Lhasa
The Living Road (Audiogram/Select)
The six years since her debut La Llorona have taken Montreal's celebrated, polyglot chanteuse Lhasa de Sela far and wide, including a hit-and-run circus tour through France with her family. This follow-up likewise takes the listener on a trip, touching down at a Mexican cantina ("La Frontera"), a Saharan souk ("Anywhere on This Road"), a Parisian boîte ("J'arrive à la ville") and Tom Wait's ramshackle digs (the obvious tribute "Small Song"). By journey's end, the quiet yet powerful "Soon This Space Will Be Too Small," however, she's brought us to a place that's at once indefinable and exquisitely real. Her voice, suggesting a sensible older sister for Björk, breathes rich life into her ruminations on love, loss and wanderlust. Welcome home, Lhasa. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
The Strokes
Room on Fire (RCA/BMG)
On one of the year's most anticipated, and now most scrutinized records, the Strokes nearly retread the lucky trail set down on their banner debut, Is This It?, diverging from formula by muting their post-punk/rock 'n' roll influences. It's a positive move for any band, but slack melodies and fromage-FM tracks like "Under Control" leave a new-Coke aftertaste in this case, especially in the face of their debut's staying power. Tight songs and sweet moments are still in the house ("Reptilia," "12:51" etc.), they're just rooming with as much filler as any above-average major label LP. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
Iggy Pop
Skull Ring (Virgin/EMI)
Various
Buddyhead Presents: Gimme Skelter (Nettwerk)
Iggy's ferocious new joint is really an "and friends" deal. You got payback from Peaches for Pop's poppin' up on her latest, you got Sum 41 and Green Day backing the man (better than you'd think), but best of all you got Mr. Osterberg reunited with the Asheton brothers on four tracks. I repeat, four new Stooges tracks, sounding fresh off Funhouse, sweet Jesus. Fuck, yeah! Pop's also your mouthy master of ceremonies for the comp from the Buddyhead e-zine/label. His rants punctuate a spread of nasty rockist racket, obscure material from Mudhoney, Cave In, Le Tigre, Primal Scream, Weezer, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more faves of those dinks at Buddyhead. Plus, check the Iggy interview with B.C. boob supreme Nardwuar - funny shit! Skull Ring 8.5/10, Gimme Skelter 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Les Pugilists
Gimme Some Kicks (Local)
Hmmmm, this sounds oddly familiar. These Montreal greaseballs have been caught kneeling at the altar of Tricky Woo's The Enemy Is Real, but cover their tracks by throwing in some duelling leads à la Glucifer. What's this? Ex-Tricky Wooer Adrian Popovich is in the production chair? The plot thickens. What les Pugilists may lack in originality, they more than make up for in blood and sweat as this rock 'n' roll juggernaut doesn't let off the gas for a second. Along with le Nombre and l'Attack, les Pugilists are leading the Montreal rock revolution. This stuff must be smoking live. 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
KMFDM
WWIII (Sanctuary/BMG)
With their 15th album, KMFDM's approach is anything but formulated and comfortable. Leaning heavily on the talents of their live show musicians from last year's Attak tour, KMFDM's sound has a fresh ferocity of drum-and-bass-heavy industrial mayhem. With raw tag-team vocals, harmonica solos (!) buried under angry guitars and the use of live drums for the entire recording process, WWIII rips into America's depthless appetite for destruction with tracks like "Jihad," "WWIII," "Stars & Stripes" and "Moron" (about guess who?). A definite and welcome flip on their sound. 8/10 (Lateef Martin)
Métal Urbain
Anarchy in Paris! (Acute/Carpark)
With a sound wedged between Suicide's synth wreck and the Sex Pistols' punk furor, Métal Urbain whipped up their own late-'70s anarchy, stunning French crowds with fierce lyrics and the metal machine sounds of two guitars, a synth and a drum machine. This disc compiles nearly all their recordings, 24 tracks taped on the fly, when finances allowed. Songs like "Lady Coca Cola" and "Panik" should rightly share status with "Ghost Rider" and "No Feelings," while "Paris Maquis" marks post-punk history as the single that launched Rough Trade Records. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) With Books on Tape at la Sala Rossa, Mon., Nov. 10, 9pm, $10/$12
Men Without Hats
No Hats Beyond This Point (Cloud 9/Fusion III)
Montreal's erstwhile synth-pop superstars, the Doroschuk bros., return just in time to catch the tail end of the '80s revival. And they have every right to, having ditched the guitarist grunge-pop that marked their '90s efforts. Granted, there are no clear hits here in the vein of "Safety Dance" or even "Pop Goes the World," but there are the snappy melodies and deadpan wit - note the twist on the Buggles' famous epitaph in "Telepathy." The fans (and there are more than you'd think) are already digging this, so hats off to Ivan and Stef for a respectable return. 7/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Atmosphere
Seven's Travels (Epitaph/FAB)
With Seven's Travels, Atmosphere's Slug and Ant are sitting on their fourth studio record, and their first album on seminal punk label Epitaph. Slug is still the sharpest knife in an underground hip hop enterprise that recognizes the power of artists like Aesop Rock and Non-Prophets, filling his rhymes with self-referential criticisms, clever observations, girls, and some plain ol' funny shit. Ant does a great job creating a seamless link between Slug's poetic ramblings and his multifaceted productions, making for a consistent and unified album that leaves you with a few things to think about, and a few songs stuck in your head. 8.5/10 (Scott C) With Mr. Dibbs, Micranots, Oddjobs and more at SAT tonight, Thurs., Nov. 6, 8:30pm, $20
Charizma & Peanut Butter
Wolf Big Shots (Stones Throw/Koch)
While unearthing the unreleased goodies of dead MCs seems to have become an industry within hip hop itself, the fresh, early-'90s collaborations of Peanut Butter Wolf and deceased rapper Charizma are only now seeing a full-length release. Charizma died in 1993, right before Big Shots was supposed to be released on Hollywood Basic, and I can only guess that PB Wolf waited this long for a release out of respect. This record is comparable to other early '90s productions, with catchy choruses, familiar loops and breaks, and the good intentions of harmless MC Charizma. Interesting, though, that this was PB Wolf's first hip hop project, finally being released on his own now widely respected Stones Throw label. 7/10 (Scott C)
Egg
Don't Postpone Joy (Mutek_Rec)
So somebody explain to me how, after only being around a little over a year, Julien Roy and Guillame Coutu-Dumont could have come up with an album so consistent, focused and, in a word, good. Well, I suppose it has something to do with Roy's past experience as a new media artist and Coutu-Dumont's past as a digital sound artist and percussionist on the avant-jazz scene. While their creds sound highbrow, their music is not. Take the playful stuttered sample style of Akufen, rinse it out with some Basic Channel dub, add some obscure influences like spaghetti westerns and scramble it up with humour and a playful spirit and you've got Egg. 7.5/10 (Raf Katigbak)
Ghislain Poirier
Conflits (Intr_version)
The follow-up to Poirier's excellent Intr_version debut Sous le manguier is aptly named. Most obvious is the split personality he's been developing over the last year, that of the minimal soundscape technician versus the experimental spoken-word Québécois hip-hop artist. Each track offsets the next teetering between his two worlds of dense, instrumental, operatic DSP layers and minimalist hip hop beats and Québécois ranting. As a rule I'm not a fan of the spoken-word style but the instrumental tracks are fucking gorgeous, with lush classical samples colliding over stripped-down, off-kilter beats. With his production skills nailed down and his abstract vocal style still developing, it'll be interesting to see what Poirier comes up with next. 7.5/10 (Raf Katigbak) CD launch with vitaminsforyou at Casa del Popolo, Sat., Nov. 8, 9pm, $3
Joss Stone
The Soul Sessions (S-Curve/EMI)
Take a British teenage girl and some classic songs, add some legendary singers and voilà, the latest incarnation of blue-eyed soul. True, recent years have seen the likes of Thick, Remy Shand, hell, even Justin Timberlake take a stab at R&B, but this is special. Surrounded by the likes of '70s soul legends Latimore and Betty Wright and legends-in-the-making Angie Stone and the Roots, Stone's impressive pipes liberally rip into gems like "The Chokin' Kind" and Aretha's "All the King's Horses" with magnificent abandon. And Wright & company provide the kind of production and backing vocals singers only dream of. This jam session is not to be missed. 8.5/10 (Gerard Dee)
Michel Donato
Jazz en liberté (Just a Memory/Fusion III)
Mr. Donato ranks as one of Canada's premier bassists - who else has played with Oscar Peterson, Oliver Jones, Paul Bley and Bill Evans? He was 26 when this recording was done for the radio show Jazz en liberté and it finds him in some heavy company. The influential Claude Ranger is here on drums and a duet entitled "Alone With the Bass" would be an exciting place to begin listening. As well, the late, great, little recorded saxophonist Brian Barley and the unsung trumpeter Alan Penfold make this one to own. The contents include a trio piece (sans Penfold) and five quartet tracks with music by Wayne Shorter, Chuck Wayne, Steve Goldburg, Ranger and Donato. An important rediscovery! 10/10 (Len Dobbin)
Mini CD Reviews
Geoff Muldaur Private Astronomy (Edge Music/Universal) An interesting look at music associated with Bix Beiderbecke. 8.5 (LD)
Sub-Conscious "Bezerkowitz"/"Good Combination" 12" (Matic/Fatbeats) Breeze Brewin and DJ Eli get dirty with a two-sider on the hush hush. 7.5 (SC)
Isobel Campbell Amorino (Instinct) This ex-Belle & Sebastian/ Gentle Waves damsel does it solo with pretty-in-pink chamber pop and jazzy tangents. 7.5 (LC)
Doves Lost Sides (Heavenly/EMI) A diverse companion piece to The Last Broadcast, with only a handful of tracks worthy of their B status. 7 (LC)
Various Haggard soundtrack (Sanctuary/EMI) Stooges, Clutch and New Order, fine, but it's fictional band Gnar Kill's stab at Turbonegro's "I Got Erection" that is the real winner here. 7 (JC)
Los Lonely Boys self-titled (OR/Sony) These three brothers switch gears, from Tex/Mex blues to country to pop, with ease. 7 (JC)
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