Articles
2010 Ten Favourite Labels
Liam Singer

Albums
Akabu
Amorph
Keith Canisius
Carinthia
Cursor Miner
Dark Party
dOP
Evon
Ex-Wise Heads
Forever Delayed
The Fun Years
Dirk Geiger
The Green Kingdom
Chihei Hatakeyama
Hessien
Robin Holcomb
The Inventors of Aircraft
Peter Jørgensen
Loveliescrushing
My Dry Wet Mess
Silje Nes
Ontayso
Piiptsjilling
Pleq
Radioseed
relapxych.0
Sharp & Whetham
Liam Singer
Erik K Skodvin
Sarah Kirkland Snider
Squares On Both Sides
Strië
Sutekh
David Sylvian
Taiga II
Francesco Tristano
RJ Valeo
Victoire
Wreaths
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Buzz.RO! 2010
Crónica L
Timo Maas
Movement Torino Festival
Sebastian Mullaert

EPs
Dday One / Glen Porter
Depth Affect
Enabl.ed
The Gentleman Losers
Gulls
Mimosa
Piece of Shh…
Shufflepunk
Teebs & Jackhigh
Telekaster
thisquietarmy + yellow6
Tom White

Keith Canisius: This Time It's Our High
Darla

Keith Canisius serves up a wondrous sugar rush of sound on his third full-length release This Time It's Our High. On the fifty-minute recording, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-born and Copenhagen, Denmark resident (also known as the guitarist-vocalist-songwriter who teamed up with singer Tine Louise in the Rumskib project) presents nine masterful firestorms supercharged with shiny vocal harmonies, electric guitars, synthesizers, and drums; the album is performed entirely by Canisius except for violin contributions by Signe Ane Anderson—though her playing is only truly audible during the closing moments of “Gentle Guys” after all of the other instruments have fallen away. Informed by a fine-tuned pop sensibility, Canisius's delirious swirl of vocal melodies and instruments is wall-of-sound loud, for sure, but also free of abrasion. While there are undeniable elements of shoegaze, psychedelia, and dreampop present, Canisius's material ends up drawing from all such styles without professing allegiance to one over another. Still, My Bloody Valentine and M83 are obvious reference points but—to Canisius's credit—they're not entirely off the mark either. The blaze of interweaving melodies that courses through “Kill Your Systems for Earth” creates an effect that's as surreal as it is Dionysian, and in a perfect world, the loping “The Beach House” would be tearing its way up the singles chart at this moment, effortlessly elbowing aside its lame competition. The tempo might be slowed down for the title song, but “This Time It's Our High” ends up being as dizzying as any of the other eight songs, especially when the electric guitars swell into an inferno at the song's halfway mark. Though it hardly needs be said: for best results, play This Time It's Our High at maximum volume.

November 2010