A beathead's blunted bus trip through Ottawa's record stores
In 2014, technology-based art collective, Artengine, commissioned Ottawa musicians to craft soundtracks for a few major bus routes in the city. Memetic got the #2, and he began traveling the route doing audio recordings and digging at the plethora of record stores along the way. The result became Rideau2Richmond, initially slotted to be released only as a smartphone app through Artengine. While talking about the project, I suggested to Memetic — a friend and long-term collaborator — that there should be a visual component to the project. I suggested a simple video of the bus route that would run alongside the soundtrack. Memetic agreed, and decided to take it a step further by producing his first vinyl release, effectively bringing the project back full-circle. At this point Rideau2Richmond became a two-person collaboration, with Memetic deeply involved in the visual aesthetic and the direction of the videos itself.
