[Deadbeat and Sophie Trudeau at Cafe Electronica - photo: basic_sounds]

Well, another spring another MUTEK festival right? That is definitely the rule of thumb for electronic music aficionados in the North East anyways. I ended up being a little more relaxed about my participation and consumption of the festival this year due to both frugality and laziness. In fact, I really didn't attend enough shows to make any kind of qualitative statement about the festival this year (which is quite a shame as I had a lot of fun dissecting the 2006 edition for Vague Terrain).

I arrived in Montreal on Thursday night part way through the second Nocturne event. Kode 9 and Spaceape were treating the crowd to state of the art dubstep set and they were very warmly received. It was nice to arrive to a bumpin' dancefloor and the act provided a fairly smooth transition into Rhythm & Sound. The duo of Mark Ernestus and Mortiz Von Oswald were joined onstage by the prolific MC Paul St. Hilaire (aka Tikiman) and they schooled the crowd with pure dub reggae. It was really great to hear at Mutek.

Friday was a day of schmoozing at Cafe Electronika at the Hotel Godin. I arrived to hear a nice, improvised collaboration between Deadbeat and violinist Sophie Trudeau. It was nice to hear Deadbeat step outside his usual stomping grounds musically, and I have to say I've been impressed with the range I've heard from him in his live performance over the last year. The man is definitely willing to apply his aesthetic to any context (be it the peak hours of an after hours or washed-out ambience for an overcast afternoon). Scott has a new album due out on ~scape shortly and I'm sure it will be essential listening this summer.

Somehow I managed to sleep through the Friday night Nocturne event. I'm quite disappointed about this as I really wanted to hear The Mole. Mathew Jonson's Cobblestone Jazz were reported to have delivered the performance of the festival. I'm a bit suspicious personally as I've really never enjoyed Jonson's solo work that much. This event, which also featured Mathew Dear's new project, was widely considered to be the highlight of the festival.

[chic minature at piknic electronik - image courtesy of basic_sounds]

After five trips to Montreal for MUTEK I finally got out to a Piknic Electronik and it was quite a fun way to spend a lazy day in the sun. The music on Saturday afternoon ended up being considerably better than the Saturday night Kompakt showcase (which really doesn't say much) but I was blind-sided by the sophisticated sounds of Chic Miniature. A little research revealed this duo to be an offshoot of the EGG project releasing on ORAL a few years back. The pair delivered a really dreamy take on house music that reminded me of some of Farben's choice discodrone moments. I can say quite confidently that the highlight of the festival was enjoying some Glenfiddich and a Romeo Y Julieta cuban cigar in the most excellent company of my girlfriend Jordan and good friend Wes Ochitwa with Chic Miniature pulsing in the background. I'm not even going to get into the evening event but suffice it to say I wasn't feeling yet another MUTEK Saturday nocturne showcase!

Once again the MUTEK festival has provided a whirlwind tour of global electronic sounds, for better and worse. Minor gripes aside, we are very fortunate to have this festival each year in Canada - three cheers for arts funding in Quebec!