Mutek 2007 Festival Review (Continued)

Day Four: 06/02/2007

The weekend at Mutek brings the daytime Piknic events, often high points of the festival (if the weather permits). Montreal’s Piknic Electronik is a weekly summer event held at Parc Jean-Drapeau, a park on an island that features a 40-foot-tall steel sculpture by abstract artist Alexander Calder (pictured above). Dancing to solid club DJs among good friends beneath the towering Calder sculpture is one of the most aesthetically satisfying sensations available at Mutek.

Piknic 1 started off strong with a DJ set by Claude Von Stroke. Releases from his Dirty Bird label kept the joint jumping, and those who showed up late missed one of the best DJ sets of the entire festival. The audience was brought to a sweaty place all the way through My My’s set and on into Chic Miniature, which was similarly blazing. Matthew Dear, as Audion, had his chance to redeem himself, proving that live band aside, he is still an ace DJ.

Nocturne 4 was dance-floor territory, from minimalist tech upstairs, to no-holds-barred maximalism downstairs. The downstairs lineup included Pantha Du Prince, Jichael Mackson, Matias Aguayo and Marcus “Roccness” Rossknecht, Gui Boratto, and Michael Mayer. Of these, Boratto’s set was my favorite, and the crowd’s reaction proved that he’s not in the business of disappointing. Bouncing back and forth between the main floor and the upstairs, however, I was drawn to the minimal techno upstairs more often than not.

Ambivalent came correct with some nasty deeply funky club destroyers, and then Miskate’s tasty textures and banging percussion were undeniably top-shelf, and her sound design was wildly psychedelic, with a creepy sense of humor sneaking in around the edges. After that fun, Lee Curtiss glumly thrust the audience down into a soul-sucking ever-deepening black hole in the floor—which was probably cool for fans of dark, opiate- influenced techno. After Curtiss, Pheek took over the sound system, and proved why his buzz has increased this year. His tight production and wobbly sound design were experimental without being off-putting, and his skills at working the crowd were clearly in full effect. A cadre of techno freaks at the front of the stage screamed loudly in appreciation for the entire set, and didn’t seem to get any rest once Someone Else took the stage. Sean “Someone Else” O’Neal is probably one of the most influential minimal techno producers of the last five years, yet his name remains lesser known than many of those from the Minus or Ghostly set. However, if this marathon live set as Someone Else was any indication, he will continue to rock people out of their skulls for some time to come. The whole crowd looked destroyed, yet completely immersed in O’Neal’s tight production to the point where they were still able to muster several hours worth of screams and fist pumping after an entire day of dancing.

Day Five: 06/03/2007

Piknic 2, the final Mutek event, was a rousing crowd pleaser. Digitaline set a solid dance-floor vibe, while Heartthrob was solid but surprisingly didn’t wreck shop as I might have expected. That task was left to a live PA set by Sutekh, who unveiled a lot of new material that veered between electro and techno. It was amusing to watch people get confused by booty bass breakdowns and odd turnarounds, only to start howling again once the comforting 4/4 kick returned. It was thrilling to see an influential father figure of techno pull out some hot and different new material—his set was just as relevant as when he first hit the scene years ago.

The final act of the festival, Wighnomy Brothers, was given plenty of time to work the crowd up and up, through countless genres, beloved old tracks, soon-to-be-beloved new tracks, and unexpected mix-ins. The eclectic taste and daring DJing assured everyone they were in the presence of club music royalty. There was much mugging for the crowd, good-natured grins and laughter, and more than a few drinks onstage. Veering from modern dance floor into pockets of oldies (if Underworld can be considered an oldie) and back into the new, the duo proved that it’s all about the music. Since they didn’t need to prove their coolness to anybody, they were free to rock the party any which way they liked it. A fantastic way to end the festival.

—Adam Shelton
Photos: Miguel Legault/Mutek07