A musical interlude removed from a play, a score cut loose from choreography or a soundtrack excised from a favourite cartoon: apt metaphors for this album by Toca Loca, a trio comprised of pianists Gregory Oh and Halifax’s Simon Docking and percussionist Aiyun Huang—all share vocals. But it’s the non-vocal compositions (the eighth, ninth and […]
Sean Flinn
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Three Sheet
A spirited, thoughtful MC, Expedyte’s verses can get wordy at times. Occasionally he sounds hurried, behind the beat. But he nails it on, for example, “Norm Now.” Vanessa Furlong delivers throughout the album, particularly “Blood Whale” and “How it Goes.” Halifax’s Three Sheet has got something. They’ve got a human beatbox, EMC, but no kit—that […]
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Sara Angelucci’s family ties
From a long, narrow and reverberant corridor in the Loyola Building at Saint Mary’s University, visitors cross a threshold into the gallery’s quiet plain. First conscious of the evaporation of sound, gallery-goers are met by a strong but silent visual: a triptych on a table called “Questions She’ll Never Answer,” the introduction to a show […]
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Track & Trace, Zachariah Wells (Biblioasis)
Zachariah Wells (reading this Thursday with Wayne Clifford and Amy Jones, 6pm at The Company House) frequently tunes to the world in winter, searching out its subtleties with heightened sense, a pursuit implied by title, design and illustrations by Seth. The PEI native’s rural settings are recognizably Maritime, and the power of the landscape to […]
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Todor Kobakov,
This is solo piano music from a classically trained indie-rock keyboardist who’s toured with Sarah Slean and Small Sins, among others, and co-founded Major Maker. The wryly titled Pop Music from Bulgarian-born Kobakov offers mostly instrumental music, except for two songs featuring vocals and words written by singers: “Carpe Diem” by Emily Haines (whose Soft […]
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Cordell Barker’s perfect timing
Cordell Barker created a monster called The Cat Came Back. His 1988 animated short, which he made at the National Film Board, haunted him. “Oh yeah, I just lived under the shadow of that thing forever,” Barker admits on the phone from San Francisco, where later that day, he will present to Pixar. “In a […]
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Daily HPX picks: THURSDAY…must-see shows
Julie Fader The Seahorse Tavern, 1665 Argyle Street, 10pm, $10 Julie Fader never set out to be a professional musician. She wanted to go to NSCAD, but “chickened out on the move to Halifax.” Instead, she stuck around Ontario, eventually meeting Sarah Harmer and touring with her. Since then, the requests haven’t stopped for Fader’s […]
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Daily HPX picks: FRIDAY…must-see shows
Final Fantasy w/Symphony Nova Scotia Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, 6101 University Avenue, 8pm, $29-$49 Owen Pallett is so excited and he just can’t hide it. The performer, who records under the moniker Final Fantasy, is performing with Symphony Nova Scotia this Friday at the Rebecca Cohn. Pallett is as excited as his fans about the nearly […]
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Daily HPX picks: SATURDAY…must-see HPX shows
Attack in Black The Seahorse Tavern, 1665 Argyle Street, 11:40pm, $8 Attack in Black comes to Halifax in support of its 2009 album Years (By One Thousand Fingertips). The four-piece released it in March on Dine Alone Records (home to Arkells, Bedouin Soundclash, City and Colour and others). Hailing from Welland, Ontario, Attack in Black’s […]
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The Marram Grass, Anne Simpson (Gaspereau)
Poet and novelist Anne Simpson, who lives in Antigonish, uses her home turf, and other points across the province, to trod and to think through otherness in writing generally, poetry in particular. Added up, the six essays seem to suggest place is the other for this writer and, as such, helps us understand ourselves, our […]
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Friends of note
Halifax pianist Dinuk Wijeratne is welcoming an old friend and artistic ally, clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, to town. Sri Lankan-born and Dubai-raised Wijeratne and Syrian Azmeh met at Juilliard’s International House. “It was this international residence in the heart of New York. It was a huge mansion-looking building,” says Wijeratne, with “people from about 100 different […]
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Yo La Tengo
On the cheekily titled Popular Songs, the trio from Hoboken, celebrating 25 years, offers its career’s quilt-like album. All the pieces and patterns are sewn together into a beautiful, unified piece of work: spacey jam (the opener “Here to Fall”), twangy pop (“Avalon or Someone Very Similar”), spooky ballad (“By Two’s”), garage super-freakout (“Nothing To […]
