Petra Glynt is a sonic swashbuckler. Her electronic art-punk music reveals an unapologetic originator whose politics are integral to everything she produces (including her subversive. rainbow-coloured artwork). Her self-produced sophomore release, My Flag Is a Burning Rag of Love, which was mixed by engineer Alice Wilder, proves that Glynt’s 2017 debut, This Trip, was notContinue reading “Petra Glynt. My Flag Is A Burning Rag of Love.”
Genre Archives
Muxubo Mohamed Dares to Represent
Compromise? What is compromising? Compromising for what? Compromising for what reason? . . . What is compromise? —Eartha Kitt That emphatic excerpt from a 1982 documentary is sampled at the start of “He(r)story,” the opening track on Obuxum’s beat-laden EP H.E.R. While Kitt is alluding to compromising with a man, Obuxum is zooming out further, asking whyContinue reading “Muxubo Mohamed Dares to Represent”
Castle If. Sector 3.
Castle If (Jess Forrest) creates an analog synthscape as the futuristic backdrop for her latest recording, Sector 03. Inspired by William Gibson’s 1984 sci-fi novel Neuromancer, Forrest conveys an anxiety about technology as she examines a future in which disorder is magnified. Throughout the album, her electronics twinkle and throb with an air of worryContinue reading “Castle If. Sector 3.”
Suoni per il Popolo Festival: 18th Edition
Like the accordion played in the large improvising ensemble GGRIL, this year’s Suoni per il Popolo expanded in some dimensions and contracted in others, while continuously bellowing out fascinating sounds. Some years the festival has unfolded over a full month, but the 2018 edition ran just under three weeks; while the first festival was presentedContinue reading “Suoni per il Popolo Festival: 18th Edition”
Jean-Sebastien Audet’s Songs of Ephemera
Jean-Sebastien Audet and I drink coffee in a café on Toronto’s Queen Street West, as we try to pin down his elusive music. The man who has kindly given us his larger table is now squeezed into a corner with his laptop and is feigning interest in nondescript wall art. He perks up his earsContinue reading “Jean-Sebastien Audet’s Songs of Ephemera”
Colin Fisher. V Le Pape.
V Le Pape, the debut solo album by Toronto guitar-and-electronics whiz Colin Fisher (Not the Wind, Not the Flag; Fake Humans; much else besides), invites comparisons as much to the works of New-Age experimentalist Laraaji as it does to classics of the loopy, psych-ambient solo-guitar subgenre it more obviously inhabits, such as Manuel Göttsching’s InventionsContinue reading “Colin Fisher. V Le Pape.”
Psiw-te npomawsuwinuwok kiluwaw yut
The first time I heard Jeremy Dutcher on the radio, I was driving my son and some of his non-Native teammates to soccer practice in Peterborough. I had tuned in to the CBC a few bars into Dutcher’s single “Honour Song,” and the fifteen-year-old boys in the car fell silent. “Holy Simpson [read Mom], a NishContinue reading “Psiw-te npomawsuwinuwok kiluwaw yut”
2018 Spring & Summer Festival Preview
The usual anticipation for nice weather has been feeling like more like desperation—a longing for warmth, good vibes, and the freedom to explore everything under the sun. I am planning to fill my “no Netflix” summer with as many park hangouts, patios, concerts, and spontaneous events as possible. Musicworks’ staff, contributors, and other friendly earsContinue reading “2018 Spring & Summer Festival Preview”
Melody McKiver. Reckoning
Melody McKiver is an Anishinaabe musician, dancer, and intermedia artist with a background in classical music, whose broad and adventurous palette also includes jazz, blues, hip-hop, and contemporary classical music, performed primarily on solo viola and laptop. The music on Reckoning was originally composed as the soundtrack for a theatrical production about the impact ofContinue reading “Melody McKiver. Reckoning”
Eric Chenaux. Slowly Paradise.
Slowly Paradise is a particularly apt name for Eric Chenaux’s latest album. Listening to its gently swaying rhythms and mellow, watery tones feels like watching a creaky musical barge float slowly down a southern river, or a folk trio kept to a barely languid pace by the weight of the tropical heat. It’s a strangelyContinue reading “Eric Chenaux. Slowly Paradise.”