Live footage - August 2016

I played two shows in two days last weekend with some fantastic artists. Terrific crowds at both events. Below is an excerpt from my set at aceart. Video courtesy of Robert Szkolnicki.


Greenhouse live at aceart 20160805 from bandc on Vimeo.

Thank you for listening, as always.

New recordings are in the works.

The Sound The Sky Makes - where to buy copies

Just a quick note regarding copies of The Sound The Sky Makes.

Physical copies are available directly from me: greenhousedrone [at] gmail [dot] com
Digital/tape via Bonzer Records: https://bonzerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/greenhouse-the-sound-the-sky-makes-2
And in the US via the most excellent Experimedia: http://experimedia.net/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=Array&products_id=18622

Next show is June 13 in Winnipeg at the Handsome Daughter, with Crosss and Fox Lake. 10pm. $10.

Favourite Records of 2015

Spare time is pretty short at the moment, so I'm not able to write about the albums that I really enjoyed this year in the way I'd like, so I'm opting for just a simple list. These are in no particular order.

High Aura'd/Mike Shiflet - Awake
Prurient - frozen Niagara Falls
crys cole - sand/lanya
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - A Year With 13 Moons
Disappears - Irreal
Carly Rae Jepson - Emotion
KEN mode - Success 
Helm - Olympic Mess
Sarah davachi - Baron's Court
Locrian - Infinite Dissolution
Low - Ones and Sixes
Battles - La Di Da Di
Joda clement - hope you like the universe
Chambers - Sigma Flare 1
Jesse Osborne-Lanthier (Noir) & Robert Lippock - Timeline
Volahn - Aq'Ab'Al
Oren Ambarchi - Sleepwalker's Conviction


Favourite Shows:

Thomas Brinkmann - send+receive
Will Guthrie - send+receive
HEALTH - nxne

The Sound The Sky Makes - New Album

I'm very excited to announce the release of my new album, The Sound The Sky Makes. The album is being released through Bonzer Records on cassette and digital download.

Right now, you can stream the album at Bonzer's Bandcamp page. Cassettes are delayed, so stay tuned for that, but they will be available from the label, myself, and likely so US distros as well. Official release show in early 2016.

Spring Update

Happy spring.

I just finished a short session at Private Ear Studios with engineer Joel Mireau. Really happy with the results. The session is a mix of material I recorded at home, to which I added more material to in the studio, and pieces recorded and arranged directly in the studio. Hoping to have this material mixed this month.

currently enjoying: Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer; Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly; Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - A Year With 13 Moons; High Aura'd/Mike Shiflet - Awake

Favourites of 2014

I know lists get all kinds of eye-rolling, and I certainly claim no expertise or superiority with mine; I'm simply sharing some of my favourites records (and shows) from this year.

Albums:

Andy Stott - Faith in Strangers 
Austerity Program - Beyond Calculation 
Ambarchi/O'Malley/Dunn - Shade Themes from Kairos 
Bohren and der Club of Gore - Piano Nights 
D'Angelo - Black Messiah
Grouper - Ruins
Fennesz - Becs
Helm - The Hollow Organ
Hiss Tracts - Shortwave Nights
Jon Porras - Light Divides
Lee Gamble - Koch
Lykanthea - Migration
Marissa Nadler - July 
Mesa Ritual - s/t
Mike Weis - Don't Know, Just Walk
No UFOs - MPC Tracks Vol. II
Run The Jewels 2
Secret Pyramid - The Silent March/Into the Black (vinyl repress)
Swans - To Be Kind
Young Widows - Easy Pain

Not on the list because the vinyl hasn't arrived in the mail and thus I still haven't heard these albums because I live by strange rituals: Old Man Gloom - Ape of God; Oren Ambarchi - Quixotism (fingers crossed Editions Mego does in fact press this on vinyl).

Shows
(all occurred in Winnipeg)

Low - West End Cultural Centre
Oren Ambarchi/crys cole/Rosa Reaper - The Windsor
Total Life - Union Sound Hall
Killer Mike - Union Sound Hall
Neko Case - The Burt

Rosa Reaper / crys cole / Oren Ambarchi - Live in Winnipeg

It's been a fantastic couple of weeks for shows in Winnipeg, No UFOs last week, and this show happened last night: Rosa Reaper, crys cole, and Oren Ambarchi.

It was great to see my friend Candice's vocal-only project Rosa Reaper. It was a swirling, disorienting cacophony of eerie melody and disconcerting growls.

The last few performances of crys cole I've seen have been fucking jaw-dropping. Even playing in a noisy, grimey bar filled with clinking bottles, yammering locals and the loudest goddamned bar fridge ever, cole still delivered a transcendent performance. Using a series of springs, contact mics, voice and steel brushes, her performance was nuanced, textured and powerful. What continues to amaze me is how well placed each sonic element is, delicate feedback, textured noise, hushed vocals and powerful bass feedback.

Finally, Australia's Oren Ambarchi delivered a mammoth performance. His trademark airless bass tones were pummelling, and his ability to shape tones in bewildering, beautiful ways is always impressive. His set culminated with an all-encompassing, fuzzed-out guitar drone looped and feeding back while Ambarchi took to the drum kit, delivering a kinetic, free-jazz tinged percussive onslaught. At one point, his kick drum was so powerful that it vibrated the strings on his abandoned Les Paul, sounding almost like ducked compression, the drones swirling and roaring back even louder after each kick. Stunning.

Oren Ambarchi.

crys cole

Rosa Reaper

Current listening: Earth - Primitive and Deadly; Brian Eno - Music for Airports; Doom - Born Like This; Autechre - Exai.