TONE Festival / Badge Époque Ensemble, Ben LaMar Gay’s “Certain Reveries”, Masahiro Takahashi

Two celebrated labels meet in the next TONE event on June 9 at the Great Hall, as artists from Telephone Explosion and International Anthem take the stage. From Mas Aya and Pantayo to Joseph Shabason and Bernice, Toronto-based Telephone Explosion has quickly become an epicentre in the network of local music. Founded in Chicago in 2014, International Anthem has similarly built a reputation as a source for “adventurous yet curiously accessible releases” (Pitchfork), making this union with Telephone Explosion through TONE feel quite natural.

Featured on June 9, Toronto’s Badge Époque Ensemble (Telephone Explosion) teases and pulls myriad psychedelic textures into beautifully distilled grooves. Their appearance at TONE marks the first celebration of 2022 release Clouds of Joy, described in Exclaim! as a “musical, emotional euphoria to be felt and witnessed.” Cornettist and composer Ben LaMar Gay’s lauded 2021 release, Open Arms to Open Us (International Anthem), considered among the best albums of 2021 by The Wire and Bandcamp, was described by Pitchfork as “a remarkable piece of musical pathfinding, sprawling in its ambition and surprisingly precise in its attack.” Gay’s work offers an orchestral prowess that summons sweeping unison swells, hip hop beats bathed in brass, dirge-like incantations of the timeless now, and more. Toronto-based Masahiro Takahashi (Telephone Explosion) rounds out the program with the warm nostalgia of his minimalist pop creations. Hear what makes the two labels nodes for experimental sound.