Recorded over the last two years with YFIIP producer Dave Newfeld, Windsurfing Nation encompasses everything you've hoped for, the Broken Social Scene you love but with a maturity and brilliance that showcases their growth from the innocence heard on YFIIP. It's all there... The anthemic pop-rock ensembles, layers of shimmering sound and texture, arm-raising horn sections, and even beloved quiet moments to catch your breath. Arts & Crafts. 2005. Bands that draw musicians from other well-known acts are called "supergroups." Broken Social Scene is a supercollective. Ranging from five to 17 members, the Toronto-based outfit includes musicians from Stars, Metric, and many other bands, as well as the up-and-coming Leslie Feist. Frontmen Kevin Drew (formerly of Do Make Say Think) and Brendan Canning (By Divine Right, Len) founded BSS in 1999 and their mission has stayed constant: take a deep love of indie rock and expand on that by making experimental mini-symphonies. Their latest work is not so much a series of songs as it is a musical mood. The infectious cacophony comes through immediately, opening with a rapidly-expanding collection of xylophones and trombones that create Burt Bacharach-style instrumental jaunts, while Kevin Drew's vocals whisper through the melodic mayhem. Notable tracks--from the rhythmic "Fire Eye'd Boy," to the gorgeously floaty "Major Label Debut," to "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" (featuring rapper K-Os)--have two elements in common: all feature expansive melodies and all have vocals consciously (sometimes annoyingly) buried quite low in the mix. However, the CD's highlight (and disc-closer), "It's All Gonna Break," holds the key to BSS's beauty; it's simultaneously far-reaching and uplifting, a near-perfect 10 minutes of music. This limited edition version of the release also contains a seven-song EP filled with some dropped tracks and an alternative version of "Major Label Debut". --Denise Sheppard ABOUT THE ARTIST Broken Social Scene began in 1999, born of a theme that has become the stalwart of the band's existence - friendship in tough times. Kevin Drew was a talented, but essentially unknown musician who specialized in lovely bedroom instrumentals. Brendan Canning was a vet of several Toronto almost-made-its, including hHead, Len, Spookey Ruben and By Divine Right. Cocooned in a Toronto basement in the winter of 1999-2000, Drew and Canning worked on their elegant debut, Feel Good Lost. Though mostly instrumental and somnambulant, this recording was the template for the band's growth - Drew's restless creativity was tempered and focused by Canning's gracious experience. Around this yin-yang orbited numerous talents such as Leslie Feist, drummer Justin Peroff, Stars' Evan Cranley, and Do Make Say Think members Charles Spearin and Justin Small. A live band began to grow and Drew and Canning's partnership expanded to a group of cagey vets (Andrew Whiteman, Bill Priddle) and wide-eyed "kids" (Peroff, John Crossingham, Metric's James Shaw and Emily Haines). For a year, Broken Social Scene was comprised of whoever showed up, playing whatever was written the day before. In 2002, after months of recording, re-recording and countless mixes, Broken Social Scene released You Forgot It In People to great **al acclaim. The album went on to sell over 250,000 copies worldwide and win a Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. The band spent the next two and a half years on the road, touring the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. In 2004, Broken Social Scene released Bee Hives, a collection of outtakes from the fruitful You Forgot It In People sessions, which included the haunting version of "Lover's Spit" sung by Feist. 2005's Broken Social Scene was a fitting title for the band's third record - an apt aural representation of the band's friendship. The album is messy, overrun, irregular but spirited, passionate, honest and hopeful. It landed this indie band from Toronto on TV screens across North America, on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and scored another Juno win for Best Alternative Album. On May 4, 2010 Arts & Crafts will release Broken Social Scene's follow-up to the acclaimed self-titled record. The new album, Forgiveness Rock Record, is co-produced by the band and Tortoise's John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto.See more