Download: Oh! Canada 22

We wanted to kick 2013 off with a bumper Oh! Canada compilation for your listening pleasure. Oh! Canada 22 features tracks we have loved over the last few months of 2012. Throughout the year we will be bringing you more exciting discoveries, emerging artists and new work from long time favourites. We hope it will help you to discover some of your own favourites for 2013.

As ever a huge thanks to all who made it possible. We hope you enjoy the tracks. Stream and download the compilation via the Soundcloud player below. Underneath that, you can find out a little more about each artist by clicking on the song title.

Click to download Oh! Canada 22

Steve Fiset – Rapelle-Toi Seigneur
The compilation starts off with this choice cut from Résurrection!: Rock chrétien et messes rythmées du Québec (1964-1978), a frankly remarkable document of Christian Rock from Quebec in the late 60’s and Early 70s…complete with hammond organ, driving hammond and wailing guitar solos.

Freelove Fenner – Pineapple Hair
Having contributed to our Ho Ho Ho Canada 4, we thought it only proper we should introduce you to Montreal’s Freelove Fenner. This is the title track from their latest EP, and follows on from 2009s In the Bottle Garden.

Roberta Bondar -Pleather Bed
Straight out of the Studio and in to your ears- this track from Ottawa’s Roberta Bondar carries on where their self-titled record left off earlier this year. Simultaneously fragmented, spacious and snarling we look forward to more from them in 2013

Freak Heat Waves – Correction
Victoria’s Freak Heat Waves recently released self titled record touches on post-punk, krautrock and surf twang and chiming arpeggios over the course of its 9 tracks, which were produced by the late Christopher Reimer

Monogrenade – M’en Aller (Remix)
Montreal’s Monogrenade get a rather slinky remix for M’en Aller from their Tantale album

Radio Radio – Gong Hotel
Those sharp dressing Acadian’s returned in 2012 with a jazzy dancefloor adventure featuring their trademark Chiac-English-French flows, taken from their Havre De Grace Album

A Tribe Called Red – Electric PowWow Drum
Ottawa’s DJ Crew A Tribe Called Red earned themselves a Polaris longlist nomination last year for Electric PowWow (which is available for free from the link above) which finds them fusing traditional PowWow samples and drumming with electronic beats, squelches and heavy heavy synths. Political, passionate and powerful.

Technical Kidman- Things
Technical Kidman’s self titled EP may be two years old, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth sharing. And when we heard the swirling energy of Things we knew we had to share it. The band just played Iceland Airwaves, so hopefully some new material will be on its way soon.

Indian Handcrafts – Bruce Lee
Riffs. More Riffs. A few more Riffs. Zombies. More Riffs. That the noise made on their album Civil Disobedience For Losers was made by just two people is surprising. That the guitarist had a broken hand while recording it makes it all the more surprising. And AWESOME.

Mardi Noir – Coeurs De Ciment
Mardi Noir is the new project from former Les Psycho Riders Max Villeneuve and Nicolas “Nicotine” Bednarz. A new beginning for the long time collaborators has produced this headlong charge of a track taken from debut album Le Grand Réveil.

Slam Dunk - I Can’t Stand It
Victoria’s Slam Dunk follow up their excellent debut with another album rammed with classic Rock N’ Soul swagger. Horns? Yup. Gang Vocals? You got it.

English Words – Bumblebees
Hailing from Prince Edward Island, English Words released their debut Red Potion last year, fusing synth pop and new wave with catchy, dancable hooks.

Tusks – In The Beginning / Give It Time
Tusks latest ‘Total Entertainment’ is half an hour of sweet harmonies, jangling guitars, dry humour and finely crafted, complex pop songs.

The Zolas – Knot In My Heart
Vancouver’s The Zolas made a welcome return in December with sophomore album Ancient Mars. If the bouncing Knot In My Heart is anything to go by we should be in for a treat.

Luke Lalonde – Undone
Falsetto, shuffling beats and electro washes populate Undone’s melancholy R&B electro pop, taken from the debut solo record by Born Ruffian’s frontman

Ladyhawk – No Can Do
After far, far too long away, Vancouver’s Ladyhawk return with a follow up to 2008’s Shots. This jangling power-pop masterclass with its spiralling lead line is the album’s title track. Its great to have them back.

Marie Pierre Arthur – Chacun Pour Toi
Marie Pierre Arthurs Aux Alentours was longlisted for last years Polaris Prize, and deservedly so. It’s a big sounding record, full of textures, from this tracks polished-pop sound, to Beatles-esque sing-alongs and introspective Chanson.

Joshua Van Tassel – Sneaky Beard
Released on the new Backward Music imprint based out of Halifax, NS, This track finds Van Tassel, who has acted as side man to the likes of Doug Paisley and Justin Rutledge amongst others, showcasing his subtle blend of electronics, strings and delicately picked guitar

Jenn Grant – I’ve Got Your Fire
High calibre folk-pop from one from one of Nova Scotia’s finest. We are always keen to see what she will turn her hand to next, be it mornful covers of Eye of the Tiger, producing elaborate dance routines or collaborating with fellow East Coasters including Rose Cousins and Old Man Luedeke as she does on new album The Beautiful Wild.

His Clancyness – I Can’t Talk About It
Jonathan Clancy was born in Ottawa and split his childhood between Canada and Italy, where he now resides. I Can’t Talk About It finds him taking on El Perro Del Mar’s I Can’t Talk About It. His Clanyness’ has just completed recording his first studio album, the follow up to his ‘Almost Mist’ bedroom tape release.

Woodpigeon - Mandobird (For Foon)
Having just returned home following a US tour with Patrick Wolf, and an appearance at End of the Road’s Christmas Party, Woodpigeon present a track from their tour only “Diamonds” album.

Old Man Luedecke – Tortoise and the Hare
Direct from the Banjo Underground- one of the East Coast’s finest pickers and storytellers, headed to Nashville to record his latest “Tender is the Night’, where he joined forces with some of that city’s finest bluegrass players to work with a band for the first time.

Whitehorse – Devil’s Got A Gun
The husband and wife duo of Luke Doucett and Melissa McLelland return for a second collaborative album as Whitehorse, Doucett bringing the twang and the grit, while McLelland brings out the sweetness in the melodies here. The album, The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss even contains a track recorded with Edmonton’s Shout Out Out Out Out.

Amelia Curran – Blackbird On Fire
We first got enchanted by the purity of Curran’s voice when we saw her play Dawson City Music Festival last year. New album Spectators builds further on 2009’s JUNO award winning Hunter, Hunter, subtle arrangements surrounding and embellishing her finely told tales.

Paper Lions – Ghostwriters
These Prince Edward Islanders released the At Long Creek EP as a free download ahead of their upcoming album. This track sees them breaking out the acoustic guitars and pretty harmonies.

Brasstronaut- Revelstoke Dam
Named after a huge power generating dam, our own Andy Johnson described this as flute driven “rumbling quasi-medievalism”. And boy do we like the sound of THAT.

Tom Fun Orchestra – Sympathetic Wolf
Cape Breton’s Tom Fun Orchestra follow up 2008s energetic debut with Ear Worms, which finds the band fine-tuning their sound, creating leaner, tougher tracks. Sympathetic Wolf crunches, crashes and growls in all the right places, and we can never resist a good wordless choir breakdown.