Back from tour and in fine form after fighting the elements across Western Canada, guitarist Dan Pitt and company (Alex Fournier on bass, Nick Fraser on drums plus Patrick Smith and Naomi McCarroll-Butler on woodwinds) tore it out in this homecoming romp. Celebrating the rease of Horizontal Depths, the group's second album, the ensemble moved through most of the album's pieces, exploring moody zones and blistering rockers like this set-opener.
You can check out some more from this show over on youtube:
The second edition of the trivia/experimental music CLUE NOTE residency featured sounds that would have been right at home in the previous month's Hallowe'en-themed show. Working in terrain less "musical" and more "radiophonic workshop", there were some eerie and occasionally creepy vibes being generated despite the whimiscal nature of some of the soundmaking implements (balloons, slinkies, bird calls, etc.). In this stretch, Mark Zurawinski is doing some processing to Germaine Liu's balloon-squawks that renders them to something like the laments of the ghosts of Victorian children, while Nick Storring brought out a whole tickle trunk's worth of implements and microphones rather than his cello, adding squeaks and grinding burrs.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
[Bumped from its regular room and timeslot by NYE festivities, CLUE NOTE has a special matinee edition coming up (Sunday, December 29th, in the Tranzac's Living Room) with trivia on the theme of "2024: The Year in Review" and "improvised spiritual freak folk" from Erin Corbett, Niamh Girling, Mira Martin-Gray, Kurt Newman, and Marilyn Yogarajah.]
Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!
Shows this week:
Lina Allemano Four / The Emmet Ray 2024-12-18 (Wednesday – 6 p.m.). $10 advance / $15 door. [FB event]
Playscape Emporium: Of dances and dreams (feat. Angela Blumberg Dance / Teething / Adrian Berry) / Array Space 2024-12-19 (Thursday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Henri Fabergé Crashes The Creskins Ball ["A festive night of comedy,music & mayhem"] (feat. Gwynne Phillips / Briana Templeton / Kayla Lorette / Roger Bainbridge / Miguel Rivas / Alex Tindal / Clare McConnell / Adam Niebergall / Sharjil Rasool / Johnny Spence / Steve Foster / Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll / Sarah Bennett / Juliann Wilding / Nicole Passmore / Jackie Pirico / Sarah Ruba / New Chance / Anh Phung) / 918 Bathurst 2024-12-19 (Thursday – early show @ 6 p.m., late show @ 8:30). $27.96. [FB event]
Some solo journeys from Marilyn Yogarajah saw trumpet loopscapes being augmented by piano lines. Easy to get lost in while you stare out the window watching autumn rolling in.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
Some psychedelic explorations from Ayal Senior (here on bass and space echo) alongside Marilyn Yogarajah (piano/trumpet). Some deep zones here, but not to get ahead of things too much, this was just setting the stage for things to get even more triple.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
Although the TIO will play freely when the numbers are low (or when the mood otherwise strikes), when there's a larger group the use of conduction leads the sounds to interesting places. Here, Eugene Martynec was having some computer trouble and took a break from troubleshooting to wrangle the ensemble, pulling things together to move from long tones to pointillistic daubs.
This off-site Music Gallery show took place in one of the less-familiar wings of the Allan Gardens conservatory — not alongside the turtles or under the tropical plants but in the smaller children's conservatory space which was, at least at the moment, cleared out of plant life and serving more as an event space. (Although, to be sure, there were plants aplenty — and for sale — in the adjoining space.) Still a visually appealing (if someone sonically impure) spot for a show, and it felt like a cozy spot to lean in and listen to a couple of contrasting sets.
A titan of the European improvisational scene, French double-bassist Joëlle Léandre might have been mildly jetlagged at this show, but still interacted with her instrument with constant joy and a sense of discovery. Cellist Rémy Bélanger de Beauport was an effective foil, matching both tiny, quiet gestures and unorthodox techniques. Even with a serious depth of playing at hand, things weren't taken too seriously, as evidenced by the way a couple of the pieces ended with laughter from performers and audience alike.
This off-site Music Gallery show took place in one of the less-familiar wings of the Allan Gardens conservatory — not alongside the turtles or under the tropical plants but in the smaller children's conservatory space which was, at least at the moment, cleared out of plant life and serving more as an event space. (Although, to be sure, there were plants aplenty — and for sale — in the adjoining space.) Still a visually appealing (if someone sonically impure) spot for a show, and it felt like a cozy spot to lean in and listen to a couple of contrasting sets.
The night began with a trio, led by bedroom laptopist Masahiro Takahashi, here joined by Joseph Shabason (sax and fx) and Bram Gielen (fretless bass), adding lush textures to his gently-drifting pieces, creating a greenhouse-ready chill-out zone.
*Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
CLUE NOTE: trivia and creative music (vol 3) (feat. Erin Corbett/Niamh Girling/Mira Martin-Gray/Kurt Newman/Marilyn Yogarajah) / The Tranzac (Living Room) 2024-12-29 (Sunday – noon). $PWYC ($10 suggested) [FB event]
Tranzac New Year's Eve (feat. Joseph Shabason & The Welcome To Hell Tentet / Sandro Perri & Friends / Jane Inc) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-12-31 (Tuesday). $30 Adv. / $32 door. [tickets + more info]
Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!
Shows this week:
Brodie West Quintet / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-11 (Wednesday – early)
Slipstreams (feat. Grace Scheele & Arie Verhuel v.d. Ven / Dylann Miller / Carolina Lopez) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-11 (Wednesday). $pwyc. [more info]
fuzZfest 2.0 (feat. Ben Bennett/Raphaël Foisy/Karen Ng / Eric Laska / Battle Milk) ["home-cooked vegetarian meal included"] / The Tranzac (Living Room) 2024-12-12 (Thursday). $15 (cash/card) or pwyc. [FB event]
Not a Band [Secrets EP Release Party!] (feat. Wilderness Adventure Ride / Triage Eclair) / Collective Arts 2024-12-12 (Thursday). $15/PWYC. [FB event]
Second Fridays (feat. Chiquitamagic / Brodie West / Stones, Breeze, and Tinder) / Canadian Music Centre 2024-12-13 (Friday). $15; $10 for students. [morfe info]
Musica Universalis (feat. C'est la fête / Cetacea) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-13 (Friday)
It happened this week...
...on December 12, 2015 at The Great Hall's basement (Long Winter 4.2).
Rebecca Bruton's recent visits hereabouts have revolved around her Swanherds project, but this mini-tour with Darren Williams instead saw her tackling a "transparent tracing" of Martin Arnold's retelling of the old Scottish ballad "Tam Lin". Martin's reworking of the piece was crafted for The Reveries and the Array Ensemble, so it exudes a wobbly maximalism, making Bruton's version an interesting flip into unadorned minimalism. Although given that it runs over forty minutes, there's a sense of spacial expansion at play here as well — time to really lean back and dig into the sounds in a setting where the context of listening to something this spare for so long actually creates the conditions to slow the mind down enough to hear what's creeping in between the notes.
Besides brushing up against that endlessly ambling "Boring Formless Nonsense" that much of Arnold's work is associated with, Bruton's refolkification also brought to mind Picastro's sleepy drift as well as Wyrd Visions' stretched-out-like-toffee balladry. The similarly-spare retelling of her own "Nora, Listening" that started the set shows that there's space for these techniques to echo more broadly within her work.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (Tuesday, December 3rd), with sets from Dept. of Loss (Fan Wu/Phil Hamilton) and Pigeon Dance (Victor/Lenny/Clay).]
This former Torontonian (now based out west in Kelowna) was making his first local appearance in over a decade, giving an opportunity for folks in these parts to get acquainted with his solo saxophone work. Playing many of the compositions from his recent Musical Idiot album, and offering a flow of snappy, cutting banter, the music moved from intense arguments to reflective, circular reflections.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (Tuesday, December 3rd), with sets from Dept. of Loss (Fan Wu/Phil Hamilton) and Pigeon Dance (Victor/Lenny/Clay).]
To set the stage for a couple touring visitors, this night began with some new sounds from some locals. Eschewing their regular instruments, this pair are relative newbies at saxophone, allowing them to approach things with true beginner's mind. It's a bit of a cliché (and one I'm fond of) to compare improvisation to conversation, but this felt very much like hanging out with a couple friends and hearing chatter pass back and forth — sometimes leading to monosyllabic rebuttals, sometimes to dense clusters of ideas, and sometimes just breaking down in laughter.
You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:
[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona tonight (Tuesday, December 3rd), with sets from Dept. of Loss (Fan Wu/Phil Hamilton) and Pigeon Dance (Victor/Lenny/Clay).]
Second Fridays (feat. Chiquitamagic / Brodie West / Stones, Breeze, and Tinder) / Canadian Music Centre 2024-12-13 (Friday). $15; $10 for students. [morfe info]
Roasted Chestnuts IX (feat. Queer Songbook Orchestra) / Hart House Theatre 2024-12-20 (Friday). $32. [more info]
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / The Sympathetic String Band / Nick Flanagan / Way Bad Stone) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-08 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]
Lostworldsounds [Heartbroken Yesterdays Fleeting Tomorrows album release celebration!] (Man Meets Bear / guests from Ghostlight) / The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst 2024-12-08 (Sunday). $15/PWYC (no one turned away for lack of funds). [FB event]
Video hits:
If I tell you that Parade (the band) is made up of Parade: Laura Swankey, Patrick O'Reilly, Chris Pruden and Stefan Hegerat and I tell you that the animation in this video was done by Bea Labikova you're just gonna click right on it, right?
Bandcamp corner:
After taking November off, there's one last Bandcamp Friday coming up to close out the year. A good time to pick up some digital stocking stuffers! I've got lots of stuff on my list, but here's a couple picks:
It happened this week...
...on December 4, 2014 at The Music Gallery (Emergents I).
The autumn has brought a welcome cluster of shows from Tad Michalak's Burn Down The Capital promotional arm, mixing touring artists (many with a long relationship with BDtC) with local legends and emerging artists, many of them taking place in the cozy basement space at Collective Arts' taproom. (Important note: there's one last show in this burst coming up this Saturday.)
Guitarist Ava Mendoza was in town for a Tad Show earlier this year, backing trumpeter Nate Wooley in his Columbia Icefield project. This return saw her in a stripped-down solo performance, pulling out a mic stand and her pedalboards (including an expertly-deployed Red Panda Particle) out in front of the stage to engage directly with the crowd. Focusing on the brand-new The Circular Train album, this showed off both her songwriting depths as well as her guitar skills, bringing avant slice-and-dicing to bluesy forms, and stretching out the instrumentals without ever feeling uninterestingly chopsy.
The autumn has brought a welcome cluster of shows from Tad Michalak's Burn Down The Capital promotional arm, mixing touring artists (many with a long relationship with BDtC) with local legends and emerging artists, many of them taking place in the cozy basement space at Collective Arts' taproom. (Important note: there's one last show in this burst coming up this Saturday.)
Playing their first show in over five years, Fresh Snow still pulled in the headliner-sized crowd for this night — there's obviously a lotta folks who still hold the band in fond regard. Filling the stage with gear and cranking up the amps, the set started and ended with familiar numbers ("BMX Based Tactics" and "Flat White") but moved into new territory for the whole stretch in between, as far as I could tell. If there's possibly a bit more postrock sweep and a bit less krautrock chaos that doesn't mean that band's alchemy has changed all that much. Nice to see 'em back in action, and the new material hopefully points towards this not being a one-off.
Founded as a blog about one curmudgeon's love affair with the em dash, Mechanical Forest Sound has grown to become a community-based archive of local musical culture. Assuming that "independent music" isn't just boys with guitars and "culture" isn't just some sort of pageant, MFS is an investigation of a wide range of artists, reflecting on concerts as shared experiences, acts of citizenship and a chance to get down — fuzzy photographs and clear-sounding original live recordings a specialty.
Current manifestations of this project include Track Could Bend, a monthly concert series featuring "improvised music and weird rock offshoots", presented in a casual environment.
At one point I wrote full-on concert reviews, and for longer I thought I would catch up and write about shows in the past. But these days, because of, y'know, life, do not expect much in the way of full show reviews — but live recordings with blurbs will be posted as quickly after the fact as is feasible.
You can also check out full sets uploaded to the Live Music Archive. [not currently active]
N.B.: All recordings should be available & playable. If you come across any broken links, invisible or non-functioning players, etc, please leave a comment and I will tend to it ASAP.
ALSO N.B.: I'm perpetually on the lookout for a new place to stash my MP3's online. If you know of any place that allows a couple gigs of stuff to be openly linked to for streaming, drop me a line!
All MP3's on this blog are audience recordings shared as a reminder of the excitement of seeing live music. If you are an artist who doesn't want their music shared in this way, please contact me and I shall remove it forthwith.
Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!
Lina Allemano Four / The Emmet Ray 2024-12-18 (Wednesday – 6 p.m.). $10 advance / $15 door. [FB event]
Playscape Emporium: Of dances and dreams (feat. Angela Blumberg Dance / Teething / Adrian Berry) / Array Space 2024-12-19 (Thursday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Henri Fabergé Crashes The Creskins Ball ["A festive night of comedy,music & mayhem"] (feat. Gwynne Phillips / Briana Templeton / Kayla Lorette / Roger Bainbridge / Miguel Rivas / Alex Tindal / Clare McConnell / Adam Niebergall / Sharjil Rasool / Johnny Spence / Steve Foster / Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll / Sarah Bennett / Juliann Wilding / Nicole Passmore / Jackie Pirico / Sarah Ruba / New Chance / Anh Phung) / 918 Bathurst 2024-12-19 (Thursday – early show @ 6 p.m., late show @ 8:30). $27.96. [FB event]
Tranzac New Year's Eve (feat. Joseph Shabason & The Welcome To Hell Tentet / Sandro Perri & Friends / Jane Inc) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-12-31 (Tuesday). $30 Adv. / $32 door. [FB event]
New Encounters ["new works and arrangements by Maria-Eduarda Mendez Martins, Pouya Hamidi, Morgan-Paige Melbourne, and Eldritch Priest"] (feat. Array Ensemble) / Array Space 2025-02-01 (Saturday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Behaviours: Data (feat. Anando Gabo / Marelena Pellegrino / Technology of Creative Consciousness) / Array Space 2025-03-13 (Thursday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Freesound Presents: Music for Solo Instruments (feat. Michael Murphy / Amahl Arulanandam / Matti Pulkki) / Array Space 2025-03-20 (Thursday). $22.63. [more info]
Playscape Emporium: Arcade-palooza (feat. Render File / Jason Leaver PuzzSoft) / Array Space 2024-05-15 (Saturday). $20.00 (or Pay What You Wish) / Livestream: $10.00 (or Pay What You Wish). [more info]
Freesound Presents: Violin // Trumpet // Melodica [featuring new work by Martin Arnold] (feat. Aysel Taghi-Zada/Émilie Fortin/Martin Arnold) / Array Space 2025-06-28 (Saturday). $22.63. [more info]
Track Could Bend #87 (feat. SOUP/ Panties / battle milk) / Wenona Lodge 2024-01-02 (Tuesday)
Swanherds [rebecca bruton solo] (Kurt Newman) / 918 Bathurst – The Sun Room 2024-01-23 (Tuesday)
Track Could Bend #88 (feat. Écureuil / Garden of Magic) / Wenona Lodge 2024-02-06 (Tuesday)
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / Eiyn Sof / Colin Fisher / Nick Flanagan) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-02-11 (Sunday)
Track Could Bend #89 (feat. mutepack / Piers Oolvai) / Wenona Lodge 2022-03-05 (Tuesday)
Women From Space Festival: Night 2 (feat. Grace Scheele / MOCH / Mali Obomsawin) / 918 Bathurst 2024-03-09 (Saturday)
Women From Space Festival: Night 3 (feat. Anh Phung/chiquitamagic/Emjay Wright / Val Jeanty & Nickeshia Garrick / Matana Roberts/Germaine Liu/Nicole Rampersaud) / 918 Bathurst 2024-03-10 (Sunday)
Faster Presents: Juice?$#%* (feat. Happy Apple / Brian Abbott & Ryan Kinney / Andrew Kay/Kayla Milmine/Bob Vespaziani / Liz Lima/Brodie West/Andrew Kay/Paul Newman) / Gerrard Art Space 2024-03-23 (Saturday)
Ryan Driver’s Big 5-0 (feat. The Ryan Driver Sextet + guests) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-03-30 (Saturday)
Josh Cole Presents (feat. Rob Clutton/Josh Cole/Nick Fraser/John Oswald wsg Colin Fisher) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-04-09 (Tuesday)
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Tzevi Sherman / Marilyn Yogarajah & Co. / Nick Flanagan / Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-04-14 (Sunday)
Poncili Creacion with Karen Ng and Philippe Melanson (Nubuo Kubota) / The Music Gallery 2024-04-19 (Friday)
Tranzac Fundraiser I (feat. Sandro Perri & Friends / Masahiro Takahashi / Anne Bourne) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-04-20 (Saturday)
Wenderly Park (Friends of Wenderly Park feat. Marilyn Yogarajah/Bea Labikova/Allison Cameron/Mike Lynn/Jason Doell) / The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst 2024-04-23 (Tuesday)
Joe's 50th Birthday (feat. Eucalyptus / Isla Craig + band / Colin Fisher) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-04-25 (Thursday)
Track Could Bend #91 (feat. TH6Ø / Olivia Shortt / Brian Abbott) / Wenona Lodge 2024-05-07 (Tuesday)
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior/Kurt Newman/Andrew Furlong / William Davison / Karsten Stryker / Nick Flanagan) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-05-12 (Sunday)
Ghostgirl residency (feat. Aline Homzy/Allan Mackie/Michael Davidson / Michael Davidson [solo]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-05-14 (Tuesday)
Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip 2024 (feat. Brian Ruryk & %%30%30 / Louis Pino / Em Wright / Owen Kurtz) / Bickford Park "Stadium" 2024-09-19 (Thursday)
X Avant XIX: Texture: Refraction (feat. The Glass Orchestra / future proof) / The Music Gallery 2024-10-19 (Saturday)
Mira Martin-Gray and Niamh Girling present CLUE NOTE (feat. Allison Cameron/Niamh Girling/Mira Martin-Gray/Olivia Shortt) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-10-29 (Tuesday)
Friends of Clue Note present: Trivial Musical Pursuits (feat. Sara Constant/Patrick O'Reilly/Heraclitus Akimbo/Marilyn Yogarajah/Raphael Roter) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-10-29 (Tuesday)
Labyrinth Ensemble with Maliheh Moradi / Aga Khan Museum 2024-11-02 (Saturday)
Burn Down The Capital presents (feat. Ava Mendoza / Fresh Snow / Not The Wind, Not The Flag) / Collective Arts 2024-11-03 (Sunday)
Track Could Bend #97 (feat. Marilyn + Apple / Darren Williams / Rebecca Bruton) / Wenona Lodge 2024-11-05 (Tuesday)
Music Gallery presents (feat. Joëlle Léandre & Rémy Bélanger de Beauport / Masahiro Takahashi/Joseph Shabason/Bram Gielen) / Allan Gardens – Children's Conservatory 2024-11-09 (Saturday)
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / Marilyn Yogarajah / Nick Flanagan / Triple Bad Acid) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-10 (Sunday)
Clue Note: Trivia and Creative Music (Vol. 2) (feat. Socks and Sandals (and Friends) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-26 (Tuesday)
Dan Pitt Quintet / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-26 (Tuesday)
Burn Down The Capital presents (feat. V. Vecker / Death Kneel / Cetacea / Aida Khorsandi) / Collective Arts 2024-11-30 (Saturday)
Track Could Bend #98 (feat. Dept. of Loss / Pigeon Dance) / Wenona Lodge 2024-12-03 (Tuesday)
Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / The Sympathetic String Band / Nick Flanagan / Way Bad Stone) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-08 (Sunday)
Lostworldsounds (Man Meets Bear) / The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst 2024-12-08 (Sunday)
fuzZfest 2.0 (feat. Ben Bennett/Raphaël Foisy/Karen Ng/Andrew Furlong / Eric Laska / Battle Milk) / The Tranzac (Living Room) 2024-12-12 (Thursday)
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