SANDRO PERRI plays the Tranzac November 12 and 13. See listing. Rating: NNNNN
I’ve long been a believer in Sandro Perri’s immense musical talents, from his days blending dance music and lap steel as Polmo Polpo to his avant-folk work under his own name and his math-rock ethno-pop experiments with Craig Dunsmuir as Glissandro 70. But I’d given up on his breaking through to a larger audience, resigning myself to the idea that he’d always be best known as a great producer of other artists and an ahead-of-the-curve influence on clued-in Toronto musicians. That’s all changed with his newest solo album, Impossible Spaces, which was being tipped by insiders as a strong contender for next year’s Polaris Music Prize long before it even hit the streets.
This disc is a big leap forward. Perri hasn’t turned his back on his experimental tendencies. He’s still jumping between genres with the nimbleness of a squirrel, but the leaps between electronic, pop, jazz, folk and experimental now seem completely natural rather than superhuman attempts to break new ground. All that brainy musician stuff offers something for music critics to sink their teeth into, but it’s the strikingly gorgeous songwriting and performances that are going to finally catapult Perri to the larger audience he deserves.
Top track: Wolfman
