Robin Hatch, Visibly Choked, and New Chance
Robin Hatch
T.O.N.T.O. // Robin Records
Crafted on the legendary T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer (the world’s largest, incorporating a staggering variety of classic and custom analog modules) now housed at Calgary’s NMC building, Robin Hatch’s latest work is a showcase of compositions designed to “transmute painful, ugly experiences” into what Hatch describes as “Lovecraftian minimalist electronica.” Consider me sold.
Any synth fetishist knows that the T.O.N.T.O. (an acronym for The Original New Timbral Orchestra) was the Canadian made synth behemoth most notably used to propel Stevie Wonder’s run of classic 70’s albums, and now the singular instrument has been given a new life at the NMC, granting unprecedented access to a variety of independent musicians who might never otherwise dream of being able to utilise its unique timbral qualities in their work.
Hatch is well-suited for the instrument, coming from a classical piano composition background that progressed into some really intriguing electronic work (her second record Noise is an excellent collection of pop-oriented electronica), and her compositional abilities and technical proficiency on the keyboard really inform the work contained here.
The various neoclassical pieces that comprise the album all have a slightly “off-kilter” feel, a subtly unsettling aspect that often works against the grain of conventional melodicism (I suspect the microtonal capabilities of the T.O.N.T.O. possibly contributed to this impression), and I could easily see them being used to track a stylish 80’s horror-noir flick. Indeed, the work here often feels reminiscent of Vancouver’s Sinoia Caves, who produced the excellent soundtrack to the indie horror classic Beyond the Black Rainbow. There’s more light contained on T.O.N.T.O. than in that work however, particularly the driving motorik of single “Inspector” and the avant-jazz tropicalia of “Brazil,” featuring the sax work of Leland Whitty of BadBadNotGood.
There’s also a lot of hat-tipping to the early pioneers of electronic music. Opening track “Buttercups” is reminiscent of the work of Wendy Carlos, and contains some delightfully fluid Baroque runs on the keyboard, while the visceral, skittering bassline of “My Lucid Mind” evokes minimalist composer Raymond Scott channeling Igor Stravinsky.
Going from that wild piece directly into the compelling ice-blooded electro-funk of album standout “Rest Stop” may constitute one of my favourite album transitions this year. Overall, there’s a stunning amount of variety contained on this record, and my hope is that Hatch will be able to continue her fruitful experiments on the instrument on future releases.
- Shaun Lee
Visibly Choked
Self-Titled // Mothland
Visibly Choked are a fresh 5-piece no wave/hardcore outfit that burst onto the scene with a flurry of punches and an onslaught of dissonant daggers that not even Ali could rope-a-dope around. Much of their debut EP plays like oldschool hardcore and fans of such will be intrigued; but they hardly fall into tired hardcore tropes by mixing in a dizzying array of punk, avant, no wave, and noise.
V/C opted to get straight to the point and record straight off the floor in a “fuck off, suck off” fashion. It adds a sense of urgency and anxiety to the sound that moves both frantically and precisely. At times it felt like a car chase scene straight out of a Tarantino flick. When things do slow down, the fog of angst grows even heavier. Their stewing rage reminded me of the frantic fury of Shame, but the minimal production trades doom and torment for anxiety and clutter.
While the approach may seem noisy and haphazard, it’s hardly a misplaced racket of angst. There are plenty of intentional touches of creative expression that leave lots to chew on and return to for a couple more spins – after all, it is only 13 minutes long, but not a single second goes to waste during its meager runtime. Every special moment V/C achieves is due to the authenticity and urgency of the anxiety that bore it. You can feel the catharsis of emotional release chugging mercilessly from all directions that feels like the cathartic chaos of expelling all your rage at a DIY hardcore show.
It won’t take long for you to realize that V/C are much more than a noisy hardcore outfit, constantly dishing out creative touches with an artistic temperament that typically accompanies music that is far less frantic. Take this album for a drive, just watch your speedometer closely, it’s easy to get caught up in the hasty havoc of Visibly Choked.
- Clay Geddert
New Chance
Real Time Remixed // We Are Time
Among the artists that have plunged themselves into the core of the national music circuit in 2021, New Chance is one not to be missed. New Chance is the solo musical project by Victoria Cheong, whose work is as widely encompassing as DJing, remixing, film scoring, and a long time collaborative practice in contemporary dance. Victoria Cheong has been active as New Chance since 2017 with earlier self-released singles and EPs such as It Says New Chance (bedroomer, 2018) and Hardly Working (AND/AND, 2018). And the artist’s collaborations are as extensive as her collaborations with Willi Williams, Nice Hands with poet Aisha Sasha John, as well as Chandra, Jennifer Castle, and Lido Pimienta who feature her vocal work in some form or another.
Needless to say, Victoria Cheong has established herself as a dynamic and wide-ranging artist across various disciplines and artistic spaces. In this respect, the release of her first full-length album, Real Time, was attentively anticipated, with Cheong making her way into staple performances such as her set at Debaser - an arts organization and event presenter/producer based out of Ottawa who simultaneously featured other notable acts such as Quinton Barnes, Debby Friday, Méchant Vaporwave, and Backxwash (A bill to dream of in my opinion).
Real Time returns with a celebratory remix compilation as a companion to the original record. Real Time Remixed features remixes from leucrocuta, Emissive, Petra Glynt, Bile Sister, LAL, Pelada, Vibrant Matter, Prince Nifty, and Lee Paradise. The record as a whole picks up New Chance’s approach to avant-pop and experimental electronic music as each remix stretches and bends the original conceptions into something very much of their own. For instance, the opening track “Adriatic” transforms the closing track of the original record from a discrete reflective ambiance into a more underground deep acid, as leucrocuta’s remix maintains the ambiance of the original track for the first half but in the second, it gets turned into more dynamic pace with a lot of directional movement across the mix. Or in the case of my favourite track off of Real Time, “Earth House,” the remix treatment by Petra Glynt turns a song whose original mix has of a more aggressive beat break into a version of it that highlights the harmonic instrumental sound as well as an interslicing mix of vocal melodies and the spoken word of the original.
The remix compilation is full of many highlights worth comparing and contrasting with the original certainly, but also uplifting by their own right. One such occasion happens in the remix for “Two Pictures” by Bile Sister, which completely reimagines the original track - whereas the original is a spacey and slow track simmering down into a saxophone solo and crisp beat samples, the remix is a fast paced deconstruction of the stems from the original. Bile Sister sets up a central beat, where various refrains and sections are switched back and forward against this backdrop that changes the entire landscape of the song. Aside from this track, “Real Time” as reimagined by LAL takes the original which maintains a dream pop and synthwave type sound and introduces a more traditional pop aesthetic - the instrumental rearrangement and the cuts in the stems turns “Real Time” into something I would expect of the like of Caroline Polachek or Cecile Believe with elements of the production reminding me of A.G. Cook and SOPHIE. And lastly, I would highlight Prince Nifty’s take on “Fallen.” The original gives a reflective atmosphere whose composition is thoroughly entrenched in found sounds and field recording while much of the song structure comes out of various vocal stems grooving the track along. Prince Nifty’s reconception brings about a house upbeat vibe by playing off these vocal stems in order to structure the groove of the song outright into one of the brightest sounding tracks on the compilation, where various instruments jump into the vocal melodic beats adding various layers of harmony. This establishes a strong groove for the track which is only further deconstructed around halfway with new instrumental leads and sampler cuts of the vocal stems into a slightly more glitchy sound without compromising the cleaness of the mix.
Of course, these are only a few highlights of this remix compilation as every producer brings something out from the original tracks that invite us to revisit both the original and the remix for a thorough listening experience - if you found yourself enthralled by the different tracks making up a song and you want a good example of how to distill them, this remix compilation offers various outlooks from which to invest into an involved listening experience. Real Time Remixed is a fine companion to the original record, as it brings a new light to the original songs and as it brings together a set of incredible producers to reimagine the work that went into the original.
- Simone A. Medina Polo
