, but Turin Brakes barely manage an electric Starsailor, with mewling vocals that irritate, lyrics that say nothing, and songs you've heard over and over. 4.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
Barzin
self-titled (Where Are My Records)
As we've come to expect from WAMR, this debut by Toronto's Barzin and friends is a minimal, tranquil folk album that seems to have fallen out of time. Its guitars, softly cut vocals and moaning and droning keyboards form melancholy textures that drip like January molasses, suggesting classic Canadian and British folk while remaining modern, if only for its dangerously slow pulse. Barzin murmurs about the sea, the moon and all things blue, like late night intimations from one of those poetry-toting college guys, the one you secretly had a crush on. 7/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) CD launch at Casa del Popolo, Sat., March 22, 9pm
Hanin Elias
No Games No Fun (Fatal/Fusion III)
Atari Teenage Riot's screamy mannequin-bot unfurls her sophomore solo disc with a kitchen full of iron chefs, including the inevitable Alec Empire, Khan, Merzbow and J. Mascis. There's plonking organ horror, Autobahn hip hop, noize punk, electro funk, robo-smut, spastic fuzz rock, acidic dance and a Joy Division tribute (or "Heart and Soul" à la Elias). Along with her producer/co-writer C.H.I.F.F.R.E, Elias curates a tasty buffet, but a few dishes are more funny and foul than actually edible, like a jiggling jello sculpture with a severed hand inside. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
DJ Muggs
Dust (Anti-/FAB)
Breaking away from the smoked-out gangsta grooves of Cypress Hill, prolific producer DJ Muggs trips out on more of a Pink Floyd tip on his first solo album. Here we find blunted rock tracks anchored with a hazy hip hop flavour, if only in spirit. More often than not, it takes the listener through inspired trip hop by way of distorted guitars and dusty beats, enlisting the vocal help of Greg Dulli, Everlast, Amy Trujillo (whose breathy voice is reminiscent of Curve's Toni Halliday) and Josh Todd, who gets a little irritating after awhile. On the other side of the hill lies the rock equivalent to what Muggs has been doing for years in hip hop: setting the mood for that midnight joint. 7.5/10 (Lateef Martin)
Hexstatic
Solid Steel Presents: Listen & Learn (Ninja Tune/Outside)
Aside from the loopy bonus video for their quirky tune "Telemetron" (which kicks off this mix), what we have here is Ninja's audio-visual astronauts Hexstatic (Stuart Hill and Robin Brunson) going strictly sonic and losing nothing for it. An hour of beats, bumps, bells and whistles assembled for Ninja's Solid Steel radio show, Listen & Learn blends the finest in vintage soul, reggae and hip hop (Ike & Tina, Toots and Grandmaster Flash) with au-courant electronica, Ninja niceties and assorted odd noises - porn loops, sounds of science, cartoon weirdness and the frankly overused instructional-record samples (enough of that, please). The gimmicks, surprises and secret compartments hidden herein demand many repeat listens - so get learned! 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Beans
Tomorrow Right Now (Warp/Outside)
With the recent demise of Anti Pop Consortium, you may have thought that the alternate universe of hip hop hyperbole might suffer from the absence of such distinct voices. Fortunately for those of you with an ear for the progressive heads, it's only now that the individual expressions of Beans, one third of the equation, can take centre stage. Beans takes his slam-poet flow and applies it liberally to some lo-fi constructs, demonstrating a passion for playful delivery and unconventional beats. This self-proclaimed "new wave vandal" seems determined to challenge the bounds of thought provoking music, with his own deftly fashioned disregard for what we may want, or need, to hear in 2003. 7/10 (Scott C)
Sixtoo
Antagonist Survival Kit (Vertical Form)
You were probably standing next to Vaughn Robert Squire (aka Sixtoo) at the drugstore the other day when you were buying condoms. While you went home to call non-existent prospects, he took his mundane brush with you and turned it into gold. As far as I can see, at least a portion of the Antagonist Survival Kit was realized right here in Montreal, taking the routine thought process, destroying it, rebuilding and finally questioning the finished product. The result is a microscopic examination of everything we take for granted, explored through some truly haunting beats. However brooding and cynical Sixtoo comes across, it's very clear that he's already picked the lock on the French doors of perception. This is hip hop initiative at its foundation. 8/10 (Scott C)
Lory D
Sounds Never Seen (Rephlex)
Owner of the Italian techno label Sounds Never Seen, and ex-Italian DMC champ, Lory D has just released a comp of some of his darker, harder techno tracks on Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records. Counting Aphex Twin, Suicide, Drexciya and UR among his influences, Lory D hits hard, moving from haunting, pounding techno to fucked-up, abstract electro breaks to driving Detroit electro-soul and horrorcore. He covers a lot of ground and covers it well. This is an unapologetic and uncompromising release from one of Italy's finest. Perfect for fans of all things fucked up, dark and heavy. 8/10 (Raf Katigbak)
The Soft Pink Truth
Do You Party? (Soundslike/Fusion III)
Anyone who thinks laptop nerds don't know how to rock a party should run out and grab this joint on Matthew Herbert's Soundslike label. Daniel is probably better known as half of San Fran experimental sound duo Matmos, but as TSPT he takes his sonic experiments into different territory - booty territory. Do You Party? is 11 tracks of twisted dancefloor funk meeting laptop punk (including a sweet cover of Vanity 6's shit-hot electro classic "Make Up," featuring the guest vocal stylings of Bevin Blechdom). Playful, funky and expertly produced, it's exactly what you'd expect from a Soundslike release. This is dancefloor plunderphonics at its best - find it and get ready to boogie! 9/10 (Raf Katigbak)
Various
Conception: An Interpretation of Stevie Wonder's Songs (Motown/Universal)
Remaking Stevie songs is like trying to re-invent the wheel - there might be some interesting additions, but it'll never be as significant as the original. The line-up here is stellar, but none of these tributes come close to Wonder's interpretations. There are some intriguing takes, nonetheless. Joe and Mr. Cheeks add a playful twist to "That Girl," Angie Stone give a smoky jazz vibe to "You Will Know" and Stephan Marley et al add reggae layers to Wonder's "Master Blaster" vibe. But performances like Musiq's limited take of "Visions" only proves that Wonder is still a class unto himself. 7/10 (Gerard Dee)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Ella and Louis Again (Verve/Universal)
Ben Webster
Soulville (Verve/Universal)
The Oscar Peterson trio (Ray Brown and Herb Ellis) is common to both these 1957 sessions, joined by Louis Bellson on the former and Stan Levey on the latter. The first, a double CD, teams two of the great jazz vocalists in a follow-up to their first successful get-together. This one has delights like Gershwin's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and George's swan song, "Our Love Is Here to Stay." The latter adds three tracks of Webster at the piano (his first instrument) to some great, throaty tenor-playing on gems like "Time on My Hands" and the title track. Both are new 20-bit transfers of items that are staples in any jazz collection. Both 10/10 (Len Dobbin)
Slide Hampton Spirit of the Horn (MCG Jazz/Universal) » A feast - Slide and Bill Watrous, joined by another dozen trombone players, on some great charts. 9.5 (LD)
Soundclash Champion Sound (independent) » Hove hones the jazz kung-fu and goes head to head with P-Love, New York style. 8 (SC)
Andrew Duke Highest Common Denominator (Piehead) » Halifax producer offers up some nice, minimal collabs and gives Aaliyah, Chicks on Speed and Pink Floyd the dubbed-out remix treatment. 7 (RK)
The Thermals More Parts Per Million (Sub Pop/Outside) » Sub-par Sub Pop that brings out the nag in you. Clean your room! 6 (LC)
Budapest Too Blind to Hear (Republic/Universal) » Too bored to care. 4 (LC)
Various Happy 2b Hardcore Chapter Seven (Moonshine/Koch) » Remember that time when you fell off your bike into a pit of broken glass and poo? This is worse. 2 (RK)
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