Mutek 2009 Best Bets

MONTREAL — Get ready for your annual dose of electroshock therapy, as North America's most synthetic (in a good way) of musical festivals, Montreal's Mutek, has five days of digital audiovisual exploration and eccentricity sure to excite, infuriate and confuse technology and art convergence fans looking for something exotic in their musical grocery bag.

There are multiple options every day, and here are some potential highlights of this year's 10th edition:

May 27: The French government opened their secret files on every unexplained U.F.O. phenomenon in their country a few years ago. On this night, French duo Zombie Zombie will participate in a dually hosted Mutek and Club Transmediale (the German equivalent to Mutek) showcase titled Cosmic Trip To Mutek. Expect some retro-future space disco themes with psychedelic leanings. Kraut/French psychotronic artist Turzi Electronic Experience and Paris' Pilooski will also pack the synthesizers and weirdness at the S.A.T.

May 28: Canadian dub artist Deadbeat calls Montreal and Berlin home, but perhaps he'll feel most comfortable spinning ambient dubstep at the Jamaican-flavoured Bass Exponential showcase at Metropolis. Berliners Modeselektor and Apparat's three-pronged Voltron-esque combined force, Moderat, will also make their Canadian premiere at the showcase.

May 29: Ghislain Poirier, Montreal's sultan of bass, is up to crazy new things in 2009, with four wildly diverse EPs expected to come out. The first is the Soca Sound System EP, devoted to the sweaty Caribbean dance music style. Poirier's one of the locals in the very Latin-infused Bounce Le Monde showcase at Metropolis.

May 30: Piknic Electronik is a summer-long weekend afternoon dance party taking place at Parc Jean-Drapeau, and Mutek's collaboration with the popular outdoor fest is two days of minimal electronic music. Detroit techno mainstay Carl Craig will churn out a three-hour long epic DJ set at Metropolis that night.

May 31: There will be more fun in the sun with the Mutek/Piknic partnership, as highly regarded Chilean DJ Ricardo Villalobos will spin in the afternoon at Parc Jean-Drapeau. The festival ends later that evening at the S.A.T. with a Canadian showcase starring Montrealers Akufen and Mateo & Pheek.

Visit mutek.org for more information on all of the events.