Recording: Craig Dunsmuir

Artist: Craig Dunsmuir

Song: two unknown pieces^*

Recorded at Ratio (Decreation – Night 2), June 3, 2017.

Craig Dunsmuir - unknown #1

Craig Dunsmuir - unknown #2

Given the internal and external pressures that come to bear, it's no surprise that no DIY space lasts forever. It still made it a sad occasion to learn that Ratio was winding down its active presence, news leavened slightly with the corresponding announcement of a series of farewell shows, with many artists making a final return to the space. Craig Dunsmuir lead off this second funereal night with a set of his meticulous solo compositions, with looped percussion providing a framework for interweaving guitar lines.

^* Does anyone know the titles to these? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Off World

Artist: Off World

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Great Hall, January 19, 2017.

Off World - unknown

A well-matched pick to open things up for The Cosmic Range, Off World filled up the refurbished Great Hall with their live-remix dubscapes. They actually performed at a fairly restrained volume, inviting the crowd to lean in (or sit on the floor) and listen as they filtered in. Sandro Perri and Lorenz Peter were joined for much of the set by Andrew Zukerman on additional synth and sounds, adding some new wobbles to the sonic stems.

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

Recording: Bunny

Artist: Bunny

Songs: If Only in a Dream + If You Wanna Be My Boy, You Gotta Be Cool

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall, January 14, 2017.

Bunny - If Only in a Dream

Bunny - If You Wanna Be My Boy, You Gotta Be Cool

I hadn't caught The Bicycles' Drew Smith's solo project since its moniker shifted from the slightly-goofy Dr. Ew to the endearingly-cuddly Bunny. At the heart of things, the m.o. is the same here — Smith is a helluva pop songwriter and soulful vocalist. Even if they come in two-minute bursts, the songs are shifting a bit from cotton-candy rush to grown-up pop, in the way, maybe, that Carole King singing "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" is different than The Shirelles singing it. Excellently delivered, the band included Andrew Scott (bass), Jay Anderson (drums), Jordan Howard (guitar), Bram Gielen (keyb) and Christine Bougie (guit and lap steel). Still waiting on a follow-up to the glorious Gadzooks, for now there's not much to chew on besides a couple tracks over at Southern Souls.

^* Thanks to Drew fir passing along the title to this one!

Recording: Man Made Hill

Artist: Man Made Hill

Song: Hot For Slop

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 31, 2016.

Man Made Hill - Hot For Slop

As always, The Tranzac was a cool and friendly zone to hang out in on New Year's Eve, with two stages of music all night long. Steamrolling into the future, Randy Gagne started the year off with his customary high-energy, high-fashion show. Wearing an old-school laserdisc around his neck like a medallion, he high-kicked his way through some old faves and a few new jams, even bringing Nyles Miszczyk, who's apparently producing some of the new jams, for some high-concept crooning.

Recording: Casper Skulls

Artist: Casper Skulls

Song: Lingua Franca

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), December 31, 2016.

Casper Skulls - Lingua Franca

As always, The Tranzac was a cool and friendly zone to hang out in on New Year's Eve, with two stages of music all night long. "Outsiders" inasmuch as you might expect to see them at The Tranzac less than most of the night's other performers, Casper Skulls served as the night's headliners, bringing in the New Year on the Main Hall stage with a set of songs already pushing past their recent Lips & Skull EP. Plenty sonic interplay on hand and I dig how guitarist Melanie St-Pierre's vocal leads are more in abundance in the live set than in the band's extant recorded output — and they cut through quite nicely in the room on tunes like this one.

Recording: Not The Wind, Not The Flag & Friends

Artist: Not The Wind, Not The Flag & Friends

Songs: [excerpt] + Auld Lang Syne

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 31, 2016.

Not The Wind, Not The Flag & Friends - [excerpt]

Not The Wind, Not The Flag & Friends - Auld Lang Syne

As always, The Tranzac was a cool and friendly zone to hang out in on New Year's Eve, with two stages of music all night long. Originally slated as an appearance by Not The Wind, Not The Flag to ring in the New Year, Brandon Valdivia and Colin Fisher ended up taking the stage alongside Brodie West and Thom Gill (on piano). Things were just starting to simmer nicely when, as midnight passed, the group kicked over into "Auld Lang Syne". Maybe the promise of a new year includes a full-length set from this grouping — I mean, one can hope.

Recording: Picastro

Artist: Picastro

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), December 31, 2016.

Picastro - unknown

As always, The Tranzac was a cool and friendly zone to hang out in on New Year's Eve, with two stages of music all night long. Leading things off on the Main Hall stage, before the boisterous crowds could drown it out too much, was noted party band Picastro. Truth be told, their presence was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser — even singer/guitarist Liz Hysen made a joke at the band's expanse. But all said, their slightly-snoozy abstract drift was as good a way as any to raise hopes that the worst of 2016 was just a bad dream we'd soon be done with.

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

Recording: Teenanger

Artist: Teenanger

Song: Emoji Kush

Recorded at The Baby G (Telephone Explosion presents: Xmas Food Drive), December 30, 2016.

Teenanger - Emoji Kush

As is usually the case, the otherwise-quiet gap in between xmas and New Years Eve was filled in with a slew of worthy shows for good causes, including this two-night food drive at The Baby G. This second night was hosted by Telephone Explosion, with Teenanger closing out the night with a set packed full of new tunes from a just-completed forthcoming album. For a while now, the band's increasing ambition on their increasingly new wave studio efforts has been somewhat at odds with their bare-bones stage show, so it's interesting to see the latter catching up a bit — through little flourishes as giving frontman Chris Swimmings a sampler to add in some handclap sounds, and increased space for bassist Melissa Ball's backing vox.

Recording: Hooded Fang

Artist: Hooded Fang

Song: Plastic Love

Recorded at The Baby G (Telephone Explosion presents: Xmas Food Drive), December 30, 2016.

Hooded Fang - Plastic Love

As is usually the case, the otherwise-quiet gap in between xmas and New Years Eve was filled in with a slew of worthy shows for good causes, including this two-night food drive at The Baby G. Playing to a crowd ready to dance along, Hooded Fang bounced through a set filled with Venus On Edge's non-didactic protest songs — plus one new one to boot.

Recording: Whimm

Artist: Whimm

Song: Fifth Column

Recorded at The Baby G (Telephone Explosion presents: Xmas Food Drive), December 30, 2016.

Whimm - Fifth Column

It's been a hot minute since I'd seen this post-punk trio performing, so it was pleasing to see some subtle mutations in their sound — most notably by going for some deeper dynamics while surging through some relatively slower-paced material. Bassist Andrew Matthews really carries things melodically, giving vocalist Mounir Chami more room to hack away at the songs' edges with his guitar.

Recording: Zacht Automaat

Artist: Zacht Automaat

Song: unknown^* + Night of the Assassin (feat. Grasshopper) [Les Rallizes Dénudés cover]

Recorded at Double Double Land, December 29, 2016.

Zacht Automaat - unknown

Zacht Automaat - Night of the Assassin

Bassist Michael McLean didn't come back to this side of the Atlantic this summer, so this was the first in-the-flesh performance for ZA since last year's seasonal show. As usual, though, physical separation doesn't keep the band from working, and there was a whole set of new material, mixed in with a few covers. In line with the work he's been doing solo and with Fake Humans in that time, Carl Didur brought along his taishogoto, which he bowed at the start of the first selection here.

With Didur also able to cover the basslines with the taishogoto, McLean could shift over to guitar, taking vox as well on a run through Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam". There was further guitar chaos courtesy of special guest Grasshopper on a set-closing blowout version of Les Rallizes Dénudés' "Night of the Assassin" (which the band had previously essayed on their covers tape) that could have followed its pilfered bassline down some sort of infinite rabbit hole. It might be a year again before we get a chance to see ZA play, but expect new recordings to emerge sooner than that.

Videographer Brandon Caswell Douglas was on the scene and used some of my sounds in his documentation of the night.]

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

Recording: Fresh Snow

Artist: Fresh Snow

Song: I Wanna Be Adored [Stone Roses cover]

Recorded at Double Double Land, December 29, 2016.

Fresh Snow - I Wanna Be Adored

An old-fashioned seasonal celebration at DDL for Zacht Automaat's annual performance, with Fresh Snow joining in to start things off. After the mounting drone-zone that started off their set, as it kicked into something more propulsive the bassline peeking through registered in my head, and I scrawled a note observing that whatever they were doing, it was ripping off "I Wanna Be Adored". It wasn't until Brad Davis dropped the lyric that I picked up on the fact it was indeed a cover — though in true rehearsal-room style, there's a a cool tug-of-war at places here, where it sounds like the rhythm section is stubbornly sticking with the song even as Tim Condon kept coming at it with his keybs like he was tackling a different song entirely. There's a few ragged spots here sound-wise — as the song reached its loudest point, the PA tripped out, so the vox and keyb cut out abruptly and the stage sound takes over for a bit before they find their way back in. But with ZA throwing some covers (especially one with an equally-iconic bassline!) into their set, this feels like an apt counterpart.

Videographer Brandon Caswell Douglas was on the scene and used some of my sounds in his documentation of the night.]

Recording: Bennett/Hutchinson/Turple

Artist: Connor Bennett/Aaron Hutchinson/Trevor Turple

Songs: [two excerpts from an improvisation]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 23, 2016.

Bennett-Hutchinson-Turple - [first piece, excerpt 1]

Bennett-Hutchinson-Turple - [first piece, excerpt 2]

I was eager to check out this set of electroacoustic improvisation after really digging Trevor Turple's After Ever tape, which was issued by Hamilton's excellent HAVN label/collective. On that tape, as with this set, Turple (on acoustic guitar) was joined by HAVN's Connor Bennett (on alto sax and briefcase synth) and Aaron Hutchinson, who was sitting astride the piano bench, playing with amp knobs plus a mini-synth that looked not unlike a Pong controller (and sometimes made dimilar noises). There were pleasing zones throughout their set, with effected saxblurts and atmospheric ahhhhhhhh walked along by Turple's guitar.

[Keep an eye out for this trio — now formally known as "act tbh" — at March's Track Could Bend!]

Recording: Ryan Driver & Jim Sexton

Artist: Ryan Driver & Jim Sexton

Song: For Heaven's Sake [composers: Elise Bretton/Sherman Edwards/Donald Meyer]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 23, 2016.

Ryan Driver & Jim Sexton - For Heaven's Sake

A duo set of standards from Driver on piano and Sexton on double bass worked at the same pace Driver usually tackles standards with larger groups — that's to say at a relaxed drift with plenty of space for the song to unfold itself. This one's probably best known from Billie Holiday's recording.

[The Ryan Driver Sextet's monthly night at The Tranzac falls next on Friday, January 27th; Jim Sexton will be back at Southern Cross on January 28th as part of Chris Cawthray's Light Industry project, also featuring Glen Hall.]

Recording: Jennifer Castle

Artist: Jennifer Castle

Songs: Crying Shame + Tomorrow's Morning

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern, December 21, 2016.

Jennifer Castle - Crying Shame

Jennifer Castle - Tomorrow's Morning

Once again celebrating the dark night of the winter solstice with warm friendship and gorgeous music, Jennifer Castle mixed recent faves (including a beautiful set-opening "Pink City" with Brodie West on sax), reinvigorated older pieces ("One Two Three" and the title track from aught-eight's You Can't Take Anyone) and a whole bunch of new material. Backed for the first half of the show by Jonathan Adjemian on piano (who rolled through the first half-dozen songs almost as a continuous suite), her vocals were also adorned by Vic Cheong and Isla Craig (IC/JC/VC in effect!). There was some darkness and mortality creeping in, with titles including "The Angels of Death" and "The Grim Reaper" (although introducing the latter, Castle commented "it's not as bad as it seems") — and following them there was also "The Silver Lining". The lyrics added to Castle's deep storehouse of pithy, sage maxims ("it's a shame that I thought this river knew my name", "can I band-aid this gash / with coffee and hash?", and on and on) and she departed with a "see you in the spring", so look for a return to these parts as the seasons change once again — as they inexorably will.

Recording: Cindy Lee

Artist: Cindy Lee

Songs: unknown^* + Burning Candle [Chad VanGaalen cover]

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern, December 21, 2016.

Cindy Lee - unknown

Cindy Lee - Burning Candle

Manifesting as something like the frailest of all femmes fatale, Patrick Flegel (once of Calgary rockers Women) hit the stage like a pressed flower ready to crumble, held together only by determination and an assured Grey Gardens fabulousness. The stage setup was sheer Suicide, with Flegel clinging to a microphone stand while Scarlett Rose (formerly of Crosss, Schønsee) adorned his backing tracks with distorto Farfisa crunch (and on these tracks, beautifully-detailed lap steel). And like Suicide, the project's recordings (which you can grab free + lossless at Flegel's website) often feature the songs clothed in distancing layers of noisy haze, but on stage, they were more circumscribed in a zone somewhere between "Femme Fatale" and "Candy Says".

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

Recording: Parkins/Allemano/Liu/Doell

Artist: Andrea Parkins/Lina Allemano/Germaine Liu/Jason Doell

Song: Obj-jest, the Jettisoned [excerpt]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Departures Series), December 20, 2016.

Parkins/Allemano/Liu/Doell - Obj-jest, the Jettisoned [excerpt]

This year-closing entry in the Music Gallery's offsite Departures series returned to St. George the Martyr, taking advantage of the room's acoustics to situate this show "in the round" with the performers radiating music outward from the centre. Presented in a live quadraphonic mix, this set presented a new, player-specific piece created as a result of an intense rehearsal process leading up to the show. It gave the sense that electroacoustician Parkins (whose workspace included an accordion, laptop, electronics, packing tape, etc.) was to some extent deploying the local musicians as further instruments in her composition, mixing in Lina Allemano's trumpet, Germaine Liu's percussion and Jason Doell's guitar'n'stuff in her immersive bricolage.

Recording: Joyfultalk

Artist: Joyfultalk

Song: Mill Stones^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Departures Series), December 20, 2016.

Joyfultalk - Mill Stones

This year-closing entry in the Music Gallery's offsite Departures series returned to St. George the Martyr, taking advantage of the room's acoustics to situate this show "in the round" with the performers radiating music outward from the centre. Bringing the strongest taste of curator Tad Michalak's sensibility, Nova Scotian Jay Crocker's electronic duo was the most "pop" of the night's three sets — possibly something of an inversion of their presentation at standard rock shows, where they are often the "experimental" outliers. Still exploring ways to approach live electronic music with creativity, this set mixed shimmery textures with more propulsive sections, slowly evolving (at least to my ears) from a mad scientist gear lab to a different sort of glitchy sound purveyor.

^* Thanks to Kyle for passing along the title to this one!

Recording: Magic Hour

Artist: Magic Hour

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Departures Series), December 20, 2016.

Magic Hour - unknown

This year-closing entry in the Music Gallery's offsite Departures series returned to St. George the Martyr, taking advantage of the room's acoustics to situate this show "in the round" with the performers radiating music outward from the centre. Perched on a riser a bit over from the headlining set's workstations, Melissa Moore (a.k.a. Magic Hour) sat cross-legged, an array of high- and low-tech music-making implements spread around her. After a quiet invocation with bells and a singing bowl, this section mixed live and prerecorded percussion into something reminiscent of Francis Bebey's electronic grooves — and from there the set closed with an expansive ramble based on acoustic guitar abstractions. There was a sense of this being both a spiritual release and a seriously-considered bit of sonic sculpting — you'll have to keep an eye out for more, as there doesn't seem to be much online from this project yet.

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

Recording: Susan Alcorn

Artist: Susan Alcorn

Song: The Healer [excerpt]

Recorded at Ratio, December 18, 2016.

Susan Alcorn - The Healer [excerpt]

This particularly thoughtfully-assembled Rough Idea production brought together three different sonic explorers for a night of deep-listening vibes. Pedal steel player Susan Alcorn got her start in Texas country bands, but has spent her lifetime pushing the boundaries of her instrument. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros and Messiaen, her avant-adventurousness is still grounded in twang and gospel touches, even as she pushes far beyond in her explorations. Coaxing remarkably-subtle colourings from a notoriously-fickle instrument, this was Alcorn's first visit to Toronto, leaving rather a spellbinding impression. [My mics weren't quite up to the task of capturing these wonderfully-hushed and subtle sounds, so take this as a pale shadow of what was heard in the room before exploring further.]