New music

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/01/2025 (629 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROCK

Richard Duguay and the Beautiful Decline

Second Prize (Rum Bar)

For music fans of a certain age, life can seem to be a never-ending parade of sad social media posts and bittersweet celebrations of lights gone out too soon – so it’s always heartening to hear from those who still carry the flame.

Former Winnipegger Richard Duguay is one such torch-bearer, an unabashed guitar rocker who has, without much fanfare, created a solid stream of authentic, fevered releases over the past 15 years or so.

The last two projects from the former Personality Crisis guitarist were the album-length concepts Bad Juju (2019) and Beautiful Decline (2023), both of which hearkened back to the beloved influences of Duguay’s youth, such as early Alice Cooper or the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and contained songs which grew to epic scale.

Second Prize, released in August, is a leaner, meaner beast — a churning, five-song EP that invokes images of black-clad heathens with spiky haircuts going hell-bent for leather on sweaty club stages in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

It offers up 19 short, sharp, shocking minutes of riff-rocking tales of beautiful losers and life on the edge, replete with duelling lead guitars, sing-along choruses, revving rhythms and the kind of bring-it-down, build-it-back-up dynamics that both ease and build each song’s internal tension.

Duguay and his Los Angeles band will perform at the Pyramid Cabaret on Jan. 17 (tickets at showpass.ca), and your best bet for finding Second Prize is on Bandcamp.

★★★★ out of five

Stream these: Running Alone, Guaranteed OD.

— John Kendle

EXPERIMENTAL

Ethel Cain

Perverts (Daughters of Cain)

Just a week into 2025, Ethel Cain has released a unique and challenging album.

Perverts, the second release by the gloomy Americana artist Hayden Anhedönia, who performs as Ethel Cain, deploys post-industrial noise, glacial tempos, layered reverb and ritualistic incantations through darkly angelic vocals in a jarring exploration of self-gratification and self-loathing.

The artist’s first release, 2022’s Preacher’s Daughter, blended folk, goth and ambient elements. Cain’s ethereal vocals spun a story of violence, trauma and Southern-Baptist confession. Perverts is the second instalment of a planned trilogy and tells a postmodern horror story through its formidable sound — aggressively experimental, featuring poetry-slam style exposition, long periods of droning and empty air.

The title track opens the album with a warbly recording of Nearer, My God, to Thee. Nearly 40 seconds of dead air follow before Cain speaks and repeats the line, “Heaven has forsaken the masturbator.” Reverberations intensify throughout.

The metallic Punish, which follows, is one of the more accessible songs. A simple four-chord piano progression runs the duration. Cain delivers the lyrics “I am punished by love,” in ghostly, lullaby vocals as a grinding electric guitar engulfs the piano and vocals.

Perverts is bound to alienate some, but as an artistic statement of uncompromising experimentation, its legacy may be to expand ideas of musical boundaries.

★★★1/2 out of five

Stream: Punish

— Jim Pollock, The Associated Press

JAZZ

Tarbaby

You Think This America (Giant Step Arts)

The band Tarbaby has released five albums over the years, with this one being the first live session. The trio is Orrin Evans on piano, Eric Revis on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums. The band name is important. Tarbaby is a character in the 1881 book Uncle Remus. This is serious music by serious musicians.

The music has a wide range with original tunes and several very neat covers. “Serious” doesn’t mean remote or non-accessible. There is an uncanny interaction that pervades the improvisational linkages and interpretations of each member and is delightful.

Power and confidence underlie every track. The Stylistics’ Betcha By Golly Wow becomes a haunting ballad while Ornette Coleman’s Dee Dee is a jaunty dissonant tribute that serves as a great opening track. Tunes such as David Murray’s Mirror Of Youth apparently moved through several collective efforts before a groove developed that led to a different and terrific result. That element of collective discovery adds a totally enjoyable experience for the listener. Blues (When It Comes) is an up-tempo track that simply flies.

Piano trios are a staple of the jazz world. It is amazing and wonderful that within that reality the variety seems endless. This album has egalitarian energy and involvement through very modern riffs that are most rewarding.

The label Giant Step Arts is an artist focused, non-profit organization set up to allow expression to innovative contemporary artists. I thank them for Tarbaby.

★★★★1/2 out of five

Stream: Blues (When It Comes); Dee Dee

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

The Curious Bards

Sublimation: Songs and Dances from 18th-Century Scandinavia (Harmonia Mundi)

The Curious Bards celebrate the songs and dances from 18th century Scandinavia in this infectiously joyful release.

Led by founding member Alix Boivert (violin and hardingfele), the ensemble comprised of Colin Heller (violin and kontrabasharpa), Jean-Christophe Morel (cittern) and Sarah Van Oudenhove (viola da gamba), alongside mezzo-soprano Ilektra Platiopoulou, treats listeners to a smorgasbord of 19 works performed on instruments specific to Norwegian and Swedish culture.

The group is known for eschewing any perceived, artificial distinctions between “art” and “folk” music; their latest offering infused with appealing freshness while capturing the folkloric charm of Scandinavian tradition.

Highlights abound, including Pollonese, No. 74 and (relatively) more sedate Polonesse, immediately setting the tone for what’s to follow while establishing the album’s emotional range. It’s practically impossible not to leap out of your chair hearing several of the effervescent dances, including Madame Trifes Liri e Dans, a harder-driving Neckden (The Merman) or lighter fare, Springedans (Springdans) as well as the simply titled Vals.

However the album’s most compelling track — and its oldest piece — is medieval Norwegian song Signe Lita about the sinking of the ship Little Signe. As Oudenhove laments the fate of the ancient vessel, her a cappella voice rises and falls like ocean tides; her performance truly haunting as she brings her tragic tale to life.

★★★★1/2 out of five

STREAM THIS/THESE: Signe Lita; Pollonese, No. 74; Springedans

— Holly Harris