Month: June 2025

Girl Circles is the martial-industrial project led by Fae Sirois, also known for her work in the industrial dub project, Orchid Lodge. Fusing somber electronics, violin, and folk experimentation, the project delves into the art of spite, a history of curses, and wxmenly sexual energy. A sound obscured in shadow, embraced by a solitary light.

Widdershins emerges with moss-laden dungeon electronics, suffused with damp breath of ancient echoes, and the distant murmur of forgotten rites. Drifting shadows and dying embers at summer’s close, planting seeds of winter’s woes. Widdershins draws the listener into mist betwixt the ruins, hinting at something just beyond the veil.

Co-organizer of Initial Shock, and Scream & Writhe head honcho, Taylor Geddes’ Primitive Isolation Tactics burrows into the subconscious via “rusted arteries of industrial noise fracturing off into constricted microchannels of impacted debris and silt.”

Advanced tickets available!

TASKMASTER is a solo harsh noise project currently based in Montreal, QC. TASKMASTER has been active since 2005; has released on labels such as Troniks, Harsh Head Rituals, Trash Rituals, rundownsun, Militant Walls, Absurd Exposition and White Centipede Noise, etc.

Kahraba (previously “sotemm/ⲥⲱⲧⲙ”) is a demonstration that music and performance has no barrier for entry. With a focus on No Input Mixing Board (NIMB) techniques and brandishing a worn-through hand-me-down mixing board, Michael Boulos has cut their teeth over the last two years facilitating, attending, and performing experimental and noise shows in and around Ontario and Montreal. With an understanding and appreciation for the performance of noise and experimental music, Kahraba consolidates what appeals to Boulos the most. The result is a focus on ebs, flows, hums, pulses, blares, and shrieks.

KARL MICHAEL TOEPFER is a sound art and noise performer inspired by intrapersonal and interpersonal communication, social cognition and sensory perception processing, and intuition. KARL MICHAEL TOEPFER’s creative process involves hardware and software sound synthesis and processing, misappropriation of non-sound producing circuits as sound or sound-control sources, initiation and exploitation of feedback systems, and re-contextualization of pre-recorded sounds into abstract, visceral collages and auditory events.

“funeral dirges for a burning world.” amarior (members of jetsam, pamphleteer, and alsarath) uses transverse flute to build and deconstruct drones and ambient soundscapes, sometimes incorporating spoken word or vocal elements.

Grkzgl is Alex Scarfone, a fixture of the Montreal electronic music and noise scenes for the better part of two decades, whether a solo artist or a member of the trio Chansons d’amour (with Cabral Jacobs and John Brennan). While Grkzgl’s output has vacillated somewhat unpredictably between various poles (improvised/sequenced, clean/distorted, tonal/atonal), the performance at Initial Shock will be one of unrestrained, ecstatic noise.

Rather than force intent or mirror accomplices, inspiration comes to WINDSHEAR through routine sensory curiosity and the realized functions of unwanted modules. Paired with petty technical skills and an unsparing yet charitable desire to maintain fidelity and commitment, WINDSHEAR shifts currents intentionally yet unknowingly in directions neither rational nor candid. WINDSHEAR is from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Thanks to everyone who has bought advanced tickets so far!