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Last night instead of going to Mutek, I made my way to an equally important art scene in Montréal, the beat makin’ scene that ARTBEAT does so well to represent. This was the first official Artbeat show I was able to make (hosted by SevDee & Mark The Magnanimous). My mind was blown by the creativity and mad love shown by the beat builders up on stage…each sharing five minutes of their hard work in rotation. Crossing genre boundaries with no hesitation, the artists reminded me of tunes you’d hear from Shlohmo, Salva, B. Bravo, Flying Lotus, J Dilla…8-Bit, grimey bass lines, awesomely bizarre transitions and a mad infusion of hip-hop…oh! Don’t forget the FUNK! Oh yeah Artbeat you have my heart and I’m going to do my best to spread the word. What I love about hip-hop events like these is the international crowd and the mad love everyone has for hip-hop, beats, and mixin’ up the genres! Truly good music. Love. Check out their website! Check out the artists and their soundclouds posted below! ALSO! Artbeat has a radio show EVERY Saturday at 17h on 89.3FM or go online to listen or download their podcasts! Like them on Facebook!
Taken from their website:
Artbeat Montréal builds strategies geared towards the promulgation of Art within the provincial territory of Quebec and abroad. It’s Mission is to offer a platform for the Beat Builder to expand his or her knowledge of Sound, Music and Culture along with the production of distinct, refined and preeminent events dedicated to professionals, as well as enthusiasts.
ARTBEAT will set itself as the cornerstone in the establishment of a superior quality and new variety of Artistic Works, principally by Beat Builders from all genres and styles of music, which in turn, will promote cultural enrichment, as well as political, educational, economic, social and spiritual advancement.
ARTBEAT MONTREAL events unite the finest and most innovative Beat Builders, DJs, Singers and Emcees, as well as movers and shakers of the entertainment industry under one roof for a unique and uplifting experience of Sound and Light.
The BEAT BUILDER is the “Human Being possessing the ability of producing a rhythmic or harmonic arrangement or sequence with the use of new devices, beyond the limits or confines of technology, with the purpose of transmitting a specific message”
We understand that we are all related to Harmony by Blood and that we know Rhythm by heart.
ARTBEAT MONTREAL is presented by the Sovereign Prerogative Live Creations.
The artists of last night and their soundclouds:
Teknition aka Vincent Pryce (MurderFace/Mook-Life)
Nik Brxvkn (NBNBNB)
Griot (Akabeat)
Waahli (Nomadic Massive/Wyzah Musk)
Special Guest : Shash’U (Silence D’Or/Its Gotta Be…) back from France!
Phil Sparkz (Booty Bakery/MIMS) on the decks
wow it’s been a long time since my last update. there are so many good tunes i want to share and have been meaning to make a mixtape but for now…some tunes that will definitely keep you warm and lift your soul in the winter. these are tracks that i’ve been repeating NONSTOP for the past little while. some MONTREAL representation too with JACQUES GREENE. watch out for him, he is going to be big. he’s already done remixes of radiohead and the weeknd which are super dope. NEON INDIAN‘s new LP is a fantastic listen, though not as good as their first. APPARAT as always is on point and the track i featured from him is off his new LP Devil’s Walk which is very dark, moody, yet spiritually uplifting despite the depressed tones throughout his production. worth listening to though. NEW LOOK, another up and coming CANADIAN group from Hamilton (who woulda thought?!) are making some great pop tunes. MIGUEL CAMPBELL‘s track “something special” is one of the tracks that DEFINED burning man for me. it was dropped when everyone had not eaten, slept, or stopped dancing in over 36 hours at least. toronto’s ART DEPARTMENT through this track down and it lifted us up high…high high high up. campbell is off the HOT CREATIONS label. he’s gon be massive. truth. lastly, i threw in the most wonderful TENSNAKE remix of little dragon‘s CRUCIAL and probably one of the most remixed tracks of the year, “ritual union”. enjoy.
mp3: Jacques Greene – Another Girl
mp3: Miguel Campbell – Something Special
Mp3: New Look – Janet
MP3: Neon Indian – Polish Girl
MP3: Apparat – Goodbye
MP3: Little Dragon – Ritual Union (Tensnake Remix)
what an epic epic weekend. meg montréal had an incredible lineup, especially for the boat. osheaga had a disturbingly amazing lineup which made this horribly organised festival all the more worth while. so yeah, before i talk about the music, i wanna talk about the osheaga festival.
what mainly pissed me off was this whole “green stage” thing…why not have a GREEN FESTIVAL?!?! oooooh, one stage! ONE! raw/vegan/vegetarian green food stand! great way to really show how committed one is to the enviro movement. what is even WORSE is the amount of trash left lying around because we had to walk minutes just to get to a garbage can. the state of the grass and grounds around the toilettes was horrendous as the one picnic table became a dumpster! and that fountain that was nearby that was spritzing water…for what purpose!?!?! to cool people off, sure, but running it at that level for the entire two days is the biggest waste of water ever. why not have a water fountain that people can USE to REFILL our water bottles?!?! instead of charging 5$ for people to buy new ones. we have such good LOCAL food and produce, good LOCAL vendors here yet none of it was represented in the midst of the digustingly expensive hot dogs at la fleur, beers at budweiser, and even fresh fruit, chips, and water at the smaller vendors.
the only good thing about osheaga outside of it’s incredible lineup this year is the fact that you were allowed to bring in your own food and water. so my friend and i made delicious salmon arugula and baby tomato salad along with egg sandwiches and saved ourselves from unhappy stomachs and wallets. yes the music is important but, ultimately it is the experience as well, and at 75 bucks or 150 for both days, it isn’t less affordable when you have to spend more than 30 bucks each day on little food or drink to sustain yourself. 5 dollars for a hot dog?!?! voyons donc c’mon! though osheaga isn’t as large or as aged as coachella or bonnaroo, the food there is filling and well proportioned, there are good options for all types of diets, and NOTHING was at least 10 dollars like it is at osheaga. the corps and sponsors rent out the space only to make more money by ripping us off. fuck dis shit! as snoop dogg would say.
i look forward to the day when osheaga will continue to have good music, be true to their environmental initiatives, and support local independent quebec food and produce!
but, enough of the ranting! overall, the weekend was faaaantastic for great music and dancing. so, recap of meg boat and osheaga weekend after the jump!
ok folks, am off to osheaga and am already late! this is gon be super quick! so yesterday was the biggest night for meg, boasting a ridiculous lineup with holy ghost, in flagranti, and the well popular french scratch djs, birdy nam nam. club soda was the perfect venue for it despite some minor sound issues, small enough to have a cozy dance party (except for the horrible frenchies who were taking up too much space, were too drunk and literally, literaally fell on top of each other and disturbed everyone in the back), and large enough so we didn’t end up killing each other.
holy ghost! the rising duo from brooklyn started off the night and i was excited to hear them live, especially some of their songs off their recently released Static on the Wire EP. it was…a disappointing performance. the live instrumentals were fantastic, the beats rocked but the vocals were just incomparable to their studio recordings and brought down the level of the show quite a bit. maybe it was a bad day? not sure. but hopefully the rest of their tour with chromeo will be fantastic. i share with you my fave off their new EP!
mp3: Holy Ghost! – I Know I Hear
next up was in flagranti! sasha crnobrnja and alex gloor roam the scenes between new york and europe. their most recent album released in 2009, brash and vulgar, is exactly that. unforts i didn’t stick around long enough to hear their entire set because it wasn’t very good at all…sticking more to a dj mash up style as opposed to playing more of their actual songs, i just wasn’t pulled in whatsoever.
mp3: In Flagranti – I Can Thrill & Delight
finally! the parisien group birdy nam nam comes on stage and ROCK THAT SHIT! the floor was insane with stompers, ground pushers, and head bangers. i felt like their set was the black keys and the rapture and hard rockers kiss all blended into one and then spit out into this crazy electronic tight set, scratch, remixed, and replayed. they are a club band. they are a dance band. and they know how to throw a party. but other than that, musically, it’s not too special. their turntable skills are fantastic, and the one thing i really have to complain about with club soda is that with djs, esp scratch djs, you need to show their hands on the screen! but no one could see what they were doing, so it took a lot of emotion out of their set…and as a friend of mine said, it was seeing like life of a monotonous society. and it was exactly that. there isn’t necessarily rhythm like something that juan maclean can pull off with a tee, it’s just super technical and super tight. but, there’s nothing wrong with that either. such a good night, such a fucking good show. and when “abssesses” came on, well. the already torn off roof blew onto pluto. they played for 2 HOURS! how fucking cool is that!?!? please check them out nowwwww!
so, lots of things have happened since my last serious post. the montréal jazz fest. tons of shows in between. lots more coming up! i’ve got die antwoord (YESSSSSSSSSS!) tomors, meg montréal and osheaga are coming up, and i am once again heading off to new york for a week and along the way i will be checking out flaming lips in central park! annnnnd the hard tour in nyc which features m.i.a. and a bunch of crazy fun other artists! i will mos defs be covering meg montréal but i dunno about the rest.
oh fiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally! this mixtape has been soooo long due. like for real. the original playlist for this was made probably two months ago but obviously since then i’ve been hearing a lot of new artists so the playlist is now what it is. i had to put this out before it got too crazy. there are 40 tracks so unfortunately, like last time, i had to convert all the songs to a lower bit rate just to save space and upload it to mediafire…the mp3′s that i offer are of their original quality (very good) but within the mixtape it is all converted.
this mixtape is amazing. not gonna lie. unforts i couldn’t fit ALL the new stuff like lcd soundsystem, ratatat, etc etc but managed to put some amazing tracks from new albums released by m.i.a., crystal castles…and more. there is everything in here from minimal, techno, hip-hop, rap, house, haaaaaaaaaaauss, d’n'b, experimental to psychedelic, soft-pop, israeli goodness, and xyz genre jajaja.
it’s come to my realisation that for those of you who use itunes, the playlist doesn’t quite work and you’d have to renumber them manually just so the tracks play in their proper order…maybe some of you do this, maybe some of you don’t (because you use players like mediamonkey (woohoo!) or songbird (woohoo!))…but i DO encourage you guys to listen to my mixtapes IN ORDER. most of my time spent making them is well, doing the write up, but most importantly, is picking and choosing what goes in the mixtape and how to fit it in…if it isn’t played in order, well i could just pick a bunch of songs i like and zip it up and let it be that. but that’s no fun and so impersonal. i put a lot of love and effort into these mixtapes so i hope that you guys get to hear it the way it’s supposed to be heard! soooo…enough rambling, let’s dance! playlist after the jump!
p.s. happy belated to a special mr. taha!
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Download: ATM’s Mixtape – Summer and Sangria
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Hi all, I am going to do a super super condensed post because I am now in New York. Anyways, went to the Piknik yesterday to see Minilogue and DJ Koze who rocked the shit out of the island, even in the rain. Ah. That’s what I love about Montreal, rain, snow, or shine, we never lose our fight to party and to dance. Oh ye.
BUT, easily the best the show of the FESTIVAL was Ben Frost. Mon dieeeeeeeeeeuu. From what I recognized, he didn’t play very much from his most recent album By The Throat. His songs were at least 20 minutes long filled with lulling drones and layers of nature and wildlife…whales crying and wind blowing through the forests…I sat down and closed my eyes and his set took me places…it ended so quikly I felt. His show was the subconscious awakening, vibrating inbetween the walls of our skin and the walls we were encased in…so intense, surreal, and wonderful all at the same time. This man is incredible. I share with you two amazing tracks from said album!
I hope you all had a great time at Mutek like I did!
MP3: Ben Frost – Leo Needs A New Pair Of Shoes
MP3: Ben Frost – Through The Mouth Of Your Eye
Took a break on Thursday and came back for the Nocturne series, boasting the Canadian Premiere of many artists such as Actress, Jacek Sienkiewicz, Demdike Stare as well as the Bug’s Kevin Martin a.k.a. King Midas Sound, Ikonika and many others. Tonight was going to be a night of techno and dubstep. Two genres that are normally never put together but this is Mutek! Variety is key. The night was going to be filled with dancing, staring, and holding our hearts because the bass might just rip it out…I was very, very excited.
I haven’t been to Mutek the previous years, but this year it is mainly focused on very lo-fi, minimal, experimental, and IDM type of music. Walking into the venue, I realised that it is not like most electronic music venues. Mutek is being held for the most part at Monument National, which is a huge venue that hosts many mini rooms that I imagine are more meant for orchestras, small theatre, plays, etc etc. I walked into the room and sat amongst everyone else, excited and curious. The huge screen was perfect for the quality of the visuals and the room, for the insulation of the music. I thought to myself after the show today, why don’t we have more of this?!?! We go to films, plays, theatre, and we sit down and we watch, we feel, we experience. We go to shows and we stand, we dance, we chat, we drink, we feel, we experience. Mutek, or at least the A/Visions showcases, combine the best of both. Sitting down comfortably disengaged with a good view and a good ear for all that’s in front. But combined with the music and the visuals, we completely become re-engaged…tripping out on our sensory neurons which are, at least for me, just going crazy!
I mean, most lo-fi, minimal, noise, IDM, and so on do usually have intense visuals because well, otherwise we’d get really bored, fall asleep, or really not get it. However, of the shows I have seen within these genres, they have been in conventional electronic music venues: standing, shitty sound, shitty sight, uncomfortable heat. I propose that all chill out, lounge, ambient, and so forth genres be held at Monument National. Seeing Air there instead of Métropolis would have been so much better. I can only imagine what it would be like seeing Flying Lotus or Fuck Buttons there. Tonight, Mutek has more than ever reiterated the importance of melding visual art together with sound, how integral they really are to each other, especially within these music genres because the creativity is just a different kind when compared with house, jazz, pop, indie, hip-hop, and how the way we experience music can go beyond just the regular…as these artists being showcased throughout the 4 day festival no doubt do.
After the jump for recap, music, and videos!
OSHEAGA 2010 will be happening July 31-August 1st in Montréal. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. For the first time in years the lineup is WORTH going to despite horrible organisation due to it’s newness.
This lineup is freakin’ awesome.
Weekend passes in advance for $120. Late birds pay more. Check out the website for more details!
See you there! 
