CBC Studio H has played host to many local artists’ album-making.
Smokin’ Contra Band checked in as one of the latest to work with
producer Glenn Meisner and Patrick Martin, who records and mixes. The
Meisner/Martin sound favours a polished, balanced mix. On Slim
Pickins, the ragged edges of a fun, feisty folk/traditional band
disappear. Too often Smokin’ Contra Band sound restrained, sewn up too
tight, when they’re likely not playing that way. Take the second track,
“Pig in the City,” for example: While it’s a searing song about
growing condo-gentrification, commercialization and political
machinations that pivots on Amy Lounder’s excellent voice and
fiddle-playing, the anger of the allegory is lost. All types of tone
(room, instrumental, emotional, whatever) have to sync up.
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2009.