Monday Roundup #106

Community notes:

• The first announcements from this year's (5rth anniversary!) Women From Space Festival are out — get ready for pairings of AACM's Nicole Mitchell and Coco Elysses, Gayle Young and Sarah Albu, and Karen Ng and Jasper Stadhouders... plus Bea Labikova's Mount Joy and an interdisciplinary collaboration from percussionist Aiyun Huang who with Seylon Stills, Bee Pallomina and Kristine White. That leaves half of the lineup still to be announced, but if that's enough to convince you (and it should!) early-bird passes are now available. Keep an eye on the festival's website for further dispatches.

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Concert announcements:

Stranger Still / Sellers & Newel 2021-02-08 (Wednesday). Minimum donation $20. [more info]

Audiopollination (feat. Yoshi Maclear Wall/Rabia Agha / Holgar Schoorl/ Nilan Perera/Kayla Milmine / Dimitar Pentchev/Danny Sheahan/Piers Oolvai / 40 Story Monstrosity [Marilyn Yogarajah/Mickle32/Gitanjali Lena]) / Array Space 2023-02-10 (Friday). $10 or PWYC (cash or card), livestream available. [FB event]

VC2 with Stephanie Chua on piano and Amy Hillis [I and Thou album release party!] [world premieres of new works by Laura Sgroi and Andrew Staniland] / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2021-02-15 (Wednesday). $27.96 - $38.61. [FB event]

Cindy Lee (Dorothea Paas) / The Garrison 2023-03-23 (Thursday). $23.17, 19+. [FB event]

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Shows this week:

Wenderly Park ft. Marilyn Yogarajah (Rod Campbell/FuZzy/%%30%30) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-01-24 (Tuesday – early!) [FB event]

Titanium Bloop [Lina Allemano/Mike Smith/Rob Clutton/Nick Fraser] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-01-24 (Tuesday) [FB event]

Joe Sorbara/Jay Hay/Dan Gooch/Pete Johnston / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-01-25 (Wednesday)

Brandon Davis [solo] [fourteen album release!] (Brandon Davis/Naomi McCarroll-Butler/Joe Sorbara) / Sellers & Newel 2021-01-26 (Thursday)

Michael Snow Memorial ["there will be a performance from the extended CCMC ensemble as well as other mementoes for Michael's life and career"] / The Music Gallery 2023-01-26 (Thursday). $free. [FB event]

oh my god yes! [Lina Allemano/Brodie West/Rob Clutton/Phil Melanson & Evan Cartwright] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-01-26 (Thursday) [FB event]

Aurochs with special guest Chris Pruden / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-01-27 (Friday – early!). $pwyc.

Ingredient [album release show!] (Uh Huh [f.k.a. Teenanger]) / BSMT 254 2023-01-27 (Friday). $16.93. [FB event]

Exit Points #34 (feat. Victor O/Jaz Tsui/Fuzzy/Colin Clark / Joyce To/Chibuzr/Raquel Skilich/Aidan McConnell/Michael Palumbo / “Switchemups”) / Array Space 2023-01-27 (Friday). $20. [FB event]

Joyful Joyful (Picastro / Loom) / Tibet Street Records 2023-01-27 (Friday). $22.63. [FB event]

The Ryan Driver Sextet featuring Tania Gill as Ryan Driver / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-01-27 (Friday) [FB event]

Posi Vibez presents Aquarius Vibez (feat. Bile Sister / Jodie Jodie Roger / Zoo Owl) / Handlebar 2023-01-28 (Saturday). $pwyc, suggested $10

Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-01-29 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.). $pwyc. [FB event]

Mike DeiCont’s Northern Danger [Mike DeiCont/Rebecca Hennessy/Mack Longpre/Chris Pruden/Alexei Orechin/Brodie West] / The Rex Hotel 2023-01-29&30 (Sunday & Monday). $19. [FB event]

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It happened this week...

• ...on January 25, 2017 at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Piano Party 8).

Randy Gagne - unknown

• ...on January 27, 2017 at The Silver Dollar Room.

Hooded Fang - Nene of The Light

[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.]

Recording: Tranz DéFoncé

Artist: Tranz DéFoncé

Songs: [two presumably-untitled pieces]

Recorded at The Dupe Shop, March 5, 2017.

Tranz DéFoncé - unknown

Tranz DéFoncé - unknown

This new Storefront location for duplication.ca not only brings cassette production and other services closer to the people that are most likely to use them, they're also serving as a community hub, hosting a series of shows and mixtape exchanges. This Sunday afternoon show pulled three bands from their garages for a rawkin' good time. When a random passer-by sees a band playing in a store, comes in to watch, and then grabs a mic to start singing, most bands would take umbrage. Tranz DéFoncé are not most bands. Even on what was mentioned as their last-ever show, this junk-rock supergroup took the volunteer in stride, encouraging more than just tolerating the unexpected turn of events and adding one more random element to their noisy thrum.

Recording: Randy Gagne

Artist: Randy Gagne

Songs: Poor Side of Town [Johnny Rivers cover] + unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Piano Party 8), January 25, 2017.

Randy Gagne - Poor Side of Town

Randy Gagne - unknown

Anyone who's seen his endlessly-inventive stage performances will attest that Randy Gagne (a.k.a. Man Made Hill) has no shortage of bravery, but it's something else entirely to take the stage for the first time as a pianist. He still had some beats (and his hands-free microphone) but otherwise, this was a rather-intimate and vulnerable affair. We've seen some signs before of Gagne's affinity for classic rock tunes, but this set pushed further in that direction with this tender Johnny Rivers classic as well as a wade through the Sea of Love suggestive of an absurdist Epic Soundtracks. (It also provided some additional contextualization of MMH's recent Jeff Healey Band cover.) The new age-y closer, meanwhile, sounded like it was written at dawn on a canoe ride during one of Zone Support's many world tours.

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

Recording: Man Made Hill & Friends

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.

Recording: Toblerone Boys

Artist: Toblerone Boys

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at September LP's LPs (4th Anniversary Party), 15, 2016.

Toblerone Boys - unknown

A night of fine music among the crate-digging as LP's LPs celebrated its birthday in style. Amongst the cozy bricabrac at the back of the store, Randy "Man Made Hill" Gagne and Greydyn Wolfcow showed off some experiments from their dank pop lab, with lo-fi drum machine beats giving a framework for wobbly synths.

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

Recording: Summer Drift Ensemble

Artist: Summer Drift Ensemble

Songs: Drift [four excerpts]

Recorded at Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement (SummerWorks: Summer Drift), August 6, 2015.

Summer Drift Ensemble - Drift [excerpt 1]

Summer Drift Ensemble - Drift [excerpt 2]

Summer Drift Ensemble - Drift [excerpt 3]

Summer Drift Ensemble - Drift [excerpt 4]

An inversion of the "spectacle" of most of SummerWorks music shows, this afternoon drone installation moved the performers to the edge of the room and let the audience wander (to create their own personal "mix") or relax on the lily pad-like astroturf "islands" in the centre of the room. Conceived by Brandon Hocura, the event's score consisted of more than a dozen short instructions, including "play when you feel like it"/"take a break when you feel like it", "take 10 minutes to play what you would normally play in 1 minute", "repeat slowly" and "fall asleep". That meant that out of the collective ensemble (Victoria Cheong, Craig Dunsmuir, Sandro Perri, Matthew Shaw, Randy Gagne, Kevin Hainey, Andrew Zukerman, Jaclyn Blumas, Trevor Blumas, Brandon Hocura) maybe half would be playing at any given time. I hung out for not quite three hours in the first half of the event, which is where these samples are drawn from.

Recording: Toblerone Boys

Artist: Toblerone Boys

Song: [last section]

Recorded at The Piston, May 19, 2016.

Toblerone Boys - [last section]

This mad scientist funk laboratory with potions crafted from smashed beakers and broken equipment made one of its infrequent appearances at this gig, beaming strange rays into the forebrains of the assembled crowd, creating a new lurching army of the night.

Recording: Randy Gagne/Kayla Milmine/James Bailey

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).]

Recording: Zone Support

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!]