Recording: Phèdre

Artist: Phèdre

Songs: WTF?! [feat. Above Top Secret] + unknown^* [feat. HanHan and Alanna Stuart]

Recorded at Artscape Daniels Spectrum (Venus Fest), September 30, 2017.

Phèdre feat. Above Top Secret - WTF?!

Phèdre feat. HanHan and Alanna Stuart - unknown

The idea of a "feminist music festival" might bring to mind an earnest folkie gathering, maybe off in a forest somewhere, but this first annual event was nothing like that, using inclusive and intersectional ideals as guideposts to programming a day of wide-ranging musics. The brainchild of local musician Aerin Fogel, Venus Fest was an ambitious undertaking, presenting a dozen performances in Daniels Spectrum's spacious multi-purpose Regent Park digs. And it all came together quite wonderfully, highlighting a diverse slate of mostly local musicians and incorporating flourishes like Vanessa Rieger's live-mixed visuals. With this first festival completed, there's a new "sessions" series starting up, and lots of energy to build on the positive vibes this day released.

With their DIY projection art, reflective foil backdrops and penchant for posse cuts, April Aliermo and Dan Lee have been pushing Phèdre in the direction of "spectacle" for a little while now, making them an ideal festival band. Perfectly placed at the day's fulcrum, they provided an energy boost for folks who had been there for a concert's worth of bands already and a jolt to those just walking in the door. They made this set a special occasion with a couple back-to-back all-star on-stage collaborations, first bringing up SunSun and Ayo Leilani (fresh from their own Witch Prophet set) to drop rhymes over a Lee Paradise (one of Lee's other noms du guerre) remix, and then upping the ante even more with HanHan and Bonjay's Alanna Stuart trading phrases back and forth.

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

Recording: Witch Prophet

Artist: Witch Prophet

Song: Funeral For a Killer

Recorded at The Great Hall's Conversation Room (Long Winter 4.5 – Night 2), March 18, 2016.

Witch Prophet - Funeral For a Killer

You can't fault Long Winter for being ambitious and for wanting to close out the season by cramming in as much music and art into the Great Hall as possible, but their plan to close the year out with a two-night stand didn't entirely pay off. Giving patrons the choice of two nights (and holding them at the end of Spring Break) seemed to especially cut into the younger crowd and both nights (especially Friday) lacked that "about to burst" feeling that makes LW unique. But even if the crowd was at less than maximum strength, there was no certainly no lack of music spread throughout the building.

With the crowd reaching a critical mass and the room feeling warm and sweaty, this set suddenly felt like a full-on Long Winter experience. Ayo Leilani has gotten more committed to this solo identity than the last time I saw her performing alone and under her own name. Now, although she was joined onstage by her Above Top Secret bandmate SunSun, acting as beat controller, there was a definite sense that this was a distinct project with its own identity. (But still two sides of the same coin, as was demonstrated later in the set when the pair "covered" an ATS track.) With a video loop of Afrocentric images projected behind her, Leilani delivered a confident set of R&B songs that draw in bits of gospel, trip-hop and much more. This track, which recently manifested on Leilani's soundcloud, is a tantalizing taste of the Witch Prophet album, which is promised for later this year.

Recording: Above Top Secret

Artist: Above Top Secret

Song: Ghost

Recorded at Artscape Gibraltar Point (Wavelength 678: Camp Wavelength), August 28, 2015.

Above Top Secret - Ghost

You can read my general notes on Camp Wavelength here. The stage management for the whole weekend was mostly pretty crisp and on schedule. By the end of the first night, though, things were getting a bit behind, and a nicely-sizzling set from ATS — recent winners of the Harbourfront SoundClash contest — was cut shorter than it should have been. But taking quality over quantity, the four songs they performed hit pretty hard. [The band have just dropped a new track over on their soundcloud.]

Recording: Above Top Secret

Artist: Above Top Secret (feat. Lido Pimienta)

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Harbourfront Centre – Lakefront Terrace ("Harbourfront SoundClash" finals), July 11, 2015.

Above Top Secret - unknown

Harbourfront's SoundClash contest has always seemed like a bit of an odd beast to me. Stuck with the baggage of a million cruddy Battle of The Bands, the whole thing feels vaguely opaque. (Who's behind this, and why? What's being judged — a band's conceptual "talent", or this particular live performance? How are the winners picked? If the festival brags about the quality of its judges, why does it keep them anonymous? Does the online balloting really matter, or is it populist window-dressing? Should online voting count when almost no-one saw the actual competition? Doesn't that inherently favour the net-savvy, or bands with pre-existing and motivated fanbases, who will click on a vote link spread through social media?) I'd never gotten involved with the whole event before, but given the undoubtable across-the-board quality of the five finalists this year, I decided to check it out.

Another weirdness: given the not-insubstantial sum invested in prize money, one would have thought this would have been set up to garner as much attention as possible instead of being tucked away. Shuffled into the Lakeside Terrace on a busy weekend, the performance environment discouraged passers-by from stopping to check it out, and was more than a little sterile — but at least it was equally so for all of the bands. That said, it also gave everyone a chance to play in a technically-controlled environment, and the three sets I saw all sounded very good. (Note to Harbourfront: this is a really nice room to see a band in — why not host some gigs here on non-super-busy summer weekends?) Rather than a contest to win the affection of the masses, the vibe here was old-fashioned "industry" — a closed-off showcase for artists to impress a secret cabal. It's to the musicians' credit that they still managed to spark some energy and give good performances.

Something old/something new here, as this was the first formal gig for electro-dub feminist hip-hop crew Above Top Secret. But they're no newcomers, having been on the scene for several years as Abstract Random before a membership change led to a re-think/re-brand/re-launch. Debuting a full set of new material (only single "Ghost" has had a public airing), core members SunSun and Ayo Leilani were joined by Brandon Valdivia on percussion — and on this song by vocalist Lido Pimienta. There were "personal" songs about friendships lost and other emotional travails as well as some very strong political ones, including the stark electro-blues posted here. In a city where the police murders of Andrew Loku and Jermaine Carby remain virtually unaddressed, the opening here ("this ain't a game / they're out for blood") feels raw and immediate before turning (with Pimienta's plaintive backing vocals) to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. This was powerful stuff, and a very worthy winner of the contest's first prize.

[As part of their prize, ATS will be given the chance to play on Harbourfront's big stage on September 8th. Before then, you can catch them next Thursday (July 30th) at The Piston, and also playing a late-night set at Camp Wavelength on Friday, August 28th.]

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