The “mu” in Mutek stands for mutation and this 9th edition of the
internationally renowned Montreal festival seems to have metamorphosed
the most. Still a spectacularly orchestrated five-day program featuring
more than 50 performances — half of which were Canadian or North
American premieres ‚ the festival branched out from its staunch minimal
techno focus to include a diverse range of dubstep and glitch-hop,
including the playful festival debut of Montreal turntablist Kid Koala.
“I was under the impression Mutek was going to be this super-experimental, high-brow, chin-scratching event, but turns out it’s a big party with [hardcore dub artists like] Modeselector playing,” says Eric San, a.k.a. Kid Koala. The Ninja Tune artist tested material from a rock-inspired turntable project called The Slew early Friday night at the Metropolis, where the weekend traditionally steps up to more dance floor-oriented grooves.
Montreal’s Megasoid (comprised of down-tempo producer Sixtoo and Wolf Parade’s Hadji Bakara) then stormed the LED-striped and dotted stage with distorted break beats, hip-hop, and ragga tracks. More heavy doses of hip-hop followed with Bpitch Control’s Modeselector hammering out dancehall remixes and finally some jacking techno that satisfied the heads swimming between the main and side rooms, where Berlin-based duo Half Hawaii’s house wasn’t quite quenching the thirst for the minimal that’s expected from Mutek. But once the technical set-up was smoothed over for Toronto-expat Jeremy P. Caulfield closing the cozy, carpeted room, minimal made its way into the program at last to nods of approval and bopping two-steps.
When rain on Saturday pushed Piknic Electronik inside the lofty Société des Arts Technologiques venue, pummeling bass intended for reverberating on Île Ste-Hélène (similar to Toronto’s Promise Cherry Beach gatherings) took on an intriguing dark vibe indoors with throbbing, mind-blowing six-stack sub woofers. The showcase of original dub and “new bass” included one of Montreal’s up-and-coming dubstep producers Komodo playing the didgeridoo live, followed by the afternoon’s highlight: L.A. producer-of-the-moment and Warp artist Flying Lotus deftly mixing fuzzy, organic percussion and bass.
“Gear is just a tool… the emotional and personal expression in music is what matters,” says Flying Lotus (the great-nephew of the late jazz star Alice Coltrane), who rocked his gadget-free, stripped down laptop performance. “In 10 years will [music] still be musical, or all tricks?” After he genuinely thanked the cheering crowd, London, England’s Kode 9 and the dubtronic MC The Space Ape took the grooving group into deeper bass and funky dubstep experimentation layered with distorted vocals.
Techno tempos returned by Saturday night with Toronto’s Noah Pred carefully and fluidly performing his brand of IDM (intelligent dance music) from a year’s worth of work on his digital label Thoughtless Music. “It’s great to see the festival evolve and plugging into different communities all within the scope of digital music and media,” says Pred. “I try to bring what I learned through DJing into a live set in terms of creating flow and continuity. I think sometimes that gets lost when live acts are playing their tracks and not necessarily giving thought to reading the room.”
The room was without a doubt captivated by Parisian DJ/producer Chloé’s beautiful rhythmic builds, softly distorted acoustic elements and live vocal touches. Then Mutek veteran Mossa rocked the room with an exclusive performance featuring live drumming magic from Montreal Jazz Festival favourite Thierry Arsenault, while, disappointingly, Radio Slave, a.k.a. Matt Edwards, didn’t appear in the side room for the presentation of his side project, Quiet Village. Instead, a puzzled pack (trailed by a long line to get inside) mulled over the presentation of Edwards and ex-film editor Joel Martin’s recent album Silent Movie, played to matching soft porn and retro Italian film clips. Forgivably, it still fit the festival’s blurred genres and experimentation with format.
The use of guitars stole the show Saturday night with blissed-out techno from Swedish Kompakt artist Axel Willner’s three-piece band The Field (whose breaks between songs — typical of a live band performance — was a welcomed variation in the electronic setting), and French producer Danton Eeprom performing his Canadian debut, crossing over rock acoustics and warehouse beats rooted in Detroit techno origins. Radio Slave showed up to close the main stage with rave and — gasp! — trance tendencies, energetically taking a devoted dance floor well into the morning.
Sunday rain didn’t stop organizers and festival fans from persisting with Piknic Electronik 2 on the island, where text messages from techno heads among a good-sized crowd braving the chilly weather reported on ones to watch Onur Özer and Mathias Kaden, “straight-up banging techno, finally!”