Remember when?

by JACK OATMON

I remember those years. We’d stay up till all hours, running around in dim, industrial corridors atmospherically lit by flickering neon strobes and multi-coloured spotlights. We’d power up on any energy-boosting pill we could get our hands on, trying to keep our levels at peak as long as possible, just wanting to survive the crazy adventures ahead of us. We were so young, and all we wanted to do was navigate the luminous floors of those vacant warehouses whose very walls rumbled with the pulsating digital beat of fast-paced electronic music. In retrospect, they may seem like simple, repetitive hooks produced on MIDI protocols that just looped over and over, but those tunes were the soundtracks to our young lives.

Yup, the Megaman series for the Nintendo Entertainment System had to be one of the best video games of all time. And the music was unbeatable. Sometimes terrific tunes can be produced on basic gear and if, like me, you’re a diehard fan of that chirping Magnet Man groove, or Gemini Man’s dark, driving beat, you’re in for a treat this week. Tonight, Thursday, May 24, Toronto’s 8-bit hype magnet duo Crystal Castles will be bleeping and tweeting people’s cochleae into a low-resolution pulp at Club Lambi.

Crowds of teenagers manufacturing nostalgia for an epoch they don’t remember aside, there are plenty of other options this week for those in need of excitement and acute inner ear damage. Friday night, there’s a crunk-a-delic special goin’ down at Lambi featuring mouthy Midwesterners Cool Kids getting down with local cool kids Megasoid and Hatchmatik. Furthermore, those up for some four-on-the-floor can get the goods at the SAT on Saturday when

Fu Ancko, Yann, Philgood and Omni invade for the evening. Also that night, the first-anniversary edition iPod Battle is set to rumble Musée Juste Pour Rire with the usual cast of local quasi-celebrities, as well as a live performance by newcomers Claass. As far as I’m aware, this will be Claass’s first performance, but it can’t be anything but noisy and rad as the group comprises two members of local no-wave sensation We Are Wolves and glitchy gearhead Jordan Dare.

Saturday night also marks another anniversary, that of In Da Jungle Productions, whose secret Breakin’ #7 loft party promises to be a rager for those with the gumption to do a modicum of online sleuth work.

Also, if you didn’t catch Lady Sovereign the first seventeen thousand times she played in town, get her at Juste Pour Rire on Tuesday.

In other funky news, Piknic Electronik got off to a fantastic start last week, as a throng of committed revelers shimmied through the showers to the comical commentary of Monolake, some of the brains behind the Ableton music software. Sometimes I still have trouble processing the fact that something as cool as Piknic can actually exist. MUTEK also kicks off next week with fantastic programming, so make sure to check our guide for that. Big huge props go to Miracle Fortress for their lovely performance at the Cove last week. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—watch out for these cats.

My Banger of the Week is “Good to Be Alive” from Matthew Dear’s Asa Breed.

They sure do make ’em like they used to… jack.oatmon@gmail.com