Recording: Goosey

Artist: Goosey

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #19), October 4, 2016.

Goosey - [excerpt from first piece]

Taking a break from recording the next Holy Gasp album, Benjamin Hackman brought his congas and yelps and stepped out of his comfort zone to play this improvised set alongside Karen Ng. There were plenty tasty outbursts along the way and some genuinely goosey crunchiness.

Recording: The Holy Gasp

Artist: The Holy Gasp

Songs: Bedbugs + How I Get Down

Recorded at St. James Park, June 2, 2016.

The Holy Gasp - Bedbugs

The Holy Gasp - How I Get Down

Kudos to any BIA that wants to animate their neighbourhood with some local music. St. James Park is always a most interesting place to hang out — with its mix of condofied dog walkers and the resilient allsorts resisting gentrification it's a microcosm of this bustling city layering new and old communities in close proximity. It's a well-used space, so throwing a band in the mix feels like one more ingredient in the stew giving everyone an opportunity to dance.

On that score, the Holy Gasp were a good pick to animate the space, even if some of their material wasn't "family-friendly" in the traditional sense. And while singer/percussionist Benjamin Hackman left his swear jar at home, it didn't seem the least bit out of place in this particular environment. Playing a couple sets also gave the six-piece band a chance to stretch out a bit, not only delivering the high points from last year's The Last Generation of Love, but also some tunes from their forthcoming second album — plus some other excursions like a John Coltrane-ish jazzy excursion that served as a showcase for saxophonist Karen Ng. There's more music in St. James Park on Thursdays throughout the summer, so add that to your list of free, outdoor summer hangs.

Recording: The Holy Gasp

Artist: The Holy Gasp

Song: The Man Ain't Groovy [sitaricon version]

Recorded at The Great Hall (Long Winter 4.5 – Night 1), March 18, 2016.

The Holy Gasp - The Man Ain't Groovy [sitaricon version]

You can't fault Long Winter for being ambitious and for wanting to close out the season by cramming in as much music and art into the Great Hall as possible, but their plan to close the year out with a two-night stand didn't entirely pay off. Giving patrons the choice of two nights (and holding them at the end of Spring Break) seemed to especially cut into the younger crowd and both nights (especially Friday) lacked that "about to burst" feeling that makes LW unique. But even if the crowd was at less than maximum strength, there was no certainly no lack of music spread throughout the building.

"We don't usually sound like this. At all. It's kind of fun to have opportunities to play strange covers of your own music rearranged for instruments that none of us really play. So thanks for giving us a chance to wig out and get groovy."

Recording: The Holy Gasp

Artist: The Holy Gasp

Song: Stomp Out The Man

Recorded at Christie Pits Park – Garden Stage (Bloor Ossington Folk Festival V), September 19, 2015.

The Holy Gasp - Stomp Out The Man

You can read my general notes on the festival here. Benjamin Hackman's conga-fied protest party gets personal/political on this l'il shoutout to Stephen Harper. Flute action here is from fill-in Karen Ng, who hit the stage in full beatnik mode.

Recording: Avesta Nakhaei's Collective Improvisation

Artist: Avesta Nakhaei's Collective Improvisation

Songs: [two fragments from first section] + [unknown song feat. Soley]^*

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), June 17, 2015.

Avesta Nakhaei's Collective Improvisation - [fragment 1 from first section]

Avesta Nakhaei's Collective Improvisation - [fragment 2 from first section]

Avesta Nakhaei's Collective Improvisation feat. Soley - [4th part, 1st piece]

As I've seen before, Avesta Nakhaei's Tranzac gigs are free-flowing affairs, with musicians coming and going throughout the night trying to keep up with Nakhaei's endlessly-inventive piano work. This session started off as a trio, with Nakhaei joined by Anoush Taba'i on clarinet and Michael Kaler on bass — you can hear a couple extracts of this grouping as they find their musical feet. Later on a good chunk of The Holy Gasp dropped by on their way to a gig, and Chris Weatherstone (sax) and Dave Oso and Benjamin Hackman (percussion) were sitting in for the night's final section, where they backed singer Soleyman Vaseghi (popularly known as just Soley).

Soley — a Persian singer of note who has made Toronto his home — sang with the sort of gravitas you can't fake. He performs with a qawwali group nowadays, has a pre-revolutionary popstar past, and released a series of what sound like fairly awesome New Age-tinged albums in the late '80's that you can hear on his website. (Someone should get on doing some re-issues of these.) At any rate, this is the sort of random discovery that can make a quiet night out at The Tranzac into something wholly astonishing.

[Avesta Nakhaei will be painting with an even broader brush at the return of his Meandering Streams of Consciousness project, which brings together improvising musicians with members of the local Persian music scene for large-ensemble improvising action. Check it out on Sunday, July 26th at Array Space.]

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

Recording: The Holy Gasp

Artist: The Holy Gasp

Songs: Heaven Is An Island Where Everybody's Dead/The Mating Song

Recorded at Wavelength Pop Up @ Huntclub Studios ("Wavelength 643"), February 7, 2014.

The Holy Gasp - Heaven Is An Island Where Everybody's Dead/The Mating Song

This was my first exposure to "beatnik-revival conga revolution" The Holy Gasp, though the sing along/dance along audience they brought implied they're already a bit of a phenom. There were also some familiar faces in the crew, including sax player Christopher Weatherstone (also of Lemon Bucket Orchestra) and guitarist Sebastian Shinwell (of the recently-disbanded Clarinet Panic Deluxx). But the most attention-grabbing member of the ensemble was definitely vocalist/percussionist Benjamin Hackman, who brought a bit of maniacal flair to the proceedings. Hinting at moments of Contortions-esque abrasive funk, the band could also veer into aimiably goofy group singalong territory, and is definitely a powerful live unit.

Their new album The Last Generation of Love is coming out on Arachnidiscs' No Love imprint at the end of the month, and their next local gig is Saturday, March 21st at The Silver Dollar. [For arcane technical reasons, the vox are a bit low in this recording, but it gives you an idea of the groove going on. I'll get something better next time I catch the band!]

^* Thanks to the band for passing the titles along!