Mechanical men

Mid-December I toddled over to the House of Targ for their final edition of Switched on Synths for 2018. It was a somewhat local affair with Hard Science, Infinity's Astrum and Ki joined by Paraphonique, who kicked things off.



Wired action!



And now on to another bloke staring intently at a lot of electronical thingamajiggery with Nick of Infinity's Astrum!



Analog action!



Adjusting action!



Next up, Ki, one of the many pseudonyms of international electronica star Paul Anthony.



More adjusting!



And so on!



Hard Science finished the night off. Here's Arturo!



More Arturo!



Really solid sets from everyone!

From the ashes of the 1980s

I gre up in the 1980s, and synth pop was one of the dominant forces on the radio. I must have absorbed more of it via osmosis than I thought because I've taken a cotton to checking out the various modern interpreters of the genre. I seem to have plenty of company because last week's Switched On Synths at House of Targ was pretty packed. Hard Science kicked things off. Here's Arturo!



The other side of Arturo!



Growly Targ perogie announcer, 80s dance night host and World War 4 singer Josh kicked in some vocals.



And so on!



Next, all the way from Glasgow, Michael Oakley!



Greenish action!



Michael emotes!



He's quite an engaging performer!



He certainly knows how to work a crowd.



Dana Jean Phoenix went the extra mile with a keytar and a bevy of lights.



And let us not forget the light-up tiara.



Somewhere  there's a naked Christmas tree.



Keyboard action!



Keytar action!



And so on!



Dana jumps about!



There's going to be more synth-pop at Targ with Parallels and Mecha Maiko, plus local bouncy techno chap pH May 11.

Stranger things

There's been a Not Normal night in Ottawa dedicated to experimental and avant-garde music for a few years now. It's been something I always planned to get around to checking out but never quite did - until last week, when the Low Noise crowd convened at Black Squirrel Books for some electronic sounds. I didn't take many pictures (since were basically talking about three guys manipulating gear on a tabletop), but definitely enjoyed the cool sounds. First up, Jared Epp.



Flashy action!



Long open time action!



White Noises had the lion's share of his gear in a tiny plywood case. Here he is with soem more long-open time action!



More noise!



Handy action!



Arturo B has been making electronic sounds and light shows around town; I caught him at a Targ Switched On Synths night back in 2016, and later on providing some projected visuals ... here he is doing both!



More Arturo!



Audio-visual action!



A fine lineup.

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.