Beneath the streets

The scene has been begging for renewal for some months. 2009 has been a year of complete upheaval in Montreal’s dance music milieu, with nearly every longtime local figure I speak to lately recounting a similar tale of decline, inconsistency and lack of direction. Don’t take that as a bad thing, necessarily. Dance music thrives on the catharsis of novelty and the abandonment of trends. So this is just part of the life cycle. Nonetheless, the recent arrival of a few new spots, and scenesters doing interesting things in them, has ignited some much-needed optimism about 2010.

To wit, longtime stalwart figure Patrick Dream is just about to open a new spot in the Old Port called Bassment. I haven’t checked the spot out yet, but it promises full sound and regular nights curated by knowledgeable house heads, as well as interesting guests, kicking off with Chicago house trailblazer Roy Davis Jr. and local B’Ugo on opening night, this Saturday, Dec. 5, at 990 St-Antoine W. Good luck be with ye, Bassment!

In other Old Port underground (literally) news, Parisian synthpop schmaltz merchants Phoenix, who will be playing to a packed Metropolis Sunday night, will also be appearing afterwards in alter-ego DJ crew form as Loyaute Soundsystem, along with disco DJ goodfellas Seez and Seb Diamond, at Velvet. Elsewhere this week, Italian hard electro duo (and I mean real, robots-are-invading-the-solar-system, Kraftwerk-on-speed electro here) Franz and Shape are this week’s guest at Overdose at Parking, tonight. And finally, for something a little more bloggy, a smidgen more neon pink, a touch on the bra-strap-snapping, college-kid-club-crowd side of things, look no further than Californian Harvard Bass, to appear at le Belmont Saturday night. All in all, a pretty darn good week.

ALRIGHT EVERYBODY, QUIT MOPING AROUND ALREADY… jack.oatmon@gmail.com