#hpx2016

“I see you down there, got no time to be shy”,

I looked up at Lady Wray, a diva by any standard. She was surrounded by her music, facing us, most of whom were there to catch a later act. But she just wanted to make everyone feel good regardless of who they were here to see.

“I can dig it”,

Then I realized she was talking directly to me. I guess I hadn’t noticed that the music had me grooving. Usually I just let myself dance but I have often observed a battle in my mind that I am usually hardly even aware of, one that I think most people can relate to. While at a show there is often a struggle to decide how much you want to stand out in the crowd and Lady Wray wanted everyone to stand out as much as possible.

Good vibes beget better ones and I could tell from the smile on Lady Wray’s face and her goofy leopard ears that she only wanted to ramp up the fun as much as possible. Her newest album “Queen Alone” was released this past September and was the source of most of the material for this show. The album explores the ups and downs of entering in and out of the spotlight over the last 18 years. She has featured on tracks with Kid Cudi and The Black Keys. Her raw R&B centered music comes from a church upbringing and her relatable lyrics stem from experience with both fame and normal life. Her story and her music made me think of background singers who have also experienced both a fair share of fame and lack thereof such as Darlene Love, Merry Clayton and Lisa Fischer. The life of a musician is tough because expectations are always set high and the response is often hard to pin down. Lady Wray got me dancing however and I hope to see her strong vocal performance carry her to even greater levels of fame and musicianship.

Lady Wray’s gospel inspired pop blaring from the stacks of festival speakers eventually came to an end but we were left stunned and excited for more music. Another group of seasoned musicians emerged next. CFXU was generally hyped for this act. We had received Daniel Caesar’s album at the radio station two months earlier and were intrigued because of a BadBadNotGood feature on the track listing. Mr. Caesar did not disappoint. He quietly approached the front of the stage with his beady hair like Lil Yachty adorned in a BadBadNotGood t-shirt. With a voice like Frank Ocean and a tight band playing quietly behind him the feels emanating from the stage were somber and elegant. With a grand total of 2 guitars, bass, drums and keyboards the waves of music that rippled off the stage sounded like a lonely walk in the city at night (or more accurately a walk through Trinity Bellwoods park in Toronto). Daniel Caesar is definitely an upcoming Canadian force to be reckoned with and his music is a breath of fresh air that gears away from the vice grip that Drake has on the 6. His music is beautifully minimal and he can nail the falsettos when needed. At first it may have seemed that Daniel would have a hard time filling the space in the Halifax Forum but he got everyone swaying more and more with each song.

The crowd started to grow in numbers, as we got closer to the main act. Eventually Daniel Caesar gave a silent bow and made room for BadBadNotGood. This group of young jazz musicians, whose unique mix of hip-hop inspired jazz, has made it’s way into the music of notable acts such as Tyler the Creator, Danny Brown, Earl Sweatshirt and Ghostface Killah. The band now consists of 4 members as they have now permanently added their friend and brilliant saxophonist Leland Whitty to the lineup. The BadBadNotGood crew are talented, dorky and down-to-earth. Their music hit hard with songs like Confessions Part. II, which on record features the symphonic and slightly terrifying baritone saxophone of Colin Stetson. But Leland was able to pull the crowd in with an equal amount of tension growling through the amps with his tenor sax. The closest thing to a frontman was the drummer who was able to keep up a complicated beat while belting out to the audience with the goal to get everyone hopping and clapping. I never thought I could mosh or headbang to jazz music but I suppose that’s part of why BadBadNotGood is actually so good. Nothing much needs to be said about BadBadNotGood. By my standards (i.e. once you have roadies) these four talented musicians have “made it”. At the end of the show they all came off stage and chatted with some of us concert-goers who stuck around. By the end of this show we were completely exhausted but we had to stay awake for another two hours in order to stick it out for Holy Fuck who were billed to play the Reflections bar at 1:30am.

Let Me In Basia Bulat, Daniel Caesar, and the revelation of the human voice

Basia Bulat opened her show at the Halifax Pop Explosion on a quiet note. She stepped onto the stage alone and, after a smile at the packed room, began gently plucking at her charango as she dove into “It Can’t Be You.”

It was a brave move: Bulat’s headlining set at the Marquee Ballroom found her in front of a chatty, energetic crowd that might not otherwise jive with subtle stripped-down folk songs. And most of the set that followed her opening song reflected this, as Bulat’s three-piece band joined her to give her songs rhythmic substance that many in the audience bopped, swayed, and otherwise danced along to. Bulat’s latest album, Good Advice, provided plenty of fodder for this upbeat tone, and songs like “Infamous” and “In The Name Of”—among the best in her catalogue—sounded better than ever in the context of a full band.

Still, the quiet “It Can’t Be You” was the song that set the tone for the night, and it’s no coincidence that it was the night’s most instrumentally sparse. The song allows Bulat’s voice to exercise its full range of motion, from lilting falsetto to impassioned yelps. Within seconds, heads turned back towards the front of the room and folks who had been chatting at the bar paid all of their attention to the notes floating up towards the chandeliers. It was all her voice.

And what a voice it is: an electric signal floating through the air, a burst of energy ambiguous in its source but joyous in its release, a beacon under foggy blue lights. Bulat’s voice has this effect. It’ll stop you in your tracks and pull at your heartstrings and wash away your cynicism. And she’ll sing to you about the deepest melancholy with determined eyes and a smile on her face.

It was in this early moment of recognition that my mind snaps back two nights, taking up memories from Daniel Caesar’s joyous performance at the Carleton on Thursday and projecting them into my experience of Bulat’s. There was a lot to love about Caesar’s performance, from his incredible band’s willingness to improvise and jam at Caesar’s command to the unbelievable energy that filled the packed venue. Still, as with Bulat’s performance, the clearest memories I have from his show are all connected to his stunning vocal performance.

The room felt as if it was filled with a different gravity, like the rising tone of his voice was pulling our bodies up with it. In my memory, I picture the way he danced with the mic stand and the way his mouth would contort following his voice’s command; I picture his vocal chords making a puppet out of his limbs as they danced across his terraced melodies. All of us in the room—including Caesar himself—were at the mercy of his voice. It felt good to be directed like this, to be held in the embrace of a sound that was so comfortable.

Certainly Bulat and Caesar have stories to tell with their voices and the appeal of their respective works lies in so much more than the tones that they sing. Still, I’d be remiss to see their voices as simply an instrument or a vehicle for lyricism. Yes, the voice can be both of these things, but what Caesar and Bulat showed at Halifax Pop Explosion was bigger than that: this was the human voice as a truly visceral force. I saw the voice as magnet, as an open hand, as a vessel for sexuality. And as I let their voices in, I felt more connected with these musicians than I have in a very long time.