Sourfly

Shawn Hadley (aka Sourfly) is well known in Toronto’s underground party world. His music has rocked events such as Om and the Alieninflux Harvest Festival, not to mention countless warehouse jams around the city. His first album, The Juju Chronicles, released in 2000 consisted of tracker tweaked tracks that mashed up drum & bass with Super Mario melodies and classical riffs. Sean is all grown up now, with a studio full of high tech gadgets and even more inspiration and energy. His newest album, v3.Ktor Final continues his explorations of drum & bass and mixing all the songs into one another so the album sounds like a continuous DJ mix. While most drum & bass artists are either reproducing the latest formulas and sounds or getting so abstract that their music is considered more experimental than danceable, Sourfly finds a balance between the two worlds, creating digital jungle music that flirts with the computer realm. Dirty breaks from dusty old records are sliced and diced into impossible combinations, sitting atop resonant digi bass with the shiny sparks of electro chimes fluttering around up top, resulting in something like a reality dance video game. Hadley’s quirky sense of humour is evident in his music as he drops "plinks,” "dings” and "dongs” at a few opportune moments that makes you want to laugh out loud. At about 50 minutes, it’s also the type of album you can drop into your cans for a soundtrack as you ride the rocket to work or while rockin’ roller blades downtown. This is a really fun and enjoyable listen.