Tales of the Salty Bag

 Ultra Magnus is a Canadian emcee who should be a household name. He's been around for a minute with his most recent album being 2019's M uziki Mzuri . Rooted in boom bap with hints of chopper and dancehall, Ultra Magnus brings aggressive rhymes with rap references sprinkled liberally throughout (both lyrically and flow, but not in a biting way). UM has flows for days, often throwing multiple within a song to make sure that the listener's never getting bored. On Muziki Mzuri the guests are limited to The Mighty Rhino (outside of Fresh Kils producing the entire album). Hand'Solo hit gold with Ultra Magnus, if he ever puts out another album I'm without a doubt adding it to my collection. First there was Archer Farms (rip Target Canada [specifically for the chips]). Then way too long later Hardbite gave it a go with Miss Vickies following closely behind. Now it's Old Dutch's turn to give Spicy Ketchup a go (under their Dutch Crunch line). OD very rarely lets me

 Myles Bullen put out a new album on March 1st, timetokill , it is beautiful. I came to Myles's music through Fake Four/Ceschi a couple years ago and their brand of weird rap really got it's hooks into me. The music on timetokill is all over the map. There's songs with synthy/computery beeps and bloops and heavy bass. There are songs that are lush yet somehow spacious. A few that are bare bones uke music. Yet the album is cohesive as hell. I think that's primarily due to Myles Bullen's melodic delivery of his very personal lyrics that are so heavy you can't help but feel grounded when listening to this album. There's some seriously dark lyrical content but they offset it with an optimism that when it comes out makes you feel like you're sitting outside on a sunny day feeling a nice warm breeze while you watch the clouds float by allowing you to make pictures in your mind with the blue and white canvas. Myles seamlessly goes from smooth raps to singing to

 Cornitos Nacho Crisps, Sweet Chili flavour. Somewhat thin corn chips but with a significant crunch. Corn is up front and centre with these ones, I guess Cornitos isn't just a clever name (thought nacho crisps is quite confusing, nachos are a dish and I was always under the impression that crisps are specific to potato [maybe this is a translation thing as these are a product of India]). The chili is sweet with a nice natural heat. When the seasoning kicks in it is quite alright, however as I previously alluded to the seasoning to corn flavour is like 40 / 60. Tasty chips, a bit of tang to the seasoning, but I'd say that the Arriba Sweet Chili is still top of the pack. It should be noted that I grabbed this bag when I was on a Covered Bridge mission at Dollar Tree. I recently picked up a couple The Cure demo albums from Forbidden Beat Distro (great distro with very reasonable prices and shipping, some weird releases and based out of Southern Ontario [accept CAD]). Faith Demos

 Asian Man Records delivers heater after heater. Halfway through 2023 they put out the debut LP from Sweet Gloom, Reverie , which is a fantastic album. Sweet gloom deliver indie poppy rock with punk swagger, croonish vocals and sprinkles of doo-wop. The vocals croon in an Alkaline Trio way, and I don't mean like one of the vocalists, Jaake's voice and delivery is almost a mash of Skiba and Andriano. The bass player Chis sings on a couple songs where he has that midwestern gravely pop punk delivery which is a fantastic juxtaposition against Jaake. Predominantly introspective lyrics. Sweet is the vocals, melodies; Gloom is the lyrics. I guess one might say that Sweet Gloom play sweet gloom music. I strongly recommend that you listen then purchase Reverie. In Canada...in Manitoba at least there are two primary chip dips. Philadelphia (cream cheese based) and Heluva Good! (sour cream based). I'm not here to tell you which type is better...I am however here today to give you my