Kiss Me Deadly 
Who: Kiss Me Deadly
What: deadly
Where: Montreal
To Contact: www.alien8recordings.com.

On the band's sophomore album, Misty Medley, the breathy-to-shrill-voiced Emily Elizabeth does her thing over electronic swirls of guitar-pop, although the boys add leads too, taking the songs in a different direction. Elizabeth definitely has an unusual delivery, not dissimilar to Bjork, but prone to sudden squeals or that Marilyn Monroe faux lil girl thing. Sexy. Cute. Ethereal. Quirky. Listen to the first couple of tracks, "Dance 4" and "Dance 2" and later "Ballads". The male-sung tracks, like "Pop" and "Lets" give the Brit-styled music a slightly more aggressive feel. Originally drawn to an emo/math sound, the band - comprised of Elizabeth on vocal and guitar; Adam Poulin on guitar, vocals and programming, Mathieu du Montier on bass and vocals, Erik Petersen on drums and Sophie Trudeau on violin - morphed into this more danceable sorta Echo & The Bunnymen meets Sonic Youth and Sugarcubes pop. Earlier this year, the band released a tour-only EP, Amoureaux Cosmiques, and landed the support tour in America with UK band Bloc Party. The album was produced by Kiss Me Deadly and Jace Lasek at Breakglass in Montreal and mastered at John Golden Mastering. Lasek also provides additional instrumentation, and Olga Goreas add vocals on "Pop".

5^th Projekt
Who: 5^th Projekt
What: haunting
Where: Toronto and surrounding area
To Contact: Organik Rekords PO Box 59009, 2238 Dundas St. W., Toronto, Ontario M6R 3B5, , http://www.5thprojekt.com.

The band's bio needed deciphering and follow-up, but here are the basics: a mix of varied British influences from Siouxie And The Banshees to more Old English folk, Nathan Kaye, Peter Broadley and Sködt D. McNalty esq. wrote this haunting material before seeking a singer. Enter rich-voiced Tara Rice, whose 2003 folk album, Face, was nominated for an Independent Music Award. She linked up with 5th Projekt in the summer of 2003. The band put out two EPs, DEMOn001 and DEMOn002 in the fall and winter of 2004, respectively, produced by Mark Mclay (Headstones, Jeff Healey, Goddo, Ronnie Hawkins) at Velvet Sound, in Mississauga, ON. "Skepticosm" made John Sakamoto's respected Anti-Hit List in Toronto's Eye Weekly. CBC Radio's Sook Yin-Lee dubbed the band independent artist of the week on Definitely Not The Opera. College radio has been highly supportive. The Tales Of Don Quixote contains all six DEMOn songs, plus five others recorded at Toronto's Umbrella and Nucleus, plus home studios. The instrumentation is vast and various - Rice (vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming), Kaye (acoustic and electronic percussion), Broadley (5-string bass), McNalty (6- and 7-string guitars, vocals, keys and programming). 5th Projekt is currently tracking at Toronto's Chemical Sound with James Heidebrecht (The Constantines, Luke Doucet, Tangiers). The release is planned for early 2006.

Catlow 
Who: Catlow
What: kiss the world hello
Where: Vancouver
To Contact: Boompa, 408-207 W. Hastings St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 1H7, www.boompa.ca.

Natasha Thirsk returns with a buck-the-trends solo project under the moniker Catlow, released on Vancouver's Boompa Records. The singer, guitarist and keyboard player previously released two albums on noted Hamilton, ON label Sonic Unyon with her indie rock band, The Dirtmitts - the 2001 eponymously-titled effort, which landed in the top 50 Canadian college music chart for that year, and 2002's Get On. No word on whether she has left The Dirtmitts in the dirt (the bio says "while the efforts of her rock combo kept Natasha busy, she remarkably found time to develop her own solo project"), but the past three years have been spent on Catlow. The debut album, Kiss The World, was recorded at various studios. Six songs were produced by Al Sgro and Wil Golden at Answer Studios in Los Angeles; three by Thirsk and Brian Carson at BC Studios in Vancouver, and one a piece by Ian Browne and Scott Ternan. From the gentle haunt "Forest Of Love + Sin" to the beat-based title-track, which could get as much attention as anything from Feist, this is a cool record for anyone sick of the slick, slutty or saccharin.

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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