On its second EP, Toronto duo Manticore continues its exploration of song on the cusp of improvisation and utterances verging on language. The duo’s rather commonplace instrumentation (you guessed it: guitar and voice) may offer a certain familiarity, but its conventional frame still manages to accommodate experimentation. Rather than singing recognizable lyrics, Zoë Alexis-Abrams stringsContinue reading “Manticore. Universal Time / Nebulous Pink Cloud.”
Genre Archives
The Expanding Universe of Yamantaka // Sonic Titan
I HAD BEEN GRIPING TO ALASKA B, cofounder of the creative ensemble YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN, that Bloordale didn’t have any decent pizza. I’d recently transplanted myself to the Toronto neighbourhood, one of her stomping grounds, and found it discomfiting to not know where to find a sublime slice nearby. She suggested, of all places,Continue reading “The Expanding Universe of Yamantaka // Sonic Titan”
Jay Crocker Navigates the Music of Obstacles
“THEY WERE EXPECTING TO HAVE A swinging kind of jazz party, but we were doing nothing of the sort that night.” Percussionist Chris Dadge is recalling a particularly memorable gig at the Beat Niq Jazz & Social Club—a trad jazz club in downtown Calgary—during which he, guitarist Jay Crocker, saxophonist Dan Michael, and pianist Mark LimacherContinue reading “Jay Crocker Navigates the Music of Obstacles”
Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld. Never Were the Way She Was.
Never Were the Way She Was is as robust as you would expect from a collaboration between Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld, two members of the ever-fertile Montreal music community whose instrumental prowess seems as much a product of virtuosity as extreme physical endurance. Their solo work—as heard on releases such as Stetson’s New HistoryContinue reading “Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld. Never Were the Way She Was.”
Mocky. Key Change.
Dominic Salole, better known as Mocky, is a producer and multi-instrumentalist who grew up in Saskatchewan and moved to Toronto, then Amsterdam, and finally Berlin, where he became part of a hypercreative Canadian expat scene that included Peaches, Chilly Gonzales, and Feist (although she didn’t actually live there). As well as working with those artists—notContinue reading “Mocky. Key Change.”
Myk Freedman Makes Room for an Ensemble of One
Myk Freedman is best known as the lap-steel-wielding leader of the nonet St. Dirt Elementary School, whose idiosyncratically tuneful music (released on Rat Drifting and on Barnyard Records) is nestled in the crevice between whimsy, sentimentality, and ragtag experimentation. Ostensibly a jazz group, its diverse instrumentation, wonkiness, and the sweetly pithy character of Freedman’s tunesContinue reading “Myk Freedman Makes Room for an Ensemble of One”
Divorce Records
“It depends on what you call the beginning, I guess,” says Darcy Spidle when probed about the origins of his experimental music label, Divorce Records. “The first thing I did with the label— about fifteen years ago—was to make big posters that said ‘Music Sucks,’ and then put the Divorce logo underneath. I pasted themContinue reading “Divorce Records”
Ian William Craig. A Turn Of Breath.
In the late 1980s and early ’90s, there was a palpable enthusiasm for experimentation among various musicians who had been lumped together under banners like gothic or ethereal. In addition to austere post-punk and maudlin glam-posturing, this multifarious category also encompassed bands such as This Mortal Coil or His Name Is Alive, whose early truncatedContinue reading “Ian William Craig. A Turn Of Breath.”
Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche. Zubberdust!
Zubberdust! blasts off with whimsical punk-rock exuberance into a patchwork quilt of insistent interlocking grooves, fluorescent panels of synthesizer, and various could’ve-been aural hallucinations. Both hypnotic and jagged, the music of Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche transfixes with tunnel-vision repetition only to hurl the listener, sometimes suddenly and beguilingly, into a different musicalContinue reading “Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche. Zubberdust!”
Lido Pimienta curates a sonic community
Colombia-born, Toronto-based Lido Pimienta has been called “the consummate collaborator”—and with good reason. Although she writes, sings, produces, and plays many instruments—and is certainly talented and strong-willed enough to make recordings on her own—Pimienta’s aesthetic absolutely requires the participation of others. “I would die!” she says of the notion of creating music on her own.Continue reading “Lido Pimienta curates a sonic community”