Recording: FIN

Artist: FIN

Song: Daughters

Recorded at Katzman Contemporary (Channel no. 2: Reality), January 13, 2016.

FIN - Daughters

This five-night series, curated by Brett Despotovich, is bringing Toronto's experimental music scenes into a gallery space — both to allow some considered listening and to enable a series of large-scale visual collaborations. (This night drew inspiration from the morass of so-called "reality" television.) Besides the well-chosen music, this will also be an introduction for many to a rather lovely space — gallery culture, which tends to stay one step ahead of gentrification in the search for affordable spaces, has now seeped up to Carleton Village. So this week, hop on the Symington bus and go check out some cool collaborations.

It was a treat to hear currently-expatriated Rebecca "Fin" Simonetti's dark-edged pop songs again — and even moreso with the vibe enhanced by Bee Rieger's ace VHS-ified video work, bright colours saturating bursts of static. Simonetti had also brought a couple of her cool/menacing fabric works to hang in the gallery for the night, bad-girl leather jackets repurposed with scenes sewn in her delicate needlework.

[Channel's run at Katzman Contemporary continues through Saturday, with cool musicians using the space to collaborate with the visualisations in different ways.]

Recording: Hexzuul

Artist: Hexzuul

Song: [excerpt]^*

Recorded at Katzman Contemporary (Channel no. 2: Reality), January 13, 2016.

Hexzuul - [excerpt]

This five-night series, curated by Brett Despotovich, is bringing Toronto's experimental music scenes into a gallery space — both to allow some considered listening and to enable a series of large-scale visual collaborations. (This night drew inspiration from the morass of so-called "reality" television.) Besides the well-chosen music, this will also be an introduction for many to a rather lovely space — gallery culture, which tends to stay one step ahead of gentrification in the search for affordable spaces, has now seeped up to Carleton Village. So this week, hop on the Symington bus and go check out some cool collaborations.

This set from David Jones' solo project was less menacing and physical than the previous time I saw him in action, hums giving way to sawing buzz-zworps as Jones guided not only his musical tones but some analog visual interventions over a TV loop, with a face being mirrored and split, refractions folding into each other as visual noise curled in from the edges.

[Channel's run at Katzman Contemporary continues through Saturday, with cool musicians using the space to collaborate with the visualisations in different ways.]

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

Recording: Sylvermayne

Artist: Sylvermayne

Song: [excerpt]^*

Recorded at Katzman Contemporary (Channel no. 2: Reality), January 13, 2016.

Sylvermayne - [excerpt]

This five-night series, curated by Brett Despotovich, is bringing Toronto's experimental music scenes into a gallery space — both to allow some considered listening and to enable a series of large-scale visual collaborations. (This night drew inspiration from the morass of so-called "reality" television.) Besides the well-chosen music, this will also be an introduction for many to a rather lovely space — gallery culture, which tends to stay one step ahead of gentrification in the search for affordable spaces, has now seeped up to Carleton Village. So this week, hop on the Symington bus and go check out some cool collaborations.

This project from producer Andre E-R covered a fair amount of sonic terrain in a forty minute set. Though I'm more partial to the doom-y atmospherics that lead things off than the dancefloor bonanza that ended it, there's no doubt there was an assured hand at the controls here controlling the shift in dynamics as sublimated throbbing gave way to a sneaky slow volume burst to juice things up. This particular bit here sort of cuts the difference between those extremes at the start and end of the set.

[Channel's run at Katzman Contemporary continues through Saturday, with cool musicians using the space to collaborate with the visualisations in different ways.]

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

Recording: Brigitte Bardon't

Artist: Brigitte Bardon't

Song: Tightly But Briefly^*

Recorded at Katzman Contemporary (Channel no. 1: Vlog), January 12, 2016.

Brigitte Bardon't - Tightly But Briefly

This five-night series, curated by Brett Despotovich, is bringing Toronto's experimental music scenes into a gallery space — both to allow some considered listening and to enable a series of large-scale visual collaborations. (This first night drew inspiration from the seemingly-boundless wellspring of youtube videos.) Besides the well-chosen music, this will also be an introduction for many to a rather lovely space — gallery culture, which tends to stay one step ahead of gentrification in the search for affordable spaces, has now seeped up to Carleton Village. So this week, hop on the Symington bus and go check out some cool collaborations.

The most elaborately-conceptualized of the evening's performances, Kristel Jax found the ideal visual counterpoint to her intimately-murmured drone-pop. Projector pointed straight down onto her performance space on the floor in the middle of the room, she was painted by a series of confessional video diaries, their emotional talkbursts creeping into the corners of her soundscapes. The operatic intensity of these private moments corresponded to the vocals, which seem to be simultaneously lay-it-all-out confessional and (via echo and other sonic manipulations) murkily opaque — our private crises laid bare for all to see, but still the incomprehensible mumblings of an existential Other.

[Channel's run at Katzman Contemporary continues through Saturday, with cool musicians using the space to collaborate with the visualisations in different ways.]

^* Thanks to Kristel for passing along the title to this one.

Recording: Doom Tickler

Artist: Doom Tickler feat. Lana Del Satan

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Katzman Contemporary (Channel no. 1: Vlog), January 12, 2016.

Doom Tickler feat. Lana Del Satan - unknown

This five-night series, curated by Brett Despotovich, is bringing Toronto's experimental music scenes into a gallery space — both to allow some considered listening and to enable a series of large-scale visual collaborations. (This first night drew inspiration from the seemingly-boundless wellspring of youtube videos.) Besides the well-chosen music, this will also be an introduction for many to a rather lovely space — gallery culture, which tends to stay one step ahead of gentrification in the search for affordable spaces, has now seeped up to Carleton Village. So this week, hop on the Symington bus and go check out some cool collaborations.

Leslie Predy, whose loop-based music is filled with animalistic grunts and howls, took things to the next level in a spontaneous interspecies collaboration with celebripug Lana Del Satan, who was hopping with excitement while adding some call-and-response barking. (Check out some video evidence here.) Predy is also noted for her visual work in trawling youtube's weirder corners, and her montage here felt like a series of Tales From Beyond The Uncanny Valley, mixing early computer animation with pseudohuman robots and other creepy visages.

[Channel's run at Katzman Contemporary continues through Saturday, with cool musicians using the space to collaborate with the visualisations in different ways.]

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

Recording: Burglar

Artist: Burglar

Song: Brain over mind? [excerpt]^*

Recorded at Katzman Contemporary (Channel no. 1: Vlog), January 12, 2016.

Burglar - Brain over mind? [excerpt]

This five-night series, curated by Brett Despotovich, is bringing Toronto's experimental music scenes into a gallery space — both to allow some considered listening and to enable a series of large-scale visual collaborations. (This first night drew inspiration from the seemingly-boundless wellspring of youtube videos.) Besides the well-chosen music, this will also be an introduction for many to a rather lovely space — gallery culture, which tends to stay one step ahead of gentrification in the search for affordable spaces, has now seeped up to Carleton Village. So this week, hop on the Symington bus and go check out some cool collaborations.

This self-proclaimed purveyor of "spooky music" (who doesn't give away too many biographical hints in his online outlets) lead off the night with a slowly-evolving continuous track accompanying a TED-talk styled pop-science lecture.

[Channel's run at Katzman Contemporary continues through Saturday, with cool musicians using the space to collaborate with the visualisations in different ways.]

^* Word is we can treat the talk's title as the name of this piece.