Happy Pop Family (Mint) Two years after its ambitious Mint Records debut, Monomyth has returned with a new rhythm section and a nimble, buoyant new album, Happy Pop Family. Two thousand fourteen’s Saturnalia Regalia saw the band honing in on a slick, spindly style of guitar pop that sanded down some of its rougher edges. […]
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Review: Old & Weird/New Fries split EP
Last Friday, Toronto’s Pleasance Records released a seven-inch split with four new songs by Halifax’s Old & Weird and Toronto’s New Fries, bands that are different in approach, but alike in the methods by which they’re challenging convention. Honestly, this seven-inch super-rocks. There’s a pretty good chance you’ve never heard anything like it, probably ever. […]
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Review: Alana Yorke
Titled “The Wichita Years,” Alana Yorke’s opening track is a delicious entry point. A whirlpool of strings shows how ubiquitous Owen Pallett’s influence has become. Yorke sings about a film inside her head, inviting random reverie. If she reminds you of a certain Irish priestess of the ethereal, then it’s unanimous. Yorke’s vocals are less adorned […]
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Basia Bulat, Heart of My Own (Secret City)
The follow-up to her Polaris-nominated 2007 debut, Bulat’s sunshiny voice is again the crowning jewel of the record. This is a louder, more orchestrated record, with strings, brass and percussion appended to her own guitar and autoharp, rollicking numbers like “Gold Rush” and “If Only You” punctuated by more raucous drumbeats (provided by Bulat’s brother […]
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The Abramson Singers
Though it may sound like The Abramson Singers could pack a room like the Von Trapp kids, really it’s only Leah Abramson and her angelic voice singing most of the parts, accompanied by her Vancouver jazz musician friends. Abramson recorded her a cappella vocal pieces in organza-like layers—the harmonies build and then dance away in […]
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Lee Fields
There is always room in the world for the likes of Lee Fields and albums like this. Released last year in Canada as an import, My World got a domestic date right up against the holiday rush (and all the attendant hyped-up releases). This is some real R&B/sweet soul right here. After all, Fields has […]
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Mushkat
Why isn’t Mushkat more talked about? Even in our tiny pond, overrun with schools of singer-songwriters, Bill Travis stands out. With a Ben Lee-like voice, Travis effortlessly moves from traditional singer-songwriter pop to perfect bossa nova, smoky cool jazz and quiet folk. The lyrics tend toward didactic, with environmental themes that can be a bit […]
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Forro in the Dark
Four Brazilian ex-pats filter forró (a syncopated rhythmic music originating in mainly rural northeastern Brazil) through their lives and experiences in New York. On this follow-up to its 2006 debut, Bonfires of São João, the band comes into its own. Guilherme Monteiro’s contributions come to mind as the true badge of the band at this […]