Spontaneous Music Ensemble
Bare Essentials 2756
By Bryon Hayes
Harvested from a wealth of recordings and painstakingly restored from original cassettes, Bare Essentials features the cream of the improvisatory crop from SME mainstays John Stevens and Trevor Watts. Bare in name only, this mammoth double disc set represents the early, pre-Face to Face duo recordings spanning from September 1972 through to March 1973. Boiling over with a ferocity rare for such a pared-down arrangement Watts on soprano sax and Stevens on a small drum kit or cornet yet at times subdued and even hushed, this small sampling of the duos body of work encompasses a broad range of emotion. For Phil, recorded the same day that legendary drummer Phil Seamen passed away, mirrors the stages of loss, from denial through to acceptance. The seven versions of Open Flower prove that there are many paths that one can travel from a point of origin. This collection, though far from being bare, is truly essential. (Emanem)
Arc -
Arkhangelsk 4257
Aidan Bakers Nadja have been receiving more and more attention for their incredible fusion of metal, ambience and experimentation. Between his solo work and his doom-y Nadja project, Bakers racked up well over 20 recordings in the last year. ARC, though, have been relatively less active. The r
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Shot x Shot -
Let Nature Square 2643
Phillys Shot x Shot quartet delivered a striking debut a couple years back with their self-titled disc for High Two. Recorded in a hugely reverberant church, it showed the quartet reworking gritty free-bop into grandly overarching soundscapes. Their newest disc has more conventional acoustics but
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JUSTIN BROADRICK Napalm Death - Godflesh - Techno Animal - Jesu - Pale Sketcher
Though he's been the ceaseless ambassador for some of the most extreme music to see the light of day since the mid-'80s, Justin K. Broadrick's range and tastes as a musician are so wide that few fans have an easy time wrapping their heads around all this legendary UK artist has accomplished over dozens of albums....
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Kataklysm - Heavens Venom 80
It's safe to say that Kataklysm helped pave the way for the Montreal, QC death metal scene, which has continued to flourish over the years. Since their 1991 inception, they've consistently churned out quality records and Heaven's Venom, their 11th studio release, is another top-notch album...
Full Review
Follow The Money: Federal and Provincial Funding
Compared to the great lumbering Horton that is the American music business, we might as well be Whos up here. With one-tenth the population of our southern neighbour, the Canadian music business lives on a dust mote, so minimal is our impact, generally, on the economics of the business worldwide....
Read More
Aidan Bakers Nadja have been receiving more and more attention for their incredible fusion of metal, ambience and experimentation. Between his solo work and his doom-y Nadja project, Bakers racked up well over 20 recordings in the last year. ARC, though, have been relatively less active. The r
...
Phillys Shot x Shot quartet delivered a striking debut a couple years back with their self-titled disc for High Two. Recorded in a hugely reverberant church, it showed the quartet reworking gritty free-bop into grandly overarching soundscapes. Their newest disc has more conventional acoustics but
...
Though he's been the ceaseless ambassador for some of the most extreme music to see the light of day since the mid-'80s, Justin K. Broadrick's range and tastes as a musician are so wide that few fans have an easy time wrapping their heads around all this legendary UK artist has accomplished over dozens of albums....
It's safe to say that Kataklysm helped pave the way for the Montreal, QC death metal scene, which has continued to flourish over the years. Since their 1991 inception, they've consistently churned out quality records and Heaven's Venom, their 11th studio release, is another top-notch album...
Compared to the great lumbering Horton that is the American music business, we might as well be Whos up here. With one-tenth the population of our southern neighbour, the Canadian music business lives on a dust mote, so minimal is our impact, generally, on the economics of the business worldwide....
