There’s no reason for Torontonians not to miss this weekend’s
Wavelength 15 festival—unless, of course, you’re old enough to remember
Wavelength back in 2000 and you are now discovering that it’s just as hard to get
babysitting on Valentine’s Day as it would be on Christmas Eve. (Maybe that’s
just me.) Tonight’s show at Sneaky Dee’s features the reunited Controller
Controller and the legendary Art Bergmann, Laura Barrett, More or Les and even
more (or less). Sunday’s show at the Garrison has Fresh Snow, New Fries and
Mozart’s Sister. But Saturday at the Polish Combatants Hall is the kicker: Lowell, the Acorn, Ginla, and these
two bands:
Del Bel – In My Solitude (Missed Connection)
If you spent the ’90s watching Twin Peaks and listening to Portishead, this is the band for you.
Toronto-Guelph ensemble Del Bel are drenched in hot-buttered soul, Duane Eddy
twang and torch song melodrama set to minor keys. Brass, woodwinds and vintage
organs fill out the texture while the rhythm section sinks into deep grooves
that sound like RZA beats slowed to a crawl, and singer Lisa Conway coos like a
fairy-tale heroine lost in the deepest, darkest woods.
All these elements were in play on the band’s first album as
well, but the production values here have stepped up considerably, especially
the creepy guitar tones, drenched in reverb, and all the other tiny, tasty bits
that add to the overall ambiance. Sole complaint: if you’ve heard one Del Bel
song, you’ve heard them all. Not that there’s anything wrong with a mood
album—especially a mood as carefully constructed as this one.
Download: “In My Solitude,” “Firebox,” “The Stallion”
Last Ex – s/t (Constellation)
Taylor Kirk, the man behind Timber Timbre, has an incredible
band behind him that keeps getting better—that was more than evident on 2014’s Hot Dreams and the following tour (check
their headlining performance at Massey Hall online, you won’t regret
it). So what does that band do in their spare time, when they’re not being
employed by Kirk to creep on creepin’ on, when they’re not encumbered by dread
and dirt and downright weirdness? Why, they get creepier and drearier and
dirtier and weirder, of course.
Last Ex could certainly be
seen as merely an album of Timber Timbre instrumentals. But that also frees it
up: without a reliance on Kirk’s personality to sell the music—and his
occasionally hokey Halloween-y lyrics—the music is allowed to be evocative on
its own terms. So elements of a David Lynchian view of ’50s music are still
there, but this time it’s filtered through what sounds like a ’70s German
experimental rock band stranded in the Arizona desert. Everything here sounds a
bit off, a bit wobbly, in tone and texture and even in tape—it sounds like old,
analog reel-to-reels were left out in the sun a bit too long. It’s not
surprising to learn that this music originated as a score for a since-abandoned
film.
Download: “Hotel Blues,” “It’s Not Chris,” “Nell’s Theme”
