Album Notes

Review of Leonora Moreno in the Toronto Star, April 26/09 Ben Rayner's reasons to live The Torrent, Leonora Moreno. 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. The Torrent's at the Gladstone on Wednesday night if you fancy a bit of multimedia titillation. *** Bio The Torrent is not named after a download protocol. Mike Barry plays guitar and sings, and Cameron Groves sings, plays violin and deals with the machines. In April 09 The Torrent released two new singles for the Building Blocks Digital Singles Club, to be featured in the fall on a vinyl compilation LP. The same month, debut LP Leonora Moreno came out on the Tetrapod Music label.