Recording: MIMICO

Artist: MIMICO

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Smiling Buddha, March 11, 2016.

MIMICO - unknown

This proggy night at Smiling Buddha was presented under the auspices of façadeMontage, the promoting arm of Romar L. Johnson, also known for his visual work with the Casual Drones series. Anyone who has been to those events knows that he gives lighting and visuals a precedence above and beyond the usual, so it was no surprise to see the intricate lighting rig and intense dosage of dry ice in action here. Closing out the night, MIMICO overcame some guitar troubles to slide into full-on "Welcome to The Machine" mode with some extended instrumental action powered by Ben Oginz's keyboards.

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

Recording: Moonwood

Artist: Moonwood

Song: Mother's Eyes^*

Recorded at Smiling Buddha, March 11, 2016.

Moonwood - Mother's Eyes

This proggy night at Smiling Buddha was presented under the auspices of façadeMontage, the promoting arm of Romar L. Johnson, also known for his visual work with the Casual Drones series. Anyone who has been to those events knows that he gives lighting and visuals a precedence above and beyond the usual, so it was no surprise to see the intricate lighting rig and intense dosage of dry ice in action here. The start of Moonwood's set saw them pivoting from their ambling hexplosions with a trio of spiky, psych-punk rockers. After that, though, they disappeared into the fog with some extended instrumental grooves in the latter part of their set.

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

Recording: zhang³

Artist: zhang³

Song: unknown [excerpt]^*

Recorded at Smiling Buddha, March 11, 2016.

zhang³ - unknown [excerpt]

This proggy night at Smiling Buddha was presented under the auspices of façadeMontage, the promoting arm of Romar L. Johnson, also known for his visual work with the Casual Drones series. Anyone who has been to those events knows that he gives lighting and visuals a precedence above and beyond the usual, so it was no surprise to see the intricate lighting rig and intense dosage of dry ice in action here. Besides co-owning June Records, Ian Cheung is doing some cool modular synth work in this trio, alongside Roey Shemesh on guitar and Jay Anderson on drums. Sounding something like I Am Robot and Proud covering "Hallogallo", the first section of the set heard here offered a continuous, loping groove from Anderson that Cheung could occasionally disrupt with synth eruptions.

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

Recording: Fake Humans

Artist: Fake Humans

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Smiling Buddha, March 11, 2016.

Fake Humans - unknown

This proggy night at Smiling Buddha was presented under the auspices of façadeMontage, the promoting arm of Romar L. Johnson, also known for his visual work with the Casual Drones series. Anyone who has been to those events knows that he gives lighting and visuals a precedence above and beyond the usual, so it was no surprise to see the intricate lighting rig and intense dosage of dry ice in action here. Opening the night, it turns out that this duo of Carl Didur and Colin Fisher has evolved since I saw them a while back, moving from abstract synthscapes into a fully-realized "band" sound. Armed with a Suzuki Taishogoto, Didur provided both bassline and synth in this strikingly-realized section while Fisher played drums.

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