BEAT-INDUCED INSOMNIA
Aug 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Elizabeth Mitkos
Read the Remix review of Montreal’s Mutek electronic-music festivals. Musical innovation—from performances to panels—were the themes of the festivals.
A persistent thump vibrated across downtown Montreal for five days in June as 100 international artists performed new strands of techno, experi-minimal and electro-acoustic music at the eighth annual Mutek festival from May 30-June 3.
A record-breaking 13,000 fans ebbed and flowed around five eclectic venues celebrating one of North America's largest showcases of electronic music, primarily in a live format. From the chic Hotel Godin terrace, where 30 daytime performances were Webcast on bandeapart.fm (online until next year's festival) to Live Cinema mixing music and images and the open-air Latin-inspired set by Canadian-Argentinean duo Chic Miniature at Piknic Electronik, Mutek was a think- and groove-fest at its best.
Meanwhile, M-Audio and Roland workshops discussed computer-aided performance, and panelists Richie Hawtin and Toronto-expat Mike Shannon (both living in “techno mecca” Berlin) critiqued DJ demos. “There are so many great producers [in Montreal] with a particular sound,” says Cynosure label head Shannon. “You see that in Argentina too — a specific kind of minimalism that doesn't sound like what the guys in Berlin are doing.”
Hardware won the debate against software at the Ableton Live panel with UK producer Kode9 preferring the hands-on Akai MPC3000 workstation. “I can really give it a good thump,” he said. And Montrealer/Berliner Deadbeat (aka Scott Monteith) saluted the new Korg Zero Live Control Mixer: “They've really hit the nail on the head with this one. It's laid out like a mixer, performs like a mixer and can be used as a MIDI controller.”
Mutek seamlessly moved from downtempo with Monolake (aka Ableton Live co-creator Robert Henke) presenting his live orchestration of FM3's Buddha Machines, to the brilliant laptop micro-house of Chile's Andres Bucci (Pier Bucci's brother), Chicago's Kate Simko as Detalles and Matthew Dear's Michigan-based three-piece band, Big Hands, a daring rock-flavored Canadian debut (if only his filtered vocals were louder).
“We're all hardwired into my PC's brain,” says Dear about his drummer and bassist. “I'm running my voice through a lot of VST plug-ins and choruses, so I really have to focus. It's weird because I'm the front man but have to mess around with machines.”
There are too many mind-blowing acts to mention here, but as Saturday's late-night crowd surrendered to Brazilian DJ Gui Boratto's melodic techno and a darker three-hour DJ set by Kompakt's Michael Mayer, Deadbeat's ideal audience pretty much sums up Mutek: “[It] would be an educated, sound-obsessed group of people who really resent going to sleep.”
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