If I were stuck on a desert island, here are a few things I might bring...
Canadian Headliners Spread the Spirit of EDC MAR 11, 2016 / Jesse Ship With several editions across the US and a growing expansion into international lands, EDC has become a truly global phenomenon in its 20-year existence. The festival attracts ravers from all over the world, so it …
I was thrilled to share my music passionate music and techno geekery with Canada, in this review of Mutek 2015 that was printed in the Metro Canada, and ran nationally.
It’s Juno season and this year, the Electronic category will turn four years young. It’s kind of hard to believe since the section speaks to one of the top performing musical categories in Canada, especially when it comes to the artists’ successes abroad. With past victories from Montreal’s beloved Grimes, the outlandish and ambient techno of Tim Hecker and infectious rhythms of Dan Snaith, aka, Caribou, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to where the jury’s weight might fall.
This year, it seems like taking up a residency in Berlin or appearing on a Boiler Room showcase was almost a mandatory requirement for making it on the short list. Let’s break things down and discover this year’s range of artists.
Graze is what happens when two unrelated Torontonian producers independently take off for the Berlin experience, meet at a club, and realize they both harbor secret crushes on each other’s music. Adam Marshall was a regular in Toronto’s techno community, while Christian Anderson, aka XI, carved a name out for himself in the dubstep, drum n bass playing fields. Their powers combined lead to an atmospheric, cinematic, and groovy experience that’s making big waves under the New Kanada label.
This Montreal duo skirts the border of traditional dream pop band and experimental techno act, powered by the ethereal vocals of Raph Standell-Preston and abstract currents of her lover, Agor Cowan. The shivery instrumentation seems to bask in the afterglow of a complex electro-shock therapy session that may, or may not, have driven out the demons.
Noah’s name was familiar in Toronto’s rave scene from the late 90s and onwards as the founder of the legendary Fukhouse parties. Hell, he deserves an award just for that name alone. The album also features a couple deep and sultry house tunes featuring Toronto tenor, Rosina Kazi of Lal, and other guests moaning, oohing and aahhing seductively over fluid beats. Released under his own label, Thoughtless, like the bawse that he is.
A Tribe Called Red – Nation II Nation
Possibly sick and tired of the rest of hipsterdom appropriating headdresses and tribal battle cries, Canadian DMC champ, DJ Shub, with DJ NDN and Bear Witness (that’s a double entendre for y’all) emerged. They’ve not only risen as one of the only electronic acts to heavily sample their heritage and do it well, but they’ve even penned their own genre called moombahwow, or powwow-step, derived from First Nations pow-wow parties.
Unofficially born in Canada and officially born on the Internet, Ryan Hemsworth aka Bad Gyal Ry Ry, is Canada’s unofficial MASTER Pokémon Trainer, having successfully ensnared 99.67% of all roaming beasts. When he’s not busy training, he’s tearing up dance floors with clever hip-hop, trap and Internet culture mash ups. This debut album was however a surprising curveball, featuring all new original content. Aside from a couple rap bangers, the album is mostly made of introspective ballads and floaty oddities, copyright
Just in time to for a post-Grammys victory sweep, the limited Daft Punk Random Access Memories Box Set is now available for order for a price just shy of 300 dollarydoos. Here’s what’s included: A. The Deluxe Box Set Edition is presented in a cloth-bound box …
Boiler Room touched down on our first frigid Monday night of the season for a surprise show hosted by the inimitable Fritz Helder (Bathurst Bus Route reprezent!) featuring Egyptrixx, Basic Soul Unit, Nautiluss, Kevin McPhee, Bruce Trail and headlined by Martyn going back to back …
Any talk about Toronto nightclubs for EDM must be prefaced by the admission that EDM is a terrible umbrella acronym that encapsulates 30-plus styles of music into a palatable and sugary cereal-like mush of uplifting beats. At least electronica was a better descriptor as the a suffix gives the impression of plural form. But for the sake of mainstream media categorizations, let’s just play along for now.
Some of the more common genres that fall into the term include Dubstep, Complextro, Tech-House, and Trap music. Toronto has had a long history of electronic music as a rave mecca in the 90s (maybe thanks to our Commonwealth past) and onwards.
Here’s a roundup of some of the top clubs in Toronto to get your underground groove on.
The Guvernment
The Guvernment boasts a constantly evolving 100,000 sq ft party space that consists of multiple themed rooms (Koolhaus, Chroma, Surface, Skybar upstairs patio, Haven), and a revolving list of international superclub DJs. Peak seasonal parties to check out are Labour of Love, Decadance and Freedom. The Asian guy that hangs out by the left speakers in the front of the main room is always good for a chat. The Guv, or Guvvy, as it is affectionately called by its patrons is rumoured to be moving further down into Portlands territory closer to its lonely cousin, Sound Academy.
Uniun
Taking over from former tenants, The Devil’s Martini, Uniun is the newest addition to the INK family to cater to neighboring condo-land. The multimillion-dollar interior overhaul features dangly electric blue LED lights that hang like tentacles, or post-modern Christmas lights.
The Hoxton
The property at 69 Bathurst St. has passed through many hands over the years but no owners have managed to capitalize on the largish whitespace quite like the current tenants, a coalition of some of Toronto’s nightlife mavens (Embrace Entertainment), booking agents and entertainment personalities (Kenny Hotz). You never know when an impromptu Kenny Vs. Spenny challenge might go down!
Wrongbar
The original Parkdale nightlife outpost, catering to the heavy demand in electro, rap and everything in between. It was also DJ “Nasty” Nav Sangha’s first endeavor, who now owns a stake in The Great Hall, Samuel J. Moore restaurant below it, and the East End’s Riverside Public House. The set up is fairly simple but there’s enough raised seating and couches to keep you in check for a recharge if you need one. Has anyone figured out how to get that jukebox working?
The Drake Underground
There couldn’t be a more fitting title to this venue as it is home to mostly underground music events, fitting of EDM and indie-electronic genres. The space has been hosting the riff-raff (and getting confused looks from the 905ers and hotel guests upstairs) since the hotel’s beginnings, echoing the former bombed out party space that existed when the real estate was occupied by Galaxy Donuts.
BONUS
Footwork
Another old chestnut of the scene, Footy caters mostly to a European, and informed techno loving crowd bringing in talent that probably wont be heard on Z103.5. High pressure smoke is released at peak moments to get you hyped while the crowd claps along to asynchronous beats. Footwork has just announced that they will be shutting down after eight years but rumours have it that they have been actively looking at new locations, possibly even the Annex Wreckroom.
HuffPost Canada Music | By Jesse ShipPosted: 09/12/2013 11:31 am EDT | Updated: 09/12/2013 6:13 pm EDT “99.9 per cent of the EDM scene sucks” was breakthrough DJ/producer Zedd’s opening line in his first message to Skrillex, via Myspace in 2011. And he agrees, it still does. “It all sounds …
By Jesse Ship Parisian producers Teki Latex (aka Julien Pradeyrol) and DJ Orgasmic (aka Cédric Caillol) first met decades ago while skiing the French alps. Over the years, they’ve continued their adventures together through various music undertakings like the seminal French electro-rap group TTC, the …
Danish electronic DJ/producer Trentemøller is currently working on a soundtrack to an apocalyptic painting hanging in the Danish National Gallery. The 15th century piece of unknown Spanish origin depicts a scene from the book of Revelations where the angels of God follow Lucifer, rather than the archangel Michael, indicating that enemies of the true faith must be killed.
“The painting is naturally quite dark, and by the looks of it, it seems like Satan might actually win the battle,” Trentemøller tells Spinner. “It’s very dark and not very positive, but its psychedelic imagery really caught my eye. I didn’t have so much art education in school so I will definitely learn something here. The tune is coming out as a bit of an abstract sound clash.”
Trentemøller’s musical education started in his youth playing drums and guitars in various Danish indie rock bands but he found the trouble of finding a coherent sound difficult with so many other parties involved. Then he went solo.
“People always have different ideas that compromise yours when you’re working in a group, it’s a challenge to make a sound that way. So I started on my own with a sampler and an Atari computer with just 1MB of RAM; I made my own music and rules, so to speak. After 10 years, I released my first album [as Trentemøller], ‘The Last Resort,’ and started to play instruments again — physical ones, not just computers.”
While his songs originated in the discotheques, Trentemøller’s music has a signature moodiness, his soundscapes typically brooding. “It’s not like I’m always crying, but many people have said that my music has a melancholic feeling, and it’s true,” he says. “I put many layers of feelings into my songs. Yes, I have been inspired by stuff like the Cure orJoy Division or Mazzy Star — and it’s quite natural and typically Scandinavian to have this dark feeling in the music, maybe because it’s always raining here. But there are bands like Sigur Rós, and their music is not sad at all, but it still retains a subtle melancholic yet beautiful sound.”
Trentemøller is also about to release a new album, ‘Reworked/Remixed,’ comprised of covers from past albums and various remixes by the likes of Andrew Weatherall,Modeselektor, Efterklang and Sting’s daughter, the up-and-coming I Blame Coco. The remix component to the album is no surprise given the producer’s favourite form of collaboration is the remix swap.
“Sometimes I’ll remix a song it for free, especially when it’s a remix swap. Like on this album, I did one for UNKLE [for ‘The Answer, feat. Big In Japan’] and they do one for me [with ‘Neverglade’]. There was no money between us and we are helping each other — I really admire this kind of exchange, when it’s from artist to artist, and not for the label itself.”
After more than two decades as a DJ and 12 years as the label manager of Bedrock Records, it can said that John Digweed is a constant over-achiever. He’s persistently pushing himself, and crowds, with his signature progressive house and techno sound, which you can check out …
