[press]
[B]old, simple, slightly off-centre, hard to ignore. The Sunday Times

The songs are.a vehicle for the group to expand their vocabulary, creating a gloomy variant of folk blues with a wide reach. The Wire magazine

[T]he Toronto quartet's grasp of instrumental color and dynamics on their new album, Metal Cares, is so exquisite and alert that the torpid rhythms feel like part of an elegant high-wire act - Chicago Reader

[bio]
Toronto-based five-piece band Picastro is one among many multi-instrumentalist / folk / rock / pop bands, but like few others, manages to have its own ethos. The only fact of having played with bands such as Montreal's fundamental grouping Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mick Turner (guitarist of the Dirty Three), Bill Callahan aka Smog, the late Elliot Smith, Michael Gira's Angels of Light -- to name but a few -- can state the validity of their work and the orientation of their music. Blending sweet vocals by Liz Hysen, glockenspiel, string trio with viola, violin and cello, organ, drums and guitar, this can help identify how they go from post-rock one minute to Eastern European Folk the next. This seems to be at the heart of many contemporary Canadian folk / rock / psychedelia bands and Picastro only affirms the status of the genre.

Recordings include contributions to Badaboom Grammaphone #4 (the Russian song "Ochi Chorni", 2001). In 2005, "Towtruck" a collaboration with Dwayne Sodahberk appeared on the Wiretapper 13 (June 2005 issue of the Wire) and "Shorter Hard" appeared on Comes with a Smile, issue 19.

'Red Your Blues, their first full-length on Pehr in 2002 and was licensed to Monotreme in the U.K. in 2003.

The second album "Metal Cares" came out on Polyvinyl and Monotreme in Europe in 2005.

Picastro - Sharks [mp3]

www.picastro.net

[bio]

Sanso-xtro is MELISSA AGATE from Adelaide, Australia (currently residing in London, UK). Her debut solo Album 'sentimentalist' was released on Type records in May 2005, an album of fragile melodies and angular rhythms made with guitars, drums, ukulele, kalimba, analogue synthesizers and a collection of small instruments.

sanso-xtro is a three piece band for live performances:

melissa Agate = guitars, ukulele, synthesizer, kalimba, drums etc
enrico Glerean = guitars, synthesizer, live processing etc
niklas Tafra = synthesizer, guitar, glockenspiel, drums & percussion etc

sanso-xtro - the Last Leaf [mp3]

www.sanso-xtro.com

"The Mandelbrot Set are a Loud band. They like their drones and their converse-gazing, they like to use sample pedals and to change instruments during sets, but mainly they like to be Loud, and they like to do it differently.

Formed by Keung, from the ashes of his previous band, Hentai ( "It's a relief to know that not all angsty teenagers listen to Radiohead and spend the rest of their adolescence trying to emulate Muse. Some of them stick Boards Of Canada stickers on their guitars, acquire DD-5 sample pedals and violin bows, and proceed to work the Mogwai-esque quiet - loud - louder - FUCKING APOCALYPTIC dynamic till their ears bleed. So thank fuck for Hentai." Drowned In Sound ), The Mandelbrot Set take their love of all things Constellation, their penchant for electronics, effects pedals and live sampling, their Shellac-esque rhythmic aggression, and combine it all into a wall of noise, melody and epic structure that would make Kevin Shields weep with envy.

Joined by Simon on drums (formerly of a ska/punk/reggae band called Supertrix), and multi-instrumentalist Melisa (onetime percussionist for London Schools Symphony Orchestra, and currently working on her Music BA in Norwich), the disparate influences and creative energies of the three combine to create a inspired pallette of sound and texture, a dense cloud of harmonic resonance, yet timed with enough space and clarity for all the individual elements to shine through."

Mandelbrot Set - Rockets Red Glare [mp3]

www.mandelbrotset.co.uk

Vixen Mews is a comtemporary folk ensemble playing the music of Irish songwriter/composer, Laura Hyland. Core instrumentation is voice, acoustic guitar and double bass, however live delivery changes from gig to gig, varying from realtime electronic processing to lush choral arrangements. Band members are numerous and change from gig to gig.

Vixen Mews - Shipwreck [mp3]
Vixen Mews - West Of Your City [mp3]