Recording: New Chance & Rowan-Muriel

Artist: New Chance & Rowan-Muriel

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (coexisDance #113), February 28, 2026.

New Chance & Rowan-Muriel - [excerpt]

The coexisDance series, which has been bringing together improvisers from Toronto's music and dance scenes for more than a decade, seems to have been thriving lately. Settled into Cabbagetown's CCDT, there's a proper floor and room to set up a large illuminated circle for the performances, musicians strewn around the perimemter and getting a chance to improvise with two different dance artists over the course of the evening. Raphael Roter has brought curatorial energy to the series, with a passion for bridging two vibrant communities that might not rub elbows enough. [Do note that these field recordings are, by necessity, "incomplete" without the dancers' physicality, but I think it's worth preserving this work from some excellent players in the community.]

A bit of a throwback here, with Vic Cheong bringing out the trusty ol' DL4 to create some etherial vocal loops.

[New Chance will be guest-hosting Karen Ng's Tranzac residency on Thursday (March 26th) presenting the intruigingly-titled "Kate Nankervis and Vic Cheong Create a Breathable Space" alongside a performance from guest Nifty.]

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Songs: Twice Bitten + Something Human

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), June 14, 2025.

New Chance - Twice Bitten

New Chance - Something Human

A classic sort of album-release celebration, Vic Cheong launched the fab new A Rock Unsteady by bigging everything up — dramatic stage lighting and magnificent shoulder pads included — as well as bringing along many of the friends who helped make the album. Cheong's skills as a vocal arranger were in evidence (as heard on the first selection here) with astounding interweavings coming from Isla Craig, Robin Dann, and Felicity Williams, and there was room as well for some guest performances from saxophonist Brodie West as well as Jennifer Castle, who hung out in the shadows at the edge of the stage to embellish "Something Human".

Monday Roundup #39

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

---

Community notes:

• Building on the theme and vibe of this year's X Avant shows (see below!), The Music Gallery has unveiled a new community-building initiative. "Following the theme for this year’s X Avant Festival, You In Mind, the Music Gallery is hosting a series of five events from November through March dedicated to artists whose projects or organizations are not supported by public funding or otherwise do not have the means to present in venues of our scale." Unleash your dreams for filling the space at 918 Bathurst with sounds and click here for more info.

---

X Avant:

Taking tentative steps into appraising Where Things Stand, the first X Avant festival curated by Artistic Director Sanjeet Takhar is about renewal and reconnection, "to listen, process, and artistically empower the diverse communities in Toronto." These four nights offer limited, safely-distanced in-person seating as well as a Name-Your-Price livestream option. There's a lot to experience over four nights:

• X Avant XVI: Listen (Thursday) Music and spoken word co-presented with RISE Edutainment. Spoken Word Artists: Eyeda Sophia, Nathan Baya, Nasim, and Moël. Musical & Visual Producers: Nathan Smith and Vanese Smith.

• X Avant XVI: Reasoning (Friday) A free screening of a new documentary from Bonjay's Alanna Stuart, launching a new solo project. (Also streaming free on Thursday on the MG's Twitch channel.)

• X Avant XVI: Process (Saturday) An eight-hour drone, suitable for sonic washing. Featuring: Labyrinth (Araz Salek, Amely Zhou, Yang Chen), Bachelard, Colin Fisher, Short Bloom, Kat Estacio, Debashis Sinha, LordAUK & Zones, and Labyrinth (Naomi McCarroll-Butler, Pedram Khavarzamini, Scott Peterson).

• X Avant XVI: Embody (Sunday) A co-presentation with Native Women in the Arts, in celebration of Indigenous communities and the lessons they have to share. Featuring Oneida Nation group The Ukwehuwe Connection.

---

In the mix:

• Speaking of drones, there's a new Drone Brunch mix posted — drift along with some sounds from YlangYlang, Badge Epoch, Nurse With Wound, Stenorette, Witxes, pä, Jakob Rehlinger, and zakè & marine eyes.

---

It happened this week...

While X Avant is at the front of our minds, here's a couple sonic samples from the festival's first years at 918 Bathurst:

• ...on October 11, 2017 at 918 Bathurst (The Music Gallery's X AVANT XII – Night 1)

Man Forever - Twin Torches

• ...on October 19, 2019 at The Music Gallery (X AVANT XIV: Forward – Night 3).

Willi Williams and New Chance - Home

[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: Willi Williams and New Chance

Artist: Willi Williams and New Chance

Song: Home

Recorded at The Music Gallery (X AVANT XIV: Forward – Night 3), October 19, 2019.

Willi Williams and New Chance - Home

One of the main subtexts of this year's X Avant was the awareness that it would be the last programmed by the Music Gallery's Artistic Director David Dacks, who had recently announced his stepping-down from the position in a thoughtfully-choreographed transition. The Festival's theme of "Forward", considering what's coming next, was thus personal as well — and it gave the broader community a chance to consider the work Dacks has done in his tenure at the Gallery.

This show, for example, could be considered a signature Dacks move, bringing together several of his consistent interests: giving a larger platform to artists like Victoria Cheong, whose emergence has been facilitated by the MG in several ways; putting together an intergenerational soundclash, bringing different communities to the same show; and foregrounding the work of Black musicians in Toronto in the MG's context of "creative music" — all while taking the gamble that two artists who had never met before could click on a personal level to create a festival-headlining collaboration.

The whole thing paid off quite wonderfully, creating a platform for Williams' voice that did more than just pour Cheong's productions into a reggae template (although, to be sure, this is a terrain where she has already done some extensive mapping). The collaboration went both ways, so not only were there some rearrangements of Williams' older songs (and even a delightfully-unexpected cover of "This Magic Moment") but a tune called "Father" that matched the New Chance atmospheric/dancefloor "sound" with Williams' soulful vocals. In a perfect world, that would be the lead single on a collaborative album from Soul Jazz or some other label for curious heads — there were murmurings that this collaboration could continue beyond this show, so hopefully there's more to be heard from this pairing.

Recording: Prices Easy & New Chance

Artist: Prices Easy & New Chance

Song: [3rd section]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (Women From Space Festival – Night 4), March 11, 2019.

Prices Easy & New Chance - [3rd section]

The first Women From Space Festival saw four excellent concerts take place over the course of the International Women's Day weekend. Organized by Bea Labikova and Kayla Milmine, the festival felt like a really savvy gathering, always more than the sum of its parts and showcasing the depth of talent in the city's various creative music streams in a women-centred environment.

I had previously seen poet Aisha Sasha John holding a room in a more traditional "reading" scenario, but this new collaboration with Victoria Cheong moved in interesting new directions. With some well-chosen musical backdrops adding an extra layer of fluidity, John's words (mixing the personal and political) were even more performative here — poetic but allowed to stretch out in spoken word segments that moved with dream-drift logic, and deploying vocal effects to underline and enhance certain phrases. This was one of the festival's more ear-catching sets, and I presume there will be more to come from this collaboration.

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Baby G, March 3, 2018.

New Chance - unknown

Looking poised and elegant (and a bit like someone who just wandered on stage from a Wendy & Lisa video), Vic Cheong was in top form here in a set that featured equal parts sophisticated pop and dance grooves.

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

Recording: Body Double

Artist: Body Double

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 1 late-night afterparty), February 24, 2017.

Body Double - unknown

Once again, the Somewhere There Music Festival offered an oasis of local creativity, tightly bundled into five events over three days. Leading off, as always, with a community member's reflections, the first show featured a talk from David Dacks on building relationships and finding a project's true purpose while striving to program forward-looking music. Healing Power was given the task of programming the late-night sets in the Southern Cross after things had wrapped up in the Main Hall, presenting the debut of this new collaboration between New Positions' Vic Cheong and Bile Sister's Julie Reich. There were elements of each of their bands' sounds in play here, in a set with a few already-polished gems (like this melodica-driven reggae number) alongside some tracks that felt more like works in progress. "Don't show me the rough cut, show me the final version," a sampled/looped conversation between the pair cheekily intoned between songs. That recorded banter was a repeating presence, making this feel like a glimpse into the pair's scrapbook, mindspace and practice space with chatter about identity and reality being processed into Bechdel-tested avant-pop.

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

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall, October 17, 2016.

New Chance - unknown

At some point it should stop surprising that Victoria Cheong's project keeps expanding in new and exciting directions. This song reminds me of the Laurie Anderson/MC 900 Ft. Jesus collaboration that I didn't know I was waiting my whole life for.

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

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Song: Truth is the Freshest Fruit [Jennifer Castle cover]

Recorded at Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (WET TECH), August 27, 2016.

New Chance - Truth is the Freshest Fruit

WET TECH was an night-long product demonstration from the XHE corporation in the Tranzac's main hall, showing off some of the newest advances in sweat-harvesting technology. Between the executive massages, aerobics demonstrations and free Intelli-Gel® samples there was also some musical entertainment. Stay tuned for further secretions developments from these exciting new frontiers.

Closing out the night, New Chance brought some more new jams, including this fab set-closing Jen Castle dancefloor reinvention — a sort of message transmitted from one friend to another.

Recording: Hoover Party + friends

Artist: Hoover Party feat. Karen Ng & Brodie West/Doc Dunn/New Chance

Songs: [three excerpts]

Recorded at Array Space, December 9, 2015.

Hoover Party feat. Karen Ng & Brodie West - [excerpt]

Hoover Party feat. Doc Dunn - [excerpt]

Hoover Party feat. New Chance - [excerpt]

Jonathan Adjemian has pivoted from the hermetically gorgeous sinewaves of his last tape to the generative laptopscapes of his brand-new effort, which was celebrated at this night out at Array. Reflecting faucets of the creator's personality, the album was for sale in a download code/baked treat combo, and the night's collaborations included both musical-and dance-based efforts. In terms of the former, Adjemian was joined by some of his peers to unpack, redux, and remix some tracks from the new album, giving them reinvented musical identities.

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Song: unknown track, live remix [edit]^*

Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #9), December 1, 2015.

New Chance - unknown track, live remix [edit]

Given a chance to mix things up from her usual set, Victoria Cheong brought out a some different gear and presented a live remix of some of her own tracks, cutting together segments old and new from her deeep beats collection.

[The next Track Could Bend will be at Dundas Video on Tuesday, January 5th — more info coming soon!]

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

Recording: Chandra

Artist: Chandra

Song: Kate

Recorded at Jam Factory, November 12, 2015.

Chandra - Kate

Last year's initial encounter between Chandra Oppenheim and Bile Sister (celebrating the re-issue of her 1980 Transportation EP) has blossomed into a full-on new wave tour with a local all-star band that featured Julie Reich, David Jones, Victoria Cheong, Jesse Locke, and Nyles Miszczyk. Dressed in stylish black, they generated a serious synth and melodica-driven new wave groove in a tightly-paced half hour set. No time for chit-chat, just dance!

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Ratio, July 25, 2015.

New Chance - unknown

Sorta through coincidence (but definitely not to my disappointment), I saw New Chance perform three times within a couple weeks. That unexpected plenitude gave me a chance to realize just how much material Victoria Cheong has built up, and how much room there is to re-interpret each of her songs — there was quite a lot of variation between the sets, which is why I feel okay posting something from this one even though I shared a New Chance jam just the other day. This set was also in a more sonically-calm environment than the usual sweaty dance caves New Chance is frequently found in, making it a cleaner recording than I can usually muster — but it should be noted that this set managed to transform even the sedate Ratio crowd from appreciative head-nodding to actual on-their-feet dancing.

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

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Song: Lifted by Love [k.d. lang cover]

Recorded at a Wade Avenue studio, July 11, 2015.

New Chance - Lifted by Love

This basement party saw Vic Cheong bathed in lasers as she offered up this early k.d. lang tune, which in her hands becomes transformed into a surging dancefloor groover.

[New Chance will be opening things up tomorrow night (July 25th) at Ratio, as well as taking part in the Healing Power Summer Bass spectacular next week.]

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Double Double Land, October 17, 2014.

New Chance - unknown

Back when I first saw Healing Power's VC undertaking her solo excursions as New Chance, my first sonic touchpoint was "deeep sonic murk". A while further along, that's been supplanted by a sort of breathy ethereality (in the same soundworld you might hear from local peers such as Blunt Chunks, Tenderness, or Isla Craig) and the live presentation of the music has gone from a sort of half-hidden crouch to a much more confident stance. The raw ingredients are stirred up in real time, and the songs tend to stretch out to accentuate groove as much as tunefulness.

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

Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at 961a College St., November 28, 2013.

New Chance - unknown

Full review to follow. VC (who plays in HVYWTR and is half of the braintrust behind the Healing Power label) takes a solo turn with this project mixing deeep sonic murk, beats, and popsmarts in intriguing proportions. There was a bit of crowd chatter audible in the room (and on this recording) but I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more of this.

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