Artist: Man Made Hill
Song: unknown*
Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), April 12, 2025.
Man Made Hill - unknownThis set started off with some previews from MMH's forthcoming new album — hot new cruffins inbound from the test kitchen — but then ascended into an outrageous display of turntablism before everything came crashing down.
* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
Concert announcements:
Stranger Still [Pete Johnston/Mim Adams/Randi Helmers/Rob Clutton] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-03-04 (Tuesday – early). $pwyc
Tania Gill presents: The Blues (feat. Victor Bateman/Ken Kawashima (aka Sugar Brown)/Jean Martin/Blake Howard) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-03-07 (Friday – early) [more info]
The Harry Vetro Trio [Harry Vetro/Harrison Argatoff/Bennett Young] / The Emmet Ray 2025-03-07 (Friday). $12. [more info]
Audiopollination (feat. Kayla Milmine/Jonathan Kay/Anita Katakkar / Adriana Monti/Yasmine/Piers Oolvai / Ryan Kinney/Harry Vetro/Magick / Mickle32/Del Stephen) / Array Space 2025-03-14 (Friday). Livestream available. [FB event]
Freesound presents: IDENTITY [works for solo vibraphone by Adrian Knight, José Manuel López López, Steve Reich, Massimo Lauricella, Von Hansen] (feat. Matthew Lau) / Array Space 2025-03-16 (Sunday – 2 p.m.). $22.63. [FB event]
Freesound presents (feat. Transsonic / Jason Doell) / Array Space 2025-03-22 (Saturday). $22.63. [FB event]
Not Dead Yet Presents (feat. Kali Malone) / Trinity St. Paul's 2025-03-22 (Saturday). $43.35/$48.39, all ages. [more info]
We Are Busy Bodies presents Rythmetic: The Compositions of Norman McLaren (feat. Absolutely Free) / Hot Docs T-- R----- Cinema 2025-03-26 (Wednesday). $26.77, all ages. [more info]
Garlic Jr. (Body Butter / Tommy Tone / Battle Milk) / Low Bar 2025-04-04 (Friday). $10
Not Dead Yet Presents (feat. Claire Rousay & More Eaze / You Can Can) / Monarch Tavern 2025-04-11 (Friday). $26.42, 19+. [more info]
Casper Skulls [Kit-Cat album release!] (Twist / Kurt Marble) / The Garrison 2025-04-26 (Saturday). $25.38, 19+. [FB event]
Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!
Shows this week:
Patrick O'Reilly presents: Carded! (feat. Patrick O'Reilly/Samuel Little/amiel ang/Samuel Laramee/Omar Yazaw/Leah Reavster/%%30%30/Annie Elgie) / Walter Hall 2025-02-24 (Monday). $free. [more info]
Colin Fisher/George Koller/Jeff Luciani/Diane Roblin / The Emmet Ray 2025-02-25 (Tuesday – 6:30 p.m.). $12. [more info]
Clue Note — Trivia and Creative Music: Malicious Appliance (feat. Raster-Noton is for lovers [Niamh Girling/Mira Martin-Gray/Sarah Peebles/Johnny Spence]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-02-25 (Tuesday – early) [more info]
Ronley Teper & the Lipliners / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-02-26 (Wednesday). [more info]
Cici Arthur [album release party!] [a new supergroup featuring Chris A. Cummings, Joseph Shabason and Thom Gill, playing with a fifteen-piece band including a horn and string section] (Dorothea Paas) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2025-02-27 (Thursday). $33.28. [more info]
All-Set! Presents (feat. Molehill [Mike Smith/Pete Johnston/Jake Oelrichs wsg Laura C. Bates]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-02-28 (Friday – early). $PWYC. [more info]
Exit Points #57 - 5th Anniversary Show! (feat. Xina Gilani/Ben McCarthy/Heather Saumer/Sara Constant /Jamie Eriksen / Pursuit Grooves/Anh Phung/Tara Kannangara/Martin Gomes/Michael Palumbo / switchemups) / Array Space 2025-02-28 (Friday). Tickets: $15 early bird, $20 adv, $25 door. [FB event]
AloneKitty (Yound / Output 1:1:1) / See-Scape 2025-02-28 (Friday). $10. [more info]
The Ryan Driver Sextet / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-02-28 (Friday). $pwyw. [more info]
Tenebrae Of Good Friday [works by Tomás Luis de Victoria] (feat. The Tallis Choir) / St. Patrick's Church 2025-03-01 (Saturday). $30 General, $25 Seniors, $10 for Students (at the door). [FB event]
Liquid Architecture presents "The Call of Cthulhu" [silent film with live musical accompaniment] (feat. ARRC [Ryan Kinney/Colin James Gibson/Rod Campbell/Ambrose Pottie) / Mischief Makers 2025-03-01 (Saturday). $10 advance, $12 at the door, 18+. [FB event]
The Patrick Smith Trio [Patrick Smith/Lowell Whitty/Dan Pitt] / Sellers and Newell 2025-03-02 (Sunday). $20 minimum donation. [more info]
Michael Davidson's Adjacent Spheres / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-03-02 (Sunday) [more info]
It happened this week...
The Search For Eternal Happiness Pt. 4 - [excerpt from first piece, part 1]
Man Made Hill - I'll Swallow You Whole
[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]
Artist: Man Made Hill
Song: Decades of Neglect
Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Greydini and Man Made Hill Birthday Bash), August 6, 2022.
Man Made Hill - Decades of Neglect
Both a birthday celebration and a glad-to-see-ya community gathering, this trash culture summit managed to make the Tranzac's main hall feel like a vintage night out at Double Double Land. Celebrating the new Mirage Repair album, Randy Gagne might have adapted to some slicker studio accoutrements, but on stage the old standard of high kicks and makeup-melting calisthenics prevails. Body movin', deep lovin', always shreddin' — it's good to see some values endure in this world.
Artist: Man Made Hill
Song: Sick Rock
Recorded at The Garrison, May 3, 2019.
Man Made Hill - Sick RockSporting some tape copies of his new "library music" collection, Randy Gagne brought a set of old songs, brand new songs, facepaint and drippin' sweat. Plus this observation on megalithic structures. Let's rock!
Artist: Man Made Hill
Songs: Fantasy Pants + unknown* + I'll Swallow You Whole + Find a Freak
Recorded at The Baby G (MFS 10th Anniversary Celebration / A Night of Rock Music!), March 2, 2019.
Man Made Hill - I'll Swallow You Whole
Although I don't get out to as many rawk shows as I used to, the 10th anniversary of this blog felt like enough of an occasion to warrant a special Saturday night kind of celebration. With a limited preview run of a new best-of compilation tape on the merch table quickly selling out (side note: second batch coming soon!) and a mini-remount of my MFS listening station, it felt a bit like a party, but what really made it was seeing so many familiar faces out for the hang.
What also made it feel like a party was having the one and only Randy Gagne to close the night out. As Man Made Hill, his absurdist anthems and give-it-110-per-cent on-stage attitude make every show a sweaty delight. The set included a string of stone MMH classics, but there was a bunch of newer stuff as well, with a tune about Fantasy Pants melding into an atmospheric fantasy sequence, as well as "I'll Swallow You Whole", a slo-jam that's been heard at recent shows that just might be Gagne's "Time After Time". Or maybe his "Bizarre Love Triangle"? In any case, it's definitely the tenderest song I've ever heard to include the lyrical sentiment "I'll eat your fucking life-force!"
* These titles are offered as tentative placeholders only for now. Please leave a comment if you have any info to confirm 'em! Update: "Find a Freak" confirmed via this fab new video!
Artist: Man Made Hill
Song: unknown*
Recorded at Owl's Club (basement), January 25, 2019.
Man Made Hill - unknownIt's now a bit of a special occasion when Randy Gagne returns to Hogtown for a putrefaction party, mixing frenetic denim dog ragers with swallow-you-whole slow jamz. A shirt-shreddin', sweat drippin' end to a night well spent.
* I hope like the dickens this one's simply called "Don't Fuck With Me", and will update if/when I can confirm that.
Artist: Man Made Hill
Songs: Rough Stuff + Midnight Nap + Dancing Secretly
Recorded at The Baby G, March 3, 2018.
Man Made Hill - Dancing Secretly
Celebrating the release of Fingertip on Pleasence records, Randy Gagne presented a high-energy cavalcade of hits to a packed-in sweaty and dancing crowd. Exchanging his laserdisc medallion for an atavistic return to a vest of streaming strands of videotape, this was all "go" all the way for a performer who is perhaps the stompingest Canrock icon since Stompin' Tom. Some of the album's collaborators, including producer Nyles Miszczyk and Zoë Alexis-Abrams (who had opened the night), joined in — though sadly a collaboration with saxophonist Brodie West had to be put off 'til another time. Exhausting enough all around that surely some of the crowd had to cut out afterwards for their own midnight naps.
[If you haven't had a dig through the MMH bandcamp lately, you should set aside some time to root through a whole lot of back catalogue that's appeared there lately. Man Made Hill will be kicking off a tour with Pink Noise at a totally stacked show that also features Bile Sister and Wolfcow at D D L on Thursday, May 17th.]
Artist: Man Made Hill
Song: Hot For Slop
Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 31, 2016.
Man Made Hill - Hot For SlopAs always, The Tranzac was a cool and friendly zone to hang out in on New Year's Eve, with two stages of music all night long. Steamrolling into the future, Randy Gagne started the year off with his customary high-energy, high-fashion show. Wearing an old-school laserdisc around his neck like a medallion, he high-kicked his way through some old faves and a few new jams, even bringing Nyles Miszczyk, who's apparently producing some of the new jams, for some high-concept crooning.
Artist: Man Made Hill & Friends
Song: [excerpt, in two parts]
Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (416 Toronto Creative Improvisers Festival – Night 2), November 3, 2016.
Man Made Hill & Friends - [excerpt, part 1]
Man Made Hill & Friends - [excerpt, part 2]
When I was asked to present a night at the 416 festival, I considered it a part of my remit to bring something that might not otherwise be considered for the festival. Randy Gagne, best known for his work as Man Made Hill, puts himself into a lot of inventive situations, but they usually fall outside the "formal" spheres of what gets called creative or improvised music. So I invited him to put himself in that headspace — and to bring along whatever sort of ensemble he wanted.
I couldn't have been more pleased with the collaborators he brought, including Zoë Alexis-Abrams (of Manticore, on keyb and vox), Becky Katz (of Hamilton's Sourpussy, on vox, percussion, clarinet and more) and Jeremy Dennis (on sax and vox). I had no idea how this was going to hash out on stage — musically, it turned out, this was somewhat "outside": sonic dank memes, if you will. Rather than focusing on the formalities of musical exchange, there was a strong sense of play, especially from Katz, who had a whole bevy of tricks on hand, including readings from the Guinness Book of World Records and an occasionally confrontational relationship to her drums, stopping and declaring, "it's not... it's not doing what it's supposed to do!" And in that might be captured the anarchic joy of the whole enterprise.
Artist: Randy Gagne/Kayla Milmine/James Bailey
Song: [edited excerpt]
Recorded at Dundas Video ("Track Could Bend #13"), April 5, 2016.
Randy Gagne/Kayla Milmine/James Bailey - [edited excerpt]To my great surprise and delight, Track Could Bend has survived and thrived for a full year. To celebrate, I invited everyone who played the series' first twelve months (more than seventy people!) back for a birthday party. In the end, the night consisted of twenty-seven musicians collaborating over eight short sets, most of which were spontaneous "bands from a hat", drawn by lot before the set started. Given the wide range of musical practices and backgrounds, it was quite exciting to see how much coherence and excellence resulted.
Closing out an action-packed night, the final set saw Randy Gagne (who performed as Man Made Hill at TCB#10) hunching over his synth at the front of the stage, exchanging blips and riffs with a pair of horn players. James Bailey (TCB#12) wandered the floor with his clarinet at the outset before joining Kayla Milmine (TCB#2 + TCB#10) in a musical conversation that closed things out in a most satisfactory manner.
[The next Track Could Bend will be at Dundas Video on Tuesday, May 3rd, featuring Kosher Dill Spears, Terms Of Venery (Mike Smith, solo electronics) and Glamour Nails (Lina Allemano + Justin Haynes).]
Artist: Man Made Hill
Song: [Sections 2 + 3]
Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #10), January 5, 2016.
Man Made Hill - [Sections 2 + 3]Just as with the previous time I saw him, Randy Gagne reached beyond his popsong repertoire for some sonic excursions in his set, including oscillating keyboard shimmerscapes and reel-to-reel tape twiddling — and including a live neti pot demonstration complete with poetry recital. The future of pop music has arrived, and its nasal passages are clear.
[The next Track Could Bend is February 2nd — Groundhog Day! — at Dundas Video. Stay tuned for more info.]
Artist: Man Made Hill
Song: unknown*
Recorded at Array Space, November 16, 2015.
Man Made Hill - unknownAs is so often the case, Randy Gagne came armed with a whole new batch of pithy songs on topics such as scab dentistry and cool babies — and, in his continuing series of transformative covers, he tackled Lee Aaron's "Whatcha Do to My Body". But perhaps the biggest surprise came when he was joined by his Tranz DeFoncé bandmate Jeremy Dennis on sax for a couple instrumental tracks that sounded like some sort of debased new age/no wave hybrid, including this one with some hints of "Tubular Bells" in its DNA.
* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
Artist: Man Made Hill
Songs: Allergic To Spikes + Gold [John Stewart cover]
Recorded at Artscape Gibraltar Point ("EXVEE"), May 30, 2015.
Man Made Hill - Allergic To Spikes
Celebrating fifteen years as a retreat and incubator for the arts, Artscape Gibraltar Point decided to throw itself a big party, a day of music and secular blessings. Rain early on kept the crowds away somewhat, but it turned into a fairly pleasant day, with music in the backyard tent going ahead from late afternoon to late at night, when 88 Days of Fortune provided the vibes.
Randy Gagne took to the stage with his power glove and dance moves, sharing a particular personal vulnerability, asking for the audience to look inside themselves to find the Kevin within, and closed out with a localised version of this FM classic. Can someone get Stevie Nicks up here, stat, to provide backing vocals for the single?
[Man Made Hill will be performing tomorrow (Saturday, June 6th) as part of Jay Holy's LP release party at Smiling Buddha. He'll also be playing at the Buddha on Thursday, June 18th as part of Wavelength's Pleasence Records showcase.]
Artist: Mmm Mmm
Song: unknown*
Recorded in the dungeon of 8-Eleven ("Sonic Boom Record Store Day Afterparty"), April 18, 2015.
Mmm Mmm - unknownIf told that this occasional group was a pairing between Randy Gagne (Man Made Hill) and Sean Dunal (Sexy Merlin) you could probably guess what you might be in for. Indeed, at their best (as heard here on what sounds like some incredible lost 12" club side) this hits more-than-the sum-of-its-parts territory with Dunal's rhythmic inventions acting as a beacon for Gagne's groove gambles. Some of the other pieces came off a bit more like just jams, but even then they kept the dancefloor bumpin' to close this night out.
* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
Artist: Toblerone Boys
Song: unknown*
Recorded at Ratio ("Wavelength 653"), March 27, 2015.
Toblerone Boys - unknownKudos to Wavelength's Adam Bradley for putting together this off-kilter night of side-projects and pop experimentalism. There was a pleasing underlying affinity in all four sets of something being just off a little. Opening duo Toberlone Boys exhibited that quality, with Randy "Man Made Hill" Gagne and Greydyn Wolfcow hunching over their keybs to generate woozy beatscapes that still managed to be slicker than the pair's pulled-back hair.
* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
Artist: Zone Support
Song: Group Encounter Session [excerpt]
Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), February 25, 2015.
Zone Support - Group Encounter Session [excerpt]Randy Gagne (Man Made Hill) and Kevin Hainey (Inyrdisk/Kapali Karsi/etc.) team up on this new project, celebrating the release of their first album on the Healing Power label. The tape is both a fond tribute (Gagne's keyboard work is stupendous throughout) and loving sendup (wait 'til you get to the part about the sandwiches) of the New Age genre. Live, that was pushed even further, with incense and low lights, and some oddly soothing aerial found footage of Saskatchewan's vast oceans of grain — imploding the joke/not-a-joke distinction in a blast of psychic detoxification.
[P.S.: Healing Power is once again presenting nights of casual weirdness on the last Wednesday of every month at The Tranzac, so keep an eye out for upcoming events!]
MFS has turned six! My introductory thoughts on this landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks to pick some of their favourites to help me celebrate.
Today's list is from Adam Bradley, who is part of the Wavelength team (and master list compiler) and also keeps things runnin' at the Music Gallery.
You can always click on the tags below to look for more stuff from these artists. Has there been a half-dozen songs posted here that made an impact on you? If you'd like to get in on the action and make a list, feel free to send me an email: mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com.
Artist: Man Made Hill
Songs: Candyman + Spiritual Woman
Recorded at The Great Hall – Conversation Room ("Long Winter: Year 3, Volume 2"), December 12, 2014
Man Made Hill - Spiritual Woman
I was hiding elsewhere by this time of the night, so all I have are these secondary sources to evaluate the tense standoff between Randy Gagne and the crowd over who is the true candyman.
Artist: Nature
Song: Heater
Recorded at Comfort Zone ("All Toronto's Parties 2"), May 24, 2014.
Nature - HeaterFull review to follow. The first ATP show brought together bands selected by five different live music purveyors in a cool mix'n'match marathon. Upping the ante, the night-time portion follow-up brought a full line-up of recombinant bands (some of them special one-offs) to create a completely unique night. (It should also be noted that this also served as Wavelength's 600th show. Congratulations Wavelength!)
Man Made Hill and Sexy Merlin are two phenomenal talents in their respective one-man bands, each exploring their own dancefloor-ready terrain. But combined in band form (with percussion by Jesse Locke and monster bass by Brandon Hocura) the grooves multiplied into a sort of avant go-go breakdown explosion. In a night of great music, this was the standout — I've heard whispers that this one was not intended as a one-off performance; perchance let us hope that is true.
You can also check out some more pictures from the day on the MFS facebook page.
Artist: Man Made Hill
Song: Wretched Seed
Recorded at Handlebar ("Wavelength 585"), January 25, 2014.
Man Made Hill - Wretched SeedFull review to follow. Do you remember when you were a kid and you'd get a chocolate bar from the store but then you forgot it in the car and when you got back to the car it was all melted but you ate it anyway? This song is the musical equivalent — and an ideal pivot point between "Subtle Scum" and "Constant Touching".
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