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Six From the 6ix: Belly signs with Roc Nation, Career Suicide mount a comeback

Allie, Tundra

We finally have a proper follow-up Allie’s promising 2013 EP Strange Creature. On her second EP, Moonlust, the Toronto R&B singer/songwriter refines her meditative sound with lushly realized harmonies and gently psychedelic beats courtesy of producers Elaquent, Nick Wisdom and Da-P. When Allie opened for Chicago rapper Tink at NXNE earlier this summer,  her live sound was markedly tighter and richer than it was when she played with Kelela at Massey Hall a year prior. Moonlust is proof she has been upping her game in the studio as well.

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BADBADNOTGOOD, Timewave Zero

Jazz group BADBADNOTGOOD have been getting attention for their many collaborations of late. Their joint album with Ghostface Killah was nominated for the Polaris Prize, they turned up on rising soul singer Daniel Caesar’s Pilgrim’s Paradise EP and they recently performed in Los Angeles with Future Islands singer Sam Herring. Last week, the trio posted two new songs of their own online, including the shambolic, 60s-sounding Timewave Zero. The tracks are not pegged to any project, but rather the result of “just trying out ideas and having fun.”

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Career Suicide, Cut And Run

Fucked Up might be on hiatus, but its band members are hardly idle. Ben Cook recently revived his old hardcore punk band No Warning and his FU bandmate Jonah Falco – not to be outdone – has revived his old hardcore punk band Career Suicide, which now features Dallas Green of The Sadies on guitar. Our first (unmastered) taste of their forthcoming LP is called Cut And Run and its a two-minute blast of riffage that lands like a punch to the gut.

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Belly, No Option

Rapper Belly has steadily released music in Canada for the better part of a decade, but is now poised to crossover south of the border thanks to a newly announced deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label. The Palestine-born, Ottawa-raised MC won a Juno in 2008 but recently found success in Toronto as an integral part of The Weeknd’s XO crew. He co-wrote six songs for the pop superstar’s Beauty Behind The Madness album, including singles Often, Earned It and The Hills. Despite Belly’s foray into radio-friendly pop, his own material is tougher and straight-up hip-hop, as the video for trap-y single No Option – off this year’s Up For Days mixtape – demonstrates. Roc Nation will release his next album in 2016.

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Maylee Todd, Lonely

Eclectic indie pop star Maylee Todd’s latest single is called Lonely so it is fitting that her next live show is essentially a multimedia cuddle party. During Maylee Todd’s Virtual Womb on December 11, the disco-influenced Toronto musician will play cuts off her forthcoming Acts Of Love album alongside string and vocal sections as synced video art is projected on the ceiling of The Great Hall. Attendees are encouraged to lie on the floor and hug themselves or one another. Lonely comes out in digital and vinyl formats on November 27.

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LA Timpa, Animal

Toronto’s latest musical mystery man is LA Timpa, an atmospheric and minimalist electronic artist who has been posting music on Soundcloud since the summer. According to The Fader, his upcoming Animal EP is “a conceptual project that was recorded throughout June between the hours of 1 am and 9 am” with inspiration from Harmony Korine’s 1997 cult movie Gummo. The video for Animal came out this week and is part of a series of four music videos made by artist Kristie Muller for French art and culture magazine Purple.

kevinr@nowtoronto.com | @kevinritchie

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