jake fairley/james holden / drake underground, toronto / 13/09/07

Techno in Toronto has been bleak all summer, but last night made up for it. The ADD hosted event combined with it being a Toronto Film Festival party, attracted a full house to the Drake Underground. The $5 event was a full on dance party. Toronto native, Jake Fairley played a quality live set under his Fairmont alias. I love his Fairmont alias, but he definitely jacked it up a notch to keep the dance floor grooving. Gorgeous deep minimal techno with some new Berlin influenced Euro-trance sounds. Quirky James Holden did a DJ set with CD's. With his new album "The Idiots are Winning," I was hoping for a live set. Nevertheless, he played some quality tracks and finished off an amazing night of booty shaking techno.
youtube clip


fairmont aka jake fairley

james holden

james holden / the idiots are winning / border community
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henrik schwarz live / studio !k7
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Tara Donovan


Unfortunately, I'm unable to attend Decibel this year. If anyone is going and would like to submit a review and some photo's from the festival, I'd be more than happy to post them.

bjork / virgin festival, toronto island / 08/09/07

...Bjork's performance at the opening night of the Virgin Festival was so transporting that I forgive the festival its glaring faults as an event.

Bjork has been making strange and beautiful music for a couple of decades, and she's still exploring a frontier that nobody else can find.

Her dynamic show seemed to exist in three tenses at once: present, future and primeval past. Her music from ten years ago (she played several items from 1997's Telegram) sounded as fresh and original as the things she pulled from last spring's Volta. The show was impeccably planned and produced, yet she romped around the stage in her Pierrot-as-baroque-angel outfit as if making everything up on the spot.

No one else could tour with a brass band and make it seem like the coolest sound on earth. The 20 women of the Icelandic band Wonder Brass, and a battery of live percussion, grounded the music in organic tones that gave new point to the boldly synthetic sounds of synthesizers and drum machines. Songs such as Declare Independence and Earth Invaders were wildly spectacular, but for me the most mind-blowing thing was her performance of Cover Me, which with its clotted organ accompaniment sounded like high-church contemporary music of a kind that would never otherwise transfix 25,000 pop fans standing in a dark field...
Robert Everett-Green




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swod / sekunden / city centre offices
boomkat review
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sleeparchive/antti rannisto / untitled / sleeparchive
boomkat review
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popnoname / white album / italic
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chloé / the waiting room / kill the dj records
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Sam Javanrouh's amazing photography mostly highlighting Toronto.

anja schneider / resident advisor
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pig & dan / imagine / cocoon recordings
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riley reinhold / light in my eyes ep / my best friend
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gui boratto / the rivington ep / galaktika
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Dork Mag
Nagi Noda

shuta hasunuma / ok bamboo / western vinyl
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efterklang / parades / the leaf label
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Mopa

pier bucci / chiloe ep / crosstownrebels
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niederflur / play my tape #13 live / 07
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alan abrahams + leonardo fernandez / leather lane / series
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Courtney James

beirut / the flying club cup / ba da bing
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check out Ruby Mag

In order to raise awareness for global warming, Greenpeace and the photographer Spencer Tunick got hundreds of naked people to pose for photos on a melting glacier.

Spencer Tunick was on a ladder with a mega phone as he directed the massive crowd of nearly 600 people from all over Europe who were concerned for the environment.

Spencer Tunick then photographed them on a rocky outcrop overlooking the glacier, which is the largest in the Alps.

The volunteers also had to pose for photographs by Spencer Tunick on the ice as he took photos of them lying down.



“Receding glaciers are a clear indication of climate change, and Switzerland is especially affected. The installation will symbolize the vulnerability of the disappearing glaciers and the fragility of the human body. The images of the installation are intended to stir up emotions and to emphasize the naked truth: we have to act now.” - Greenpeace
Greenpeace - more pictures
Spencer Tunick


Erick Swenson


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nooncat / dictum factum / trenton records
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nooncat / amesh mix / 05/05/07
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nooncat / amesh mix / 12/05/07
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maetrik / live at krakt / 08/11/07
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kaliber 15
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secretly canadian
pitchfork review
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alaska in winter / dance in the balkans / regularbeat recording co
boomkat review
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aiden baker / i will always and forever... / small doses
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Margot Knight

va mixed by terry lee brown jr. / sounds of instruments 03 / klik
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va / boxer #50.1 / boxer recordings
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alexi delano & xpansul / un as bajo la manga / trapez
boomkat review
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nathan fake / you are here / border community
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bjork / innocence / one little indian
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* includes a remix by alva noto

thom yorke / spitting feathers ep
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Reed Danziger

raz ohara / whitmey na / kindisch
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apparat feat. raz ohara / holdon / shitkatapult
boomkat review
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gurtz / plural ep / einmaleins musik
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minilogue / space ep / traum
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lusine icl / language barrier / hymen
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hand soap

Julia Fullerton-Batten

seaworthy / map in hand / 12k
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moskitoo / drape / 12k
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rafael anton irisarri / daydreaming / miasmah
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Todd Hido

soul capsule / waiting 4 a way / perlon
boomkat review
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geoph serge / monnect ep / dumb-unit
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rework / love love love yeah (remixes part 1) ep / playhouse
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claro intelecto / warehouse sessions volume 4 / modern love
boomkat review
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It's a great honour to be apart of Modyfier's process series. Please check out her artistic creations and explorations through sound.

Søren Assenholt

false (aka matthew dear) / 2007 / m_nus
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beck / cellphone’s dead (ellen allien & ricardo villalobos remixes) / bpitch
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benfay / born on a houseboat / thinner
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Alberto Seveso

modeselektor / happy birthday! / bpitch
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matzak / life beginnings / boxer
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claude vonstroke / who’s afraid of detroit? (deepchord & soultek mixes) / echospace
boomkat review
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Dan McPharlin

murcof / cosmos / leaf
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frank bretschneider / rhythm / raster noton
boomkat review
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mum / go go smear the poison ivy / fatcat
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Justine Ashbee

deepchord presents : echospace / the coldest season / modern love
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part 3
part 4
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Universal Connections

alva noto / transrapid / raster noton
boomkat review
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frank bretschneider & peter duimelinks / fflux / korm plastics
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Feric Studio

anja schneider / loop de mer / mobilee
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false / fed on youth / m_nus
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dapayk & padberg / black beauty / mo’s ferry
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Sandra Backlund

helios / ayres / type
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olof arnalds / vid og vid / 12 tonar
"Olof Arnalds, Mum's collaborator for the past three years, recently released her debut solo album, Vio og vio, on 12 Tonar. The release was produced by Sigur Ros."
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Ted Noten

jacksonblack / i can has more minimal now
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gillsans / killing me softly
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Erwin Olaf

sten / undercover ep / dial
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dj koze / all the time ep / philpot
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dj koze vs. sid le rock / naked / cereal/killers
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Science and Sons

paul ritch / june ep / get physical
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jichael mackson / the blow job / pastamusik
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rod modell / kettle point ep / echocord
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redshape / steam ep / delsin
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raster noton showcase / the drake, toronto / june 26

It's a rare event when someone of the caliber of Frank Bretschneider rolls into town. When it comes to organizing electronic music events that aren't of the mainstream club variety, Toronto seems a bit misguided next to towns like Montreal ( i.e. compare Toronto's Beats, Breaks, and Culture festival to Mutek). And it was from Montreal that Bretschneider and the Raster-Noton crew came to play a half capacity Drake Underground for a measly seven dollar cover. Maybe my reality is a bit skewed, but these guys are huge and could easily ask for twice that in any city other than Toronto. Anyway, enough ranting. Toronto native, Sans Soleil, opened the show with a very clean ambient sound that slowly progressed into an amazing rhythmic affair. Accompanied by visuals from Additv, Sans Soleil not only set the tone for the rest of the night, but demonstrated the remarkable talent that exists around here (so why can't we have more shows like this?!). Senking was up next and after hearing his recent release on Raster-Noton I was excited to hear him on the Drake PA, but due to technical difficulties his set never happened so Frank Bretschneider stepped up. Bretschneider's set was very different from previous material that I've heard. In recent years he seems to have been drifting towards a more subdued sound with a focus on ambient drones (I'm thinking of his 12k stuff) but the tracks he was playing were heavy on the 808, which I assume are off his recent Raster-Noton release entitled "Rhythm". His set had the standard clicky feel that was all the rage back in the days of Mille Plateaux, but considering this guy is one of the progenitors of that style it was pretty hot. After the set I was ready to leave for home, satisfied with what I heard, when Olaf Bender mysteriously appeared on stage. Since the flyer only listed Sans Soleil, Senking and Bretschneider, I assumed the show was over. I've heard Bender play before as Byetone about two years ago and I was excited to hear some new material and what transpired on this night is really beyond words. From what I understand, Bender was mixing Signal tracks, which is a collaboration between Brentschneider, Bender, and Alva Noto, that were synced to some of the most phenomenal visuals I have every witnessed - very minimal, very monochromatic and very Raster-Noton. This set was the hardest and meanest techno that I've heard in a very long time and I hope to hear a lot more of it in the future. It left me mesmerized from beginning to end and put to shame everything that I saw at Mutek the month before.
*thanks to my friend BK for the review.

sans soleil

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frank bretschneider


olaf bender



luciano / fourges et sabres / perlon
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va / shut up and dance! / ostgut
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Anthony Lister

cobblestone jazz / put the lime in da coconut ep / wagon repair
boomkat review
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mute/metazoo / m series part 1 ep / cray1 labworks
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lars wickinger / nebular / dimmer
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pan-pot / maffia (remixes) ep / einmaleins musik
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Tunnel House

omar salgado / obelysko / unfoundsound
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library tapes / hostluft / make mine music
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thieves like us / play music for you
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console / pan or ama / disko b
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hanno leichtmann / nuit du plomb / karaoke kalk
boomkat review
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aoki takamasa / simply funk / progressive form
boomkat review
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zelienople / his/hers / type
boomkat review
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Dan Witz

the tuss / rushup / rephlex
boomkat review
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bola / kroungrine / skam
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boards of canada / 1992 closes vol.1
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va / famous when dead v / playhouse
boomkat review
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Nigel Evan Dennis

lawrence / lowlights from the past and future / mule
part 1
part 2

dextro / consequence music / 16k
bookmat review
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ulrich schnauss / quicksand memory ep / domino
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deepchord presents: echospace / the coldest season - part 1 / modern love
boomkat review
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Matt Walkerdine

va / soma coma vol.1 / soma
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alex smoke / live at sonar / 14/06/07
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Martin Creed

guy gerber / late bloomers / cocoon recordings
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gui boratto / royal house / plastic city
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Chantal Michel / who killed bambi?

va / every day a story 3 / klik
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part 2

gui boratto / podcast / 06/04/2007
listen *skip past the cheesy intro


Sean McGaughey

fridge / the sun / temporary residence
boomkat review
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helios / ayres / type
woods and gives away mp3
the obeisant vine mp3
in heaven mp3

va / free the future / type
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A special thanks to Greg J. Smith for the plug on serial consign

bishbo

efdemin / resident advisor / 11/06/2007


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marek hemman / podcast / 06/09/2007
listen *skip past the cheesy intro

mobilee / podcast-excercise one / 06/08/2007
listen *skip past the cheesy intro

eric cloutier / process of self development
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kate simko / live at demf / 2007


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september collective / all the birds were anarchists / mosz
boomkat review
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Tejo Remy transforms regular fences into interactive spaces.

slam / human response / soma
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pan/tone / newfound urban calm / bip hop
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va / cocoon compilation g / cocoon recordings
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