Mutek at The Bunker with Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts, Claro Intelecto, Andy Stott, MLZ, Pangaea, and Ezekiel Honig at Studio B


Mutek at The Bunker with Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts, Claro Intelecto, Andy Stott, MLZ, Pangaea, and Ezekiel Honig at Studio B
259 Banker St
21+, 10p-6a
$10-20

Mutek is an international festival of electronic music and digital creativity, which is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this year from May 27 to 31 in Montreal, Canada. To say that Mutek is innovative is a huge understatement. This organization has been presenting the most forward thinking electronic music festival in North America since it's inception. While showcasing well known artists such as Ricardo Villalobos, Atom Heart, Monolake, Pole, and Matthew Herbert, they also played a huge role in introducing and developing Canadian artists such as Akufen, Deadbeat, The Mole, Mathew Jonson, Pheek, and many more. The full list of artists who have participate in Mutek over the past 10 years is truly mindboggling, and can be found on their Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/mutekfestival. Mutek is a lot more than a music festival though, putting an incredible amount of care and attention into the visual presentation of the events, and providing panels and forums for attendees and participants to share ideas and meet like-minded people. Discovering Mutek was truly a lifechanging event for us, and we're hoping to convince more of Brooklyn to head up to Montreal this year to check it out by bringing a small piece of the festival to you for one night only.

Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts is our old friend, Guillaume Coutu Dumont. As you can probably guess from his artist name, he has a good sense of humor. We met Guillaume many years ago at Mutek and invited him to come play at The Bunker as Egg, his old project with Julien Roy. Outside of Egg, he also collaborated with David Fafard in Luci, and with Ernesto Ferreyra in Chic Minature. While still active in Chic Minature, Guillaume has mostly focused on his solo project for the past few years, with much success. After his album on Musique RisquÈe, he released singles on Federico Molinari's red hot Oslo label, Audio Werner's Hartchef Discos, and French labels Karat and Circus Company. All the DJs we know are completely freaking out over his tracks these days, and anyone who's seen his live set is equally enthusiastic. In a scene that is becoming completely overrun by boring run of the mill minimal house tracks, the creativity and personality present in Guillaume's music puts him way ahead of the pack.

Modern Love is the in-house record label of Boomkat, the online manifestation of Pelicanneck Records in Manchester. Anyone who has ever shopped on the Boomkat site will tell you it's clearly run by some of the hugest music nerds imaginable, with exquisite taste that puts just about everyone else to shame. Needless to say, pretty much every record released on this immaculately curated label is worth owning. If you're not familiar, go over to Boomkat and listen to just about anything from their catalog. When we found out that our good friends at The Communikey Festival of Arts in Boulder were presenting a Modern Love label showcase this year, we had to grab them for a New York date. Their aesthetic fits in so well with everything that Mutek is about that the whole thing just seemed destined to happen. We are truly honored to present Modern Love artists Claro Intellecto, Andy Stott, and MLZ.

Mark Stewart aka Claro Intellecto is one of our favorite producers. His immense talent was evident from very his first release, the "Piece of Mind" EP on Ai in 2003. This EP was one of the most talked about records of that year, and Ricardo Villalobos included on his "Taka Taka" mix CD. Claro's debut album proved that he had the ability to make an amazing, cohesive techno album, a skill that has apparently eluded just about every techno producer we can think of. Since 2005, he has been releasing exclusively for Modern Love. His 5 part Warehouse Sessions 12" series (which was just compiled onto a CD relase this year) saw him strip back his sound to make tracks that devastated dancefloors and huge soundsystems worldwide. Last year's "Metanarrative" LP was another timeless classic album. While his discography is impressive to say the least, he's quite well known for his incredible live set, which has thrilled audiences around the world.

Like Claro Intelecto, Andy Stott is one of the main artists on Modern Love. He has risen from an unknown artist to a celebrated figure in the electronic music world very quickly since his debut 12" was released in 2005. Unlike many of his peers, Andy's sound is not so easy to pin down. He's best known for his dubby techno tracks, but has delved in downtempo experiments and even put out a few dubstep tracks. His ability to cover so many sonic territories with ease helps to explain why his "Merciless" album is such a classic. "Unknown Exception", a kind of "best of" CD collection of tracks previously released on vinyl, also works extremely well as an extraordinary, cohesive album. Andy's stunning remix of Vladislav Delay made it onto Resident Advisor's top 15 remixes of 2008.

Miles Whittaker has been djing and playing live for the last 10 years as MLZ, DJ Miles and other pseudonyms. Known for his genre mashing DJ sets, and willingness to party as much as the crowd, Miles has played at some of the highest profile events of the last 6 years. He's appeared at Berghain's Panorama Bar, twice at Sonar (including one set that was described by The Wire magazine as one of the highlights of the festival), Japan's Labyrinth Festival, Manchester's Futuresonic, and Berlin's Transmediale to name just a few. Miles is one half of Pendle Coven, who have released many brilliant records right from the start of Modern Love. In the past year, he has started to release solo productions as MLZ, which cross-reference everything from Basic Channel to Burial while sounding completely original. He's also responsible for the Millie productions on Modern Love's Daphne offshoot, which are remarkable for both their stunning production values and total disregard for genre barriors.

23-year-old Kevin McAuley, aka Pangaea, began making music with a two-track mixer, a keyboard and a tape deck as a schoolboy. Discovering dubstep via the sounds of Mala in the backroom of a Leeds club in 2005, Kevin was inspired to found the cityís first dubstep night, Ruffage, and launched himself into the studio. Pangaea enters 2009 as an established DJ/producer and co-owner of Hessle Audio with fellow stalwarts Ramadanman and Ben UFO. Their young label is already the subject of much critical acclaim from discerning dubstep and techno fans and responsible for progressive, landmark releases including TRGís "Broken Heart", Ramadanman's "Blimey", Pangaeaís own "Router", and material from likeminded producers Untold and Martyn. Check out Resident Advisor's informative article on the young imprint. His DJ schedule is rapidly picking up pace with consistent bookings across Europe and a burgeoning reputation as a true pioneer behind the decks; a notion backed up by Mary Anne Hobbs who described his recent mix for BBC Radio 1 as “texturally one of the most exquisite mixes of the year…breathtakingly beautiful in every way".

A New York City native, and founder/label manager for the Anticipate and Microcosm labels, Ezekiel Honig concentrates on emotively warm, and largely minimal, music. While being referential of techno and house, and using the loop as more of a tool than a rule, Honig paints outside the lines, striding that blurry area between occasional dance floor sensibility and intriguing, yet heart warming home listening - leaning between a large, expansive view and the most intimate, careful attention to each note, bar and measure. Ambience, soft, colorful tones, found sounds, an occasional dub influence and an affinity for off kilter rhythm edits are all involved in this process, with deceptively simple melodic structures and seemingly random percussive elements and textures - pairing the pure and beautiful with more clunky and dirty "mishaps." Ezekiel has made several appearances at the Bunker in the past, and he always turns heads.