Recording: Bodies That Matter

Artist: Bodies That Matter

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at the basement auditorium of Toronto Public Library – Parkdale Branch (SHHHH! – Year 2, Show 2), May 6, 2017.

Bodies That Matter - unknown

Kudos to Kyle Knapp (of the band Deliluh and the Raw Materials label/collective) for keeping going the community initiative he started a year ago, bringing strange and wonderful sounds to the library's Parkdale branch. I missed the previous evening's show up in the stacks, but made it down for this Saturday matinée, mixing up a variety of artists to entice patrons and passers-by to join the crowd in the wonderfully-retro basement auditorium. Seeing Phil Hamilton setting up alongside Ian McPhedran, one might have concluded that this was a different band playing, but it turns out that the former had been drafted to fill out the latter's solo sound. Clutching an oscillating noise-box and playing some of the wettest drum sounds imaginable, Hamilton's distortions worked in the service of Bodies That Matter's core aesthetic: burying pop hooks under layers of murk. The echoes of their work in Determinist? were even more pronounced in a set-closing white-noise crescendo, hinting at how there are many roads to that same sonic zone.

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

Recording: Bodies That Matter

Artist: Bodies That Matter feat. Scott Hardware

Song: Infernal Organ

Recorded at The Baby G, October 20, 2016.

Bodies That Matter - Infernal Organ

Ian McPhedran's solo project grew to a duo on this night with his former Ostrich Tuning bandmate Scott Harwood joining him for the full set on extra guit and keyb. That served to enhance the usual frazzled haze throughout, and allowed for a big whitenoise implosion to close out the set, but maybe the best moment was on this song (which had also featured Harwood in its recorded version).

Recording: Bodies That Matter

Artist: Bodies That Matter

Song: Nobody Waved Goodbye

Recorded at Smiling Buddha, February 26, 2015.

Bodies That Matter - Nobody Waved Goodbye

The release show for Mimico's excellent new Incantations album saw support from three acts with close connections to the headliners. Ian McPhedran (who not only played beside Mimico's Jeremiah Knight in Ostrich Tuning, but also helped record Mimico's first album), with a fresh solo project under his wing, was a logical choice to open the night. The material was similar to what he played when he launched the project last fall — think drone-rock aiming to carve out new directions in raga — but there's now a lot more confidence in the presentation.

Recording: Bodies That Matter

Artist: Bodies That Matter^*

Song: Dead Slow

Recorded at Holy Oak Café, September 26, 2014.

Bodies That Matter - Dead Slow

Full review to follow. Ian McPhedran, formerly of beloved local drone-rockers Ostrich Tuning, has re-emerged with this new project. So far a one man show, it's dedicated to "a celebration of the 60hz mains hum (that infests our very being) as interpreted through guitars and eight-twelve bit delay/samplers". For this initial outing, that was expressed through distorted beats and hazy vox — there's the outline of a unified sound here, with thin, almost sitar-like guitar tones riding on top of thick, sloggy rhythm tracks. That does mean at this early juncture that the songs sound a bit like versions of each other, but as McPhedran masters his new working arrangement, his sonic universe will expand accordingly. No further dates in the pineline at the moment, but there's a couple demos up on his soundcloud for now.

^* A note on nomenclature: at the time of this gig, this project was billed as "St. Clair Kids", but shortly after it was reverted to this moniker.