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Friends like these
Do Right and Milk teamed up Friday to present another edition of Friends & Neighbours at Supermarket , which doubled as a record release party for Kevin “Kaje” Johnson ‘s new single on Do Right Music.
Talent on hand included T.O. house hero Nick Holder playing a set of classic hiphop, and vocalists Sasha Williamson and Valntine , who performed their collaborations with Kaje live.
The mood was pretty mellow coming out of Holder’s hiphop set, but then again, so is Nothing’s Changing, the deep house track that Valntine performed. The vocals are soft and pretty and the music gentle and melodic, driven by fluid guitar work. It might be house, but it sounds more at home in a lounge than a dance club.
Next up, the consistently powerful Williamson tore the roof off with her stomping gospel-inflected performance. She oozes confidence onstage, and with a set of lungs like that, can you blame her?
Fukhouse in a groove
After a brief hiatus, Fukhouse is back, this time at a new home, brand new club Footwork . It’s is a lot smaller than Fukhouse’s former home at System Soundbar, so it’s a bit of an odd choice, because they never had a problem filling System Soundbar, but the more intimate vibe was no drawback.
Inaugurating their new home Saturday, they brought in Matthew Dear and labelmate Ryan Elliott from Detroit to lay down some quirky tech house business. They opted to work back-to-back rather than performing separate sets, which made for a fun mix but also made it hard to tell who’d played which track. Musically, they were all over the techno and house map, playing an even mixture of weirdo tracks and fun, cheesy stuff.
Was surprised to hear Daft Punk at one point, but it made total sense when the room ate it up.
Footwork has been evolving nicely over the month. The sound gets better every week, and they’re making the most of the limited lighting to set a mood. There was a good-sized crowd out, but it never felt uncomfortably packed except for being a bit hot.
Leisure’s fourth
Checked in on Leisure ‘s four birthday Saturday at a warehouse in the west end. Mike Sitchon and Steve Yanko usually get a big crowd out with very little promotion. While they both play in clubs a fair amount, it’s really the warehouse parties that have made their names.
This particular space has been used sporadically by various people over the years, but it isn’t the easiest venue for a party. For this event, there was a row of porta-potties outside in lieu of proper facilities – not ideal, but most were willing to deal with the inconvenience.
The pair laid down a good cross-section of house and house-influenced music along with some excursions beyond those rhythms. Both Sitchon and Yanko play a lot of records I don’t hear many others dropping, yet they’re not being purposefully obscure – the focus is still on keeping the dance floor sweaty, something they accomplished easily.
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com
