by RAF KATIGBAK

It's a fact - unless we're talking a hash-fuelled Schwarzenegger grope fest, politics and hedonism usually don't mix. But that's obvious, isn't it? After all, who wants to harsh their all-night-dance-party mellow with talk of "real issues" like "legislation" or "health care"? While the only bill most party people want to see passed is a rolled up C-note, the recent crack down on dance music culture has caused at least some techno heads to get educated.

"With all the anti-rave legislation in the U.S., there's a whole other layer of politics with techno emerging right now," explains 25-year-old, Vancouver-raised, Montreal-based DJ/producer Noah Pred. "Now a movement that was in large part apolitical is being forced to get political, forced to get familiar with legislation and the passing of laws."

Two years ago, Pred crossed coasts in search of inspiration. "Vancouver was a house-oriented city," he explains. "I was doing well over there but felt an overwhelming need to get a little more educated and immersed in a scene that I was a little more interested in." Naturally, Pred ended up in Montreal, where he immediately found work with local Ascend Records sub-label Consigned and several resident DJ gigs like Remedy Fridays at Stereobar. After several well-received North American and European releases, his latest mix CD Pacific Technics brings together artists from across the globe in an effort to raise awareness - and cash - for Amnesty International, and show support for world peace.

The hour-long mix CD features extensive liner notes, including the UN declaration of human rights and perspectives on peace by thinkers like Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and Martin Luther King. That, and of course the bumping tech-house tracks by a bevy of local and international techno talent, from Montreal's Preach, Yaz and Mateo Murphy to HD Substance in Spain and the U.K.'s Asad Rizvi.

"Instead of the classic mix-CD formula of starting off more mellow and building up," says Pred, "Pacific Technics starts a little more hard and ends with an ambient track that kind of cools down. In other words, the mix starts aggressive and then gets pacified."

With Maüs, Leo Cruz, Mike Bryant, Martin Dumais and Champion at SAT on Saturday, June 12, 9pm, $10

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