MUTEK / Montréal, Canada / June 1-5, 2011

Over the past twelve years MUTEK has become an internationally-recognized electronic music festival and the largest of its kind in Canada. Despite not looking too exciting on paper, this year’s MUTEK exceeded all expectations, offering a diverse array of talent and showcasing more large scale visuals than ever before.



A/Visions has always been one of my favourite parts of the festival as the theatre environment provides an engaging listening experience, free from distraction and the sounds that comes with a bar.

Elektra festival founder and composer Alain Thibault and visual artist Yan Breuleux opened the A/Visions 1 showcase as Purform, performing “Whitebox”, an astonishing, stark and minimal large scale projection with sparse industrial noise. Bristol based producers Emptyset stole the showcase with their heavy Raster-Noton style minimal techno sounds. Similar to Byetone’s “Plastic Star” for its intensity and magnitude, Emptyset scrapes the outerlimits of dubstep while delivering industrial and minimally complex techno grooves, set against a backdrop of visuals that had the two artists morphing up black and white stairwells and brick buildings. Performed in complete blackness with only a small light for his equipment, Finnish experimental electronic artist, Mika Vainio, formerly of Pan Sonic, closed the showcase with an intense industrial textured set using an array of unpleasant sounds tightly woven into subtle evolving rhythms.

A/Visions 1

Purform

Emptyset

For the first time MUTEK had four consecutive nights of showcases at their largest venue, Metropolis. Metropolis is a beautiful old theatre in the heart of downtown Montréal, surrounded by late night poutine restaurants and strip clubs. For a visual of the inside, imagine the Muppet Show theatre without all the chairs on the main floor.

Despite not being a huge fan of Gold Panda, I was pleasantly surprised by his warm melodic performance, which was in contrast to the bass heavy noise set I witnessed at Decibel last year. Unfortunately, most of the audience members were distracted during Gold Panda’s set as everyone was predominantly there to see Ninja Tune legend Amon Tobin deliver the world premiere of his large-scale video installation, “Isam.” When the velvet curtains opened on stage a huge white foam-looking structure of cubes appeared with one larger frosted white box in the middle. Within the box you could see Amon Tobin controlling the performance and waving his arms like he was conducting a theremin. The massive sculpture took over the entire stage and had perfectly executed videos of lasers, rock and stars exploding, space ships shooting through space; it was a multi-layered galaxy of non-stop activity. The overall performance was seamless, yet at times I felt like I was watching an action movie with no plot and was just missing the popcorn. This very masculine spectacle was impressive and well executed, but musically was not something I would want to listen to at home.

Nocturne 1

Gold Panda

Amon Tobin

Afternoons at MUTEK were mostly spent listening to live RA interviews with chief editor, Todd L. Burns. Akufen (aka Marc Leclair) talks about his experiences in Montréal, his different projects and monikers and closes with how he enjoys not knowing how artists make their music; being unable to decode their music is half the magic. To find out more, you can listen here. Also within the same space, various workshops would take place, followed by Live Sessions with Deadbeat and Pezzner.

Live Session 2

Deadbeat

Seth Horvitz opened A/Visions 2 with his “Eight Studies for Automatic Piano.” Performed live without the presence of a human on stage, a single computer controlled piano played minimal repetitive rhythmic compositions. Visually you could see the keys going down on the piano, as if a ghost was playing. Projected behind the piano was a large linear line mimicking the keys, which helped the audience members have a better understanding of what was happening on stage. A new unexpected discovery was Edmonton based artist Comaduster (aka Réal Cardinal) who delivered his world premiere of “Scrape,” a dark glitchy ambient techno exploration with beautiful fluid macro light distortions as visuals. One of the predominant highlights at this year’s festival was Mexican ambient producer Murcof and his collaboration with cutting edge visual label AntiVJ, who projected black minimal geometric shapes and lines on three large translucent screens encompassing the full length of the stage. Murcof and AntiVJ member, Simon Geifus were set-up behind the transparent screens with only the warmth of an orange bulb on them. Together they delivered a three-dimensional organic evolving galaxy that paired perfectly with Murcof’s 2007 album, “Cosmos” for a mesmerizing and visceral experience that was beyond exceptional, resulting in one of the strongest showcases of the festival.

A/Visions 2

Seth Horvitz

Comaduster

Murcof + AntiVj

Following A/Visions, Nocturne 2 took place at Metropolis. Within the theatre there’s a small intimate side room called the Savoy. After attending MUTEK for several years now, the Savoy room has become known for having the best dance parties. Toronto based producer, Arthur Oskan owned the Savoy and made me proud to be from Toronto that night. After recently receiving praise from Resident Advisor for his recent Thoughtless release, “A Little More Than Everything,” Oskan was the first to get everyone moving on the dancefloor to his brilliantly rhythmic clean Detroit inspired minimal techno. His gradual set evolution was seamless and provided the festival with some of the finest quality techno. If you haven’t heard of him, now you have and make sure to keep your ears open for him. It’s Oskan’s time to shine. Montréal based producer, Mateo Murphy has been part of the tech-house scene for fifteen years and provided a very clean mechanical techno set that had the room banging, but unfortunately he seemed to miss that human touch. Chicago born Billy Dalessandro has appeared on such labels as, Force Inc. and Resopal and managed to keep the room dancing with his own unique brand of warm basey techno funk.

Nocturne 2 - Savoy

Arthur Oskan

Mateo Murphy

Billy Dalessandro

In the main room, I managed to only catch the last ten minutes of Anstam’s North American premiere. From what I heard, I was glad to have spent most of my time in the Savoy room, but through word of mouth heard he challenged ears and took his industrial dubstep into some unusual avenues. Modeselektor is Modeselektor, if you have seen them once, then you know what to expect. Upon first impression their maximum high-energy party beats are totally infectious and always offer amusement, but after seeing them several times over the years, their live performance has unfortunately become predictable.

Nocturne 2

Anstam

Modeselektor

The following day began with another RA interview, with the fascinating and hilarious Adam X (aka Traversable Wormhole). This interview ended up being one of the most entertaining highlights of the day. He comes across as a militant Jersey thug of a guy with his thick accent, but his articulate historical knowledge on the early developmental years in New York regarding the electronic scene is incredibly interesting. His delivery and story telling will keep you engaged and laughing and definitely offered a unique perspective to a time most people weren’t prominent for.

Live Exchange

Todd Burns interviewing Adam X

Every day beside the SAT, MUTEK offered a free outdoor showcase called Expérience. Incapable of attending everything at the festival, I mostly missed out on these avant-garde performances representing everything from emerging turntablists to electronic soundscapes and funky dubstep.

Expérience 3

Hissy Fit

A/Visions 3 unfortunately moved from the quiet theatre venue to the Society of Arts and Technology (SAT), making the overall experience less engaging and more about socializing. I love how MUTEK brings international travelers together that all share the same passion for music and how every year these friendships grow stronger within this environment, but unfortunately this attention was averted away from observing the complete showcase. Women With Kitchen Appliances is a performance art, sound collective that dressed up in 50’s stereo-typical housewife uniforms with the full-length yellow dishwashing gloves and cleaning smocks. Performing in a robotic manner, the women mocked the notion of a woman’s roll in the kitchen and became an extension of the kitchen appliances they were operating. The sounds from all the machines paired with their robotic gestures made for a unique performance that spoke more about politics and humor versus it being musical. For the music junkie, New York based composer, Tristan Perich has created his “1-Bit Symphony,” a small single microchip immersed into one CD case. For his performance he played his entire five movements from the chip. Similar to the Buddha Machine for its unique packaging you can order this noteworthy fetish object here. British visual arts duo Sculpture, closed the showcase with their haphazard combination of old school analogue sounds, sampling tape loops and custom live turntable visuals. The visuals were made from various handmade zoetropic painted LP’s that would circulate underneath a small camera, creating a psychedelic kaleidoscope projection on the surrounding walls, ultimately being another unusual and successful surprise.

A/Visions 3

Women With Kitchen Appliances

Sculpture

Vancouver based Techno pioneer, Tomas Jirku performed at MUTEK in 2000. Now he returns, performing all new material including releases from basic_sounds netlabel. His Detroit inspired dub infused techno set had the room dancing to his polished eclectic flavours and remixes for an overall deep and darkly entangled groove. From there it was time to catch the last thirty-minutes of Deepchord Presents Echospace’s deeply immersive dub induced techno in the main room. Delivering a more base heavy set than expected, they had the audience worked up into a dancing frenzy. Everyone loves Plastikman apparently, except for me. Being one of the more celebrated artists at this years MUTEK, I’m surprised someone can ride the fame-train for as long as he has, delivering the same material he did fifteen years ago. People saw it as a nostalgic trip into the past, but I saw it as just old, as he hasn’t created anything lately to pay homage to his prolific reputation. Needless to say it was a stylized over-the-top spectacle that inspired 99% of his audience members. Unfortunately, it was apparent that most of the audience was there for Plastikman, as Traversable Wormhole went on last and only had half the crowd. His heavy raw rhythmic techno set was brilliant and full of energy.

Nocturne 3


Tomas Jirku / live set

Deepchord Presents Echospace

Plastikman

Traversable Wormhole

Piknic Electronik’s are always held on the weekend of the festival at Parc Jean Drapeau under Alexander Calder's, Expo ‘67 statue "Man." Unfortunately the weather hasn’t always cooperated in previous years but this year, luck was on our side. Piknic 1 was unbelievable. It was the perfect day of celebrating and dancing with friends to superb music. Seattle based producer Pezzner owned the smaller Guru sponsored side stage with his live mix of percussive themed tech-house tracks that organically evolved and kept everyone grooving. Montréal based duo, Footprintz are a live vocal synth-pop band similar to the sounds of the Junior Boys for its melodic nostalgia and accessible indie warmth. On the main stage, London based producer, Floating Points delivered the best in funky soulful disco-house, which had everyone smiling and dancing in the afternoon sun. Terry Lee Brown Jr. closed the park with some deeper throbbing intricate house numbers. A seamless set for an idyllic day.

Piknic 1

Pezzner

Footprintz

Floating Points

Terry Lee Brown Jr.

Next it was the free Design_Mix event at the SAT. Modern dub producer, Deadbeat (aka Scott Monteith) and video artist, Lillevan opened the showcase and provided a superb collaboration or rolling immersive dub techno rhythms against the backdrop of Lillevan’s black and white blurred fluid landscapes. Defunct ~scape label owner, Pole delivered a superb intricate dub techno set that pushed the outer limits of dub in to full on hysteria. I’ve always been a fan, but his recent set was unbelievable. Let’s pray that MUTEK puts his set out as a podcast. South American artist, Chancha Via Circuito closed the showcase with an eclectic ethnic sampling of world sounds that reminded me of M.I.A. for his heavy handed beats and pacing. I wasn’t a huge fan, but was also in no hurry to leave after hearing from several different music friends that Four Tet’s improvised dark set was losing his audience at Metropolis.

Designer_Mix

Deadbeat with Lillevan

Pole

After Chancha Via Circuito, I headed to Metropolis only to discover one of the best surprises of the festival, live electronic Austrian band, Elektro Guzzi who ended up becoming one the highlights of the festival and had everyone talking. The trio performed tightly woven live techno compositions, with impeccable drumming and tasteful gradual builds. Think Radian, but even more full on. Border Community label owner, James Holden delivered a superbly crafted transitional set of progressive house and artful trance for an epic journey that only skillful DJs can maintain for so many hours.

Nocturne 4

Elecktro Guzzi

James Holden

After running around crazy trying to see everything the festival has to offer, we decided to take the afternoon off to lounge at Laika, an amazing brunch place on the Plateau that acts as MUTEK headquarters, when it comes to bumping in to other festival goers.

The final Sunday night Nocturne, started off with Montréal based artist, Marc Leclair known primarily for his alias Akufen. Performing under his Horror Inc. moniker, Marc stole the show with his superb deep and dark micro-house, if I could have changed anything about the night, I would have had him go on last. Next was Japanese techno producer, Radiq (aka Yoshihiro Hanno) delivering his North American premiere of clean crisp percussive techno stompers intertwined with some jazzy snippets that had everyone moving. Still rooted in delivering his known jazz traits, Cobblestone Jazz member, Danuel Tate performed a solo free form modern jazz set that incorporated quirky vocoder vocals with raw melodies and house percussive sounds. Live-electronic trio, Wareika closed the showcase with their Canadian premiere of tribal, world influenced deep house sounds. The collective started off strong with some of their deep live percussive rhythms but unfortunately turned into a cheesy pop world music band that at one time I even compared to tacky and troubled Canadian reggae musician, Snow for his song “Informer.” The vocals unfortunately didn’t do the band any justice and began to isolate some of their audience. MUTEK unfortunately didn’t end on a high note, but this is also what I admire about the festival. The curators are willing to take chances with presenting new artists to an educated electronic audience.

Nocturne 5

Horror Inc.

Radiq

Danuel Tate

Wareika

MUTEK 2011 proved to be another overwhelming successful year, delivering yet another eclectic taste of the finest electronic artists from around the globe and raising its attendance by 50%. In the early years of attending the festival, I would always walk away with new knowledge on performers, and this year MUTEK managed to provide this even for the most well-informed music geeks. Elecktro Guzzi, Emptyset, Comadoser, and Radiq were all new mind-blowing introductions for me. Despite not being as excited as previous years when the artists were initially announced online, MUTEK continues to be a cutting-edge and forward thinking electronic and media arts festival that inspires artists to reach new boundaries and offers the best sampling of so many multi-faceted musicians, making it a distinct and essential treasure that caters to all tastes.