Blue Hawaii

Comfort Zone, Toronto ON, June 13

BY Jazz MonroePublished Jun 14, 2013

8
Raph Standell-Preston began her second set of the night (check our Braids review here) by requesting that the audience don their dancing shoes. Receiving an amply enthusiastic response she led by example, pumping and pogoing frenetically. If you can imagine Alice Glass being released from six hours' solitary confinement, you might be close. "I know it's a cliché but you only live once and all of us are going to die," Standell-Preston posited cheerfully. "So live how you want! Death is a really powerful thing." The show that followed was sleek and spectacular, packed with vibe-heavy house interpretations of excellent LP Untogether.

Perhaps the music made by AGOR and Standell-Preston, a visibly happy couple, is too close-to-home to perform straight. It seems more likely they're simply in their element among flying limbs. Even AGOR pulls the odd shape, his flourishes reminiscent of the master tennis player whose sharp technique is second nature. Communicating mostly in primal yelps and ear-reaching grins, Standell-Preston led the set onward into the night, wilder moments evoking an exotic bird sanctuary pumped with aphrodisiac gases. A worthy performance to conclude a reliably impressive showcase from Arbutus Records.

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