Jesse Locke
Darius Jones. fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s̶ suite but sacred). In the early 1960s, Fluxus artist George Maciunas began assembling fluxkits: small boxes containing everyday objects alongside interdisciplinary works by his peers in the movement. These unique collections allowed everyone who opened a package to experience their own art event. During a[...] Read more
New Age Doom. There Is No End On the 2021 album Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Guide to the Universe, furious Vancouver avant-metal duo New Age Doom collaborated with the late dub legend, powerhouse jazz players, and members of Canadian indie-rock bands. On There Is No End they continue this approach, welcoming[...] Read more
Hildegard Westerkamp. Breaking News. Soundscape composer Hildegard Westerkamp creates audio pieces as vivid as any cinematic or literary work. Breaking News is her first album in two decades, comprising five pieces from 1988 to 2012. Though varying dramatically in format and subject matter, the works are connected by what[...] Read more
Allen Ravenstine. The Tyranny of Fiction. Allen Ravenstine is best known as the synth player of Cleveland proto-punk band Pere Ubu, yet his experimental work predates their 1975 debut single. When Pere Ubu pressed pause after its first two decades, Ravenstine stepped away from music to earn a pilot’s licence and focus on[...] Read more
Terry Uyarak. Nunarjua Isulinginniani. Terry Uyarak made headlines earlier this year when he and a friend set out from their Igloolik, Nunavut, home on a traditional Inuit polar-bear hunt, travelling into the wild for ten days on dog sleds without GPS or phones. The self-taught musician has shown that same level of intrepid[...] Read more
Aquakultre. Legacy. Black Buffalo Records. The dazzling debut album from Halifax hip-hop–neo-soul outfit Aquakultre is both the product of personal redemption and a promise to build a better world. In 2013, at age nineteen, Lance Sampson was convicted of drug trafficking. While serving a five-year sentence at[...] Read more
Bill Bissett & Th Mandan Massacre. Awake In Th Red Desert. The first release from Feeding Tube’s Unknown Province reissue series of Canadian cult classics, which is being curated by liner-notes author Alex Moskos, is a time capsule from a true freak scene. Recorded in 1968 by pioneering sound-and-concrete poet Bill Bissett after arriving in[...] Read more
Hugh Marsh. Violinvocations. Electric violinist Hugh Marsh’s impressively varied list of collaborations includes projects with Bruce Cockburn, Bauhaus’s Peter Murphy, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Iggy and The Stooges, the film scores of Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams, and—most recently—[...] Read more
Bob Bell. Necropolis. Since its release in 1978, Bob Bell’s Necropolis has grown in stature to become one of Canada’s most highly sought after private-press LPs. The glassy-eyed Vancouver longhair gazing out from the album’s cover photo—strikingly shot from an ant’s eye view pointing[...] Read more