NOW Magazine // Music // The future sound of Toronto
January 29, 2009
The future sound of TorontoDone with dancing to other DJs’ beats, a new wave of local producers are about to crash the partyToronto is finally poised to make the transition from being a great town to party in to being the town that provides the soundtrack for the rest of the world to party to.
DJs all over the planet have noticed there’s something going on here, and it’s high time we recognized this ourselves.
So writing a cover story about a local up-and-coming dance producer, someone on the verge of breaking on an international level, was a no-brainer. Except when the list of candidates was tossed around, it was obvious that picking only one wouldn’t do the scene justice. There’s just too much talent here.
Toronto has had a number of club music success stories. Nick Holder, Hatiras, Deadmau5, MSTRKRFT and Moonstarr all come quickly to mind, and that’s not even touching on all the minimal techno and drum ’n’ bass artists who’ve put out quality records.
But there’s never been such an overwhelming volume of beats coming out of this town before. Still, in many ways, it’s surprising that it took this long for us to get here.
We’ve long had an exceptionally strong club scene, but for whatever reason we’ve always partied to the sounds coming out of other cities rather than trying to forge our own identity.
In the 80s, the Twilight Zone was our respected equivalent of legendary clubs like Chicago’s Warehouse and NYC’s Paradise Garage, and our rave scene in the 90s was one of the biggest in the world. Industry Nightclub was cited by many international DJs as one of their favourite places to play. More recently, the Guvernment and Circa have made a big impression on the global mega-club scene.
On the underground level, you can find a Toronto exemplar for pretty much any niche genre. If you want deep soulful house, promoters like Garage 416 still bring out big crowds after more than a decade; if you want scrappy digital hardcore, you’ve got parties like Embryon. And it’s long been true that lots of international DJs play for bigger crowds here than in their own hometowns.
Despite having so many places to dance, Toronto has never been associated with a particular sound, and likely never will be, thanks to our famously ambiguous, amorphous identity. In the past, that might have held us back, but now that dance music sub-genres are less segregated, there’s finally an opportunity for our crazy-quilt approach to get the attention it deserves.
So we settled not on one artist for our cover story, but 10. The acts we’re spotlighting all have their own sound and influences but aren’t tied closely to any previous established scene. They do, however, often cross paths, and you’ll see many of the same faces in the crowd at each of their gigs, even if Loetech’s throbbing take on dubstep is miles away from Mansion’s upbeat stadium house, and Syntonics’ updated booty bass has little in common with TMDP’s synth disco.
This cross-pollination of scenes and sounds will lead the way for Toronto and the world. The days of trying to emulate the regional genres of other cities are over – people want to dance to a variety of sounds in the course of an evening, and variety is exactly what Toronto excels at.
On that note, here’s who we predict will come out with the next Toronto dance floor anthems. They’re also a reminder to everybody that there’s more to club music than NYC, Ibiza, Berlin, Paris and London.
To prove the point, we’ve teamed up with Circa to present a party featuring most of our picks, commissioned AD/D’s Mario J to do an exclusive online DJ mix featuring all 10 artists, and you can stream individual tracks online from everyone as well.
http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.cfm?content=166995
NOW MAGAZINE PRESENTS THE FUTURE SOUND of TORONTO @ Randomland Circa
January 29, 2009
| Host: | |
| Type: | |
| Network: |
Global
|
| Start Time: |
Friday, January 30, 2009 at 10:00pm
|
| End Time: |
Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 4:00am
|
| Location: |
Circa Toronto
|
| Street: |
126 john street
|
| City/Town: |
Toronto, ON
|
| Phone: |
4169790044
|
| Email: |
A mega party at Circa featuring the freshest up-and-coming producers out of Toronto NOW!
artists performing that night includes
Autoerotique
http://www.myspace.com/autoerotique
Syntonics
http://www.myspace.com/syntonics
Mansion
http://www.myspace.com/mansiondj
STA
http://www.myspace.com/stafree
TMDP
http://www.myspace.com/tmdparty
PILOT PRIEST
http://www.myspace.com/pilotpries
LOETECH
http://www.myspace.com/loetech
EGYPTRIXX
http://www.myspace.com/africaforyou
This event has 276 confirmed guests
CiRCA: RANDOMLAND – MANIC PANIC DEC 19th – SPARK OF LIFE PROMO LISTS
December 18, 2008
—Dec 19th—
MANIC PANIC @ CIRCA
Listen up! We’re getting our mistletoe on this Friday December 19th. I’m bringing my people Santa, IceCream Snowcone, and his buddy the Snowman to the club this week! YA DIIG???
Word is that we’ve got some HO HO HO’s that will be spreading the Christmas spirit and dishing some gifts out to all the randoms at Randomland!
Randomland PRESENTS:
!!!MANIC PANIC!!!
Featuring:
————IN THE MAIN ROOM———-
AUTOEROTIQUE
MARIO J
MATT MEDLEY
———–WASHROOM BAR————-
DOPPLEHERTZ
VANESKA
_________________________________________
MSG ME FOR GUESTLIST
MSG ME FOR PARADE LIST (FREE DRINKS/FREE ENTRY)
contact@sparkoflifemedia.com
sparkoflifedj.wordpress.com
sparkoflifemedia.com
GIVE ME A SHOUT!
Mother Fucker’s are going to drop the pressure.
December 1, 2008
CROOKERS @ CIRCA
November 27, 2008
CIRCA NOV 21st – GLOW IN THE DARK
November 27, 2008
Camille Verrier’s Photos
Justice – CiRCA – Oct 29th 2008
November 3, 2008
Leonie Gatland
BTW This! (Mr. Oizo – Flat Beat) Came out in 1999! :O
November 2, 2008
ITS GOING TO BE A INSANE NIGHT!!!!
Stealing thunder so you move that ass, the duo dubbed Thunderheist unleash serious electrocrunk boom bap. Ribcage rattling bass breaks laced with clever rhyming flip with everything from 80s classics to digital booty bass and slowed down Southern bounce.
Dancefloors get loose when Thunderheist reigns. Tunes like “Bubblegum” and “Suenos Dulces” gather love in cheers and people losing it to the sounds. Lots of dancing. Watch this go down at a live show and it’s even wilder. Music blogs light up with repostings the moment they post a new tune. DJs from all over the world drop them in the mix. Simply put, they get lotsa love.
The lady runs the mic, and her name is Isis. This emcee is a Nigerian-born, Canadian-raised phenom who has shared stages with hip hop heavyweights and even played “Show Time at the Apollo”. Hard-hitting rhythms are courtesy of Grahmzilla, highly versatile producer /DJ twisting up the low end, on the beats and in the mix.
With the Thunderheist self-released EP, an upcoming 12” on Bigfoot Records (Smalltown DJs), live gigs on the Left Coast, Scandinavian tour, busy Canadian touring, NYC debut, more touring anticipated and work on the album, it’s possible that these two will soon take over the world!
http://www.myspace.com/thunderheist
also in the main room that night, we have:
VND/LSM http://www.myspace.com/vndlsm
MANSION http://www.myspace.com/mansiondj
BARBI http://www.myspace.com/djbarbi
Skyy Room
IPOD BATTLE w Bitch’n
www.myspace.com/bitchinladies
Teams:
Oligarchy
3D Specs
Famous Players
Cease & Desist (Defending Champs)
$15 advance tix can be purchased at the following location
ROTATE THIS: 801 Queen Street West, Toronto 416-504-8447
PLAY DE RECORD: 357A Yonge Street, Toronto 416-586-0380
SOUNDSCAPES: 572 College Street, Toronto 416-537-1620
TICKETWEB: http://www.ticketweb.ca
WANTICKETS: http://www.wantickets.com 1-866-WAN-TIXX
