Machinedrum at SAT in Montreal

November 17, 2013

machinedrum

15 November 2013

Travis Stewart aka Machinedrum dropped by the SAT this weekend to showcase his newest album Vapor City, and he gave us an absolutely intense and amazing live performance. Armed with a guitar, his synths, a drum pad, a MIDI controller, a laptop running Ableton, and a live drummer, Stewart took Vapor City to new heights with loads of bass and reverb and the volume cranked to twelve.

I don’t know where he found his drummer, but the guy played non-stop for over an hour and pounded out drum ‘n bass beats at 120 to 192 bpm with no sign of ever wanting to stop. He was ridiculously tight and his on-stage energy was infectious. When the set began and I saw Stewart strap on a guitar, I was a bit worried it might not sound right, but he quickly proved me wrong with the first strum of “Center Your Love”, one of my favourite tracks off the new album. “Infinite Us” came next and they played a near twelve minute version of this song, extending sections and building the track to an incredible intensity that had the crowd pretty much going bonkers. And by the time they moved into the massive “Gunshotta”, empty cups were flying, some dude was crowd surfing, and the threat of a mosh pit started up in front of us.

Stewart also did a great job on vocals, looping and manipulating his vocal hooks seamlessly in the tracks. Watching him on stage, you could tell he’s been doing this for way longer than a minute – he was a straight up professional, operating several instruments at once, and doing it in style. They played the deepest cuts from Vapor City, including a down right dirty version of “Eyesdontlie” and a super tight version of “U Still Lie” that was reminiscent of M83 when the synths reached their deafening crescendo. I went to the show not really knowing what to expect, figuring that if I heard “Gunshotta” super loud in a club it’d be worth the price of admission, but instead Machinedrum blew it up big time, showing us he really knows how to throw down live.

We left the SAT and our ears were buzzing, and when I woke up in the morning with the chorus to “U Don’t Survive” in my head they were still ringing. A stellar show and a stellar album. If you haven’t heard Vapor City yet, I suggest you check it, because it’s gonna be on many a best of list in the coming weeks. Peace.

Photo cred: A. Rad Photo

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Loscil at Usine C in Montreal

November 6, 2013

loscil

25 October 2013

Scott Morgan aka Loscil brought his soothing brand of ambient soundscapes to Montreal on Friday night, and played to an intimate crowd at Usine C, as part of the 5th annual Akousma Festival – a concert series that explores the diversity of electroacoustic music.

Usine means “factory” in English and the venue was indeed once a factory that produced strawberry jam. Morgan played in the converted theatre area, an open space lined with red brick walls and speakers strategically placed around the room. Loscil is arguably my favourite ambient artist, I’ve been listening to his music for a decade now, and this was the first time I’ve seen him play live, so I was pretty stoked to finally get the chance.

And he sounded fantastic. Manipulating the many speakers in the room to his advantage, creating swirls of sound and rhythmic bass. My only complaint, his set was too short. So often when I go to see ambient musicians play live I get antsy, restless, but that wasn’t the case here, with Loscil’s set I felt like I could have settled in for a much longer journey into his world of sound – because it was just so damn calming.

Ben Vida played afterwards and ruined that calm vibe pretty quickly with his harsh analogue attack. He sounded like a touchtone telephone malfunctioning over and over again for 45 minutes. But Loscil, he tapped into something really nice, and I wish he’d have played just a little bit more of it. Come back soon Scott!

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Lynn Coady – Hellgoing (Anansi)

September 3, 2013

hellgoing

For Rover Arts

Still hot on the heels of her Giller Prize nominated novel The Antagonist, Lynn Coady returns with Hellgoing, her first short story collection since 2000’s Play The Monster Blind. These nine stories will quickly transport the reader into familiar Coady territory: troubled families, big city vs. small town drunks, pregnant teenagers, strained amorous relationships, the literary world and devout Catholics. It feels great to hang around with such a varied cast of Coady folk again all at once. Long-time readers will notice, however, that Coady’s settings have shifted west just as she has. No longer do we see the rich Maritime dialogue of her earlier work; instead, many of her characters are west coasters with names like Rain, Hart and Ames, ex-hippies, writers and academics.

In all of Coady’s novels, except for her debut, she has written from the point of view of a male narrator (and has done so convincingly). However, in this collection eight of the nine stories are told from the point of view of women characters. In the title story, Coady writes from the voice of a forty-something feminist who is struggling to fit in with her family after her mother’s death. The acerbic wit of the woman’s father, and the relationship between him and his son will remind readers of Rank and his caustic dad Gord in The Antagonist. In “Wireless,” Coady skillfully depicts functioning alcoholics, as she writes in the voice of a female journalist who meets a kindred spirit in Ned, a burly musician from Newfoundland.

A couple of Coady’s stories bring to mind other great women writers. For example, in “Take This and Eat It,” Coady writes from the perspective of a nun who tries to talk a young anorexic religious fanatic into eating some food, and finally convinces her to eat the body of Christ. The story’s dry humour mixed with themes of religion and blasphemy is suggestive of the great Flannery O’Connor. Moreover, in “An Otherworld,” Coady tells the story of a soon to be married couple with a fetish for S&M, and its tone is reminiscent of Mary Gaitskill’s first collection of stories Bad Behavior. But in the end, the writer Coady reminds us most of herself, as she mines the same ground and themes of her earlier work. For example, the engrossing “Mr. Hope” harkens back to her debut novel Strange Heaven, and is written from the perspective of an apathetic woman who gets pregnant as a teenager.

The collection’s strongest story, “Dogs in Clothes,” deals with the world of publishing and a young publicist who tries to drown herself in her work rather than deal with the fact that her father is having a serious operation. Coady handles the juxtaposition well, giving her narrator compassion, while her sly worldview and clever turns of phrase never let the material get too sentimental. The story is compelling, yet feels imperfect, as it tries too hard to be subtle. And overall, this seems to be Hellgoing’s biggest flaw – the attempts at subtlety and imagery to tie a story together are arguably lacking.

Every story in the collection is an absorbing read, but many of the endings could have been stronger. This is a minor complaint because Hellgoing is an engaging collection of short stories from a writer at the top of her game. And these stories will serve us just fine as we wait for what Coady truly excels at – her novels.

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Lisa Moore – Caught (Anansi)

August 23, 2013

Lisa-Moore-Caught

For Rover Arts

LISA MOORE – CAUGHT

Lisa Moore returns with a new novel that makes good on the recent accolades bestowed upon her excellent 2010 novel, February. Her new book is titled Caught, and takes the plot device of a prisoner on the run as its starting point and introduces us to David Slaney, a would-be smuggler who escapes from jail on the eve of his 25th birthday. Slaney was four years into a sentence for spearheading one of the biggest pot-smuggling cases in Canadian history, but now that he’s out, he and his buddy Hearn plan to do it all over again, only not get caught this time.

While Caught may come off as a summer thriller with its flashy dust jacket and fast-paced opening pages of an escaped convict in an orange jumpsuit racing through brush and brambles in darkness, this is still very much a languid and reflective Lisa Moore novel, full of empathy for its characters, rich attention to detail, and highly memorable scenes.

Caught is set in the late seventies and is split into two narratives – the first focusing on escaped prisoner David Slaney, and the second on Patterson, an undercover cop whose career depends on catching Slaney and Hearn red-handed. At first Patterson seems stiff, a cop who sweats too much, and seems desperate for a promotion, yet Moore gently builds layer after layer of character around him, making him whole, fallible, and decent. The same goes for David Slaney, who Moore portrays as a bright-eyed kid – still full of optimism and love and adventure, qualities a second stint in prison will be sure to dash out. Slaney’s not a mean guy, or a delinquent, in fact he’s quite the opposite, Slaney only wants people to be happy and feel safe, and we see this countless times as he makes his way across the country from Nova Scotia to Vancouver to reunite with his buddy Hearn.

Some of the strongest scenes come from Slaney’s chance encounters as he makes his way to the west coast. The ride from a girl who lives with her grandfather, the rescue of a drowning woman on the beach and a bride having her wedding dress zipped up in a hotel room are just a few scenes that immediately come to mind. They are filled with such fine imagery that they leave a lasting impression on the reader. But the novel’s most compelling passages arrive when Slaney is en route to Colombia on a boat with a drunk sailor named Cyril and his way-too-young summer fling, Ada. Moore handles these at-sea scenes with ease, making her readers feel the water lapping at the hull of the ship, and the sun and salt water burning their skin.

Caught is an excellent novel. It begs to be read quickly, yet Moore’s language and imagery demands it be read slowly. Line by line it is probably the most finely crafted novel of Moore’s career and will no doubt be considered one of the best books of 2013. Her prose is veering into Hemingway territory, cutting to the heart of things so simply and frankly, and making us really feel what her characters are feeling. To give just one slight example as Slaney considers Ada while on the way to South America: “Slaney thought there was something true in her. He could not understand how she had come to be there with an old drunk. They were overtaken by stillness. The sea was still and there wasn’t a breath of wind.” Honest and propulsive, Caught is a mature novel from an author still proving she only gets better with time.

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BUCK 65 – Secret House

August 15, 2013

buck 65

Here is an old review I wrote in 2007 for All Music that was never published, and after randomly listening to this record today for the first time in years, I decided it’s totally worth representing here. A great record by an under-rated Canadian hip hop icon. Check it!

Buck 65 – Secret House Against The World (2005)

Stinkin’ Rich Terfry aka The Centaur aka Buck 65 returns with a new full-length that expands on the chilled-out folktronic hip-hop of 2003’s Talkin’ Honky Blues. Longtime fans will find it an even further departure from the turntable-oriented MCing that endeared Buck to his listeners in the first place, however, sonically speaking the production on Secret House Against The World is arguably his finest output to date. Melodies abound – strings, piano, vibes, banjo, guitar, and the lush backing vocals of Parisian vocalist Claire Berest are all used adeptly throughout. Recorded in studio with help from Tortoise, Gonzales, fellow Nova Scotian Charles Austin, and a handful of others, Secret House sounds natural and organic, like real human beings making music together.

Lyrically, Buck is beginning to veer away from the non-sequitur stylings of Aesop Rock and the experimentalism of his contemporaries releasing records on Anticon and Definitive Jux. Instead, Buck continues to refuse to be pigeonholed or tied down to any one genre. Sounding more like a synthesis of Johnny Cash, Charles Bukowski and Tom Waits, Buck 65 does what he’s always done best – he tells stories. And to be sure, the most compelling songs on Secret House are narratively driven. “The Floor” tells the tale of a young boy with a drunk father and sick mother over the backdrop of quiet piano and vibraphone and ends with a moody orchestral swell as a fitting climax. In “Drunk Without Driving” Buck raps from the perspective of a down-and-out traveling salesman having an affair with a married woman: “And this is terrible, gorgeous and sinister / The pillow still smells like the secrets of my visitor / No one needs to know about this kind of thing / Blood on my back from the attack of her diamond ring”. You can actually see the crummy hotel room – haze of cigarette smoke, bottle of Jack on the bedside table, TV flashing in the background – almost like something out of a Raymond Carver story.

There’s a sadness that runs through this album, the mood and tone of slower tracks like “Surrender to Strangeness” and “Blood of a Young Wolf” play out like the alt-country of Califone or Wilco, and sound pretty good doing it. Faster tracks like “Blanc-Bec” and “Kennedy Killed The Hat” will be the one’s that stick out at live shows and after first listens, but it will be the introspective, story-driven (dare I say Leonard Cohenesque) tracks that the avid listener will want to return to again and again.

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OSHEAGA Festival 2013, Day 3

August 13, 2013

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4 August 2013

Music lovers came in droves on Day 3 of the eighth edition of OSHEAGA, ramming Parc Jean-Drapeau to its capacity and connecting over the smooth rhymes of Kendrick Lamar and the fitful strumming of Mumford and Sons – and the vibe was positive and fun throughout. This remains one of the best things about going to a big outdoor festival, the feeling of camaraderie and harmony that flows through the crowd, the sense that we are witnessing a small slab of musical history together and loving every minute of it.

The worst part is the moment of panic when you realize you are crammed in the crowd so much tighter than sardines, and sure while being right at the front of the stage is awesome, it’s also a little bit terrifying … and where the hell is that beer guy with the seven dollar Coors Light for fuck’s sake!?

The other worst part is pissing – especially if you’re a girl – the lineups were ridiculous, the stalls horrific. For the dudes they had these three-way stand-up urinal thingy’s this year which made it almost as easy as pissing in the bush, but by Sunday they were full up and starting to spill over – fackin’ nasty, but hey let’s get back to the music shall we?

We arrived just in time for a fifteen minute downpour right before Big Boi’s set, but thankfully the skies remained clear after that. Here are the shows I checked out on Day 3 of the 8th installment of Osheaga…

Big-Boi

BIG BOI

To say I was excited to see Big Boi is an understatement. Outkast was and still is my favourite hip hop group of all time. I’ve written about my love for them before and will continue to write about my love for them here, but…

So an injured Big Boi hobbled on stage with crutches and a leg brace and sat down on a majestic throne and began blasting out a medley of hits from the Outkast discography and I was stoked. But his vocals were muddied, apparently due to the fact that a speaker blew somewhere. Yet, as Big Boi ventured into his solo stuff, I began to wonder if maybe he might be lip-syncing. In fact, I am convinced he was lip-syncing. During the songs they had videos playing instead of a live feed of the show, he didn’t take a sip of water the entire set, and he pristinely blasted through his tongue-twisting rhymes as if they were…pre-recorded.

It wasn’t until the last track, “In The A”, that I believe he was actually rapping – the sound was louder and you could actually hear Big Boi rhyming instead of his vocals being lost in the mix. Overall, I was happy I had the chance to see a hip-hop legend, but it was in no way an amazing performance. Perhaps because he was injured he felt it was either he do a bit of lip-syncing or cancel the show…who knows. All I know is, I wanted more bump and thrill from the hip-hop veteran, but instead I would get that from the next performer, the young Kendrick Lamar.

kendrick

KENDRICK LAMAR

The crowd began filling up immediately after Big Boi’s set, even though Kendrick would not be on for another hour. The anticipation was high as was much of the crowd. It was an interesting mix of aging scenesters, twenty-something hipsters, and teens with their parents, all excited to catch Kendrick’s vibe on his first trip to Montreal. And he did not disappoint. Alone on stage except for his DJ, the 26 year-old Compton rapper proved he was worth the hype, coming off as a young Nas on stage, super serious, yet super earnest.

The crowd was rapt, and he let us take care of all the hooks and refrains for him as if he’s been in the game for way longer than a minute. He played tracks from his early mixtapes, his first record Session 80, and of course, the best cuts from good kid, m.A.A.d. city, which was number two on my BEST of 2012 list. Unlike Big Boi, Kendrick’s voice was loud and raw – you could tell he’d been on a tour for a while, because his voice was ragged from overuse.

Overall, the young rapper had a commanding presence, his DJ’s low-end bass was incredibly deeeep, and he showed us why we all fell in love with him in the first place.

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NEW ORDER

Fans young and old crowded around the main stage to watch the current incarnation of synth-rock pioneers New Order, as they played hit after hit after hit from their extensive catalogue. Featuring three members of the original line-up, the new wave legends proved they still had the same flair as they did twenty years ago. “Bizarre Love Triangle” sounded amazing, as did “Ceremony”, “Age of Consent”, and “Ecstacy”. Unfortunately, after three hours of standing, me and my crew needed some downtime and a bathroom break, so the first few tracks of their set were enjoyed only peripherally, but we moved in closer about half way through.

New Order ended the show with a few tracks from their Joy Division days. They played “Atmosphere,” “Shadowplay,” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, which they rocked out to great success. It was fantastic to see this band play live because there’s a pretty good chance I’ll never get to see them again. As soon as they were done we darted out of the crowd and raced towards the Piknik Electronik Stage with the hopes of catching the end of Disclosure’s set…

disclosure_osheaga_2013_03

DISCLOSURE

We made it in time to see the last fifteen minutes of Guy and Howard Lawrence’s first show in Montreal and were immediately transported into a hype dance party. My tired legs found the groove and we jumped and danced as hard as we could for the rest of their set. We arrived as they were playing “F For You” and the beats were crisp and the bass incredibly smooove. After the song ended they welcomed Jessie Ware to the stage to sing her track “Confess To Me” off of their debut album Settle, and the addition of real vocals heightened their performance by about ten degrees. The crowd ate it up. The young duo finished with hit track “Latch” and we danced our way through the crowd to the Green Stage to see the final show of the night, Hot Chip.

hot chip

HOT CHIP

Skipping Mumford and Sons entirely and bidding farewell to an amazing Osheaga 2013 with an impromptu glow stick party courtesy of Hot Chip was a great decision. I couldn’t care less about Mumford and Sons and many other people felt the same way as they chose to end the festival with the London electro-pop darlings instead. The crowd was full of energy as was Hot Chip who played an assortment of their best dance cuts: “Over and Over”, “Boy From School”, “Ready For The Floor”, “How Do You Do?”, “Flutes”, and more. The only problem was the set was too short, they didn’t get a chance to slow it down at all, and although yes we came to have one last dance before the festival was over, it would’ve been nice to hear a few of their slower tracks. Still, it was the perfect way to end an excellent OSHEAGA.

Don’t miss it next year! Cheers.

crew

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AA Restaurant – Saint Henri

June 23, 2013

best poutine

Arguably one of the finest poutines in town! Double A Restaurant on Nôtre Dame in the heart of Saint-Henri! This place is quintessential Quebecois dining at its worst/finest! Check it.

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Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest

April 30, 2013

boards-of-canada_tomorrows-harvest-608x608

Yep it’s finally happening: Boards of Canada have announced they will release their fourth full-length album courtesy of Warp Records – eight long years after the wistful The Campfire Headphase in 2005. After spending the last week transmitting codes on special 12″s, YouTube videos, warped audio clips, and even on TV, Michael Sandison’s and Marcus Eoin’s cryptic message ended up being a grainy clip of VHS static and synth drones, which arrived the same day as the details of its 17-track Tomorrow’s Harvest LP. The forthcoming album is now available for pre-order via Bleep, and official release date is June 10th.

Judging by the music on the clip and the names of the tracks, this looks like it’s going to be a dark and foreboding album. Anticipation begins…

TRACKLIST
01 Gemini
02 Reach For The Dead
03 White Cyclosa
04 Jacquard Causeway
05 Telepath
06 Cold Earth
07 Transmisiones Ferox
08 Sick Times
09 Collapse
10 Palace Posy
11 Split Your Infinities
12 Uritual
13 Nothing Is Real
14 Sundown
15 New Seeds
16 Come To Dust
17 Semena Mertvykh

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Lusine, Local Natives, The Besnard Lakes

April 14, 2013

Hello all. I’ve seen some really great concerts lately, but unfortunately have been too busy to give them proper reviews, so here are some mini-reviews of the three best live shows I’ve seen in Montreal this spring …

LUSINE AT O PATROS VYS

lusine

22 march 2013

Jeff McIlwain aka Lusine has been producing his visceral, melodic strain of electronic music for over a decade now and I was lucky enough to catch him play a live set at O Patros Vys, in support of his excellent new album The Waiting Room. McIlwain is an underrated legend in the electronic music scene. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Lusine has never been in the forefront of the scene, has never played huge venues or been super hyped about on music blogs, yet he is revered by those in the know – and has been perfecting his bubbly analogue techno for years now. His live set was great and he kept the crowd dancing from beginning to end. He doesn’t tour very often so if he plays your town make sure you check him out. Love it.

LOCAL NATIVES AT LE NATIONAL

local natives

29 march 2013

L.A. scenesters Local Natives returned to Montreal in support of their sophomore album Hummingbird and played to a sold out crowd at Le National. I saw them the first time around in 2010 in Toronto and was very impressed and can only say their show has gotten even better. What impressed me most was their live vocal chops, as they effortlessly hit every note, whether in chorus or alone, reminding me at times of the powerful harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash — which is no small feat. The crowd sang and chanted along with the band (myself included), making it feel as if Local Natives have been around forever.

The songs from their debut album Gorilla Manor were absolutely amazing live – incredibly tight and soaring to new heights from the recorded material. The newer tracks, however, failed to reach the same heights live, as you could tell they were still working them out, still smoothing out the kinks a bit, but that didn’t mean they weren’t great too, they just paled a bit in sonic comparison. Overall, this show was powerful, emotional, and a tour de force from a young band still realizing their full potential. Great stuff!

THE BESNARD LAKES AT CABARET DU MILE END

blue light

13 april 2013

The mighty Besnards celebrated the release of their fourth record, Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO and rocked out to a capacity crowd at Cabaret du Mile End. As always, their show was fantastic – they always sound even better live than on record and something about Jace Lasek’s voice and giant presence (not to mention the smoke machine and flashing lights) make The Besnard Lakes seem larger than life. I’ve seen them five times now and every time I’m happily transported on their sonic journey with them.

The band blasted through every song on their new record and were so tight it already sounded like they’ve been playing them for years. Rich White’s guitar was loud, and Jace Lasek’s voice was immaculate, as was Olga Goreas’ driving bass. They had vibraphone accompaniment for four songs, plus some horns and back up singers, which all helped expand their sound. New tracks “The Specter” and “Colour Yr Lights In” were highlights, and their new album shows a further maturity to the band’s talent as songwriters. To sum, The Besnard Lakes are most definitely still the roaring night. Fantastic show.

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Tame Impala at Metropolis in Montreal

March 17, 2013

marquee2

11 march 2013

Australian rockers Tame Impala returned to Montreal and played a sold out crowd at Metropolis on Monday night. Even though it was a school night and a work night it didn’t stop teens and aging scenesters alike to cram the venue in droves. Showcasing tracks from their critically lauded 2012 release Lonerism and their equally awesome debut Innerspeaker, Kevin Parker and company revealed why they’re one of the most revered bands currently rocking in the “indie” world – because they sound both authentically throwback in the classic rock sense yet also very much of the right fucking now. We all agree Parker sounds like John Lennon and monster jam “Elephant” sounds like Sabbath, and that the band is indebted to 60’s American psychedelica and decades of British rock, yet with the release of Lonerism last year, they truly began carving out their own sonic niche and are happy to reveal this to their fans as they blast it out night after night on their massive 2013 world tour.

I saw the band play last year at Osheaga, but was still excited to see them in an indoor venue as I thought the sound would translate better indoors, and my suspicions were correct: their sound was bigger, louder, trippier, and more bad ass. What was also great is that they weren’t afraid to tweak their songs live, adding flourishes and time changes, extended riffs and solos, groovy intros and codas … in short, the show was awesome. Wafts of weed floated in the air for the duration of the show, and I completely zoned out in the vibe, staring up at the simple pulsing visuals behind them. The visuals weren’t much to look at (in fact they seemed laughably outdated), but were hooked up to the soundboard and worked in sync with Parker’s guitar and Nick Allbrook’s keys during quieter moments. Also of note is that Parker spoke en français in between many of the songs to the delight of the francophones in the crowd. All in all, it was an impressively tight set and refreshing to see a young band rocking out so earnestly. Great show.

SETLIST
Solitude Is Bliss
Apocalypse Dreams
Be Above It
Endors Toi
Music To Walk Home By
Elephant
Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind?
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
Keep On Lying
Mind Mischief
Alter Ego
It Is Not Meant To Be
Half Full Glass Of Wine
Encore:
Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control

tameimpala

*pics by Jacquelyn Taylor

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