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February 13th, 2012

New Canadiana :: Matthew A. Wilkinson – sSs EP

Matthew A. Wilkinson - sSs EP
Quick as a cricket, Grand Prairie’s holiest warbler zaps us through the post with his latest enchantment. The sSs EP picks up right where the spellbinding Namers left off, spiraling into black echoes for a series of cinematic miniatures, scraped strings, plucked banjos and touched electronics. The creeping horror culminates in “Cen eTe neR”, a nine-minute scorched earth awakening of cooing kitties and the post-rock dawn of its “secret song.” Discover Alberta.

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Matthew A. Wilkinson – yYy

January 19th, 2012

New Canadiana :: Dixie’s Death Pool – The Man With Flowering Hands

Dixies Death Pool - The Man With Flowering Hands
Shuffling and smiling through a moon-hung Ren. Faire when the dandelion wine has kicked in for the minstrels, electroacoustic jazzbo Lee Hutzulak dips into that crazy river. Tucked underneath his faded poncho, the twinkle-eyed lifeguard of Dixie’s Death Pool unleashes a squadron of steam punk arachnids to undertake his mystical bidding. Rev up your electric flute, grab a Mackie Blackjack and get jiggy.

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Dixie’s Death Pool – Paper That Folds Itself

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Dixie’s Death Pool – Tranquilizer

November 23rd, 2011

New Canadiana :: Indigenous Nudes – Cleaning Up For Al

Tech Supporters Nicholas and Cheddle channel all thoughts of “kill roommate” into buzz, wind, fire, distortion and incantations. Indigenous Nudes play with heat guns as séance sounds churn from their guts; writhing a full-term demon baby from underwater delivery through the annals of time/space. Cheddle’s glasnost lingers in the box on the floor that reads “fragile” while ichola scoops up broken glass to throw at anyone who gets too close. To listen is to watch a candle burn with the TV on while mother bakes rotted mincemeat pies and calls from a distance that dinner’s ready.

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Indigenous Nudes – God, Forgive Satan

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Indigenous Nudes – Boots Pissed Blood

November 15th, 2011

New Canadiana :: Six Heads – Cardboard Oracle

With decade-spanning CVs instilling sonic seasickness, Toronto’s smirking surrealists have become an underground institution of near NSB proportions. Carboard Oracle marks Six Heads’ inaugural expedition on vinyl, and it’s a seriously woozy cruise. Sipping from the same strange brew as Smegma, A-side “Smaller, Larger, Lighter (Incantation of the Naugahyde Witch)” finds Twin Peakslittle man from another place bubbling up the bong and raiding a kid’s tickle trunk to find a kalimba. The flip slides even further sideways, as “Carnival Dust” spins on a not-so-merry-go-round of smeared signals, chimes and disconnected static from the depths of the Devil’s Triangle. Not for the faint of stomach.

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Six Heads – Smaller, Larger, Lighter (Incantation of the Naugahyde Witch) (excerpt)

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Six Heads – Carnival Dust (excerpt)

April 12th, 2011

Departures :: Michael Snow – Music For Piano, Whistling, Microphone and Tape

I’ll admit to never having actually found this record despite having searched for years. Pictured is a homemade CD bootleg someone made in the ’90s (1). Michael Snow’s best work hangs from the roof in Toronto’s Eaton Center (2) but this 2LP is so decidedly lo-fi and otherworldly that it belongs in the canon of Great Canadiana. Sadly, it will likely never be on any public school-system curriculum. Each of the four sides contain one long piece beginning with a solo whistling excursion, sounding at times like pygmies and at others like Dolphy. Snow just leaned over his reel-to-reel machine, puckered and blew a side of whistling, at times jaunty, at others, just straight OUT! Side 2 is repeated block chords slowly increasing in tonal violence, not unlike a piano version of the Shepard tone. Snow plays back side 2 on sides 3 and 4 at alternating speeds on the reel to reel machine, slowing it down so the low-end notes on his piano resonate glacially, coming off like a cruddy tape copy of Tim Hecker’s better moments. The whole package comes wrapped in typically clever and self-referential liner notes written by the man himself.
(1) I remember buying a Well-tuned Piano booted CD-R set for an exorbitant price in those halcyon days.
(2) Snow’s structural films are considered some of Canada’s great works of 20th century avant-garde, albeit slow moving ones. Also, Snow managed to sue Eaton’s for putting bows on his Flight Path installation. The thing resonates; hell, a V-formation just flew overhead now.

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Michael Snow – Side A (excerpt)

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Michael Snow – Side B (excerpt)

June 16th, 2010

Review :: Kingdom Shore – …and all the dogs to shark

Kingdom Shore
… and all the dogs to shark
(Black Bough Records)
Ottawa, ON
::web/sounds::


From the shark-dog feathers of James Goddard:
Kingdom Shore eviscerates with tense, calculated string slashes. Ultra-violent. Tightly wound. Subtly disorienting. …and all the dogs to shark is a visceral listening experience; unrelenting sharp edges, protruding corners and just enough quiet. There is undoubtedly a sophisticated theoretical framework to analyze here, but that isn’t the point, this album hits you on altogether different level. This is violent music. This is the soundtrack to Saw 18. This is the soundtrack for your next UFC viewing party.

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Kingdom Shore – Stray Bullets Singing “It’s now what you say, but who you give it to”

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KIngdom Shore – Fire knows no one house; fire knows no one woman or man

January 29th, 2010

Review :: Broken Deer – Our Small Going

Broken Deer
Our Small Going
(Gandhara Recordings)
Whitehorse, YK
::web/sounds::


From the celestial kingdom of Zachary Fairbrother:
Broken Deer is the project of musician/artist Lindsay Dobbin, formerly of Halifax, now relocated in the deep, northern frontier of the Yukon. Our Small Going is a collection of beautiful songs mixed with field recordings, soundscapes, and lo-fi blips and bleeps, finding the perfect home on San Francisco’s Gandhara Recordings. Lindsay’s music is embedded with grainy sound pieces and field recordings to create a celebration of nature, ritual, life and decay. The opening track “Coming of Age Funeral” is a beautiful instrumental piece, played on a solo acoustic guitar with tape hiss and buzz, giving the music a warm maternal feeling, while also tragic, as in the passing of an era or the sadness that comes with moving on. Neither ancient nor modern, the music seems to celebrate the difficulties and conveniences of our journey in the age of technology. Her textures are always light, often just using single instruments, allowing her to explore the fabrics of her sounds. Her unique voice shines through, giving a deep sense of ecology to her music.
[Levin's Note: Broken Deer is a testament to the undiscovered treasures existing beneath the dark snow of Canada's north.]

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Broken Deer – It Creeps

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Broken Deer – Face on the Riverside

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