Electronic Music 411 - MUTEK review -

Nice pics... I like the one of Henke in the middle of the crowd rockin it like an old man i.e sitting down in a chair... the same way I do it if the table is not a level to perform standing then I sit ... I cannot do a set for 60 min hunched over and can't understand why others do it...

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06/07/07 + djugel

"happy hardcore extravaganza are the words I would use to summarize the night, as opposed to clean or minimal"

random ironic thought... reminds me of the first impression of the Reinhard Voigt. Pffbeat basslines ... you kidding me? that's not techno it's 90's german trance.

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06/07/07 + djugel

Pffbeat = Off beat

can't edit

Recent blogs: Buffalo Stance, Wow. Hillary 08 !!, Animated Movies

06/07/07 + Roshi

Dang, I thought I was witnessing the birth of a new genre

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06/07/07 + ulrike

oh god... every review of mutek has been worse and worse... scrap it... start something new...

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06/07/07 + jdg

PUtek?

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06/07/07 + zfigz

man, I'm so out of the loop with music these days...only person i knew of there was henke...

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06/07/07 + Logo

I went and was going to do a semi-comprehensive Mutek review here, but you beat me to it

Anyway, some thoughts of mine are:

In general I found it pretty disappointing as well (but for very different reasons), though I did have some moments of pure joy/amazement. I mainly went mainly because I love Montreal and had some much needed vacation time to use up, so the festival was a nice bonus.

The Cafe Electronika program truly sucked and had all the charm of listening to the radio in a boutique hotel. I was really excited to see a few performances (Secret Mommy, several familiar names from around here, etc) only to find out about the whole convoluted nature of the broadcast thing upon arrival (guess I should probably read the program descriptions, but I sort of assumed they were not 75% virtual or something. Because that would be dumb... which it was).

The first night was possibly my favorite. Gangpol und Mit and Candie Hank really rocked my sensibilities, and O.Lamm threw a curveball and played a set of pretty decent hard Electro Housey stuff (which was a nice break). I didn't find it at all offensive and think these artists are pretty maverick in their approach (I don't know anyone making music quite like Gangpol) or have roots in the original hardcore scene and are progressing it (Candie Hank). Different strokes...

The second night was pretty nice. I missed Shackleton, but Kode9 bass-ed me. I tend to find run of the mill Dubstep a little boring, but there is truly nothing like hearing it on a semi-proper sound system and have it rattle your head off (only heard live Dubstep a few times... Vexd, Plasticman, DMZ).

The A/Visions were hit or miss. I really enjoyed Semiconductor and Hauschka (but actually felt the visuals detracted from his beautiful set). Colleen was a huge disappointment (I left her performance to take a breather and was talking to a Mutek staff member who basiclly said she acts like a total diva... which is ok if you can actually back it up, I guess).

Fri night was ok. I really enjoyed MEC (who I was unfamiliar with). Basically an amazing French noise trio who scream into contact mic outfitted motorcycle helmets while rocking and bunch of pedals, etc... very fun. Bubblyfish and Glomag were the other standouts for me.

The Sat. Piknic bored my head off with minimal techno, though it was nice to get out in the sun. Claude VonStroke played a nice set and dropped some contemporary booty classics.

Sat. night was the other highlight night for me. Pantha du Prince was ok. I was pretty uninterested until Micheal Mayer started dropping some Electro House bangers, but he was skipping records and train wrecking like it ain't no thing (the turntables didn't seem to be isolated well enough). At this point I was a little sauced and I didn't realize it was around 5am, so I headed up to the 2nd room to check out Someone Else who sounded incredible. Might of been the booze, but he was playing some of his usual tracks, but with what appeared to be some really harshly thick bass accenting them.

The Panels were pretty good. In the live performance one, it was really reassuring to hear a lot of artists talk about their live setups and all the aspects of performing they've struggle with in the past (it helped diminish some of the anxiety I have about creating music/performing, hearing that some hotshots have wrestled with them too).

Overall, even though Mutek was hit or miss, the trip was really a blast and I'm glad i went. I think the problem with Mutek is that it halfheartedly tries to be a jack of all trades festival, but ends up not really satisfying any specific interest fully. It's like a minimal techno, micro house lovefest who feels obliged to cater to more experimental music or represent specific trends just to do so. I think they should just either tightly focus it, or make it ridiculously diverse, because right now it's sort of blah...

Recent blogs: My MIDIBox, Let Me Show You It., Sherman Filterbank 2 Demos, Evolver, the synth preferred by 9 out of 10 cowboys

06/08/07 + basic

thanks for the review. apparently we have different tastes in music because the saturday (minimal techno) piknic was a highlight for me. sure gangol's music is unique, i can credit him for that, but it became too much for me and nothing i would ever want to listen to outside that context.

Recent blogs: Decibel, MUTEK review, download and track question

06/08/07 + Logo

Yeah, I have a huge soft spot in my heart for labels like Wwilko, Adaadat, Sonig, Ache, Audio Dregs, etc who specialize in wack-tronics (or whatever you want to call that stuff). Their records consume a lot of my listening time, among my standard diet of "Intelligent Dance Music", Non Intelligent Dance Music, Breakcore, Electro, Electro-Acoustic, Uber-Minimal, Chiptunes, Hip Hop, Dubstep, Experimental Whatever, bla, bla, etc. etc..

I like minimal techno, but sort of feel like it's past it's prime. There are people who continue to do it really well, but their are so many who make complete formulaic rubbish. I guess my problem with it is, more times than not, it seems to aim at making experimental sound more palatable and "pretty". I really love over/under stimulation, but a lot of minimal techno falls flatly in between for me. I just find a lot of it sort of nice and interesting, but ultimately soulless...

Recent blogs: My MIDIBox, Let Me Show You It., Sherman Filterbank 2 Demos, Evolver, the synth preferred by 9 out of 10 cowboys

06/08/07 + basic

"past it's prime" i listen to music because i like not because it's trendy. some artists make it well and some don't.

Recent blogs: Decibel, MUTEK review, download and track question

06/08/07 + Logo

Agreed. I'm not talking about trends, I'm talking about expolration. It seems like most of the conceptual meat of the genre has been explored and there's a lot of repetition imo. In it's pure form, it's stopped sounding fresh/interesting to me personally.

Recent blogs: My MIDIBox, Let Me Show You It., Sherman Filterbank 2 Demos, Evolver, the synth preferred by 9 out of 10 cowboys

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