Chris Bell

It is a bit of a challenge to deduce whether Dunnville, ON, native Chris Bell is the creative alma mater of the heavy melodic band Chore, or vice-versa. Seemingly out of nowhere, Bell emerges on his own with one of Canada's most serious and strongest debut solo albums to date, and one that places him alongside enigmatic major-minor note shuffling greats, such as the Rheostatics, Bob Pollard, Neil Young, Chris Cornell and even Jeff Buckley, for a potent dose of the old soaring spirit. Keeping things a little on the eerie and reflective side, Bell's unique mix of slightly leftfield, rurally reflective, nouveau electro folk pop with occasionally palpitating time signatures is almost futuristic, yet aged and traditional at the same time. And given that Bell resides in Dunnville, one could imagine him crafting these songs while sitting in the shadow of a behemoth satellite dish, engulfed by a landscape that has been relatively untouched for 200 years. Bell also by far exceeds the requirements of the sometimes limiting singer/songwriter genre - on this album he plays every instrument, with additional keyboard and guitar atmospherics provided by producer/engineer Erik Culp (the Atomic Cosmonaut), and interweaves the tracks like a open-ended story with emotional instrumental passages that prepares the listener for one of the many lyrically cerebral, witty and unpretentious numbers. Fans of Chore will also be pleased to find and hear re-examinations of their television "hits," "General Warning" and "Aloha," in all their psychedelic waltzing splendour. The Canadian album of the year!