New Canadian Music

It’s not strictly CanCon, but hearing Chilly Gonzales discuss his contributions to the new Daft Punk record, Random Access Memories, he gets us psyched for that album’s May 21 release. In this installment of the Intel/Vice webseries "The Collaborators", the piano man explains his role as a chord-builder and melody maker, and his role in bridging old world classicism with futuristic electronica, and his earlier involvement as collaborator with Feist and Drake. When the A-list asks you personally to fulfill a specific musical role, how can you decline?

Exclaim! TV has just posted a wonderful rooftop performance by Toronto "art-country" folkies Beams, whose back-to-basics musical style includes a banjo, a mandolin, lap steel guitar and – ready for it? – a springy metal saw played with a violin bow. The group's vocal duties are deftly handled by Anna Mernieks and Heather Mazhar, whose intertwined harmonizing recalls Heart's Wilson sisters at their best.  "Just Rivers" is streaming now on Bandcamp.

Jim Guthrie's eagerly-awaited "Takes Time" is finally out this week and with it comes a polar-themed promo video for "Bring on the Night", one of the album's best crafted songs. Set against a frigid backdrop of fireworks and flares, falling snow and ice breaking boats, Gutherie's spare finger-picking guitar style and falsetto strains immediately grab you, and by the time Nicholas Buligan's trumpet solo rises up in the middle of the track you're well and truly hooked. More on this outstanding release from Noah Siegel.