Author – canonical

Frank Michael Rizzo – Time Is Your Answer b/w Honey Road

After finding two Rizzo acetates in some random box at WFMU, a certain psych mafioso told me he believed Rizzo had access to a lathe and was cutting custom oddities throughout the 70s. Whatever the case, Rizzo captures the perfect basemental weirdness permeating the American underground (think Vyto B, Higney, Stone Harbour, Heitkotter et al.) […]

Jerry Rooth – But You’ll Try…Again b/w But You Loved Me Anyway

Jerry Rooth’s Higney-produced single is further evidence that Higney’s sonic philosophy was no accident. All the classic shimmers present are: muted drums, rough, desperate vocals, and the wonderfully inexplicable audio-temporal mixing that made Attic Demonstration such a classic. “But You’ll Try…Again” strays from Higney’s downer-rock and dives into a strange brew of hard-rock, power-pop, and […]

Kebab – We Live in a System

Kebab existed within a weird junction between Europe’s waning post-punk explosion and the new wave of electronic synthesia. With a vocal sound obviously close to The Slits, the Belgian quartet remain more youthful, subtle, and haematic, fusing drum-machine maximalia with actue guitar riffery to create their strange sinusoidal centre. Remarkably, they listed Crass as a […]

V/A – Dove Project No. 9 (No Label, 1970)

The Dove Project No. 9 compilation is one of the most obscure artifacts of Canadian psychedelia. The main individual responsible for this excursion into the remote recesses of rock’s underground was a young and aspiring musical businessman named Doug Wong. In 1969 Doug was a leading member of the student newspaper published at his high-school. Unlike […]

Carole Caroompas – Target Practice

Probably the most unique and unassuming record I purchased at the 2008 WFMU record fair. Housed in a plain sleeve with a screen printed bird and real feathers waxed-on to the cover, Carole Caroompas’ only record from 1981 is a sure winner for fans of minimal pop. Carole is/was an established L.A. visual artist who […]

The Chandra Dimension (unreleased) EP

I refused to believe it was true until Chandra sent me a copy of the master tapes. An unreleased Chandra EP? This time with full teenage backing band and production from Steve Alexander and Eugenie Diserio of The Dance? After Chandra released her Transportation EP she formed a band consisting of herself (who at that time […]

Lightdreams – Islands in Space

I was listening to this album hardcore at the same time I started reading William Gibson’s Neuromancer. They seemed to compliment each other well, each depicted a world in space so daring and different. Paul Marcano, the mind behind Lightdreams, dedicates the album to the colonization of space and this really sets the tone for […]

Chris Madsen – In Black and White

Great private press from Vancouver, BC featuring one-half dark, haunted ssw moves with reverberated vocals, these songs being the best on the LP. Chris has a deep voice which must issue some sort of web as you are drawn to listen to him sing as he covers topics like nature, love and loss. The other […]

Jeffrey Morgan – Quasar-Mach

Recommended thematic avant-garde/free-jazz suite loosely based on the effects of time-travel. The album wavers between very sparse, brooding percussion based avant compositions reminiscent of the Gamelan Son of Lion LP on folkways and intense free jazz bridging on noise in parts. There is even a track that would sit well in the no-wave category. Definitely […]

Tangerine – De l’autre cote de la foret…

Tangerine’s first album from 1972 is the full package. From the beautiful cover art to the long-haired pose on the back, you know you are getting something great. And they deliver. One of the few albums that I can say stood up to its cover. Well instrumented psychedelic folk with the tiniest hints of their […]

Lost John Lyle and the Lonesome Ornery Polecasts – Bootleg Powerhead

This private from 1971 has quickly become my most listened to record of the summer, despite finding it as late as August. Housed in a blank sleeve with hand-written labels, it’s no wonder this artifact of the early singer songwriter scene in B.C., Canada remained unknown until its recent rediscovery. I have found it difficult […]

Driven Element (Various Artists)

From around 1982 until about 1991 (dates are unclear) Marcel Dion ran a weekly Electronic/Experimental/Avant-Garde radio show on CJSR (campus/community radio station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) called Departures. It’s always unclear with campus/community radio how large your audience is and so it’s unknown how popular the show was. However, what is clear is that it […]

GAEA – C’est Magnifique b/w Lunar Transmission

Balls out female synth-punk shredder. Nothing is heald back. Screaming sexy vocals and sexualised lyrics with outer space theatrics all packaged in an overbearing synth dancefloor smasher. GAEA, where are you? Please get in touch with me. Released in 1981 on Lizard Records (private). One of the most interesting records I now own. I have […]

Richard Powell – Memories Of GlenIvy

Here’s a great unrestrained real-people hotel-lounge/AOR banger that has probably remained unknown on account of its misleading cover (or I just have terrible taste, which I’m not going to rule out). Richard Powell pens side one himself and leaves side two for covers (Stevie Wonder, Feelings, Get Down Tonight, etc). Side One is the obvious […]

Kathy Fire – Songs Of Fire

This record will catch you off your guard. Put up your usual bias against radical feminist records, flex your hatred of 3rd-wave feminism, despise your own insecurity about all things political, and you will do what most people do when they see this record: laugh and put it back. Certainly when I read about this […]

Airborne – Songs For A City

You see this cover and it screams private psychedelic folk grail. Look at the naked man playing the guitar, sitting on top of the world and holding a dove. Beautiful. And that is exactly what this album is. However, it is not psychedelic folk. It does have a few CSNY moves, and even a really […]

The Merry Meds Of ’69

The University of Alberta is known for it’s rambunctious Medical students. Up until it was banned recently, the Med students put on an annual show of absurdy and offense known as “The Med Show”. This usually consisted of offensive drama acts, hilarious live music, and pranks. It is rumoured that one year they stole a […]

Troyka – S/T

URGENT: If you have any information on the whereabouts of MICHAEL (MIKE) RICHARDS drummer of Troyka and member of Edmonton, Alberta’s rock-and-roll group The Royal Family, please contact Rob Edwards or Ron Lukaweitski (of Troyka and Royal Family) through the comment page below. Wow, Troyka. Where do I start? I guess 1965, with Edmonton, Alberta’s […]

Roger Rodier – Upon Velveatur

I had high hopes for this record when I finally found a copy, and upon first needle-drop I was slightly disappointed. I just wasn’t ready. He was so gentle. So dreamy. I found myself tip-toeing around my apartment, worried I might shatter this fragile vibe issuing out my speakers, leaking into my apartment building, and […]

CKUA Presents: The ACME Sausage Company

This is a private compilation put together for a community radio station (CKUA) in Edmonton, Alberta circa 1972 in a run of 1,000. The compilation was produced by then musical enthusiast Holgar Peterson. Holgar went on to form Stonyplain Records and become a local celebrity, his label still quite active. I was a little skeptical […]

Dwayne Cannan – Spare Change

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this album was downtown. Dwayne is on the cover, carrying his guitar, coming out of an age-old telephone booth with the album name below him… Spare Change. You flip to the back-cover and see song titles like The Gutter Man, Lady, The Drifter, Cocaine Katie, […]

Om Shanti – We Are Home

In life we have all been moving Towards love as our centre blooming Let’s dance to that loving feeling Let’s dance with our hearts revealing Those four phrases circulate the back-side of the cover on this private spiritual folk album headed by Oman Deal and Shanti Ess Rae, released in 1977 on the Solace Records […]

Scottie Pete Gang – Rapper’s De Feet b/w Rapper’s De Feet

I don’t actually own this 45 but I wish I did. I borrowed it from my friend to post on here and for an up-coming radio show I’m doing. The Scottie Pete Gang consisted of some radio DJs at CKOC in Hamilton, Ontario. I have no idea if they are fans of rap or not, […]

B.J. Berg – The Laughing Song b/w Nobody Cares

I’ve never been married. But I have been dumped. I don’t recall the experience being overwhelmingly hillarious. I think I just listened to some loner-folk and watched Woody Allen movies. However, this is exactly what B.J. Berg did not do. In fact, when his wife left him he recorded The Laughing Song under the name […]