Recording: Avrha

Artist: Avrha

Songs: [first piece, section 3]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (The Music Gallery's X AVANT XII – Night 4), October 14, 2017.

Avrha - [first piece, section 3]

Taking a night off from its new home base at 918 Bathurst, the Tranzac threw this Saturday night party in The Tranzac's Main Hall. More than ever, the linkages between the Festival's performances was in the overarching theme of "Resistance", and to get a different perspective on that the MG turned this night over to community-insurgent popforce LAL, who brought in the Babely Shades collective to put things together. Before the show, Babely Shades' Hana Jama led a deep and lively discussion with some of the night's artists on how their art expresses both their identities and their sense of resistance. The night also had an impressive visual component, not only with projections of Riya Jama's richly-detailed Afrofuturistic art, but also with the projections of radical shadow-puppetry ensemble Drawing With Knives.

Extracted from the axis of Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, this project strips away songs + stagecraft to give some musical exploratory space to Alaska B (drums, percussion, samples) and Brendan Swanson (keybs). Starting in a fairly delicate space, this set had a patient sense of build as it seeped out into different sonic zones — eventually finding the space-prog territory it warps into here.

Recording: Bizarrh

Artist: Bizarrh

Songs: a cappella + unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (The Music Gallery's X AVANT XII – Night 4), October 14, 2017.

Bizarrh - a cappella + unknown

Taking a night off from its new home base at 918 Bathurst, the Tranzac threw this Saturday night party in The Tranzac's Main Hall. More than ever, the linkages between the Festival's performances was in the overarching theme of "Resistance", and to get a different perspective on that the MG turned this night over to community-insurgent popforce LAL, who brought in the Babely Shades collective to put things together. Before the show, Babely Shades' Hana Jama led a deep and lively discussion with some of the night's artists on how their art expresses both their identities and their sense of resistance. The night also had an impressive visual component, not only with projections of Riya Jama's richly-detailed Afrofuturistic art, but also with the projections of radical shadow-puppetry ensemble Drawing With Knives.

When they first emerged a few years ago, this soulquarian r&b/rap duo were everywhere for a while, popping up on all sorts of bills, and garnering acknowledgements as a fast-rising force. After some time away from the spotlight, it looks like their next phase is beginning. Their stage presence was as self-assured as always, passing back melodies and rhymes like they were just hanging out in their bedroom, but feeling ready to conquer a stadium.

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