Hearing Urban Indigeneity in Canada: Self-Determination, Community Formation, and Kinaesthetic Listening with A Tribe Called Red

Abstract

At Babylon on Ottawa' s Bank Street, the dark dance floor grows progressively more humid, filled with the sweaty bodies of old and new friends, men and women, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. As their bodies respond to the aggressive beats blaring through the loudspeakers, the group becomes a euphoric mob that to an observer sitting in the booths along the side wall could seem like a coordinated effort, but from the dance floor itself, the group exhibits individual kinaesthetic expression of their shared physical and auditory pleasure. Aboriginal singing with high-register Northern-style vocables emanate from loudspeakers and inspire cheers from the crowd, and the sound of powwow drums intensifies the movements and calls forth more dancers from the sidelines. It' s Electric Pow Wow night, and A Tribe Called Red (ATCR) is on stage. At 10 pm on Saturday nights when Babylon' s doors open, Bank Street is mostly dead, except for the line of people eager to enter; as the night goes on, the line will grow and the club will be packed. 1 Electric Pow Wow occurs each month on the second Saturday, regardless of ATCR' s attendance. A busy touring schedule frequently has the group out of town.ATCR is an Ottawa-based DJ collective that is most known for developing "powwow step," a genre that blends samples of powwow drumming and singing with dubstep, a genre of electronic dance music featuring syncopated percussion, distorted sounds, and sub bass that resonates in the body due to its very low frequencies. The members of ATCR are talented Aboriginal musicians whose sonic signature attempts Alexa Woloshyn holds a PhD from the University of Toronto and is a visiting researcher at the Institute for Canadian Music. Her research focuses on mediating technologies in electroacoustic music, Aboriginal avant-garde and dance music, and contemporary vocal music.

A Tribe Called Red’s Halluci Nation: Sonifying Embodied Global Allegiances, Decolonization, And Indigenous Activism

“…They began hosting a monthly club night at Ottawa's Babylon club, a night they called "Electric Pow Wow." It has been argued elsewhere that A Tribe Called Red's music and the Electric Pow Wow night extend many aspects of the traditional powwow to the club setting (Woloshyn 2015). Electric Pow Wow night became an important place for celebrating cultural self-determination while existing within a nation that has sought and still seeks to erase Indigenous cultures and communities.…”