Interviews

Three years after their last offering, The Besnards Lakes are returning to bring us their light to guide our journey through this pandemic.

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The soul-punk sensation starts the year right with a blast of snotty punk, and talks about cartoons, cosmic jazz, and paths of illumination.

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A prog icon of the last few years, Steven Wilson invites his audience to new mutations: The Future Bites is, according to him, in phase with the current period, dominated by electronic music.

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Mike Milosh is Rhye, and more. The release of Home, the third studio album from the Canadian singer transplanted to California, is the pretext for a conversation about his work.

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Louis-Philippe Marsolais “plays music, more than playing the horn”, according to Yannick Nézet-Séguin. His instrument is “a means of expression, a language.”

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The Montreal-based label launches their first eclectic, colourful cassette compilation, in the image of their annual psychedelic festival Distorsion.

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Lots of wonderful things go into the neo-psych art of Indonesia’s Ardneks, but music is the main ingredient.

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The very cool ensemble Collectif9 proposes Rituaels, a musical-video journey with almost mystical echoes

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Jérôme Minière and the Quasar saxophone quartet team up for the presentation of an ambitious, tragic, and experimental technopera-ballet

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Faten Kanaan is one of the most prominent of the new generation of composers emerging on the international scene, given to repetitious and post-minimalist music.

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Only Human Crust is full of emotion and ironic allusions to politics and culture, with a sound atmosphere worthy of the great science-fiction films.

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For the first time in eight years, cellist Stéphane Tétreault will play Bach’s famous Cello Suites, as part of the Festival Bach Montréal.

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PAN M 360 invites you to a conversation between women from the North: Ane Brun, who just released two albums of songs in Oslo, and Elisapie, an Inuit artist based in Montreal.

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Like his mythical parents, the great Fairuz and the composer Assi Rahbani, Ziad Rahbani is a crucial artist in contemporary Lebanon. Lara Rain intends to demonstrate this at the FMA!

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Montreal singer Nidal Ibourk is passionately in love with a musical genre that Westerners should know better, and learn to love too!

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Without warning, FouKi kicks out an album without hang-ups and definitively feelgood.

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Invited to the Bach Festival, Montrealer Kerson Leong is now one of the country’s elite classical violinists. His gifts have led him to an international career that has only just begun.

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Pianist Anna Saradjian is enjoying herself, and music lovers are too, thanks to the all-Bach concert given on the occasion of the 2020 Bach Festival in Montreal.

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Pianist Anna Saradjian is enjoying herself, and music lovers are too, thanks to the all-Bach concert given on the occasion of the 2020 Bach Festival in Montreal.

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From Marrakech and Lyon, Bab L’Bluz brew an infectious mix of Saharan blues, rock, and psychedelia. No vaccine for this one!

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Composer, performer, organizer, singer, rapper, activist… Leonard Sumner carries within him the legacy and hope of the Anishinaabe nation.

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The singing of emancipated Congolese women is highlighted by French beatmaker RRobin, mixing complex rhythms and electronic sounds.

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Invited to M for Montreal, Jo Passed is Jo Hirayabashi’s gleaming avant-rock vehicle, certainly one of the most interesting bands in British Columbia.

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Papi Chulo y su Grupo Invisible’s Ritmo de lo Habitual is the latest future-Latin lunacy from Montrealer Mariano Franco and friends.

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Bar Farouk sums up the nightlife of Beirut, from the ’20s to the ’70s… before the sky fell on the heads of the Lebanese.

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As part of the Festival du monde arabe de Montréal (FMA), the ensemble offers an exclusive show that only festival-goers will be able to see and hear.

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On the eve of his streamed concert at M For Montreal, Paul Jacobs talks about his next album, the one after that, and his other passions, illustration and drawing.

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Quebec soprano Karina Gauvin has been named artist-in-residence of the Musica Mécénat program.

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John Coltrane’s mythical album A Love Supreme is the pretext for electric and all the more electrifying rereadings, piloted by guitarist Henry Kaiser and his acolytes.

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Le Couleur emancipate themselves and discover the pleasures of group love with Concorde, a record that the band defends on stage as part of the 20th Coup de coeur francophone.

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Israeli electronic explorers Group Modular are back, with a battery of drummers behind them, to turn the world on to Time Masters.

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In the courtyard of a traditional sanheyuan, Taiwan’s electro-mystics Prairie WWWW bring their latest EP Formosan Dream to life.

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The Spits resurface with the album VI and, once again, keep things loud, fast, and dirty!

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In the wake of the launch of his new solo album, rap pianist Sofiane Parmat tells us about his relationship with travel, his background, and what matters to him.

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Following in the footsteps of Alpha Blondy and Tiken Jah Fakoly, Ivorian reggaeman Dakka Dembélé invites us aboard his “Petit bateau”, docked in Montreal, with the launch of his first album and a performance of the material at the Nuits d’Afrique.

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Guitar, bass, drums, a wall of amps, volume at full, and foot planted on the distortion pedal. With III, Fuzz puts all the pieces of the puzzle in place to position themselves in the top tier of heavy rock.

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Mandinka Kora + flamenco guitar + double bass + cajon = Zal Sissokho, Kora Flamenca, a Félix Album of the Year award in World Music, and virtual concert at the Nuits d’Afrique

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Despite all the uncertainty, Population II decided to go for it and release an album that will surely satisfy any thirst for fuzz.

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France’s Saycet creates an ambitious soundtrack for the Netflix series “La Révolution”.

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Pierre Kwenders teams up with Clément Bazin, and the co-pilots imagine a global flight plan for Classe tendresse.

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Avec Atlas Vending, METZ signe l’album de la maturité… mais ne s’assagit pas pour autant.

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Punk attitude, pop sensibility, Colombian roots, electro allegiance, sensual rebellion: Ela Minus, ladies and gentlemen!

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The twenty-something knows his classics. Nourished by Black American music, he offers an album that’s part of the hip-hop jazz movement.

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The Montreal outfit led by Cameroonian emigré Just Woân may well become the new Afro-Latin sensation in jazz and world music – if the pandemic allows it…

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Helena Deland is taking off into the indiesphere quickly and convincingly. After EPs and world tours, here’s her album Someone New… and what she says about it.

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Backxwash is about to become the wicked, anti-conformist heroine the queer movement needed.

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The most famous Armenian jazzman on Earth stands up for his compatriots under siege.

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With his debut album, CRi brings together electro, pop, and indie fans.

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A West African style voice, Senegalese singer Ilam chose Montreal as his base

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Like the enormous expanse of sky over the Tibetan plateau, Tation’s Coordinate Plan 2018 reaches past the horizons of the standard rock-band EP

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On the album Pissenlit, Antoine Corriveau combines a burnished voice and acidic poetic introspection with strong, even rough music.

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Colombian-born Montreal singer Mateo is a composite creature… far from denying his Latin American roots.

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With Generations, Will Butler presents an album with dark themes but eclectic and engaging music.

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A son salutes his late father with a celebration of Filipino pop pioneers Hotdog

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Sienna Dahlen and Véro Marengère hold a nourishing conversation about the Nordic lands of contemporary jazz, free improvisation and electroacoustics.

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Total freedom, fluidity, and conciseness are the core values of Yves Jarvis’ anticipated album Sundry Rock Sound Stock.

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Heavy lyrics over light productions – Raccoon works in the antithesis on his new project Le set up.

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Thanya Iyer is a formidable cross-cultural creature, absorbing everything in her path!

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Montreal singer Fwonte performs songs from his recent album, Danser avec mes démons, at the Pop Montreal festival.

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As part of Pop Montreal’s lineup, Lou Canon invites us to hear and experience her new album through her very first livestream performance.

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Keyboard Fantasies by Beverly Glenn-Copeland is a masterpiece revealed at least… 30 years later!

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Will Marie Davidson’s career be propelled by Renegade Breakdown, her new album of… pop?!

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Heard kussom? Boogieman and Samito talk about the new party sound they’ve created.

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Priori explores the auditory realm with many creative satellites, and MUTEK presents his latest trajectory.

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With Clastic Music, presented at MUTEK, Vigliensoni creates an interactive show in which he frees himself from the computer.

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A fan of noise and industrial techno, Tati au Miel emerges at MUTEK, a major stage for the start of a career that promises to be seismic.

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Alexis Langevin-Tétrault’s audiovisual performance Hypercube measures the relationship between an audiovisual device and its digital creator

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The Icelandic Thereminist welcomes listeners to her imaginary monster realm, with her eerie new album Sprungur.

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The new A/V show from he duo of Line Katcho and Guillaume Cliche that, on the first day of MUTEK’s 2020 edition, promises to be dazzling.

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Versions of the Truth is the 13th album from English prog band The Pineapple Thief, which is entering its golden age after 21 years of existence. Paradoxical?

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Anachnid, an artist of Oji-Cree and Mi’kmaq origins, presents her album Dreamweaver, a powerful backdrop to current political issues affecting Indigenous communities, during her visit to the FME.

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Jonathan Personne reappears in the musical landscape with Disparitions, an album that sums up an intense period for the Montreal musician.

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On their album, Motherhood, No Joy push the boundaries of shoegaze a little further, giving the genre a much-needed second wind.

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Meridian Brothers, led by the gently crazy Eblis Álvarez, returns with an even bolder and more modern cumbia album, perpetuating the genre and propelling it in a very personal way into the 21st century.

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Turning a flow of beats and snatches of sound into evocations of other realities is what Turning Jewels Into Water do. The pairing of Brooklynites Ravish Momin (percussion) and Val Jeanty (electronics), both of them educators as well as skilled and explorative musicians, TJIW share new slices of their shared vision on the album Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars, out on August 21 on the FPE label.

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There are eight of them. Four Canadians, four Americans. They met at McGill University in the early 2010s, decided to stay in Montreal and began to expand internationally. In 2017, Busty & the Bass launched the album Uncommon Good on Indica, now here’s Eddie on the Arts & Crafts label, an ambitious production by Neil Pogue with prestigious guests George Clinton, Macy Gray, and rappers Illa J and Jon Connor. Bassist Milo Johnson sums up the new chapter.

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Initially intended as an episode of the podcast C’est nous autres les kings, recording quality decided otherwise. In order to give it a little more scope, I resigned myself to do something as tempting as a dentist appointment, that is to say transcribing an audio interview into text. One, because it would be a shame if the interview got lost in limbo, and two, because Barrdo is worth the detour. A project of PA (Poulet Neige, Fuudge), his third album is about to be released, and Quebec rock fans should really listen to it and take the opportunity to revisit the two previous ones. As they say, you’re in for a treat.

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Beaver Sheppard is a hyper-productive artist, known as much for his paintings as for his cooking and his music. With Downtown, Beaver Sheppard unveils his most eclectic and diversified album.

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Protomartyr recently released Ultimate Success Today, a dark and accurate assessment of the current state of the world, and undoubtedly the most accomplished and ambitious album from the Detroit post-punk band.

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Saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Quinsin Nachoff offers three considerable works, brought together on an album on the Whirlwind label. At the crossroads of contemporary jazz and contemporary music from the classical tradition, the opus Pivotal Arc is the subject of a fascinating conversation. PAN M 360 joins Quinsin Nachoff and the soloist of his ambitious 45-minute concerto, violinist Nathalie Bonin.

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Seven generations have passed since the 1876 introduction of the Indian Act, the primary legislation that still governs First Nations local governments today. This document retains the grip of a colonial past that has caused indelible trauma, and social and cultural disruption, for Indigenous peoples. Facing this painful past requires courage. Daniel Monkman found it through the ancestral wisdom of the Seven Sacred Teachings, one of the traditional spiritual foundations of native culture. He presents his personal healing journey through his first solo album, Bleached Wavves, a brilliant shoegaze record that has been making waves on some radio stations since its release last June. PAN M 360 reached the Hamilton-based artist to find out about this journey.

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Every immigrant is necessarily an emigrant. Composer and professor George Tsz-Kwan Lam – born in Hong Kong, raised in Massachusetts, settled in New York City and now again back in Hong Kong – knows a bit about that. His recent work The Emigrants, just released digitally, balances his engaging music, performed by the cello-and-percussion duo New Morse Code, with fragments of interviews with other relocated musicians. The whole is a reflection on what’s given up, as well as what can be gained, in the process of transplanting oneself.

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Colombia’s Frente Cumbiero are a key act in the post-millennial cumbia revival, rooted and raw in their sound, but ever inquisitive. Japan’s Minyo Crusaders strive to renew old-time festival songs through inspired fusions. Their paths crossed at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival in 2018. The Frente crew extended an invitation to record together in their hometown Bogotá, and the Tokyo ten-piece accepted. Together, they now bring the world the amazing EP Minyo Cumbiero: From Tokyo to Bogota.

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Ancient lands, lost in the raging waves of history and myth, are the latest object of fascination for Lima, Peru’s Dengue Dengue Dengue, masked mystics of trippy tropical bass. Initially, a decade ago, disciples of dub-heavy digital cumbia, the duo of Rafael Pereira and Felipe Salmon soon enough spread their creative tendrils in wider, weirder ways – often ensnaring amazing visual artists in their sinister schemes. They’ve adopted the alter ego DNGDNGDNG for their new On the Corner release, the Continentes Perdidos EP, which takes them to the most far-flung, uncharted territory yet.

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Montrealer Jordan Officer has invested himself in the three fundamental axes of his art: jazz, blues, and country. The release of a triptych recorded by the guitarist, violinist, and singer coincides with his public statement concerning the dwindling incomes of musicians in a digital environment dominated by streaming on the web. The result is an intense cycle of creativity: three albums released by Spectra Musique, a petition of 6,000 names submitted to the Parliament of Canada, and public performances. This justifies two separate interviews with PAN M 360: one artistic, one political. This is the second one.

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Montrealer Jordan Officer has invested himself in the three fundamental axes of his art: jazz, blues, and country. The release of a triptych recorded by the guitarist, violinist, and singer coincides with his public statement concerning the dwindling incomes of musicians in a digital environment dominated by streaming on the web. The result is an intense cycle of creativity: three albums released by Spectra Musique, a petition of 6,000 names submitted to the Parliament of Canada, and public performances. This justifies two separate interviews with PAN M 360: one artistic, one political. This is the first one.

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Jessy Lanza has just released her third album All The Time, an album on which the Canadian artist again expresses her many moods once through music that’s often playful and uplifting. A few days before the release, the singer, musician, and producer told PAN M 360 about her acclimatization to New York life, about the genesis of All The Time and her accomplice Jeremy Greenspan, and about her little quirks and worries, with great sincerity and many bursts of laughter.

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The iconoclastic entertainer is back with L’Exil, a long mini-album in which the Montreal artist details with great sincerity and emotion his difficult expatriation to the City of Lights, and his struggle to remain lucid.

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Since her emergence in 2006, American musician Julianna Barwick has gained great notoriety for her vocal, instrumental, and electronic superimpositions, generated by digital and analog technologies. Life is certainly no slow ride for the woman, who has just launched the linear works of Healing Is a Miracle and Ninja Tune, with contributions by Sigur Rós singer Jónsi, harpist Mary Lattimore, and producer Nosaj Thing.

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Navet Confit went digging through his records. The harvest was good because it’s not one disc he just launched, not two or three, but ten simultaneously! The versatile artist, who also presents an unusual virtual concert, tells us about this kind of crazy project, and paints a portrait of each album.

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Produced by Mitchell Froom, Rufus Wainwright’s ninth studio album marks the end of a “first act” in the career of the Montrealer, who has lived in Los Angeles for four years with husband and child. Joined in California in the midst of the pandemic, he recounts his creative process and places the much-anticipated Unfollow the Rules in a prolific body of work that began in the late 1990s with the excellent eponymous album produced by Jon Brion, Pierre Marchand, and the legendary Van Dyke Parks.

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The new label Appærent begins its activities with the launch of L’eau par la soif by Feu St-Antoine, an intimate and very personal first solo disc that sees Pierre Guerineau define himself more as a creator. The Montreal musician and producer, and his associate Jesse Osborne-Lanthier, give an overview of the label and its ambitions, and tell us about this first release, available in digital format and as a limited edition of 99 CDs.

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On July 9, Montrealers WD-40 play 18 songs for a project called 6”, divided into two parts. In the first part, entitled 6” 1, the punk-country quartet perform nine songs that its members have each recorded at home. The second segment, 6” 2, was recorded on June 2 in a rehearsal room in Verdun. Drummer Hugo Lachance, who edited and produced 6”, tells us how the project was born.

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“The golden rule is that there are no golden rules,” said both George Bernard Shaw, and the theme song of a debut album. On the Les Faux-Monnayeurs label, Règle d’or was conceived by Chloé Pilon-Vaillancourt, known as Marie Gold for her hip hop career. By night, she’s a rapper and beatmaker, by day, she’s a graduate student in engineering physics. No rules, indeed.

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Pottery presents Welcome To Bobby’s Motel, an album brimming with grooves and sweet madness.

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Whether in smoke-filled basements, in cultural centres, or at various festivals, Claude Périard’s music always finds its way. Having as much fun with militant pop under her pseudonym Claude L’Anthrope as she does creating sound installations and experimental music under her own name, the multidisciplinary artist is one of the jewels of Montreal. PAN M 360 spoke with her to discuss the intriguing concept behind her new album, Imaginaire sur réel.

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Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs is Klô Pelgag’s third album, on the Secret City Records label. It’s first of all the name of a Lower St. Lawrence village on Île Verte, but also an imaginary place where the author, composer, arranger, and producer healed the wounds caused by profound overwork… before launching herself back into the public sphere. In a café in the Villeray district, she recounts the process – sitting two metres away from her interlocutor, it goes without saying.

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He’s one sixth member of Alaclair Ensemble and half of Eman X Vlooper, but is now establishing himself as a solo artist. Keb rap veteran Eman, 14 years after his first work with the duo Accrophone, is releasing his first solo album, a logical follow-up to his EP Maison, released in 2019. He spoke with PAN M 360 about his career in retrospect, and about this new project, of which he is almost the sole architect.

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For many ’90s kids, the multi-genre, reggae-rooted Long Beach Dub Allstars are remembered as a spin-off of Sublime, wherein original members of that band, their old friends, and their longtime collaborators gathered around the ashes of what might have been, never quite rising like the phoenix, but appreciated for their brief renaissance, nonetheless.

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After having made a (first) name for himself thanks largely to his gypsy excursions, Thomas Dutronc dons his swankiest attire to play the lounge crooner, in the company of many prestigious guests, on Frenchy.

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There comes a time when an art-rock- or avant-pop-orientated band emphasizes conciseness of purpose, the immediate impact of a melody, efficient harmonic constructions, in short, the fundamental qualities of a song beyond its stylistic orientations and the atypical environment in which it flourishes. This is what the fourth studio album of Montreal trio Braids, originally from Calgary, is all about. Shadow Offering has just been released on Secret City Records, and Taylor Smith and Raphaelle Standell-Preston commented on the creative process.

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Taiwanese duo Mong Tong indulge a deep fascination for the folkloric phantoms and eerie Chinese esoterica of the island they call home, as well as the international iconography of formalized paranoia. They channel the freaky fragments of fact-or-fancy that they find through psych-funk, synthwave, prog rock, and creepy audio collage, all stewed in a miasmic doom-metal soup. PAN M 360 corresponded with the brothers for some clues to unlock the mysteries of their new album, Mystery.

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With one foot on the dancefloor and the other in songcraft, Poirier builds a bridge between eras, styles and communities on his new album Soft Power. A delicate balancing act.

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For its 20th edition, the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival had to reorient itself towards the virtual. The organizers have worked hard to rebuild a new program in no time at all, and have managed to put together some great evenings to be enjoyed in the comfort of one’s own home. One of the most eagerly awaited performances of this last week of festivities is without a doubt that of the unpredictable Stéphanie Castonguay. PAN M 360 had the opportunity to speak with her, to learn more about this production inspired by the pandemic.

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Recorded between Los Angeles, London and Paris, To Love Is To Live is the first solo album by French artist Jehnny Beth, aka Camille Berthomier, known for her central role in Savages. Currently on indefinite break, the Franco-British band was a finalist for the Mercury Prize for the albums Silence Yourself (2013) and Adore Life (2016). A new chapter begins for the singer, who roped in producers Flood, Atticus Ross, and Johnny Hostile, not to mention guests Romy Madley Croft of the XX, actor Cillian Murphy, and punk-rock singer Joe Talbot of IDLES. PAN M 360 contacted Jehnny Beth in Paris to find out more about her record, released on the Arts & Crafts label.

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Time and motion are of concern to any musician, any factory worker for that matter. They are however of almost metaphysical fascination to Angèle David-Guillou, a French composer and musician residing in England. The three releases in her Mouvement series, the last of which came out in May, reveal a trajectory that concludes on such a current note, it’s almost uncanny. PAN M 360 connected with David-Guillou to walk back through the timeline of this remarkable series of works.

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In Mongolian, the word means a wide-open sky. In Hungarian, a vast sea. Either is appropriate to the expansive, entrancing music of TENGGER, which is the Korean-Japanese couple itta and Marqido and their son RAII, based in Seoul but perpetually peripatetic. The “psychedelic new-age drone magic” they perform, by way of harmonium, voice, analog synths, and other odds and ends, expresses a pacific perspective that’s at once rooted in the earth of the planet beneath our feet, and loose on the winds of wanderlust. PAN M 360 connected with TENGGER to talk about their new album Nomad, on the Beyond Beyond is Beyond label.

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The album A Single Point of Light was conceived, recorded and produced prior to the pandemic. Its creator, Montrealer Ben Shemie, then put this second project on hold for an extended stay in France. The original script called for the release of this album, and then Suuns, of which Shemie is the frontman, was to be back on the road, but… the tour schedule was turned upside down for obvious reasons. So let’s talk about what is tangible for now, that is to say this album created in solitude, with the perception of light as its guiding principle.

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On June 12, Anonymus launches La Bestia, an album entirely in Spanish. It is composed of one new song, the first single entitled “Sobrevivir”, and eight tracks from Stress (1997), Sacrifices (2019), État brute (2010), Instinct (1999), and Chapter Chaos Begins (2006), four of them already in Spanish, the others have been translated for the purposes of this twelfth album. For the thrash quartet, founded in 1989, the objective of La Bestia is simple – conquer Latin America and Spain. Singer and bassist Oscar Souto spoke with PAN M 360 about the adventure behind the creation of La Bestia.

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With their recent first release, the mini-album Klein Gevaarlijk Afval (on the label Rebel Up!), the Brussels trio schroothoop revealed a weird, wide world of wonderful music, all painted a sensible shade of green – their eco-friendly instruments are made from rescued trash (the band’s name is Dutch for “junkyard”). The three corresponded with PAN M 360 to discuss first aid, second life for scrap, and third-generation exotica.

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Doubleheader is a bicephalic beast: the producer, rapper and multi-instrumentalist Alexandre Arthur Comeau Bilodeau (ex-Radio Radio, Pierre Kwenders, Samito, etc.) and the producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Jean Massicotte (Patrick Watson, Jean Leloup, Lhasa, Arthur H, Alejandra Ribera, etc.). The material already generated could constitute two complete albums, but the dream duo has chosen to launch its new tracks one at a time. And it all starts with “Diamond Flake”, a disco space funk jam performed by Dominique Fils-Aimé, interspersed with a rap by Arthur Comeau. The rest is hip hop, reggaeton, techno, blues, Cajun, country, and more.

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With not one but two very different releases this week, it’s a good time to check in with Harikuyamaku, a musician and producer rooted in the sun-soaked soil of Okinawa – the culturally distinct, southernmost punctuation point of the Japanese archipelago. Harikuyamaku’s music is a mash-up of Okinawan folk and dub reggae, with excursions into the wider field of electronic dance music and experimentation. PAN M 360 flagged him down to talk about that, ceramic speakers, butoh dance, and more.

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Three years after her first LP, Music on the Grey Mile, Camille Deléan has released a beautiful English-language album with the evocative title Cold House Burning. The Franco-Ontarian singer, transplanted to Montreal, has tapped into her inner self to deliver 10 touching songs.

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In recent years, Mirabelle’s cocoon has been woven for a slow and safe gestation. From 2009 to 2015, Laurence Hélie, its progenitor, was situated in the francophone country-folk scene and garnered good reviews. Her postpartum depression put her artistic career on hold, until she had metamorphosed into Mirabelle, emerged and took off. PAN M 360 followed her flight.

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Jäde is 24 years old and her real name is Adèle. PAN M 360 connected with the Lyonnaise R&B artist to get a little bit of her story, and find out what led up to the production of her EP Première fois, as well as her future projects.

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Originally from Brazil (Bota Fogo, a neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro), Amon Tobin spent his adolescence and early adulthood in the United Kingdom before launching his career in Montreal, where he lived for a few years. He then moved to California, first to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles, where he’s been exhibiting an astonishing prolificity. Under several pseudonyms as well as his real name, Tobin’s music has multiplied on the Nomark label, which he founded and through which all his recent recordings have been released.

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The veterans of the Montreal indie rock scene have just released Lovers Rock, an album that reflects our current collective state of mind against a backdrop of melancholy chamber pop. Throughout the band’s career, singer and guitarist Murray Lightburn has strived to portray a mysteriously apocalyptic, yet realistic and optimistic perspective. Here he tells PAN M 360 about the genesis of this vision.

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If Longueuil’s Koffee K is one of the most listened-to hip hop artists in la belle province, it’s not due to any significant media recognition. His song “Human Drug”, a single launched on May 1, is his first new release since his album Forever, released in 2019. He spoke with PAN M 360 about his upcoming projects, his career and the Montreal rap scene.

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The revelation of the European underground scene in recent years, the Catalan duo Dame Area, composed of Silvia Konstance Constan and Víktor Lux Crux, unfortunately remains little known in North America. Their latest EP, La Soluzione é Una, weaves a skilful mix of minimal electro, warlike incantations, and industrial percussion. The time has come to highlight their twilight music. So, in the midst of confinement, the pair generously answered PAN M 360’s questions.

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American composer and musician Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith bottles lightning with The Mozaic of Transformation, (Ghostly International) a very personal ode to electric energy captured on her eighth studio album. Since 2012, Smith has been developing a language at the confluence of Western classical music, Asian music and traditions, the electroacoustic universe, synthpop and even music for video games. That makes her a must for PAN M 360, reaching her at her California residence for a conversation.

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With the recent release of A Steady Drip Drip, the American duo Sparks shows us that they are still as relevant and original as they were when they started, 50 years ago.

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Hermiting in the hinterland of Baie des Chaleurs, where he now resides, Jimmy Hunt did not plan to create the material for an album. Motivated rather by a literary project, he finally distilled its most significant elements into minimalist songs, freshly recorded and out now on the Dare to Care label. Hunt talk with PAN M 360 about his new opus, Le silence.

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Akurion first appeared in 2015 on a promotional CD featuring the song “Yet Ye See Them Not”. The years went by with no indication as to whether the band would ever see the light of day again. We now know that between the formation of Akurion in 2012 and the release of “Come Forth to Me” on April 10, 2020, the founding members, guitarist Rob Milley (Neuraxis, Necrotic Mutation) and singer Mike DiSalvo (Come Cluster Void, ex-Cryptopsy), went through a period of mourning. It must also be said that the other musicians of this supergroup, bassist Oli Pinard (Cryptopsy, Cattle Decapitation, Vengeful) and drummer Tommy McKinnon (Conflux), haven’t been twiddling their thumbs.

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With the double album All That Glue, Sleaford Mods get stuck on the compilation game, finally making available many of their songs that are almost impossible to find elsewhere. Fans won’t be disappointed, since the band has added several unreleased bonus tracks. The always very voluble Jason Williamson tells PAN M 360 all about it.

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After four decades of experiments and sound exploration, Einstürzende Neubauten are still as relevant and forward-thinking as ever. To mark their 40 years of activity, the German industrial band presents Alles in Allem, a brand new album with which they remind us of their intense passion for Berlin.

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Five years after Revuelta Danza Party, the Montreal collective that blends cumbia and Balkan music with dance, circus and street arts in an exuberant fairground atmosphere returns with a new album, VelkomBak, the soundtrack to a theatrical show that promises to be full of colour. On the eve of its release, PAN M 360 spoke with GKO director Carmen Ruiz and artistic director Juan Sebastian Mejia.

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What is Catherine Major doing in these uncertain times? Children, songs, lasting relationships in the country, a vast home. The artist created Par-dessus bord in 2004, Rose sang in 2008, Le désert des solitudes in 2011 La maison du monde in 2015, and now here’s Carte mère, on the Audiogram label. A virtual launch is scheduled for Friday, May 15. PAN M 360 spoke with Major for some details.

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The Juno Awards, which were to have been held in March, have been postponed to an as yet unknown date, leaving a multitude of artists worthy of celebration hanging. Among them are Ensemble Paramirabo, nominated for the classical album of the year with Alone and Unalone, dedicated to Canadian composer James O’Callaghan. PAN M 360 spoke with the composer, as well as Jeffrey Stonehouse, flutist and artistic director of the ensemble, about the genesis and creation of the album, one of the fundamental issues being the adaptation of music conceived for the concert hall to a recorded medium, a subject that is strangely relevant in these special times.

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At the end of a particularly difficult time in her personal life, an upswing helped reinvigorate Mara Tremblay’s inner garden, which led her to create this magnificent Uniquement pour toi, on the Audiogram label. She shared the story of her recent life, and the creative process that followed, with PAN M 360.

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The “lo-fi R&B gong punk” of Toronto-based diasporic Filipina quintet Pantayo’s eponymous album isn’t just a bridge between then and now, here and there. It’s a bit more like Tokyo’s famously complex Shibuya crosswalk, patching together practical feminism, punk ethos, Indigenous resistance, Asian visibility, queer fabulousness, and the universal thirst for inviting new sounds – and the dancefloor of our dreams.

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African, Indigenous, Caucasian, and Colombian roots. Pan-American migration, Canadian destination. Performer, singer, lyricist, composer, producer, visual artist, director, mother, spouse. Clearly, Toronto’s Lido Pimienta is an embodiment of the three Americas. Winner of the Polaris Prize for the album La Papessa, this very strong and gifted woman carries so many strains within her, and these transcultural materials form the framework of the edifice that is Miss Colombia. Recently released on the Anti- label, this album could well be the beginning of a new level in her career.

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Between the death of her father and the meeting of the man who would become her husband, Montreal singer and multi-instrumentalist Basia Bulat went through a range of emotions during the creation of her fifth album, Are You In Love? Meet an artist in tune with herself and the world around her.

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While Montreal’s Elephant Stone may be our local lords of the softer side of psych-rock, their lyrical aspect has bite. Following the Valentine’s Day release Hollow, an album rife with theoretical doom and despair, comes the new single, “American Dream”, a caustic assessment of the nightmare south of our border – very real, very right now. PAN M 360 spoke to Elephant Stone frontman Rishi Dhir about the song, and about Sacred Sound Sessions, his regular, semi-formal solo live-stream from his home studio – another session is scheduled for this Tuesday night.

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For over 30 years, Shane Embury has been touring the world and recording with the band Napalm Death, pioneers of grindcore, in which he is the bassist and lead composer. He now presents Dark Sky Burial, his solo project. PAN M 360 got more details from him.

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Figurehead of the new era in American noise rap, Moodie Black has just released her fourth album, entitled FUZZ. With its raw lyrics and overdose of distortion, this new release is sure to satisfy any thirst for decibels. It was therefore imperative to disassemble this time bomb in the company of rapper and producer Kris Martinez, to find out more about the history of the project and her desire to extend the reach of her message.

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Now that we’re fully living in the era envisioned by the cyberpunky, sci-fi arcade games, cartoons, and movies of the 1980s, it’s only appropriate that the kitsch/cool of that decade gets a reboot. Alongside chiptunes and horror disco, the synthwave movement salutes the electronic sounds (and neon-soaked visuals) of yesterday’s future. Cat Temper, aka Mike Langlie of Boston, transcends the clichés while honouring the iconography, tosses in a dash of hair-metal excess, and adds a thematic hook that will have fans of furry felines purring. PAN M 360 got Langlie to cough up a few hairballs following the recent release of Cat Temper’s latest album, Feralyzed.

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This past March, Wolfheart was scheduled to cross the Atlantic to participate in the Devastation of the Nation tour with Rotting Christ, Borknagar, Abigail Williams and Imperial Triumphant. It was an opportunity for the Finnish band, formed in 2013 by singer and guitarist Tuomas Saukkonen, to promote Wolves of Karelia, the band’s fifth album, released in April on Napalm Records. The spread of COVID-19 put a stop to the tour, which was postponed to 2021. In the meantime, Saukkonen tells us about Wolves of Karelia, which deals with a great moment in Finnish history.

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Ariane Moffatt and DRMS, Étienne Dupuis-Cloutier by his real name, build bridges. Two generational shores are thus connected, two stylistic fronts, two ways of doing things that have become SOMMM, whose debut album has just been released on the Mo’Fat Productions label. Indie pop, hip hop, electro, franco and anglo pop cultures are at the crossroads of an original auteur pop that is in tune with the times, and Ariane and DRMS are the masters of the art. PAN M 360 took a look at these bridges with their builders.

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On the occasion of its 25th anniversary and on the eve of the quartet’s third live concert, which will be broadcast on its Facebook page this Saturday, April 25 at 4 pm, PAN M 360 spoke with two of its musicians, who tell us about the formation’s career, its identity, the vagaries of the profession, its projects for next season… and even about Estonia.

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On her very recent debut release, the digital EP Still, Shanghai artist lisalyz takes antique Chinese music, for courtly soirees and lively night markets alike, chops it up and chucks in a digital wok. The slices and snippets are judiciously selected, the Ableton operations able indeed, and the results simply sublime, delicate and delectable. PAN M 360 got some further insights from 27-year-old Belisa Lin, aka lisalyz.

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Abolition of the Royal Familia is a compendium of everything The Orb has touched on in some thirty years of service. We connected with Alex Paterson, the great manitou of the British electro entity.

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The spectrum of possibilities in electroacoustic music is immense, its practitioners frequently leading listeners well outside their comfort zone. Composer Léa Boudreau’s album Chaos contrôlé does just that, with a theme that is as bizarre as it is fascinating. With various second-hand toys, the Montrealer had fun making her latest creation. Here is the story behind this unusual idea that gave rise to a most surprising work.

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With the EP Sick Hustle, NOBRO prove to all who still doubted it that rock with a feminine touch is as devastating as it is unifying. PAN M 360 connected with the band, and presents the PREMIERE of the brand new video for “Don’t Die”, directed by artist Greg Doble.

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A close collaborator with Montrealer Pierre Kwenders on his latest album, a beatmaker and rapper of great influence since the ’90s when he tore things up with the excellent Digable Planets, Ishmael Butler is reached in Seattle. We must talk about Shabazz Palaces, a hip hop project he’s been leading for nearly a decade. The group’s fifth opus, The Don of Diamond Dreams, has just been released on Sub Pop. Here are our questions, here are his answers.

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Amsterdam’s Mauskovic Dance Band crank out a colourful, cosmo-tropical cocktail of marginal musical modes, held together by the centrifugal force of its frenetic rhythms. Band leader Nicola Mauskovic spoke to PAN M 360 about the temptation to overdo it, the shadows behind the sunshine, the nightclub where their album was born, and the dubwise direction of its quick follow-up, the recent Shadance Hall EP.

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Montreal’s Police des mœurs is the kind of project that induces instant addiction. Fans of synth-based music have likely let loose many times under the influence of the incisive sounds and poignant voices of Francis and Manuelle. It’s a good bet that with their new, fourth album, the duo will manage to get you moving in your living room, if not on the dancefloor.

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Kevin Saint-Laurent, a key figure in keb rap, fell into it when adolescence hit, and soon found himself cooking up his first gangsta potions, while going through difficult times, from petty crime to incarceration. Today, his hip hop baggage exceeds two decades – he’s been recording non-stop since 2009. Conceived around stories inspired by life away from the spotlights, the freshly released Backstage arrives care of the 7ième Ciel label. Things being how they are, we reached Souldia by phone, not in the green room, but in his living room.

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A compatriot of Flying Lotus, with whom he has been recording and touring since the album Cosmogramma in 2008, a collaborator with Kendrick Lamar, orchestra leader, composer, jazz/groove/R&B super bassist and countertenor whose voice is reminiscent of the late George Duke, Thundercat is the most prominent bassist of the current period. He was supposed to tour this spring with to promote his new opus It Is What It Is, released on the Brainfeeder label, but COVID-19 decided otherwise… which didn’t prevent the phone conversation here with Stephen Lee Bruner, reached in Los Angeles.

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What’s going on in the noggins of the four buddies in Zen Bamboo? It’s hard to say, but, one thing’s for sure, it’s going on! Since 2014, these adult teenagers have developed a taste for their hobby that has become a profession, to the point where the band is one of the most promising in Quebec rock. Let’s look at the story of an artistic gestation, the first album from which, GLU, has just been released on Simone Records.

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Montreal’s “tyrants of teen trash”, The Gruesomes, are longstanding leaders in the global garage-rock revival scene. Rarely heard on stage or record in recent years, they now crawl out of the grave with a combination comic book/seven-inch single.

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Naya Ali, 31 years old. We’d give her ten less, and that’s just perfect for this hip hop artist who has followed her passion back to where she stored it away in her early twenties. After suspending her artistic endeavours for a long hiatus, she came back to the music game at the age of 28. Today, she is one of the most promising talents in Montreal hip hop and more, as evidenced by the Godspeed: Baptism project.

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Quand la nuit tombe is Louis-Jean Cormier’s third solo album, the most successful and least consensual of his discographic offerings since the indefinite suspension of Karkwa, the band that made him famous in the 2000s, and the most Karkwaesque of his opus! LJC’s tour was due to start soon, but the coronaviral context imposed a postponement. What’s up? Let’s virtually discuss this new creative chapter that’s beginning… in confinement.

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In the predictable landscape of French entertainment, Yseult stands out as unpredictable with her independence of spirit, self-confidence, and singularity. Let’s take a look at the giant profile of this 25-year-old artist.

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Les Deuxluxes present Lighter Fluid, a second album bolder than the first one they recorded… in church.

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Brooding torment and violent happiness – the volatile alchemy of Baltimore’s :3LON

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A heavy metal version of Macbeth is the crazy gamble that director Jocelyn Pelletier, noise artist and sound designer Érick D’Orion, and a handful of brave actors have taken on.

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After launching the album Hunter in 2018 and bringing it to life, Anna Calvi released Hunted, and now hits the road again. A stopover is planned at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City on March 30. In the meantime, the British singer is talking about her new work… and her new tour.

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2020 marks 15 years of existence for the Caribou nickname of Canadian musician Daniel Snaith, also known as Manitoba (in his early days) and Daphni (that one’s still around today). Suddenly, Snaith’s fifth album under the Caribou name, has just been released by Merge Records and precedes an international tour currently in preparation.

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