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Check out
what’s going on
around Winnipeg tonight! |
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Check out
this week’s
online CD reviews by our
music staff |
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Buyu Ambroise
Blues in Red
(Justin Time)
B+
Website: www.justin-time.com
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Blues in Red successfully
mixes Haitian music with jazz as saxophonist Buyu Ambroise augments
his regular quintet with Haitian and kata drums as well as Latin
percussion. One Note Rara, one of five Haitian traditional songs
on the album, has the horns (trombonist Dion Tucker completes
the front line) stating the theme over a rolling rhythm section
throughout the tune. Several songs rely on this concept, with
drummer Obed Calvaire responding more to the soloist and the percussion
steadily repeating the original rhythms. Caravan is given a fresh
twist as the A section features a march-like snare drum rhythm.
The leader’s sense of lyricism on tunes such as Complainte
Paysanne is palpable and evokes Sonny Rollins, who has used Calypso
elements in his music since the 1950s. The beautiful Konviksy,
done as a duet with guitarist Alix Pascal, who plays tenor, concludes
the disc.
Paul Ryan |
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Daft Punk
Human After All
(Virgin/EMI)
C
Website: www.daftpunk.com
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The latest from French
duo Daft Punk may be expressly built for fans of DP’s specific
brand of hard, electronic house music, but buried in some of the
tracks is a sure sense of weird dynamics any hip music fan will
dig. The pair’s disco beat-romp flavour is quite intoxicating
and the album has a colon-shaking loudness that can’t be
ignored. Robot Rock uses French trick-rockery to send a tantalizing
riff directly into your short-term memory, overloading it with
repetitive lines which are hard to shake. When you think about
it, cold and unemotional music that is so proudly annoying is
actually more honest than the lazy dreck that passes as credible
and cool these days. It’s tempting to blast this album into
critical oblivion, but if you haven’t bought a big, dumb
electronic disc in a while, do yourself a favour and try this.
Jeff Monk |
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David Holmes
Music from the Motion Picture Ocean’s Twelve
(Warner Brothers Records)
C+
Website: www.warnerbrosrecords.com
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David Holmes is known
for his DJ, recording, mixing and composing skills, and his musical
selections play an integral part of the ambience of Ocean’s
Twelve. This disc has a distinct ’60s feel with several
little-known gems from that decade to play amongst Holmes’
own compositions. Funk is the order of the day on 165 Million
+ Interest — which is roughly what Uptown pays per CD review
— and there are some swirling-string, girly girl romantic
tracks which conjure images of me and Brad frolicking through
fields of daisies while sunlight streams through the clouds. Most
of the disc inspires me to rob a casino — bongos and electric
guitars seem to have that effect, especially on Harder’s
What R We Stealing.
Shannon Ander |
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Various
Artists
The Eagle Records Collection
(Super Oldies)
B+
Website: www.superoldies.com
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The original Winnipeg
garage-rock scenesters, many of whom haven’t picked up an
instrument for 30 years or more, pretty much disavow any knowledge
of their past gnarliness. This 30-track gold mine of rare and
unreleased tracks will set the record straight and is solid proof
that the ’Peg produced some truly estimable and underrated
rock ’n’ roll talent. Eight bands are represented
and all recorded for the little indie label that was shooting
for the stars but was held firmly on the wet banks of the raging
Red River. If you have never heard The Shondels’ pumping
Every Day, Every Night or Satan and the D-Men’s She’ll
Lie then you haven’t heard pure, head-busting Canuck g-rock.
This set outshines its previous incarnation as an EP on the Bomp-aligned
Voxx imprint.
Jeff Monk |
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Kamelot
The Black Halo
(Fusion III/ Steamhammer)
B+
Website: www.kamelot.com
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This progressive power
metal quartet hails from Sweden … no, waitaminnit, these
melodic metalheads are actually from the Viking-free realm of…
Florida? Regardless of origin, The Black Halo has been getting
loads of extremely positive reviews all over the Internet. And
it is a good disc of epic scope and majestic operatic intent —
but sometimes it just doesn’t rock. Not that metal always
has to gallop and pummel — as tracks such as When the Lights
Are Down and This Pain do — but this banger finds some of
the band’s slower, layered melodies cause his broadsword
to go a little limp. Similarly, the guitars here are fairly generic.
This allows singer Khan and drummer Casey Grillo to shine, but
we all know that true metal is forged with the axe. So The Black
Halo is a good disc from a good band — but you won’t
need your heavy banging neck brace.
Mike Warkentin |
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Vic
Chesnutt
Ghetto Bells
(New West Records)
B
Website: www.vicchesnutt.com
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It seems that Vic Chesnutt’s
brand of arty and doleful mood-pop plays well to music fans who
can only take excitement in small doses. It’s hard to tell
if Chesnutt and his top-level support band are wickedly deep into
the sombre muse or just kind of plodding merrily along while our
hero mumbles and whispers about who knows what. Granted, you rarely
get Bill Frisell and Van Dyke Parks on the same album, but for
my money it could have been Mutt and Jeff on guitar and accordion.
Much of Chesnutt’s appeal lies in his ability to play out
a kind of dilapidated world view, the underdog as poet laureate
of the dissatisfied intelligent humans league. Like a rootsier
Nick Cave, he looks at life from all the odd angles and comes
up with his own special brand of lethargic and underwhelming dark
pop.
Jeff Monk |
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Pete
Rock
Soul Survivor II Sessions: The Surviving Elements
(Rapster Records)
B+
Website: www.rapsterrecords.com
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Having started DJing at
age 15, Pete Rock met producers in the industry before blazing
onto the rap scene via a collaboration with CL Smooth on the All
Souled Out EP in 1991. The duo split up, and Rock released Soul
Survivors in 1998, then waited 6 years before releasing the sequel.
On the original Soul Survivors II, RZA, Kardinal Offishall and
the Dead Prez all made appearances. But this is not a rap album;
The Surviving Elements is pared down to the basics, where only
the instruments and barely audible hums remain. This gives you
a chance to MC about tha’ suburban ’hood — mowin’
lawns, makin’ dinnah, and vacuumin’, yo. Who cares
if you lack cred in your minivan and winter parka? The Elements...
is a soulful ambient album with layered samples, sweeping strings
and deep beats. It’s the shizzle.
Shannon Ander |
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John
Doe
Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet
(Yep Roc)
C-
Website: www.yeproc.com
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John Doe has a thundering
rock ’n’ roll record in him — he just refuses
to let it out. Who knows why he keeps releasing these threadbare
roots-rock records when he knows full well that his fans from
his so-called ‘back in the day’ are just itching to
hear another album like his first solo outing. Maybe it’s
Doe’s acting gig that makes him want to add guest stars
to nearly every track here. Sure, Neko Case, Cindy Lee Berryhill
(who?) and Kristin Hersh add miles of street-cred to the sleeve
but don’t add anything musically that Doe couldn’t
have done better with complete unknowns. A few of the tracks have
a fashionable ‘demo’ character but sound more ragged
than right. Don’t deny where you came from John Doe. It’s
time to step away from the cameras for a while and watershed the
last great rock album.
Jeff Monk |
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Pat
Metheny Group
The Way Up
(Nonesuch Records)
A
Website: www.patmethenygroup.com
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This latest release from
the Pat Metheny Group takes the listener across a varied sonic
landscape. With the exception of introductory piece Opening, the
record is made up of three extended compositions that range between
15 and 26 minutes in length. The tracks don’t drag, however,
as each boasts frequent changes of mood and tempo. Themes are
introduced and re-introduced at various points, and the transitions
between sections (from rubato to a fast, straight-ahead swing,
for example) are seamless, resulting in a very natural flow. Metheny
gets to display some of his characteristic rapid-fire articulation
on an assortment of guitars, and pianist Lyle Mays and trumpeter
Cuong Vu also contribute fine solos. A particular climax occurs
midway through Part 2, with Metheny and Vu improvising simultaneously.
One is struck by the overriding diversity and universality of
this music.
Paul Ryan |
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