by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

There's a new aircraft in Montreal's musical atmosphere, one that's as precise and tech as an F-16 and as wonderfully weird as Witchiepoo's superbroom on HR Pufnstuf. It's a trio called Test Pilot, and like Toronto's New Deal, they aim for the axis where the DJ's clubby grooves and the jam band's resinous moves intersect.

"We definitely come from a jammy world," says keyboardist Dave Lines, "and will always strive to maintain the spontaneity and positive vibe that is inherent to that style of music. Personally, though, I find the spirit of ‘the jam' really diluted in many bands these days, and the music is often self-indulgent, wanky and goofy. It needs to evolve, and that's where the electronica comes in. DJs have pushed the rhythmic envelope too far for musicians to be still doing that white-boy-from-the-suburbs sanitized funk thing. Live bands have to catch up to the DJs, or else we'll be deemed irrelevant."

Flanked by Gregg Nazar's steady basslines and Mike Weinberger's pinpoint drumming, Lines has loaded the bird with his arsenal of out-there keys. "The B-3 is the musical equivalent of a Harley Davidson. It's loud. It moves your bowels. I have a digital piano and a Fender Rhodes for the same reason, though I run the Rhodes through a bunch of pedals, including a Moogerfooger, which completely twists the sound into something wonderfully otherworldly. Then there's the main brain, the Virus, a virtual analog synth capable of pretty much anything - including inducing acid flashbacks."

To this writer's ear, Test Pilot's tunes at times flash back to the cool sci-fi and sleazy Italian cop flicks from the '70s. "More like '70s porn, actually," notes Lines. "That and Saturday morning cartoons. And acid. I like a strong visual element and feeling of adventure and motion. We want to play the soundtrack to the movie in your head. It's like that dream where some unknown entity is chasing you through a deep dank jungle, and trees are flying by and sweat is running into your eyes. We would be the music playing.

"You know, the hardest time we have with writing instrumental music is coming up with good titles. For example, one tune, ‘Octopus!,' made us think about being attacked underwater by a large, eight-tentacled sea-beast. I wanted to call it ‘Squid Marks,' but I got vetoed."

Other tunes have more scientific titles, like "Trinome" and "Oscillator." Is there a methodology to Test Pilot's madness? "The science stuff, well, we just like to confuse people and pretend that we're educated. Actually, the trinome refers to the three stages of the brain's development. Or something. And I don't know whose brain either."

With Azuris Aurum and DJ Milton Clark at le Swimming on Friday, July 25, 10 pm, $6

>> Music Listings