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L’usine/Surface ep (Isophlux)
Drew Daniels/The soft pink truth (Soundslike)
Rhythm & Sound w/ Cornell Campbell/King in my empire (Burial Mix)
Kit Clayton & Sutekh/Pigeon Funk (Poptronix)
Ark/ Le magicien d’os (Briff) Top 5 Albums
Jetone/Ultramarin (Force Inc)
V/A/Superlongevity 2 (Perlon)
Spacek/Curvatia (Island)
Atlon Inc/Main Things (Force Inc)
Telefon Tel Aviv/Farhenheight fair enough (Hefty) Top 5 Things to Check Out
Jay Hunsberger/Kneecap (Revolver)
Pan Tone/Qui es su papa, mama fina? (Revolver)
Deadbeat/Miso (Revolver)
Akufen/Horrorama (Revolver)
Altitude/ Cynosure# 6 CANADA BONUS
For some reason the USA guide to hip hop on p.78 left out the people of the north. Here is the other half of North American hip hop. The Halifax scene has strong ties to the whole Anticon movement. Pioneers include Stinkin Rich aka Buck 65, Six Too (collectively know as the Sebutones), but there’s mad cats out there making music in that same vein, such as The Goods, Tachichi & DJ Moves, Classified and Josh Martinez. You have to peep those dudes. Some of them straight up look like skaters, most of them write graff, and they do tons of funny moves on stage and kids love it. All of them have an encyclopedic knowledge of hip hop. If you can’t really get with the lyrics, you’ll at least feel the dusty loops they’re rocking on. Montreal has two rap movements: one French and one English. KC LMNOP and Dubmatique were the first to put out French rap albums. Nowadays the scene’s major players are Sans Pression, Yvon Krevé, Les Architekts and Muzion. Most of them combine French, Québécois slang, Creole and English into a unique brand of dunn language. Over the years, what could be defined as a typical style of Montreal rap beats has also developed: dramatic strings or pianos layered over hard drums. (Lots of those samples actually come from seventies’ French records.) Listen to a dope Mont Real instrumental and you’ll think there’s someone in your house. The city’s English scene has been struggling a bit but groups like Shades of Culture, Butta Babees, Obscure Disorder, Overproof and Offsides maintain the focus. Toronto is definitely the Canadian city whose rap acts have received the most exposure. That’s partly thanks to the power-movers over at Figure IV, who has managed to get every single act on their roster singed to a major. Kardinal Offishall inked a deal with MCA and killed it earlier this year with the T.O. anthem “Bacardi Slang”, K-OS is signed to Universal and Vancouver’s Rascalz are BMG soldiers. On top of that, Kardi’s Circle crewmembers got put on as well: Choclair has already dropped an album on Priority and Saukrates – widely recognized as Canada’s most versatile rap talent – has signed to Def Jam. Plus Thrust is doing his thing on Virgin. Laying the foundation behind T-Dot’s ghetto-jiggyness are underground vets like Citizen Kane, Frankenstein, Ghetto Concept, and Da Grassroots production team. Although there’s probably rap in Saskatchewan, we’ll move on to Vancouver, where the aforementioned Rascalz have reigned supreme since the mid-nineties. Swollen Members are the new school superheroes in Van-City, powered by their very own Battle Axe imprint. Coming up on the American underground circuit, they’ve collaborated with West Coast underground icons such as Dilated and Hiero, but their music maintains a distinctively darker, Dungeons-and-Dragons-esque edge. Some say Madchild is somehow related to Kurt Cobain. Another Vancouver icon is Moka Only, who releases most of his product on Battle Axe as well. Keep an eye out for Checkmate’s indie bangers as well as for Halifax affiliates Birdapres. DAVE ONE