The Hidden Cameras

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More About

• Joel Gibb
• Gentleman Reg
• Doug Wallen

Playing a sort of loping, ecstatic folk-pop, Toronto’s Hidden Cameras have always resisted firm contours. They’re unpredictable as a rule, leader Joel Gibb the constant in a shifting lineup that can swell to great numbers. The band’s fifth album, Origin:Orphan, begins with a long wash of ambience, Gibb’s voice finally entering to mingle with weirdly tuned violin, suspenseful percussion, and yelps escaping from the backdrop. It’s a grand announcement of ambition, not that the Hidden Cameras were ever slackers. Yet that unwieldy first song gives way to the jumpy, synth-dipped “In the NA,” an effortless single in line with such previous triumphs as “Ban Marriage,” “I Believe in the Good of Life,” and “Awoo.” Sex and religion have long competed for attention in Gibb’s lyrics, and parts of “Kingdom Come” and “He Falls to Me” aren’t easy to assign to one or the other. But this album seems more about coalescing sounds than words, and that often translates to a prolonged head rush. With Gentleman Reg. All ages. DOUG WALLEN
Mon., Nov. 23, 7:30 p.m., 2009