Monday Roundup #46

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Community notes:

• Reminder to knob-twisters and soundscapists that Musicworks' 2021 Electronic Music Composition Contest is open and awaiting your entry. It's a pretty wide-open field ("any electronic-music genre — acousmatic, electroacoustic, glitch, soundscape, intelligent dance music (IDM), turntable art, or video music etc.") and your entries will be considered by the jury on the basis of your sounds only, as all identifying information is stripped away before they are given the tracks. (Full disclosure, I am a past jurist for this competition.) There's a fee of $25 to enter, but that also gives you a one-year subscription to the magazine, so it works out as a pretty good deal. You can get all the information you need here.

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Video hits:

• Clara Engel's "Microgods of all the Subatomic Worlds" (from their 2017 EP Songs for Leonora Carrington) has been given a second go-round with a striking new video from dance troupe Odeón Círculo Escénico, filmed on-site in the Museo Leonora Carrington in San Luis Potosí, Mexico:

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Bandcamp corner:

• No surprise that the new album from the Nick Fraser Quartet (Nick Fraser/Tony Malaby/Andrew Downing/Rob Clutton) rips in all the right ways. It's also pretty sweet to see these musicians amongst some pretty heavy hitters (like, say, Don Cherry/John Coltrane/Albert Ayler/Matthew Shipp) on Ezz-Thetics' bandcamp page.

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It happened this week...

• ...on November 30, 2016, at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge).

Cameron/Cole/Perri/Rampersaud - [first set, excerpt 2]

• ...on December 1, 2016 at The Garrison.

New Fries - Gertrude Stein Greeting Card from Pape/Danforth

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Monday Roundup #45

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Livestream nation:

• Thin Edge New Music Collective presents Premieres X, a night of new chamber pieces, on Wednesday (November 24th) with commissioned works by Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, Paolo Griffin, Homa Samiei and Matthew Ariaratnam. Free to watch, though PWYC donations are welcomed.

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Concert listings:

• Long Winter 10th anniversary kick-off: Together Apart International DIY Festival (feat. Orphx / Odonis Odonis / Bernice / Shn Shn / Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band / Tange / Del Stephen / Asuquomo / Karim Olen Ash / Savannah Taylor / Merival / New Chance / Besé / Ziibiwan / Sisi Superstar / Ceréna / Tica Holiday / Blackwinterwells) / St. Anne's Church 2021-11-26–2021-11-27 (Friday + Saturday). $12/$15 [ticket info]. [FB event] ("an IRL/URL cross-stream virtual party")

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Track Could Bend — redivivus:

• Track Could Bend (the cozy monthly music series curated by yours truly) is coming back! To try and ensure the safety and comfort of everyone involved, things will be in a hybrid form for the next few months. We'll be congregating at our home in the basement at Wenona Lodge with a very limited in-person crowd. I'll document the sets with audio and video and they'll make their way onto youtube on the first Tuesday of the month — which means you should make a note to keep your eye out on December 7th. To work the kinks out I did something I usually avoid and booked a group I'm part of for the "dress rehearsal". Here's a hint of what's coming up:

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It happened this week...

• ...on November 27, 2015 at The Horseshoe Tavern.

Dilly Dally - Candy Mountain

• ...on November 28, 2015 at Toronto Public Library – Yorkville Branch (Make Some Noise).

Jennifer Castle - I Don't Care About Money

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Recording: Labyrinth Ensemble with Lamia Yared

Artist: Labyrinth Ensemble with Lamia Yared

Song: Layali el wasl

Recorded at the Aga Kham Museum, November 13, 2021.

Labyrinth Ensemble with Lamia Yared - Layali el wasl

An auspicious beginning to this new phase from Labyrinth Ontario, debuting their full ensemble for the first time. This concert (and the ones slated to follow) expand on Labyrinth's mandate to foster cultural exchanges and musical education, bringing in an esteemed artist-in-residence — in this case vocalist/oudist Lamia Yared — for a period of extended rehearsals to give the musicians a chance to really dig into the material. The results were excellent across the board as the group stretched out in a series of traditional Turkish and Arabic musical styles, finding space to give each of the members a chance for their own instrument to stand out.

The full ensemble for this show was: Sadaf Amini (santur), Yang Chen (percussion/hand drums), Burak Ekmekci (baglama), Michael K. Harrist (yayli tanbur), Pedram Khavarzamini (tombak), Roa Lee (gayageum), Naomi McCarroll-Butler (saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, sallow flute/konvovka), John McKinnon (bass), Scott Peterson (bass), Araz Salek (tar), Marta Solek (cello, Greek lyra, plock fiddle), Tev Stevig (tanbur, oud), Aysel Taghi-Zada (violin), and Amely Zhou (erhu).

If you have access to facebook you can (at this writing) still watch the excellent-sounding archived webstream.

screenshot from Aga Khan webstream.

Monday Roundup #44

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Community notes:

• As COVID numbers start climbing again, it's difficult to get a sense of how to behave, what the dangers are, what to change, and what to keep doing. Some capacity limits are being held in place, though this doesn't seem to immediately impact concerts — but should they? Meanwhile, in Europe, where more restrictions had been relaxed (amid a "growing complacency about masks and distancing," which we should take as a cautionary warning), there's a big upswing, even in places with robust vaccination figures. It feels especially dicey for those of us who have just been making some relatively cautious steps into more social situations.

• Meanwhile, in local venue news, could The Phoenix be the next space to be replaced by a condo tower?

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Livestream nation:

• Understory's season of cross-Canada "exquisite corpse"-style remote collaborations continues on Thursday (November 18th) with two fantastic trios, consisting of chik white, Debashis Sinha and Laura Swankey plus Aisha Sasha John, Gurpreet Chana and Stephanie Chua. Check it out over on their youtube channel.

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Video replay:

• If you missed this set from Brazilian groover Bruno Capinan captured live at Lula Lounge that premiered this week, it may be just the thing to warm up your spirits as it gets colder outside:

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Concert listings:

• Okavango African Orchestra / Alliance Française de Toronto 2021-12-04 (Saturday). $20, advance ticket required. [FB event]

• AWAKE (feat. Joseph Shabason / Emissive + screening of Lucy Cameron Doc) / The Music Gallery 2021-12-04 (Friday). $15 [or Pay What You Want livestream available]. [FB event]

• Jennifer Castle: Winter Solstice / Longboat Hall 2021-12-21 (Tuesday). $20. [FB event]

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It happened this week...

• ...on November 15, 2014 at Double Double Land (DDL 5th Anniversary, Night 5).

The Space Lady - Major Tom

• ...on November 18, 2014 at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge).

Luxury Transcombobulation - Bongowater

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Monday Roundup #43

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Livestream nation:

• Audiopollination's new season begins this week! As things (hopefully!) get safer, the series will be transitioning to livestreams and (hopefully!) live audiences, but this first outing is a prerecorded duo of Diane Roblin (keyboard) & Yvonne Ng (movement). You can catch it for free on Friday (November 12th) over at Array's youtube channel.

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Concert listings:

• Labyrinth Ensemble with Lamia Yared / Aga Khan Museum 2021-11-13 (Saturday). $40 regular ($36 Museum Friends, $30 students and seniors, $20 artists). [FB event]

• The Ryan Driver Sextet / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2021-12-04 (Saturday). $11.62. [Attendance cap is sixty! Buy your ticket in advance!] [FB event]

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Bandcamp corner:

• One point of comparison for Tigerbomb might be scrappy-era Guided By Voices, given a similar propensity for their frontmen to crank out piles of songs (ranging from fragments to epics). But while it seemed like Robert Pollard aspired to veer into writing his own version of, say, Quadrophenia, Duncan "Doc Pickles" MacDonell's sympathies are with The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, though any stabs at grandiosity compete with a love of playground chants and occasionally just hangin' out at the Centerpoint Mall. And while the tracks have a scrappy urgency, the thoughtful arrangements reveal this is no lo-fi toss-off. The upshot: poetic gestures in all sorts of directions, and you'll be humming the title track to yourself for days afterwards. [Bonus! keep scrolling down for some bonus Doc Pickles content!]

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It happened this week...

• ...on November 9, 2012 at The Silver Dollar Room (Psych-Pop Toronto Release Party – Night 2).

B-17 - Another Nocturnal Day

• ...on November 10, 2013 at Handlebar (Crosswires).

The Jim Storie Juniors - Don't Take My Shortwave Away

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Monday Roundup #42

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Community notes:

• Changes are coming quickly now in terms of restrictions on venues, especially with this week's news that Ontario venues can go back to holding shows at full standing capacity. This is obviously huge news for rock clubs, whose entire model is based on having full rooms. It will, however, feel like a shock for those of us still slowly feeling their way back into those old situations — for folks who were still leary about spread-out seated shows, this is a big leap back, even if things are generally looking safer in spaces with masked + vaxxed patrons. And while the rock clubs are feeling their way along trying to find sustainable and safe situations for artists and audiences, is there any chance of moving things back so shows start and end an hour or two earlier?

• Meanwhile, in venue-specific news, the Tranzac is starting to come back to life: "We... have more work to do in getting the Southern Cross bar ready, so for now we will be hosting small capacity, seated, ticketed events in the Main Hall where there is more room to spread out and enjoy the show." Keep an eye out for news of further developments as well as for info on shows coming up (like Concrete Cabaret's OBJECTO: Toronto's Festival of Experimental Puppetry, coming up November 26th and 27th).

• And on a more personal note, the elements are coming into place to get back to resuming Track Could Bend. Our hosts at Wenona are willing + eager to have us back. But: would you feel safe/comfortable at a TCB event in the next month or two? (Assuming requisite protocols in place incl vaxx check and being masked.) Would we want to put a hard cap on number of people in the space? Anything else that would make it feel more okay? Feel free to share your thoughts over on facebook or email me (mechanicalforestsound[at]gmail.com).

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Livestream nation:

• Drop in tonight (Monday, November 1st at 9 EDT) to hear Karen Ng in conversation with Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio’s Option Series. (and "a couple silly vids" have been promised as well!)

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Bandcamp corner:

• A T.O. classic is coming back into ready circulation with Idée Fixe's digital/vinyl reissue of Live at the Music Gallery, the debut album of Jennifer Castle (or Castlemusic, as she was known at the time).

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It happened this week...

• ...on November 1, 2011 at The Drake Underground.

A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears

• ...on November 6, 2011 at Halo Halo Village (Medusa Editions Turn 2 Stone Nite Vol. 1).

Carl Didur - unknown

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]