Aleem Khan Played a Weird, Beautiful Mess At Sled Island

All photos courtesy of author

Brothers Kaleem and Aleem Khan of Calgary’s future-soul act Shaani Cage have been busy during Sled Island. They’ve been fortunate enough to play throughout much of the festival alongside acts that are both internationally renown and not so. 19 year-old Aleem Khan, who does much of the production for the duo, has taken it a step further with his own slot in the festival as a solo act that is, sonically, very different from the brother’s collaborative effort.

On Saturday, after I caught their opening performance on the main stage at Olympic Plaza—where Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Ex Hex, King Tuff, Viet Cong, Drive Like Jehu, and Television would later perform—I moseyed my way down to Broken City, early enough to see Aleem setting up on the patio to a sizeable crowd. While the sun was blistering over at the main stage, there was enough shade and beer at the Broken City patio to ease the audience, making the atmosphere quite welcoming.

A drum kit, an array of effects pedals, and a guitar made up the entirety of his setup. While there are a bevy of one-man bands (like Shakey Graves, for example), many of which are acoustic, folk singer-songwriters, Aleem’s was the opposite. After a short soundcheck, Aleem addressed the crowd with an assertive and commanding yawp that brought their attention to him. While Shaani Cage had a more laid-back, mellow stage-presence, Aleem—now the frontman (and only man)—delivered, yet again, the contrary. “There’s gonna be a lot of looping,” he announced, grinning.

As Aleem maneuvered through his first song, an experimental fusion of wall-of-sound fuzz, and non-lyrical moaning built upon layers and layers of looped guitars, vocals, and drums, culminating into a loud “FUCK!” at the end of each second bar, I was drawn in. It wasn’t just the music, it was the palpable energy that he exuded: a youthful, spirited rambunctiousness that was invigorating, and inspiring. “Sorry guys, it’s really weird. This is really weird,” he remarked, placing himself in the audience’s shoes. Even still, the rest of his performance became more approachable as he hummed, crooned, and barked lyrics of girls, yearning, and heartbreak.

Though the crowd was into it, the set wasn’t perfect. A lot of the songs felt disjointed, with some of them ending abruptly or just too soon. At times, emotion would get the better of Aleem as he would knock over a cymbal, hi-hat, or microphone, as if he was possessed. He took these hiccups professionally, and powered through each song as though these things just kind of happen. It didn’t really matter to the audience, and Aleem didn’t seem to care. Everyone was too into it to give a shit. What sold his performance was the fact that each song was improvised. Each adlibbed word that passed through his lips turned into a coherent phrase; each chord, lick, and beat of the drum was on key, on time, and cohesive. It was impressive.

While Shaani Cage considers themselves future-soul, R&B, with their smooth, jazzy instrumentation and cultural sampling, it wouldn’t be fair to place Aleem into the same boat. Aleem’s experimental, lo-fi, fuzz-pop performance is hard to pin down, being that his influences are very diverse. However, at face value, it reminded me of Ty Segall, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and even Liars, while the earnestness of his vocals and some of his guitar work draws from a lot of blues and soul — completely different from the music found on his bandcamp.

After he closed his set to an enthused reception, I recalled a discussion that we had two nights ago. Aleem and I talked about music over some pierogies, sitting on lawn chairs behind his brother’s house. “I can do better because I know can be better,” he said. And he’s right. Being only 19, he has room to grow and to improve. The important thing is that he knows it. It’s his self-awareness that will make a beautiful mess so much better in the future — and make him transcend over all the other bands that are already satisfied with what they’ve accomplished. This, and the fact that the guy knows how to improvise an entire set, left me with high hopes for his upcoming album, which will probably be un-improvised.

Nikki Celis is a journalist based in Calgary, Alberta. — @CelisNikki