Montreal
Album Review: BIG|BRAVE – nature morte : a profound, powerful post-metal statement.
If nothing else the release of nature morte, the sixth album from the Montreal post metal unit BIG|BRAVE, is a testament to the band’s stamina and stoic dedication to their work. Exploring the challenging frontiers of drone-shaded, slow core, electric rock since 2014 and still discovering cracks of inspiration is a tough pursuit but that’s …
Album Review: Black Ox Orkestar – Everything Returns : Formidable and forthright – the seminal avant folk ensemble reunite
It’s been over fifteen years since Black Ox Orkestar released their touchstone albums Ver Tantz (2004) and Nisht Azoy (2006), two works that navigated the dark folk/ post rock intersection with a genuine sense of purpose and distinct sonic foundation. Emerging from the Montreal indie scene the four members, Thierry Amar (upright bass), Scott Gilmore …
Album Review: Jessica Moss – Galaxy Heart: art-rock atmospheres with an enduring soul.
What will we think of lock down records when we listen back to them in years to come? Introspective music from a time of looking inwards because the outside world just stood still? Or maybe there was more space to dream, to take more risks, to break free from constraints because everything ahead was unknown. …
Album Review: Steve Bates – All The Things That Happen: Elemental sounds for a wild world.
Some ‘ambient music’ can often come across as ambivalent, leaving the listener floating but uncommitted, relaxed but possibly underwhelmed. ‘All The Things That Happen’, the debut solo album from Canadian musician and sound artist Steve Bates (available from Constellation 23rd September), could superficially pick up the broad ambient tag except this fine record gouges out …
Track/Video: Electronic explorer Steve Bates previews his avalanche of sound with ‘Destroy the palace’ from soon-come album ‘All The Things That Happen’
Steve Bates, Canadian musician and sound/video artist, has the biography of someone restlessly in pursuit of possibilities. His background as a key figure in the Winnipeg anarcho-punk community through the 80s to explorer of more avant/experimental territories over the past decade has been expressed through an evolving catalogue of music, curation and art works. Probably …
PREMIERE: Montreal post-rock trio Yoo Doo Right emphatically kick against the pricks on thunderous new album
Barely a year since they released their debut LP, Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose, Canadian trio Yoo Doo Right are back with their second album, on which their towering, politically charged experimental rock soars to new heights. Trailed by two singles earlier in the year – one of them a whopping 17 minutes …
Album Review: T. Gowdy – ‘Miracles’: electronic music for mind and movement.
Canadian producer and audio-visual artist T. Gowdy is not one to tweak or tinker. His way is to probe forensically, to submerge deeper into the possibilities of synthesis and synthesised, to think it through. Such intense application infused his lauded ‘Therapy with Colour’ debut for Constellation with a hypnotic resonance which uncurled as you listened. …
Track/Video: Patrick Watson unveils an exquisite video to welcome his ‘Better In The Shade’ album
Patrick Watson is an extraordinary musician – seven albums in and the Canadian singer-songwriter’s delicate melodic tapestries never wear thin. Following 2019’s ‘Wave’, an album of shimmering majestic orchestral pop balladry, comes the announcement of the follow up on Secret City Records ‘Better In The Shade’, available to the digital universe now and in tangible …
Meet: Inspirational electro-acoustic saxophonist Jason Sharp ahead of his upcoming UK/Eu solo tour.
You might have missed saxophonist Jason Sharp’s elemental and elevating album ‘The Turning Centre Of The Still World’ released as it was at the backend of the pandemic in August last year. His third release for Montreal’s mighty Constellation label marked an emboldened exploration of his craft, melding his sax playing with electronics using his …
Album Review: Basia Bulat – The Garden
Canadian chanteuse Basia Bulat has revisited and reworked tracks from her previous five albums on latest release, ‘The Garden’. It’s out on Secret City Records on 25th February, initially only digitally but it will be followed up by a physical release on 25th March. The 16 songs on ‘The Garden’ were produced by Bulat and …