Bass, displaced

Before I get rolling here, I just want to mention one minor debacle from last weekend. If you were at the SAT last Thursday for Flying Lotus, Benga, Lazer Sword and Hovatron, you may have noticed that the bass was drastically cut at around 2 a.m. That’s not the best thing when your headliner is a dub artist. I understand there is some renovation going on down there, so there’s a hole in the wall from which sound was emanating. As a result, there was a noise complaint. The rest you can guess, including Neon moving the rest of the SAT shows last week to JPR. I bring this up to draw attention to the imminent conflict between the Quartier des Spectacles plan and the residents of the area. If past troubles with noise complaints are any indication, the city is going to have to conduct some serious public consultation if they want that area to be a booming, vibrant cultural centre in years to come.

This week, the funk-tacular jam octet Phenomenal Handclap Band shall be heard in full effect on Saturday night at Belmont. The most excellent Nosaj Thing will also be on tap, proving that it is possible to lift a crowd with a laptop—no common feat. Not only is it possible, but with Nosaj’s garbled, groovy, bombastic IDM/hip hop crossover, it’s all but inevitable. That show’s a really good look. Otherwise, oft-namedropped Swedish duo Miike Snow will be doing a DJ set at Velvet Friday night, while frequent visitors and aggro Berliners Boys Noize and Housemeister will hit Metropolis with waves of cacophonic electrohouse that same night. And lastly, new spot Bleep opens in the former Coda/

Decibel Underground space at 4119 St-Laurent. A slew of young DJs will be heard on Saturday night, so I’ll be checking out the spot and reporting back soon.

OVER AND OUT! jack.oatmon@gmail.com