SINEWAVE bio:

It came out of nowhere - a plain, unmarked CD-R on the shelf at the University of Manitoba radio station UMFM with the simple, handwritten legend SINEWAVE on it, a track listing, and, almost as an afterthought, an e-mail address. Who or what was Sinewave? It seemed almost sacrilege for such pristine sounds to be coming from someone's CD burner.

Sinewave caused an instant sensation with its unique jazzy, smoked out amalgam of drum'n'bass, downtempo, efx and B-movie samples, and the disc was launched into the UMFM top 5, garnering praise from both station DJs and listeners alike. Research revealed that the music was the work of one Mark Wiebe, a producer and musician who is also a guitarist and singer/songwriter in the Winnipeg band Guitaro. And it soon became evident that Sinewave should remain UMFM's little secret no more.

Enter Tim Spurway, a man with a plan - that Sinewave should be exactly the magical kick-start that his newly-founded 2Top Records could use. Mark beefed up his demo with a couple of new tracks, and the result is Interplanetary Ridicule, an album that has been quickly picked up by college stations across the country, causing it to debut at #5 on the electronic charts and #11 overall in Chart Magazine.

Listening to the album, it's difficult to imagine how Sinewave songs are constructed. Samples and beats seem to coexist seamlessly, bringing to mind the whole chicken-or-the-egg question. In this way, Mark is an architect par excellence. His imagination seems to know no limits - what's instantly evident is that the songs come off sounding as much effortless as they do fun to "build". No mean feat, indeed.

Interplanetary ridiculousness has no business sounding so sensible. Its other-worldliness works wonderfully right here on planet Earth. Ridiculous? No, just obvious. And loads of fun, to boot.

Sinewave website

AKUMU bio:

Created primarily as a solo project by Toronto musician Deane Hughes (Thrive, Alchemy), Akumu released a self-titled CD in 2000 featuring shadowy beats and unsettling tones that have been described by reviewers as "darkly passionate" and "beautifully imagined". Akumu has resided in the top ten for six consecutive months on CBC Galaxie's Ambient Lounge digital music channel, and the album reached #1 on the National Campus Radio's Electronic Chart. Akumu's music has been in several film and television programmes and is featured on the Waveform Records compilation CD "Slumberland 2."

On stage, Akumu delivers an electronic barrage of ambience and dark, downtempo rhythms performed by Hughes and collaborator Jeff McMurrich (Deepspace, Infinite Systems). The duo incorporates various sonic manipulations, mouse-clicking and knob twisting to build on selections from Akumu's record with impromptu, experimental creations, producing a bass-heavy, chill-out flow.

Akumu website