More Maestro videos below Artist Bios ("Drop The Needle"; "Let Your Backbone Slide")
MAESTRO BIO
Wes Williams, internationally known as Maestro Fresh Wes has released 6 albums and received 2 Juno Awards, establishing himself as Canada's best selling Hip Hop artist. His first lp 'Symphony in Effect' came out in 1989 featuring the top 40 hit “Let Your Backbone Slide”. 'Symphony' still remains the best selling Hip Hop album in Canadian music history. As of early 2008, "Let Your Backbone Slide" remained the best-selling Canadian hip hop single of all time, and the only certified gold single in Canadian hip hop history as well as being the first Hip Hop song to premier on Billboards Top 20 Rap Singles Chart.
After the success of his 1991 album, 'The Black Tie Affair' he returned to the Canadian charts in 1998 with the album 'Built To Last' featuring the hit singles "Stick to Your Vision" and "416/905 (T.O. Party Anthem)". In 2006 Maestro again made Canadian hip hop history when he and Rochester AKA Juice joined The Dope Poet Society on stage in Cannes, France. Together, they become the first Canadian hip hop acts ever to showcase at Midem, the world's largest and most influential annual music industry conference.
USS BIO Toronto’s Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (USS) – Ashley Boo-Schultz and Human Kebab have been described as progressive dance folk/campfire After Party. Without going into too much explanation... Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker, lovingly known by those daunted by big words as USS, are musical chameleons. Perhaps chameleon is not the correct term, but rather, the closest in proximity. USS appeal to the masses. If this were a John Hughes film we would be cueing up the snapshots of the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the beauty and the criminal all being equally galvanized by the soothing, yet particularly positive and impactful use of imagery such as 'beats drop like cod fish stocks', while pondering with wonderment the concept of 'the birds singing Fur Elise to me'. Each of them would firmly believe that USS is speaking to them. They would notice people, not of their kind, surrounding them but they would feel that USS is the transmitter and they are the receiver.
The USS show harkens back to an old school, yet neo-vaudevillian atmosphere. Think Nirvana unplugged at a Science Centre Rave. Chuck D and Flavor Flav at a motivational seminar. Bob Marley in a Lab Coat: anything is possible. Their message is delivered melodically with contagious optimism by Ashley Boo-Schultz, creator of all things musical, while the hypeman / turntablist, Human Kebab, elicits dance floor pandemonium and wide scale audience singalongs. Whether dealing with rainy day rec room reverie, psycho-pharmaceutical protocol or the physics of emotional responsibility, Ash's perceptions of existence are painted with randomness and divergence. Only Human Kebab's Ferris Bueller esque disposition could bring such a left field visionary back to a place of accessibility. Here in lies the dualistic beauty of their partnership. Human makes it almost seem normal when the blender comes out on stage and Ash mixes himself up a smoothie mid song, so that he is fit, both mentally and physically, to guide everyone present into their mad scientist laboratory of self transcendence.
This brings us to Hollowpoint Sniper Hyperbole. While making some cash to repay his student loan on an oil pipeline in northern Alberta, Hypeman Human got a call from a friend. The friend, rather excitedly delivered the news that 102.1The Edge in Toronto, Ontario was playing a song (the aforementioned Hollowpoint Sniper Hyperbole) off of their self released EP, Welding the C:/. Human called Ash who was attending a college basketball game in Texas on an emotional pilgrimage. Now what? Neither of them had anticipated this momentous opportunity after their glorious night of bliss (a self financed EP release party at the Gladstone in the heart of Toronto's Parkdale in July of '07) and had gone their separate ways. Hmmm... interesting. Human asks his foreman for a couple of days off, Ash turns the caravan around and heads home. They shoot a video and drop by the station for an interview with ear to the ground dj, Barry Taylor (responsible for getting the song into rotation). Human returns to the tundra, Ash continues his pilgrimage and quickly they realize the runway has been paved and they have taken flight! Hollowpoint enters heavy rotation, out spinning the likes of Coldplay and Radiohead. The band headlines 102.1 The Edge's Next Big Thing concert on May 30th to a record-setting frenzied crowd of over 2000 people and then kicks off the main stage on the station's much coveted festival, Edgefest.
Labels clamor after them; radio across the country jumps on board the single. More and more people subscribe to their theory to "Expect the unexpected". That's the story of how science meets spirit. Bob Marley in a lab coat? Welcome to USS and the soundtrack of possibility.
USS DISCOGRAPHY: 2009 Questamation 2008 Welding the C:/
MAESTRO FRESH WES DISCOGRAPHY: 1988 You Can't Stop Us Now 1989 Symphony in Effect 1991 The Black Tie Affair 1992 Maestro Zone 1994 Naaah, Dis Kid Can't Be From Canada?!! 1998 Built To Last
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