Recording: Doomsquad

Artist: Doomsquad

Song: Eat the Love

Recorded at The Garrison, December 16, 2016.

Doomsquad - Eat the Love

This pre-holiday night at The Garrison brought together three local groups each closing out successful years. Although I'd seen Doomsquad this year performing in various capacities (and taking their sonic sensibilities in new directions), I hadn't caught the five-piece version they'd taken on tour, with the rhythm section now powered by twin brothers Josh and Jesse Hasko (a.k.a. North America). That gave the Blumas siblings up front plenty of space to extend their own groove zones, stretching out the Total Time tracks into a psychedelic-third-eye non-stop-dance frenzy.

Recording: Doomsquad and Not The Wind, Not The Flag

Artist: Doomsquad and Not The Wind, Not The Flag

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Prairie Drive Park (Feast in the East 58), July 9, 2016.

Doomsquad and Not The Wind, Not The Flag - [excerpt 1]

Doomsquad and Not The Wind, Not The Flag - [excerpt 2]

A beautiful day out in Scarborough. Thanks to Toronto Arts Foundation's Arts in The Parks, Feast In The East received the resources to host this free event which brought art, food and music to the rolling hills of Prairie Drive Park. By offering a free meal and inviting park patrons of all ages to explore and interact with the installations, this felt like a most gracious imposition on the normal order of the park, which is obviously well-loved and well-used by inhabitants of the neighbouring highrises — a sharing of the space instead of a culture blitz from outside. An excellent day out, this had a mellow and friendly vibe. Toronto needs so much more of this: having "culture" dispersed more widely throughout this sprawling city, giving locals a chance to see something that might not normally happen in their neighbourhood while giving seekers a chance to hang out in hitherto-unexplored pockets. It makes the city feel bigger and more cozy all at once.

As night fell, some of the kids and families drifted away, and the park shifted into a zone of amiable nocturnal prowling, energized by the dance-groove from this joint set. When I previously saw Brandon Valdivia and Colin Fisher playing with Doomsquad they were a bit more in the mode of supporting players — here it felt like a more even-handed collaboration. It also had a different vibe, exchanging gallery goth-darkness for outdoor get-free optimism. Joy vibes aplenty, and by the time Lido Pimienta joined in at the end, the sky couldn't hold off any longer, letting loose a spiritual sprinkling that turned into a torrent as the band finished off.

Recording: Doomsquad

Artist: Doomsquad

Song: Genet Drone in B Minor [excerpt]

Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #9), December 1, 2015.

Doomsquad - Genet Drone in B Minor [excerpt]

When I started Track Could Bend back in springtime, I made a list of bands that I wanted to hear freed from the constraints of their regular setlists and given a chance to experiment on stage a bit. Doomsquad were one of the groups at the top of my list — I'd seen them push their boundaries a few times before. There's no reason for a band that's been busy on tour and filling larger venues to come play my little series, so I was happily surprised at the enthusiasm that the Blumas siblings brought to the proceedings.

Armed with a loosely-structured improvisation based on readings from Jean Genet's The Balcony, this moved from a shimmering new-age drone to a simmering sit-down groove — and created a wonderfully unexpected text-based throughline for the night, echoing the Burroughs cut-and-paste set from Rub Out The Word.

[The next Track Could Bend will be at Dundas Video on Tuesday, January 5th — more info coming soon!]

Recording: Doomsquad

Artist: Doomsquad

Song: Ice Storm

Recorded at Artscape Gibraltar Point (Wavelength 678: Camp Wavelength – Day 2), August 29, 2015.

Doomsquad - Ice Storm

You can read my general notes on Camp Wavelength here. Looking totally at home on a big festival stage, this is still the sort of band that will pause before playing to light some incense sticks and push them into the grass in front of the stage. (This small-scale gesture, sadly, was quickly obviated by the crew of photographers that descended on the stage moments later, trampling them into the turf.) Playing big, sweeping songs that felt right at home without walls to contain them, Doomsquad could only fit five tracks in their forty minutes on stage, including this wonderfully-sprawling set-opener from their recent Pageantry Suite EP — very suited to grooving a bit with the feel of the earth under your feet.

Recording: Doomsquad

Artist: Doomsquad (feat. Slime)

Song: The Cools

Recorded at Jam Factory ("Feast in the East 44"), January 3, 2015.

Doomsquad - The Cools

The first weekend after New Year's Eve is often a deadzone for gigs, a gap that Feast In The East has been filling for a couple years now. As the night's best gig in town, this drew a full room to the other side of the DVP, offering a very tasty Dutch meal and a quartet of bands you'd want to stand up and move a little to.

As they get ready to head down to New Mexico to record their second album, Doomsquad started off the new year with a look at what they've achieved so far. The long, grooving tracks in their headlining set drew on last year's Kalaboogie, but also reached back to their first EP for their set closer. The core trio was joined, once again, by percussionist Brandon Valdivia throughout, and also for this one by FITE co-founder Neil Rankin (in his Slime guise) on sax.

[Doomsquad will be playing "a plugged down set with trance and harmony" on Saturday, January 31st out on the Island, as part of the IMBOLC celebrations. Meanwhile, the next Feast in the East, on Saturday, February 7th, is more of a mellow affair, but offers a no-less-impressive lineup including EONS, Matthew "Doc" Dunn, Jooj (Sook-Yin Lee & Adam Litovitz) and Alex Lukashevsky.]

Recording: Doomsquad

Artist: Doomsquad

Song: Apocalypso

Recorded at The Great Hall, November 6, 2014.

Doomsquad - Apocalypso

Although the groove remains the central element, Doomsquad's sonic sensibility continues to grow and shift. Opening a string of dates for Tanya Tagaq, the trio was augmented by Brandon Valdivia (of Not The Wind, Not The Flag and Mas Aya) on percussion which enriched the sound. Trevor Blumas is taking the mic a bit more than he used to, but like his sisters Allie and Jaclyn, the vox are often as much for texture — though in this one his vocal line and the rhythmic bounce all add to to a Remain in Light sort of feeling.

Recording: Doomsquad

Artist: Doomsquad

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Snake Island ("Poor Pilgrim 7"), July 20, 2014.

Doomsquad - unknown

Full review to follow. From their "forest trance" origins, Doomsquad have always conceptually been more than just a sequencer-driven groove band, so it's no surprise they're showing an interest in freeing themselves from their machines to be able to take their songs "unplugged". Out on Snake Island, presiding over the sunset during the annual Poor Pilgrim travelling show, they proclaimed themselves to be in a transitional phase in that regard, but as the dusk gathered in around them with the city's lights blinking to life off in the distance, it sounded like a pretty worthy destination point already.

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

Recording: Doomsquad

Artist: Doomsquad feat. Not The Wind, Not the Flag

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Recorded at The Art Gallery of Ontario ("Long Winter: AGO First Thursdays Takeover"), January 2, 2014.

Doomsquad feat. Not the Wind, Not the Flag - unknown

Full review to follow. The AGO's First Thursdays have been serving up local music as one segment of its interactive mix'n'mingle monthly series, while Long Winter has been curating DIY art alongside the concerts they've been throwing at the Great Hall. On paper it makes for an appealing crossover opportunity to combine the two. And while the LW crew brought some cool ideas (and a tasty mix of musicians) down to Dundas and McCaul, the execution was somewhat inelegant. Putting the headlining bands in galleries on the opposite ends of the 5th floor contemporary wing allowed for two distinct environments — and both sets were really good — but the experience was marred by making patrons wait in a distinctly unfun lineup to get there. [Given the recent capacity issues at the Great Hall as well, Long Winter is in danger of its brand becoming synonymous with waiting in line.]

Doomsquad took full advantage of this high-concept night to step up their set with something different. First and most plainly apparent, they constructed a sort of cagelike improvised tent structure that was covered in chicken wire, keeping the band at a cool remove from the crowd. And as the set went on, assistants slowly covered them with layers of plastic sheeting. (Whether this was meant to signify a post-apocalyptic hoedown, a Brechtian verfremdungseffekt or a tribute to Christo was left for the chattering classes to discuss amongst themselves afterward.) And sonically, the band got a boost from local free-improv godheads Brandon Valdivia and Colin Fisher, who helped them to stretch out their grooves so that the songs veered into a dark-edged, no-wave Fela zone — a strange but appealing sort of party.

Recording: Doom Squad

Artist: Doom Squad

Song: Riders On The Storm [The Doors cover]

Recorded at The Great Hall ("Wavelength THIRTEEN – Night 3"), February 16, 2013.

Doom Squad - Riders On The Storm

My quick notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: Doom Squad

Artist: Doom Squad

Songs: Born from the Marriage of the Moon and a Crocodile + Eternal Return^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery ("Exclaim! Magazine Destination Out Showcase"), November 17, 2012.

Doom Squad - Born from the Marriage of the Moon and a Crocodile + Eternal Return

Full review to follow. I came to this Owen Pallet-curated show knowing nothing about the night's final act, but it's safe to say it was rather a change of pace from the quieter bands that came before. Whereas THOMAS feel right at home in a church, there was a feeling that the giant cross above the band should have been turned upside down for this gothrave attack. Taking the stage in cowls and marked with mysterious forehead symbols, Doom Squad turned the quiet recital into a full-on dance party, with surging beats and long trance-inducing songs. It looks like the band will be playing the Silver Dollar on December 7th, by the way.

^* Thanks to a commenter for passing the titles to these along.