Aural Diptych Series #3: Millimetrik / Elika

Released: July 15th, 2010
Order: http://thisquietarmy.com/records/#tqa015

Double-split 3" CDR placed on a heavy stock folded & printed insert, packaged in a delicated ivory white Artoz envelope, with printed artwork by New York City-based artist Elayne Safir. It includes two sets of diptych photography by Montreal-based artist Meryem Yildiz. Also for the first time, this releases comes with a digital download code, appropriate for the current ipod-age and the inability to read 3" via sliding CD slots. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES ONLY.

ADS03 features returning artists from our roster: NYC-based electro-dreampop duo Elika and Quebec City's lo-fi electro-dub ambassador Millimetrik aka Pascal Asselin, also known as one-half of LCBO - both of which have released their first EPs on TQA(r) back in '06 & '07 respectively.

Both discs from both artists strictly features remixes of some of their best tracks by renowned names in the ambient, electronic & shoegaze scene: Auburn Lull, Engineers, Sug(r)cane, Absent Without Leave, Project Skyward, The Invisible Kid and thisquietarmy (x 3).

The release was made available for Elika's performance at the OFF festival in Quebec City, July 15th 2010, curated by Pascal's label Chat Blanc Records. Don't you love how everything is so incestuous?

Disc 1: Millimetrik / Music by Pascal Asselin.

1. On the road to Kula [Auburn Lull Rmx] / 2. Outhouse/I wish you will never leave [Sugrcane Rmx] / 3. On the road to Kula [Thisquietarmy Rmx] / 4. Les artefacts du futur [Absent Without Leave Rmx]

Disc 2: Elika / Music by Brian Wenckebach & Eva Maravelias.

1. Death & avalanches [Engineers Rmx] / 2. Let down [Thisquietarmy Rmx] / 3. Nowhere [Project Skyward Rmx] / 4. You win hearts [The Invisible Kid Rmx] / Bonus Track - digital download only : 5. Nowhere [Thisquietarmy Rmx]

Preview it on Bandcamp:

Buy on TQA Records or Bandcamp.

QRD guitarist interview

58 questions about guitars & related. Pretty geeky actually, and some questions were just so random that I couldn't answer them seriously...

First reviews of Meridians 12" vinyl w/ Scott Cortez

Fluid Radio:


Textura:


Norman Records:

Montreal-Quebec City-Trois Rivières-Montreal (June 8-10-11-12) recap

I played my first Suoni Per Il Popolo gig at Casa del Popolo with Grouper. I played well enough. Dave Bryant from Godspeed was doing my sound and it sounded real powerful. On a local message board, he gave me huge props: "i think it was an insult that TQA was slotted first in the lineup. people should be losing their shit for this dude."


Not much to say actually about the other shows, just momentary good times. The first thing we did when we got to Quebec City was to unload the gear at the venue, ditch the cars and buy some booze. We drank in the streets all afternoon. The show was pretty good for me... I'm always attracting black metal fans in Quebec City.

Montreal at Katacombes was another story... the show kept getting delayed and I was playing last, ended hitting the stage at 2:40am. Everyone was drunk, included myself, and the sound was pretty bad. There was this guy who came on the stage and unfolded a huge flag of a shark. Then he sat down on stage and started pounding for the rest of the set... by 3:00am, I had just about enough, and the soundman was probably about to pull the plug, so I ended up doing that myself.

Monarch played again the next day at the LFH, as their powerviolence project called Rainbow of Death. They were excellent, and it was quite an astonishing contrast to see them play a 12-minutes hypercharged set after seeing their slow droney doom set half a dozen of times. We were sad to see them leave St-Henri a couple of days later.


The church show in Trois-Rivières was very special... The performers were in the middle of the dome, with 6 speakers around them. Mattresses were placed on the floors so that people could sit or lay down. It was quite a success, a lot of people attended. Even neighbors and regular church go-ers. One old lady came to hug me after my set, she must've been over 70 years old, said I played music of angels.

Toronto + Guelph shows (June 5-6) recap

I should've updated this a long ago, but... laziness got in the way.

First, just wanted to say that it was fun meeting and hanging out with the guys & girl from Monarch! It wasn't the greatest tour on earth but we had a blast with our entourage at every show and for the whole two weeks that they were in town...

Despite not playing the Toronto show, I had fun getting acquainted with everyone there for the first time. The show got moved to a house on Dupont. There was about 50 people smoking and drinking in front of the house, and we just hung out there until it got dark. We got booze at the LCBO. The police drove by the house before any band had started playing, but funnily enough they just said to get off the sidewalk and they drove off... !! Then I started to realize that it was almost 10pm by then, and no bands had played yet --- the show was supposed to be over at 11pm, which is why there wasn't any room for me to play anymore. I learned that the house people paid off the neighbors so that they wouldn't call the police (whaaaa---?) so that the show could go on much later than planned. Turns out the trick worked as Monarch started to set up around midnight and by the time they played, it was 1:30am and everything was fine! No complaints or anything. If they had thought of that before or whatever, then... why couldn't I & the other bands have played? We still don't have an answer.

We drank until late, even tried to get some food with everyone but we ended up losing the pack with the guy leading us to the burrito place (I managed to get one the next day, killer burritos in Kensington Market!) because a bunch of us bumped into this guy in the street who apparently drove from Philadelphia to catch Monarch... and he had a trunk full of beers! He gave each of us a can before he went back to the U.S. Then it started pouring. So we got back to the house and ordered some pizza for the rest of us. It was also great to meet some people that still came to the show and buy some tqa merch off me to help me out with gas money despite the cancellation. That was really appreciated.


The Guelph show the next day wasn't a great situation either, show-wise. Apparently two events were happening next to each other on a sunday evening, and they somehow decided to merge both of them together, making it an 8 bands bill! When we got there, none of the Guelph local bands wanted to start playing because they were... local. Reverse logic, anyone? So they pleaded me to start... even though my friends from the area were coming to see me and they hadn't arrived yet. In their defense, it was 6:30pm. Whatever. It took a lot of convincing but I was being a too good sport and started playing half an hour later... Surprisingly, all the kids that were at the venue came close and got into it. I don't think anyone had heard of me before either. You can imagine how atrocious it was to get through 6-7 bands afterwards... Most of them were just horrible and we had to make fun of them. But then it just got really long and we were all falling asleep. The pay wasn't worth it either... but still, good times.



Part 2 w/ Monarch! in Quebec City & Montreal later...
+ about the Suoni Per Il Popolo & the Church show in Trois-Rivières...