★We Are Busy Bodies
The Birds of Marsville
The Birds of Marsville, the seventeenth album from Friendly Rich, is a whimsical and experimental sound guide to 76 imaginary birds inhabiting the fictional island of Marsville. Featuring orchestrion, chamber ensemble, and a playful mix of genres, the work brings together carnivalesque sonorities, witty narratives, and a centuries-spanning tradition of birdsong composition.
Suns of the Heart
Suns of the Heart, the sixth solo album from Colin Fisher, unfurls a suite of intricate, emotionally charged improvisations that blend treated guitar, elemental electronics, and gestural samples. Across six movements, Fisher crafts an enveloping soundworld where each texture pulses with meditative warmth and restless sonic curiosity.
Mirante
Mirante, the ninth album by Nick Storring, is an impressionistic, multi-instrumental homage to Brazil. Across seven movement-rich tracks, Storring weaves liquid ambient textures, intricate rhythms, and a panoply of both Brazilian and experimental influences, forging an album that balances celebratory groove and lush introspection.
Universal Synthesizer Interface Volume Three
Universal Synthesizer Interface Vol III by Kristen Roos explores analog synthesizer landscapes with intricate sequencer programming and expansive rhythmic patterns. Released by We Are Busy Bodies, the album’s six tracks build lush, propulsive electronic architectures—melding modular arpeggios, pulsing bass, and shimmering effects into a hypnotic and meticulously detailed journey.
Synthetic - A Synth Odyssey: Season 4
Synthetic: Season 4, the final installment in Rich Aucoin’s quadruple-album saga, is a landmark in ambitious electronic artistry. Recorded over five years and utilizing 103 vintage and rare synthesizers—including the Buchla Electric Music Box and Ondes Martenot—the album traverses cinematic ambient, analog-driven techno, and experimental pop across fifteen intricately crafted tracks.
Synthetic - A Synth Odyssey: Season 3
Synthetic: Season 3 by Rich Aucoin continues the Canadian artist’s ambitious four-part electronic saga, zeroing in on dance and rave music influences with vintage synthesizer textures. Recorded across multiple studios between 2020 and 2024, the album features ten energetic tracks—a journey through nostalgic sounds, analog warmth, and kinetic club reverie.
Holy to Dogs
Holy to Dogs, the newest album from The MIDI Janitor, is a haunted, downtempo odyssey of outsider electronics and dusty, dreamlike beats. Vancouver’s Jonathan Orr repurposes scavenged MIDI controllers and obsolete synths, producing spectral melodies, melancholy textures, and a pulsating DIY spirit that veers between ambient, hauntology, and rusted techno.
Horizoning
Horizoning, the sole album from Stefan Gnys, emerges as a deeply atmospheric and personal artifact of 1969, where raw, introspective songwriting meets lo-fi folk production. Long considered a Hamilton cult rarity, the reissue preserves Gnys’s solitary voice and sensitive arrangements—acoustic guitar, subdued backing, and confessional lyrics—making each note resonate with fragile honesty.
Electric Taal Band
Electric Taal Band, the eponymous debut from Electric Taal Band, is a vibrant Toronto project that forges unexpected connections between Punjabi percussion, cosmic jazz, and modern electronics. Channeling inspirations from Little India crate-digging to club experiments, the record traverses rhythms and textures with a fearless, exploratory spirit.
Beach of the Pliocene
Beach of the Pliocene, a sought-after release by Ken-ichiro Isoda, epitomizes Japanese ambient’s capacity to conjure landscape and memory. The album blends flute, guitar and environmental sounds in a meditative journey that merges gently melodic lines with the resonance of the ocean, functioning equally as a balm for modern anxieties and a portal for contemplative listening.
The Tinnitus Chorus
The Tinnitus Chorus, a new album from Michael Scott Dawson, is a collaborative ambient project reflecting on his personal experience with tinnitus. Joining forces with an eclectic cast from the worlds of experimental folk, jazz, and electronics, Dawson weaves tape loops, gentle melodies, and field recordings into a quietly unified journey through sound and vulnerability.
Allen's Soul Bag
Allen’s Soul Bag is a standout reissue from Allen Kwela Octet, capturing the spirit and sophistication of South African jazz in the early 1970s. The album, newly remastered from vinyl and pressed in a limited run, offers emotive ensemble playing and rich melodic invention, showcasing Kwela’s expressive guitar against vibrant horns, piano, and rhythm section.
Everything Is Possible
Everything Is Possible, the third album from Peace Flag Ensemble, pushes the boundaries of jazz improvisation and ambient experimentation. Led by Jon Neher’s lyrical piano and complemented by subtle electronic flourishes from Michael Scott Dawson, the group’s ensemble dialogue traverses gentle melodic passages and unexpected textural turns, resulting in a collection that is both introspective and quietly assertive.
Orbital
Orbital is the debut album from Orbital Ensemble, a Toronto-based jazz fusion group melding psychedelic grooves, Brazilian MPB influences, and intricate improvisation. The resulting LP weaves together melodic openness, vintage moods, and crisp ensemble playing, offering an immersive sonic experience that feels both exploratory and deeply rooted.
Tract: A Composition of Agitprop Music for Electromagnetic Tape
"A Composition of Agitprop Music for Electromagnetic Tape" by İlhan Mimaroğlu is a collage of political sound art blending revolutionary texts, manipulated electronics, and the vocal performance of Tülay German. Recorded from 1972–74, it transforms agitprop tradition into a radical meditation on freedom and dissent.
Yorkston / Jaycock / Langendorf
Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist James Yorkston, English guitarist David A. Jaycock, and Swedish saxophonist Lina Langendorf unite in a collaborative album that seamlessly weaves together elements of folk, jazz, and atmospheric soundscapes. This project, born from longstanding friendships and mutual musical admiration, offers a richly textured journey—both intimate and expansive. The album's genesis lies in Yorkston's enduring partnership with Jaycock, dating back to their co…
Alex Express
Hailing from Cape Town, tenor saxophonist Winston Mankunku Ngozi (1943-2009) is a venerated figure in the pantheon of South African jazz. Inspired by Coltrane while rooted in indigenous folklore, he released the classic album Yakhal’ Inkomo at the outset of his career with the Mankunku Quartet in 1969. Backed by the Cliffs, Alex Express documents Mankunku’s return to the studio in 1975 with a handful of new and original compositions and his inimitable tone on full display. Shaking off the burden…
The Peacemaker
Hailing from Alexandra and nicknamed "Ratau" (meaning "lion"), saxophonist Mike Makhalemele (1938-2000) was a force of nature with a robust yet soulful tone and seemingly endless breath. He embraced the pop music scene as an enthusiastic collaborator and staked his territory at the intersection of township grooves with modern currents in soul, funk and disco. As a solo artist, he delivered a formidable run of albums in the 1970s that that made him the most prolific recording artist in South Afri…
The Bull And The Lion
Bringing together Johannesburg’s two saxophone titans for a supergroup recording project was a visionary move by Jo’Burg Records in 1976. Following the success of Makhalemele’s debut The Peacemaker and Mankunku’s long-awaited sophomore release Alex Express, which both appeared in 1975, the bar had been set very high. Enamoured by their jazz contemporaries, the session was concocted by members of an exciting new South African rock group called Rabbit, who formed a backing group consisting of guit…
Littlefolk
Mount Maxwell returns with another full-length journey into memory, melody, and geography - this time roaming beyond the BC environs of his previous records into a stranger, less knowable country. While still woozily nostalgic in the vein of Only Children and The People’s Forest, this outing feels more exploratory and wide ranging in scope, with a denser mixture of influences at play.
The somnambulistic drift of Sea of Milk sets the stage with a series of wavering synth pulses that push us langu…