SoHo Ghetto

Si j’allais d’abord au Divan Orange pour voir le musicien du Nouveau-Brunswick Andy Brown, j’ai également découvert un endroit clé de la musique émergeante à Montréal ainsi qu’un autre fantastique groupe de musique, Soho Ghetto.
La composition du groupe, qui compte sept membres, ce qui est bien rare, impressionne le public alors qu’il monte sur scène. Contrairement à ce que l’on pourrait penser, les harmonies sonores et le volume sont très bien équilibrés, ce qui transforme une potentielle cacophonie en un rythme électrisant. Le groupe originaire d’Halifax en Nouvelle-Écosse mélange des sons de musique folk, électronique, pop et crée une sonorité qui lui est unique. Il est également agréable de voir la complicité et la bonne humeur émanant des musiciens qui s’en donnent à cœur joie sur la scène avec des petites blagues et des chorégraphies. Malheureusement, les paroles des chansons sont difficiles à distinguer à travers la musique, qui masque des textes évocateurs. Malgré tout, Soho Ghetto prouve qu’il mérite sa place sur la scène et épate le public en créant une ambiance forte avec des rythmes rafraîchissants.
Puis c’est au tour d’Andy Brown de faire agir sa propre magie. Il s’agit du troisième concert à Montréal de ce musicien folk-rock, et l’amour que lui portent ses fans est palpable. Originaire de Fredericton, ses chansons «Ashes» et «Lovesick Lullaby» ont notamment été diffusées lors d’épisodes des séries télévisées Rookie Blues et Saving Hope, qui l’ont fait connaître à plus grande échelle.
Andy est la plupart du temps seul sur scène avec sa guitare. Cependant, les paroles de ses chansons, qu’il écrit lui-même, dégagent une sincérité poignante et semblent atteindre instantanément quiconque leur porte attention. Pour cette soirée, Andy était accompagné de quelques musiciens et a interprété des reprises, dont «I can’t make you love me» de Bon Iver, ainsi que plusieurs titres de son nouvel album. «Tinman», la pièce éponyme, est d’ailleurs celle qu’il préfère dans sa carrière. Malgré son air timide sur scène, on s’imprègne facilement des émotions, et il défend très bien sa place.
Artiste accessible, Andy prend le temps de saluer tous ceux qui le désirent et prend plaisir à discuter avec eux. Il n’est pas du tout surprenant de le voir répondre à ses fans sur Facebook ou Twitter avec un enthousiasme sincère. Cette attitude porte manifestement ses fruits puisque le public est toujours au rendez-vous.
J’ai eu la chance de discuter avec ses musiciens, qui sont extrêmement sympathiques et terre-à-terre. Ils semblent tous être d’accord pour dire que Montréal est une ville où il fait bon jouer et où l’ambiance est unique. Le premier album de Soho Ghetto est en vente sur leur site Internet et le deuxième album d’Andy Brown, qui sortira en février, sera disponible sur le sien.
- Le Delit Montreal

Si j’allais d’abord au Divan Orange pour voir le musicien du Nouveau-Brunswick Andy Brown, j’ai également découvert un endroit clé de la musique émergeante à Montréal ainsi qu’un autre fantastique groupe de musique, Soho Ghetto.
La composition du groupe, qui compte sept membres, ce qui est bien rare, impressionne le public alors qu’il monte sur scène. Contrairement à ce que l’on pourrait penser, les harmonies sonores et le volume sont très bien équilibrés, ce qui transforme une potentielle cacophonie en un rythme électrisant. Le groupe originaire d’Halifax en Nouvelle-Écosse mélange des sons de musique folk, électronique, pop et crée une sonorité qui lui est unique. Il est également agréable de voir la complicité et la bonne humeur émanant des musiciens qui s’en donnent à cœur joie sur la scène avec des petites blagues et des chorégraphies. Malheureusement, les paroles des chansons sont difficiles à distinguer à travers la musique, qui masque des textes évocateurs. Malgré tout, Soho Ghetto prouve qu’il mérite sa place sur la scène et épate le public en créant une ambiance forte avec des rythmes rafraîchissants.
Puis c’est au tour d’Andy Brown de faire agir sa propre magie. Il s’agit du troisième concert à Montréal de ce musicien folk-rock, et l’amour que lui portent ses fans est palpable. Originaire de Fredericton, ses chansons «Ashes» et «Lovesick Lullaby» ont notamment été diffusées lors d’épisodes des séries télévisées Rookie Blues et Saving Hope, qui l’ont fait connaître à plus grande échelle.
Andy est la plupart du temps seul sur scène avec sa guitare. Cependant, les paroles de ses chansons, qu’il écrit lui-même, dégagent une sincérité poignante et semblent atteindre instantanément quiconque leur porte attention. Pour cette soirée, Andy était accompagné de quelques musiciens et a interprété des reprises, dont «I can’t make you love me» de Bon Iver, ainsi que plusieurs titres de son nouvel album. «Tinman», la pièce éponyme, est d’ailleurs celle qu’il préfère dans sa carrière. Malgré son air timide sur scène, on s’imprègne facilement des émotions, et il défend très bien sa place.
Artiste accessible, Andy prend le temps de saluer tous ceux qui le désirent et prend plaisir à discuter avec eux. Il n’est pas du tout surprenant de le voir répondre à ses fans sur Facebook ou Twitter avec un enthousiasme sincère. Cette attitude porte manifestement ses fruits puisque le public est toujours au rendez-vous.
J’ai eu la chance de discuter avec ses musiciens, qui sont extrêmement sympathiques et terre-à-terre. Ils semblent tous être d’accord pour dire que Montréal est une ville où il fait bon jouer et où l’ambiance est unique. Le premier album de Soho Ghetto est en vente sur leur site Internet et le deuxième album d’Andy Brown, qui sortira en février, sera disponible sur le sien.
- Le Delit Montreal

The Thursday night drive to Liverpool for Nova Scotia Music Week was dark and stormy, and a bit white-knuckle for a stretch under construction with no visible road markers or shoulders.
But eventually the inviting lights of the annual music industry event’s 2012 headquarters came into sight.
It took a bit longer than planned, after arguing with my GPS that White Point Beach Resort isn’t located in the town of Liverpool itself but rather 10 kilometres farther down the coast.
But the detour was minor compared with those of other attendees, like singer Bonnie Ste. Croix, who tweeted that her GPS had taken her halfway to Kejimkujik National Park before she figured something was amiss.
“It could have been worse, we once had a couple wind up in White Point, Cape Breton,” a desk clerk in the spaciously rebuilt main lodge informed me, and I felt foolish for relying on technology in the first place for my fourth trip to the historic South Shore vacation spot.
With my bearings more or less restored, it was time to hustle back the way I came and jump into some live music.
With many delegates not expected to appear until Friday, there were only a pair of showcases scheduled. One was the Yarmouth Metal Stage located in Alley 9 — named for its position adjacent to an eight-lane basement bowling alley — and a mixed-genre lineup at the new Best Western Plus Hotel, across from the equally brand-spanking new Queens Place Emera Centre, home of Sunday night’s gala Music Nova Scotia awards show.
But there would be miles of music to get through before the weekend’s congratulatory finale.
The first shot across the bow came from Halifax’s Like a Motorcycle at the smoke-filled Alley 9. The female power trio quickly erased my road rage with some crunchy power chords from guitarist Jillian Comeau, sweet vocals and beats from drummer Michelle Skelding and bassist Kim Carson’s hyperactive stage antics, including a few knee drops that will surely shorten the lifespan of her skinny jeans.
Just because the volume was lower in the Best Western’s Queens Room, the same can’t be said of the quality level, with sets by a number of Nova Scotia acts deemed, using a phrase well-known to those in the grant-writing process, “export ready.”
Just back from Iceland’s Airwaves Festival, Mo Kenney’s subtle folk sounds required an admonition to the chatty industry crowd, which brought it down to a dull roar, while charismatic Kayo’s joyous fusion of hip hop and Caribbean sounds, and Gypsophilia’s inventive cafe jazz, gave listeners and dancers a dose of second wind as the night was on the verge of coming to a close.
Queens Room listeners seemed especially drawn in by the sounds of two expansive Halifax indie bands, Paper Beat Scissors and SoHo Ghetto, whose songs are deeply poetic and are enriched by the current penchant for breaking away from the standard guitar-bass-drum dynamic.
Paper Beat Scissors included violin, euphonium and bassoon for this incarnation, but it’s clearly the vision of founder Tim Crabtree, just returned from a tour through Europe, that gives the songs their emotional charge.
Fronted by Marc-Antoine Robertson, septet SoHo Ghetto shows its mettle with a strong performance honed by rehearsing and recent touring, demonstrating how it earned Music Nova Scotia Award nominations for new artist and group recording of the year for the EP Humble Beginnings Make for Good Night Life.
During a lunch break between Music Nova Scotia’s Mind Over Music conference sessions Friday, Robertson also expressed his enthusiasm for being chosen to perform at Sunday’s awards gala and getting to share the stage with his never-there roommate, top nominee and non-stop touring machine Rich Aucoin.
“We’ve been granted 31/2 minutes to create an epic moment, that’s how we’re treating it, and it’s epic for us to be asked to be part of the most important showcase for this community of musicians in Nova Scotia,” Robertson says.
“Being asked means you’ve worked really hard over the past year to earn your spot in the show, or in the case of the Barra MacNeils, you’ve had this incredible 25-year career that’s being recognized.”
About to embark on another trip through Ontario, SoHo Ghetto could have been used as an example of what to do right at one of Friday’s more entertaining conference seminars, titled No One Owes You Sh**!, hosted by the Red Tentacle agency’s Josh Hogan and Hassan King.
Essentially it boiled down to common sense notions like “Don’t be boring,” “Don’t be unprofessional” and “Be good to your fans,” but it’s amazing how many musical careers are stopped cold when these simple rules are ignored.
The seminar earned the stamp of approval of Halifax Pop Explosion director Jonny Stevens, who declared it “The best music industry talk I’ve ever heard.”
After another full night of music around Liverpool on Friday night, Nova Scotia Music Week’s showcase series closes tonight with another solid rock bill at Alley 9 including Alert the Medic a - The Chronicle Herald

'Longer than an EP, shorter than most albums, Soho Ghetto's collection marks the arrival of a distinct, fluid new seven-piece. Matthew Gibbon's crisp harmonica and Shawn Burke's double-pump drumming are as much a signature as Marc-Antoine Robertson's plaintive vocals. Then, on "Heart, Beat, Skip," Rachel Sunter's piano drenches in colour a youthful fret about missed opportunities at the crossroads of love: "It could be a beat you can't afford to miss." The Halifax band can dazzle in the manner of Newfoundland's Hey Rosetta! with how fine ensemble playing can scorch their songs into your brain when the chemistry is right.' - The Coast magazine

'Longer than an EP, shorter than most albums, Soho Ghetto's collection marks the arrival of a distinct, fluid new seven-piece. Matthew Gibbon's crisp harmonica and Shawn Burke's double-pump drumming are as much a signature as Marc-Antoine Robertson's plaintive vocals. Then, on "Heart, Beat, Skip," Rachel Sunter's piano drenches in colour a youthful fret about missed opportunities at the crossroads of love: "It could be a beat you can't afford to miss." The Halifax band can dazzle in the manner of Newfoundland's Hey Rosetta! with how fine ensemble playing can scorch their songs into your brain when the chemistry is right.' - The Coast magazine

It’s almost too easy to overlook local bands with bigger expectations and accessible sounds. When you consider the lo-fi noise and punk scenes are booming and we’ve had the Celtic folk/bar room poet market cornered for years, it’s easy to see a ton of shows without ever hearing a note of music that seems destined to find a home with a larger audience.
That’s why a band like Soho Ghettosometimes gets overlooked.
In today’s trending/apathetic culture, they have too many “strikes” against them. Soho Ghetto play polished indie roots music. They care about their music and getting heard. They are a seven member band that will undoubtedly get labeled as a collective. They work on a song until it’s ready, refusing to rush the process and that workmanlike pride extends to their live show.
The result of all those things is a collection of songs that was a year in the making, and even the most dismissive fan would admit it was time well spent. Acoustic and electric guitar, harmonica, sprinkling of keys, fiddle and group vocals all swell to make Soho Ghetto they type of band that grabs your ear at a show and holds your heart as a fan.
It’s probably too easy and puts too much pressure on Soho Ghetto to saddle the band with a ‘RIYL Hey Rosetta’ branding, but I can see the band eventually finding a similar fan base. Neither band is one I gravitate towards when I’m flipping through my records, but whenever a song starts playing on my iPod, I start tapping my foot and nodding my head. If that’s good enough for Miles Davis, it’s good enough for me and should be good enough for you.
The band is working to finish their official first release, but have happily offered up a sneak peak of “Honorable Mention.” Grab it now and enjoy.
- Hero Hill Blog

The first time I came in contact with SoHo Ghetto was when I saw one of their videos thanks to a rather extensive press package that landed my way. Around a picnic table in a park somewhere, the seven-piece from Halifax proceeded to blow my mind with a melodically rich tune played out with a simple ukulele and the rhythm tapped out with a bottle.
So here’s Humble Beginnings Make for Good Night Life, a six-track collection that reveals that the picnic table performance was no accident. Sure, there’s more studio polish and the songs sound more complete and radio-ready, but that’s the point.
Featuring Marc Antoine (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Matthew Gibbon (harmonica, vocals), Brian MacKay (mandolin, synthesizer, vocals), Alex Meade (electric guitar), Peter Smith (bass), Shawn Burke (drums, percussion), and Rachel Sunter (piano, vocals), SoHo Ghetto reveals a tuneful Nova Scotia edge on the record. They have a real sense of things, delivering a mix of open-road and coffeehouse songs.

2012 saw the band tour Eastern Canada, taking dates from Toronto to Cape Breton by storm. They played at the Halifax Canada Day concert, for one, and saw action and broke hearts at the Halifax Urban Folk Festival. SoHo Ghetto also headlined the Seaport Beerfest and took to an Ontario tour over the fall. Any plans to sweep out to Western Canada will be met with much elation. I’ll even pick them up at the airport…
Humble Beginnings Make for Good Night Life introduces the band’s strong orchestral sense as well, with some tunes (“Honourable Mention” and “Day of Saints and Lovers”) fleshed out by the strings of the Bashful Trio.
The absolutely beautiful “Arrows & Vines,” my personal favourite tune on the record, features the fiddle of Cassie Anne MacDonald and really opens up thanks to Antoine’s vocals. The tempo shift is straight East Coast fishing village magic, while the piano-and-fiddle patches touch on the finer points of baroque pop.
“Your Weapon” closes the disc with the additions Kolston Gogan on drums, Jeff Mosher on saxophone and Jody Lyne on trumpet and trombone. The effect of the horns terrifically splashes against the marching pace and Antoine’s plaintiveness. The vocal harmonies are gorgeously emotional, uttering heartbreaking lines without insincerity.
Humble Beginnings Make for Good Night Life couldn’t be a more apt title for SoHo Ghetto’s revelation. The East Coast has given the world a lot of things and these cats could easily add to that tradition, providing a uniquely Canadian experience that heartens the best of the pop tradition with the very best Halifax’s unassuming lights have to offer. - Canadian Audiphile Blog

The first time I came in contact with SoHo Ghetto was when I saw one of their videos thanks to a rather extensive press package that landed my way. Around a picnic table in a park somewhere, the seven-piece from Halifax proceeded to blow my mind with a melodically rich tune played out with a simple ukulele and the rhythm tapped out with a bottle.
So here’s Humble Beginnings Make for Good Night Life, a six-track collection that reveals that the picnic table performance was no accident. Sure, there’s more studio polish and the songs sound more complete and radio-ready, but that’s the point.
Featuring Marc Antoine (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Matthew Gibbon (harmonica, vocals), Brian MacKay (mandolin, synthesizer, vocals), Alex Meade (electric guitar), Peter Smith (bass), Shawn Burke (drums, percussion), and Rachel Sunter (piano, vocals), SoHo Ghetto reveals a tuneful Nova Scotia edge on the record. They have a real sense of things, delivering a mix of open-road and coffeehouse songs.

2012 saw the band tour Eastern Canada, taking dates from Toronto to Cape Breton by storm. They played at the Halifax Canada Day concert, for one, and saw action and broke hearts at the Halifax Urban Folk Festival. SoHo Ghetto also headlined the Seaport Beerfest and took to an Ontario tour over the fall. Any plans to sweep out to Western Canada will be met with much elation. I’ll even pick them up at the airport…
Humble Beginnings Make for Good Night Life introduces the band’s strong orchestral sense as well, with some tunes (“Honourable Mention” and “Day of Saints and Lovers”) fleshed out by the strings of the Bashful Trio.
The absolutely beautiful “Arrows & Vines,” my personal favourite tune on the record, features the fiddle of Cassie Anne MacDonald and really opens up thanks to Antoine’s vocals. The tempo shift is straight East Coast fishing village magic, while the piano-and-fiddle patches touch on the finer points of baroque pop.
“Your Weapon” closes the disc with the additions Kolston Gogan on drums, Jeff Mosher on saxophone and Jody Lyne on trumpet and trombone. The effect of the horns terrifically splashes against the marching pace and Antoine’s plaintiveness. The vocal harmonies are gorgeously emotional, uttering heartbreaking lines without insincerity.
Humble Beginnings Make for Good Night Life couldn’t be a more apt title for SoHo Ghetto’s revelation. The East Coast has given the world a lot of things and these cats could easily add to that tradition, providing a uniquely Canadian experience that heartens the best of the pop tradition with the very best Halifax’s unassuming lights have to offer. - Canadian Audiphile Blog

"This is music for those who appreciate bedroom rock performed on a stadium scale, for fans of Arcade Fire, for fans who simply love good music.... It will leave your jaw on the floor." - Pop Matters 8/10 - Pop Matters

"As far as ultra-dense, poppy and highly metaphorical rock music goes Thou or I or Both is as charming as it gets. They may have a hard time topping this." - Winnipeg Free Press - Winnepeg Free Press

"On Thou or I or Both, SoHo Ghetto aims high, flying higher like it just found a secret Super Mario power-up, daring you to come along and see how far it can go." - The Chronicle Herald - The Chronicle Herald

Marc-Antoine Robertson has seen and travelled the world: born in Montreal, lived in Paris, and now calls Halifax, Nova Scotia, home. Listen to his debut album with his band SoHo Ghetto called Thou Or I Or Both and you can hear a little of the world-weariness in the grandiosity and pomp of the record’s nine songs, of which the first four run five minutes or more. This is music for those who appreciate bedroom rock performed on a stadium scale, for fans of Arcade Fire, for fans who simply love good music. For an independent release, Thou Or I Or Both comes across as full-bodied and sprawling. Opening cut “One At a Time” recalls Canada’s Arkells with its pummelling piano banged out in true Springsteen-esque fashion. It also boasts an awesome gospel call and response at the song’s very opening. It will leave your jaw on the floor.

However, the album as a whole stands up to close scrutiny. “Message” is sung in French, which shows Robertson’s mastery of Canada’s two official languages. “Sidekick” has a very east coast, folksy feel to it, and is the kind of stuff that could soundtrack pub nights. “Rook” is a lilting ballad with an effective melody that could have come out of any ‘80s soft rock outfits. “Sisyphus” shows the pianos re-emerging with a vengeance. So Thou Or I Or Both straddles varying styles and genres of music, but remains wholly engaging and compelling in doing so. You’re left at the end of this disc catching your breath. This is dreamy and heavenly material. Let me put it bluntly: even though this is a self-released album, if this doesn’t catch fire with Canada’s Polaris Music Prize jurors, I would be highly, highly surprised. Thou Or I Or Both is the kind of thing that makes music critics and jurors froth at the mouth, and if you’re salivating by the time you’re through with this, that only means you’re looking incredibly forward to that difficult sophomore disc. But I think Robertson has the chops, and Thou Or I Or Both is a thrilling start to what looks to be a promising career. - PopMatters

Halifax, N.S., quintet SoHo Ghetto makes the type of modern pop music that spreads itself thickly into your consciousness and finds ways to introduce itself into the folds both your short- and long-term musical memory. Ostensibly they honour classic majestic arena rock from another era, when U2 uplifted every stadium and person on the planet and Michael Stipe and Chris Martin posters were on every sensitive music fan's bedroom wall. Let's just say Thou or I or Both might just make the arrangements of your favourite Arcade Fire track feel a little lacking in heft. But there is "epic" and there's cloying and much respect to grand designer and band front person Marc-Antoine Robertson for keeping the elevational tendencies of these arrangements in check. Dark piano chords balance the Edge-inspired guitar work on the boiling Sisyphus while the Morrissey-informed vocals on Bobolink work well with the stately muted trumpet accompaniment. As far as ultra-dense, poppy and highly metaphorical rock music goes Thou or I or Both is as charming as it gets. They may have a hard time topping this. HHH1/2 - Winnipeg Free Press

After its impressive debut EP Humble Beginnings Make for Good Night Life, you’d expect a grand statement from Halifax’s SoHo Ghetto when it came time to spread its wings on a full-length release. Thou or I or Both expands on those expectations, while still remembering to breathe every now and again.

Produced by Lake Echo popmeister Daniel Ledwell, the record gives vocalist Marc-Antoine Robertson a lot of room to manoeuvre, and puts a lot of reverb behind the quintet, making for an aural feast full of mythic imagery and sweeping gestures.

On Thou or I or Both, SoHo Ghetto aims high, flying higher like it just found a secret Super Mario power-up, daring you to come along and see how far it can go. - The Chronicle Herald