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Wooohooo! The 14th installation of one of my favorite electronic creative culture festivals, MUTEK, is starting in two more days. With more than 140 artists, 76 projects, and a record of world premiers (15 world, 16 North American, 4 Canadian), this festival boasts an abundance of music, sights, panels, art, installations, and workshops to keep your weekend packed! Hopefully y’all got to check out the first preview post of artists I’m super excited to see! Part 2 is going to encompass some more artists that aren’t to be missed!
Before I begin, I’mma mention again how crucial and worth it it is to go check out an A/Visions series if you really want a unique experience outside of electronic music creative and digital arts festivals. You get to be in a beaaautiful theatre in the city, sit down, relax, and take in the expression of sound and visuals being intentionally molded together. One can’t exist without the other! The entire show is like one huge art piece. It is awesome. It will expose you to different sounds and different ways of feeling and seeing sound, different ways of feeling and hearing visuals.
ALL the A/Visions are worth checking out. Here are the ones I’m excited for though! A majority of A/Visions descriptions below come from the Mutek site. (Skip to the next page for more music coverage!)
Wednesday May 29th; A/VISIONS 1: Ludger-Duvernay Room at the Monument-National – 8 p.m.
8:00 p.m Dan Browne, Dan Briscoll & Steve Richman (CA)
First up will be Canadian artists DAN BROWNE, DAN DRISCOLL & STEVE RICHMAN, who explore the fleeting nature of human memory in MEMENTO MORI. To do so, they revisit a film comprised of more than 100,000 photographs, captured over the course of a lifetime, and shape it into an extrasensory photo montage presented here in world premiere. This film has been awarded THREE prizes in the last year: Jury Prize, for best Canadian Work – WNDX Festival of Moving Image 2012; First Prize in the experimental category at the Athens International Film and Video Festival 2013; and finally the Deluxe Cinematic Vision Aware at the Images Festival!
8:45 p.m Matthew Herbert (UK) present One Pig
The programme’s second part, a North American premiere, will present British producer MATTHEW HERBERT, who also explores the cycle of life… of a pig, in this instance. The ONE PIG performance mainly revolves around the defining sounds in the life of a pig, from birth, to slaughter, to plate. On stage, Herbert is accompanied by musicians decked out as lab assistants, as well as a chef (of the culinary kind), in order to delve into every facet of a pig’s (after)life. The artistic and political approach to the subject matter is at once visual, sonic and scent-laden, which promises to make for an unforgettable festival experience.
A/VISIONS 2: Ludger-Duvernay Room of the Monument-National – 8 p.m.
8:00 p.m Nils Frahm (DE)
The second A/VISIONS gets started with virtuoso German (Berlin) pianist NILS FRAHM and his three pianos. Showered with praise, this musician and composer is interested in the countless sonic possibilities that define his instrument of choice; he brings together classical music with electronic accents in a frank, effortless way.
Today Nils Frahm works as an accomplished composer and producer from his Berlin-based Durton Studio, where he has worked and collaborated with many contemporaries such as Peter Broderick, Ólafur Arnalds, Anne Müller, Deaf Center, Efterklang and Dustin O’Halloran amongst other fellow musicians. His unconventional approach to an age-old instrument, played contemplatively and intimately, has won him many fans around the world. For a musician this early in his career, Frahm displays an incredibly developed sense of control and restraint in his work, catching the ear of many fans including Thom Yorke, who featured one of Nils’ songs in Radiohead’s HQ office chart. As the recognition continues to grow for his previous solo piano works ‘Wintermusik’ (2009) and ‘The Bells’ (2009), October 2011 saw the release of his most acclaimed album to date: ‘Felt’. ♦
Nils is part of the Erased Tapes Record labels where he works alongside with many incredible artists, Ólafur Arnalds, who he collaborated with to make some of my favorite songs of last year. Check it out below!
Olafur Arnald & Nils Frahm – a2 (Max Cooper Remix)
Nils Frahm – Si (Plasma Ruby Remix)
9:30 p.m Herman Kolgen (CA)
Quebec artist HERMAN KOLGEN, renowned abroad for his digital arts sculptures, invites the public on a sweeping multisensory trip with TRAIN FRAGMENTS. Presented at MUTEK in a new configuration with the Université de Montreal’s SIXTRUM percussion ensemble (a world premiere), the public will witness the meeting of contemporary music and digital creativity, with a live score inspired by Steve Reich’s notoriously difficult string quartet, Different Trains. This performance looks EPIC. Check out Fragments if you want a bit of a teaser to see what this Montréal local has in store for us!
Skip to the next page for more MUTEK coverage!
OOOOK! It’s been a wild ride since my last post for y’all. Since then I’ve trekked through the jungle in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. I saw a puma! Amongst many other creatures as this area of Central America holds 2.5% of the WORLDS biodiversity. How cool.
Went to the incredible Lucidity Festival (one of my faves this year so far!). Hung out in Los Angeles. My 4th time there in the last seven years. I have a new found love for Los Angeles that I’ve never had before. It’s so much better with friends! Checked out Bruno Pronsato at the Monarch in San Francisco. Easily the best soundsystem in the city! Went to my favorite festival (all free!) called How Weird Festival in San Fran. Six blocks in the financial district closed off, tons of soundcamps (many from burning man!)…all the weirdos and crazies havin’ a good time.
So here I finally am, about to embark on another adventure towards Minnesota, then Chicago, then to DC for my homies festival FORWARD FESTIVAL (ALL ELECTRONIC HEADS LOOK INTO THIS FESTIVAL!), back to NYC, and finally back to Montreal just in time to cover this year’s grand MUTEK (electronic music and digital arts) event!
I’mma share a few tracks that I’ve been vibin’ hard on for the last few months. Blessings for this abundance! Sending out my luv and vibrations to y’all. Enjoy and stay tuned for more dope beats!
I have been obsessed with Bondax and this track since it came out a bit over a year ago. Every time I play it for my musically versed friends they’re like, “who is this?!”. Even after a couple of years of a few other singles releasing, they’re still on the downlo. These two youngin’ DJs from the UK know what’s up! The bass drop in this track is soooo sexy and rattles the deepest parts of you. I wish this track was longer. They just did a podcast with XLR8R which will give you a better idea of what they’re all about. Turn this bitch up!
I love this LA-ite hip-hop infusing sexy r’n’b driven shhloooowed down house beat makin’ brother! Shlohmo is the shit and I got the chance to see him at Mutek last year! Check out my other Shlo-posts 🙂 This track is with Jeremih, another rising r’n’b hip-hop star that released the sexy “Fuck U All the Time” last year. These two together are DOOOPE! Turn this up.
Shlohmo – Bo Peep (Do U Right) ft. Jeremih
Disclosure is my new favorite discovery. Another young duo from the UK reppin’ the scene! Catchy and sexy vocalists highlight the already poppin’ bass lines, garage styled post dubstep beats. A tidbit from an incredible article below. Full read recommended:
“The rise of London duo Disclosure is the kind of story that makes music journalists salivate. First off, its two producers are brothers—a relationship which has become increasingly uncommon in the current musical landscape—and, to sweeten the deal, the siblings dropped their first single at the astounding ages of 16 and 18. That was a little less than two years ago, and, since then, Disclosure’s productions, which began as deft pieces of post-dubstep admiration, have blossomed into increasingly robust slices of soul-laden bass music, proving that the artists’ relatively young age is merely a footnote in an impressive trajectory that has ushered in a string of singles, a free EP, and a consistent run of quality remixes.
“We mixed our first single in the car,” says Guy Lawrence (the oldest of the brothers, now 20) in reference to Disclosure’s first official release, “Offline Dexterity” b/w “Streetlight Chronicle,” which came out via !K7’s Moshi Moshi sublabel in the fall of 2010. The songs featured on the single were in fact the first tunes the brothers had crafted together, finding a shared inspiration from the wave of post-dubstep sounds that were defining the London scene at the time. Unsurprisingly, they found particularly potent common ground—as most producers do—in their mutual admiration for Burial’s seminal LPs, which had been released a few years earlier. “We just made that first single for a laugh and put it on MySpace,” explains younger brother Howard, now 17. “It got loads of attention and we just realized we should make some more music together.”
Turns out they’re releasing an album called Settle in the beginning of June! STOKED! Turn this waaaaaaaaaay up! Check out their other tracks on soundcloud as well!
Disclosure – White Noise ft. Aluna George
>>>>>>>UPDATED! Click here to skip to the review of the live show!<<<<<<<
I just got back to Montréal just two months ago after having been away for over a year. Travelling. Journey. Discovering. Learning. I realised recently that I’ve been really out of touch with the indie scene while I was away. One of the artists that I still kept in touch with while I was travelling though, was M83. I got their most recent and long awaited two disc release, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Naive Records, Mute Records) in October of this year. With this recent LP, Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez once again shows us that he’s more than capable making music that go beyond just Listening. His talent of painting musical landscapes that we can touch, see, and feel with his sound is something special that has kept me drawn and interested in his music since his first self titled release in 2001—then with Nicolas Fromageau, who is now in Team Ghost. So when I found out that M83—with openers Active Child—was playing a show here for the last day of the festival M pour Montréal, I knew I had to go.
M83 is a group named after the spiral galaxy Messier 83, formed originally in 2001 by two guys from France, Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau. The latter member left shortly after 2005 with releases of M83 (2001) and Dead Cities, Read Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003) together. Since then, Gonzalez has released equally if not more emotionally charged LPs: Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005), Digital Shades Vol. 1 (2007), Saturdays = Youth (2008), and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (2011).
All of M83’s albums have been consistent in the artistic language that Gonzalez has done so well in presenting to us. They get compared to a lot to bands that have blown up in the past couple of years like Neon Indian, Washed Out, and Memory Tapes who do have qualities that M83 possesses but the comparison is not so justified in my opinion. M83 goes outside the box of having a particular monolithic sound by encompassing and combining chillwave ambience, psychedelic surf pop, shoegaze, minimal electronic, dreamwave, instrumental rock and experential intention with his sound. This intersectionality varies whether all these elements are in just one song or not. It’s clear when you listen to his music. It’s clear when you listen to an album begining to end. He makes albums that flow well, sound good, and has tracks that make you dance (you know, generally what makes an album good, eh). But, it’s more than that. He’s making you a Soundtrack for Life.
Your first cigarette. Your first lover. Your loneliness. Losing a loved one. Heartache. Breaking the rules. The glare of the sun in your eyes. Getting older. The Kiss that never ended. The sand in between your toes. Letting go. Joy. Lessons learned. Thunderstorms. Being Alive. You find yourself in emotional whirlwinds all of a sudden. You stop everything you do and you listen, smell, see, and touch the music. You come out realising all that you’ve been through ’cause the music has brought you this history. Emotionally charged in the sound, the distant cries of his muffled singing, the Naming of the tracks, and the intention behind the pauses, the music has the power to push you into different realities, bad and good. In the end, there is this clear underlying optimism in his music despite all the sad parts. The Positive in the Negative. Each album contains this inevitable evolution. This varied catharticism is what makes M83 so special.
Some tracks that M83 are most known for are their more upbeat danceable tracks like “Kim & Jessie“, “Graveyard Girl“, “Midnight City“, “Don’t Save Us From the Flames“, “Teen Angst“, “Run Into Flowers“, and “Couleurs“. While these are fantastic tracks and I have so many favorites on top of these, I want to share some tracks that have become soundtracks for certain moments of my life.
It will be interesting to see how M83 is live tonight. I no doubt believe that Gonzalez will take us on a journey. For those of you lucky enough to get tickets to the now sold out show, see you there and bon show! Don’t forget to come back for a review of the live show! Thanks to M pour Montréal for having me cover this and especially to Catherine who made this possible.
You can buy M83’s music here!
MP3: M83 – Safe
MP3: M83 – Another Wave from You
Live in Show: M83 & Active Child
It was a beautiful night in Montréal last night in the Latin Quarter, barrio host of M for Montréal and the globally recognized and acclaimed Mutek Festival. Le Monument National was lit up wonderful purple hues, Club Soda got blared its’ lightsin preparation for the M83 after party, and as always, le S.A.T.’s sound system was heard going beyond the walls to the dark rimmed glasses, fancy winter boots, thrifty tops and waves of plaid wearing people smoking outside.
Active Child is a project that recently came into fruition by Pat Grossi, native of New Jersey who now lives in Los Angeles. Accompanied by two more band mates that look surprisingly similar to Grossi himself (or maybe it was just the lights, jaja), Active Child busted out music that reminded me of the 80’s electronic pop sound of Depeche Mode & New Order, the soundtrack nature of M83, the ambiance of Ocuban, the new school style of R’n’B now popularized by Drake and The Weeknd, and Grossi’s voice! (So, all good things. Jejeje). Oh! His voice sounded like the Presets lead vocalist, Julian Hamilton. Oddly enough he doesn’t sound like this in his debut studio LP, You Are All I See (Vagrant Records, 2011). Either way, studio or live, his voice is wonderful, unique, interesting, and cosmic (he used to sing in a choir)! Pat Grossi has an incredible voice that has a transformative range of style which, along with the fact that he plays a mean harp and experiments with synthesizers, enables him to paint soundscapes just as M83 does while keepin’ it slightly sensual with some R’n’B flare.
I had no idea who Active Child was, no idea what kind of music but figured it was worth seeing if they were opening for M83. It was definitely a decision I don’t regret. They impressed the hell out of everyone in that crowd and no doubt prepared us for the journey we were about to take with M83 but dosing us with a cheeky adventure of their own. Fantastic performance!
MP3: Active Child – Playing House
MP3: Active Child – Hanging On
Buy their music here!
Now onto M83. Hoorah! The long wait was over! The lights dimmed and epic synths started our journey into space. The background was lit with tiny lights reppin’ stars that changed colors throughout the show with six or so brightly lit up columns lining the back. The whole set up reminded me of some space portal platform. Beyond the columns, the stars, space, infinity, and the unknown. Ooooooo. The four stood in between us the galaxy. They were going to take us on a cosmic voyage. They were our passageway and as curious, adoring, fundamentally imaginative creatures, and lovers of the dream state M83 is so good at inducing, we acquiesced.
“Intro”, the first track off of their latest album started slowly through the speakers. The synths were prolonged and etched carefully deeper and deeper as the lights began getting more intense. All of a sudden there was this creature. Looked like a human but had a possum rat head! Possum rat hands and eyes and ears! It was alien to us but that was what we signed up for. The adventure begins.
The band came on with full applause. Founder of the group Anthony Gonzalez (center), and his three touring bandmates, INCREDIBLE vocalist/keyboardist Morgan Kibby—who helped in production of Saturdays = Youth and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (right), drummer Loïc Maurin (back), the possibly new bandmate that M83 was searching for a few months back (left), hopped on stage to full and ear deafening applause. You knew with this kind of opening that the rest of the night was going to make history in our memories. What an intro song! What a start! With Gonzalez strutting his dance moves with his back against us arms behind his head, and hoards of people singing along and crying out “Carry on! Carry on!”, it was clear that from the crowd to the band, everyone was In It Together From the Beginning.
M83 never dropped a beat throughout the entire set. The energy was kept high like a good DJ at a club and they were simply unrelenting in their efforts to make us sweat. At one point Gonzalez paused and made a little joke about how was going to err speak English and then laughed and spoke French well ’cause, you know, we all knew he was from France. Jajaja silly man. So, this was the one time that there was a “significant” gap in the tracks. It was a good gap. The crowd loved him more because of his charming humor.
After “Intro”, they went into “Teen Angst” which got the crowd even rowdier with a very nice change up in the climax of the song with some techy beats that reminded me of their musical history in Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. They didn’t play any songs off of M83 or Dead Cities but they paid tribute to them with these kinds of change ups in their more recent songs that they did perform which I really liked. It kept the momentum of the energy high and kept the integrity of their musical evolution.
They go straight into one of their most popular tracks that put Saturdays = Youth solidly on the map, “Kim and Jessie”. Can I just say, THEY KILLED THIS TRACK. It was ridculous how good it was live. Kibby was rockin’ out hardcore Led Zep styles. I was amused and was pulled in by the new bandmate who reminds me a lot of the bandmate that every band has to have or has had at some stage. Curly hair, surfer cali look, not too much emotion on his face like what he’s doing is super serious and there’s no fun in seriosity. But you know he feels the music and the emotion super intensely and he’s about to explode with it ’cause he gets those wide eyes at climatic moments and his body goes into crazy dance offs and guitar offs. You know what I mean? Meanwhile, Anthony had this epic happiness to him on stage.
They always changed up the build up, build down, and climaxes of songs to include that minimal techy Kraftwerk-y Space-y PEWPEWPEWPEW Space gun Tron-like musicality to remind us that we were on an alien space voyage with them. At some points I literally felt like I was at a Rave in Space. Lasers! Stars! Alients! Epileptic strobe lights everywhere! It was so surreal. It was so amazing.
Everyone on stage was having a blast. Dance offs, guitar offs, tamborine offs. Laughs and petite and brief exchanges were made between the bandmates. There wasn’t much conversation with us verbally, but we were very much connected to them the whole time and the room was palpable to this. Their harmonies on every single track was INCREDIBLE. On point. To a tee. I think that’s why everyone walked out of this show unquestionably happy and impressed. The energy from the crowd, the band, to the music was just so explicitly intense. Smiles were on everyone’s faces.
M83 ended the set with “A Guitar and a Heart”, a song true to the instrumental rock influence within their music. After the whole hearted ovation, the band came on and started with “Skin of the Night”. It was epic. And then, the moment came when they played one of my favorite songs and DESTROYED any and all good encores that we’ve seen in the past on our memory’s map.
“Couleurs” came on with a fierceness. The nine minute build up was tantric. They built and built and built and kept us on the edge for the longest possible moment. Everyone is going nuts on stage. Kibby is wilin’ out on the tamborine. The guitarist abandons his keyboard station goes onto the other side and starts banging on an electronic drum kit. The drummer is KILLING it (he reminds me Phil Selway, the mad talented drummer of Radiohead). Gonzalez is on the floor! He runs around! Then all of a sudden the intensity calms down while we’re on the brink of tipping. Gonzalez screams “MONTRÉAL”! We scream back. He screams again, “MONTRÉAL”! WE SCREAM BACK. “Couleurs” comes back in full force after this pause and puts an end to this aural tantric tease. The pace was ridiculously quick and hardcore in the end and pushed the limits like all good encores do. Head banging. Spaces were getting distorted. People crying. Fist pumping. Jaws open. So much love. I’m sure the humidity in the room went up 20% from all our sweat and tears.
This is one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long long time. Definitely one of the best encores I’ve ever seen as well. It would be so hard to top. Their studio albums don’t even compare with their live show…which is awesome and telling of what a great band they are. The best songs of the night for me were “Kim & Jessie” and obviously, “Couleurs“.
I’ve already shared some of their tunes in this post. Click here to be redirected!
Setlist: M83 @ Le S.A.T. (Montréal; 19 11 11)
01 Intro*
02 Teen Angst%
03 Kim & Jessie^
04 Reunion*
05 Year One, One UFO*
06 We Own the Sky
07 Steve McQueen*
08 Wait*
09 This Bright Flash*
10 Claudia Lewis*
11 Midnight City*
12 A Guitar and A Heart%
Encore
13 Skin of the Night^
14 Couleurs^
* Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
^ Saturdays = Youth
% Before the Dawn Heals Us
It sucks they didn’t play anything off Digital Shades which is one of my fave M83 LPs but the selection was great regardless. I think they might have played “Gone” off of Dead Seas leading up to “A Guitar and A Heart” as well, but I’m not completely sure.
Hope you guys enjoyed the show!
Thanks again to M for Montreal and Catherine. 🙂
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!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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!
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