ARVE HENRIKSEN - Cartography / JON HASSELL - Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street

Sometimes you can just look at the back of a jazz album, check out the list of players and their instruments, and conclude that it will be great. And when the label in question is ECM, anyone who needed an extra push just got one. So is the story with the latest of the label's discs to win this writer's heart from a pair of exceptional trumpet players—Arve Henriksen's Cartography and Jon Hassell's Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street. In truth, this may be the most revelatory pair of releases on ECM since Anouar Brahem's transportive Le Pas Du Chat Noir. Henriksen and Hassell both possess a uniqueness of phrasing that transforms the typically bright clarion call of the trumpet into a mournful timbre more akin to that of an oboe. Match that voice with layers of drifting electronics and spare, exotic percussion and you end up with the kind of East-meets-West albums in which ECM specialize—records that manage to deftly navigate the fine line separating truly gorgeous, multi-ethnic ambiance from, well, Enya. It's far harder than it sounds, and they owe their success mainly to a touch that never forces any one flavour upon a track.

Henriksen's album is even more remarkable for the success of spoken word appearances by David Sylvian. Often the straw that breaks many a pretentious album's back, Sylvian's spare readings intersect beautifully, much in the way that similar (albeit much heavier) pieces on Sunn 0)))'s recent albums blend ambience and narration. Although both discs stand easily on their own, it's telling how well they complement one another—each an exceptional exercise in active musical meditation.

(For another take on Jon Hassell's Last Night The Moon..., also check out a review of that disc that ran back in February 2009.)

STILL LIFE STILL - Girls Come Too

They may be young, but they had to have known it was coming. As soon as this East York band inked a deal with influential indie Arts & Crafts and brought Broken Social Scene leader Kevin Drew in to help produce their debut, the tidal waves of comparisons to BSS were inevitable. I guess this review is kinda following suit as well, but truth be told, Still Life Still don't really sound that much like Broken Social Scene. I mean, sure, it's not like they're Coldplay or anything, and they've certainly nicked Drew's penchant for profanely tender lyrics and sexual double entendres. But if neither A&C or Drew were involved, I'd have linked them closer to the Tokyo Police Club model myself. But who cares about all that—is the record any good? Exuberant, endearingly sloppy yet tightly constructed and well-written, Girls Come Too is certainly an above-average slab of college radio-ready rock. And yet, like so many of its genre predecessors, its worthiness really comes down to the whims of the listener—in the mid-nineties, I thought St. John's/Halifax trio The Hardship Post were the bomb, but it was kind of hard to fault someone else for thinking it had all been done before; they just struck a chord with me. How Still Life Still will evolve is anyone's guess, but this is one honest, fun and giddy album. If you come to the party and check your cynicism at the door, you'll find only open arms and good times.

JULIAN PLENTI - Is...Skyscraper

Interpol's last album, Our Love To Admire, really proved to be a rather unfair whipping boy—the NYC band's dour, slick image had always rubbed many the wrong way and the group's move to Capitol from beloved indie Matador didn't help either. While not the top-to-bottom knockout they delivered with Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics, OLTA was a pretty solid album, but hey, the damage was done. So now while the band regroups, lead singer Paul Banks resurfaces with a new nom de plume, Julian Plenti. When you sing like Banks, chances are that your solo project is going to sound at least a little like Interpol, and Is...Skyscraper plays kind of like a very high-quality demo for his main act, with many of the moments that would normally be occupied by the group's formidable rhythm section left seemingly unfinished. The result, however, isn't nearly as confused or underdone as that might sound. In his hands alone, the music sounds a lot like how Banks sings—romantic, but distant; clipped, but relaxed; obtuse in meaning, yet weirdly clear. And while "Games For Days" would do well as the next Interpol single, it's more meandering tracks like "Madrid", "No Chance Survival" and "Skyscraper" that are this album's reason for being. It won't change anyone's mind about Banks or Interpol, but devotees owe this record their ears.

THE WOODEN SKY - If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone

I've been listening to The Wooden Sky's new album If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone pretty obsessively since I got my hands on it last Thursday. It was perfect timing too, since I was about to embark on a 7-hour bus ride to Montreal and I was in desperate need of some new music for my trip. So there I was, early Friday morning, departing Toronto in a cramped bus with loud chatter all around me and a storm brewing outside, when I put on my headphones and pressed play on the first track, "Oh My God (It Still Means A Lot To Me)". I closed my eyes and readied myself for sleep when I heard the first line of the song: "Wake up you're getting old." That one line perturbed me enough that I knew I wasn't going to be getting any rest on this trip. It was okay though, because the album kept me engaged enough that time just flew right by. It strikes a perfect balance between quiet, contemplative songs and rollicking sing-alongs, with just the right amount of twang as to not scare anyone away. It's got a sparkling and polished sound courtesy of Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire) and Chris Stringer (Timber Timbre), but it never comes off as cheesy or dishonest. Instead, if you're anything like me after listening to this album, your impression of The Wooden Sky will be that they're a very talented group of young men with fantastic voices, excellent musicianship, and a knack for coming up with memorable melodies. Don't sleep on this one.

OLATUNJI - Drums Of Passion (Legacy Edition)

Before 1959, if you wanted to hear music outside of the Anglo-American experience, you could go for the ersatz (though nonetheless charming) exotica of Les Baxter and Martin Denny, or find warmth in the recent calypso craze popularized by Harry Belafonte (who was criticized for his inauthenticity). Then along came Nigerian-born Babatunde Olatunji, discovered by John Hammond and asked to record the music he had been performing with the ensemble he had formed to fund his studies. The impact of these recordings is immeasurable–his influence is all over Serge Gainsbourg’s Percussions album (especially on “New York USA”), and “Jin-Go-Lo-Ba” was a perfect fit when covered on Santana’s monumental self-titled debut. That Drums Of Passion sold 5 million copies speaks to its accessibility, and lends credence to the claim that it was the record that started "world music". The production and remastering here is remarkably clear and spacious, with this Legacy Edition's second disc featuring more percussion and call-and-response singing on the enclosed sequel album, More Drums of Passion.

TREMBLING BELLS - Carbeth

It’s no secret that many of us here are infinitely susceptible to British Isles rock-outs, not to mention just about anything that pops up from the fine folks at Honest Jon’s. It seems the stars are in our favour with this album from Glaswegian stickman and songster Alex Neilson. The proceedings unfold with a bit of an updated Fairport flavour, albeit spiced with a solitary trombone that brings to mind a strange place somewhere between Shiny Beast-era Beefheart and Caravan’s "Golf Girl". Nielson’s broguishly raw vocals alternate with those of the rather intense Lavinia Blackwell, whose high-octane Jacquie McShee may be a little much for some at first, but should win any doubters over as it brings the most out of the beautiful "Willows Of Carbeth". The two join forces on album closer "Seven Years A Teardrop", a drinking song delivered in a sauced-up counterpoint that could get even the most pious excommunicated at the drop of a hat.

GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER - Issue #8

Galactic Zoo Dossier returns with an eighth issue of obsessively hand-transcribed interviews, articles and underground comics. This time around, Plastic Crimewave (a.ka. Steve Krakow, Mr. GZD) meets up with Vashti Bunyan to discuss her whirlwind musical/wagon journey and Mani Neumeier talks about his days singing, leading and drumming with Guru Guru, plus interviews with Djin Aquarius from Ya Ho Wha 13, raga-folkie Pater Walker, and psychedelic light show pioneer Bill Ham. Also included are features on Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel, songwriter Hoyt Axton, and more. Not only that, but rare tracks from Puffy Areolas, Vashti Bunyan, Toronto’s own Creeping Nobodies and others are collected on the enclosed CD. (But wait, there’s more! This month’s trading cards continue to lovingly pay tribute to yet more “astral folk goddesses” and “damaged guitar gods.”)

THE ANTLERS - Hospice

The tag "indie rock" gets thrown on to so many seemingly unrelated bands that at times you begin to wonder if it means anything at all. And I suppose it doesn't really, but for my money, if it did, it would probably describe The Antlers quite well. That's because this is the kind of album whose sonic touchstones, ambitions, and manner of connecting to both its listeners and its singer's emotions are best traced back to some of the greatest independently released albums of the past fifteen years. A hazy, gauzy, delicate example of the heart-on-sleeve, arms-to-sky emoting of Arcade Fire and Neutral Milk Hotel that's both obscured and cushioned by the haunted ambience of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the originally self-released Hospice is beautifully realized and honestly rendered. It's one of those weird sorts of albums that bridges opposites with casual ease—soothing as it invigorates, conveying potent sadness as it searches for, and finds, great hope. And maybe most importantly, it's a very healthy reminder that the world of indie rock is about more than some pack of trendy, self-satisfied dogs obsessed with chasing their own hip tails: it has a canon of great works whose templates and ideas can be all you need to create humble, lasting music.

ANN PEEBLES - I Can't Stand The Rain

Thanks to the sample of the title track, Ann Peebles’ voice will be forever associated with Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”, which introduced the southern soul singer to a new audience and further added to the cachet of this underrated classic. Produced in Memphis by Willie Mitchell in 1973, this is Peebles’ best album and one of the finest examples of the Hi Records sound, right up there with Al Green’s best work. Steeped in themes of lost love, Peebles handles her material with restraint and sweetly nuanced sensuality. Check out “A Love Vibration”, “You Got To Feed The Fire”, a devastating cover of Joe Simon’s “(You Keep Me) Hanging On” and the great “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”, and you’ll see why '70s soul aficionados rate this record so highly.

JACQUES DUTRONC - Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi: 1966-1968

If Serge Gainsbourg was the prime purveyor of Parisian pop in the '60s, Jacques Dutronc didn't lag far behind. Dutronc emerged as one of France's answers to Bob Dylan in 1966, releasing several hit singles and a debut album consisting of acerbic and ironic social commentary wed to an Anglo r'n'b-derived garage-rock beat. So strong and consistent was that album that it's featured almost in its entirety on this very welcome compilation that also includes the best of his more baroque and orchestrated late-Sixties recordings. Suave, debonair, and almost always tongue-in-cheek, Dutronc went on to have a successful career in film as an actor, but this CD will introduce his music to wider non-Francophone audience, and even if your grasp of French is tenuous, there's still plenty here to enjoy.

GOLDEN SILVERS - True Romance

If there's something that the Brits do better than anyone else on the planet, it's hyper-literate, well-coifed, sophisticated yet fun pop music. Check the evidence: The Kinks, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, The Jam, Joe Jackson, XTC, Super Furry Animals, The Bees, all the way up to last year's exceptional The Week That Was album. Well, there must be something in the Thames (that's an understatement!) because now here come the Golden Silvers. Some ears have all the luck. I'm just going to go ahead and gush and say this is easily the most satisfying surprise I've heard all year. The entire album is immediately replayable—sure, it's a tad kitschy and retro, but never in a way that distracts from the top-drawer quality of the writing and playing. And besides, I think we're all over the idea that nothing good came out of the '80s, right? I wish I could be more articulate but to be honest, this album makes me as knock-kneed and tongue-tied as a first date. Wait, make that a really great first date.

BOBBY CHARLES - S/T

Sounding here like a Cajun, countrified Randy Newman or an older bon-vivant equal to The Band's Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, Bobby Charles' career was (attempted to be) revived with this 1972 set, co-produced by Danko and including contributions from Manuel, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, John Simon and Dr. John. With Vetiver having covered "I Must Be In A Good Place Now" and local rock'n'soul revue Steamboat featuring Charles/Danko co-write "Small Town Talk" in their repertoire, these songs have been kept alive by a current generation of musicians, and are now back in print (while the limited pressing lasts) via Rhino UK's arm of the Encore series.

(This review first ran on our site in November 2008 upon the disc's initial reissue. Although unavailable for several months thereafter, a recent warehouse find of copies means that this lost classic is once again up for grabs, so come in and pick up a copy before it goes out of print yet another time!)

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE - Hometowns

When I was in Grade 4, my geography class did a unit on the provinces of Canada. As a sheltered child going to school in small-town Ontario, I had a severe lack of knowledge about the rest my country. Learning about capital cities and the climate doesn’t really give a curious nine-year-old boy much real insight into what it’s like growing up in northern Quebec, coastal Nova Scotia, or rural Alberta. That’s why I wish my younger self had Hometowns, the debut album from The Rural Alberta Advantage, an insightful document packed with more lessons than any textbook. While Canada’s fourth-largest province (thank you, Grade 4 geography) is the literal subject of each of these songs, the themes and stories are universal and timeless. Singer Nils Edenloff is an expert at conjuring up romantic images of life growing up in the prairies, and though I never lived there myself, the situations and stories are still very relatable (Joel Plaskett's 2005 concept album Ashtray Rock would be an suitable comparison). Throw in charming backup vocals care of Amy Cole and outstanding drumming from Paul Banwatt, and you've got yourself a batch of tunes that will be hard to get out of your head.

PARLIAMENT - Osmium

Osmium, the 1970 debut recorded under the Parliament mantle, might be the ultimate example of '60s genre experimentation, as rock, soul, chamber pop and country all blend into one hazy, cross-colour audio rainbow. This shouldn't surprise listeners, considering that this band came off onstage like the Temptations backed by a wild, storming psych band. Starting out as a barbershop-born vocal soul group (the Parliaments), the group morphed into an even higher version of Sly & The Family Stone. After their first mind-blowing 1969 effort as Funkadelic, George Clinton and co. had something else up their sleeve. Alongside face-melting jams like "Funky Woman" and "Nothing Before Me But Thang", it's some of the other tunes here that challenge the listener with potentially unfamiliar sounds emanating from the session, such as "Little Ole Country Boy"'s tongue-in-cheek twang. On "My Automobile", you can almost imagine the band writing around a piano Brill Building-style, while album closer "The Silent Boatman" is as strong as any pop song of its time. This album is one of a kind, and, in this writer's opinion, very hard to top.

VA - Black Rio 2: Original Samba Soul 1968-1981

Seven years after the first Black Rio collection, British DJ Cliffy finally returns with another killer batch of samba-funk numbers culled from years serving as one of the top dealers in the rare Brazilian vinyl market. Here Cliffy proves that the genre is far from spent, introducing previously unknowns (Super Som Lord and the improbably-named Pete Dunaway) and giving exposure to once-ultra-rare tracks (Sonia Santos’ “Poema Ritmico Do Malandro” and Renata Lu’s “Faz Tanto Tempo”) while not shying away from tested dancefloor stormers (Edson Frederico’s “Bobeira”, Emílio Santiago’s “Bananeira”, and Bebeto’s “Princesa Negra de Angola” form an anthemic threesome toward the end) to make a perfect soundtrack for prolonging the summer. Grab this now and let the good folks at Strut know that you won’t wait another seven years for part three!

YO LA TENGO - Popular Songs: Buy Early Get Now pre-orders now taken in-store

Following the same format as Matador's last Buy Early Get Now promotion for Sonic Youth's The Eternal, the forthcoming Yo La Tengo full-length, Popular Songs, is now available from us for pre-order in our physical shop here at 572 College Street (no emails, please).

Sold in stores either on CD or 2LP, one can either wait for release date to purchase the standalone disc(s), or pre-order a premium BEGN package, where one prepays in person and is then given a receipt stub with a download code, entitling one to:

-a full album stream starting today (Tue. Aug 4), with exclusive bonus MP3s to follow
-an exclusive, limited bonus vinyl LP (YLT's original score to the movie Adventureland) and poster, to be picked up on or after release date (Tue. Sep 8) along with your pre-ordered copy of Popular Songs

So come on down to our shop, pre-order, and pre-listen to the newest from Hoboken's finest!

EMITT RHODES - The Emitt Rhodes Recordings 1969-1973

An early contender for Reissue Of The Year, this is a monumental release, one that made me flip when I found out that Hip-O Select was putting out all of Emitt Rhodes' 4 solo LPs. Along with Paul McCartney and Todd Rundgren, Rhodes possessed a near superhuman ability to write pure opiate classic pop melodies, sang with a golden voice, and had a vision that could only be realized by handling production duties and playing all of the instruments on his albums (with the exception of his debut The American Dream). Just 20 years old when he went out on his own after splitting his previous band the Merry-Go-Round, Rhodes should have had a long and successful career on the pop charts but was stymied by a foolhardy contract with ABC-Dunhill (6 albums, 3 years!) and the standard publishing relinquishment story. The would-be star left the industry in disgust and never recorded another album.  Whether you are already familiar with Rhodes' music or not, you need this in your collection. He certainly deserves the royalties (finally) and much wider renown.

GOD HELP THE GIRL - S/T

Belle And Sebastian fans have watched closely since Stuart Murdoch announced, through the band’s website, his Idol-like audition for vocalists for the vanity project that would result in this album and the forthcoming film of the same name. It’s been 3 years since B&S’s The Life Pursuit, and some may view Murdoch’s decision not to credit this new record to his band as an act of hubris, a move to consolidate his role as the indisputable master of the Belle And Sebastian brand and to broaden his own brand to include svengali, much the same way that Prince began nurturing other mostly non-start artists and dabbling in film himself before plunging into commercial failure. Thankfully, Murdoch is still maturing as a songwriter, continuing to push himself beyond his indie roots and developing into a classic songwriter in the mode of his idols. Beyond a few key vocals, he defers microphone duties to the wonderful Catherine Ireton, who won the contest, as well as Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), Asya (Smoosh), and others. A bold gambit and an artistic success.

ALASDAIR ROBERTS - Spoils

On Spoils, the dark clown-prince of contemporary Scottish folk delivers his most visionary, fully-formed screed since the days of his old band Appendix Out, a veritable song cycle where part begets tastefully-arranged part while never seeming tacked-on. With tongue-twisting, dictionary-rifling efficacy, Ali Roberts spews forth beautifully spooked meditations where the ancient meets the modern, whose subjects quest and battle whether seeking primordial inspiration, overseeing the three stages of their life, scurvily dreaming they're the namesake of the Luddite movement set to rebarbarize the world, or just looking for their legs after somehow running across the countryside for a whole year without them. If you know and love peer and labelmate Bonnie "Prince" Billy or the more traditional/vocal facet of countryman Richard Youngs' work (half the drumming here is by Alex Neilson, a collaborator with both men and leader of his own highly-recommended Fairport/Steeleye-style troupe on Honest Jon's, Trembling Bells), you'd do well to acquaint yourself with Roberts' fourth solo full-length, one that's revealing itself to be more and more of a career peak the more spins and deep listens we give it.

VA - Chartbusters USA Special Edition: Sunshine Pop

With “oldies radio” becoming more and more a relic of the past, this collection is not as superfluous as it may seem at first. While previous sunshine pop digs have focused on rarities of the genre, Ace has gathered an excellent cross-section of canonical artists (The Lovin' Spoonful are perhaps most tied to the tag, along with Donovan, the Association, and the Beach Boys), more recently-acknowledged classics (Cass Elliot’s impossibly beautiful “It’s Getting Better”), and brave inclusions that challenge definitions of sunshine pop (black groups like the 5th Dimension and The Friends of Distinction are often ignored in favour of all-white track listings). The timing could not be better for this savvy set as a giddily optimistic, feel-good soundtrack to lazy summer days. Your reunion with melody starts here.