The Cansecos

Having been friends since high school, Bill Halliday and Gareth Jones, collectively known as the Cansecos, have taken their time to release their debut album. Using a combination of dying computer equipment and an old four track, they’ve taken a couple of years to construct a dozen songs that cover more ground than most albums ever do. With a background that ties them to both the Russian Futurists (their label-mates) and Manitoba (Halliday directed one of their music videos), it would be all to easy to group them all together in one big Toronto electronic music scene. But the Cansecos have more in common sonically with the Busy Signals, following a similar cut and paste philosophy of pop songs with dance beats. The problem is that the production on much of the album is very messy — the band themselves even describe it as rough, but that really isn’t the compliment that they might think. That isn’t to say that there aren’t some enjoyable moments on the Cansecos, but so many of them are hidden beneath too many layers of beats and blips that the songs don’t really stand much of a chance. The best songs, such as "This Girl And This Boy” and "A Common State Of Mind,” are those where more restraint is shown.