Let’s take a right turn for a moment, far right. Way right and all the way on to Montreal. It’s a guarantee that every year, a chunk of Vancouver picks up, brushes off its French and heads to La Belle Province. The reason? Mutek.
Festival season in many ways kicks off in Montréal with Mutek and what a bang it is. Eleven years in, it’s the home of Canadian electronic music and digital creativity and this year’s festival was a pleasure to attend.
Musically, it was unparalleled, no matter where you taste lay. The Caretaker crooning Barbara Streisand through a vocorder? Theo Parrish making techno snobs dance to the Police? Dave Aju turning a soaking wet crowd’s spirits sky high? Picking a favorite moment was simply impossible after five days.
Vancouver did well, our very own Square Root of Evil impressed many and it was a pleasure to run into locals like Ryan from Inkwell, local techno figurehead James Boatman and Malcolm Levy of the New Forms Festival. Even this blog got some love, as whom should I run into but Montreal’s own scoutm Claire. I’ll leave her to rave about her fair city’s magic, but all props due to the Mutek organizers.
From here, the summer only gets better. Soundwave kicks in mid-July on the west coast of Vancouver Island and looks to be another serious weekend of music and magic at the most beautiful spot in the world. Dust encrusted hippies are getting stoked and ready for Shambala to take over British Columbia yet again. Bass Coast Project is coming back to satiate the young whompers. Then, come September, the double bill of the northwest’s own Mutek’s, the New Forms Festival and Decibel.
One can only hope the collective eardrums and livers hold up until then.