From the forced pregnancy of Aaron Levin:
Frenetic, heavy, and relentless art-punk from Toronto featuring the gif-conjuring shrieking of illustrator and Weird Canada logo-creator Leslie Predy. Induced Labour’s debut c4 (!!) is a pulverizing tour through cassette-hell; a face-smashing, ankle-snapping, crouton-crushing puke-punk heaven. Gorge yourself in the glory of their ritual.
Induced Labour – All Flesh is Grass
Induced Labour – Reality Breakdown [No Trend cover]

From the seductive text of Joni Sadler:
After playing in numerous Ottawa bands over the past decade, Mark Alexander McIntyre has finally gone and released a solo record. As it turns out, Situs Inversus Totalis was worth the wait: McIntyre’s slow-burn acid folk possesses a unique and eerie sense of timelessness that is rare in so much of the music being produced today. Waves of queasy feedback stand in nice contrast to simple acoustic guitar and sparse vocals, and the whole record – right down to its plain cardboard sleeve and Xeroxed liner notes – remains nicely minimal in style. Ultimately, McIntyre channels the influences of sonic bros like Greg Ashley and Sir Richard Bishop through a haze of druggy sadness so damn well that all we’re left wondering is why it took him so bloody long to make a solo album in the first place.
Mark Alexander McIntyre – My April
Mark Alexander McIntyre – Reflections

From the Russian imports of Aaron Levin:
These two Russian hippie-bros emigrate to Ontario and release an album celebrating the pastoral scenery of their new home. With thick, stilted Ruskie accents and strange instruments (Cordovox?) they weaved twelve streams of folk-rock textures in dedication to our unique landscape. Their foreign perspective is the album’s greatest strength; take their journey and visualize the vast industrial heartland through outside, lysergic eyes. The resulting innocence, both serene and moving, place the Brazda Brothers alongside other nationalized fringe-folk canon whose trails into uncharted territory shaped our anomalous soundscape (Riverson, Ptarmigan, PCC, etc). The band claims that 5,000 copies were pressed but the number of known copies states otherwise. Released on a budget label concerned mostly with fiddle and children LPs. I flipped my lid when I found a sealed copy of this!
The Brazda Brothers – Gemini
The Brazda Brothers – 20th Century
The Brazda Brothers – Blooming Flowers

From the ate too many chocolate bars of Aaron Levin:
Young Governor soars to anthemic heights on this six minute post-pizza buffet. Its jangly rhythm bursts with gusto, jamming the radio glam treachery of cult heros into a reverb-soaked elucidation. This day-time special is crafted for all your teenage fantasies; let it seep into your pores and shake the foundation of your pubescent ethos. A fantastic voyage into 80s pop-punk anthemy. Hand-cut lathe on “pizza glass” by Scotch Tapes. Sounds rad at both speeds. Eat it up!
Young Governor – Pizza Face

From the betamax projections of Aaron Levin:
The twenty minutes of damaged troopadelic beats on Parrot Talk will burn through your grey matter and leave a smelting mess of pulsed lazers, stunted drums, and Wagnerian strings. It’s a mire of foot-stimulated addiction; layers of samples folding their intra-rhythms and wooded grooves to create the most danceable video project left of nowhere. The blasted soundtrack joins a burnt mess of digital-soaked colouramas, wonderfully committed to everyone’s favorite 80s hold-over (VHS). Thankfully, for those that lack the pawn-shop ephemera, you can view the audible damage here.
Doldrums – I’m Homesick Sittin’ Up Here in My Satellite
Doldrums – Chase the Tear [remix]

From the put-me-down vortex of Aaron Levin:
After Don Norman (the original low-man!) left, at-the-time-pop band The Esquires scrambled to reform and find another label. They landed on Columbia and recorded two great garage-punk singles, this being their last and lesser-known (it’s uncomped). Killer guitar tone and classic put-me-down lyrics, the oddly-placed poppy chorus is balanced by the ripping hand-clap organ solo. Makes me want to stomp and get dumped, wallowing in a single-dude vortex full of gnarled fuzz. Except not really.
The Esquires – Why Should I Care

From the freed mind of Aaron Levin:
Swagger along the cresting death wave as the latest synthetic offering from Ottawa’s Holy Cobras prefabricates our lost dimensions. The freakbeat wastoids continue to push the anthrax envelope and engulf listeners in their near-death sonic perturbation. Let the rush of their lysergic prowess flow as Feed Yr Head‘s droning rhythms pace the polyvinyl groove and ignite the mind’s inner druid. Highly recommended for readers tuned into the third speaker. Self-titled by design.
Holy Cobras – Feed Yr Head
Holy Cobras – May You Be Free To Roam

From the hidden burials of Aaron Levin:
Huckleberry Friends continue wayfaring through the mystic burial grounds of druidic psych. Drones of timbre, pulsing æther, and ceremonial groove permeate their latest 10″, pushing the coven of femme-pop conjuring into heights of lysergic divinity. The EP is delicately packaged in a textured black triple gatefold complete with ephemera, clear bronze vinyl, and a download. Listen at full stone.
Huckleberry Friends – WWHBF
Huckleberry Friends – Feasting Ceremony

From the ratty poncho of Aaron Levin:
RatTail have transplanted the wild jangles of DIY Britain to a pre-hippie dystopia (read: Toronto). Their debut EP is a roaring mellow of sub-tuned guitar clangor, burrowing drums, and singer Jasmyn’s signature baritone; all of it copulating in a fantastic bedlam of pop debauchery. Limited to 300 clear 7″s courtesy of Unfamiliar Records. Gripgrip!
RatTail – George Mounsey
RatTail – Poncho

From the teen steamings of Jesse Locke:
Inside its shiny wrapping paper and tiny Ziploc bag, this split cassette from two of Toronto’s weirdest offers a veritable smorgasbord of smeared sonic exploration. Side A finds Doom Tickler phreeking the beat with goosepimply processed vocals pitched somewhere between Black Dice, black metal and Sméagol. Of their four songs, “School Jungle Mud Pool” is the standout, with its demon-possessed singsong melody, squelching synths and jackhammer rhythms resulting in the most hellish Acid House since Love’s Secret Domain. Spectral Forum, meanwhile, jam-pack the flip with 10 wildly varying selections. From the watery miasma of “Mystic Pointe Mississauga” to the spacey grooves of “Corpse Made of Lint”, dubby ice- cream truck ditty “Heavy Metal Homeroom” and upbeat Moroder-nodding finale “Here 2 Eternity,” it’s all too easy to get lost in the steam.
Spectral Forum – Here 2 Eternity
Doom Tickler – School Jungle Mud Pool
Spectral Forum – Mystic Pointe Mississauga