by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

The name Gloomy may have grim, grey connotations, and yes, local trio Gloomy dish out a lot of darkness, but there’s no need to turn any frowns upside down. For multi-instrumentalist Antoine Saint-Maur, keyboardist Thomas Ghazi and DJ-composer Julien Stern (whose tastes favour the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, respectively, the whole of which is reflected in their tunes), the eerie and mysterious feed the snarky humour which elevates their music above simply being superior-standard electro-pop dance jams.

“Our approach is a bit like film music,” says Stern, “which we’re all influenced by. At the beginning, we had a little fun with Italian horror-movie soundtracks. To us, it adds to the humorous side of the music. But it’s all original compositions, we didn’t go and steal melodies.”

The humour is more overt in the wacky vocal snippets they deploy, the sourcing of which was key to the trio’s initial bonding. “We use samples that we found together in Montreal pawn shops, vinyl that we sample to our computers. There are all kinds of things in there—for ‘Petit Prince,’ for example, we used a sample of the story [by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry] being read, and we used psychology clips and bits of Monty Python. Over a year, we bought about 100 records, and amused ourselves by seeking out the best bits.”

In the mere year and change that Gloomy have been around, they’ve achieved some remarkable feats. Last November, for instance, they reworked Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’étoile for a TechnOpéra presentation at the SAT, backed by four singers and Dominique Hamel of locals Motus 3F, who “tweak-ait” the voices.

Mouth-music experimental cases Motus 3F are, like Plaster, Frivolous and Deweare, part of a little community of local bands in which Gloomy feel at home (it was Deweare who pushed them into doing their first show). “What ties us together is the performance side of all these bands. We’ve spent the year evolving our show to a real live performance, with bass, Thomas’s keyboards and sometimes guitar, which is something one doesn’t always find in the electronic genre.”

One certainly does now, thanks to the Taste events at the SAT, overseen by Stern and his collaborator Aleksandra Zajko. Taste, the third edition of which goes down this weekend, offers adventurous live electro funk-pop, techno DJs, wild visuals, artsy surprises and loads of free, fine-quality chocolate. Yum!

“We wanted to bring together an audience from different scenes, and chocolate was the thing we found that could unite them all and bring them in—because it’s clear that electronic music is still a bit underground. We wanted to show people that it’s not just laptops, but also live shows.”

The night will be split in two—first the live sets, then the minimal-tech DJs. “What’s important to us is that it’s eclectic, that it shows that electronic music isn’t just techno and house, that it’s much more complex and rich than that.”

Gloomy are getting more complex too. After workshopping their songs through dozens of shows, they’re gearing up to record a proper debut album, due next spring, and cooking up weirdness for the eyes as well as the ears. “Antoine did film as well as electro-acoustic studies, so thanks to him, we’ve developed our visual side, which we’re putting into place now. It’s an idea we’ve had since the beginning, but it’s as much work as the audio side.”

With Dandi Wind, Ark, the Mole, les Cerveaux Lents, Mossa and much more at Taste 3 at the SAT on Friday, Nov. 17, 9 p.m., $18

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