Issue date: 10/1/09 Section: Film & Music

Slim Twig belts it out Photo: Davepike / Flickr

Growing's newly minted vocalist bonds with the band Photo: Growing / Myspace

Take three acts, a truckload of effects pedals, very few conventional instruments, and a nautically-themed Portuguese restaurant, and you've got yourself a show. Or so was the case September 20th, when Brooklyn-based experimental trio Growing took to the stage at the Boat, accompanied by two rising Toronto musicians.

The night opened with a brief set of tape manipulations by Carl Didur. A Toronto mainstay, Didur occasionally guests on organ for a plethora of bands, but tonight he methodically manipulated strands of reel-to-reel tape, looping and fading recordings of keyboards, wobbly rhythms, and buzzing atmospheres of indeterminate origin. Occasionally Didur would rise from his equipment to manipulate a screeching synthesizer perched on top of his wall of amplifiers. Though lacking in a strong performance element, watching Didur operate his vintage equipment still provided more visual interest than listening to similar music created on computer software. With a single light bulb wired to react to rhythmic pulses in his music intermeshing with the Boat's incongruous disco ball, Didur created an engrossing sound environment across the venue.

Based on the music of the next opener, Slim Twig, one might get the idea that he spends his time wandering around Toronto graveyards at night in a raincoat stolen from Leonard Cohen, with headphones blasting Wu-Tang Clan instrumentals. Though this is probably not the case, Slim Twig's music is a similarly weird and wonderful amalgamation of disparate influences and styles. The average song saw him triggering a beat that combined low-end rhythms with Spaghetti Western textures. Structure established, he would then stalk the stage, his singing punctuated with hiccupping yelps, before returning to his organ to loop catchy, repetitive riffs. On his signature tune "White Fantaseee," Twig offset a metronomic drum beat with jangly guitar and tough doo-wop styled vocals, slowly progressing into a wild mass of guitar noise. In an interview with The Strand earlier this year, Twig claimed that director David Lynch projected a strong influence on his music, and one can see a similar intersection of the classic with the chaotic and disturbing in his unique sound and engrossing live performances.

Recent recordings by Growing showcased a vivid psychedelic sound that spoke to epic space and fluid movement. However, the former have now grown to a trio, with a slight change in direction. Formerly, guitarists Kevin Doria and Joe Denardo processed their instruments into unrecognizable, colorful shapes through tables of effects devices, creating music that was airy and immersive but with a rhythmic pulse. However, the addition of Sadie Laska on sampler and vocals has brought more prominent use of programmed rhythms. Onstage, drum machines and Laska's echoing chants gave the band a point of focus around which to rally, with Denardo adding bouncy, Afrobeat guitar lines on the upbeat as Doria created dense drones. Despite playing at an extremely high volume and with unconventional instrumentation, Growing showcased an uncanny ability to make experimental music playful and positive. Unfortunately, the drum programming sometimes felt stilted and was pushed uncomfortably to the foreground, restraining the music. Still, on the whole Growing and their fellow performers managed to present music that was creative and new, yet refreshingly accessible and unpretentious.

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