Resident Advisor are celebrating their tenth anniversary with ten parties in different cities. Each party will have a different secret headliner, who will curate the rest of the lineup. NYC gets their party on August 20 at Le Poisson Rouge. According to RA:

We take it the ten parties in ten cities thing is pretty easy to understand, so here's the deal with the secret headliners: each event will feature one carefully selected artist who we think has positively influenced the electronic music landscape over the past decade. Their identities will remain strictly under wraps until they take the stage. Up to that point, each one will be known simply as the X (see what we did there?).

For the US stop, we take over Le Poisson Rouge, a live concert venue in Manhattan. With the live dynamic firmly in mind, the X has curated a line-up that combines Montreal Jazz Festival stars King Sunshine, a nine-piece ensemble that's worked with everyone from Robert Owens to DJ Sneak, with master of all things soulful deep house Peven Everett (live), plus Mala, half of pioneering dubstep duo Digital Mystikz, and Japan's DJ Masashi Nakazawa. The night will close with a performance by the X, an esteemed headliner whose identity will remain unknown until he or she takes the stage.

Tickets for the NYC show are on sale now. Guesses for who "X" is in the RA forum include Francois K, Claude Young, Burial, Nicholas Jaar, Jamie Jones, Kode 9, and Shackleton.

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Note: Secret headliner "X" is not to be confused with the band X who play their album Los Angeles in its entirety for on a tour that includes two nights at Irving Plaza, a show in Asbury Park, and Fun Fun Fun Fest.

photos by Zach Dilgard, words by Edward Hagen

Moderat

The 10th edition of MUTEK wrapped up five packed days of "digital creativity and electronic music" Sunday night (5/31) in Montreal and its tin anniversary met the high expectations of most. Aside from some rainy and cool weather (particularly at Sunday's Piknic Electronik) and occasional in-club line hassles, the extra-long weekend was a remarkable success.

Although known primarily as a minimal and experimental techno festival, MUTEK's organizers have pushed the expected musical boundaries over the years. 2009 was no exception.

Thursday night's Bass Exponential sessions performances at Métropolis and the Savoy side room put some weight behind those words with dub-step and other deep and heavy performances by Appleblim (Skull Disco, Apple Pips), Deadbeat (Wagon Repair), Moderat [guys from Modeselektor + Apparat] (Bpitch Control) and Mala (DMZ). Thursday was ideal for this alternative-to-techno showcase as many festival-goers were just arriving or had yet to arrive.

Over the course of the five Nocturne sessions at Métropolis, the well-supplemented sound system took a beating but delivered across the entire venue, from the pockets of skull shaking bass on the main floor to the crystal clear sound in the balcony. The stage design with layered screens in the main room and the visuals in both rooms were exceptionally well-done, although it wasn't always clear who was behind the impressive lighting effects and projections even with the festival program in hand.

Pictures from Thursday (5/28) below...

Continue reading "Mutek 2009 - in pics & review (part 1) "