MEG MONTRÉAL: Pushing Genres

www.megmontreal.com | OCTOBER 19–22, 2005

words and shutter ASHLEY WONG

The MEG Montréal festival is in its 7th year of promoting an eclectic and adventurous range of talent from Europe and North America.

This year’s festival has shed its extension of the acronym “Montréal Electronic Groove” for the sake of broadening its direction. Now simply known as the MEG Montréal, the festival continues to bring in and support cutting-edge international and local talent. Originally bringing in a wide range of electronic music from the avant-garde to the more widely accessible forms of IDM to house, the festival has chosen to move beyond categories to encompass a movement where labels cannot be applied. The festival now introduces a new realm of artists that diffuse elements of hip hop, electronic, indie rock and pop.

MEG Montréal began as an initiative to provide a gateway between the artistic community in Europe and North America. Montréal’s strong European influence made the city a unique cultural hot spot that can be appreciated at an international level.

This year, the festival spanned a dense four days, featuring free showcases in the afternoon, and evening performances that extended late into the night. Line-ups for the shows were jam-packed with talent from primarily Germany, France, the U.S. and Canada. Programming was provided by High Food (www.highfood.org ) a tag team duo from France and Québec respectively, supplying the most progressive talent out there.

Main events were conveniently located in the downtown core between one of Montréal’s larger concert venues, Metropolis and the SAT (Society for Arts and Technology), a government-funded venue and gallery space dedicated to the electronic arts.

Highlights of the festival include an extensive 6-act line-up at the SAT on the second day of the festival featuring an exciting and rare performance by ’70s German new wave band Der Plan. With countless costumes, masks, props and dance-moves, the group unduly put to shame traditional ideas of a performance. With the only visible instrument on stage being a Moog synthesizer and a microphone, the performance would not have failed even if it were entirely pre-recorded and lip-synched. From pseudo-African masks, skull torches, oceanic video backdrops, to giant cardboard TV face frames, the group put out an entertaining and refreshing performance. This was their first North American performance since their re-grouping in 2004 after 11 years of inactivity.

Headlining the bill on the same night was Detroit electro-punk duo ADULT, who are also known as owners of the acclaimed Ersatz Audio label. In attempt to focus on their music, their label was currently put on hiatus. A highly anticipated performance, the duo had just recently introduced a third member. This performance celebrates their most recent release D.U.M.E, which is out on indie label Thrill Jockey.

In a conscious effort to focus on performance, the group has transformed from an entirely electronic act to a more guitar-oriented band. Their rounded, smoothed-over synthesized dark electro patterns have now developed a noisier, rougher edge with the introduction of guitars. Despite the change, the band remains somehow the same. In her nonchalant wandering guise, Nicola delivers her witchy-toned vocals that continue to drive the force that is ADULT.

On the following day of the festival, a nearly sold-out Metropolis welcomed Toronto’s indie super-group Broken Social Scene. With a lineup of close to 12members, the band put on an epic show. With numerous special guest appearances (including Feist and soulful hip hop artist K-OS) and a performance that lasted over two hours until the early hours of the morning, the show was a blowout for fans. Playing mostly newer material, the band kept the audience on their toes by occasionally injecting their hits into their set.

Opening up the show was The Islands, a new and up-coming project of the now defunct morbid indie-popsters The Unicorns. Now with an added two violinists, guitarist and saxophonist, the band puts on a show that’s only vaguely reminiscent of the Unicorns, and introduces elements of more straightforward indie rock similar to that of burgeoning bands like Wolf Parade. Dressed in all white, the band produces amiable tracks that will surely attract a wide audience. Recordings for the bands are in the works. A record should be out soon. This show was by far an odd fit, but none-the-less a successful show for the broadening festival.

Meanwhile in the lounge space Club Savoy situated in the upper corner of the Metropolis, DJs provided a grooving alternative to the big show outside. Throughout the festival the space hosted artists from Montréal’s experimental hip hop and grime master Ghislain Poirier, Brazil’s DJ Marlboro and notorious French DJs Justice and DJ Aï. Though the room had a more relaxed atmosphere from the bigger events outside, the tracks that were pumping could satisfy a stadium and could easily produce a full-on raging party.

On the final day of the festival, the no-longer-packed Metropolis featured a range of DJs and artists from Chilean dancy rock group Panico, Germany’s electro-pop group Jeans Team, France’s electro-rock duo Rinôçérôse with superstar DJs Rory Philips (Great Britain) and Tiga (Montréal, Turbo Records).

Simultaneously, the SAT featured the festival’s main hip-hop event featuring jostling rapping puppeteers Puppetmastaz from Germany, and the U.S.’s hip-hop trick-flipping DJ, Peanut Butter Wolf.

Other worthy unattended mentions would be Richie Hawtin’s live performance at Station C providing an evening of hi-fi electronic minimal techno to satisfy the dance floor crowd, and Kompakt Records electronic experimentalist Superpitcher’s show at the SAT.

Watch out for new Montréal electronic noise label Le-Son666 (www.le-son666.com ) who is gathering force of a new generation of artists. The label’s afternoon showcase featured local experimental, noise, electro-acoustic projects Intercom, Minibloc and St-Sophie.

From hip-hop, electro-rock, noise, to hi-fi electronics, the MEG festival has evolved from a focus on electronic music to an opening up to all forms of the best of contemporary music and culture. The festival now encourages a movement of a mixing of genres in support of the development of new sounds and artistic forces.