Let there be light

The October edition of Switched On Synths boasted a particularly strong and diverse lineup: Belgian electropunk duo Le Prince Harry were joined by Iceland's Dada Pogrom and a new Ottawa outfit, Mark ii. Here's Mark ii's Mark starting things off.



Extra percussive action with Dana and Michael!



Gripping action!



Michael hits!



More Mark!



Keyboard action!



The whole lot!



Dada Pogrom played a really fantastic set, which was unfortunately cut a bit short by a power outage. Here he is checking his gear.



Minimalist action!



Telephonic action!



Wired action!



Le Prince Harry played a killer set after the power was restored. Here's guitarist Synth LiO.



Snon adjusts!



Vocal action!



More Snon!



Guitar action!



Even more Snon!



The whole lot!



Bass action!



Synth-lifting action!



A top-notch night.

Let's be reasonable

August is a busy month for House of Targ's Switched On Synths; tonight Steve Summers and Violence, Auto Melodi and Prison play the pinball palace; last week I caught 18=980s stars Rational Youth, returning Icelanders Dada Pogrom and Error 144. First, Error 14, who also performs with Dada Pogrom, and uses the same monkish grab.



And so oN!



Well, you get the idea!



Dada Pogrom brought some more tech noir to the stage.



More monkish action!



Hooded action!



Last time I saw Rational Youth at Zaphod's, there was a pretty full roster and a focus on their classic recordings; since then  the band has shrunk to a core of founding vocalist Tracy Howe and his wife Gaenor and gone back into the studio, for a new EP, Future Past Tense.



Gaenor sings!



Gripping action with Tracy!



More Gaenor!



More Tracy!



And so on!



Very solid.

Back to Front

Another month, another edition of Switched on Ssynths at House of Targ; this one really took aim at the 1980s, with some serious Front 242-style sounds from Iceland's Dada Pogrom and synth-pop from Montreal's Automelodi. Ottawa's own Hard Science (a.k.a. Arturo, who you might recall from earlier blog posts drumming with My Dad Vs. Yours) started things off with his Hard Science project.



Arturo adjusts!



Xavier Paradis has been in the music business for a while; he was releasing electronic music back in the 1990s as Arnaud Lazlaud. He recrafted himself as Automelodi and continued with the synthetic sound. His set featured an unnatural amount of smoke machine use, so the following photos are all a little hazy ....



Button-pressing action!



Xavier sings!



Dada Pogrom brought some home videos and monk outfits to garnish their minimalist techno with.



Monkish action!



Hooded action!



And so on!




Another fine selection of sounds.