Techno tenure

Mutek celebrates a decade, unites
ambassadors from sister festivals and
expands to ambitious new proportions

MOTOR CITY MACHER: Carl Craig

by JACK OATMON

Pungent lilac breezes, delicate mists settling upon freshly sprouted leaves, sunny days in the park and giant concrete warehouses full of club-heads and drunken designer types getting their ears dremeled out by triple-digit decibels of tripped-out digital music, swaying and jerking to repetitive beats and obsessing over the minutiae of modern production standards. So the end of May has been for the past decade, thanks to the Mutek festival, and this year promises a broader artistic scope and more performances than ever.

In highlighting some poignant moments in the history of the excellent, forward-looking festival and its international aspirations in Latin America and China, the organizers have teamed up with the STM to feature photo exhibits from past years in selected metro stations, which are now up until June 1. This year’s edition will also feature other free public art offerings around the city, including projected murals and light shows in the Quartier des Spectacles area. Other ambitious installations include several performances of ATOM, with minimal techno music accompaniment by Monolake’s Robert Henke, and a giant, synchronously lit contraption of 64 moving helium balloons and lights, which will transform Place des Arts’ Théâtre Maisonneuve into an industrial dreamscape.

Zombie versus hamster

Of course, there is Mutek’s bread and butter, a series of performances by exciting names in the electronic music world, ranging from hypnotic listening sessions to all-out, raging dance parties and, as usual, lots of German minimalism. Here are a few select reasons to go out and get freaky.

Cologne-based, multi-monikered Wolfgang Voigt’s 1990s immersive, multilayered ambient audiovisual project Gas will have its first Canadian outing on Wednesday, May 27, at le Monument National. Later Wednesday night, psychedelic French electro duo Zombie Zombie, who packed and rumbled Zoobizarre at last year’s Pop Montreal festival, will return for one of their sweaty, frenetic sets as part of the visiting DISK/Club Transmediale showcase, representing the Berlin-based independent electronic music festival which also celebrates a decade of operations this year.

Both names now familiar to Mutek audiences, German techno powerhouse Apparat and lauded glitch/dub duo Modeselektor return to town on Thursday, May 28, united like Voltron to form Moderat, a cranium-shuddering, brain-teasing project of epic complexity and sonic proportion, set to appear at Metropolis.

A jumble of Afrika Bambaataa-style electro, cumbia beats, baile funk and street-level hip hop, Brazil’s Nego Moçambique should be a highlight of the Friday-night Metropolis show, facing off against Chilean flash-trash glitchy-electro producer Original Hamster, whose Beatles and Talking Heads parody covers will have your toes tapping and ears ringing.

FRENCHY FRENCHIES: Zombie Zombie

Bleeps and bop

Carl Craig is one of several artists floating through town on the blessed winds of last weekend’s Detroit Electronic Music Festival, which Craig co-created and was artistic director of for its first two years. He’s a staple component of the Detroit techno scene, an excellent and accomplished producer, label boss at Planet E Communications and a legendary hand at the wheels of steel, having been fondling the fuzzy warbles and scrubbing the waxy buildup for some two decades now.

The final show of the festival looks to be one of the most promising. Canadians Mathew Jonson and the Mole team up with Cobblestone Jazz’s Tyger Dhula and Daniel Tate to form the Modern Deep Left Quartet for a funky jazz/minimal techno fusion set that begs to be heard live. The recordings are like a boxing match between hard bop and contemporary German club sounds, with huge bass lines, slamming percussion and sinister, moody grooves.

Take all that and throw on a couple of special-edition Piknic Électronik outings, including a Northern soul set by Manchester’s Trus’Me on Saturday and a seven-hour Ricardo Villalobos throw down on Sunday, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a techno freakout on your hands.

FOR COMPLETE INFO, GO TO
WWW.MUTEK.ORG