Tanya Tagaq w/Paper Beat Scissors Saturday, October 25, 8pm St. Matthew’s United Church, 1479 Barrington Street $33/$35 Throat singer Tanya Tagaq is arguably our nation’s best-known Aboriginal artist. She is also one of the most successful avant-garde artists working in any medium in Canada. Considering the degree to which Canadian cultural interests tend towards the […]
Andrew Patterson
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Understanding Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is a woman who has sat gracefully at the contentious crossroads of pop culture, politics and religion for the better part of 70 years. Here is a fleeting portrait of her life, as part of the legendary family gospel group The Staple Singers. Formed in Chicago in 1948 at the behest of father […]
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Freak Heat Waves
Victoria’s Freak Heat Waves follow up its epic 2012 LP with this excellent double shot of pithy post-punk. The eponymous A-side starts with a lurching drum beat shrouded by a tender, wistful guitar line. The song blossoms slowly as its vines stretch out to dark corners, abetted by singer Steve Lind’s measured murk. As with […]
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Re:union
For all intents and purposes, humour is unexplainable. And so, when it comes to making art, it’s a dangerous tool. Though if one can learn to manipulate it well, humour can unlock all sorts of impossible spaces. It can function as a key to topics, feelings and ideas that remain otherwise beyond limits. So it […]
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tUnE-yArDs
The pop music Merrill Garbus makes as tUne-yArDs mutates many of the catchiest elements of contemporary top 40, tainting them with twisted polyrhythms, maniacal shout-outs, inventive playing and kitchen-sink lyrical content. On Nikki Nack, her third LP, Garbus retains her reputation as an auteur who is as irresistible as she is annoying. The high-gloss production […]
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Fennesz
Austria’s electroacoustic mastermind Christian Fennesz returns with his first proper LP in six years. Billed as a conceptual follow-up to his best-known album, 2001’s Endless Summer, Bécs feels more like an overview of the many intoxicating sounds Fennesz has created over the last 13 years. Ranging from sumptuous guitar-driven pieces that induce a sense of […]
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Zero Kelvin
This first collection of poetry from Halifax author Richard Norman is refreshingly diverse and consistently bracing. Norman pairs themes of subjectivity with scientific advancement, personal anecdote with ancient myth, and exotic geography with inner landscapes, resulting in poetry that is multifaceted and expansive. Many of the poems zig-zag their way towards an understanding then suggest […]
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Mac Demarco
Sleazy genius-boy Mac DeMarco returns with the follow up to his wildly successful breakout album, 2. This collection, rather than being a “difficult third album,” sees DeMarco breezing effortlessly into more mature territory. Sonically, the songs are expectantly weightless and roomy; replete with plenty of clean, chorused guitar work. Lyrically, DeMarco’s usual cheekiness is subdued […]
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Real Estate
For all the jerks who didn’t like Real Estate the first two times around, there is little consolation to be found on Atlas. In fact, in addition to remaining unfailingly “chill”, there is a distinct air of “mope” on Atlas. What’s worse (for those jerks) is that Real Estate is sooo “chill” that it’s actually […]
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Blank Realm
On the Australian trio’s fourth full-length, they do practically everything right; but nothing really “right on.” Grassed Inn is a charming record full of steady, stretched out rock songs. Throughout a protracted 45 minutes, Blank Realm’s influences float safely between the shambolic shores of Flying Nun New Zealand and the more straightforward, earnest sounds of […]
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Black Rabbit Indoor Arts Festival’s circus acts
Some people believe that black is all colours at once. The folks behind the Black Rabbit Indoor Arts Festival certainly do, and this week they are hard at work, shedding light on the vibrancy hidden within the darkness of winter. Founded in 2011 as a fundraising initiative for the White Rabbit Open Air Arts Festival […]
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Fiver
Over the phone from Sackville, NB, Simone Schmidt says that she’s “feeling good, just relaxing in a room that isn’t” hers. The Toronto-based singer is referring to her disposition during some downtime on tour, but the offhand comment functions just as well as a more symbolic statement; an inferred reference to Virginia Woolf’s feminist text […]