Recording: Brian Ruryk

Artist: Brian Ruryk

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection Festival – Day 2), September 3, 2016.

Brian Ruryk - unknown

A lovely day, warm in the sun with a cool breeze, the Intersection Festival once again filled Dundas Square with music of all kinds, offering a counterpoint to business at usual in the ad-basked concrete canyon. With Tad Michalak (of Burn Down the Capital/Feast in the East) again taking a leading role in curating the day, the music had nods to the festival's more chamber music-intensive past while upping the noise and weirdness reverberating off the surrounding walls. That had a sort of push-pull effect on the passers-by, sometimes drawing them in, sometimes causing evident confusion and moving along.

Bringing one of the city's great noise musicians to a place like Dundas Square was certain to bring a smile to the face of a small band of enthusiasts. For everyone else, there were reactions ranging from terror to bemusement as Ruryk's full-body concrète hit the concrete. With half a Dollarama's worth of bricabrac being flung around, this appealed on a visceral level to kids who haven't had the joyful pleasures of raising a ruckus hounded out of them yet. But under the scatterzone junkcore, there were some serious musical points being raised, including this Max Webster deconstruction that was offered as a tribute to the Yonge Street of the 70's.

[Brian Ruryk will be playing at a noisy Nacho Wednesday showcase, tomorrow night (September 28th) at The Tranzac alongside Kevin Hainey's Kapali Carsi and Beard Closet-meets-Bodies That Matter mashup Determinist?.]

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!