For the 11th installement of Montreal’s MUTEK festival I thought i’d hook you up with my pre-festival picks.
Last year was a real eye opener for me because historically Mutek hasn’t always been my cup of tea (there was a little too much focus on minimal tech). Not that I didn’t appreciate and loved what they did, there just wasn’t a ton of artists that I liked on the roster. I thought last year was an oustanding balance of legends like Theo Parrish, Moritz Von Oswald and Pepe Bradock but also new comers to the festval like Actress, Ikonika, Demdike Stare, King Midas Sound, etc…
At first glance, the roster is very promising once again but this year the highlights for me are a little bit more focused on the new than the old, although there are some pioneers like Plastikman in this years’ edition… Floating Points and Falty DL are of course names that if you like the same kind of stuff that I do jump out at you. Here are my 10 pre-festival picks
- Amon Tobin – One of our dopest adopted Montrealers! A long time fave of mine.
- Hype Williams – Lo-fi space dub pop. Eager to see what the Hype is all about.
- Floating Points – 2nd Montreal visit and first Mutek for this young dude. He got next!
- Echochord – I’m a sucker for that Deep Dub Techno. Part of an absolute killer night.
- Four Tet – Dude keeps getting better and better.
- SiriusMo & Modeselektor – Zie Germans are in town with that electro-techno ish!
- Wareika – Canadian premiere of the dudes from Denmark. Apparently a great live show.
- Plastikman – (By far) the most accomplished techno artist from Canada.
- Falty DL – Easily one of my favorite producers of the past 2-3 years.
- Danuel Tate – Part of the awesome Cobblestone Jazz collective. Love his solo stuff too…
For the Piknic Electronik / Mutek portion of things of course we’re all keeping our fingers crossed that the weather plays nice this year.
As always the Mutek programmers do a good job of showcasing Montreal producers and artists too. These are the artists from here I will be looking forward to check out.
- Kenlo – Quite simply my favorite producer from Quebec. He’s turning heads worldwide.
- Dj Brace – I haven’t known the work of this turntablist/producer for long but i’m impressed!
- Skinny Bones – Big up to one of my favorite dudes in the city! Leon from the ESL Crew
- Bowly – Another ESL Crew member, Bowly has lots of positive momentum right now!
- Recife – I’ve head very good things of them…
- Poirier – Who is this guy again… Oh yeah! The globetrotting ambassador of MTL Bass
- Hissy Fit – He’s been pumping out some super dope new school Garage.
- Jacques Greene – Big Big Things are happening for one of our favorite dudes right now.
- Gulf Stream – I performed with them a few weeks ago and was really impressed.
- Komodo – One of the nicest dudes and arguably one of the dopest “live” dub shows you’ll see…
Once again the festival does a good job in moving away from its minimal focused identity it had in the early years. To use an expression I love, they are “working the angles”…
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