Ango – Another City Now EP

Is Ango short for Anglo? Given that he hails from my favourite bilingual city to the north, this could be true. The six track narrative fuses late 80s pop, early 90s house and the smooveness of contemporary R&B. The record is apparently “a lyrically polarized selection of girl songs expressing the giddy way up and the painful way back down.” Ouch. What is this girl landing on?Another City Now is a solid fit to the LuckyMe roster known for their signature lush synths and soulfully uplifting melodies. Ango is also noted for his collaborations with Lunice and Azealia Banks.

Gunslingers And Greenhorns – Poker Flat Vol. 9

Poker Flat return with this ninth compilation featuring ten of their brightest new talent and grizzled gunslingers that will take you on a whistle stop tour deep into the Wild West of modern house and techno. Check out the freshest cuts from guys like Adultnapper, Ian Pooley, Roland Appel, and Sebastian San. For added bonus, there’s a full 16 track disc mixed and compiled by label honcho Steve Bug.

Deadmau5 – Meowington’s Hax 2K11 Toronto

The DVD to accompany the mother of all Can-Con performances where little Deadmau5 brought down the house, errr, Rogers Centre, and earned a plaque for Canadian artist with the most tickets sold at an event. And also the largest congregation of glow-in-the-dark mouse-eared-wearing 20-somethings on ecstasy, EVER. The disc is about two hours long and I imagine it would be an awesome addition to any Deadmau5ers weekend pre-party routine. Sadly, the epic video screens that Deadmau5 funded on his own tab are not featured as prominently as they could be, and a lot of the highlights of this vid are of chicks gone wild, sitting atop bulky dude’s shoulders, which makes it best left as background noise. Sonically, it does redeem its self as it features 26 cuts from the show.

DJ-Kicks – The Exclusives

The DJ-Kicks shtick is to have a popular DJ/producer/band create a mix of some of their favourite songs of the moment, and the cherry on top is that they also have to create an exclusive track made specifically for that album. The album here is actually a compilation of all those exclusives from the past five years, and is the second ‘best of’ since 2006. Some of my favourites include “Pockets” by Four Tet, the epic 12 minute long “Feel So Good” (good, good, gooood!) by the Juan Maclean, and Scuba’s deep and dark 90s helicopter bass-y and ravey sounding “M.A.R.S.”

Trevor Jackson Presents METAL DANCE

I used to be into EBM and Industrial music when I was in my teens because it was hard, raw and made liberal use of electronic styles. I’m probably missing something on a grander scheme of things because I don’t really understand why everyone cares about this ubergoth trend all of a sudden. Is it because the drag/witch house is running its self out so it’s now time to capitalize while we can on its secret origins? Anwyay, at first I thought they meant Steve Jackson, of the Fighting Fantasy book and dice fantasy game books, but no. Trevor Jackson is actually an art director and audio nerdophile who has a penchant for Alien Sex Fiend, Yello, Nitzer Ebb, Jah Wobble and Severed Heads. My teenage mid-90s self would be gushing if he discovered this one in the record bin. My current self wonders do I really need this nostalgia?

Surprises, disappointments and albums to watch for next month

Stuff we missed last month: January is usually deadsville for album releases but we missed Steve Aoki’sWonderland, featuring celebrity collaborations with Kid Cudi and Travis Barker on “Cudi The Kid,” Earthquakey People featuring Rivers Cuomo (a sure summer hit), and “The Kids Will Have Their Say” with Sick Boy and former members of the Exploited and Die Kreuzen. Also missed in January was Skrillex.

Things that didn’t surprise: Skrillex taking home a three Grammys – Best Dance Recording, Best Dance Album for “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,” and Best Remix for Benny Benassi’s surprise hit, “Cinema.”

Things that suck: Every other guy and girl trying to do the Skrillex short/long emo undercut shave hair-do. Thankfully it’s more for the ladies.


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