by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Since its auspicious debut in '99, the Montreal Electronic Groove festival has ballooned into something bigger than either Montreal or the "electronic groove" tag. Geographically speaking, the fest was intended to link our healthy club-music scene and its odd little auxiliaries with those of France. However, MEG showcases have popped up across Canada, throughout continental Europe and even on sunny Île de la Réunion. And the focused "electronica" mandate went out the window the very first year with the live world-beat act Ekova.

Since then, the festival has brought us such outstanding French acts as rinôçérôse, Kid Loco, les Négresses Vertes and DJ Gilb'r. Last year's roster was, unfortunately, rather weak and guilty of self-repetition. There was mumbling in the shadows that MEG had jumped the shark, but with the unveiling of this year's lineup, the naysayers were silenced. Easily the best batch of bands, DJs and laptop jockeys the fest has seen yet, the 2003 schedule is rock solid-which makes picking out highlights a tough game. Nevertheless, here are just a few, the ones you really have to catch.

Airborne Audio: Whatcha got here is a kind of two-in-one for fans of fucked-up, leftfield hip hop. Clutching the mics are Priest and Sayyid of the late, lamented Antipop Consortium, so you can count on some crazy-assed brainiac rhymes over there. Behind them is DJ CX Kidtronic, a mysterious figure given to ragged, erratic beats and dangerous electro-funk. He's worked with Saul Williams and now AA, and is wrapping up his debut disc Krak Attack. Kidtronic will be spinning alone later that night, as will local boy Ghislain Poirier. After making a name for himself in the abstract mini-tech scene, Poirier's flipped the script and punched a hole in the underground hip hop landscape, so watch for him. The night also includes Ninja Tune's single French hip hop signing TTC and Sound Ink act Heat Sensor. At SAT on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 9pm, $20

DJ Cheb I Sabbah: Already familiar to many Montrealers, Six Degrees signee Cheb I Sabbah is absolutely at the forefront of the meeting of world music and electronic beats. Born in Algeria and now based in Frisco, Cheb's been spinning records for the dancefloor since 1964, when he lived in Paris, so he's got that part down pat. As for the global sounds, he's deeply schooled himself in the history, methodology and meaning of traditional and classical music from India and the Middle East. So don't expect the usual swatches of utterly out-of-context sitar shimmers and oud riffs. Need more convincing? Well, Cheb's on a bill that also sports Interchill's Gordon Field and Trevor Walker of Ottawa's Fossil Fuel-two of Canada's major players in getting that conscious, quality global groove. Montreal's Freeworm will be launching his dope new album Solar Power, France's noted Toires will tread similar ground to Cheb I Sabbah and Kazakhistani-American globetrotter Irina Mikhailova completes an excellent night. At SAT on Thursday, Oct. 23, 9pm, $25

DJs Are Not Rockstars: If you've been wondering what was up with Princess Superstar, the "female Eminem" from before there was an Eminem, here's your answer. She and her longtime collaborator Alexander Technique have lately caught the mash-up bug, and have christened their hybridization project DJs Are Not Rockstars. They're not as adventurous as their Euro counterparts like Too Many DJs, sticking largely to fusions of familiar classic rawk and mid-school hip hop jams-with occasional bits of new wave thrown in-but they do it all live on four turntables, which is cool. In short, a highly danceable game of name-that-tune for the Ritalin generation. The pair joins DJ Frigid of the local Kink! nights, France's DJ Chloé and Relaxed Muscle, which is, get this, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker sporting a Halloween skeleton suit and a fake name and ex-Fat Trucker Jason Buckle laying down the punk electro. Goddamn! At SAT on Friday, Oct. 24, 9pm, $25

Fischerspooner: Well, it's about damn time. The one act that stoked, carried and outlived the electroclash hype/meltdown, Fischerspooner strike a brilliant balance of comedy and quality, and do so with a whole lotta panache, savoir faire and various other fancy French words. The tunes are top-notch synth pop, superior even to what the bands that inspired them are doing today, but the show... the show! Now that that rascally puss Montecore has effectively nixed Siegfried & Roy's stranglehold on the bedazzling, obscenely over-the-top spectacle, frontman Casey Spooner and his fat dancers can claim their rightful place. But pay attention, because Spooner's whole scheme owes as much to Andy Kaufman's conceptual comedy envelope-pushing as it does to Liberace on Ice or whatever.

Keep in mind that Fischerspooner is just the grand finale in an utterly insane lineup that night. It also has Trevor Jackson, the disco-punk revivalist behind Playgroup, and two acts off Jackson's Output label, Colder and Blackstrobe. And then there's local superstar Tiga and also Drama Society, a recent addition to the roster of Tiga's Turbo label. This could very well go down as one of the year's best parties. At Metropolis on Saturday, Oct. 25, 9pm, $45

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