BLOWIN' INDIE WIND

Author: RICHARD LAWLESS

Oh, Canada, where would critically acclaimed music be without you? There would be no Arcade Fire, no Godspeed You Black Emperor, no New Pornographers and no Cowboy Junkies. And most importantly of all, there would be no Leonard Cohen or Neil Young. Yes, Canada, that mysterious country to the north of us, has produced some of the greatest artists - both mainstream and indie - in the musical canon. In fact, there has been a Canadian renaissance of sorts in the past few years, with an increasingly large number of high-profile Canadian artists, such as the Junior Boys and A.C. Newman, topping college radio playlists and dominating MTV2.

One of Canada's finest ensembles in recent years is the enormous collective known as the Broken Social Scene. Although they seem to be adding new members every week, the last time I checked they had between 10 and 15 musicians culled from some of Toronto's finest musical acts. None of these acts by themselves have gained the critical or commercial success that the Broken Social Scene collective has achieved, which just goes to show you that, when in doubt, add more band members. If you had to find the nucleus of the group, I would say it lies somewhere in between formed By Divine Right members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Their first album as a duo - with a revolving cast of guest musicians from the Toronto area - "Feel Good Lost" was decent enough, but their breakthrough came with 2002's "You Forgot It In People," when the group quintupled in size, adding members from post-rockers Do Make Say Think and Metric, as well as former By Divine Right guitarist Leslie Feist.

The intriguing thing about Broken Social Scene is that, even with such a large amount of musicians, the songs aren't overloaded with 11 musicians playing at once. Rather, the group only uses a handful of musicians per track, rotating around masterminds Drew and Canning. That the resulting album sounds so fluid is a testament to the sheer talent put forth by each member of the collective. "You Forgot It In People" is bombastic for sure, but it's still a rock album that carefully avoids pretentiousness by keeping its tracks tight, lean and mercurial. After opening with two minutes of ambient droning keyboards, the album's second track, "K.C. Accidental," explodes into life with clattering, over-amplified drums that alternate between a chugging beat and a clamorous breakdown with soaring guitars. As the music swells to a noisy peak, Drew's vocals enter into the equation, though the words are admittedly hard to pick out and too repetitious to really be paid close attention to.

Most songs on "You Forgot It In People" eschew typical pop song structure, sounding more like one giant, elaborate verse than the rudimentary verse-chorus-verse style. On "Shampoo Suicide" a chorus of background voices croon dreamily over a soothing, lazy drumbeat. More and more instruments join the mix as the track escalates into a mess of voices set against the heavily amplified, beautiful vocals and ambient keyboards. It's like being in the middle of a crowded room, bombarded by voices, as a euphoric calmness comes over you that almost drowns out any sound at all.

"Shampoo Suicide" leads right into another stunning ballad, the six-and-a-half-minute opus "Lover's Spit." Featuring some of the most coherent lyrics on the album, Drew sings "All these people drinking lover's spit / They sit around and clean their face with it." Gross. But the song itself provides an interesting (and welcome) juxtaposition to Drew's disgusting lyrics with its tranquil beauty, with waves of guitars and ambient keyboards gently looping the lovely melody.

Though Drew's lyrics are perhaps a little too graphic at times (he also sings about drinking urine and blowjobs), most people wouldn't even notice as they bask in the gentle layers of guitars, keyboards and strings that comprise the album's soothing second half. With three albums planned for release in the next 12 months, Broken Social Scene are about to make their presence a whole lot more known in the States, but "You Forgot It In People" is a wonderful introduction to a spectacular ensemble, and most likely the beginning of a long and fruitful musical career.