By Ashton Chugh
The new album from Frédéric Pellerin — formally of the Madcaps, now turned soloist as They Call Me Rico — is a combination of folk and blues creatively meshed together. I popped his album into my car’s stereo on an especially foggy winter night and it served as the perfect ambiance with its mix of… Continue reading Spun: They Call Me Rico
By Riley Hill
Action Bronson is a large, Albanian Jewish guy with a hipster-length beard, taste for Lincoln Town Cars and a honking New York voice — about the most unlikely rapper you can imagine. Hailing from Queens, the former chef broke from obscurity in 2012 with his Blue Chips mixtape, placing him among rap’s underground elite and… Continue reading Spun: Action Bronson
As modern rock bands slowly edge further and further into the realm of mainstream music and the typical pop-esque radio fare over the course of their careers, the bands tend to adapt and develop more complex music with more instruments, synthesized sounds and orchestral backdrops. This isn’t the case with Winnipeg singer and songwriter Greg… Continue reading Spun: Greg MacPherson Band
The cover of the latest album from the Toronto band The Strumbellas is slightly misleading, but that shouldn’t be held against it. The giant, gold disco ball that is setting behind the mountain in place of the sun suggests an upbeat country-dance album, as does the album’s title, We Still Move On Dance Floors. It… Continue reading Spun: The Strumbellas
The sophomore album from local Calgary band the Fast Romantics sees a departure from the sound they developed in their debut album. Their self-titled debut, released in 2009, was standard indie-rock music with occasional, anticipated hints of punk rock slipped in and conveyed a general impression not unsimilar to Franz Ferdinand. Their latest album avoids… Continue reading Spun: Fast Romantics
By Sean Willett
If you haven’t listened to an Arcade Fire album since Funeral, the music on Reflektor will come as a bit of a surprise. Since their debut album, the Canadian band has moved away from traditional indie-rock and towards a more ephemeral and unconventional sound. This shift is most noticeable in their latest album, which almost… Continue reading Spun: Arcade Fire
By Chris Adams
The footwork and juke genres have seen a surge in popularity within the underground dance music community in recent years. Created to promote a growing movement of Chicago dance crews and battlers in the early 2000s, the sound has since gone global with the help of some of the U.K.’s electronic music mainstays. Following a… Continue reading Spun: DJ Rashad
On Beautiful Rewind, Four Tet’s latest LP, electronic artist Kieran Hebden lifts sounds from the United Kingdom’s bygone underground dance-music scene and appropriates them to fit his signature sound. The track “Kool FM” shares its name with an infamous pirate radio station that was among the first frequencies in London to play hardcore and jungle.… Continue reading Spun: Four Tet
By Riley Marion
Tim Hecker’s latest release, Virgins, is characterized by unpredictable synthesizer work, spacious droning and organic instrumentation paired with jarring electronics. Hecker has constructed an album that comes together cleanly despite his mix of natural and unnatural sounds. The primal side of Virgins first appears on the album’s second track, “Virginal I,” which brings swirling piano… Continue reading Spun: Tim Hecker
Toronto soul singer Andria Simone’s new album Good Lovin’ screams of old-school influence from the ’50s and ’60s — from the vintage-record look of the CD to the horn section piping in with little shots here and there — but refreshes the sound with modern pop and R&B beats and rhythms, producing an incredibly fun… Continue reading Spun: Andria Simone