As always, a smathering of all forms of new music going on throughout the country, the continent and the world, updated throughout March's Flux issue. If you are interested in reviewing music, please robot@capitalmag.com with "Music Review" in the subject. If you have music for review, please click here for the Capital office address, or contact Robert at the above email. enjoy...

Gui Boratto

Chromophobia

Kompakt

On Chromophobia, Síƒ £o Pauloí¢â‚¬â„¢s Gui Boratto lifts minimalism into lush, emotional terrain, embodying all the innovative qualities Kompakt is known for. The ambient textures, the 4x4 drum patterns, the hazy aestheticí¢â‚¬”ití¢â‚¬â„¢s all here on his debut. And like many of the labelí¢â‚¬â„¢s elite, Boratto lays this all out in a minimal house format that is familiar, yet pushes the genre in all the right directions. Through a stream of minor-key synths and mid-tempo beats, he carries the album through 13 impressive tracks, which at times could lend comparisons to Superpitcher or Vitalic. And while the record is almost entirely free of the human voice, the vocals provided by Borattoí¢â‚¬â„¢s wife, Luciana, turn the epic í¢â‚¬Å“Beautiful Lifeí¢â‚¬  into a dancefloor anthem in waiting. With Chromophobia Boratto has given a sonic offering well worth the wax ití¢â‚¬â„¢s printed on.

Brock Thiessen

The Blow

Poor Aim: Love SongsK RecordsAfter the success of the Blowí¢â‚¬â„¢s 2006 indie-friendly unit shifter Paper Television, the brass at K Records thought it wise to re-release the Portland duoí¢â‚¬â„¢s 2004 mini-LP, Poor Aim: Love Songs, with a generous dollop of six bonus remixed tracks. In keeping with the K tradition of friends-helping-friends-helping-friends, numerous local knob twiddlers were invited to help twist and tweak some of the Blowí¢â‚¬â„¢s more memorable material. Cupidí¢â‚¬â„¢s arrow may have missed singer Khaela Maricich, as her lovelorn tracks have her as either victim or martyr, but thereí¢â‚¬â„¢s obviously enough love around the Pacific Northwest to keep her marching forward.

Adam Simpkins

Dig Your Roots/Decouvre Tes Racines

Various Artists

The National Campus and Community Radio Association

If i am told something is gonna be experimental jazz, I want some seriously weird shit. Noise, yelling, samples, crazy drumbeats, psycho horns, multiple musical influences and lots of progression should be pre-requisites for a legitimate experimental experience. However, instead of meeting my expectations of being totally freaky, almost unlistenable music, this collection is instead an inspiring traverse of Canadian peoples pushing the jazz envelope at all its corners. Toronto group bitchiní¢â‚¬â„¢, who supplies track 4 on the album, keeps things the most real, building from soft violin and winds into a loud noise explosion, and some serious í¢â‚¬Å“heeba-da-hybada-ho-badaí¢â‚¬  shouts overtop to end it off. í¢â‚¬Å“Erroneí¢â‚¬ , by Montreal group BoboK, gives a pretty dope example of how to interweave spoken word style vocals and samples overtop of a funky, slow jam, and St. Johní¢â‚¬â„¢s musician Duane Andrews gets back to some swingy, quasi bebop sounds with his í¢â‚¬Å“Improvisations On The First Movement Of Mozart's String Quintet In G Minor K516í¢â‚¬ . Really, every songí¢â‚¬â„¢s got a little charm, and the NCRA has done well to flow across a diverse collection of styles. Maybe not the album for the afficionado of traditional jazz, but certainly an inspiration to anyone wanting to see where jazz is at in Canada, where jazz can go, or anyone in need of some raw, innovative music at its finest.

meelosh

Infighter

S/TIndependentThe eponymous debut album by Torontoí¢â‚¬â„¢s Infighter is another jewel in the already teeming crown of new Canadian music. Unfortunately radio stations and music television are cursed with a deviant myopia, which leaves great new bands like Infighter to toil in obscurity. Infighter fuses the synthesizers of new wave with the melody and rhythm of Brit-pop while steering clear of imitation or duplication. The sonic crash of the band and the haunting, angelic vocals of Ami Spears compliment and heighten Simeon Ross' boyish crooning and forlorn lyrics. Opening tracks "Regret" and "Out of Range" are a terrific one-two punch of danceable rock. "The Actor" bounces and pops like any hit song should and Spears' lead vocal on the sorrowful ballad "Deserter" springs goose flesh up the spine. The one weak number is "Into the Bedroom"; the dual vocals lack their customary passion and conviction and the band sounds a little bored and tired. But one stutter step doesní¢â‚¬â„¢t flaw a good album.

James Bakker

Maher Shalal Hash Baz

Lí¢â‚¬â„¢Autre Cap

K RecordsLí¢â‚¬â„¢Autre Cap by the legendary Maher Shalal Hash Baz is the type of record thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s filled with as many wrong notes as right ones. But for Tori Kudo, the bandí¢â‚¬â„¢s heart and soul, this approach has always suited his albums well, and his latest is no exception. Since the late 70s, this ex-Japanese revolutionary has worked with an ever-revolving cast of musicians (which once boasted The Pastels), and for Lí¢â‚¬â„¢Autre Cap heí¢â‚¬â„¢s chosen a bevy of amateur players to back him. The majority of these young men and women fill the record with a barrage of haphazard horns, making the 27 songs liken those of a more lawless Beirut or Neutral Milk Hotel. But unlike either of the two, Kudo and his guitar keep the band one note away from bedlam at all timesí¢â‚¬”rarely working into a groove that could be considered pop. But here lies the albumí¢â‚¬â„¢s charm: through the rough, there are diamonds. Songs such as on the epic í¢â‚¬Å“Moving Without Ark,í¢â‚¬  the melancholic í¢â‚¬Å“Joabí¢â‚¬  and the tuneful í¢â‚¬Å“Giving Birth to Youí¢â‚¬  are all evidence that precision is not needed to create something pleasing to the ear. For those already familiar with Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Lí¢â‚¬â„¢Autre Cap with likely become the newfound favourite, and, for those unfamiliar, now is the time to pick up and listen.

Brock Thiessen

The Arcade Fire

Neon Bible

Merge

In contrast to a debut album that dealt with the dread of mortality and the catharsis of grief, this sophomore release widens The Arcade Fireí¢â‚¬â„¢s outlook beyond the anxiety of a troubled interior to that of a troubled world. The overall theme here is one of lurking Armageddon, but like its predecessor, this album considers the darkness with a sense of exhilaration. Much of the exuberance comes from the instrumental momentum that manages to belie the foreboding content. Win Butler rails against a sick society on the verge of war and the entrenched limitations of its subjects on an album named after a novel depicting social intolerance, while the musical arrangements build and reach an intense harmonious zenith. As incongruous as the bleak subject matter may seem to these accelerating compositions, The Arcade Fire deliver an augmented sense of taut anticipation. The end of the world never sounded so good.

Christian Martius

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