Ryan Hemsworth, a 22-year-old bedroom producer from Halifax, has risen to recognition over the past year with a couple of blog-hyped EPs, and is now commissioned to do remixes for the likes of French “electro-bro” Brodinski’s label, Bromance Records. I discussed his strategy in the July issue of AUX’s ipad magazine. Aside from producing for nu rappers like Main Attraktionz, he’s got a knack for remixing a mash of genres, from pop to RnB. Speaking of which, you’ll likely hear his 48-hour-old remix of Frank Ocean’s Thinkin Bout You this Saturday as he plays Wrongbar’s monthly SLOWED event in Toronto. (more)

There we were, inside a west-end warehouse at an electronic dance music festival in 2012, and neither a big drop nor a WUB WUB WUB to be heard. The walls indeed throbbed, but with 4/4 beats and that deep soulful vibe I can only imagine was present at the original Warehouse. (more)

After a day’s recovery, we bring to you our post-mortem on NXNE, where aside from gang violence fears, venue debacles and news of tragedy there was stellar music to be heard. NXNE retains its rep as Canada’s best music fest, which is quickly becoming more and more like SXSW in scope and profile, but given what happened here over the past week it’s probably best Toronto irons out a few kinks before hosting something of that proportion. - Marsha Casselman, Richard Trapunski
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The challenge of this week’s NXNE festival: Buy a wristband, bar hop, and drunkenly discover some overlooked local gems among all the Ghostface and Flaming Lips hype. Here are my suggestions, some of which are relatively new, so I can’t vouch for the quality of their live show. But you’ll be drunk anyways.  - Marsha Casselman (more)

There isn’t much of a “scene” for wordless, beat-less drone music; so if you’re going to produce it, be prepared to relish time by yourself. Canadian producer Kyle Bobby Dunn thrives in this lonesome endeavour, as you can hear on his second double album Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn, out on UK label Low Point this month. (more)

Tearing out of the gate with all the fury and ferocity of their fire-breathing, flesh-eating namesakes, Calgary doom-noise duo (and newest members of Sonic Unyon Metal) Mares of Thrace have unleashed the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed 2010 debut The Moulting. Titled The Pilgrimage and broken into three acts thematically tied to the biblical story of King David and his seduction of Bathsheba, this record is without a doubt one of the most evil things I have ever had the privilege to listen to. (more)

Having recovered from Canadian Music Week, we have a few observations to share beyond the usual “this band played, they were good” reviews. (more)

3 a.m. is no time to begin writing. But Canadian Music Week has had me up all night, bouncing from one sweaty, gross venue to the next. I guess many of us will have to do the same thing today. It’ll be a tough slog. Toronto’s Dentata are much tougher than that. In fact, they’re the most hard-bitten thing you’re likely to hear during CMW. In what seems to be a nebulous mix of indie rock bands and singer-songwriters (and I must stress I love seeing these artists as well), Dentata are mean, scary, and rough. (more)

DD/MM/YYYY were one of the first bands we covered on Resonancity, so when we heard four-fifths of the band were regrouping to form the new group, Absolutely Free, inviting them to play our CMW showcase was a total no-brainer. But since they don’t have any music online beyond a few live videos, and since they’ve only played a handful of shows, we decided to meet up with multi-instrumentalist Moshe Rozenberg in a park in Kensington Market to get a sense of the new direction.
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Detroit industrial punk duo Bad Party – who make their Toronto debut at our CMW showcase this Saturday – mix pounding drum machinery and ripping guitar that makes you want to both dance around and rough someone up at the same time. But while frontman Nate Savino has a reputation for bad-assery, I found out he does not condone fighting, or at least not bullying. (more)

Today we continue our roll-out of previews for our CMW showcase with another song premiere, this time from electro-horror-punks Cellphone. If you’re not familiar with the band that may have a little to do with their defiantly unGoogle-able name, but it’s actually their second moniker. The band recently rebranded from the more descriptive Skitso-Convo.
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Gearing up for our first Resonancity showcase at the Comfort Zone this Saturday has us very excited. We stand behind every band on the bill, though we know none of them are exactly industry-friendly. So, starting today and running every weekday up until the show, we’ve decided to give you a preview of each band. Today, we start with local noise-makers Connoisseurs of Porn.

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