If you like Techno, especially if you like the minimal side of techno, and even if you like the evil, growly, head-fuck side of techno and did not attend Mutek this year - you really, really missed out.
This year, I made the trip up to Montreal to attend Mutek, using their via-rail discount code, a round trip was a small $151 dollars, a hostel that was close enough to everywhere was only $35 dollars per night (private room) and I was set to go.
I arrived in Montreal early Saturday afternoon (wish I could of gone up sooner), looped up on Tylenol 3's from a sore back (and not looped up in a good way), unloaded into the Hostel and made my way to the 1st event. On this day, my mood was a bit sour as the sky was cloudy and grey, and the event had been moved from the park, to the Darling Foundry, and had fears of Sunday being the same and the 'weekend being a waste'.
The music on Sat was pretty good, but not 'amazing'. Toss in a headache, a sore back, rainy weather - and even though the music was great, I just couldn’t get into it. Ended up hanging around for 3 or 4 hours trying to make the best of it, until my throbbing headache and sore back one out and figured 'head back to the hostel, take a nap, and try and hit up the Nocturne event at Metropolis', crash back at the hostel at 7pm, go to take a nap, and end up waking up again at around 8am! Ouch! Missed the party, thankfully I didn’t have pre-paid tickets for them, or that would have been a waste.
But, that left me alive, awake and refreshed for the total beat down, techno, evil-voodoo growly madness that was to be Piknik #2. The sky was cloudy and overcast and threatening to rain, and I kept calling the 'info hotline' to see if it was going to be held in the park today, or back indoors again - but kept getting dumped to the answering machine. I am in fear of seeing my cell phone bill as I probably called about 15 times (obsessive much? Yes).
As 1pm rolled around, I figured - what the fuck, head to the park anyways and hope for the best. Worse case scenario is I just need to hop back on the subway and head to the other venue.
Arrive at the park, and in the distance I hear the thump-thump-thump of Magda vs Troy Pierce in the distance and give a little cheer. The sky was still cloudy and overcast and looking like it was going to threaten rain - but screw it. I made my way towards the park, paid my $7 dollars cover (7 bucks for Troy Pierce, Magda, Marc Houl, Ricardo Villalobos AND Richie Hawtin, you cant beat that).
The area was still pretty empty with Magda and Troy going back to back, playing some blippy glitchy stuff, but not really playing all that hard. But considering there was maybe 20 people there so far, and most of them milling about the side lines - I don’t blame them. I decide to explore the park a bit, as I had been there about 5 times before, but always to party. I come back a bit later, catch the last part of their set and Marc Houl comes on. I caught him the previous week at This Is London, and enjoyed his Mutek set much more. Had me up and dancing for most of it, and the place started to fill up really quickly.
Then, Marc Houls set came to an end, and you could hear the cheering from people as Hawtin and Ricardo got behind the decks. Hawtin being serious, and Ricardo being his normal trainwreck of himself : but playing great tracks, and funny anctics behind the decks made him a pleasure to watch.
But, WHOLY MOTHER FUCKEN OF GOD TECHNO BEAT DOWN. They played some seriously twisted music, ranging from headfuck hypnotic minimal to where the beats just pulverized your body as the high sounds and melodies took your head to another dimension. The crowd was up for it, cheering, dancing, hollering. The sound was STELLAR and loud as fuck - dynacord speakers everywhere, walking into the middle of the dance floor was like having your body wrapped in a blanket of throbbing deep bass - your head would rattle, your eyes would shake, and you couldn’t help but get lost in the moment.
They would work the crowd up into a frenzy, to playing a song that could put us to sleep (but, in a good way) - soft floating vocals, a nice soothing beat, the crowd went from a frenzy, to sort of standing there swaying back and forth in a trance like state, before working them up again and dropping a bomb and sending the place into a frenzy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSKQQthkTnw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK_e7mjp3XI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARVt_riAn9w
http://www.polouchkine.com/photos/piknic/piknic%20103.avi http://www.polouchkine.com/photos/piknic/piknic%20104.avi http://www.polouchkine.com/photos/piknic/piknic%20105.avi
^-- those videos probably do more justice to the even then I could write about. In short : one of the most mind numbingly amazing sets I have seen, in one of the most beautiful locations with a crowd that had traveled there from all over the world to get down and dirty to some serious fucken techno.
The party wrapped up at around 10pm with an encore track of Kraftwork being dropped. As the crowd disperessed, I went over to a little man made waterfall/pond, chatted a bit with Faunty before deciding to head back to the Hostel for a shower, a change of clothes, and heading to the closing Nocturn.
At first, I thought Nocturne was being at Metropolis, and walk down there to be told "You missed the party by a day", looking at the flyer again I realize it was really being held at the Darling Foundry, so I flagged at taxi down and zipped down there. Arriving outside of the venue I am a bit confused : loads of people outside, and not hearing any music. Scratching my head a bit, I head inside, pay my cover ($26 dollars), and head into the mainroom and my initial thought was "Fuck, I just wasted $26 dollars on this?" -- room full of people just standing around, while super-ambient music played at almost a whisper. So, I think to myself "If I'm gunna be listening to this all night, I need some weed", venture outside, smoke a joint and come back in. The first DJ had gotten off the decks, and Pole & Band were starting to play. A really interesting mix of live guitar/drumming + synth group. Anyways, initially just this wall of dense, dense, LOUD music starts to hit me. I fumble through my pockets to find my earplugs, ram those into my ears - and it's still too loud, so I ram my fingers into my ears to drown out the sound as this pulsing hypnotic music hits my body.
I wasn’t sure if I was liking it or not -- but in the end I figured 'there is something to this' and stick it out for a bit. Slowly, the band starts to build into a momentum -- a bit of it hit and miss for the first track or two, but about 1/3rd of the way through their set they started to kick some serious fucken ass. I had NEVER heard or seen anything like it before. I had so much fun dancing to this set it wasn’t funny -- it wasn’t hard, or banging -- but just intense, but also very basic/minimal at the same time. I *LOVED* it.
Then, after Pole and Band, Deadbeat came on. I had heard some of his stuff before, and it had always been very dubby/ambient and wasn’t sure how I was going to like it in a club setting. But, like Pole and Band, I went from being 'unsure of it' to 'being blown away' by it. From dubby beats, to intense rhythms - he had me jumping, bouncing, dancing, hooting and hollering for most of his set. He'd go from a nice dubby ambient break, to this throbbing bass with a beautiful soundscape around it that made it easy to get lost in the moment.
I probably had the most fun dancing at this party. As amazing as Piknik was (it was stellar), this event stands out for me the most due to the 'uniqueness' of it to me. I have never really listened to stuff like that before, it was 'new to me', and it would have been something I probably would of normally passed over to be honest. But, all in all - it was $26 dollars well spent, not wasted.
All in all - stellar fucken weekend, the best music I've ever heard, on amazing soundsystems, with a repsonive crowd that had traveled from all over the world to hear it. Was well worth the trip.
And, some pics ...
Me, my BF + Magda (one of our fave DJs)
Rocking out to Richie Hawtin vs Ricardo
Me, my BF + some new friends we made that are from Chicago
Early in the day before the venue filled up.
Crowd shot
Ricardo being a bit of a fairy behind the decks, he's a hoot to watch while spinning.
party is over
more of my pics
and, some other pics that people have posted on other sites from the weekend..
all around, AMAZING fucken weekend.
|