Recording: MAMALIA

Artist: MAMALIA

Song: Mindful Breathing

Recorded at The Steady (Track Could Bend #30), September 5, 2017.

MAMALIA - Mindful Breathing

A global citizen originating from Vancouver, Mamalia has been based in Chicago and Stockholm, spreading the funk across borders. Now based here in T.O., she's finding new ways to take pleasure in making music — new ways of making mistakes, and of finding those butterflies in the stomach that make it all exciting. This time out, it meant working solely with a vocal processor/looper to create some instant compositions such as this one, which is based on mindful breathing exercises but quickly finds its own inner groove.

[Track Could Bend continues tonight (Tuesday, October 3rd) at The Steady, with sets from Nur Michael Keith, New Tendencies & Priya Thomas and iderdown & abigail trotsky.]

Recording: Mamalia

Artist: Mamalia

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at BIG on Bloor Festival – St. Clarens Stage, July 23, 2016.

Mamalia - unknown

Shutting down Bloor from Dufferin to Lansdowne, BIG on Bloor landed in the midst of a heatwave that made an afternoon tour down the middle of the street feel like a field trip to the surface of the sun. Things were more tolerable under the leafy trees at St. Clarens, where one of the day's stages was quite excellently curated by Justin from Holy Oak. Hewing towards funky and r'n'b sounds, this felt like a mini-block party within the larger event.

A relatively-recent arrival to T.O, this Vancouver (via Chicago via Stockholm via London) funkateer managed to find her community at Holy Oak. Currently in the process of creative retooling, she has decade's worth of jams to pull from at a show like this, all ready to dazzle fresh ears. With the day's heat finally abating and evening strollers taking to the streets, there were more dancers old and young to feed their energy to a performer who wasted no time in jumping down from the stage to join them, joyfully vibing and going off-script when the mood called for it.

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