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Leonora Moreno Review: Ben Rayner's Reasons to Live, Toronto Star, April 2009
The first full-length from the dark-witted Toronto duo of Michael Barry and Cameron Groves is a sexy/nasty slab of droning electro-pop sleaze, and my new favourite thing. Imagine Beat Happening, A Place to Bury Strangers and the Neon Judgement doing lots of drugs together in a Hamburg fetish bar and you'll get the gist of this dour gem. Acidic monotone vocals, battering drum-machine beats and a whole lotta art-house style caught in a radioactive glow of sawing violin and over-cranked guitar.
If "Catherine Deneuve" and "Big Fires" don't make you wanna pogo, there's something fundamentally wrong with you, and "The Tunnel" is just freakin' evil.
Blocks Recording Club is distributing Leonora Moreno to record stores - it's No. 000055 in the Blocks Catalog.
Tracks
ep07
Review in Exclaim! by Pras Rajagopalan, October 2008
Twitchy art school dance floor rock is the name of the game for the Torrent, and it’s a game they play rather well. Especially endearing is the knowing smirk with which this Toronto duo deliver their pulsing three-chord punk bursts. Lyrically, gratuitous name checking of cooler-than-thou icons abounds — Giorgio Moroder, Luis Bunuel and, um, Sonny and Cher — but I don’t think this bunch care much about lyrics, which is part of why this is such a fun listen. That the tunes are succinct and infectious definitely helps — the piercing synths of “Pairs,” for example, are sure to inspire many a bout of uncoordinated dance floor revelry. Still, it’s hard not to shake the feeling that these beats are a little neutered on record; I’m sure the Torrent are even more of a French-kissing good time live.
ep07 came out in December 2007 and spent three weeks in the national Top 50.
Cover art by Tara Azzopardi
Read it at the Star site
Read about Blocks releases
1 Unpopular 2:49
2 Musik Machine 4:12
3 Rad Adapter 2:07
4 Catherine Deneuve 1:41
5 Pairs 2:14
6 Half a Man 3:26
7 I Seen the Dog 3:00
8 White Light 3:26
9 Big Fires 3:33
10 I You Me 3:35
11 Hey Stranger 1:22
12 The Tunnel 4:46
lyrics
Read the review at exclaim.ca
© 2010 The Torrent