Author: Matthew Barlow

Black Eyed Peas Masters of the Sun, Vol. I Interscope It is hard to remember, but before the Great Sell Out with the addition of Fergie around the turn of the millennium, the Black Eyed Peas were an underground hip hop collective.  Will.I.Am was the obvious and undisputed leader, but Taboo and Apl.De.Ap pulled their weight.  Amongst other things, they were notable due to the multicultural background the three members.  Will is African American, Apl. is Filipino, and Taboo is the son of Mexican immigrants. An earlier group Will was in caught the attention of the legendary Easy-E of NWA, and this got him his break in the business.  BEP’s first two albums were 90s back-pack rap, focused on positivity and organic beats.  And whilst they weren’t exactly classics, they were both standout albums, complete with beats, rhymes, and life. And then the less said about the 2000s and the mega-stardom, the better.  Fergie came into the band, replacing the previous female vocalist in the band, Kim Hill.  Fergie left the Peas sometime in 2017 or 2018.  She has been more or less replaced Jessica Reynoso. So Masters of the Sun, Vol. I is a return to BEP’s roots.  And, well, the results are pretty damn fine.  Will.I.Am, Apl.de.ap and Taboo are all nimble rappers and their rhymes are once again blended with positivity and funky beats.  Like their first...

Shad A Short Story About a War Secret City Records Shad is a long-time underground Canadian hip hop icon, and also hosted The Q on the CBC following the deposing of the previous host for being a pig.  He also hosted the brilliant eight-part documentary series, Hip Hop Evolution, which originally aired on HBO Canada, though it’s now streaming on Netflix globally.  Evolution was a 2016 Peabody Award winner.  In short, Shad is a heavy duty dude.  He is also one of the most versatile rappers I’ve ever heard, he can drop any kind of rhyme on time.  And he’s smooth.  Shit, if there was any justice in this world, Shad would be selling a billion albums a year and Kanye would be a nobody. Working with a veritable who’s who of Canadian hip hop, including the nearly ubiquitous DJ Kaytranada, Shad attacks our world, but, in working with a variety of people from across the country (he’s from London, ON, but is Toronto-based), he also explores some of the regionalisms of our country.  A Short Story About a War is a concept album, about a war no less.  Shad argues he is holding a mirror up to society as a whole, making us look at ourselves and issues such as migration and immigration, the environment, greed and politics, and the human spirit.  If nothing else, Shad is optimistic, usually.  Across the album,...

Dead Can Dance Dionysus Pias It seems as if Dead Can Dance have been doing this forever.  They actually kind of have.  Originally formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1981, Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry decamped for London the following year.  They did break up in 1998, though they reformed for a one-off in 2005 and for good in 2011.  Dionysus is their ninth long-player and first since 2012.  Gerrard and Perry gained fame with mesmerizing soundscapes of African, Celtic, Middle Eastern, and Asian sounds over top dance beats.  Never music for the crazed nights at the clubs, they were the pre-party, at home with friends before going out, or they were the music you put on at 4am when you got in.  As we’ve all aged, those nights have ended, of course, and now, well, I find myself coming back to Dionysus at all hours of the day.  It’s not exactly chill music, but it’s not exactly rave music. Dionysus finds our ageing veterans in fine form.  Dioynsus is the culmination of two long years of researching and recording and is centred on the Greek god of both fertility and wine & pleasure.  Dionysus was a complicated god, as all the Greeks gods were, I suppose.  His role as the god of fertility meant that he was central to the harvest and his role as the god of wine and pleasure means he was...

Devotchka This Night Falls Forever Concord On a transcontinental flight away back in 2006, my now-wife watched a movie called Little Miss Sunshine whilst I read something or other.  Watching the film, which she loved, she discovered this new band, Devotchka.  I was intrigued, if only due to the band’s name; A Clockwork Orange being one of my favourite movies (yes, I know it was a book originally, but I prefer the film, it’s not often I say that).  The band, though, say that’s not from whence their name comes, as ‘devotchka’ is Russian for girl.  Whatever. We got back to Montréal and got Devotckha’s 2006 ep, Curse Your Little Heart.  We were hooked.  We soon filled up the back catalogue, and then bought every album they put out.  At some point around 2009 or 2010, Devotchka came to Montréal and played Club Soda.  It was a sit-down event, with tables on the floor, to make it like some kind of dinner and show.  So we sat with a few other couples.  But the music!  We got up and danced, together, waltzing and samba-ing around the tables.  We were the only people to do so.  Around 2,000 people in the club, and my wife and I were the only ones to dance.  And people say Montréal is a party town! Devotchka originally got lumped in with the gypsy punk movement with the...

The Menated: 2008-2011 Sacred Bones The Men used to be one of my favourite bands.  I discovered them just in time for the release of their 2012 album, Open Your Heart.  It was this brilliant mixture of hard core, country, noise, and just a metric shit tonne of guitars and screaming.  I think I once listened to this album all the way through for an entire weekend.  But, it turns out that Open Your Heart was a turning point for The Men, as they shifted away from their noise rock background towards a more accessible sound that sounded kind of generic to me by 2014’s Tomorrow’s Hits.  To be fair, their last two albums, 2016’s Devil Music and this year’s Drift return them to  more familiar, amped up guitar music.  I will say this about them, they’re an incredibly diverse band.  And to say they used to be one of my favourite bands is not really to diss them.  Our tastes change and evolve, and their interests as musicians have done the same.  Fair play. Hated is a compilation of tracks recorded between their formation in 2008 and 2011, by which time they had released two albums, Immaculada (2010) and Leave Home (2011).  And in listening to Hated, I am reminded by how vital and loud The Men were.  They are punk.  They are surf.  They are noise.  They are rock.  There’s even the hint of countrified rock that broke out on Open Your...