VOWLS are a psychedelic band from Toronto who combine the energetic inventiveness of mutant-disco and post-punk with the pan-global influences and technological embrace of krautrock. They create music that is both forward thinking and bottom shaking. Taking up the call for what Brian Eno claims is the greatest challenge in music today, VOWLS aren’t afraid to play Pop music either. In a way they use it as a Trojan horse, playing with its conventions and boundaries in order to create something wholly new, that is simultaneously visionary, provocative & catchy-as-hell. The band has set out to liberate minds and limbs around the world and has started to do so playing shows with like-minded travellers Caribou, Four Tet, Mi Ami and A Sunny Day in Glasgow. In fall 2009 VOWLS set off on a micro-tour with Stones Throw artist Koushik, pulling off the double duty of opening and playing as his backing band.

Their first  EP, In Consonance (pt.1) was released on Blood & Water in spring 2010 and the Blow Out EP 7” is out now on Polyphasic Recordings. Their remix of the Born Ruffians’ single ‘What to Say’ was released by Warp records on the Plinky Plonk EP.

 

Website

 

Releases

 

VOWLS – Blow Out EP

Named after the Brian De Palma film about the intimacy and invasive nature of sound recording (in his case a metaphor for filmmaking), this EP finds Toronto’s VOWLS eavesdropping on Pop music. The a-side Burlap swaggers around a drum machine beat that sounds like a New Order 45 played at 33rpm, with thick psychedelic layers of hazy MBV keys and VU ur-strum. The b-side is a much darker affair, which starts off with a creeping dub bassline surrounded by swirling electronic buzzes and floating voices. It then evolves into a throbbing call and response dirge that calls to mind Joy Division as much as it does Aphex Twin.

 

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limited edition 7″ (white vinyl) $8.00

download EP $1.99

 

 

VOWLS Plays Monterey Pop

 

Inspired by Ron Hardy’s disco re-edits, Michael Marranda’s revised literary texts and Richard Prince’s appropriated photographs, our film is composed entirely from footage taken from D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary on the 1967 Monterey Pop music festival. Instead of using the iconic footage of the performances, we chose to focus on the audience, the colourful participants who we feel are the real spirit of the film. Our edit of the film attempts to revise the demise and failure of 60’s counterculture by focusing on rhythm, participation and unity rather than spectacle and consumerism. The film has a completely new soundtrack by Vowls, which uses the tropes of 60’s psychedelic music re-contextualized as contemporary dance music.

Re-edit by Naomi Hocura
Soundtrack by Vowls members Adam Trozzolo & Brandon Hocura
23 min

About the Film

Inspired by Ron Hardy’s disco re-edits, Michael Marranda’s revised literary texts and Richard Prince’s appropriated photographs, our film is composed entirely from footage taken from D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary on the 1967 Monterey Pop music festival. Instead of using the iconic footage of the performances, we chose to focus on the audience, the colourful participants who we feel are the real spirit of the film. Our edit of the film attempts to revise the demise and failure of 60’s counterculture by focusing on rhythm, participation and unity rather than spectacle and consumerism.

 

About the Soundtrack

Originally released in 2007 along with the film, the original soundtrack by VOWLS uses the tropes of 60’s psychedelic music, re-contextualized as contemporary dance music. If David Mancuso’s egalitarian Loft parties had more influence on culture than the vapid fashion of Studio 54 then popular dance music might sound something like this.

Film Re-edit by Naomi Hocura
Soundtrack by VOWLS members Adam Trozzolo & Brandon Hocura
23 min

 

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download remastered soundtrack EP $6.99

 

 

View Video:

Vowls Plays Monterey Pop – PART I

Vowls Plays Monterey Pop – PART II