Recording: Freaky Boos

Artist: Freaky Boos

Song: [first section]^*

Recorded at The Tranzac (Tiki Room), February 5, 2020.

Freaky Boos - [first section]

Touring up and down the 401 to celebrate the release of their debut full-length, Becky Katz, Aaron Hutchinson and Jackson Darby once again explored the chaos and community that comes in working together to tear things apart. Always joyfully askew, this set was also incredibly dense and action-paced, with co-ordinated sonic attacks imploding into moments of solo exploration. Unified by a projection of a ticking countdown clock, this set both had a loosely-choreographed structure and a building dramatic tension: something is gonna happen, so you better sit back and try and get comfortable while you try and figure out what.

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

Recording: Freaky Boos

Artist: Freaky Boos

Song: Kind of Truth + unknown^*

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #47), February 5, 2019.

Freaky Boos - Kind of Truth

Freaky Boos - unknown

When I booked this project to play Track Could Band, it was because it was made up of three community-minded peeps from Hamilton — I had no idea what they were going to be playing. Comprised of three musicians with different soundworlds, my first guess is that might have been a party groove band, à la Jackson Darby's PERSONS. A couple songs on a lathe-cut single hinted otherwise and in person, it turned out to be an interesting answer to the question of how different musical approaches could share the same stage.

One approach (as heard in the first piece here) was simply taking long breaths together, but the other was simply to give space and break out into a series of solo spots within the trio. That created room not only for Darby's laptop manipulations, but also Becky Katz's conversational samples and collage snippets as well as Aaron Hutchinson's synth and trumpet textures. If there's a thesis here, it's maybe that being in a community can help amplify our individual voices — a useful reminder in these astonishing times.

[Track Could Bend is back at Wenona Lodge on Tuesday, May 7th!]

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

Recording: act tbh

Artist: act tbh

Song: [first piece, in two parts]

Recorded at The Steady Café (Track Could Bend #24), March 7, 2017.

act tbh - [first piece, part 1]

act tbh - [first piece, part 2]

This trio provided some purifying sounds to sanctify Track Could Bend's new home in the back room of The Steady Café. I'm sure there are other facts connecting the dots but I do know that Connor Bennett and Aaron Hutchinson (of Hamilton's rather excellent collective/label HAVN) provided musical support on Trevor Truple's After Ever tape, and that the three have been playing together some. That's now been formalized under the banner of this project, and there's signs of a deepening musical mind-meld at hand.

Rather than the lo-fi synth textures that coloured the set I saw at The Tranzac, things were more acoustically-based this time around, even if the instruments were all being treated. There was also a really patient and well-considered build-up here, with the opening sparseness slowing giving itself over to increasing density. I haven't heard any word that there's a HAVN tape forthcoming from this trio, but I'm starting that rumour anyway just to make sure there's pressure on them to make it happen.

[Track Could Bend will be back at The Steady on Tuesday, May 2nd.]

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!]