FFWD Weekly - December 9, 2004

Mere months after their mighty Mississauga Goddam, Toronto's The Hidden Cameras come back with a near-flood's worth of adjacent materials and scraps – an undoubtedly impressive collection of debris compiled on a variety of formats and labels.

Presenting a home-demo first-run version of Mississauga Goddam, The Arms of His "Ill" dips into frontman Joel Gibb's massive four-track archives (a trick also pulled by Earworm's limited-edition, rainbow-dyed 7" backwards glance at the Cameras's first single, "Ban Marriage"). Most surprising is how full and complete the songs sound in their early incarnations. "Bboy" and "In the Union of Wine" are just as epic without their Mississauga church organ and choir backings. The gorgeous "Builds the Bone" and "Mississauga Goddam" work just as well as skeletal sketches. While some of these songs have already found release on three separate occasions in different versions (the Cameras's debut album Ecce Homo was itself a similar collection of demos, several of which were finished for Mississauga and this year's Plays the CBC Sessions compilation offers another run-through of some of the same tunes), the variations and developments are quite often stunning and, if nothing else, showcase Gibb as one of Canada's finest songwriters.

But the Cameras still work best in their full-blown gay-folk-church-music guise, with membership bloated, on occasion, to more than 20 members. Scattered across three discs, the B-sides for I Believe in the Good of Life are every bit as good as what actually made it onto Mississauga Goddam. "High Upon the Church Grounds" is one of Gibb's finest behemoths, while "Divide" sees him taking a turn at piano-led balladry. Catchy as a cold, "Steal All You Can Motherfucker" should become the new national anthem – I'd pay good money to hear a kids’ assembly take a go at it before class.

While certainly a challenge to keep up with (both The Arms of His "Ill" and Ban Marriage are severely limited to 1,000 copies apiece), The Hidden Cameras’s clearing of the decks gives more than ample proof of their innate genius. Even these scraps shine brilliantly.

THE ARMS OF HIS "ILL" 4/5

I BELIEVE IN THE GOOD OF LIFE 4/5

BAN MARRIAGE 3/5

MARK HAMILTON