Music
Press
There was much debate at WL436 about Owls. Specifically what sense does an owl have to give up in order to see at night? Many suggestions were forthcoming, many of them were probably scientifically correct, but the one that stuck was this: If an owl can see in the dark, it forfeits its ability to see in the light. That's how I came to understand the understated brilliance of Vowls, as I groped around in the dark of the song I realized that if I wanted to understand these textures of glocks and beats I had to stop looking for what I could see and instead to look for the shadows of what I was missing, suddenly polyrhythms leapt out of the sampled beats and hooks came out of the harmonies. Then everybody started to dance. - DP - www.wavelengthtoronto.com
In roughly eight months, VOWLS have made themselves candidates for the local musical equivalent of the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. Their Krautrockish synths range from psychedelic to eardrum-sizzling, their guitars stay warm and folky and it’s hard not to grin at their talk-singing cadence inna Bob Dylan–via–Beck stylee. “Waking” with its layer of atmospheric haze (“I walk around with a head full of you / it’s a spell I can’t undo”) is the kind of single that would have blown up college radio in 1996, and still might.
- Dave Morris
- Eye Magazine
Discography
In Consonance (Part 1) EP, April 2010 (Blood & Water)
Ontario EP, Sept 2008 (CD-R Release)
Vowls Plays The Monterey Pop Festival, Aug 2008 (EP/Film Soundtrack)
http://vimeo.com/4929125
Website:
http://www.vowls.org
Photos
Bio
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 sold out shows with like-minded travellers Four Tet, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Mi Ami, Thank You, Nadja, and Little Girls in the past year. 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.
In 2009, VOWLS recorded, produced & mixed the In Consonance (Part 1) EP in their home studio. Inspired by the experimental recording techniques deployed in musique concrete, dub studios, disco edits, DJ Screw, techno & krautrock, the EP makes full use of the possibilities of a digital home studio, while simultaneously trying to capture the raw energy of a live performance.
Member Bios
VOWLS originally formed as a studio project between friends Adam Trozzolo and Brandon Hocura. Already good friends they knew that a musical partnership was inevitable when their hard drives coalesced in the file-sharing ether while Brandon was living in Tokyo and Adam in Toronto. They reunited in Toronto in 2006, and began DJing together at Invisible City and recording as VOWLS.
Adam has performed as a DJ and remixer for several years under the names 49keys and The Way We Were. Brandon spent 5 years living in Tokyo and travelling Asia where he studied shamisen, sitar, and tabla. He also played in Bien Victor, MAVO and Caveman Gameboy. Before Naomi joined the band in 2008 she also explored Asia where she studied harmonium and classical Indian vocal styles. She has collaborated with Aidan Baker (Nadja), curating and creating video for a 6-hour DVD release for Nadja on Beta-Lactam Ring Records. Alex performs solo under the name Guy Dallas, tearing up parties with his ADD-dance-noise and has been playing with VOWLS since the beginning of 2009.
In their live show, all four members switch instruments, playing guitar, drums, bass, synthesizers, glockenspiel, harmonium, electronics, percussion, effects and contact mics creating a virtual cornucopia of sound and vision.
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