February

Of course it was on one of the coldest days of the coldest weeks of the year, that's just Winnipeg for you. On a sunny but frigid Sunday afternoon in February, a dozen or so music nerds gathered in a chilly warehouse in the city's West End. With some of the heads still bundled up in their jackets, they pulled out their laptops, their headphones, an MPC 3000 and an Akai SP-1200. After shooting the breeze for a few minutes, exchanging pounds all around and some tales from the night before, it was time to get down to business. Picked randomly from a bag of about fifteen vinyl records, the focus for today would be "Polar AC" by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. All the people in the room are producers, mostly making hip-hop beats but with house music producers mixed in, and some who work in both genres. The occasion for this chilly Sunday convention of heads was Track Meet, the brain child of one Anthony Carvalho, of 3Peat and Fourth Quarter Records.

"It first started about a year ago," Tony says, "Then it was more of just a pass the AUX cord, show us what you're working on type thing." That was at their old spot on Donald Street, in the space shared with Friday Knights Clothing, as well as their joint printing business, Merch by Markit. With Markit having been put out to pasture, and their time on Donald running to a close, Tony decided to do one last event there and chose to revive the community beat making idea. The only twist from 2024's version, where a bunch of producers just showed up with a laptop, a USB, or their phone and just plugged into the sound system to show off their hottest new shit, this time Tony wondered if everyone could use the same record to make a beat on the spot.

Collaborating with DJ Kinetik, aka Brent at Old Gold Vintage Vinyl (himself a producer and prolific crate digger), for the stack of records, Tony was off and running. In January 2025, they managed to squeeze in the first Track Meet at the Donald space before their lease expired. Now without a home, the event has migrated for this installment to the film warehouse that Hayden Mekai's boss operates. Hayden is the driving force behind Window Radio, a Boiler Room type party which also sweatily existed out of the studio on Donald Street. Hayden, graciously playing host on this day, receives joking compliments from the various attendees for the quality fake frosting on the windows of the interior log cabin set that dominates the warehouse's main room, looming over the half a dozen pressed together folding tables for the beat makers' laptops and gear to be set up on.

 Once "Polar AC" has been selected as the record to be sampled today, Tony busies himself Airdropping the preloaded audio files to the various others in the room; only psychedelic boom bap producer Crabskull has to connect his MPC to the turntable and physically sample the album into his machine, dragging on his vape cart for inspiration while waiting. With Freddie Hubbard's trumpet, George Benson's guitar, and Ron Carter's bass, (and strings arranged by Bob James) bleating out the catchy and familiar "People Make the World Go Around" through the PA, some people come up and take a glance at the album cover, while others catch aural glimpses of familiar samples in hip-hop tracks (for some, Rick Ross; for others, the intro to Justin Warfield's "My Field Trip to Planet 9"). Then as the files hit their inbox, the various producers start to get in the zone, from hip-hop/house producer BBS Steve of Ma Bwe (formerly of 3Peat), to weirdo Prairie rap dude Kitz Willman, to Brett of the bands Living Hour and Jaywood, to Hayden and Tony themselves. For a period, the only sounds in the room are Crabskull's rhythmic tapping on his MPC pads and the tinny bleed from each person's headphones.

Slowly, one at a time, after about an hour and a half or so, they start to emerge from their musical cocoons to exclaim, "Yeah, I think that's about as good as that's going to get," or, "I don't know about that beat," belying the obvious talent oozing out of the spacious room faster than the heat seeping under the massive garage door in the east wall. The reverse of a couple hours earlier happens as everyone shunts their exported files back to Tony, who plugs his laptop into the PA system to play the just constructed beats for everyone.

All are more than kind and appreciative of everyone else's work, bigging up and applauding for every track, with more than a few exclamations of "That's fire!" being heard over the pounding bass and drums of the newly minted tracks. BBS, lamenting the lack of vocals to sample on the instrumental jazz record chosen, plays both house and hip-hop beats; Ed Riley calls his beat "janky" despite its clear promise and the short amount of time given. Kitz's beats show off his second musical passion as a hardcore drummer; Hayden and Turbo both pump out some banging house beats; and Crabskull blows away all heads in attendance with his impeccable MPC made stoner boom bap beats, complete with intro and transition ("That shit's a full on beat tape," exclaims BBS). With little more than a check of the time, everyone begins packing up and less than a hundred and twenty seconds later there's only a few people left in the room, everyone rushing home to their presumably warmer abodes, exchanging pounds and daps on the way out the door. "See you at the next one," says Tony.

May

“Heaven above me / Looking down into my eyes”

Balthazar had a long road to get here, myrrh tucked safely in his robes. A journey stretching across two millennia, from the Arabian peninsula, through the oil paints of a 15th century Dutchman, to the tyndall stone halls of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the great magus has looked upon many illustrious sights and heard many fantastic sounds. But until this Mother’s Day in 2025, had he ever heard the smooth dulcet tones of the 1983 Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack ballad “Heaven Above Me”? Maybe. Certainly Balthazar, whether incarnate or in his painted form, had never heard that track sampled and flipped into a banging hip-hop beat. Nevertheless, on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in early May, sun streaming down through a skylight, Balthazar and his fellow magi Melchior and Caspar, through a great glass door at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, were borne witness to the next installment of Track Meet.

After a several month hiatus since the last one in February, Track Meet returned, this time in partnership with Osani Balkaran, Synonym Art Consultation and the WAG, whose ongoing exhibition Threads of Kin and Belonging offers a visual accompaniment just on the other side of the atrium. The biggest difference between this edition and the last one in February, outside of the sixty degree swing in temperature, is the fact that the WAG is a public space, especially on this free Sunday. Whereas in February it was quiet and intimate, with the only people in the room those participating in some way, here in May it is open for the public to pass through, to watch, listen, and ask questions. And they do, with mothers and children, husbands and wives, stopping and asking Tony or Threads of Kin and Belonging co-curator Nestor Wynrush what is happening. Some simply nod their heads and move on to the remainder of the galleries, perhaps to see the Picasso in the adjacent gallery, perhaps to meet Balthazar’s gaze in Jorg Stocker’s “Adoration of the Magi.” But some stop and extend the conversation, wanting to learn more.

Finally, when the ten or so producers have spent around ninety minutes locked in with their headphones on, carefully crafting their beats, a crowd has formed to listen to the finished products and to applaud the artistry that was created in full view. This seems to be the height of the goal of Track Meet, to not only take the producers out of isolation and to have them work separately but together, but to allow the general public be able to take it all in as well, to hear the fruits of fingers tapping away on laptops, MIDI keyboards, and MPC pads. On an exquisite early summer day, enlightened by a brilliant sun streaking through the skylight, with outstanding works of art just on the other side of the cool, smooth, locally quarried tyndall stone walls, Winnipeg showed that its arts and music communities are never far apart. Through the glass doors, Balthazar’s eternal gaze looks on proudly.