Hot Snack is a modular synthesizer/vocal duo created by Sol Chiniquay and Ryan Clough-Carroll. Drawing from the repetitive phasing of Steve Reich and Suicide, Hot Snack embraces technical obstruction and lyrical prostration as a means of piloted improvisation.

Jane Harms' interest in propulsive songwriting is interpreted via her obsessive orchestral guitar-synthesizer and sample-sequenced arrangements. Her project Trifectahas a song forthcoming on a compilation with Montreal’s Celluloid Lunch label, and her solo performances have been hosted by Video Pool in Winnipeg/Treaty One, Slut Island Festival in Tio’tia:ke/Montréal, and UNIT/PITT on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaɬ land (Vancouver). Together with Donna Allen, they arrive somewhere between alter-futurist chamber folk and celestial Big Music, actualizing their mutual interest in Olivia Records, the Canterbury sound and music as a marker on a road to utopia.

Donna Allen's four-finger guitar and melodic proficiency are expanded by her training in post-Cagean art music and experimentation. Her New York-based band Chronophage has released four LPs ranging from punky post-punk to prefab post-contemporary rock, and she has released four solo recordings in the last year alone. Together with Jane Harms, they arrive somewhere between alter-futurist chamber folk and celestial Big Music, actualizing their mutual interest in Olivia Records, the Canterbury sound and music as a marker on a road to utopia.

Markus Lake is a Montréal/Tiotia’ke based musician and composer. Lake’s albums, live shows and soundtrack work explore themes of attention, obscurity, visibility and repetition through the use of a constantly expanding palette of digital instruments and samples. He released his Juno-nominated fourth LP, “Fourth Album,” on Constellation Records in October 2023. He is a graduate of the electroacoustics program at Concordia University and has played bass in the Montréal bands Elle Barbara’s Black Space, Egyptian Cotton Arkestra, and Silver Dapple.

Photo by Stacy Lee

baptized.in.prison (Toni-Leah C. Yake) (European; Kanyen'kehà:ka, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, Turtle Clan) is a composer-performer residing on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ territories.

Her work extends to explore the land, memories, world-building and embodied response. Informed by dream interpretation and Kanyen'kehà:ka epistemology Yake submerges into liminality through performances illuminated by archival recordings, synthesis, and noise.

Toni-Leah's practices are often influenced by kanyen’keha (Mohawk language) research, the interplay between conscious and unconscious realms, symbolism, relationships with unseen dimensions, and connections to archaic memories.

"El Ángel Exterminador” was born in 2021 as a response to the lack of bookings of Latinx artists in so-called “Vancouver". Expect haunting cumbias, crunchy perreo and sleazy tracks that might prevent you from leaving the room.

The primary artist behind this project, Max Ammo (they/them), is a non-binary latinx multidisciplinary artist from Mexico City who currently lives and works on the unceded and traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. They work primarily on illustration, animation and graphic design but in recent years have taken on producing music and DJing under the alias “Goo” and most recently under the moniker “El Ángel Exterminador”. In 2023 they opened Slime Studio, their freelance audiovisual studio, as well as online & pop up shop.

Stemming from their ethos to showcase Latinx talent in their geographical context, they have started two projects that expand this ethos: Cadena & Hechizo.

Cadena’s mission is to map, document and highlight the DJ’S/Producers/Crews playing and showcasing underground & independent Latinx dance music across “Canada”. Cadena currently consists of Elias Musiak (Jaijiu) & Max Ammo (El Ángel Exterminador). Hechizo - an esoteric party series in "Vancouver" dedicated to strengthening the sonic dialogues between Latinx underground electronic music with the broader “global south”.

Goo is an experimental thriller-electronic project, with a focus on drone, noise and latin american spectral influences. Their sound ranges from sleazy, swampy beats accompanied by haunting lyrics in Spanish to lush & soothing melodies with entrancing percussion. Goo is also a medium for exploring sound, gender and writing.

Photo by Chieh Huang

Wasauksing Sniper is a moniker of noise artist B.P., and an homage to Francis Pegahmagabow, the most highly decorated Indigenous soldier in Canadian military history and the most effective sniper of the First World War. Layers of ambient and harsh textures echo the flow of battle and the incessant rumble of artillery.

Bret Parenteau is a sound/noise artist based in Winnipeg. Under the initials B.P., Parenteau has been making his formula of noise, field recording, & tape manipulation. Most recently Bret has been working on film scores for short & feature length films.

DJ Zygote aka Simon Grefiel (he/him) is an artist whose work engages with ancient and pre-colonial histories and practices from Southeast Asia and around the Pacific. Working with sculpture, found objects, drawings, and plant life, his explorations of language, dreams, spirits, familial stories, and speculative narratives proposes new ways of experiencing the supernatural realm, and the material universe.

Grefiel is currently exploring "Budots," an electronic music genre and dance style originating from Davao City, Philippines and heavily influence by the indigenous Sama-Bajau. He DJs as a way to explore electronic music in Southeast Asia and the Global South. He is also producing music with collaborator Reylinn McGrath under the moniker "Gulod Tanawin."

Grefiel was born and raised in Tacloban City, Philippines, and currently lives on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx ̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. His work has been exhibited and screened at Vancouver Art Gallery, Gallery Gachet, WAAP, and Libby Leshgold Gallery in Vancouver and Gallery TPW in Toronto, ON.

Josh is a Dubai born, Queer, Filipinx artist that is currently a settler on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. Josh emerged in dance through the streetdance community when he battled in the first Vancouver street dance festival 2011. From there he steeped himself in street dance culture as a means for empowerment and self realization. These styles included Locking, Popping, House, Hip hop, Krump, Vogue, and Whacking from local and international teachers: Jerry Chien, Koffi Noumedor, Nubian NeNe, Leah McFly, Natasha Gorie, Rina Palerina, Anna Martynova, and Sekou Heru, Raoul Wilke, Kozi Eze, Latasha Barnes, and Ejoe Wilson. While he was involved in the streetdance community he continued to explore contemporary dance from Tiffany Tegarthen, David Raymond, 605 collective, Su-Feh Lee, Kevin Fraser, Peter Bingham, Justine Chambers, Delia Brett and Deanna Peters through the pre-professional dance training program Modus Operandi and informal ways of exchanging in the local and international dance community.

Rae is a “Vancouver” based DJ and performer. Working against what society expects of her as a queer Asian woman, she represents the guilt free pursuit of self acceptance and pleasure. Rae’s goal when on stage is to fully release herself to the music and leave feeling lighter, in hopes that those around her feel inclined to do the same.

Mada Phiri photo by Tom Hsu

FITNESSS emerges as a composite of wires and veins

coursing with the distilled rage and sorrow of a decimated Los Angeles

prosthetic electronics trigger angelic pulsations

flowing through nervous pathways to communicate

the primordial choreography of our Holy Ancestors