Recording: Luyos MC

Artist: Luyos MC

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #41), August 7, 2018.

Luyos MC - unknown

"Unexpected rain just before showtime," is scrawled in my notepad at the start of this night. Little did we know that a monumental storm was about to settle over the city and flood low-lying areas — like, say, basement venues — making nature the surprise guest headliner on the night and cutting things short. Before things got to that point, though, we got most of a set from this "true-stories-through-sound" experimenter, fusing sarunay gong sounds with electronic textures. The sounds + stories were cut slightly short, however, when the rain intruded on things — you can't argue with nature.

[What should have been the third set on this night, featuring Debashis Sinha, is actually happening tonight (September 25th) at a special offsite make-up show at Array Space. (Allison Cameron & Mani Mazinani are also playing a set!) Meanwhile, Track Could Bend will be back in the basement at Wenona next week (October 2nd) with sets from Uxvae, The Velvet Crystals and Jakob Rehlinger.]

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

Recording: Luyos MC + Boi Beting

Artist: Luyos MC + Boi Beting

Songs: Silence + unknown poem^*

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Music Gallery's X AVANT XII – Night 1), October 11, 2017.

Luyos MC + Boi Beting - Silence

Luyos MC + Boi Beting - unknown poem

After an off-season of uncertainty and exiled from its home at St. George The Martyr Church, The Music Gallery has found refuge at 918 Bathurst. Vibewise, this has kept things in the same ballpark, with the new space sharing churchy origins and a wood-y acoustic space. The X Avant Festival was first big test for this arrangement of things, presenting four nights of shows there. More than ever, the linkages between the Festival's performances was in the overarching theme of "Resistance", but this first night also had a percussive throughline.

Originally slated as a collaborate presentation of their "Kill-Sex-Abuse-Culture" project with Reila, a last-minute unavailability shifted things closer to Luyos MC's solo work, although this set also a collaboration with Boi Beting, an elder and tribal leader from the Philippines currently seeking refugee status in Canada. Beting's words were both set to music by Luyos MC and spoken in her own voice, giving a cross-generational/diasporic sense of solidarity to these resistance songs.

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