A musical interlude removed from a play, a score cut loose from
choreography or a soundtrack excised from a favourite cartoon: apt
metaphors for this album by Toca Loca, a trio comprised of pianists
Gregory Oh and Halifax’s Simon Docking and percussionist Aiyun
Huang—all share vocals. But it’s the non-vocal compositions (the
eighth, ninth and 10th tracks by composers Quinsin Nachoff, Erik Ross
and Nicole Lizée) that offer the listener structure and clear
reference points. The rest are self-referential, abstraction for its
own sake, and the listener ends up feeling lost, left out or perhaps
not smart enough.
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.
