Recording: Determinist?

Artist: Determinist?

Song: [excerpt, in two parts]

Recorded at at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #20), November 1, 2016.

Determinist? - [excerpt, part 1]

Determinist? - [excerpt, part 2]

One suspects that this duo dig like their politics like they dig their sonic environments – defiantly radical. There are shades here of the sounds that Ian McPhedran is pursuing in Bodies That Matter and that Phil Hamilton is exploring in Beard Closet, but the extremes are being pushed further. That comes out in the intense volume (this might have been the loudest-ever TCB set), punishing feedback squeals, exaggeratedly ironic cock-rock guitar heroics and bursts of off-mic shouting. That was all paralleled by the spoken word-bursts McPhedran deployed, sampling Bob Black's The Abolition of Work and Judith Butler's Gender Trouble. Despite the uncompromising sounds, though, there was also a sense of play here, with the two performers seemingly trying to surprise or subvert each other throughout the set, as if they would leave no structure unchallenged — maybe that's why the project's name ends with a question mark.

[The next Track Could Bend will be taking place on Tuesday, December 6th with sets from No Parking (members of Protruders), Heather Saumer plus Del Stephen & The Bedroom Refuge Holiday.]