Nick-e 
Who: Nick-e
What: sultry stuff
Where: Newmarket, ON
To Contact: www.nickeonline.com.

In the "thank you" section of her debut EP, Mosaic, Toronto soul singer Nick-e declares, "Wow! It's finally here. It's been a four-year labour of love, hate and all that good stuff rolled into one." So what did she roll in this six-song collection recorded mostly at Toronto's Kitchen Sync Digital Audio? Well, the first two songs are simply sultry. The title track, which is reminiscent of a less jazzy Sade, features piano and cello, then "It Feels Good" puts some snap (quite literally) into the smooth vibe. One can tell Nick-e, whose real name is Nicole Pratt, can sing - she's been doing it since the age of three - but one really wants her to bust out and show that she can roar. Instead, the next song, "Numb", is totally leftfield, a menacing, mostly programmed track on which she delivers a trip-of-the-tongue vocal. Then, she gets jazzy on "I Say" and "If You Were Here" - employing real instruments such as horns, congas, and upright bass before -ending with the moody electronic-based "Turn Me Around". Nick-e, who won the Mark Caporal Songwriting Award and Great Big Music Studio's best vocal performance award while studying recorded music production at London, ON's Fanshawe College, produced the EP herself.

Alysha Brooke
Who: Alysha Brooke
What: country bumpkin
Where: Rockwood, ON
To Contact: Cedar Trail Music, P.O. Box 1139, TDC Postal Station, 77 King St. W., Toronto, ON M5K 1P2 www.cedartrailmusic.com, www.alyshabrooke.com.

I Talk Country is the second release from this 19-year-old singer. Her first, the six-song Nuthin' But A Chevy, was self-produced and self-financed, but this is the first for indie label Cedar Trail Music, whose owner, Mike Belobradic, wrote almost all the songs and co-produced them with Sally Bridgman at Escarpment Sound Studios in Acton, ON. The album's lead/title-track kicks off with fiddle, demonstrating off the bat the kind of country Brooke prefers - traditional, fun and hayseed. The lyric tells of a young girl who denounces her prim and proper upbringing for the redneck dialect. "I used to speak correctly when I was still in school ... Now I talk country," she sings. "Country Bumpkin Blues" is another playful pride-filled story about her "old-fashioned double dose of country charm." This determined young woman, who plays guitar and co-wrote several songs on the album, also wrote one by herself, "Cheated," which brings a bit of blues and rock 'n' roll into her steadfast country talkin'. Brooke performs everywhere from clubs to rodeos, fairs to racetracks, and has sung the Canadian and American National anthems at the Dodge Rodeo Tour and the Breeders Cup. It will be interesting to see if she chooses to go the Shania/Faith direction as she gets older.

Sonic City 
Who: Sonic City
What: kid rocks
Where: Surrey, BC
To Contact: Pinnacle Management, Darren Minisofer, (306) 341-0222, FAX (306) 665-7477, , www.soniccityband.com.

Just 13 years old, guitarist Danny Sveinson has been performing steadily since he was nine, even sitting in with the legendary Les Paul at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York. Now, this kid, influenced by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Alex Lifeson, is the centre of the rock band Sonic City. Fronted by Rod Burn (the main songwriter) and rounded out by bassist James Green and drummer Dean Richards, the band's self-titled full-length debut opens with the straight-up classic rock of "So Far Away" and followed by the raw "If You Were Me" which has more punk attitude. They are two of the best cuts on the album. The power ballad, "Stay With Me", is filled with cringe-worthy clichés. Sveinson wrote or co-wrote four of the 10 songs, including the rock instrumental "Turbo". Ed Stasium (Living Colour, The Ramones, Jeff Healey Band, The Pursuit Of Happiness) produced and engineered three of the songs ("Stomp", "Turbo" and "Soul Cold Rage"); Doug Naugler did the rest, except for ""Not A Love Song", which the band co-produced with David Hayes. While there are some songs on here that could work at rock radio, really the album makes you wanna see this kid tear it up live. The band has been touring Canada, most recently opening out west for Jeff Martin.

Credit: Toronto-based music journalist Karen Bliss is the Canadian news correspondent for Rollingstone.com, and operates a Canadian music industry news column, Lowdown, at http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Lowdown. She also edits Gasoline, and contributes to Elle Canada, Audience, Tribute, Words & Music and others.

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