alex smoke / temperance gallery, toronto / 09/08/08



Last December Alex Smoke came during one of Toronto's worst snow storms. On Saturday, his plane was canceled due to thunder showers and heavy rain making the promoters work even harder to make this event happen. They managed to swing a last minute flight from Boston to Buffalo. The guest of honour arrived shortly after 1:30 am. Alex then graced Toronto with some of the finest textural techno Toronto has ever experienced. His music has a level of sophistication that takes minimal techno to a whole new degree of intricacy. I can't say enough about him. Alex Smoke is always highly recommended. Absolutely amazing performance.

time festival : soulwax, matthew dear, a-trax, heidi / sunnyside pavillion, toronto / 10/08/08


soulwax

matthew dear

heidi

a-trak

Yesterday, I went to the Time festival hosted by Embrace. It took place at Sunnyside Pavillion one of the sweetest outdoor venues in the city. The performances were varied. I went primarily to see Matthew Dear, but he delivered a sub-par dj set with technical problems at the beginning. The funniest moment was when a young boy shouted "You're so handsome" from the crowd. I'm starting to think his good looks are half the reason he has so many fans. A-trak delivered a party set that seemed to work the crowd into a dancing frenzy. Heidi delivered a solid quality techno set. The highlight was Soulwax who rocked it. Check out photos and clips on flickr.


Jonathan Puckey

va / my favorite things / mule
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va / i'm starting to feel ok / mule
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va / 1 year of kaufe musik / kaufe musik
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Kevin Frew

mathieu ruhlmann + celer / mesoscaphe / spekk

I have been a fan of Celer for quiet some time. I highly recommend their latest release Mesoschape. Here's some text by Mathieu Ruhlmann and Celer taken from the Spekk label website describing their creative process. It's a must have for lovers of Gas.

"The album 'Mesoscaphe' is a sound work dedicated to the 1969 voyage of the Ben Franklin, the naturally-propelled submarine created to explore the currents of the Gulf Stream, and the nature of the sea. Half of the sound is composed of original pieces of music, meant to symbolize a deepening human element culled from memory, from strings, pianos, and electronics. The other half of the sound is composed of natural field recordings, of the Ben Franklin itself, as well as the surrounding oceans and habitats, with the intention of providing realism through sound, just as if it were an actual document from the voyage, of the surrounding ocean. The artists exchanged their own original sounds with each other, allowing each artist to experiment and remix outside of their own sound sources, with the potential to apply our own sound methods to each others' sound sources, and develop the concept even further. Titles were made to coordinate with the movement of the voyage, creating their own story, in relation to the progressing sounds. The final result is a documented literary and audio interpretation of the voyage, from the perspective of 3 sound and visual artists, of the experiences and surroundings of the crew of the Ben Franklin, traveling for 30 days by the gentle glide of the Gulf Stream. We hope to bring attention to an important event in history, overshadowed by the moon landings, and for people to know the story of the revolutionary submarine that explored the nature of the ocean, challenged scientific development, and ended up in a salvage yard."
boomkat review
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gas (wolfgang voigt) / gas / raster noton
boomkat review
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near the parenthesis / l’eixample / n5md
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