(photo: Facebook)

I was listening to Ontario Toady on CBC Radio 1 the other day, when they had a woman, born and raised in Ottawa, lovingly and reverentially talking about her hometown.  I loved listening to her discuss how our nation’s capital has transformed over time into a mini metropolis with a rich cultural life that reflects ethnic diversity, artistic creativity, and (sometimes) thoughtful public policy and decision making.  Ottawa is the one city in the entire country that I would move to in a heartbeat.

Part of the allure for me is the fantastic music that is coming out of the city.  The radio clip reminded me about Amos The Transparent, the Ottawa-based band I first posted about back in February 2007, but has been absent from these pages since.  It’s been well over a year that the band released its debut, Everything I’ve Forgotten to Forget, a fantastic meld of introspective folk, pop, and rock, and high time I got around to discussing it.

Where once they randomly swelled and shrank in ranks like cheeks on a fat kid sucking on a puffer, Jonathan Chandler, Christopher Wilson, Mark Hyne, Dan Hay, and James Nicol have now solidified into the core of the band.  Their early offerings on Myspace hinted at the depth and range of their playing, but you truly appreciate how effortlessly they swing from multi-part harmonics to drum machine spiked arena pop, often within the same song.  Some of the arrangements follow a “go big or go home” mindset that isn’t always as rewarding as the quieter more delicate moments, but on record, Amos The Transparent come across as a band in the middle of an amazing transformation.  What comes next from them is any one’s guess, but chances are it will have moments of beauty, strength, urban sensibility and pastoral charm, much like the city they call home.

MP3: Amos The Transparent “After All That, It’s Come To This
(featuring Amy Millan)”
Myspace Amos The Transparent
Buy: Amos The Transparent Everything I’ve Forgotten to Forget