THE CAIRO GANG – Wrapped in Velvet California-born musician Emmett Kelly plays with a lot of people. From Ty Segall to Bonnie “Prince” Billy to Joan of Arc and Japanese musician Takuma Watanabe, he is everywhere! His main focus is his band...
ANDREA RAMOLO – Naked and Vulnerable Andrea Ramolo is a singer-songwriter that was one half of Scarlett Jane, a duo with Cindy Doire that had released two interesting albums in 2014 and 2015, deserving nominations at the Canadian Folk Music...
TIFT MERRITT – HEARTACHES AND LULLABY’S Tift Merritt serves up a feast fit for a King with her latest offering “Stitch of the World”. With an opening four song appetizer, a 3 song main course, and 3 sweet ballads topping things off, Tift...
THE ROLLING STONES – The Blues Masters Keith Richards' solo album "Crosseyed Heart" from 2015 must have shaken Mick Jagger's deeply hidden blues pride. Could rock's oldest millionnaires be the blues band they once were 50 years ago? Or would...
STING Sees The Light Sting is a great musician. It's easy to be impressed by his amazing career, from his days in The Police (1977-1984), which hailed itself as one of the world's best bands of the early 80s, to his solo...
JIM JAMES – Hiding in Plain Sight Waves of ominous, swirling keys and treated guitars welcome you aboard Jim James second solo album “Eternally Even” and it takes a minute before you sit back and sigh with pleasure as his singular voice...
MARTHA WAINWRIGHT – Going Round The Bend? For an album with so many writers involved Martha Wainwright has pulled off a bit of a coup here, managing to corral a herd of disparate sounds and personalities together and deliver a record of diversity...
The Many Faces of RUST EDEN Yet another great Montreal band that reached my ears thanks to the Xmas List of Poulet Neige! Rust Eden is a cool indie rock band that takes the time to build moods in which the listener gets slowly but surely...
JESCA HOOP – An Old Soul… Tom Waits says of Jesca Hoop: 'She is like an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or a red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night.' And Tom should know, on her new album "Memories...
The Best Unique Music You’ve Never Heard, from 2016 It's that time of the year where we reflect on the best of the music that came out in 2016. The song that moved me most? Hard choice, but here we go! Den Sista Sången by Kent. I wasn't at...
ELEPHANT STONE – Enjoyable sense of pop This Montreal trio taps in the Tame Impala fan base with their catchy indie pop songs that have some psychedelia elements, but also some great soul pop features that probably makes them accessible for Arctic...
THE BROOKS – The Real Stuff Right from the start, Montreal-based band The Brooks make it clear they've got the funk! And it ain't cheap. The first seconds of Funkyshit highlight their ability to groove with a rich rhythm pattern. I...
SOLANGE – The Centre of Attention Being the sister of the Diva of soul must not be an easy place to be for Solange Knowles. A bit like Beyoncé's ex-bandmates of Destiny's Child, she is bound to have her music constantly compared with her...
MICHAEL KIWANUKA – Personal Drama One by whom the soul revival arrived in the last few years, Michael Kiwanuka strikes back with an amazing album, that goes beyond soul music. He chooses to start with a bold statement: a 10-minute-long song,...
LOST IN MUSIC 2016 – MY YEAR SOME THINGS OLD, SOME THINGS NEW, SOME THINGS REVISITED, SOME THINGS JAZZY, CLASSICAL, AND BLUES. (And a couple of books thrown in for good measure.) DON’T FEAR THE REAPER My year started in exciting...
5 albums that impressed me in 2016 In a bad or a great way, here are 5 albums that didn't go unnoticed in the last 12 months. 1 DEATH GRIPS - Interview 2016 (Third World Records) Another obscure album from the Deathgrips. Following...
2016: A superb tragedy One needs a little bit of black humour to get through a year like 2016. Pointless for me to regurgitate every ugly detail, every single huge loss in the music world, every disheartening regression we’ve...
Lost in Music – 10 albums for 2016 10! Nowhere near enough is it. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. CASS McCOMBS - MANGY LOVE (Anti-) 8th trip to the well for Cass and it's a masterpiece. From the opening Kurt Vile-esque 'Bum...
FUJIYA & MIYAGI – One-Two Punch Don't you like these 4-song EP's from unknown bands that pop-up out of nowhere with a handful of great songs? Brighton's Fujiya & Miyagi is one of them. These Englishmen aren’t newcomers, as David Best...
JESSE MAC CORMACK – Raw Blues In an exclusive RREVERB interview in November 2015, music consultant Pedro Barbosa answered “Jesse Mac Cormack” when I asked him, "Which brilliant artist should have made it big, but didn’t yet?" adding,...
AA – Controlled Chaos Apart from showing up first in the alphabetical order of band listings, it can be an inconvenient to use “Aa” as a band name. Think of Google Search, domain names and so on. Looking for French musician "M"...
JOSEPH ARTHUR – Owning Lou Reed New York musician and painter Joseph Arthur has been a Lou Reed fan for the longest time. When the Velvet Underground leader passed away on October 27, 2013, many musicians paid him tribute by covering his...
AGNES OBEL – In a Different Mood Agnes Obel is a Danish singer-songwriter that had charmed many ears and hearts with her 2013 album “Aventine". The world met a talented melodist who knew how to lift one's soul with beautiful vocals and airy...
Welcome to THE GROWLERS’ Beach Goth! The Growlers is a California based band which has been labeled as Beach Goth, a mixture basically of surf folkish upbeat rhythms and rich in reverb that obeys to the weird attitude and aesthetics of Brooks...
AXIS: SOVA – Guitars Occupy! Furious guitars, a voice lost in echo and relentless beat are welcoming new ears on 8 minutes 30 seconds-long Love Identity, the first song of the brand-new album by Chicago-based band Axis: Sova. Entitled...
GURR – Gurr Power This two-female band from Berlin is a lot of fun to listen to. Andreya Casablanca and Laura Lee Jenkins create a very dynamic pop punk rock where influences from Sleater-Kinney, Throwing Muses and The Breeders...
The Rich Music of KING CREOSOTE King Creosote is mainly Kenny Anderson, a 48-year-old musician born in Fife, a peninsula in eastern Scotland. He is also a member of Scottish-Canadian band The Burns Unit. Anderson is the type of musician that...
GIOVANNI GUIDI – GIANLUCA PETRELLA – Emerging Talents from Italy Almost all the albums that are stamped with the ECM label logo promise to be excellent, or at least, interesting. Each breathes quality. The music of Foligno-born pianist Giovanni Guidi fell in my ears last...
OSCAR – The Happy Londoner As soon as the song Sometimes starts and you hear Oscar's voice, you go: "OMG he sounds so much like Morrissey!" Oscar's music is much more happy and upbeat than all The Smiths or the Moz himself ever did (Be...
HOT HOT HEAT – The Final Cut It's an exciting and upbeat album that Montreal-based (but formed in Victoria in 1999) band Hot Hot Heat has delivered with this eponymous record, released just in time for summer. Each song has its own spice,...
BJÖRK – Formely Known as The Artist When Prince passed away back in May, a friend and I disagreed on his place in music history. As many others, he was putting the "genius" stamp on "The Artist" and was placing the Purple One on the same level...
TANGENTS – The Hybrid Album British electronic music producer Ollie Bown (Icarus, Not Applicable); Adrian Lim-Klumpes (Triosk, 3ofMillions) on piano, Rhodes, vibraphone and marimba; Peter Hollo (FourPlay String Quartet) on cello; and the...
Going for THE KILLS The indie rock duet comprised of American singer Alison Mosshart (that was also part of The Dead Weather, with Jack White) and British guitarist Jamie Hince strikes back. It's a strong, punch album that they...
HANNAH GEORGAS – Creative Pop is Possible Hannah Georgas is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Vancouver, which has been noticed in the last few years with Juno nominations. Both her first two albums were long-listed for the 2010 and 2013 Polaris...
LANA DEL REY – Lost in Melancholy Lana Del Rey is a persona. Most pop stars are. At RREVERB, we don't care what musicians do or wear outside the studio or behind the scenes. We put their record on, press play, and listen carefully. As for Lana...
THE TRAGICALLY HIP – The freedom within On May 24, 2016, the world learned very sad news. The Tragically Hip announced that their lead singer and main composer Gordon Downie was hit by incurable brain cancer. The first reflex we saw everywhere on...
BRITTA PHILLIPS – When the Magic’s Gone If you are a first-time listener to Britta Phillips when putting the needle on her latest LP "Luck or Magic", you might think she's one of the many pop singers à la Lana Del Rey, who can include emotion into...
DAVID BOWIE – Who is he, really? We all know how the great late David Bowie changed music styles many times, always being ahead of the trends, keeping a cool factor throughout his career. OK, some of his 80s and 90s albums aren't memorable,...
LIIMA – The Merge Liima with two i's. Album title is two i's. Not sure what this means, but these ten songs are very interesting. The four-piece European band can blend electronica flavour to rock feelings (Your Heart). Liima...
BIG THIEF – Stealing the show Striking guitars (on the fiery Real Love), great melodies (the lovely Masterpiece) and an efficient mix of male / female energy (on Paul) makes the debut album of Brooklyn-based band Big Thief one of the most...