Recording: Korea Town Acid

Artist: Korea Town Acid

Song: unknown excerpt^*

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (TONE Festival 3.5), June 24, 2019.

Korea Town Acid - unknown excerpt

A night of avant-electronic sounds at the TONE Festival, with some locals interfacing with a pair of guests with fresh albums out on the Orange Milk label. The night proceeded from quiet drones to dancefloor grooves, with Jessica Cho providing the latter to close the night out. It's been a while since I'd seen her in action, but I'd been keeping an eye on her Korea Town Acid project, casrefully constructing dance grooves in realtime from a tableful of gear (and this was, it should be noted, the only set of the night that didn't use a laptop). Mostly aiming for dancefloor satisfaction, Cho's pieces found their groove and added subtle tweaks to maintain forward momentum — although this section, with everything getting filtered down to its static-y essence, shows there's an experimental urge powering the vibes.

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

Recording: CHOBO with strings

Artist: CHOBO with strings

Song: [first section]

Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #19), October 4, 2016.

CHOBO with strings - [first section]

When I saw Jessica Cho and Benjamin Boles performing their live techno highwire act CHOBO back in August, I asked what kinds of non-electronic sounds they'd want to try to incorporate into their mix. Cho immediately said strings, so when I asked them to come out to TCB, I called on cellist Cory Latkovich to join forces with them. Unintentionally soundtracking Run Lola Run, which was on the screen beside the stage, there was a definite sense of propulsion in what they came up with, even if Latkovich's own adventures in transportation left him with only three strings.

Recording: CHOBO

Artist: CHOBO

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Tiger Bar (Arachnids at the Tiger Bar), August 6, 2016.

CHOBO - [excerpt]

A summertime showcase for some "music by and for weirdos" on the Arachnidiscs label, this night brought some ambient noise and noisy ambiance to College Street's Tiger Bar (a cool destination for small-scale indie shows about six-seven years ago and now reactivated). Closing things out with a different sort of sonic flavour was this project from Jessica Cho and Benjamin Boles, applying improvisatory techniques to techno-styled electronic music. Keyb riffs and rhythmic twists would get tossed back and forth between the pair, sometimes being discarded and sometimes woven into the ongoing development of the piece, making it approachable as "head" music (to watch and consider for the realtime decision-making) or just as booty-shaking stream-of-consciousness. [Their Arachnidiscs tape dropped a few months ago.]