Drake Underground, Toronto ON, May 8 � CMWReviews � exclaim.ca

Toronto scene stalwarts DIANA played their first of two Canadian Music Week shows last night thatfind the band deconstructing and reimagining their own music. This one featured slowed down,drawn out and improvised versions of their songs, while tonight (May 9) the band plans to rearrangetheir catalogue into a house music set. While this first show produced mixed results, it's admirablefor performers to take risks like these in public, and most missteps were countered by thecaptivating energy of live creation.

As artists who feel equally comfortable playing jazz as they do electro-tinged pop, DIANA'simprovisations veered more toward ambient jams with atmospheric vamps in the background. Ontheir opener, "Perpetual Surrender," one of the standout tracks on record, the band stretched thesong to nearly ten minutes and brought out its familiar hook like a meditational chant. The wholenight was accompanied by visuals of hands playing with food products, from ramen noodle packagesto (on the more grotesque side) hamburger meat. It was oddly fitting, and, like the show as a whole,it worked.

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