Darkness and light

I headed off for another edition of House of Targ's Switched On Synths a week ago, and it was a great combination of analog beepery, gothic sounds, classic synth pop and dance rock, starting with a set from Infinity's Astrum. Here's Nick and his modular setup!



So ... many ... wires.



Modular action!



On to The Marquis; he's performed at Targ before, both solo and as one half of Automelodi. He was quite a bit more goth this time around.



Guitar election!



Vocal action!



Gripping action!



On to the moody synthpop of Glass Apple Bonzai - they've also come through Targ a couple of times. Here's Daniel!



Keyboard action with Steve!



A shouty bit!



More Steve!



Singalong action!



Steve sings!



Roof-raising action!



Toronto's Kontravoid ended the night; mainman Cameron was a founder of Parallels during their early days (well before I caught Holly and Co. at Targ), now hes heavy on a minimalist dancefloor kick. His setup includes some powerful floor lights, so a lot of my picture taking involved shooting a whole lot and hoping he was standing in the right place when the lights flashed on. Here's Cameron!



Cameron jumps about!



Synthetic action!



Gripping action!



And so on!



A very lively night out!

Violent inclinations

Synth duo Violence has played at a few editions of Switched On Synths, for Saturday's edition they got to choose the bill. Automelodi was an unsurprising choice, and there were also two fine acts unknown to me: Freigeist and opener Bleu de Minuit, who performs in a minimalist coldwave style. Here's the mysterious Ms. Minuit!



And so on!



Adjusting action!



Etcetera ....



On to Freigeist, who's more in a techno mode.



Beaty action!



Automelodi wa sa two-piece, with The Marquis on hand for some extra guitarwork.



Also, it was very dark and smokey.



More melody!



Stripey action!



Keyboard action!



More guitar!



Violence finished the night off (of course) with a brisk set. Here's some heavily edited photos (I usually don't do anything to my shots, but it was even darker and smokier for their set).



Violent action!



A shouty bit!



 And so on!



Another great edition!

Into the smoke

I went to a couple of shows last week at the House of Targ; unfortunately I neglected to pack a camera battery to the second one (their annual Lemmy tribute), so all you're getting is the Dark Gathering from Friday, featuring some industrial and goth-styled sounds from nTTx, The Marquis and local Low Noise Productions crew Final Fall. Here's Nick and Jason, working the electronics!



A very smokey Josh!



Less smokey josh!



More Nick and Jason!



Josh adjusts!



The end!



You might recall The Marquis playing guitar with Automelodi at Switched On Synths in August 2016. Here he is doing his solo thing!



It was a might smokey; his set was backed by a documentary on butoh, which was interesting in itself.



More Dillon!



nTTx finished the night off. It's the new solo project from Gord of Atomzero, backed here by a drummer and guitarist (there's also a synthesizer player, but they couldn't make it this night). Here's some guitar action with Norm!



Here's the drummer, Mike, awash in the glow from nTTx's own lighting rig.



More Norm!



Gripping action with Gord!



The whole lot!



More Gord!



Singalong action!



Mike hits!



Industrial action!



A fun night!