From the staff of (omon) Ra, as wielded by Aaron Levin:
Omon Ra II lands in Montreal and immediately unleashes a seething explosion of post-hyperbole psych-punk: relentless equalizer rejection and blazing guitar shreddery battling for every magnetic millimeter. Meanwhile, Dirty Beaches departs Montreal for sunny Vancouver and metamorphoses into wild nullophonic mystic rockisms; wasted, minimally-greased rockabilly for deadbeat cowboys and vintage thuggery. An odd paring, but this isn’t the first time the Omon moniker sat beside something equally disparate. Mind = blown.
Dirty Beaches – Black Horses Take 1
Omon Ra II – Jimmy

From the partially-ordered, semi-continuous grippage of Aaron Levin:
We have witnessed the possessed meanderings of teenagers pushed to the creative fringe for years. It’s not uncommon these days for some residential weirdo to emerge from their suburban cave with a MySpace full of damaged sounds teetering on the edge of unsanity. This was not the case for Canada’s underground rock scene of the 60s, whose output pales numerically to our American counterparts, owing to a lack of custom pressing plants and home-recording equipment. Which is why it’s incredible that Calgarian Doug Wong, at the tail end of 1969, when psychedelic music delivered its last blow to the world’s unsuspecting youth, decided to package the last issue of his high-school newspaper with a 7″ of school “rock bands” (I’ve posted the full story here). The resulting 7″ has become a truly bewildering artifact of Canada’s marginalized fringe music community: a compilation of unfettered teenage expression; trashy, face-melting, fuzz-drenched glorious hard-rock mingling amongst Dylan-inspired folk and sunshine pop. A beautiful peak into the small lives of folk-club weirdos at a time when their sounds usually withered and vanished. Amazing and incredibly rare. This is the third time I’ve written about this record and it still astounds me.
Wrinkled Pumpkin – Hello
Sundance Reunion – I’m Leaving
Dusk – Three Thirty Two