BYT Abroad: MUTEK Festival in Montreal

June 9, 2008 by Ed Dudes  Send to a Friend

Remember the heated controversy dear Chris Burns sparked with his review of the Justice show at 9:30 earlier this year? Well, after a quick jaunt to Montreal for MUTEK, the controversy is finally resolved. Justice’s stage show was the joke Chris accused it of being. Read on to find out why.

The picture above is a snapshot of Modeselektor’s performance on Friday, May 30 at Metropolis in Montreal. Notice how epic it looks. It was. Modeselektor, the two guys stage left, not only played most of their music live with an array of laptops, sequencers, and midi controllers, but they also brought along their friend, PFADFINDEREI, along to work his video dj magic whilst Modeselektor played. What took place during their set was typical of what took place at both Nocturne events at MUTEK–amazing exploitation of electronics to create mind-blowing visuals and audio. What’s more; they did it LIVE.

See where we’re going here?

MUTEK Overview

MUTEK is an experimental electronic music festival based in Montreal. Started in 2000, MUTEK has made a name for itself as a place to see both mainstream electronic acts and the most bleeding edge electronic music experiments. The festival this year had a number of events ranging from workshops hosted by Ableton to dubstep picnics to all-night parties. For the purposes of this review, we will take a look at the two largest events–Nocturne 3 and 4.

Nocturne 3

Nocturne 3 focused on “beats, mashes, and remixes.” Following that theme, it started with Montreal’s own turntablist, Kid Koala, in the main room and minimal DJ, Dave Aju, in the Savoy. Kid Koala put on a decent set that got the crowd warmed up as well as a turntablist can be expected too, but judging from the line out the door of the Savoy room to get in and dance, the crowd was obviously more interested in techno than DJ trickery. In Koala’s defense, he delivered a set that had much less to do with backpack rap than the connotations the term “turntablist” conjures up. The highlight of the set, for those not interested in chopped up Stone’s Throw b-sides, really were the couple rock songs he did scratching in vocals, guitar lines, and effects over instrumentals with four turntables, essentially creating his own new song in the process.

Next up in the main room was another Canadian wonder, Megasoid. Megasoid, for the uninitiated, is best known for throwing impromptu parties under overpasses, in alleys, and in abandoned warehouses in Canada. The boys often put the word out that there is a party, pull up their van filled with speakers, electronics, and a generator, and throw the best parties you will probably never attend.

With their DIY ideals in the back of my head as I tried to imagine their set at MUTEK, my expectations for their show were relatively low. It is quite hard to replicate the raw energy of 1000 people at an illegal rave, but Megasoid brought their A game. When their set started, gone were the nerdy and interesting, but ultimately boring, cameras pointed at the tables of Kid Koala, replaced with dizzyingly-patterned, live-created visuals. The music was a weird mashed-up, electronic but strangely urban-tinged sound, in the vein of Ghislain Poirier or Sinden. The music was clearly played live on midi controllers with some pre-sequenced parts, mostly for rhythm parts, and it got the crowd bouncing.

After Megasoid, it was time for Modeselektor. Modeselektor plainly stole the show Friday night. As mentioned above, they not only played music, but they also brought along PFADFINDEREI and his two laptops and three video monitors to provide a visual performance to match the aural onslaught. Rather than bore you with my ravings, I’ll simply say that they were much, much better than I expected. Beginning with a sound similar to that of Megasoid, their set developed into a techno-tinged dancefest of epic proportions. Songs seemed to go on forever, unfolding and enveloping the party hungry crowd. It was simply awe inspiring. Don’t believe me? Watch the video:

Closing out the night in the main room was Knifehandchop, whose set was an extreme letdown after Modeselektor’s performance. Alone on the stage, Knifehandchop pointed and clicked his way through an Ableton set with enthusiasm, but, without any headphones, midi controllers, or even a mouse, it was hardly an exciting set to watch. We didn’t bother to watch much or photograph his set to commemorate the unmemorable event.

Nocturne 4

Nocturne 4 was supposed to be the real deal. Aside from Modeselektor, Nocturne 3 was a spectacle, but hardly an EXPERIENCE. Heading into Nocturne 4 with the prospect of seeing Quiet Village’s first North American performance, the Field perform with a live band, and a three-hour Radioslave set running until 6AM, we knew Saturday was likely to really make or break our MUTEK experience. It did, but in surprising ways.

The night started at 12, two hours later than Nocturne 3 the night before, with the North American debut performance of Quiet Village. Rekids owner and tech-house phenom Matt Edwards, better known as Radioslave, and his partner, Joel Martin, started the Savoy room the second night with a surprisingly straightforward presentation of their music. The two sat behind a desk with laptops and mice; presumably adjusting and changing their music on the fly. As far as I could tell, though, the music sounded essentially as it did on their STELLAR album. To distract, err, entertain the crowd, two projectors were set up and run in tandem on the stage. These projectors ran video Quiet Village synced up to the music. Most of the footage seemed to be from weird 70s pornos and b-movies. It was decently entertaining. It was also somewhat disappointing. People sat down, indian-style, and watched the visuals from the floor. Fucking hippies.

After we got bored with Quiet Village, we went into the main room and caught the tail end of Chloe to get in a good spot for the Field. I did not know much about Chloe going into the night, but from the portion of their set I saw, I was impressed. Laptop and a dude + another dude with a midi drum pad = live produced techno jams. Their fluid rhythm lines really made the music come alive giving warmth to the often cold sounds of European, vs. say Detroit, techno.

And then, it was time for the Field. Going into the night, I was unsure what to expect from a live performance by the Field. While I really enjoyed the album, “From Here We Go Sublime,” it seemed designed more for home listening than for fueling a wild party. No matter what, I knew the performance would be engaging. Axel Willner, better known as The Field, has often explained his production and performance style as a completely organic live event. Often glitches and stutters become integral parts of the song, as is apparent if one listens closely to last year’s “From Here We Go Sublime.” More importantly, for the first time ever in North America, Axel was touring with two accomplices. The Field, for Nocturne 4, was a band.

Anyway, as soon as they started, I learned my fears of being lulled to sleep by shoegazey IDM were unfounded. With Axel stationed at the helm in charge of what looked like a mixing board with some sequencers and samplers, he and his cohorts created looping, techy-dance music. His companions alternated instruments song to song playing drums, bass, and synths as the songs required. Furthermore, the stage show was A M A Z I N G. We thought we had see all the capabilities of the already impressive stage setup the night before with Modeselektor’s set, but we were WRONG. There were lasers in the freaking ceiling. LASERS IN THE CEILING. When they cut on, it looked like Battlestar Galactica, IRL. Check the second video below to see what I mean (though dear Youtube made the damn video blurry and the freaking lasers less defined).

After seeing the spectacle that was the Field’s set, I was entirely prepared to be let down for the rest of the night. Instead, we wondered back to the Savoy room into a balearic, dubby beach house party courtesy of DJ Olive. Before MUTEK, I had never really heard of the guy, but apparently he is an old improvisational ambient DJ. He skipped the ambient vibe this night in lieu of a most necessary and welcome diversion. He played the sounds of the summer. If you haven’t noticed, this is the summer of the return of Balearic-tinged meandering dance vibes. See: Quiet Village, Smith & Mudd, etc. Olive provided the techno-influenced equivalent to the more discoy stuff one normally equates with this style music. Think equal parts Francois K at Deep Space and Daniele Baldelli at Baia Degli Angeli. Cooler still, Olive seemed to be producing it all on the fly with a computer for the programming and a turntable for scratching in effects records and such.

Finally, after sneaking out to grab some delicious late night Montrealian pizza–no greasy Jumbo Slice here–it was time for Radioslave. Matt Edward’s second set of the night, proved to be much more engaging than the first. Quiet Village has its time and place, but at 3AM nothing works to keep a crowd moving like some throbbing tech-house. Unfortunately, his set, while technically impressive, felt uninspired. The problem, it seemed, was the fact that throughout the night the focus had really been on loose, organic electronic dance music, whereas Radioslave’s tech-house is as buttoned up and controlled as it gets. So, while people happily danced to Radioslave’s set, it didn’t feel like the night cap it should have been.

Overall

Despite some scheduling mishaps (Carl Craig was originally slated to be headliner of Nocturne 4, which would have been infinitely more fitting), MUTEK from what we experienced was well worth the journey north. As discussed in the introduction, MUTEK proved to me what an electronic performance SHOULD BE. For $30 a night, MUTEK attendees got to see a plethora of internationally-known DJs and electronic artists pushing the boundaries of electronic media both visually and aurally. Electronic music doesn’t have to be grating, heavily distorted electro-rock to avoid being bland, pulsating techno. More importantly, techno is not a dirty word. MUTEK proved this time and time again over the course of the weekend.

For more pictures, check Rachel King’s flickr. Most of the pictures and video seen here are her fault.

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