the joy of moving images

Once again I'm typing quickly and about to run out the door. Heads up to anyone who loves Joy Division... there's a theatrical screening of Grant Gee's Joy Division documentary on Friday, February 5, 2010 in Toronto. Tickets are cheaper than if you went to a mainstream theatre! It's being put on by one of my new clients, the Images Festival and you can visit them online at www.imagesfestival.com to get more info and purchase tickets.

Check out the trailer for the film here: JOY DIVISION TRAILER

something to get you through the week

Busiest Monday I`ve had in a while so not much time to post...but...Gorillaz is coming out with a new disc soon!

You gotta love it. Here`s the link to stream it:

Plastic Beach - new single

haiti music

There's a flurry of fundraisers for Haiti relief this evening, including a massive Canadian one being taped in Toronto, preceeding the large MTV George Clooney-led telethon event in the US.

It's a devastating disaster and reminded me of my time in India when I was there during the 2004 tsunami. It was a heart-wrenching time - especially when you know how poor these people already were - to have a natural disaster affect them so terribly. There's a lot of focus on getting aid to the people on the ground now, but the time and money will still be needed many months from now.

I came across this clip from a recent Haiti fundraiser. She's called Selah Sue and has a SPECTACULAR voice. It really inspired me. She's Belgian and has an EP available now called Black Part Love.

bl-eeee-p

Over the three years I worked at Fusion3, I got some of the coolest electronic releases crossing my desk... most of them were hard to find in the Canadian market and those journalists who loved that stuff clamored to get their hands on promo copies whenever they landed in house. Great education on a lot of the euro producers/acts out there and it made me love the glitchy electronic scene... from the most minimal to the more avant-garde.

Today I felt one of those electronic urges when I came across Bleep.com's newsletter... they're doing this special for the "top 100 tracks of 2009." Which, in their eyes, is completely great electronic music that they've sorted through and compiled into one easy downloadable file. It's approx 50$ in CDN funds but I've been enjoying a beat filled day because of it. Only available until JAN 26!!!

Here's the link. Enjoy!

One of the tracks you can hear in the 100 tracks is this one...

Electronic cleanup

I'm finally on the road to electronic recovery! I've migrated music, backed it up and am now funneling music into a stereo system so I can avoid listening to shitty computer speakers. Makes for a much better music experience. The only thing better would be for me to integrate something like SQUEEZEBOX into my setup and then I could shuffle music while cooking and take a glance to see what I'm listening to. But, one always needs personal projects, don't we?

Anyway, this sounded spectacular today on the stereo setup and I didn't want you to miss out. Enjoy the music... they're on tour in Canada soon, so you can also hope to catch them on the road...

glorious kinetic art

I've got some truly talented friends! I get to see Mitchell F Chan this Friday afternoon when he opens his new "kinetic art" exhibit at downtown Toronto's Spoke Club. Luckily, he doesn't want you to miss out and he's made a video for you to enjoy. It's really inspiring... he's literally translated sound waves into a aural-visual experience. It's breathtaking.

said the whale

My neighbour passed along a disc by BC band Said the Whale and it opened my monday morning workday with some lovely music - I'd guess Broken Social Scene is a major influence and in particular, I think they may have been listening to some You Forgot It In People while they got ready to record this track . I'm into sharing, so here's something just for you. Enjoy!

er, hello 2010

Hello world! I've been negligent this year in filling this wee blog with my thoughts and musings, mainly because I was in visiting family and building my plans for the new year during my absence. Everyone needs vacations, don't they?


So, a few things to keep you occupied for now. One - My client NXNE sent out a press release this week to industry and media reminding everyone that the deadline for submitting to this year's festival is JANUARY 31, 2010! Apply if you would like to be considered is the key message here! It's very easy. Just submit your info at www.nxne.com via their link to the Sonic Bids website.

Two - I had a meeting with a lovely Jazz singer this week who is planning on dropping her new album (her sophomore) this year. I haven't seen her live yet, but plan on seeing her play this month. I took a listen to her debut album and was pleasantly surprised with her vocal power and her personality as well. She was trained in the Classical program at U of T (a place where a close friend of mine, mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel also studied at similar time) and I know how hard it is to get into that program and how hard they train you there as well. Her switch to Jazz as a career was one of passion and I dug up this video of her Jazz arrangement of a pop tune you probably know for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Friday!