Ace of Wands – Lioness

The, largely, rock presence of Ace of Wands floats in and out of an occasionally ambient alt-rock experience. Finding their footing, Ace of Wands crafts a deep rooted, but airy, bluesy swagger with an echoing melodic current flourishing just inside the edges of a shadowy mystique. The mystery and emptiness pairs to strong female vocals in such a refreshingly anti-top 40 sound I’ll be damned if this isn’t just the initial tap into a healthy vein of something great. Many artists try to achieve where Ace of Wands succeeds. While many are trying to Beyonce or Swift, Ace of Wands is tears into the musical flesh of prim and proper, tears off a bite, and spits it out in an edgy ten track debut album.(Nanobot Rock)

Alex Leggett – 3 Songs (Indie)

Basic White – The Second Half

Buckman Coe – Gathering Storm

Charles Richard-Hamelin – Chopin: Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Ever the consummate artist, Richard-Hamelin approached curating the program in the same thoughtful way as he executed the music. The concert, divided in two halves, opened with the music of Schumann and, following intermission, closed with Fryderyk Chopin’s Four Ballades – all music written in the same time-frame by two composers who knew each other and each other’s music.(Toronto Concert Reviews)

Digawolf – Yellowstone (Indie)

During sessions last year, Diga told CBC that the record would have a “weird, eerie, very homey vibe.” Lyrically, Yellowstone features songs in both English and Tłı̨chǫ and is said to “embrace Diga’s poetic sensibilities, describing an unknown world in the midst of modernity.”(Exclaim!)

Don Brownrigg – Fireworks

Canadian singer-songwriter Don Brownrigg came to our attention last year with his single ‘Room For Me’; three and a half minutes of what is best described as world-feariness, employing nothing more than a delicately-picked guitar, baritone vocal and gossamer-light strings. Its closing line of “I’m not sure, I’m not sure, I’m not sure I’m not crazy” captures a vulnerability that instantly made us want to know more of the story.(Red Guitar Music)

Dustin Bentall – High in the Satellite (Roaring Girl Records)

Emilie Kahn – Outro (Secret City Records)

Outro is the second album from Canadian harpist Emilie Kahn. Formerly performing and releasing under the moniker Emilie & Ogden, the follow-up top 2016’s 10,000 sees Kahn performing as herself, nothing to hide behind yet taking heart from the fact that this is her. Outro could therefore conversely be seen as the intro to the ‘real’ Emilie Kahn.(Closewatch Music Blog)

Flying Hórses – Reverie

“It’s the story of a couple, drifting apart and eventually blowing up in smoke. The woman is having flashbacks of the moments where she was realizing that she was better off alone. The end of the video shows her by herself (isolated) and still standing. It’s about coming to terms with the realization that it’s better to be alone than be with the wrong person. We are use to being apologetic for bringing up these difficult subjects, but it’s now being talked about in public and in the media. Women have more bandwidth to take charge of their love lives and choose to be strong on their own.”(Northern Transmissions)

Gold Complex – New Soul (Indie)

Mehdi Cayenne – Radio Batata

Murray A. Lightburn – Hear Me Out

Centre Of My Universe follows with Motown style production similar to Diana Ross & The Supremes, Stop! In The Name of Love (albeit a few BPM’s slower) which then leads into the most distinctly sounding The Dears song off Hear Me Out called To the Top. Whilst there are similarities to 22: The Death of All the Romance, it is more upbeat, instant, without the haunting strings and Natalia Yanchak vocals whilst adding Hank Marvin Style guitar riffs. The sixties Motown theme continues with I Give Up which provides delightful resemblances to Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye and The Four Tops all under Lighburn’s genius style of production and arrangements.(XS Noize …)

Our Native Daughters – Songs of Our Native Daughters (Smithsonian Folkways) [Allison Russell]

Lately, songwriting women across the roots-to-indie-rock spectrum have exemplified the power of solidarity — an understanding that teaming up will lead to shared insight, buoying empathy or freer, brasher expression. Coming together under the name Our Native Daughters proved to be an especially significant move for Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla, who’ve shouldered a particular burden as banjo-playing women of color: They’ve not only been called upon to deliver compelling performances, but also to explain their connection to string-band lineages falsely presumed to be the historic domain of white men.(NPR)

Tim Isberg – Running On The Edge

“People have told me, ‘you should take your show on the road to all the military bases because they would love it’ but I don’t think so. They’re impressed because they haven’t heard someone who was in Afghanistan with two weapons and 150 rounds of ammunition strapped to their body, walking on a road, not knowing if you’re coming home. I think my audience is the people who weren’t there.”(Edmonton Journal)

BA Johnston – The Skid Is Hot

Joy District – P.E.A.C.E (London Field Recordings)