Golden Lion Todmorden
Annie-Claude Deschênes
- Montréal post-punk icon, performance artist and 2026 Juno Award nominee Annie-Claude Deschênes comes to Todmorden.
- For more than two decades, Montréal’s Annie-Claude Deschênes has been a formidable presence in the Canadian underground as the frontwoman of Duchess Says and PyPy – bands renowned not only for their music, but for their exhilarating, unpredictable live performances.Now she steps out alone.
- Annie-Claude’s solo project takes the energy and experimental instinct of her previous work somewhere altogether stranger: a dark, hypnotic collision of minimal synth, post-punk, coldwave, electronic music and performance art.
- Her debut solo album, Les Manières de Table, has one of our favourite origin stories for a record.
- It started in the cutlery drawer.Experimenting at home, Annie-Claude began recording the sounds of everyday objects – spoons spinning inside glasses, forks and knives striking aluminium plates – and using them to construct rhythms. From those clattering beginnings emerged an album that takes the rituals, rules and conventions of eating and turns them into something playful, unsettling, futuristic and extremely danceable.
- Musically, she draws on everything from Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder to Steve Reich, combining minimal electronics and infectious rhythms with a distinctly dystopian edge.
- The Guardian named Annie-Claude “One to Watch”, describing Les Manières de Table as “darkly seductive electro-pop”. The album went on to be longlisted for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize, while her subsequent single Main de Fer has earned her a 2026 Juno Award nomination for Underground Dance Single of the Year.But recordings only tell half the story.
- Annie-Claude is a multidisciplinary artist for whom music, visual art, theatre and performance have always collided. She has spent her career deliberately dismantling the usual relationship between performer, stage and audience – which means standing politely at the back may not necessarily save you.
- With Duchess Says and PyPy she built a reputation for electrifying live shows, touring internationally and appearing at festivals including Primavera, Eurockéennes de Belfort, OSHEAGA and Sled Island.
- Along the way she has shared stages with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Hives, Buzzcocks, Black Lips, Hot Snakes and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, while her performances haven’t always been confined to conventional venues. Factories, churches and even golf courses have all become stages.
- Her solo work takes that same restless creativity and turns it inward. There is still the urgency and unpredictability that has characterised her work for years, but this time it sits alongside something more introspective, vulnerable and strangely beautiful.
- She has described Les Manières de Table as perhaps the most punk thing she has ever made – precisely because she created it without expectations about whether anyone else would ever hear it.
- For Fans Of: Kraftwerk, DAF, minimal synth, coldwave, post-punk, strange electronics, performance art
She created an absolute storm at Great Escape Festival and is supporting Angine de Poitrine on their US tour.
C Douglas
C Douglas makes synth pop fun pop guitar pop sad pop. Melodious pop music with vulnerability at its core. His songs – which begin as acoustic, bedroom demos take the shape of our times during the production process: re-imagined for a contemporary setting, a mixture of guitars, synthesisers,
bass and drum machines take centre stage. Big choruses are never far away and with a focus on simplicity, each lyric and hook becomes instantly recognisable.
Originally from Todmorden in West Yorkshire, C Douglas now spends most of his time in Paris. His debut EP – 75019 – was produced by Steve Cobby of Fila Brazillia and then released on the record label Golden Lion Sounds. The release received strong support with numerous plays on 6 Music, selection of the week at Piccadilly Records and words of praise from James Holroyd – the
Chemical Brothers tour DJ.
C Douglas has recorded with a number of music producers including Mark Gardener of RIDE, Damon Minchella of Ocean Colour Scene and Nathan Saoudi of Fat White Family. His former band – THE GOA EXPRESS – worked under Rough Trade Management and were signed to Communion Records and Ra Ra Rok. C Douglas has toured and played shows across the UK,
Europe and America, including slots at Glastonbury, Primavera and SXSW.
The new project shows C Douglas’ artistic venture into new musical territories, transitioning from bold indie guitar rock to a more sincere and vulnerable form of melodious pop music.
“C Douglas offers up a light hearted but thoughtfully penned EP that shimmers like a spring morning and
unfurls joyously. Clever arrangements, inspired songwriting and an easy to digest palette means this’ll find
favour right across the field.” Piccadilly Records Manchester“Impossibly brilliant slice of uplifting heaven which brightens up a grey day in a dark world. A stunning piece of what pop music should sound like.’ James Holroyd – the Chemical Brothers Tour DJ
Several singles from the EP have been played on BBC Radio 6 Music, receiving praise from producers such as Giles Peterson and Nathan Shepherd.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DMsCAbZthwQ/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ6wAZAjTd3/
- God is in the TV
- The Indie Scene
https://www.theindiescene.co.uk/interviews/c-douglas
https://www.theindiescene.co.uk/ep-reviews/c-douglas-75019
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