New albums worth your ears this week
La Sécurité returns with post-punk fun, Boards of Canada offers dark meditation, and local jazz finds new voices.
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Four albums worth spinning this week across post-punk, experimental, and jazz.
La Sécurité's "Bingo!" is the supergroup of Montreal's underground, bringing together adventurous composer Laurence-Anne and the fantastical Félix Bélisle of Choses Sauvages. Where much modern post-punk leans into anger or melancholy, La Sécurité keeps the bouncing guitars and clever refrains while insisting the dance floor is a space of permission and subversion. The album switches between English and French, but really speaks only one language: fun. It's a language that translates.
Boards of Canada's "Inferno" is their first album since 2013—a 70-minute journey through mystery and dread. The Scottish duo crafts something mystique and occulting, with samples of robotic voices and brief incursions into oriental sonorities. It's the sound of a warming Earth groaning under endless wars. The standouts are "Naraka" and "The Word Becomes Flesh," but the album demands to be heard end-to-end for full effect. "Inferno" is the soundtrack to the end of the world—not the others, but us all.
Alexis Martin Ensemble's "Les pôles Volume 1" showcases the work of a drummer and percussionist who has been essential but quiet in Montreal's musical ecosystem for over 30 years. Martin brought together a solid noyau of musicians for an instrumental album that is manifestly jazz but expands into ambient and experimental territory. Each track carries the colour and narration of a short film, bearing the piano or brass. It's a controlled first album—unsurprising from someone with Martin's pedigree—and the good news is a Volume 2 is already announced.
Navy Blue's "Sir Render," narrated by James Earl Jones, is the California skateboarder-turned-rapper's most achieved work. He meditates on the quest for happiness while accepting life's perpetual setbacks. The beats are mostly percussion-free, which lets the thoughtful, measured delivery of Navy Blue's reflections on grief and resilience take centre stage. It's a record about endurance.