we are northernly
January 20th, 2010

Review :: Grimes – Geidi Primes

Grimes
Geidi Primes
(Arbutus Records)
Montreal, QC
::web/sounds::


From the Kimono-draped androgyny of Aaron Levin:
Geidi Primes is a landmark album of modern Canadian fringe, an assemblage of space-station pop memorabilia teleported from a time-static nether-zone beyond the scope of our earthly understanding. I’ve been waiting months for this, posting anxious pleas to Grimes after hearing the sinuous, harrowing bass-line on Rosa. With the curiously packaged cassette in my fiending grip, the orbiting swaths of synthetic warmth and echoing drum-machines have caused exciting astral projections outside my usual mental musicalia. Geidi Primes takes off from Rosa’s minimal bass-lines and launches straight into a strange hybrid of Björk, The Cure, Micachu, and other avant seamstresses, leaving a footprint in every decade and thankfully landing in ours. Chord progressions and samples are pulled from any source imaginable and the aggregation results in a Kate Bushian trail of decadence. It seems pointless and restrictive attempting to describe its brilliance, so I’ll stop with this: Geidi Primes is a flagship of hyperbolic dimensions. Get on board.

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Grimes – Rosa

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Grimes – Venus In Fleurs

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Grimes – Zoal, Face Dancer

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Grimes – Sardaukar Levenbrech

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Categoria!! New Canadiana :: cassette :: quebec | 7 Comments »

November 18th, 2009

Review :: Tonstartssbandht – An When

Tonstartssbandht - An When Tonstartssbandht
An When
(Dœs Are)
Montreal, QC
::web/sounds::


From the brotherly womb (?) of Jesse Locke:
Any brother with a brother will tell you that brotherly love is some of the best love there is. Bare chested wrestling in the basement, giving each other noogies, pickin’ on your little sister and pickin’ boogers from your nose are all timeless ways to have fun, but bros Andy and Edwin White have translated their sibling revelry into some of the freshest music coming out of Montreal. Alongside their military grade crew cuts, baggy white t-shirts and Too $hort pants, you can see the love in their eyes when they take the stage in either this guise or as their High Rise tribute band, High Rise II. You can hear it in their music as well, in An When’s mix of trippy vocal loops, daffy raps and lo-fi loner rock, packing in 10 originals with inspired re-imaginings of Spacemen 3’s “Walkin’ With Jesus” and the Bambi soundtrack’s “Little April Showers” (no joke!). I’d be remiss not to mention the sonic similarities Tonstartssbandht share with the Animal Collective – or maybe Panda Bear’s “Bros” is a more fitting reference point – but they’ve carved out their own little cave in the wilderness as well and seem to be cranking out releases at the pace of Guided By Voices in their heyday. Guess the crew cuts run in the family too, ’cause that’s their Dad on the cover. A+++.
[Levin's Note: Weird coincidence? I had this jammy bumping in my car when Jesse e-mailed me with the review. That's because Jesse and I are bros, too.]

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Tonstartssbandht – Black Country

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Tonstartssbandht – Andy Summers

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Tonstartssbandht – Little April Showers

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Categoria!! New Canadiana :: compact disc :: quebec | 7 Comments »

November 12th, 2009

Review :: Holy Cobras – Dead Bodies Float in Space

Holy Cobras - Dead Bodies Float in Space Holy Cobras
Dead Bodies Float in Space
(Campaign For Infinity)
Ottawa, ON
::web/sounds::


Slow-forward to the future. Turn left and you’ll never see Han Solo shoot, having been blasted by the 28 shots of Mos Eisleyian whiskey and bravely translucent pressure waves emanating from a new Cantina band: the Holy Cobras. Dead Bodies Float in Space is Hawkwind re-imagined inside an alternate nowhere, far removed form any human consciousness; pulsing, wasted synth coursing through psychedelic veins feeding life into tired, synthetic limbs grabbing every adjective needed to self-identify. It’s a new sound for new believers and I bet their live show is more cathartic than church could ever dream of being. The cassette sounds like shit in way that further mystifies its origins; Canada Post leasing a Millennium Falcon to bring back treasures from the world of Hollywood magic. Press play, close your eyes and witness Stacia, naked, undulating next to dead, floating bodies. Campaign For Infinity is on to something. A++++++++.

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Holy Cobras – Dead Bodies Float in Space

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Holy Cobras – Mama Jihad

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Categoria!! New Canadiana :: cassette :: ontario | 7 Comments »

September 11th, 2009

Review :: Krang – Cold Bebop EP

Krang - Cold Bebop EP Krang
Cold Bebop EP
(Self Released)
Edmonton, AB
::web/sounds::

From the private pantry of Dr. Jesse Locke:
Edmonton’s Krang began as a drum and bass (not D&B) duo featuring mustachioed main-men Jordan Foster and Jared Majeski, cheekily dubbing themselves the Two Man Electrical Band. However, it wasn’t until the enlisting of Zebra Pulse’s Parker Thiessen on cracked electronics, clarinet and manipulated kids toys that the trio truly cemented their sound. Now, with Foster and Majeski trading off tripped-out, heavily echoed vocals over hypnotic Sabbath riffs (dig the Master of Reality-influenced album art), lonely harmonica and what sounds like a malfunctioning robot squealing away abrasively high in the mix, these teenage mutants have raised the gnar bar high. [Levin's note: I like these dudes because they sound like German art-punk on meth.]

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Krang – Gone Gone Gone

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Krang – Ships

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Categoria!! New Canadiana :: alberta :: compact disc | 3 Comments »

August 13th, 2009

Review :: Seizure Salad / Indiensoci Split Cassette

Seizure Salad / Indiensoci - The New The Good The Bad and The Ugly Soundtrack (split cassette) Seizure Salad / Indiensoci
The New The Good The Bad and The Ugly Sound Track
(Ice Cream Ala Mode Tape and Sound)
Calgary, AB / Montreal, QC
::web/sounds::

This cassette woke me up on the first day of my vacation. My buzzer rang at 8am this morning and I was pissed-off. I ripped open the parcel and the Seizure Salad / Indiensoci split-cassette fell out; I was excited and ashamed. Seizure Salad’s side skidded into my mind with a lo-fi barrage of experimental psychedelia; a droning, rhythmic travelogue to the far-reaches of Disneyâ„¢-hell filled with distorted film illusions and guitar shreddery. It’s a real narrative with emotionally percussive climaxes and mellow, ambient descents. On the flip-side, Indiensoci sends her parsed, ambient bellowing in an attempt to balance the intricate mind-barrage of Seizure Salad. Indiensoci is the not-so-secret side project from BRAIDS‘ singer and it all makes sense; mellifluous echoes of her voice traveling from every direction in cassette-quad beauty and sentient brilliance – it’s all the things we love about BRAIDS in one stream of magnetic tape. Where Seizure Salad takes you on a Trip Thru Hell, Indiensoci brings you back to the world of the half-alive, allowing a return to your dreams, naps, narratives, and lives with the subtle feeling that everything is not-OK, but it’s all lovely because her vocal wysps linger on in half-audible existence. An easy contender for best experimental cassette of 2009.

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Seizure Salad – Sleeping Buddy

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Seizure Salad – The Lion Thing

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Indiensoci – Boys aRe Stupid 1 (the snowshoe)

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Indiensoci – Boys aRe Stupid 2 (touched by a sentiment)

And for fun, here is two more Seizure Salad tracks…

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Seizure Salad – Beauty Lewis & The News

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Seizure Salad – Acquittal Mermaid

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Categoria!! New Canadiana :: alberta :: cassette :: quebec | No Comments »

July 17th, 2009

Turbo future.

The Wicked Awesomes - Punk Holograms The Wicked Awesomes!
Punk Holograms
(Psychic Handshake)
Edmonton, AB
::web/sounds::

NBA Jam for the Sega Genesis was the second most punk sports game ever (the Mutant League series taking number uno). If you got three dunks in a row some dude yelled out “HE’S ON FIIIIIRE” and you burst into flames and did quad-flip slam-dunks. Weird dunks. Now imagine that basketball player is on fire, wearing fluorescent Nike’s covered in time-shit and crystal-snot, death sunglasses, an 80GB ipod, hens teeth, and a jersey from Nowheresville, Ghost Beach. Take a ramshackle of insane kids in the remote recesses of Edmonton’s hoodlets and have them dedicate an album to this space-streaming-intelligent basketball player and you might come close to the brilliance of The Wicked Awesomes!’s LP debut Punk Holograms. The album lacks any pretense and obeys no boundaries; from burnt puke-garage to psychedelic mizrahi-surf, the red-lights on your stereo will burst with wrecked synth-lines and skirt-chasing guitar-riffery. It’s a beautiful pawnshop display-case of wastoid-punk. Brilliant. Amazing. Fantastic. Wicked. Awesome. A sure-shot contender for best album of 2009 on any continent.

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The Wicked Awesomes! – Space Streaming Intelligence

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The Wicked Awesomes! – Ghost Beach

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Categoria!! 12" :: New Canadiana :: alberta | 9 Comments »

July 5th, 2009

Review :: The Pink Noise – Menagerie

The Pink Noise - Menagerie The Pink Noise
Menagerie
(Jerkwaves)
Montreal, Quebec
::web/sounds::

In the 70s Kenneth Higney sold his big-rig to release one of the strangest downer-rock adventures the private-press universe has to offer. Thankfully, The Pink Noise share no audible similarities to Higney other than the enunciation and cadence of the singers voice. This resemblance is a positive, albeit strange aspect of the Montreal trio and it’s exciting to hear that style of singing over beds of distorted, disjoint drum patterns, eerie organs, and busted guitar lines (instead of the wasted hard-rock riffery of Higney’s Attic Demonstration). This is The Pink Noise’s third release and shows them shifting from the weird-punk interpretation of the 80s minimal synth scene into a bizzare lo-fi cabaret of the wyld. From meandering, reverb-drenched lollygagging to reggae laced post-punk. It’s warbly, it’s warm, and it’s wonderful. Canada needs more imaginative figures like The Pink Noise.

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The Pink Noise – Sweet Hearts and Super Creeps

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The Pink Noise – Wings of Love

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Categoria!! New Canadiana :: cassette :: quebec | No Comments »

June 20th, 2009

Monochromatic youth.

Grand Trine / Holy Cobras [Split Cassette Cover] Grand Trine / Holy Cobras
Grand Trine / Holy Cobras Split Cassette
(Bruised Tongue)
Montreal, Quebec / Ottawa, Ontario
::web/sounds::

It’s my first time in Montreal and I decide to see AIDS Wolf in their native environment. I spent no longer than thirty-seconds in the venue before my friend Graeme forces me to purchase this split cassette; it’s practically sold out, bra, grip it! There is no preparation for the genre-mashing, sans-wave psychedelia pulsating through Grand Trine’s side of the magnetic strip. RFID provides the hard-psych soundtrack to an apocalyptic car manufacturing plant, whereas Monochromatic Youth is a brilliant weird-punk interpretation of the 80s minimal synth scene. Grand Trine finish their side with Diamond Body Sunrise; a fuzz-drenched Montreal sound-scape of Red Crayola calibre. Ottawa, Ontario is the unlikely mother of Holy Cobras‘ 13-minute sound-collage-turned-distortion-freak-out. Unfortunately it does not reach the peaks that Grand Trine do. However, they provide a nice counterbalance to Grand Trine’s mental abandonment. Both sides are highly recommended.

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Grand Trine – Monochromatic Youth

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Grand Trine – RFID

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Categoria!! New Canadiana :: cassette :: ontario :: quebec | 3 Comments »

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