Two days before the Foundry Series launched their three-week electronic music festival at the Tower Automotive Building, the city of Toronto denied access to the industrial haven that event-planners and independent musicians have cited as an area that needs exploring. Inside of the venue reminded me of one of the rooms at Silo City-- moving through large, wide pillars in a vast, formerly abandoned space. This was initially a bit of a bummer-to everyone involved- but luckily they were able to move the party to 99 Sudbury, a part-time gym, part-time venue space.
For having only a short period of time to transfer the initially envisioned idea, the space served its purpose, split into two rooms, one smaller, more intimate and boasting ridiculously comfortable leather couches, and the other larger, a little more vacuous, with a giant 3-D video installation behind the DJ stage. I was excited to see Four Tet live since I heard "Angel Echoes" for the first time. Whenever I checked out his tour page it would read: Europe, Europe, Europe...It all fell into place step by step--wanting to travel to Toronto for a weekend, rediscovering my obsession for Four Tet, and a recent introduction to Purity Ring.
The festival was split into two separate nights, the first featuring Four Tet as the headliner with Gingy, DJ Colin, and Anthony "Shake" Shakir as openers. During Gingy's set my boyfriend and I decided to absorb the heavy, almost hard-house bangers on the leather couches, feel out the place, observe the crowd. Immediately I made the mistake of making eye contact with an intense looking woman who slithered next to us and said: "My name is Mary...married with three kids." Wanting to be polite, as many Canadians are to myself, I congratulated her. She found it strange that we would travel to see Four Tet from the states, and then proceeded to dance seductively in front of me. Shortly after, and slowly running out of diplomatic responses, we moved to the main room where Anthony "Shake" Shakir was starting his set. (In advance, I apologize for the quality of photos. One has to do their best when only working via phone.)
I felt like I was teleported to the 90's, seeing the stack of records lined up to the side and watching Shakir mix with grace. After the show I did a little more research on the guy, having only found beforehand an old-school mix on a local Toronto DJ compilation on Spotify. He's a contemporary of acid-house guys Derrick May and Carl Craig and produced their earlier Metroplex releases. It was a refreshing break to watch instead of staring at a lit-up Macintosh apple computer. Initially his set began with a down-tempo house vibe and progressed to a smooth drum and bass style.
Four Tet went on around 2 a.m., and at that point the place was jammed up. I secured a spot to the right of the stage and caught a decent visual for the first half of his set. He looked tired, but methodical, a decent poker face at all times mixed with the occasional smirk and glance at the audience. Musically, his set transferred from the psychedelic and ethereal sounds he's known for to harder, dance-heavy grooves, to specific blocks of middle-eastern influenced music, which really had the crowd going a little nuts. At one point, three girls tried to dance on the speakers, and one of them fell off the stage in front of me. That's kind of what you get for trying to go-go dance when Four Tet is playing.
Night two's recap is a little less specific than night one, as I indulged in too many red bull vodkas initially and had to regain my breath and sanity during Blue Hawaii. I made it onto the floor for Austrian DJ Katie Stelmanis, whose relaxed and subtle ebbs of house was a very grounding experience. Again, another gap occurred, and Shigeto was the next act I caught. He performed a live drum solo set mixed with a slightly hip-hop vibe until Megan James from Purity Ring took over. To my surprise the room was even more packed and excited for Purity Ring versus Four Tet's crowd. Already knowing that Purity Ring was to a play a DJ set, I expected James to play a more trap-influenced mix. Instead, the music was still grind-heavy but switched beats a little too quickly instead of a comfortable glide between songs.
Visually, the installations Foundry set-up reminded me of a watered down version of Amon Tobin's 'ISAM' live. The video screen focused on swirling cubes with an inter-spatial vibe. Once again, for the time-crunch, it was as much of a sensory experience as it could be. The next two line-ups for the Foundry series aren't as name-heavy as the first, but still worth checking out if you want to party.
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