Category: Initial Shock III

Initial Shock III begins!

Tomorrow, Initial Shock commences at La Sotterenea. On Sunday, come for After Shock at P’tit Ours.

Saturday, July 5, $30. Set times:*

2:00 DOORS OPEN
2:45 Eunuch God
3:05 Mother Mary
3:25 Kahraba
3:45 Widdershins
4:05 Grkzgl
4:25 Lyndsie Alguire
4:45 Nauseous Ejector
5:05 Taskmaster
5:30 Anne-F Jacques
6:00 BREAK / VENUE CLOSED

7:30 DOORS OPEN
8:00 Primitive Isolation Tactics
8:20 K.M. Toepfer
8:50 Apologist
9:20 Matriarch
10:00 Death Kneel
10:30 Mass Marriage

Sunday, July 6, $10 or PWYC. Set times:

2:00 DOORS OPEN
2:30 Quivering / Nausiate
3:00 Girl Circles
3:30 Generic Fatigue
4:00 Windshear
4:30 Amarior
5:00 S.D.

*set times subject to change

Poster designs by Heater Ross. Advanced tickets still available to secure your spot. See you soon!

Girl Circles, Widdershins and Primitive Isolation Tactics at Initial Shock III

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 and Kahraba at Initial Shock III

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.

K.M. Toepfer and Amarior at Initial Shock III

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 and Windshear at Initial Shock III

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!

Nauseous Ejector and Quivering + Nausiate at Initial Shock III

Nauseous Ejector is the project of Max Parker, an artist based in New York City. He makes crude and frantic electronic noise mostly utilizing cheap tape recorders, contact microphones, and broken stringed instruments. Forthcoming releases on Angst, Narcolepsia, and the artist’s own Magnetic Irritation Recordings.
NAUSIATE, Autumn/Otto Evelyn (she/they) is a sound artist, designer and technician originally from Kingston, ON. Their main practice is within industrial and noise music based in feedback loops, synthesiser and metal sounds. QUIVERING, Steff(ania) Juniper (they/them) is a non-binary trans, neuroqueer, cultural worker and performance artist from Toronto, ON. Now residing in Montreal, QUIVERING + NAUSIATE enjoy collaborating on their noise projects as they passionately align themselves with gay leather politics, harm reduction networks, disability justice, activist art, and DIY ethics. Together, Steff & Otto appreciate community building in all its many forms in the leftist spirit that grieves for lost futures and fights for better possible worlds! They will be performing a set inspired by their 2024 release, “The Earth Bleeds Fire”, which heavily features themes of climate collapse, femicide and ecocide.
Tickets on sale now!

Matriarch and Generic Fatigue at Initial Shock III

Matriarch is the alias of Julia Spotts, currently based out of Philadelphia, PA. After beginning in Massachusetts, Matriarch rose to a venerable position within the Western Massachusetts noise scene through her work of experimental compositions exploring themes of memory and detachment. Matriarch is primarily a project focused on transcriptions of memory, taking listeners on a journey through specific instances of highly emotive and key experiences in the artist’s life. Taking a step back from these memories, her work exhibits moving, dynamic experimental sound most notably seen at Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, otherwise known as LUFF, in 2023. Currently, Matriarch is exploring the techniques of classical music, and applying those forms to experimental compositions, resulting in pieces of work made in the form of acts, segmented yet dynamic in nature.

Generic Fatigue is a moniker of Montreal based artist and musician Harpur Quee. Fusing their love of venetian plaster with exaggerated and archaic amplification, a curious and overblown exposure is given into the world of grit weathered trowels, palette knife sorcery, and luxury mineral abuse.

Apologist and S.D. at Initial Shock III

Rose Actor-Engel (Apologist) is a Philadelphia musician and composer. She uses synthesizer, tape and field recordings to create ambient and experimental music, implementing specific rules and protocols to determine structure.
Since 2016, Montreal based S.D. has been playing in various projects (desolatum, high grove) with a focus on tape experimentation and improvisation. Using only cassette tapes and loops, she creates dissonant ambient drones swelling into harsh textural noise often accented by unamplified wailing screams.
Advanced tickets are available!

Death Kneel and Mother Mary at Initial Shock III

DEATH KNEEL is the primary recording outlet of Toronto based musician Max Klebanoff. His output is characterized by unyielding binaural manipulation and unapologetic octatrack abuse. Incidental sound and electoacoustic automatic drawings dismantled and deconstructed to be recycled, again and again. Since 2014, Klebanoff and featured on notable labels Chondritic Sound, Total Black and his own imprint Life of Sensation, with new releases forthcoming on Students of Decay and White Centipede Noise.

Mother Mary is noise about a people being abandoned by it’s creator. Utilizing the aesthetics of Christianity and preaching, Mother Mary screams from a dying planet to a god that is silent. Informed equally by power electronics, films like Winter Light, Silence and First Reformed, old radio broadcasts and preacher tapes, Mother Mary is a eucharist of feedback for a world with no God.

Tickets on sale now!