UNSOUND OTTAWA

  Annie Socoria is a local Ottawa artist who finds their voice amongst the wires, circuits, and electronic "noise" of a digital landscape. Their latest release recompiles a live performance that took place at Club Saw on August 20, 2021, alongside a screening of Lisa Rovner's Sister with Transistors, and is available on Bandcamp ( link here ).  Using software and hardware both according to its intended purpose and in new and creative ways, they craft and explore evolving and compelling soundscapes. I hesitate between craft and explore, so I asked them directly about their experience. UO: "I'm curious about your creative process, would you qualify it as building or crafting something, or exploring something that's already there?  Also, where do you typically start? Do you have a feeling you're looking to evoke, a story you want to tell, just a cool sound you want to explore, or something else?" AS: "I would say it's a combination of all of ...

 Bigfoot Coroners are an Ottawa duo playing improvised psych music, a noisy, hypnotic, ominous brand of it that I think would appeal to fans of more free-form, offbeat Neurosis tracks. Although as a newcomer to the sound and style, I am not best placed to judge, but I am pleased to jump in to new musical experiences when I get the chance. "Tunnels" is their latest release on Bandcamp ( available here ) and the first of theirs that I've sat down to listen to with intent. Jeff (drums, percussion) and Trevor (guitar, synth, bass) manage to create a haunting, dizzying atmosphere on this 2-track release. "Don't feed the worms" is a caustic, meandering piece, hypnotic in the sense that you lose track of time and structure, whereas "If the dust won't settle" is disorienting, throbbing with a more obvious but no less jarring rhythmic component, that makes strong and effective use of echoes or delayed audio lines. While they haven't had the chance...

  MBRD is both the artist name and the initials of an extremely prolific, enigmatic, irreverent producer of self-described "weird ringtone esque-avantgarde-experimental-wackyweird music", and WET CARDBOARD is their latest release on Bandcamp ( available here ).  A short release, all told, only 3 tracks with a total run time of under 15 minutes. That said, it appears that by following MBRD on bandcamp, you will get many short, periodic, and frequent missives from their unique point of view. With digital releases and pandemic boredom, a short runtime is certainly not a mark against the artist here. At times disjointed, quirky, nonsensical, but other times sweet, fresh, catchy as hell, the flow can be disorienting as much as it can be spine-tingling. Truly a collage of different ideas, sometimes carefully placed with intent, sometimes merely mashed up against one another. Some parts of the release give me the feeling of walking through a crowded shopping mall, anachronistic in s...

  Cygnus Onyx Flame is the solo sound art project of Lloyd Keane, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and member of Obsidian Will, Under A Shining Trapezohedron, Messages from Seginus , and Grave Warrior. Possibly others, he said it's hard for him to keep track. Keane is also behind the publication of Random Transmissions , a periodic tract on music, sound, spirituality and philosophy. His latest release Broken Key ( available here on bandcamp ) is a dirgey, slow piece, fitting well with Keane’s established aesthetic in the Cygnus Onyx Flame universe.   An overdriven, low fidelity, piano-like sound leads a gloomy march. Distorted spoken word vocals anchor the listener’s dread, while ambient mechanical and organic sounds bubble up from the depths. Keane’s emphasis on his music as mediation and spiritual practice lends further weight to the experience. The sense of space, the emphasis on darkness and introspection, and the cryptic lyrics are the highlights of this release. Best liste...