Recording: Kapali Carsi

Artist: Kapali Carsi

Song: [second piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), September 28, 2016.

Kapali Carsi - [second piece]

Performing now for the third time as Kapali Carsi, Kevin Hainey's live manifestations might be becoming more frequent, but they still draw a crowd of devoted noise heads. Playing more also gives a chance to explore some variations in his bass drone/noise dynamics, such as exploiting a loose connection for spiky bursts of wobbly noise at the outset. In other spots there were some more subtle dynamics at play, even when the whole thing was wake-the-neighbours loud.

[As has been the case with his other performances, Hainey has documented this show over on his bandcamp.]

Recording: Determinist?

Artist: Determinist?

Song: [last section]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), September 28, 2016.

Determinist? - [last section]

A new joint effort from Beard Closet's Phil Hamilton and Bodies That Matter's Ian McPhedran, this set lived up to the question mark in their band name by balancing between intended and unintended musical projections. Some time spent sampling the Southern Cross' piano didn't really make it through in the squall, and I'm not sure if all of the shouting was part of the game plan, but it all cohered inside the clouds of squealing feedback.

[Determinist? will be playing tonight (November 1st) as part of this month's Track Could Bend. It might not sound like this, but it'll probably still be noisy.]

Recording: Brian Ruryk

Artist: Brian Ruryk

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), September 28, 2016.

Brian Ruryk - unknown

As with any set by noise master Brian Ruryk, there was plenty of junk-flinging lo-fi spectacle on hand. But having seen him a couple times in relative temporal proximity also gave an opportunity to look a bit closer at the compositional method behind the chaos — and even if this set sent the players at a folk meetup the next room over scurrying home in disarray, there is indeed a "method" at play here. [You can currently get a pretty sweet deal on Ruryk's latest tape over at bandcamp, by the way.]

^* Does anyone know the title to this one (if, indeed, it has one)? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Mas Aya + Khôra

Artist: Mas Aya + Khôra

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), July 20, 2016.

Mas Aya + Khôra - [excerpt]

An interesting combination here from Brandon Valdivia and Matthew Ramolo, as their normal solo projects usually have rather different vibes. Valdivia's avant-cumbia Mas Aya hews more towards conscious party jams while Ramolo's Khôra dissolves sounds into floating clouds while peering deep Within. The meeting point here was a space of electronic abstraction — Valdivia had a table full of gear that he spent most of the set deploying, only turning to the drum kit as things reached their peak. The upshot was a noise-field that gave Ramolo more forward thrust than usual and gave Valdivia more of a glimpse into the void.

Recording: Kyle Brenders + Andrew Zukerman

Artist: Kyle Brenders + Andrew Zukerman

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), July 20, 2016.

Kyle Brenders + Andrew Zukerman - [excerpt from first piece]

Though cut from similar cloth as his partnership with Brodie West, this duo set with saxophonist Kyle Brenders pushed Andrew Zukerman into something of a different sonic zone. Paired with Brenders' full-bodied playing, this was one of the more musical and least provocateurish sets I've seen from Zukerman in a while — by the pair's second piece, he was barely even kicking back against the beauty of the music he was participating in.

Recording: Allison Cameron & Germaine Liu

Artist: Allison Cameron & Germaine Liu

Songs: [two improvisations]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), July 20, 2016.

Allison Cameron & Germaine Liu - [set 1, first piece]

Allison Cameron & Germaine Liu - [set 2, first piece] [excerpt]

Originally slated as a c_RL set, a summer cold meant this ended up as a duo between percussionist Germaine Liu and multi-instrumentalist Allison Cameron. Adding to the sense of something different than usual taking place, Cameron eschewed her usual variety of keyboards, mini-amps and other noisemakers and instead used the Southern Cross' venerable house acoustic guitar and piano. "The problem with the piano is that it just does notes," Cameron muttered after the first piece, but she did her best to subvert that. Perhaps the most intriguing moments came in a couple pieces where she doubled herself on guitar while Liu played recorder.

Recording: Isla Craig

Artist: Isla Craig

Song: There Is A Hole^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), June 22, 2016.

Isla Craig - There Is A Hole

This outing saw a different lineup behind Isla Craig than she'd been playing with in her occasional shows over the past year or so — and with Brandon Valdivia and Mike Smith on hand, it felt a bit like a new Continental Drift, which probably made it no coincidence the set opened with "Marbles" from back in those days.

After that, though, it was new material all the way, from the groove of "The Becoming" to the subtle reggae lilt of "Out of a Dream". (The Weather Station's Tamara Lineman was called up out of the audience to add some backing vox to that one.) After it was ascertained that the fire trucks that pulled up out front of the venue weren't there because the band had set the building on fire, things closed with this psych-tinged gem, containing not only some satisfying synth wig-outs from Jonathan Adjemian (who'd been sitting in for the whole set) but also some cool e-bow licks from Craig — like the continents drifting right on out into the further cosmic zones.

[Isla Craig will be playing at the surely-awesome (and free! and all ages! and in a frickin' park!) Feast In The East at Prairie Drive Park on Saturday, July 9th.]

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

Recording: Brodie West Quintet

Artist: Brodie West Quintet

Songs: Untitled #4 + Afro Blue [composed by Mongo Santamaría, arr. John Coltrane]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), June 22, 2016.

Brodie West Quintet - Untitled #4

Brodie West Quintet - Afro Blue

Once again reinforcing his recent fascination with rhythm, this newly-formulated quintet saw saxophonist Brodie West flanked by a pair of percussionists: Phil Melanson (heard here on the left) and Nico Dann (on the right). A quartet of new (and yet-untitled) pieces gave them plenty of chances to explore the sonic possibilities, whether creating a languid mood in the first piece with hypnotic in-phase/out-of-phase cymbal washes or starting off the last of them (as heard here) like a chase scene in a cartoon. Tania Gill (piano) and Josh Cole (double bass) provided the musical grounding while West would sometimes close his eyes and nod to the rhythms and at others climb on top of them to play like a log roller at work. The set closed out with a nod to Coltrane at Birdland in a rollicking run through "Afro Blue".

Recording: Rob Clutton

Artist: Rob Clutton

Song: [excerpt from a solo bass improvisation]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), June 22, 2016.

Rob Clutton - [excerpt from a solo bass improvisation]

Like finding out who cut the barber's hair, it's a useful bit of local musical knowledge that Rob Clutton is the bass player that other local bassists go out of their way to see. Leading off a double-header of great music on a Wednesday evening, there were several of his peers on hand to watch his delicately-thoughtful playing. Though unafraid to throw in some knotty clusters of knocking and plucking when required, most of his playing hewed to the softer side — in a couple moments it looked like he was merely miming bass playing, like a singer mouthing the words to a song, implying something the ear's incapable of grasping. I'd tried to capture Clutton's solo bass work before, mostly to no avail given the quietness of the music and the limits of my gear, but this time I believe I have something with reasonable fidelity to honour the musicianship here.

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: Macaroni Field [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), June 1, 2016.

Ghostlight - Macaroni Field [excerpt]

This latest from Ghostlight is something of a work in progress (to what extent depends on which member of the group you speak to) and continues on their recent streak of ambitious, prolific work. Unlike the interactive art of Winter Womb or fog machine spectacle of Future Progress, this is (at least so far) less visually flashy but delves deeper into its concept lyrically.

Examining the life of local boxing great George Chuvalo, this takes a novelistic approach, flashing forward and back through his life — from his childhood in The Junction to the tragedy of losing his family — in a series of "rounds" punctuated by a boxing ring bell. In retrospect, in the light of the passing of his Greatest opponent, this taking-stock felt even more vital and necessary. There's a lot of fertile material here, and room to extend the central boxing ring metaphor, so keep an eye out to see where the crew takes this piece.

[Ghostlight will return to the Tranzac's Nacho Wednesdays — curated by Healing Power's Wolfgang — on August 3rd. And otherwise there's good music on offer (and nacho platters for sale!) every Wednesday.]

Recording: Brodie West & Fleshtone Aura

Artist: Brodie West & Fleshtone Aura

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded May 25, 2016 at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays).

Brodie West & Fleshtone Aura - [excerpt]

From now on, the late slot at The Tranzac on Wednesdays is being curated by Healing Power's Wolfgang — who will also have nacho platters on offer along with a variety of cool musics. On this first run of the night everything went quite swimmingly (although there's hopes yet that a promised earlier start time will be taken up as well).

Besides a rare preview of Doc Dunn singing some of the piano-based songs from his forthcoming Wolfking of T.O. opus, the night also featured an appearance from this occasional collaboration between Brodie West's saxophone and Andrew Zukerman's analog synth. The two played off each other in a variety of ways — in this stretch you can hear Zukerman's bubbling burbles doubling West's sax percolations, though at other times he added more abstract counterpoints. There was also their closing opus "Up and Down", which I will leave undescribed to increase the anticipation of future audiences.