Canadian dance music fans came out of hibernation to revel in an exciting mix of dance music and visual artistry from a refreshingly varied lineup
There’s an emancipated feeling that pumps through Montreal’s balmy summer evenings after its coldest winter in decades. Barely a single park or street isn’t preparing, dismantling or in the flow of some kind of al fresco event; and last weekend it was the turn of Mutek, the adventurous electronic festival now in its 16th year.
Its free outdoor element, in a small downtown green space overlooked by benevolently craning floodlights, could simply never happen in England. Where in the UK it would be awash with nitrous canisters, branding and latent aggression, the hippie-hipster Montrealers massed here are content to have a couple of beers and do some light dancing. The best set on this stage is from Project Pablo, whose recent album on hit Canadian underground label 1080p is a gem. His music can only be described with the phrase “chill jams, bro” spoken in a weed-cured North American accent: yearning chords were played on a chunky DX7 synth, routed through a guitar’s delay pedal, and paired with cheap congas and other lo-fi disco percussion. A Sellotaped cardboard box throwing shade on to his console in the bright sunlight was an appropriately DIY gesture. Other big hitters outside were 1080p labelmates Neu Balance and their murky grooves, Kode9 and Adrian Sherwood shifting the focus away from on-beats and on to skank, and Mathew Jonson, looking like Seth Rogen bathing at an Edwardian seaside resort, playing electro-house where no bassline was too sassy. His set was also a reminder that the best way to make women fall in love with you is to act like a six-year-old boy breakdancer.
Continue reading...by Ben Beaumont-Thomas via Electronic music | The Guardian
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