Pierre Lapointe, Julian Taylor Lead The Release Roundup For January 23, 2026

We wanted to use this week’s column to acknowledge the passing of DB Hawkes at age 76. A long-time radio show host for CIUT, Hawkes was also a devoted audio archivist who recorded innumerable live concerts from the Toronto reggae scene. Much respect to the recordists and writers and people who are out there making sure their music scenes don’t get forgotten. (This BlogTO profile from 2015 by former Polaris juror David Dacks is great.)

Two #PolarisPeople have new records this week:

* Pierre Lapointe (2x Long List) has released Treize chansons démodées pour ceux qui ont le coeur abîmé via Audiogram.

* Julian Taylor (2021 Long List) has released Anthology Vol. 2 via Howling Turtle.

For your playlist refreshment needs, City And Colour have covered Alice In Chains, Geoffroy has released the Field Study single, Bibi Club have dropped “Washing Machine,” which isn’t a Sonic Youth cover, Witch Prophet is weaving some word-based spells, and there are new tracks from Donovan Woods and Arielle Soucy.

Stay warm out there.