Travis Laplante & Peter Evans Secret Meeting

Published Mar 30, 2016

The state of virtuosity these days has been pushed into a state of critical mass. There are many musicians out there who have a firm grip on...

Elikeh Kondona

Published Nov 20, 2015

There was a curious prophesy about the invasion and subsequent destruction of Tibet that centred on the fact that the country's tragic past...

King Crimson Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Toronto ON, November 19

Published Nov 20, 2015

A tour based on a "best of" album, in this case King Crimson's Elements, can be a pretty safe bet, musically and in performance. Your fans w...

Mella Mella Mystery and Joy

Published Aug 31, 2015

Traditional instruments carry with them a special kind of expectation, and sometimes it's very easy to slip into judgement based on that exp...

​Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits / Kinobe Koerner Hall, Toronto ON, April 18

Published Apr 19, 2015

There is a scene in the first Reggae Sunsplash movie where Bob Marley fixes the interviewer with a stern gaze as he states: "We know how to...

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress

Published Mar 31, 2015

Godspeed's taste for pageantry has not left them, though they have, on this LP, left some of the spectacle behind. None of the spoken word t...

Balkan Clarinet Summit Many Languages One Soul

Published Feb 20, 2015

Balkan music nudged its way into the public consciousness many years back with the appearance of ensembles like the harmonically gorgeous Bu...

Drift Machine Eis Heuton

Published Feb 17, 2015

There is an odd "ghost in the machine" thing about computers and electronics talking to each other and making decisions on their own. While...

Antibalas / Zap Mama Koerner Hall, Toronto ON, February 7

Published Feb 08, 2015

A startling collision of aesthetics greeted the audience at Koerner Hall. Walking into the formal setting anticipating an Afro-beat dance pa...

Matana Roberts Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee

Published Jan 30, 2015

This release is the third in Matana Roberts' Coin Coin series, which explores her African American history through words and music and exten...

Zs Xe

Published Jan 27, 2015

We live in interesting times, musically. Never has there been such instant and complete access to the multiplicity of genres and histories o...

Christian Wallumrød Pianokammer

Published Jan 23, 2015

Christian Wallumrød's previous ensemble work has featured admirable attention to the story as a whole as he integrates each piece into a coh...

Arrington de Dionysio with Gal Lazer Shiloach Lovers and Dragons

Published Nov 21, 2014

This album paints a twisted parade of new Hindu medievalism fraught with anarchic banquets, of primordial electric ooze. Starting with the r...

Huun Huur Tu Small World Music Centre, Toronto ON, November 20

Published Nov 21, 2014

Throat singers Huun Huur Tu are from Tuva, which lies between Mongolia and Russia, just east of Kazakhstan. Their music is at once rooted an...

Rob Mazurek & Black Cube Return the Tides: Ascension Suite and Holy Ghost

Published Oct 14, 2014

The music here marks a son's rite of passage, a man's loss of his mother and a musician's function in a ritual celebration and passage clear...

John Coltrane Offering - Live at Temple University

Published Sep 23, 2014

This music has floated around for some years as a badly presented bootleg but is now available for the first time on Impulse!/Resonance reco...

Seun Kuti / Asiko Afrobeat / Luvmenauts Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto ON, July 12

Published Jul 13, 2014

I don't understand what the fuss is about all the energy shortages in the world. All they would need to do would be to wire up Seun Kuti to...

Nels Cline and Julian Lage Room

Published Jul 01, 2014

What do you get when you take two masterful instrumentalists with very divergent stylistic outputs and put them in a studio to play together...

Angel Terra Null

Published Jun 10, 2014

The art of ambience and the drone factor lies in the ability to create tension, release and narrative without the familiar infrastructures o...

Max Loderbauer, Claudio Puntin and Samuel Rohrer Ambiq

Published May 15, 2014

This trio of clarinet, modular synth and drums starts out with some well-executed and coherent improvisations. The mood is dark and pensive,...