Subjective (Goldie & James Davidson) Act One: Music For Inanimate Objects Sony Music Few names carry more weight in EDM circles than English musician and DJ Goldie, aka Clifford Joseph Price. Banging out drum-and-bass hits since the 1980s, [...]
Better Oblivion Community Center Better Oblivion Community Center Dead Oceans A release that very much snuck up on fans of Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers, the self-titled Better Oblivion Community Center is a study in balance. Oberst and [...]
SPILL MAGAZINE’S BEST ALBUMS OF 2018 With a huge team of writers and an absolutely massive list of albums reviewed this year, it was no easy task to come up with something resembling agreement on what Spill Magazine identifies as the top [...]
Humans Going Late Haven Sounds Vancouver-based Humans are an “electropop” (seriously, who comes up with these genre names?) duo made up of Robbie Slade and Peter Ricq. As a genre, EDM is tremendously varied, but Slade and Ricq clearly favour and [...]
Dan Mangan More Or Less Arts & Crafts The very best writing about this album was done by Dan Mangan himself via his publicity team on his website. As a description of the album, he explained its genesis as well as his own personal evolution [...]
St. Vincent MassEducation Loma Vista Recordings Recorded during the mixing of 2017’s very similarly named MASSEDUCTION, the newest release from St. Vincent, MassEducation, is a stripped-down version of its slightly elder sister that features St. [...]
Gregory Alan Isakov Evening Machines Dualtone There is something very old and natural that Gregory Alan Isakov is able to tap into each time he goes to the well of inspiration for his music; instantly, the listener is able to ease into Isakov’s [...]
Sam Roberts We Were Born In a Flame (Expanded Edition) Universal Music This album will always hold a special place for me; not only is it one of my favourite albums ever made (top twenty at least), it was also originally released in 2003, the [...]
BUMPS AND SCUFFS A CONVERSATION WITH TRAGEDY ANN Guelph-based folk duo Tragedy Ann offer their listeners and interviewers alike a unique blend of authenticity and youthful enthusiasm that is equal parts endearing and refreshing. Though Liv [...]
All Them Witches ATW New West Records There is no question that Nashville-based quartet All Them Witches are capable of producing music for the genre that they are frequently pigeon-holed into – psychedelic/stoner rock – but it does them no [...]
Bob Moses Battle Lines Domino Almost three years ago to the day, Canadian electronic duo Bob Moses released their debut Days Gone By to great acclaim. Fusing together electronic beats and layering with hooky guitar licks and soft vocals, the duo [...]
Car Seat Headrest w/ Naked Giants @ The Danforth Music Hall, Toronto September 11, 2018 For their 2018 tour in support of this year’s album release, Twin Fantasy, Car Seat Headrest are being supported by “the best band in the world” according to [...]
La Force La Force Arts & Crafts Ariel Engle, aka La Force, is a dynamic performer with oodles of talent who has, in less than two years, become a permanent member of the Canadian indie collective Broken Social Scene, toured in support of [...]
PICK IT UP: SKA IN THE 90s A CONVERSATION WITH DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR TAYLOR MORDEN Built on the back of an incredibly successful crowd-sourcing effort, Pick It Up: Ska in the 90s is the passion project of Taylor Morden, who is both a longtime ska [...]
IDLES Joy As An Act Of Resistance Partisan Records 2016’s Brutalism was a thundering debut full of urgency and action but what sets 2018’s Joy as an Act of Resistance apart is the more measured, intuitive approach the band have taken. There is [...]
Justice Woman Worldwide Ed Banger Records/Because Music French dance DJ duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay have been one of the most sought after and acclaimed dance acts since their debut in 2011. Capable of crafting some of the most [...]
Mitski Be The Cowboy Dead Oceans Mitski may be one of the most intriguing young artists making music at the moment and Be The Cowboy, the follow-up to her acclaimed 2016 album Puberty 2, is again full to overflowing with enigmatic, intriguing, [...]
St. Vincent @ Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto July 31, 2018 St. Vincent, the creation of Annie Clark, is as compelling an enigma as is imaginable in modern music; much like the three statues adorning the front façade of the Sony [...]
Lord Huron @ Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto Wednesday, July 25, 2018 Though the band has experimented with sound and volume on their most recent effort, 2018’s Vide Noir, there exists a space within the music created by Lord [...]
The Vans Warped Tour ’18 @ Echo Beach, Toronto July 17, 2018 The weather could not have been better for this, the final time that the Vans Warped Tour would travel to Canada, with the sun sliding out from behind thick clouds to warm the [...]
Bodega Endless Scroll What’s Your Rupture? Is there a punk revival, a renaissance afoot? Given the tumultuous social and Geo-political climate, it would make sense that the two genres with the most active history of lyrically cataloguing [...]
Florence + the Machine High As Hope Virgin EMI There are few, if any, voices more distinctive or powerful than that of Florence Welch. Famed for her ability to channel emotion through her shiver-inducing vocals, Florence’s vocal prowess has [...]
Nine Inch Nails Bad Witch The Null Corporation There is little that I could say about Trent Reznor or Nine Inch Nails that has not already been said; the man is a musical omnivore with an incredible ear for both emotion and atmosphere, who finds [...]
alt-J @ RBC ECHO BEACH, TORONTO JUNE 20, 2018 If there is a more restlessly, creatively independent band on the planet than alt-J, then I have yet to hear them. Seen by many as the heirs to the throne that Radiohead will one day have to vacate [...]
