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SECRETLY CANADIAN

Cover of The January EP by Here We Go Magic.

Here We Go Magic

The January EP

Secretly Canadian

    "The January EP"s six songs complete the songwriting cycle that Here We Go Magic began in an upstate New York farm house upon the commencement of their critically-acclaimed sophomore album "Pigeons".

    The band's signature mix of swirling guitars, Krautrock grooves, pulsing synths, and hushed chants provide a foundation for these otherworldly songs.

    "Hands In The Sky" is a ghostly number that showcases vocalist Luke Temple's lyrical pedigree.

    At the centre of the mini album lies a dichotomy between eerie folk sounds and driving art rock. The jangly back-and-forth between the guitars of Michael Bloch and Temple form the backbone to "Song In Three", the yin to "Pigeon"s standout "Collector"s yang.

    "The January EP" was produced by Jen Turner and recorded live to analog tape in a band-built living room studio.

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    Cover of The Golden Record by Little Scream.

    Little Scream

    The Golden Record

    Secretly Canadian

      Born in Iowa and raised along the Mississippi River in an ‘Addams Family meets 700 Club’ home, Little Scream, aka Laurel Sprengelmeyer, learned violin and piano as a child. 'When my parents divorced, all my mom got out of the deal was a green Chevy pick-up truck. When that truck was dented up in an accident, my mom used the insurance money to bring home a Washburn banjo and the black Fender La Brae I still sometimes play at shows. I spent the following months locked away in our root cellar learning guitar tablature'.

      Co-produced with Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre), ‘The Golden Record’ features Little Scream on guitar, vocals, violin, and keyboard.

      In typical Montreal fashion, the album showcases a cast of local talent including Richard Parry, Mike Fuerstack (Snailhouse), Becky Foon (Silver Mt. Zion), Patty McGee (Stars), and Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre). The National’s Aaron Dessner also contributed to "The Heron And The Fox".

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      Cover of Forget The Mantra by Nightlands.

      Nightlands

      Forget The Mantra

      Secretly Canadian

        As Nightlands, Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist David Hartley makes enormous, warm and thunderous music. Hartley has been a prolific member of many Philadelphia groups, most notably The War On Drugs.

        The music he creates in his bedroom is itself a bed of delicate, chiming strings and bubbling synths beneath a blanket of choral arrangements. It's dreamy in the literal sense - the seeds for the album were sown when Hartley began archiving musical ideas that occurred in his sleep with a simple bedside tape recorder. As a result ‘Forget the Mantra’ is, in essence, a field recording of Hartley's dreams.

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        Cover of JJ No 2 by JJ.

        JJ

        JJ No 2

        Secretly Canadian

          In Summer of 2009, Gothenburg, Sweden’s jj quietly released one of the year's most critically acclaimed albums. This album, "JJ Nº 2", was the group’s debut full-length ("JJ Nº 1" was their first single).

          jj create pop, R&B and Balearic dub from the ghosts of lost lovers. Their music is both carefree without carelessness, and self-aware without being self-conscious. With it, they build an ice bridge arching from Gothenburg into the heart of the UK music world, and everywhere in between.

          'A gorgeous ode to chemically-assisted euphoria, or an effective, shimmering simulation for those who keep their intoxications on the legal side' - Pitchfork.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Things Will Never Be The Same Again
          2. From Africa To Malaga
          3. Ecstasy
          4. Are You Still In Vallda
          5. My Love
          6. Intermezzo
          7. My Hopes And Dreams
          8. Masterplan
          9. Me & Dean

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          Cover of Against Love by Windsor For The Derby.

          Windsor For The Derby

          Against Love

          Secretly Canadian

            One of Secretly Canadian’s longest serving artists, Windsor For The Derby return with a record of infinite loops and drones conceived in backrooms of clubs and venues during the past two years of touring.


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            Cover of Saint Bartlett by Damien Jurado.

            Damien Jurado

            Saint Bartlett

            Secretly Canadian

              "Saint Bartlett" opens up with a grandiosity yet unheard on a Damien Jurado album. It strips away the many layers of paint from the house down the street where we know Jurado has occupied for the last decade. The new coat is exhilarating. It makes the whole neighbourhood shine. It's a modest grandiosity; still homegrown. The mellotron swells, heavenly handclaps ring in stereo and big drums create a sky for the songs to fly in. And the words. Words spring forth from within the volcano of Jurado, full of hope. There's so much hope, in fact, that album opener "Cloudy Shoes" turns into a call-and-response with himself, as though it were a dialogue between two halves of himself.

              'I wish that I could float up from the ground / I will never know what that's like'

              Heavy stuff. Richard Swift's Spector-esque production is spot-on. He ferries Jurado across the river, where the metamorphosis occurs. He then ferries him back, and it is through Swift's lens that we see Jurado not as a folk singer, but as a mystic - somewhere between Van Morrison, Scott Walker and Wayne Coyne. "Saint Bartlett" was made entirely at Swift's National Freedom studio in Oregon, in just under a week with only Jurado and Swift as the performers.

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              Early Day Miners

              The Treatment

              Secretly Canadian

                The Early Day Miners new album, "The Treatment", speaks to the powers of reinvention in more than one way. After years of building gorgeous and sprawling guitar rock epics, Early Day Miners have trimmed their sound into shorter, tighter songs with a decidedly pop edge to them. They have also slimmed their line up down from as many as eight members to the lean four-piece outfit of Dan Burton (guitar, vocals, keys), John Dawson (guitar), Marty Sprowles (drums) and Johnny 'Yuma' Richardson (bass). Even in the album's lyrics, the yearning allure of reinvention is ever present.

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                Throw Me The Statue

                Creaturesque

                Secretly Canadian

                  Originally the one-man project of multifaceted musician and songwriter Scott Reitherman, Throw Me The Statue (TMTS) has since expanded to a quartet with drummer Jarred Grimes, and multi-instrumentalists Aaron Goldman and Charlie Smith. This album is produced by TMTS and Phil Ek (The Shins, Built To Spill, Band Of Horses), and while the band retains much of the lo-fi bliss found on their critically acclaimed debut "Moonbeams", Phil Ek's mixing of "Creaturesque" brings the band's maximalist pop sensibilities to new heights. Perhaps more sonically upbeat than its predecessor, its details are at times painted in both optimistic and sobering tones. Reitherman's scattershot poetics touch on an array of ideas, it's oppressive American machisimo and suburbanite sexuality. It's soft drugs and convertible cars. It's the struggle for higher expectations within the mess of modern life, and when wrapped up in the structures of TMTS' sure-handed tunes it's an all too delicious combination.

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                  Magnolia Electric Co.

                  Josephine

                  Secretly Canadian

                    About halfway through Magnolia Electric Co.'s latest long player, "Josephine", there is a noticeable shift in weight. It's a release of some sort - the kind that comes when you give up holding back the tears. It's a heavy kind of freedom coming to the forefront, an empowering sadness. And when chief Electrician Jason Molina delivers the line 'an hour glass... filled with tears and twilight from a friend's dying day', the mood becomes clear. The band is back on its heels, yes, but they are going to fight back in the only way they know how. Molina's concept album is an honest-to-God effort on the part of Magnolia Electric Co. to pay tribute to the life and spirit of fallen bassist Evan Farrell (R.I.P. December 2007), as the ideas for "Josephine" were being pieced together. Molina said each tune is a good faith attempt to make real Evan's hopes for the record. And in doing so, Evan's spirit becomes part of the concept. The loss of "Josephine" becomes the loss of Evan. Molina's familiar lyrical allegories are still in tact. But here, in what is no doubt the strongest set of songs Molina has written since the inception of Magnolia Electric Co., those classic themes take on new meanings. Molina has approached the universal loneliness before, but never in such a focused, directed manner as found on "Josephine". Molina, Magnolia Electric Co. and legendary recording engineer Steve Albini have put it all to heart. Evan Farrell, Jason Molina and the band are on different journeys now - but maybe somehow, somewhere parallel. This is heartbreak at ten paces, to be sure.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    1. O! Grace
                    2. The Rock Of Ages
                    3. Josephine
                    4. Shenandoah
                    5. Whip Poor Will
                    6. Song For Willie
                    7. Hope Dies Last
                    8. The Handing Down
                    9. Map Of The Falling Sky
                    10. Little Sad Eyes
                    11. Heartbreak At Ten Paces
                    12. Knoxville Girl
                    13. Shiloh
                    14. An Arrow In The Gale

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                    BLK JKS

                    Mystery EP

                    Secretly Canadian

                      Childhood friends Linda and Mpumi grew up on the same block in Johannesburg's East Rand, where they taught themselves guitar. Forming a band in 2000, early BLK JKS shows and recordings were remarkable for their stacks of guitar drone and head nodding beats. It was with the addition of bassist Molefi and drummer Tshepang­both of Soweto­that BLK JKS began work with a fresh approach and plunged into its current universe of sound.

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                      Zero Boys

                      History Of

                      Secretly Canadian

                        From 79 through to 83 The Zero Boys ruled the Mid-West hardcore scene. "History Of" is the first release of their 'Lost' second album. Whilst contemporaries concentrated on aggression and turbo-charged ferocity, The Zero Boys pointed a way to a scene which could include melodicism, intelligence and rock 'n' roll suss. Craig Finn of The Hold Steady has written a feature about this band (as one of his primary influences) for The Guardian. Re-mastered from the original tapes, with liner notes by Jack Rabid.

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                        Danielson

                        Trying Hartz

                        Secretly Canadian

                          Danielson can move from the 'proto minimalist eccentric gospel', to 'prog metal dread' to 'music hall choir' to 'indie rock one man band' in one fell swoop. The vision in his music and recordings is astounding. This two CD set covers the best of the first 10 Years Of Danielson, The Danielson Family and Br. Danielson from 1994 to 2004. It contains rare live and session recordings as well as studio performances from across the years, all within a beautiful 2CD package.

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                          Richard Swift

                          Richard Swift As Onassis

                          Secretly Canadian

                            Richard Swift is one of the most critically acclaimed artists of the last few years. On this new double album he turns his hand to a completely different genre and mood: a 20 song exploration into Richard Swift's alter ego; delivering acid garage rock classics. This was recorded on down time between tours – a chance for Richard to delve into his hugely varied musical collection. Drawing on Link Wray, Howlin' Wolf, Little Richard and others, this is an album drenched in classic reverb and knee-high boogie blues.

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                            June Panic

                            Songs From Purgatory

                            Secretly Canadian

                              June Panic spent six years during the early 1990s crafting 14 lyrically disturbed and sonically self-mutilated albums that would make him the closest thing to an underground rock songwriting celebrity that the Dakotas would bear during this era otherwise obsessed with grunge. While scratching an itch for Dylan that could not be alleviated, June willed his bedroom songs into musical nuggets that find tonal residence between the hazy fog of Ween and Sebadoh, the great white isolationism of Eric's Trip, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink production style of 80s-era Prince. The material embodied on "Songs From Purgatory" was recorded in vans, dank basements and tiny apartments using crappy microphones on an even crappier 4-track machine. This body of work showcases a songwriting and producing talent that perhaps was only commercially held back by its medium - one which he initially embraced as a matter of necessity, but eventually grew to deliberately embrace with the zeal of a lo-fi revolutionary. Originally released as cassette-only albums on his own label 3 Out Of 4 Records, June's master tapes were almost destroyed in the Great Flood of 1997 that consumed Grand Forks. Over 200 master tapes sat submerged under the murky Red River water for several days in his parents' basement until saved through a painstaking cleansing process that is hilariously documented in the liner notes to this collection.

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                              David Fischoff

                              The Crawl

                              Secretly Canadian

                                Armed with a rather large arsenal of obscure samples culled from his life as well as the entire Chicago Public Library sound collection, Dave Fischoff went to work. Alone in a near downtown basement apartment (sometimes in his bedroom closet), his mind took a very long trip, delving into the under-explored territory where electronic music, hip hop, and orchestral pop meet. Taking cues from The Beach Boys and Burt Bacharach to The Postal Service and Public Enemy, Dave Fischoff has conceived, collected, cut and pasted, orchestrated and created a piece of work that is large and complex yet utterly personal and easily accessible.

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                                The Impossible Shapes

                                Tum

                                Secretly Canadian

                                  The Impossible Shapes from Indiana have electrically projected what stands as a direct and feverish summoning on the late 60s sugar-sandoz-lick of the pop-folk format. Formed in 1998 The Impossible Shapes have kept a profoundly articulate sense of classic song / dream structure whether they are billowing in drenched multi-tacked gauze like Indianapolis forefathers Zerfas or snarled in amp-buzz annihilation of power-quartet stage performances. On the flip, Barth can pixie dance from guitar play / vocal slay in a quaint yet sexually sly role of piper against Deer's counterpoint-heavy arrangements of tape-spliced antics. Like meat-pulp quicksand, they pull you deep in. "Tum" is buoyed by these three streams from the opening Bram Martin-like invocation through the scratch orchestral vision of "Twisted Sol Epoch" toward the shimmering gallop heavy "Florida Silver Springs".

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                                  Cover of What Comes After The Blues by Magnolia Electric Co.

                                  Magnolia Electric Co

                                  What Comes After The Blues

                                  Secretly Canadian

                                    THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2005

                                    On the heels of Magnolia Electric Co's recent live album on Secretly Canadian, the raw and incendiary "Trials and Errors", comes what is perhaps Jason Molina's most fully realised studio project yet. Recorded live-in-the-studio by Steve Albini, it captures the simpatico chemistry of Molina's touring band, crackling with connective electricity that can only be generated by the mutual experience of the road. On the writing end of the equation, the song cycle is a conscious step forward for Molina in songwriting approach and intent. Most of the songs were written and arranged on the band's recent relentless touring of Europe and North America. The eight songs that make up "What Comes After the Blues" are all of a piece that should be heard in one sitting, in sequence. As with other Molina projects, a spectral lyrical theme lurks in the shadows of the songs. All the songs are loosely based on the Hank Williams song "I Saw the Light".

                                    STAFF COMMENTS

                                    Darryl says: A previous Piccadilly Records album of the year back in 2005. Recorded live in the studio by Steve Albini giving a raw edge to Jason Molina's hearbreaking country-rock sound that drips in winter melancholy.

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                                    Damien Jurado

                                    On My Way To Absence

                                    Secretly Canadian

                                      Damien Jurado is a man with a hand in the baskets of all the right fringe genres. He can be the storyteller who produced the alt folk masterpiece "Rehearsals For Departure" - one of Uncut and NME's Albums Of The Year - and the sonic pioneer responsible for "Postcards And Audio Letters", a music free album of telephone conversations, answering machine messages and boom-box Christmas recordings. As a result he's won a reputation as one of America's most adventurous artists and is regarded by his musical peers as a songwriter of immense capabilities. "On My Way To Absence" is the result of Jurado and long-time collaborator Eric Fisher locking themselves away for four months of musical polarity. Described by Damien as 'a tribute to jealousy', it's a collection of songs that sound as if they've been stoked in the fires of time - and captures, in a similar manner to the best of Nick Cave and Gillian Welch, a particular primal essence in the way a tale is spun. This is his great strength as a writer - the ability to find the quick truth, the good stuff, and then to sing it from his gut.

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                                      The Impossible Shapes

                                      We Like It Wild

                                      Secretly Canadian

                                        For "We Like It Wild", their fourth proper full-length, the band ventured to the wooded Indiana hills of Monroe County. With alternating lead guitars, the band recalls the urban paranoia of Television and the forlorn southern gothic of Derek & The Dominoes with Barth's fey Donovan-esque voice sounding as though it's coming from across the Atlantic. All the while they maintain the urgent bounce of early REM.

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                                        Danielson Famile

                                        A Prayer For Every Hour

                                        Secretly Canadian

                                          Reissue of the debut album from these New Jersey oddballs. Deeply rooted in American folk and gospel music, the Famile offers a twisted hybrid of early Talking Heads, Carter Family, Half Japanese and the Shaggs.

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                                          Racebannon

                                          Satan's Kickin Yr Dick In

                                          Secretly Canadian

                                            Racebannon craft a sordid tale of woe, depression, excitement, accolade, fear, rise, fall, alpha and omega through a five part aural aria of the pleasures and pain of the rock'n'roll lifestyle. Tracks often go from a funeral dirge to defiant and pompous to a spaced out overdose. One for fans of The Melvins, Icarus Line and Jesus Lizard.

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                                            Swearing At Motorists

                                            Along The Inclined Plane

                                            Secretly Canadian

                                              Fantastic mellow mini album from this band who've been compared with Buffalo Springfield through to Richard Hell, Alex Chilton and The Replacements.

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