- Within electronic music circles, MUTEK generally gets high marks. Year after year, the Montreal-based organization brings together music, art and technology in a fairly seamless fashion while slowly expanding its reach across the globe. Of all the MUTEK offshoots, MUTEK.MX has proven itself to be the strongest. 2015 was the festival's 12th year in the Mexican capital.
MUTEK.MX has incredible home-field advantage. With its multi-day schedule and multi-venue layout, the festival provides a wide view of Mexico City, with plenty of downtime to explore the sprawling metropolis. Visitors will find the city remarkably cheap and culturally rich. It's easy to rave about the incredible food, but there's so much more to discover: lush greenery, expansive parks, a wide array of world-class museums, open-air markets, trendy shops, ancient ruins, vibrant street life and other highlights too numerous to list.
But MUTEK.MX 2015 would have been a resounding success even without all that, thanks in large part to the impressive Mexican artists on the bill. Past editions of MUTEK.MX have seen local acts stuck in side rooms or playing early sets. In 2015, though, something changed. This year's festival was full of Mexican artists playing at all hours of the night. More importantly, their music and visuals were right up there with what their international peers were offering.
White Visitation, who we profiled in a Breaking Through feature earlier this year, was an absolute revelation. Playing live for the first time in two years, he closed a room that had rapidly emptied out following a blindingly good performance from Shackleton. Nevertheless, he rose to the challenge, filling the space (and the dance floor) with dense layers of distortion and thunderous bursts of tribal drums. The set was dark, ominous, and weird, often going without percussion for long stretches of time, but it was utterly captivating.
He wasn't the only one. Friday night at the Fotomuseo Cuatro Caminos—a cavernous, recently opened photography museum—included a domineering live session from Mexico City's A-rp, whose gnarled techno channeled both Suicide and Aphex Twin. The next night, Monterrey producer Erreopeo presented a blistering set of ravey, hi-speed techno as his aqua-haired partner Nikita Milano generated an intense blur of rainbow visuals. They followed Mexico City's Durant, whose slamming bass-weight punished the dance floor as EHO's meticulous live coding was projected onto the big screen behind them.
Earlier in the week, a live set from Los Mekanikos injected a bit of lighthearted fun into the dark basement setting of Thursday night's Play 2 event, especially when the two men stepped away from their gear and busted out a few choreographed dance moves. Next was the live debut of Mexico City's Superstudio, whose tech house-leaning creations were augmented by an impressive overhead lighting rig.
Of all the Mexican artists, however, it was local shapeshifter AAAA that made the biggest impression as he joined forces with Tin Man for a special set as Tin MAAAAn. The two tweaked knobs side by side while opening up the Fotomuseo's main room on Saturday night, delivering an engrossing set of twitchy, acid-inflected techno. Even if the joint project proves to be a one off, it's obvious AAAA is brimming with talent.
The international acts also played a major role in the festival's success. On Thursday night, Lena Willikens—who was unable to walk or stand properly following an accident earlier in the week—put together a raucous DJ set while sitting in a chair with her left leg in a giant brace. Paula Temple closed out the night with a cracking hour of noisy, distorted techno.
Techno often proved to be MUTEK's dominant sound. Friday saw James Place, AKA Styles Upon Styles co-founder Phil Tortoroli, deliver a striking set of brooding rhythms boosted by politically charged vocal samples, while John Roberts crafted engagingly melodic, off-kilter sounds. On Saturday, Italian duo Voices From The Lake presented their usual long-form dramatics before Atom™ and Tobias took over with an expert session of subtle shifts and machine-like precision.
Even Ben UFO got into the techno spirit, closing out Friday's sweltering main room with a flurry of slamming kick drums and ravey flourishes before turning up the tempo even further with a jungle set to finish the night. More breakneck rhythms came from Warp Records mainstay Clark, whose bass-loaded style whipped the dance floor into a frenzy. This was after Takami Nakamoto (of French outfit Nonotak) and drummer Sebastian Benoits' booming, light-fueled "Reflections" show left hundreds of jaws agape.
Alessandro Cortini wasn't helped by his room's underpowered soundsystem on Friday night, but those who inched close enough to the stage were treated to his billowing synth explorations. Lucrecia Dalt was one of MUTEK's quieter acts, but her captivating avant-garde pop and eerie electronics lulled the room into a blissful trance.
A similar mood dominated Wednesday's A/Vision event, which took place at the dazzling Teatro De La Ciudad. The evening found Koreless pairing his swirling melodics with lasers, mylar and a giant mechanical apparatus piloted by artist Emmanuel Biard. Martin Messier's elaborate modular setup, crunchy electronics and illuminated wiring was oddly engrossing, and the latest rendition of Robert Henke's visually stunning Lumière show ended things on a high note.
Much like its Montreal counterpart, MUTEK.MX once again skewed towards the heady and experimental, yet nearly every event was sold out. The local scene in Mexico City has come a long way over the past few years, but events like this are still a rarity, and it's clear that people genuinely appreciate the festival's continued existence. The mostly local crowd was unpretentious and determined to make even the weirdest musical offerings into a party. Given the rosy outlook for electronic music in their hometown, it was hard to blame them.
Photo credit: Elizabeth Cacho