Monday Roundup #285

Community notes:

• Hear is a new newsletter on Substack digging deep into "An oral history of experimental sound in Toronto and beyond". It's brought to you by Kristina Guison, Mehrnaz Rohbakhsh and Colin Cudmore, all excellent listeners frequently seen at cool shows. The first edition sits down with Tad Michalak, and lives up to its billing of "long-form interviews". Fascinated to see what else is going to follow from its promise to hang out "people involved in all facets of experimental sounds in Toronto — artists, presenters, journalists, audience members, etc." (full disclosure: I have been interviewed by the team, so that's one thing that's in the hopper; I'd be enthusiastic about this kind of historical sharing in any case, of course!)

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Concert announcements:

a fourth space [Adrian Russouw/Mattaus Gretzinger/Dipo Adeola/Ariq Rahman] / The Emmet Ray 2026-07-06 (Monday). $15. [more info]

Partitions illimitées / Unlimited Scores (feat. Julie Lassonde/Yang Chen/James Knott/Leena Raudvee) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-07-07 (Tuesday – early). $PWYC (suggested $10-$20). [more info]

Summer Music in the Garden (feat. Alex Lukashevsky and Mayme Joach) / Toronto Music Garden 2025-07-09 (Thursday). $free, outdoors, all ages + family-friendly. [more info]

Free Improvisation Thursdays (feat. Brent Tanemura/Brodie West/Ryan Driver) / Water to Wine 2026-07-09 (Thursday). $pwyc. [more info]

Bob Wiseman / Sellers and Newel 2025-07-10 (Friday). $30 minimum donation. [more info]

Summer Music in the Garden (feat. Labyrinth Ensemble) / Toronto Music Garden 2025-07-19 (Sunday). $free, outdoors, all ages + family-friendly. [more info]

Abacus Cornet Quartet [playing compositions by Paul Motian] [Colin James Gibson/Ryan Kinney/Jonny Luke/Steve Vincent] / The Emmet Ray 2025-07-22 (Wednesday). $15. [more info]

Summer Music in the Garden ["a program of 16th and 17th century music"] (feat. Arparla and Elixir Baroque Ensemble) / Toronto Music Garden 2025-07-30 (Thursday). $free, outdoors, all ages + family-friendly. [more info]

Summer Music in the Garden (feat. Tara Kannangara and Chris Pruden) / Toronto Music Garden 2025-08-09 (Sunday). $free, outdoors, all ages + family-friendly. [more info]

Summer Music in the Garden: Persian Psychedelia (feat. Neda Mohamadpour with Chris Pruden/Caleb Klager/Mack Longpre) / Toronto Music Garden 2025-08-20 (Thursday). $free, outdoors, all ages + family-friendly. [more info]

Andrew Downing & Dan Pitt / Sellers and Newel 2025-09-17 (Thursday). $20 minimum donation. [more info]

Maggie Keogh/Ryan Driver/Max Donaldson/Blake Howard / Sellers and Newel 2025-09-27 (Sunday). $20 minimum donation. [more info]

Jane Siberry / Sellers and Newel 2025-09-30 (Wednesday). $35 minimum donation. [more info]

Diane Roblin/Rob Clutton/Mark Zurawinski / Sellers and Newel 2025-10-09 (Friday). $20 minimum donation. [more info]

Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!

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Shows this week:

Sonomadic Improv presents (feat. Dorky & Best [Germaine Liu & co.] / The Wrinkles Experiment [conducted improvisation led by Kayla Milmine]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-06-29 (Monday). $pwyc. [FB event]

Solitary Shrew (feat. Ella Güdel / Sweet Osmanthus) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-06-30 (Tuesday – early). $pwyc ($10 suggested). [more info]

The Cluttertones [Lina Allemano/Rob Clutton/Ryan Driver/Tim Posgate] / Wenona Lodge 2026-06-30 (Tuesday). $pwyc. [more info]

Nick Fraser presents (feat. Aidan McConnell/Karen Ng/Adrian Russouw) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-06-30 (Tuesday). [more info]

Lavventura [debut live performance and That Particular Charm release celebration! ] (Paul Linklater) / The Piston 2026-07-02 (Thursday). @22.90. [tickets + more info]

Free Improvisation Thursdays (feat. Brent Tanemura/Scott Thomson/Diana Piruzevska/Peter Richards) / Water to Wine 2026-07-02 (Thursday). $pwyc. [more info]

More Noise Please! presents: Down and Dirty Disruption & Destruction (feat. Violent Shogun / Knifedoutofexistence / Murmur + Jazzhand / DFH / Skin / Dang. / Rhoda) / BSMT 254 2026-07-02 (Thursday). $15/PWYC. [FB event]

Tania Gill presents: Handcrafted Music (feat. Martin van de Ven/David Benitez/Arie Verheul de Ven/Yoshi Maclear Wall/Tania Gill) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-07-03 (Friday – early). $pwyc. [more info]

Humbucker Music Residency (feat. Humbucker Music [Nick Storring/Jason Doell/Colin Cudmore/Mira Martin-Gray] / Allison Cameron & Scott Thomson [Platanus album release show!]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-07-03 (Friday). $pwyc. [FB event]

Beetsblog (Thom Gill / Andre Ethier with Eliza Niemi) / Dina's Tavern 2026-07-05 (Sunday) [more info]

Adjacent Spheres (feat. Michael Davidson/Angelica Zavala/Michael Herring/Miles Cakebread-Kraus) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-07-05 (Sunday). [more info]

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In the mix:

• New ambient mix! Drone and drone-adjecent music, symphonic and chamber music special edition. Featuring: Gustav Mahler, Luciano Berio, Dmitri Shostakovich, John Cage, The Beatles, Isabel Pine, Edna Michell, Forgue, Emily Hopkins, and Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht

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Video hits:

• New one out from notaband, reminding you it's time to hit the streets — and the subway platforms — and dance!

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It happened this week...

• ...on June 29, 2018 at Owl's Club.

Baby Cages - Flowers

• ...on July 3, 2018 at Wenona Lodge (Track Could Bend #40).

Fleshtone Aura - [excerpt]

[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: Baby Cages

Artist: Baby Cages

Songs: Flowers + Polly

Recorded at Owl's Club, June 29, 2018.

Baby Cages - Flowers

Baby Cages - Polly

A brightly-coloured celebration in support of the new bitter melon (an ambitious project that also exists as a video album) saw the band, a half-dozen wide, in neon fruity finery. Focused on the new release, Halloway Jones and co. offered up a concise set, showing off the new songs' diverse moods — ranging from the tautly-drawn Cate Le Bon-ish spareness to the lush and tender balladry heard in this pair. The release of a project is always a marker of beginnings and endings, so it was a treat to hear the fuller arrangements here, including Katie Jensen's vibraphone, before the band transforms into new shapes.

Recording: Baby Cages

Artist: Baby Cages

Song: Dark Arts

Recorded at Pia Bouman School for Ballet (SummerWorks: Sound Circuitz), August 12, 2016.

Baby Cages - Dark Arts

Sometimes, a single moment of flotsam on the pop-culture sea can get lodged in the back of your head and become a personal beacon that endures for years. Like, say, the image of a bird and fish falling in love in an early computer-animation clip. That scene, and others from the Mind's Eye computer animation demos that were repackaged for a generation of Canadian teens as YTV's Short Circutz, was the inspiration for Basement Studio Project (Halloway Jones, Natalie Logan and Heather Rappard), who turned the theatre space into an analogue reconstruction of a computer animated landscape. Giving a huge amount of depth to the room, the audience were welcomed to wander (or dance) around the performers.

Besides contributing to the visual concept, Halloway Jones also performed, fronting her band Baby Cages in a set of ruminative guitar pop. This was the first time I managed to catch Katie Jensen's keyb work with the band, which added some welcome extra textures. Jeremy Costello, a longtime collaborator who also played with his project Special Costello, also adds some backing vox here.

Recording: Baby Cages

Artist: Baby Cages

Song: In Time^*

Recorded at Double Double Land (NASA – Noise Against Sexual Assault), July 10, 2016.

Baby Cages - In Time

Envisioned as "a night of noise, dark electronic, and doom rock in support of sexual assault survivors and in solidarity with Larkin Grimm", this event was programmed as a counter-gig to Swans' local appearance. It was also an attempt for DIY spaces to face up to the problems of taking responsibility for what happens within their walls and to begin a discussion of some "best practices" to create safer spaces.

A promised improv jam from Baby Cages didn't come together as the band closed out the night, but they still managed to satisfy with their slightly-narcoleptic insecurity anthems, perpetually sounding as if their music had been dialed down about four semitones to create a vague sense of lurching unease.

[Baby Cages (along with Special Costello) will be performing in "an immersive environment inspired by early computer generated animations" as part of the boundary-pushing multimedia event Sound Circuitz at the SummerWorks Festival. (Friday August 12th at the Pia Bouman School for Ballet.)]

^* Thanks to Halloway for passing along the title to this one.

Recording: Baby Cages

Artist: Baby Cages

Song: Space

Recorded at The Great Hall's Conversation Room (Long Winter 4.5 – Night 1), March 18, 2016.

Baby Cages - Space

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.

Revolving around guitarist/vocalist Halloway Jones, Baby Cages combines a bluesy roll with a drumpad rhythm into an art-rock slurry. With something of a rotating supporting cast, the band included Guelph-axis stalwarts Chris Worden and Brian Schirk on this night.

[And in another mutation, Baby Cages will manifest as a duo (with Jones joined by violinist Rachael Cadman) at Holy Oak on Saturday night (April 2nd).]