Young JeezyIn a nightclub, real gunshots sound distinctly different than the studio-concocted bass-heavy blasts sometimes used to gussy up rap records. They sound more hollow, crisper, quieter. And everyone scatters and ducks and remembers precisely where the nearest exit is. We spoke to Atlanta trap...
SkydiggersWe last heard from Toronto, ON roots-rock veterans Skydiggers with their 2009 album, The Truth About Us. That was a career retrospective, while this superb new outing (their eighth studio album) confirms that their creative juices are still flowing freely. There are nods to the past also,...
SpiritualizedFew artists have the right to moan about struggling to finish an album the way Jason Pierce does. In 2008, he released Songs in A&E, an album completed while he was recovering from a life-threatening bout of Periorbital cellulitis with bilateral pneumonia. If that wasn't enough, he was...
Hilltop HoodsWhile Adelaide-based rap group Hilltop Hoods are veterans of the rap scene in their native Australia, with 15 years in the game and several ARIA awards, they're relative newcomers to North America. Their latest album, Drinking from the Sun, is their first album with major label distribution...
-16-Miserable people worldwide who listen to miserable music had a pretty good year in 2009, as Los Angeles' sludge/downer-rock trailblazers -16- returned with Bridges to Burn after not releasing an album since 2003's Zoloft Smile. Now they're back with their second post-hiatus offering,...
Eamon McGrathOn his third album proper, Eamon McGrath blazes a jingoistic path in an attempt to capture what defines Canada and its music. And while it's up for debate as to whether the album lives up to such lofty ambitions, there's no doubt that Young Canadians is easily McGrath's best effort yet. More...
Paradise LostParadise Lost, as part of the original unholy trinity of UK gothic doom, have a great deal of history to live up to. The band's path forward from those illustrious origins hasn't always been obvious, but it's hard not to respect their tenacity. Nearly 25 years into their career, Paradise Lost...
THEESatisfactionAs a hip-hop-flavoured act on venerable label Sub Pop, you're automatically going to create some type of buzz. Doubly so if you're actually any good and Seattle, WA's THEESatifaction fit that bill. "Starting out, we just basically made music for ourselves and we were happy with doing that," says...
SaukratesTo say this record has been a long time coming would be an understatement. Saukrates has been an influential and continually relevant fixture in Canadian hip-hop since he first emerged back in 1994, yet Season One is only his second full-length album, following 1999's The Underground...
TorcheCertain bands are blessed with the ability to get substantially better with each consecutive release, and Miami's Torche are one of them. Harmonicraft is the group's full-length follow-up to 2008's acclaimed Meanderthal, and they've once again surpassed expectations, while distancing...
Mares Of Thrace On the RoadWhat makes a pilgrimage different from a journey is the implicit process of transformation. For Thérèse Lanz of Calgary doom-noise duo Mares of Thrace, 2012 is all about movement and change. The vocalist and baritone guitarist will tour North America with drummer Stef MacKichan, then move to...
CFCF Building ExercisesMontreal's Michael Silver, otherwise known as CFCF, isn't one for standing still musically, constantly drawing on different genres and bringing an eclectic array of influences into his sound. His debut, Continent, was an album of downtempo electronica incorporating synth wave, disco and...
Death Grips' Dystopian EpicWhile the music industry is still adapting to the brave new world, rap moguls just might have figured out the secret: work with the web, not against it. That's why we've seen underground greats like Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, Azealia Banks and most notably A$AP Rocky secure lucrative deals that will...
Catl. Leave the HerdWatching a great band evolve is fascinating and it's particularly compelling when it comes to Toronto's catl, a trio steeped in blues tradition yet refreshingly idiosyncratic. Spearheaded by Jamie Fleming and Sarah Kirkpatrick with new drummer/ex-Deadly Snake Andrew Moszynski, catl. gained notice...
Patrick Watson The BackyardigansIt's a seeming disconnect when Patrick Watson states that fourth album, Adventures in Your Backyard, functions as both a "back to basics" record and one designed to blow the band's previous three efforts out of the water. The Montreal singer-songwriter's career thrives on such wholesome...
EstelleAfter the massive success that was 2008's "American Boy" with Kanye West, there was nowhere for singer (and sometime rapper) Estelle to go but up. Or down. But if there ever was any pressure for the London-born artist, she's not stressing it. Now based and working Stateside with artists such as...
The Ting TingsThe Ting Tings' multi-platinum debut, We Started Nothing, offered catchy, frenetic pop ditties that proved fun for club freak-outs, cross-training and everything in between. Jules de Martino and Katie White became overnight sensations thanks in equal measure to their sound and the ethos...
Atom™Do I detect the tiniest hint of 21st century rhythmic gratification with this excellent new Atom™ disc? Certainly this record has less of a rigorous factor than Liedgut, his "lied"-off release on Raster Noton a few years ago. But it's pretty clear the old drum & bass Atom™ is never coming...
Author of 'Fela: The Life and Times of an African Music Icon' Michael VealThe Fela Kuti brand, as his son Seun refers to it, has only grown more powerful since the man's passing in 1997. Live In Detroit 1986 is the first new Fela album since the '90s and certainly the first since Fela! the Broadway musical spread his name to far more people than ever...
LALThe fact that, back in the day, three kids from Canada chose to buck the all-encompassing rock and hip-hop trend to craft introspective world music may just tell you something about LAL's level of sophistication. The T.O. trio's fourth proper release, and first since 2008's conceptual triumph,...
POP & ROCK: Beach House - Bloom
In a nightclub, real gunshots sound distinctly different than the studio-concocted bass-heavy blasts sometimes used to gussy up rap records. They sound more hollow, crisper, quieter. And everyone scatters and ducks and remembers precisely where the nearest exit is. We spoke to Atlanta trap...
We last heard from Toronto, ON roots-rock veterans Skydiggers with their 2009 album, The Truth About Us. That was a career retrospective, while this superb new outing (their eighth studio album) confirms that their creative juices are still flowing freely. There are nods to the past also,...
Few artists have the right to moan about struggling to finish an album the way Jason Pierce does. In 2008, he released Songs in A&E, an album completed while he was recovering from a life-threatening bout of Periorbital cellulitis with bilateral pneumonia. If that wasn't enough, he was...
While Adelaide-based rap group Hilltop Hoods are veterans of the rap scene in their native Australia, with 15 years in the game and several ARIA awards, they're relative newcomers to North America. Their latest album, Drinking from the Sun, is their first album with major label distribution...
Miserable people worldwide who listen to miserable music had a pretty good year in 2009, as Los Angeles' sludge/downer-rock trailblazers -16- returned with Bridges to Burn after not releasing an album since 2003's Zoloft Smile. Now they're back with their second post-hiatus offering,...
On his third album proper, Eamon McGrath blazes a jingoistic path in an attempt to capture what defines Canada and its music. And while it's up for debate as to whether the album lives up to such lofty ambitions, there's no doubt that Young Canadians is easily McGrath's best effort yet. More...
Paradise Lost, as part of the original unholy trinity of UK gothic doom, have a great deal of history to live up to. The band's path forward from those illustrious origins hasn't always been obvious, but it's hard not to respect their tenacity. Nearly 25 years into their career, Paradise Lost...
As a hip-hop-flavoured act on venerable label Sub Pop, you're automatically going to create some type of buzz. Doubly so if you're actually any good and Seattle, WA's THEESatifaction fit that bill. "Starting out, we just basically made music for ourselves and we were happy with doing that," says...
To say this record has been a long time coming would be an understatement. Saukrates has been an influential and continually relevant fixture in Canadian hip-hop since he first emerged back in 1994, yet Season One is only his second full-length album, following 1999's The Underground...
Certain bands are blessed with the ability to get substantially better with each consecutive release, and Miami's Torche are one of them. Harmonicraft is the group's full-length follow-up to 2008's acclaimed Meanderthal, and they've once again surpassed expectations, while distancing...
What makes a pilgrimage different from a journey is the implicit process of transformation. For Thérèse Lanz of Calgary doom-noise duo Mares of Thrace, 2012 is all about movement and change. The vocalist and baritone guitarist will tour North America with drummer Stef MacKichan, then move to...
Montreal's Michael Silver, otherwise known as CFCF, isn't one for standing still musically, constantly drawing on different genres and bringing an eclectic array of influences into his sound. His debut, Continent, was an album of downtempo electronica incorporating synth wave, disco and...
While the music industry is still adapting to the brave new world, rap moguls just might have figured out the secret: work with the web, not against it. That's why we've seen underground greats like Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, Azealia Banks and most notably A$AP Rocky secure lucrative deals that will...
Watching a great band evolve is fascinating and it's particularly compelling when it comes to Toronto's catl, a trio steeped in blues tradition yet refreshingly idiosyncratic. Spearheaded by Jamie Fleming and Sarah Kirkpatrick with new drummer/ex-Deadly Snake Andrew Moszynski, catl. gained notice...
It's a seeming disconnect when Patrick Watson states that fourth album, Adventures in Your Backyard, functions as both a "back to basics" record and one designed to blow the band's previous three efforts out of the water. The Montreal singer-songwriter's career thrives on such wholesome...
After the massive success that was 2008's "American Boy" with Kanye West, there was nowhere for singer (and sometime rapper) Estelle to go but up. Or down. But if there ever was any pressure for the London-born artist, she's not stressing it. Now based and working Stateside with artists such as...
The Ting Tings' multi-platinum debut, We Started Nothing, offered catchy, frenetic pop ditties that proved fun for club freak-outs, cross-training and everything in between. Jules de Martino and Katie White became overnight sensations thanks in equal measure to their sound and the ethos...
Do I detect the tiniest hint of 21st century rhythmic gratification with this excellent new Atom™ disc? Certainly this record has less of a rigorous factor than Liedgut, his "lied"-off release on Raster Noton a few years ago. But it's pretty clear the old drum & bass Atom™ is never coming...
The Fela Kuti brand, as his son Seun refers to it, has only grown more powerful since the man's passing in 1997. Live In Detroit 1986 is the first new Fela album since the '90s and certainly the first since Fela! the Broadway musical spread his name to far more people than ever...
The fact that, back in the day, three kids from Canada chose to buck the all-encompassing rock and hip-hop trend to craft introspective world music may just tell you something about LAL's level of sophistication. The T.O. trio's fourth proper release, and first since 2008's conceptual triumph,...
