Brooklyn-based experimental producer and composer Oneohtrix Point Never (aka Daniel Lopatin) returned to Montreal for the first time since 2018 this past Monday, finishing off the tour of his 2023 record Again with a sold-out show at Theatre Fairmount. 

Slaughter Beach, Dog’s (“SBD”) sold-out show at Le Ministère was both cozy and intimate. Instead of touring with the usual ensemble, SBD’s North American solo tour was led by none other than Jake Ewald. As one of the founding members of Modern Baseball, Jake is no stranger to the indie-rock genre. In fact, his past work with Modern Baseball and his current solo tour under the SBD banner are indicative of his role in defining the genre throughout the past decade. 

Rapper, producer, author, and former poet laureate Rollie Pemberton - better known as Cadence Weapon - released his sixth studio album, ROLLERCOASTER, this spring via MNRK Music.

Having emerged as an artist who gave voice to issues of systemic inequality and racial disparity, particularly among Canada’s Black communities, with his 2021 Polaris Prize-winning fifth album Parallel World, Cadence Weapon returns with an urgency, addressing the dizzying contradictions of modern culture and technology with both precision and irreverence.

When I first heard MIKE in 2020, I was, as most first-time listeners are, surprised. At first glance, MIKE seems to be not much more than your average abstract hip-hop artist. Slurred bars laid over disjointed, chopped-up soul samples fill most of the rappers' tracks, but after a few minutes, it seems to transform. MIKE’s flows seem almost spiritual like he is nonchalantly tapping into a higher power to put any listener into some sort of jazz-rap trance. There is a friendliness buried in the soul chops and introspective bars, like a warm hug from someone you've known since childhood. With all this, it's easy to see how MIKE has hugely influenced the hip-hop scene.

Birds of Prrrey, Laura Krieg, Mary Jane Dunphe, 9Million at Cabaret Fouf, April 19