Top five acts to check out at Wavelength Summer Music & Arts Festival 2019

Wavelength Music recently announced that AfrotroniX will perform at their annual Summer Music & Arts Festival on August 17 & 18, 2019 at stackt market, 28 Bathurst St.

The forward-thinking producer flaunts various production styles that he’s acquired over the years. Dubstep, house, reggae and EDM, are fused with Mbalakh rumba and sai on Nomadix, making the latest release from Afrotronix a virtual journey around some parts of the world. The Chadian-born, Montreal-based artist known for singing in Sara, the language from his country Chad, mixes mandingo music from west Africa with Tuareg blues from the Sahara and present it in an electronic futurist package.

We pulled together a list of our top five acts to check out at this year’s festival. These are in no particular order.

• Montreal punk-rock collective Red Mass will create a live experience you shouldn’t miss. The project expanded and features more than a hundred collaborators.
• Art D’Ecco is an unapologetic, inclusive rock and roll mystic in a wig and lipstick. He writes a catchy song too.
• Tallies blends elements of shoegaze, dream pop, and surf rock into a beautiful cocktail.
• Hailing from Hull, Quebec, Fet.Nat creates an off-kilter mix of punk, free jazz, and noise punctuated by nihilistic franglais poetics.
• Toronto / New York duo Anthems of the Void bring effects-heavy soundscapes and loungy vocals.

Joining Wavelength’s latest release of musical names is Toronto-based music industry executive and writer Ian Steaman, who has been announced as this year’s guest curator. Over the course of his career, Ian has worked with many genre and culture-defining artists from De La Soul, Queen Latifah, House of Pain and Naughty by Nature to T-Pain, Too Short, Kelis, Big Boi of Outkast, and Lil B’s first group, The Pack. Most recently he has overseen artist programming and bookings for CBC Music’s First Play Live sessions series and runs the pioneering music blog, DIFFERENT KITCHEN. He is also currently in development on an hour-long television drama set in the world of the Toronto hip-hop industry.

“Wavelength has a long history of being on the cutting edge of music discovery and promotion, curating live events featuring some of the best new progressive, alternative, experimental and underground music out,” says Steaman. “I’ve had a similar passion for doing the same throughout my career and was honored to be asked to come on board to share that passion as guest curator of their artistic and educational programming. As music, live and recorded, continues to evolve and grow, I look forward to bringing my vision for where it’s headed in the future to Wavelength’s programming over the next 12 months.”

While the main music and comedy stages (comedians and artists to be announced July 30) will be inside the weather-protected and air-conditioned Belgian Moon Brewery, there will be plenty of art and activities around the market. Easily accessible by transit, bicycle or on foot, Wavelength 2019 will be a hidden oasis of music, art and community within Toronto’s newest creativity hub.

MAIN STAGE LINE-UP

Saturday, August 17th
Milk & Bone – 11pm
Cadence Weapon – 9:30pm
Art D’Ecco – 8:30pm
Sydanie – 7:30pm
Hua Li – 6:30pm
L.A. Foster – 5:30pm

Sunday, August 18th
AfrotroniX – 11pm
Yonatan Gat – 9:30pm
Fet.Nat – 8:30pm
Tallies – 7:30pm
Red Mass – 6:30pm
Anthems of the Void – 5:30pm

Doors open at 5 p.m. each day (Saturday, August 17 & Sunday, August 18) with a curfew at Midnight. Attendees must be 19+ and have a Festival wristband to enter the main stage venue space. Full details are available at wavelengthmusic.ca.