Northern Haze: Badass Inuit Heavies

Igloolik, way up in the Canadian arctic some 1,800 miles north of Ottawa, seems to be an unlikely place for a heavy rock band to flourish, but Northern Haze have played a proud, uncompromised Sabbath-tinged catalogue of songs since 1978. In their native Inuit tongue. As the story goes, the four friends took up instruments provided by a local community center, most songs written by singer/guitarist Kolitalik Inukshuk. With cofounder Naisana Qamaniq they started up weekends gigs channeling faves like Pink Floyd, Hendrix, and Zep, but a clear vision started to develop quickly and the CBC took notice and ushered them into studios for demos and recording. Travel grants and growing notoriety allowed the band (at first called Northern Lights) to travel around Canada, and throughout they remained true to their wish to deliver their music to Northern communities with occasional festival shows in larger cities. CBC serviced limited edition LPs to stations and libraries and broadcast their music nationwide. Their activity slowed down in 1987 with a restart in 1999, then Elijah passed away from cancer in 2007, and Kolitalik was murdered only days later. The group revamped with a few new members, and in 2009 Jason Flower of Supreme Echo Records discovered their music while researching Canadian Inuit recordings. Flower trekked out to the Arctic with a documentary filmmaker in tow, three weeks of rekindled rock, nature treks and raw meat consumption ensued and now an amazing LP Sinnaktuq comprised of 1985-2010 recordings is out. Thanks to Jason for letting us share an MP3: "Qaina". Killer! Copies are fleeting, but we're told Numero and Fusetron have some.

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[Dominque Jolley]

The story goes, the four friends took up instruments provided.