Peter Cat Recording Co. brings a worrying amount of everything to the Beanfield

If anything can foretell how good a show will be, it's the empty stage of the Beanfield. Covered in a truly surprising amount of instruments for a five-man band, red light glistens off drums, bass, three guitars, and an array of keyboards and wind instruments. Peter Cat Recording Co., a band known for its versatility and wild range of talent, is touring for its new 2024 album BETA and graced the sloped floors of the Beanfield last Friday for its second-ever Canadian performance. 

The best way I’ve found to describe Peter Cat Recording Co.’s sound is as “what the hell music.” You know, bands who you think have dipped their fingers into every single creative pot, just to blow your socks off with the next song you hear. I remember the feeling I got in my gut when I first listened to the band's 2019 album Bismillah;  one minute you’re being led through a calm, down-to-earth sonic jungle, layered in lush synths and strings, like on Vishnu <3. Mere seconds later, on the track Memory Box, you’re thrown into a nearly 8-minute whirlwind of soul-chops and disco-inspired jazz-rock, that I can only describe as music so good it feels like it's from the future. Music that makes you sit up in your seat and say “What the hell? Who are these guys?” The band’s new album, BETA is no different. Described as “a collection of stories about the future told 50 years in the past, to make sense of the present, on our only home, planet Earth”, it totes a wide range of sounds and genres from across the world. These influences seem to cross paths on every track, from the Bollywood-tinted Indian indie single People Never Change, to the jazzy, disco-electronica jam that is Black and White. Peter Cat Recording Co. have been on a 14 year long experimental masterclass bender, and it doesn't seem like they're slowing down anytime soon… lucky us!

Backed by a meditative, dissonant hum that blasted from the Beanfields speakers, the band's 5 members made their way on stage and geared up, launching directly into the previously mentioned People Never Change. With cigarettes in hand, Peter Cat Recording Co. treated us to one of the most impressive displays of musical versatility one can hope for. To match their sporadic sound, the Recording Co. members hopped from instrument to instrument, even trading out lead singers for two separate tracks (the beautiful ballads Foolmuse and I Deny Me.) Between the five of them, I counted 12 individual instruments, and each one got its due respect throughout the setlist. As someone who can play the guitar with intense mediocrity, the relative ease in the band's demeanour while performing this feat is astounding. The line where hard work and passion meet always seems to explode with wonderful music, and Peter Cat Recording Co. are the perfect example of that. 

The infectious creativity of it all was only aided by the Beanfield's truly spectacular lighting setup, giving the show a festival-level production quality. At the end of the day, that's what it was. Between the instrument trading, a veritable grab bag of genres, and the manic changes in energy between songs, Peter Cat Recording Co. puts on so much more than a show. While Coachella inside the Beanfield really sounds like a recipe for disaster, this five-man Indian indie band made it work like tobacco-fueled magic. 

Sam Kitch is the host of the hip-hop extravaganza "I Think You Might Like This" on Tuesdays at 2, and is the editor of the CJLO magazine.