A beautiful sunny Toronto day. An eclectic lineup of local and international talent. A simple, open atmosphere – colourful streamers and balloons, like a backyard party. Tweens and millenials and middle-aged men in casual cutoffs. It was…’time’ for the second running installment of Time Festival. Let’s explore, in chronological order…Time Festival 2015 @ Fort York
If “Sunny day” was a genre, the first two bands would be perfect takes on it. Light, easygoing, with just a little tinge of weird, Toronto local Elliott Vincent Jones went level-1 HAM with a sampler and vocal distortion to end his short set. Lobby, a new band, also local, grooved on whipped-cream indie-pop goodness for what felt like too short a time.
Tommy Kruise @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
Tommy Kruise, the freaky-looking Montrealian producer of things bass and hip-hop inspired, was cheeky on the mic before scrabbling up an impressive potpourri mix of trap, footwork, and future bass. As his set progressed, the crowd kicked up plenty of dance dust and his reserved face melted into grins and smiles. He pulled a lot of tracks from his own library of productions, which you can check out on his Soundcloud. Definitely an afternoon wake-up, and someone whose shows to watch out for in the city in the future.
Tory Lanez @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
I hadn’t heard of Tory Lanez before, and for a minute I mistook him for his warmup DJ – which was very quickly corrected when the Toronto-born rapper exploded out on stage riding a hoverboard and bounced up to the edge of the stage where he flailed and rocked and spat rhymes to the excited and participative crowd. His charisma was on 10 and he put a call out for Peace and Love and Oneness, encouraging everyone to talk to their neighbour (“I don’t believe in separation!”) and rally their friends out from the shaded sidelines. Within minutes he had hundreds of hands in the air synced up to tracks that a slew of people knew the words to. A nice day to be Tory Lanez.
DIIV @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
New York – based DIIV was up next, who played a solid 40 minutes of what felt like one long variation on a candied dream. I asked my friend who likes sub-genres to describe the sound and he said, “definitely something with ‘wave’ in there… maybe ‘alternative’ too. There – Alt-Wave.” Sure. That fits.
Alison Wonderland @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
Alison Wonderland opened up her set with the kind of pulsating low-end frequency that makes you snap your head up and pay attention… even from the hot dog stand all the way at the back of the grounds. Buzzing closer to the sound like a moth to light, I – and the 1000+ festigoers present at the time – was treated to a dizzying array of trap-inspired beats, from gloomy chillstep to straight up bangers. Crowdsurfing and mosh pits emerged.
What was great about this Aussie producer/vocalist/DJ was that she squeezed her femininity into the sound in a variety of ways, from sinister to playful to outright nymphomaniacal at times. She played her set with the passion and immersion of a producer, and more than once she got on the mic to express gratitude for getting to share her music with The People. Much love to this chick.
Ryan Hemsworth @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
I don’t know why I expected different, but Time Festival impressed me with how on-schedule they were. It was late afternoon when Ryan Hemsworth stepped up to the music table, and he opened with a long slow intro to the type of emotionally-charged rhythms for which he’s known. The Haligonian (that’s ‘to be from Halifax’) made his way post-haste into a muggy middle-ground of synth melodies and trap beats, and even rap samples. This contrast shone starkly; at one point I was bobbing along to a light mellow groove when all of a sudden I heard “Woke up in the morning… feeling like that ni99a… woke up in the morning… feeling like that ni99a…”; (I felt conflicted: I couldn’t affirm nor deny that statement). Overall the set wasn’t eminently danceable, but was nice background music for a groove, schmooze or a grassy layabout.
A special mention here to the People of the Shade, who shaped themselves to the tree’s shadow all afternoon long.
People of the Shade, shaped like a tree’s shadow… lurid and living on the ground.
Freddie Gibbs @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
Toronto likes gangster rap. At least, they like turning up, and gangster rap is a good excuse to do so. To wit, Freddie Gibbs came out on stage with a calm, stoic grin and proceeded to pummel the crowd with impeccable acapella raps and banter; tales from the Indiana G-life, he says. He even invited people to G out with some call-and response: ‘Fuck po-lice; fuck po-lice; fuck po-lice….’
Is it culturally appropriate for white boys to mosh to gangster rap? The answer is yes. Gangster rap celebrates the fact that the gangster in question is alive and well, and it is appropriate for young men of any race or descent to join in that celebration. Call it a gratitude mosh.
I braved both pockets of mosh to get some good pictures; as I contemplated the best entry to Mosh Pit #2, a dreadlocked white guy tapped me on the shoulder and said, “You want a good picture?”, and with a follow-me gesture used both arms to make a huge clearing push into the pit – in the wake of which I followed, safe as a bird, snapping away.
BADBADNOTGOOD @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
BADBADNOTGOOD is the swaggiest jazz outfit alive. They don’t do covers – they do co-optings, transmutations if you will… they take the spirit of hip hop and insert it into the slender morphing body of jazz and out pops a freaking party. The hometown homies know how to have an inclusive good time, and they spread their gratitude and good humour in between songs. They just finished a collab album with Ghostface Killah and their set featured Leo the Crowdsurfing Lion and shoutouts to Flying Lotus. Their drummer, Alexander, also made a clever epitaph to Pink Floyd (they’d recently broken up officially), saying “They’ve had their time, made their money, now they’re just another brick in the wall” L.O.L.
Ariel Pink @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
Ariel Pink is more than a little weird. He’s very weird. His band and music are no less so. After I took some pictures I immediately tuned out the raucous lo-fi noisepop babble and got a quinoa salad from Portobello Burger.
Mac DeMarco @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
The crowd swelled in size during the interlude to Mac DeMarco, and the B.C. bred stoner-rock/self-proclaimed ‘jizz-jazz’ outfit strummed out playful and taciturn tunes while the crowd sang along to every. single. word. Tufts of weed smoke morphed and plumed throughout the band’s goofy set, and there was a magical moment during a protracted outro when Mac’s guitarist went on a monologue full of stream-of-consciousness positive encouragement; a snippet of what I heard is below:
It’s okay to be yourselves, guys – Look up on the highway! Cars! People are passing you by… You’re never gonna meet ‘em. Does that make you feel lonely, or connected? You can be yourself guys. You can be social, you can be happy.
Perfect messages for the always-more culture in this city.
Die Antwoord @ Time Festival 2015 shot by Kevin Gallant for FUXWITHIT
True to their second album’s namesake, Die Antwoord created ‘ten$ion’ from the start of their set time by displaying an unnervingly alien face set to eerie sound effects for minutes on end. Then a hooded DJ Hi-Tech came out on stage and abruptly unleashed an the kind of hardcore raw-dog bass that makes you forget you even have a face. Once the crowd was nice and pulverized from the bone-rattling bass, cartoon acid-trip visuals, and saucy morphsuit dancers, Ninja and Yolandi pranced on out in their famed onesies and proceeded to get freaky and rude on the wilding crowd. The rudeness even got interactive – more than once Ninja grabbed an audience member’s recording iPhone and shoved it in the crotch of his onesie, giving it a good smearing before handing it back like a used tissue.
Freaky. Alien. Weird. Ugly. Vulgar. Sexy. Every element of the South African rap duo’s aesthetic was tuned to this combination of features; stage dressings and painted body suits and repeating screen imagery of huge cartoon dicks and eventually shirtless dancers. They played every hit of theirs to precision – ‘Fatty Boom Boom’ comes to mind as a standout on the huge sound system – and even their lesser known songs like ‘Fok You In The Ass’ (Don’t know the words? Sing along with me – ‘DJ Hi Tek will fok you in the ass, fok you in the ass, fok you in the ass..”).
Feeling blessed to have been exposed to this variety of music along with the weather, people, and food over the course of eleven hours. Looking forward to next year’s Time, and other events like this in the city.
Check out the gallery below for more pics from throughout the day.
KG
