Dog Day Fade Out | Fundog Nancy Urich and Seth Smith, a duo from Halifax, bring a much darker atmosphere to their new album Fade Out compared to their three previous albums. There’s a Joy Divison and Sonic Youth influence to the alternative rock sound of their music. The opening track “Blackened” really sums up what this …
M.I.A. Matangi | Interscope M.I.A.’s fourth album Matangi delivers the distinct style and socially aware music we expect from her. Compared to her previous albums, Matangi keeps you interested with its broad variation of electronic beats and samples. Although this album is short, each song and skit keeps you intrigued. One of the strongest tracks is …
Girl on fire kicks ass Catching Fire is the second instalment in The Hunger Games saga featuring political strife, gruesome violence, and heroic rebellion all set to a futuristic totalitarian regime. Unlike most Hollywood sequels, Catching Fire is bigger and better than its predecessor without shoving flashy CGI or contrived punch lines at its viewers. The …
Crusades Perhaps You Deliver This Judgment With Greater Fear Than I Receive It | No Idea It was heartbreaking when two of Ottawa’s best local bands, sludge metal titans Buried Inside and poppy punk rockers Year Zero, bit the dust. While the city’s punk scene has moved on, so have Buried Inside guitarist and CHUO program director Emmanuel Sayer and Year Zero singer and guitarist Dave Williams, …
We like music. You like music. Let’s like music together. Arcade Fire Reflektor | Merge Records In 2004, Arcade Fire released Funeral, an album with a mix of guitar-driven rock and symphonic orchestrations that laid the groundwork for modern indie rock. By the time 2010’s The Suburbs hit the shelves, the band was topping charts and selling …
Romantic comedy delivers love without melodrama About Time stars Rachel McAdams in yet another time-travelling romance. Unlike The Time-Traveler’s Wife, this film brings a semblance of charisma to what could otherwise be a tired storyline. This is a credit to director Richard Curtis. The Oscar-winning writer and director is known for his romantic gems …
U of O adaptation of Princess T provokes thought on politics and human nature Photos by Annie Thomas Princess Turandot, though a puppet, is thoroughly human. From Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, the University of Ottawa Drama Guild will perform Princess T in Academic Hall at 8 p.m. Written by contemporary Czech playwright Daniela Fischerová, the …
UZU Yamantaka//Sonic Titan | Paper Bag Records Following up on their Polaris Music Prize shortlisted debut album YT//ST, Yamantaka//Sonic Titan return with their highly anticipated sophomore effort UZU. UZU is better described as an event rather than an album and it’s almost impossible to stop listening once it starts playing. The songs bleed together like a cohesive storyline …
The Spectral Engine Ray Fawkes | McClelland & Stewart “There are two histories. One is spoken and written, seen in the light of day, and known. One is forgotten. It travels without a sound.” So opens The Spectral Engine, a new graphic novel written and illustrated by Ray Fawkes. He writes the forgotten history of Canada, occulted and …
Drake asks Would You Like a Tour? on his most recent outing, and fans should answer with a resounding “yes.”
New Romeo and Juliet adaptation doesn’t bring anything new William Shakespeare is revisited, yet again, in another play-to-screen adaptation. Recounting the epic tale of the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet is taken on by Italian director Carlo Carlei and writer Julian Fellowes, of Downton Abbey fame, for a 21st century remake. While the film does elegantly depict …
We like music. You like music. Let’s like music together.
We like music. You like music. Let’s like music together. Andria Simone Good Lovin’ | Artist-tree Music Group Andria Simone’s style is perhaps not from our time, but the soul in her voice mixed with the R&B tones of her music is made for our generation. Obvious comparisons have been made between Simone and other soul singers …
We like music. You like music. Let’s like music together. Shad Flying Colours | Black Box One can undertake a lot of self-reflection in three years, the timespan between TSOL, Shad’s 2011 Juno-winning album, and his latest, Flying Colours. The album is a complex take on the meaning of success and …
Premieres Sept. 27 Don Jon tastefully covers the issue of porn addiction. The movie has a great plot with pristine symbolism and camera work. The script was a little dry, as is often the case when one of the main actors—in this case Joseph Gordon-Levitt—writes the script. The ending also seemed abrupt but did …
We like music. You like music. Let’s like music together.
Vampire Weekend get their groove on at FolkFest Photo courtesy of Rebecca Potter WHEN I VENTURED out to the Ottawa Folk Festival for Vampire Weekend’s Sept. 5 show, I owned 12 of their songs. As I write this just 15 hours later I own every song they’ve ever released. You could say they made an …
Though the beginning of the show was promising and his insights on the corruption of a capitalist society rang true to me, as the show progressed, he dove further and further into a pool of cheap, predictable sex jokes.
Fans wait over nine hours for Osheaga Festival Max Szyc | Fulcrum Contributor Photo by Charleena Fan MONTREAL’S ANNUAL OSHEAGA festival typically attracts festival-goers of all ages thanks to its eclectic lineups. This summer was no exception, as ‘80s electro-pop veterans New Order played back-to-back with modern folk-rock sensations Mumford and Sons at the festival’s …
Five albums to groove, chill, and definitely not study to this summer Max Szyc | Fulcrum Contributor The Knife Shaking the Habitual | Mute Records Sweden’s The Knife joins a wave of artists like David Bowie and Daft Punk who made long-awaited returns in 2013 after lengthy periods of (mostly) silence. While it was …
Fulcrum critics take on a comic book and a graphic novel for those who know there’s no shame in reading books with pictures.
101 Letters to a Prime Minister: The Complete Letters to Stephen Harper Yann Martel | Vintage Canada 4 / 5 YANN MARTEL, THE author of Life of Pi, released another book in 2012 that was a polar opposite of his previous novel. 101 Letters to a Prime Minister is a non-fiction work that features the …
Fulcrum movie critics review Admission and Oz the Great and Powerful.
The Fulcrum hosts its first set of book reviews this year at last!
The PepTides Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe | Self-released 4 / 5 REVENGE OF THE Vinyl Cafe, from Ottawa’s own nine-piece outfit The PepTides, is an unusual album. What’s important to realize is that it isn’t really an album; it’s a soundtrack, written and recorded to coincide with each short story in Stuart McLean’s book …
