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Music

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The Creeping Nobodies Half Saboteur EP (Bloodworks)

This 12-inch captures the Nobodies on the cusp of their newly adopted percussive sound. Their trademark dirges meet with timbral expansion and tight rhythms throbbing with movement, and they exploit their male/female tension to maximum effect: when Derek Westerholm’s intense vocals reach fever pitch, Valerie Uher enters with Kim Gordonesque yearning.

BROKEN TREE FORT ’00-’04 Compilation (Smash the Clock myspace.com/brokentreefort)

This disc compiles the best tracks from lo-fi prodigy Mark Roberts’s prolific output over the past four years. Exit The Same is a bonafide classic, fusing ethereal ragas with bedroom rock esoterica and overdriven funk drums. He may well be Toronto’s own Daniel Johnston.

CJ SLEEZ Back From The Brink (Spinerazor)

While much of T.O. goes off on indie tangents, there will always be the Bovine, where people still give a fuck about rock and its attendant bullshit (tats, leather, et al.). CJ Sleez will be their cheerleader now and forever.

LENIN I SHUMOV (Blocks Recording Club)

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Russian-born Eugene Slonimerov leads his army into a foamy lather of angular guitar stabs, bombastic drumming, operatic vocals and chaotic strings. LiS conjures up rural and Eastern Europe, yet even with Slonimerov’s out-there vocals, they never descend into self-parody. The true Leningrad cowboy.

THE BARCELONA PAVILION It’s Because Of (Blocks Recording Club)

Though the Barcelona Pavilion have virtually ceased to exist as a live entity, Blocks has just released their third tony CD. They continue on the route of screamed semiotic pop propelled by minimal beats and a Situationist desire to make their own fun. Masters Of Our Feelings will fill house-party dance floors for its one-minute duration.

5 discs for…
those with asymmetrical haircuts and/or other 80s accessories
Benjamin Boles

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PANICO Subliminal Kill (Tiger Sushi)

While the rest of the world was getting excited about grunge, these punksters from Chile were honing their take on dance punk. Ten years later, they’ve finally got an album released in North America, and it’s smoking hot.

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MI Robopop (Reinvent Music)

Toronto dance producer M1 (best known for his 90s hit Feel The Drums) has discovered electro but hasn’t lost sight of his house roots. Dirty, thumping beats and sizzling synth riffs, reminiscent of Daft Punk (but in a good way).

VIVE LA FETE Grand Prix (Surprise)

Icy-cold Belgian new wave by Karl Lagerfeld’s favourite band, with driving, distorted guitars and detached French-as-a-second- language female vocals.

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THE JUAN MACLEAN Less Than Human (DFA)

Former Six Finger Satellite member Juan Maclean emerges from hiding with a love letter to early house and techno as well as obscure late-disco. One of the strongest LPs to come out of the very hot DFA label.

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CONTROLLER.CONTROLLER X-Amounts (Paper Bag)

They may be regretting that they ever described themselves as death disco, but the term is as good as any for the hotly hyped local band’s aggressive, guitar-heavy take on dance music.

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