Digital age

In the last couple of years there's been a big jump in the amount of synth in my musical diet. The "retrosynth" genre, fuelled  by the re-release of soundtracks from the 1970s and 1980s by John Carpenter, Goblin and company, as well as modern practitioners such as Umberto and Crypt Vapours have boosted the profile of all things blip and Moogy. There are plenty of synth-fanciers in Ottawa, with House of Targ hosting the first "Switched On Synths" night last Thursday, with sets from RAAS, Goldeneyes and Nick Doyle. Goldeneyes kicked things off. I can't say much more about him, though I have my suspicions his stage-name is inspired by the classic N64 James Bond game.



On to Nick Doyle, whose performance was certainly fun to look at as he manipulated a bunch of modular synths all wired together.



It sounded good, too.



RAAS (a.k.a. Michael and Kerry) concluded things with some audio-visual noise-making.



Setting-changing action!



Backdrop-adjusting action!



There was also some guitarwork near the end.



Things are off to a good start, I'd say.

Chill wave

There was plenty of competition for attendance Friday night, but in the end I headed for the locale most likely to have hot drinks - it was damn cold! An evening at pressed was also musically attractive, with varied guitar sounds from F Hood and Blake Hargreaves and some electronic experimentation courtesy of RAAS.

Josh Hawley lists his influences as Tangerine Dream and John Fahey, his guitar coruscation made me think a lot of Roy Montgomery.



Over-exposed action!



Many similar photos are available on my Flickr; you can check out and download his music at his Bandcamp. On to Blake Hargreaves. I saw one-half of Caymans last Saturday at Pressed, now here's the other half, doing a lot of guitar tapping.



Also singing a bit, backed by some canned beats.



RAAS rounded things off with a more electronic set; I saw Michael and Kerry at the House of Targ in June, they had some new stuff to show off.



The visiuals worked a bit better this time.



Blurry action!



Adjusting action!



Cubic action!



A fine night, though I kind of regret sitting near the door and getting blasted by cold everytime someone arrived or left ...

Good buzz

I walked over to the House of Targ to feed a toonie to the Monopoly machine and watch some sounds being made Friday - last of the month, of course! - and generally get back into the post Ottawa Explosion groove.

First on the floor was e-tron connected duo H. de Heutz, last seen performing at mugshots a few months ago.


H. de Heutz at the House of Targ, June 28, 2013

Bass action!


H. de Heutz at the House of Targ, June 28, 2013

Then it was on to RAAS, with some electronic noise generation and matching visuals. It's been a while since I've seen Michael and Kerry (a.k.a. DJ Daisy) on stage - of course I saw quite a bit of him at the Ottawa Explosion since he was doing most of the outside sound.


RAAS at House of Targ, June 28, 2013

Projected action!


RAAS at House of Targ, June 28, 2013

Roberta Bondar finished things off with a sensationally noisy set.


Roberta Bondar at the House of Targ, June 28, 2013

It was an orgy of feedback, I tell you ...


Roberta Bondar at the House of Targ, June 28, 2013

Roberta Bondar will be playing the main stage on July 13 at the Bluesfest.

Evening Daydream

Thursday night I walked over to Club SAW to catch Ottawa space rockers Daydream Square, (who I last saw at Mavericks at the end of May), melodic post-rockers Parades Against Parades and Ottawa instrumental group My Dad vs Yours. All fine bands, neither one particularly like the other. I've been listening to Why Not Now? ... Alan! by Milwaukee's F/i of late, and I definitely detect some similarities, which I chalk up to shared influences. F/i's formula has been described as "Hawkwind + Blue Cheer + raw power electronics" - I'd say that goes for Daydream Square too, though they throw in some Stooges and ease up on the BC. First up were Daydream Square.

Kerry and Eric; flute and feedback for your listening pleasure.



Andrea engages in some leisurely keyboarding.



Michael taps some keys while Andrea handles the bass and vocal duties later in the set; she has a pretty singing voice, which makes for a an interesting juxtaposition with DS's occasionally raw sound.



Their next show is August 26 at the Avant-Garde Bar.

• Show reminder: It may come a bit late, but Big Jeezus Truck and Damn 13 play The Dominion tonight.
  

Circling the Square

Slowing down the pulse of Iggy to a heroin crawl and slapping some Hawkwind/Spacemen 3 fuzz over the top, Daydream Square have been psyching out hapless Ottawans for quite some time ... head head Michael Caffery has been part of a host of other projects (Unireverse and Beautifuzz to name but two) and was also part of The Happening (as was fellow Square Kerry Campbell).

Michael, shortly before his drum machine tried to leap to its death.



Eric Epsig engages in some footwork.



Andrea twists some delay; last time I saw DS Jennifer Comeau handled the keyboards, but as Michael noted "She has a lot on her plate."



Kerry (a.k.a. DJ Daisy) and her Daisyrock Bass.



More Eric and Andrea.



Riffing as one.



Eric performed a brief reading based on the works of noted poet Mr. I. Pop.



They played two songs (Redrum and Sirens were the titles, if memory serves) but that's enough for a good 45 minutes.

• Show reminder: Flecton performs at the Aloha tonight.