OM - Pilgrimage

While their ex-bandmate Matt Pike chose a road toward destruction and mayhem, the rhythm section of stoner rock trio Sleep--bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Haikus--sought a path of enlightenment. Or least a place to smoke more dope in peace. Whatever the case, their duo Om has taken a concept that felt a little thin on paper--the bass-and-drum duo--and actually found ways to grow within its limited palette. Pilgrimage finds the band playing with more comfort and fluidity than ever. A 'metal' band that gets 'heavy' by forsaking volume for presence and patience is a beautiful thing indeed.

OXFORD AMERICAN - The 2007 Music Issue

We don't often feature magazines here, but for the annual Oxford American Music Issue, we'll make an exception. Many magazines come with a free CD, but it's the care and research that goes into the Oxford's that makes it so special. Under the loose banner of "Southern Music", it ranges from Dixieland to Dwight Yoakam, Monk to Betty Davis, with essays on each of the 26 tracks. Then there's the features: the making of Dylan's Blonde On Blonde; an inside look at blogs with indie rock band, The Annuals; music related fiction, and much more. A rare magazine that actually qualifies as a killer stocking stuffer... or treat yourself!

NIFTY - A Sparrow! A Sparrow!

As one-third of Les Mouches, Matthew Smith joined drummer Rob Gordon and Owen "Final Fantasy" Pallett in making noise-folk songs that teetered between cascading abrasion and soothing caress. Smith's solo work as Nifty is equally diverse but uses very different elements. Pulling from the worlds of African percussion, grimy electro-soul, patchy big band horn blasts and overlapping instrumental layers, A Sparrow! A Sparrow! is possessed with sonic wanderlust. His instincts rarely steer him wrong, creating the sort of album which becomes more memorable and intriguing the less you try to pin it down.

ANDY SWAN - Ottawa

What strikes you first about Ottawa is its adherence to classic country pop structures. But not long afterwards, your ears are tickled by tender, wry lyrics—whether they be a winking tribute to doomed founding Rolling Stone Brian Jones or lines like "You may be as free as/ some saxophone free jazz". Swan borrows a Sweetheart Of The Rodeo template to serve as platform for a timeless collection of songs. These tunes are simple, but never simple-minded—between Swan's touching vocal delivery and the crack band's gently understated playing, everyone tows the party line to create a little gem of a disc.

GRIZZLY BEAR - Friend EP

Following Yellow House--one of 2006's most enduring releases--and well over a year's worth of touring, the Friend EP arrives to fill Grizzly Bear's studio gap. A collection of covers (both by them of others and others of them), remixes, and new tunes, this EP is naturally a little hit-and-miss. Still, the highlights are a stellar rendering of their rich sound; equally indebted to both ambient/electronic sensibilities and the classic sounds of doo-wop and Phil Spector. Their cover of "She Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" is a revelation, while a cutting run through Yellow House standout "Little Brother" is a feast of ever-evolving energy.

SIGUR ROS - Hvarf/Heim

Interesting what a few years can change in how you listen to a band. In 2000, import copies of Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun were sought after like the Holy Grail. Now that we've grown used to the group's key sonics—omnious bowed guitars, steady crescendos, and a craning falsetto—their later discs have felt a bit rote. This double EP seeks, successfully at times, to rejuvenate their catalog. Hvarf is a electric recasting of past tunes and live faves, while the more interesting Heim uses an acoustic setting to make a case for strong writing underneath all those effects. Essential? No, but it is very beautiful.

BURIAL - Untrue

This album is already the rage amongst UK electronic afficionados for whom his self-titled debut was a much needed revitalization of dubstep. Since names like Tricky and Massive Attack have gone creatively packing, Burial does indeed appear primed to move on to bigger and better things. Untrue is a little too bleak an album to harbor its own "Teardrop", but it's not all doom and gloom. Burial manages to successfully convey a haunted, metropolitan atmosphere without completely forsaking a sense of adventure or lightness in his music. The result is an album of more layers than are first apparent.

BELA BARTOK - 44 duos for two violins

One cannot ignore Bartok's remarkable contribution to educational music for young musicians. Coincidentally he was also one of the 20th century's great ethno-musicologists. His '44 duos for two violins' was written in 1931 as primarily educational compositions and are based around the peasant folk melodies of his native Hungary. Rich in Bartok's characteristic harmonic invention the '44 duos'  also produce an astonishing range of texture and timbre, rhythmic vitality and subtle melodic contour. An intimate look at the compositional devices and detailed skill made famous in his larger works.  

OST - I'm Not There

Whether too close to the bone or unnecessarily eccentric, tribute albums usually just serve to remind you how much you'd rather listen to the originals. So go figure that this Dylan covers fest is great: varied, passionate, and remarkably consistent. Cat Power's take on "Stuck Inside of Mobile..." provides the jolt of energy her 2006 disc The Greatest sadly lacked, while Willie Nelson sheds light on one of Bob's better unsung tunes, "Senor" off 1978's Street Legal. From Yo La Tengo to Richie Havens, Karen O to Roger McGuinn, the roster is as eclectic as the man himself. Far more daring than the recent redundant Dylan hits pack.

BARNEY WILEN & DIESE 440 - Live In Paris-8 Janvier 1983

French saxophonist Barney Wilen is perhaps best known for his work on Miles Davis’s soundtrack for Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows from 1958. A restless visionary, the Frenchman later experimented with tapes of a car race, and in 1972 released the colossal Moshi, an ambitious spiritual jazz travelogue of his two-year journey through Africa. Ten years later, he hooked up with the hard-edged atonal electronic ensemble Diese 440 for a set of whirring and pulsating improvisations. It’s an unlikely combination but is utterly convincing and miles ahead of what Wilen’s former leader was doing at the time.

NATHAMUNI BROTHERS - Madras 1974

Similar to how Albert and Donald Ayler used marching band music to their own jazz ends, so did these brothers incorporate horns and woodwinds within the realm of Indian ragas. Along with the Yaala Yaala releases, this has to be one of the most fascinating international reissues I've heard all year!

RICHARD HAWLEY - Lady's Bridge

Some artists use new albums to test techniques or redefine their approach. Others have no such inclination. And a select few, have no such need--artists like Richard Hawley. Blessed with a deep, rich voice to compliment his romantic sensibilities, Hawley was born to be a nocturnal storyteller. Wherever a head hangs low, a heart retreats to lick its wounds, or a midnight rain falls, he is there to document and turn it into a song. And not just any song, but a woozy, haunted concoction with slow melt of a great scotch. Lady's Bridge is just like all of Hawley's albums: timeless, refined, and darkly gorgeous.

BACH/WEBERN - ricercar

Seperated by 200 years of musical development--from the late Baroque to the 20th century's second Viennese school--this coupling may at first seem odd. However, both styles arose from their fluency in contrapuntal invention and motivic control. The repertoire includes two ricercar from Bach's "Musical Offering", a early cantata (BWV 4), Webern's 1905 string quartet and his stunning "Five Movements for String Quartet op5" (written when he was 22!). The Hilliard Ensemble, Muncheber Kammerorchest, and Christoph Poppen highlight tremendously the connections between these two composers.  

JOY DIVISION - Unknown Pleasures/Closer/Still (2CD Collector's Editions) / OST - Control

           

What better way to celebrate Halloween than with some Joy Division. On the eve of this holiday comes both the soundtrack to Anton Corbijn's new film, Control, and a trio of collector's edition reissues. Unknown Pleasures and Closer, the two proper studio albums by the band, remain iconic touchstones of an at-the-time unheard of style of bleak, cutting songcraft. The half studio/half live Still is a slightly more uneven listen, but still contains stellar highlights, including "Dead Souls" and an early live version of "Ceremony", which became New Order's first single. As for the bonus material, each edition comes with a complete live set. The live sound quality is erratic and primitive, but it suits the band's twitchy, acidic performances perfectly, especially that of their darkly charismatic singer, Ian Curtis. Curtis himself is the main focus of Corbijn's Control, and the soundtrack sets the mood well. This collection won't provide much in the way of surprises for diehards (and some of the surprises, like the Killers' cover of "Shadowplay", may not be seen as a wise idea by all), but the cast themselves do a bang up job on "Transmission" and the rest of the soundtrack is a solid catalogue of influences and pivotal Joy Division/New Order tunes.

YOUSSOU N'DOUR - Rokka Mi Rokku (Give and Take)

After spending so much of the 80s and 90s trying to fit himself into the Western mold of an African singer, N'Dour took the new millenium as an opportunity to reclaim his roots. Rokka Mi Rokku is more light-hearted and playful than recent discs Egypt or Nothing's In Vain, but it remains an album based in African ensemble playing. It's not that N'Dour has completely turned his back on the West--Neneh Cherry of all people even duets on closer "Wake Up (It's Africa Calling)"--it's just that now he makes fond allusions rather than forced concessions to it.

BUCK 65 - Situation

How a white guy from Nova Scotia managed to find a wide audience rapping like the Dukes Of Hazzard narrator with a sore throat is something of a mystery. But Buck 65 is a master of odd detail and populates his tunes with the kinds of characters rarely seen in hip hop. In many ways, his success is a great acknowledgement of just how many white kids listen to hip hop--a fact he embraces by having never succumbed to misguided attempts to make himself more street. Situation is another collection of intelligently composed music and honest-yet-bizarre tales of worlds outside the present-day sphere.

KITES - Hallucination Guillotine/Final Worship

This is possibly my favourite album of the year. Kites' Chris Forgues does extremely well with producing distinct harsh noise records. Forgues refrains from using any digital effects, instead focusing on building his own noise insturments. One of my favourite things about his work is that the production value is pristine; you can actually hear everything that's going on. It's nice to hear the harsh sounds he's making, not losing them in a lo-fi squalor that is common to a lot of records of the same ilk. This album is pleasantly cold and I approve of its overall shape.

THE TWO MINUTE MIRACLES - Volume IV "The Lions Of Love"

If there's one person who hasn't profited nearly enough from the recent boom in Canadian music, it's J. Andrew Magoffin. As a producer/engineer, his London, Ontario studio, House Of Miracles, has been responsible for an endless amount of killer albums by Constantines, Great Lake Swimmers, Jim Guthrie, Royal City, not to mention his own band, The Two Minute Miracles. The Miracles, mind you, have never courted the spotlight, retaining a low-level profile. As such, The Lions Of Love is just another day in the office for Magoffin--16 perfect country-pop songs from a world of economy and anonymity. It's a little slice of heaven.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Jamaica Funk

A casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that reissue label Soul Jazz wouldn't touch any Jamaican music that wasn't recorded at the seminal Studio One; to date, they have a staggering 23 volumes in their S1 series. But not only does their brand new Jamaica Funk break with that unwritten rule, it also proves that their reggae reissue well is anything but dry. This excellent release combines covers of American funk material from artists such as The JBs, Al Green and The Stylistics, as well as original Jamaican music owing to these styles. Big Youth, Augustus Pablo, The Upsetters all appear on this great disc.

VOICE OF THE SEVEN WOODS - S/T

B-Music's latest and Selda endorsed, Voice of the Seven Woods is Richard Tomlinson, a man who gives psych-folk fans a reason to live in the present. With his talent, it would be an injustice to slap the "freak-folk" label his way. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Tomlinson works equally in British Folk, Turkish Psych and Krautrock. "The Fire in My Head" starts with a fuzzed out Middle Eastern Guitar and continues to add layers into a full-on assault. "Silver Morning Branches" highlights his gentle, sometimes eerie voice, while other tracks showcase his abilities to pick like folk greats Bert Jansch and Sandy Bull.