TUSH In Toronto

November 22, 2025

Photographed by Tiana Smith (@digitalteee)

Written by Anu Makinde (@anuuu.oluwa)

The red glow of a Thursday evening held the double release party of Phédre and TUSH on November 20th at Standard Time housed on 165 Geary Avenue. This cozy venue with an incredible sound system was the perfect place to host an event that reminds you what powers electronic music is the people who love it and show up for it.

The ambience of the night began with a set by ME TIME, a dj who read the crowd’s energy and was supported by VJ almondiq’s live liquid and glitchy visuals. Already in an otherworldly atmosphere, the pulsing, undulating music created a warm context for great conversation, a lively crowd and an even livelier dancefloor. Accompanied by food, drinks, and a craft corner where people could glue together printed words into new sentences, this event truly thought of something for everyone.

Celebrating the release of two albums, Liquid Constancy by Phédre and Heavy Weather by TUSH, both are experimental forays into the landscape of electronic sounds that speak to the weight of collaboration in music making which pushes against oppressive infrastructures and opts for expressive freedom.

Phédre is an electronic duo comprised of Daniel Lee and apé Aliermo based in Tkaronto/Toronto who’s mutli-machine performance of the night brought heavy bass to a full, vibrant and energetic crowd. Their mix of club, techno, breakbeat and jungle blended various patterns and wove together the variety of the crowd into a bouncy energy on the dance floor. It displayed the exact ability of electronic music to relate to a place and bring forward thinking sounds for an audience to react to. 

Kamilah Apong notes this a “spiritual relationship between time and space” explored by her and Jamie Kidd’s electrifying house and disco duo TUSH. Speaking to them about their relationship to land they told me that while in Nova Scotia they “sampled rocks and nature sounds” to “capture [the] environment they’re in and assist with creativity”. Their performance realized this transcendent relationship in the reverberating melodies that looped with live instruments and multiple machines so that the crowd felt light enough to lose themselves in the alternative space created. 

As electronic music is increasingly commodified, this night showed that what pushes this music forward is the people. The double release party spoke to this ethos, not centering a specific headliner but instead recognizing how each person involved was essential to the night itself.

TUSH

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