Music Reviews

I feel like I've not been doing my sovereign duty as a "Guy who-listens to rad new metal (preferably-Canadian) and then shares it with the world," a GWLTRNM(PC)ATSIWTW if you will. Here we are knuckle-deep in 2014 and I'm still listening to last year's music! As a grown-ass adult, however, I have long ago mastered the art of deflection, so here goes...

Do Not Affect A Breezy Manner is the début full-length album by Montreal three-piece band Freelove Fenner. The trio consists of Peter Woodford, Caitlin Loney, and Michael Wright, and their album offers 18 tightly-produced and restrained tracks, none venturing much beyond two minutes. The excess fat has been trimmed almost as if the band were on a diet of musical minimalism, which ensures that each track is reduced to its basic necessities. 

Symphony Plastique is the debut solo release by Montreal artist Ari Swan. This four-track EP, recorded with Jamie Thompson (The Unicorns, Esmerine), paints a beautiful aural space that includes percussion and various effects that yield an eclectic mix of sounds and rhythms. Swan's vocals and violin weave together nicely around the canvas of sound created by Thompson giving us tracks that are fun, playful and at times intricate; a true symphonic duet.

If you have no idea who William Onyeabor is, you're not alone. The information available about him is unfathomable at best, but what I can tell you is that he is a Nigerian man of mystery. 

Album review by CJLO Magazine contributor Craig Carestia

The self-titled release from Austin, Texas stoner-punks (yeah, I just made that up) American Sharks is like a 100-mile-an-hour space cruise down a desolate desert road through the centre of bat country. The album is like punk played through amps built from used Ford Thunderbird parts. If those wizard/tiger/dragon airbrush paintings on the sides of cargo vans in the '70s could record an album of their own, American Sharks would be it.