Frontier Index - Frontier Index (Rainbow Quartz)
The fact that this album takes its title from a Silver Jews song is a travesty. Not only is it incredibly bad, but it doesn't even try to sound like the Jews, or even try to mine the same lyrical depths that Jew's frontman David Berman touches. In fact, the album is so bad that it makes me wish I had some other means of explaining its depth of awfulness. These guys are just about the worst thing to come out of a label that's devoted itself to releasing crap. Avoid at all costs.
Anthony Gerace
File next to: The garbage bin.

Magic Numbers - Magic Numbers (Heavenly)
This album plays like a series of contradictions: melancholy lyricism with poppy instrumentation; cavernous production and a tight rhythm section, but it all gels, and the results, while not consistently great, are at least consistently good. Kind of like New Order jamming with the Pixies, or The Byrds as understood by Ian Curtis. So, yes, it sounds like Joy Division as far as production is concerned, but it maintains a happy-pop vibe that makes a comparison like that moot. Tracks like 'œMornings Eleven'? and 'œThe Mule'? ride on a damn joyous vibe; it's like a party where everyone is on downers, but still having a good time.
Anthony Gerace
File next to: pretty much every band I just mentioned.

The Nein - Wrath Of Circuits (Sonic Unyon)
These days in music journalism circles, the mere mention of term "post-punk" seems to necessitate describing guitars as sounding "angular". While I'll admit there is some merit to this description in this case, The Nein exploit meaty Sonic Youth-esque cacophony just as much, as they do on the standout title track. Throw in a varied assortment of samples, an inventively proficient rhythm section, spurts of piercing feedback and the aforementioned jagged guitar lines, tie them loosely together with a basic pop sensibility, and you have a recipe for unpredictable, dissonant soundscapes that will assuredly keep you on your toes. This LP appears to be a snapshot of a group in full explorative mode, seeking new ideas and confronting their limitations. So listen close, kids - your homework for the week is to go out and buy Wrath of Circuits if you haven't already. You'll be intrigued. You'll be challenged. You might even bob your head a few times.
Pras Rajagopalan
File Next To: "Angular" "Post-" "Rock"

Phosphorescent - Aw Come Aw Wry (Misra)
While not as immediately striking as their debut, A Hundred Times or More, Aw Come Aw Wry reveals it's qualities slowly, bringing out the same Oldham-style folk plucking and Wooden Wand-esque drones that make Phosphorescent such a quality group. The songs have a candour that is not-uncommon in the scene that the group comes from, but the experimentalism gives it that edge over, say, Diane Cluck, that makes it a quality record. 16-minute album closer "Nowhere Georgia" provides a hushed instrumental refrain to an album overloaded with quality. If you consider yourself a fan of the "New Weird America" (yeowch), Aw Come Aw Wry is an album to check out.
Anthony Gerace
File next to: Palace, Pearls Before Swine, and all of those other folk records that everyone should rep.

T. Raumschmiere - Blitzkrieg Pop
I managed to stay relatively awake through the first half of Blitzkrieg Pop, as it was big, bold and loud. If Haas' last full length, Radio Blackout, was all shuffling beats and dance floor anthems, this one is revved-up punk mayhem and ambient scribbles featuring a whole bunch of label mates as guests. Except it's not so much punk mayhem as it is glossy sterility. Haas' attempts to rock out generally end up falling flat, as he sacrifices any type of nuance for volume, and fails to provide any discernable hooks to match the big sound of the record. Haas does, however, make a valiant effort to sing in English, but as is evident on the first single "Sick Like Me," the language barrier proves to be perhaps a bigger impediment than he would have liked. Meanwhile, the Dubya-bating industrial stomp of "A Mess," which tries making it as a rousing call to arms against everyone's favourite world leader, is equally limp. Countless other artists (I know you've been secretly listening to American Idiot!) have already picked this carcass clean. Many of the better moments occur when Haas tries his hand at scratchy, restrained ambient. Sinister and spare, and with stuttering beats providing its backbone, "3 Minutes Of Happiness," for example, is probably the most alluring cut on the album. Guest Judith Juillerat and her subtly suggestive French accent are the shining stars on this track. Moments like this are few and far between, though, as Blitzkrieg Pop is straitjacketed by
its misguided production and uniform repetition.
Pras Rajagopalan
File Next To: Clean, polished, well produced "gritty" electrontic.

The Two Koreas - Main Plates and Classic Pies (Independent)
The Two Koreas don't sound like The Strokes, they sound like The Fall, only with less imagination. I was like, "I should listen to this album" and then I put it on and it made me go to sleep and I had a dream that a man outside a bar was yelling at me for stealing a cigarette. I woke up and I was all like, 'œI don't remember leaving The Fall on when I went to sleep and I don't remember this song either.'? It was kind of boring though, and so was the song after it. I'd give the album maybe a six.
Meter Po
File next to: The Collective Unconscious

(And this is a Korean version of my review that I made with a translator program on my computer.)
Two Koreas does not sound the stroke, they sound the autumn, only by less imaginations. I was the picture, "I should listen attentively to this album" and I then to invest it and it cause me to sleep and I to have a dream artificially outside the bar to me the chaotic language for to steal the cigarette. I have awaked and I am completely like, 'œI do not remember stay behind the autumn when I sleep and I not to remember this first song or.'? It is a little annoying though, with therefore is the song after it. I can give the album to be possible six.
Meter Po
File (this review) next to: Racism
Ps. Say goodbye to California

Wolf Parade '“ s/t (SubPop)
Montreal can't miss these days, eh? I'm listening to "Shine A Light" right now and this CD is making having to write this review totally worth it. How do Montréalers fit so many instruments into their bedrooms? I guess it's cuz rent is cheaper. I heard you could get an apartment with French doors and a fireplace that could fit a goddamn elephant in it for something like two hundred and fifty dollars. Okay, I exaggerate ; but the girls, have you seen the girls? Shit, I gotta get out of Parkdale.
Meter Po
File next to: First and last