For the past several years, XLR8R has repeatedly declared its affinity for the MUTEK family of festivals. Whether we’re attending the flagship edition in Montreal or one of its spin-offs in another country, MUTEK has proven time and again that it’s one of the finest festival organizations on the planet, at least for those with an interest in forward-thinking electronic and experimental sounds. (It’s worth noting that digital art and technology buffs also attend in droves and have plenty to enjoy at the festival.) Given that, we were once again excited to return to Montreal last week, as MUTEK was celebrating its 15th anniversary with an extra-large affair. In fact, this time around, it wasn’t even called MUTEK, as the festival had joined forces with another long-running Montreal event, the more experimentally inclined Elektra, to present something new—EM15. Headquarted in Montreal’s Museé d’Art Contemporain (Contemporary Art Museum), this year’s festivities were arguably bigger than ever; at the same time, most of the week’s events still managed to maintain a decidedly intimate feel. After 15 years, it’s pretty clear that MUTEK’s organizers know what they’re doing, and in honor of their efforts, we’ve catalogued the 15 best bits from the week gone by.

1. Montreal (at least in the summertime) is glorious.

Technically, EM15 probably can’t take credit for the various merits of its host city, but being in Montreal was an absolutely intrinsic part of the festival experience. Where most festivals these days pen thousands of attendees into sprawling spaces, often on the outskirts of a city or in the middle of nowhere, EM15 took place right in the center of downtown Montreal. (The majority of the festivities were at the Museé d’Art Contemporain, but EM15’s other venues were all just a short walk away.) Furthermore, while the week’s schedule had a large volume of artists and activities on offer, the fact that EM15 was spread over six days and nights often meant that attendees had plenty of down time, and that freedom to pop in and out meant that skipping one particular show or set—or even a handful of them—didn’t leave one feeling like they had missed out on a significant chunk of the festival.

More importantly, one could argue that the only people who truly “missed out” on something during EM15 were those who didn’t take the time to explore Montreal. Granted, the weather wasn’t exactly cooperating early in the week, but as the sun slowly emerged and eventually kept on shining, Montreal’s gleaming appeal became more and more apparent. Basically, whether one is leisurely hanging out in a cafe, biking through a sunny park, or gorging on a late-night poutine, it’s hard not to fall in love with the place. Somehow, Montreal manages to be pretty, relaxed, welcoming, fashionable, modern, and full of good food, all without the air of pretension that often permeates cultural hotspots. And while the city would have been like this whether EM15 was happening or not, it speaks to Montreal’s unique character that a relatively niche festival like MUTEK could thrive here for so long.

Richie Hawtin

2. Many of the week’s “big” names were just okay. It didn’t matter.

For the average person, or even the average music fan, the EM15 line-up didn’t feature much in the way of star power. Although more than 100 acts took part, only a handful of truly “big” names stood out, including Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, and Matthew Dear (who performed as Audion). And on the whole, these guys all did, well, pretty much exactly what we expected.

Hawtin actually performed twice, beginning on Wednesday with one of his free outdoor dotUP shows. Put on in collaboration with Red Bull Music Academy on the esplanade next to the Museé d’Art Contemporain, the late afternoon/early evening event was certainly packed, but Hawtin’s minimal approach honestly sounded a bit flat and lifeless in the open air. However, he fared better the next night, when he brought a version of his Ibiza-based ENTER. club night to Montreal’s long-running Métropolis theater, which actually played host to several of EM15’s bigger shows throughout the week. Though he programmed a diverse line-up across two rooms that also included TM404, Marc Houle, and the ambient stylings of his brother Matthew, Hawtin himself was clearly the main attraction, and his stripped-down techno aesthetic felt more lively on the booming Métropolis soundsystem. Even the visuals, which centered around ENTER.’s ubiquitous dot logo, were engaging. The night wasn’t heavy on “wow” moments, but Hawtin still came to EM15 and did what he does; those in attendance ate it up.

The same could be said for Ricardo Villalobos, who also performed twice, albeit in two drastically different ways. Thursday found him teaming up with Max Loderbauer for one of the festival’s audio-visual A/Visions shows; we actually missed that performance—though we were told it was rather ambient and explorative in nature—but we did manage to catch a bit of Villalobos on Saturday night, when he headlined a Métropolis show of his own. The theater’s main dancefloor was absolutely stuffed when he went on, and while we can’t say that we enjoyed his on-stage preening or his predilection for endlessly looping bits of techno, the crowd appeared thrilled with just about everything he did. It seems that this sort of DJ worship has become fairly standard when Villalobos is involved, and though his set may not have been one of our personal highlights, we have little doubt that plenty of punters went home raving about how amazing he was.

Audion: SUBVERTICL (photos by Diego Cupolo)

In contrast, it didn’t seem that the Canadian premiere of Matthew Dear’s new SUBVERTICL show as Audion left many people particularly happy. Featuring a video-mapped, geometric stage design that was put together by the same team behind Amon Tobin’s much-hyped ISAM show, SUBVERTICL didn’t feel particularly innovative; if anything, it looked more like Dear’s attempt at making something palatable for the EDM festival generation. Even the music felt like generic, big-room techno, as opposed to the raw, snarling sounds that made Audion such an exciting project when it first appeared a decade ago.

At this point, it might be easy to infer that we were disappointed in the top tier of EM15’s line-up. In all honesty though, all of these artists were absolutely fine; perhaps we wanted something better from Audion, but on the whole, none of these acts were offensively bad. In essence, they all did exactly what they were expected to do. Even if their sounds or shows weren’t the most innovative, engaging, or entertaining, the wider appeal of these acts undoubtedly played a role in enabling the festival organizers to fill the week with all sorts of cutting-edge programming. If a few hours of festival techno was the price for making that happen, we were more than happy to pay the cost.

3. We were worried about Nicolas Jaar’s five-hour set, but we were wrong. He was absolutely triumphant.

Heading into EM15, Nicolas Jaar was another one of the festival’s major acts, but the announcement that he would be putting together a special five-hour, improvised set to close out the festival on Sunday night at the Museé d’Art Contemporain left us concerned. Few artists would have the courage—some might say the ego—to take on a performance of that length, yet Jaar has long been someone who strives to create something unique. His EM15 performance was billed as a continuation of his From Scratch series, in which he creates elongated and entirely improvised sets with the assistance of several collaborators; leading up to the festival, the concept was intriguing, but the danger of Jaar conjuring up something that was ultimately a giant exercise in self-indulgence felt very real.

However, as it turned out, we were wrong. Very wrong. Arriving about halfway through his five-hour session—and apparently missing a rather noodly beginning—we found Jaar and his team perched on a stage in the center of the Nocturne room, playing in the round. Jaar himself operated an Ableton set-up, a turntable (which he often used to sample and loop records on the fly), and some other devices, and he was primarily assisted on stage by a multi-instrumentalist who hopped between piano, synth, and saxophone, along with a large array of FX pedals. Also on stage was what appeared to be a sound engineer, as was Dutch audiovisual artist Tarik Barri, who directed a dazzling array of swirling imagery around the room, though his work was primarily projected onto a large screen that was suspended from the ceiling over the stage. A female vocalist also floated in and out of the proceedings, and Jaar crew was rounded out by a contemporary dancer, who intermittently did her thing on another stage at the far end of the room.

While the dancer perhaps felt somewhat superfluous, that was truly our only gripe with Jaar’s performance, as the two-and-a-half hours we witnessed were absolutely spellbinding. The set didn’t feature proper “songs” per se, but it did unfold in movements; often stretching for 20 or 30 minutes in length, they usually began with a patch of ambient noise or a sample looped from Jaar’s stack of vinyl. From there, the young artist and his compatriots would gradually build upon the track, layering additional sounds and swelling the intensity levels. Eventually, bits of percussion would enter the mix, and once a proper 4/4 kick was added to the sprawling, bubbling mass of sound, the room—which, it should be noted, was limited to only a couple of hundred people—would explode in elation. Throughout it all, Jaar kept his cool, calmly directing traffic and masterfully applying the concept of tension and release. Furthermore, he touched on countless genres over the course of the performance, and seemed equally comfortable with them all; his take on acid-laced techno was just as engrossing as his jazzy, saxophone-laden soundtrack music. Admittedly, people have been singing Jaar’s praises for years now, and his interest in improvised music is nothing new either, but EM15 was nonetheless a place where one could easily see that Jaar had truly come into his own. On Sunday night, he was confident, he had a focused vision, and, most importantly, he offered up some very fine music.

Ben Frost (photo by Caroline Hayeur)

4. Ben Frost was the second-best thing we saw all week.

Up until Sunday night, we were telling everyone that Australian-born, Iceland-based Ben Frost‘s show was the best thing we saw all week. In the end, Nicolas Jaar swooped in at the last minute to grab the top spot, but we should be clear that there was absolutely nothing wrong with Frost’s headlining set on Thursday night’s Nocturne bill at the Museé d’Art Contemporain. Fresh off the release of his new album, A U R O R A, Frost actually delivered what was easily one of the most intense—and riveting—performances of the week. Flanked by two drummers on either end of the stage, he unleashed a brawny, percussion-heavy assault that married his fuzzy melodics with a sort of heavy-metal aesthetic; amazingly, it worked. Without being too reductive, the show was something like Lightning Bolt crossed with Tim Hecker; equally punishing and soothing, the music was also incredibly loud, which only added to the power of the performance. There was something restorative about being enveloped by Frost’s sonic storm, and when the show came to an end in the early hours of Friday morning, it was apparent that much of the crowd left the room feeling absolutely invigorated.

Tim Hecker (photo by Caroline Hayeur)

5. Napping has never sounded so good.

Throughout the week, a certain phrase—or some version of it—could be heard from attendees again and again: “I fell asleep.” Normally, this would be a terrible sign for a festival, as putting people to sleep is rarely touted as an indicator of success. But in the case of EM15, most of the people who mentioned this phenomenon were absolutely delighted, as many of the week’s performances were specifically designed to be thoughtful, serene experiences. During the first few days of the festival, the Salle BWR at the Museé d’Art Contemporain was ground zero for these sedate sounds, beginning with Tim Hecker‘s “Fog Works” performances on Tuesday night. The Montreal native and noted noise manipulator has long been a MUTEK regular, so it came as little surprise that he was tapped to anchor EM15’s opening night with two shows. However, his methods were anything but the usual, as “Fog Works” proved to be a quite literal title; Hecker actually filled the Salle BWR with fog, to the point where those in attendance could only see a few feet in front of their faces. Hecker himself was completely obscured, and only some sparse lights, which varied in intensity over the course of the show, added any sort of visual stimulation. Given that, most attendees simply sat or laid down on the floor, and subsequently allowed Hecker’s waves of sound to wash over them. Being in that room was akin to being in some kind of sensory deprivation chamber, and as the show proceeded, it was easy to feel separated from one’s own body. As such, nodding off—and even hallucinating a bit—was par for the course, and the effects were only heightened by the music’s absorptive nature. In truth, “Fog Works” was less a concert and more of an “experience,” though that was truly nothing to complain about.

Less immersive but similarly enjoyable were a couple of performances the following night in the Salle BWR. We caught the tail end of Brooklyn’s Jonas Reinhardt, who presented his recent album Ganymeade and its accompanying experimental film. The room was once again filled with patient listeners sprawled out across the floor, and the soft, distortion-laced soundscapes lulled the crowd into a blissful state. The number of catatonic festivalgoers only increased when Neel came on next, as the Italian producer dialed things down further while delivering an expansive ambient set. All across the room, eyes grew heavy and people made themselves cozy as he played, but the rapturous applause at the completion of his set indicated that nobody was unhappy with the evening’s somnambulant vibe.

Jonas Reinhardt (photo by Caroline Hayeur)

6. Breakcore might be back, and Lee Bannon could be its king.

XLR8R has devoted a lot of attention to Lee Bannon over the past year, much of it commenting on the Brooklyn producer’s prowess with old-school jungle and drum & bass rhythms. However, after seeing Bannon perform on Saturday night at the Museé d’Art Contemporain, another genre descriptor came to mind: breakcore. Make no mistake, jungle and drum & bass are both key elements of Bannon’s sound, but watching him play brought to mind the late-’90s/early-’00s heyday of Kid606. Whether it’s the highly sample-intensive nature of the music being presented—as far as we can tell, Bannon was looping classic drum & bass riffs, not creating his own—or the music’s glitchy, stop-and-start presentation, the performance felt a lot more like Tigerbeat6 than Metalheadz. This felt especially true when Bannon irreverently dropped in his own takes on old-school anthems like Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker” and Adam F’s “Circles.” Nevertheless, this observation isn’t meant as a critique; in truth, there was something absolutely refreshing about Bannon and his hyperactive jungle rhythms. After a week full of well-mannered techno and thoughtful experimental fare, his raucous sounds provided a genuine change of pace, and it was hard not to notice that more than a few people in the crowds threw up their gun hands in response.

Shackleton (photo by Caroline Hayeur)

7. Nobody sounds like Shackleton. This is a good thing.

Following the recent cancellation of his US tour dates due to visa issues, it was a relief that Shackleton was still able to cross the Atlantic and come perform at EM15. Headlining Wednesday night’s Nocturne bill at the Museé d’Art Contemporain, Shackleton offered up his usual routine, which is increasingly becoming impossible to describe. In recent years, the Skull Disco co-founder has gradually forged a uniquely hybrid sound; although he’s undoubtedly informed by the UK bass continuum, there’s a sort of tribal, even tropical, bent to his rhythms, which have also become more and more unorthodox. When combined with his preference for dark and ominous sounds, Shackleton’s music is something wholly unique. All of these elements were on display at EM15, and though it would be hard to describe what he presented as strictly dance music, the room was unquestionably peppered with adventurous souls who still attempted to dance and flail along. The only drawback was that the Nocturne room could have used a bit more bass weight—this was a problem throughout the week and one of the only repeated complaints about the venue—but the music itself was excellent nonetheless.

Space Dimension Controller (photo by Diego Cupolo)

8. Space Dimension Controller was a highly enjoyable surprise.

MUTEK has long had a tradition of leaving a few slots open for surprise guests, and EM15 was no different, as the closing slot at Saturday afternoon/evening’s Expérience 3 event—which ran from 2 to 10 p.m. in the esplanade next to the Museé d’Art Contemporain—was left unannounced until the last minute, at which point Belfast producer Space Dimension Controller showed up to deliver an incredibly fun and light-hearted DJ set. Spinning for two-and-a-half hours, he moved through disco, house, electro, and all of the upbeat areas in between, perking up the crowd considerably in the process. It’s not that those in attendance weren’t having a good time before he arrived; in fact, Montreal’s own Prison Garde, who performed with the assistance of Ango (a regular contributor to the project), presented an impressive live set of melody-streaked house earlier in the afternoon. Still, EM15 had generally been a pretty heady affair up until that point. As such, by the time Saturday had arrived, it was truly invigorating to hear someone drop in with a DJ set that featured a few feelgood anthems that everyone knew. Whether he was playing Todd Terje, Prince, or something from deeper in his crates, Space Dimension Controller was exactly what we needed before another night of serious beats.

Lucrecia Dalt (photo by Diego Cupolo)

9. Lucrecia Dalt was weird and wonderful.

Throughout the week, EM15 and Red Bull Music Academy teamed up for the Expérience series, which presented free shows each afternoon on the esplanade next to the Museé d’Art Contemporain. As mentioned above, the series played host to Space Dimension Controller and Prison Garde on Saturday—JTC was also on that bill—but a number of talented acts graced the stage earlier in the week. Standout sets included the plinking beatwork of Japan’s Yosi Horikawa and the propulsive sounds of Austrian trio Elektro Guzzi, which ostensibly makes live techno with a traditional bass-drums-guitar rock set-up, but the series’ real revelation was Lucrecia Dalt. The Colombian-born, Berlin-based artist likely would have been served better by a darker, more intimate venue, but her delicate, avant-garde stylings still managed to shine in Thursday’s late-afternoon sun. Armed with a bass and a small array of noise-creating devices, not to mention her subtle, breathy vocals, Dalt’s set presented an engaging counterpoint to a week full of producers stoically perched behind their gear. It’s not that she was playing pop songs, but she did occasionally tread upon pop structures, only to quickly retreat back into an airy sonic expanse. Her music looped and twisted for nearly an hour, bringing to mind shades of artists like Grouper, Julia Holter, and Julianna Barwick, but Dalt’s music was arguably weirder and more unconventional—it was certainly less linear and less tied to traditional notions of songwriting. Comparisons aside, it was an excellent session of music, and one that has us excited to see what Dalt has in store for us in the months and years ahead.

Voices from the Lake (photo by Diego Cupolo)

10. Despite some technical snags, Voices from the Lake’s trippy techno sounded great.

Voices from the Lake was tasked with opening up Friday’s festivites at Métropolis, which had filled up especially early that night. The Italian duo of Donato Dozzy and Neel is still riding high off its self-titled LP from 2012, not to mention its recent single for The Bunker New York, and there was a palatable level of anticipation amongst EM15 attendees to see the pair in action. At first, some technical issues threatened to derail the party, as the visibly upset duo actually had to stop the music entirely about 45 minutes into the proceedings. However, from that point on, things went smoothly as the pair set about unspooling its washy, loosely psychedelic techno over the course of the next hour. With two veteran acts at the helm, the sound quality alone was impressive, as was the enveloping nature of the music. As it turned out, it was arguably the night’s best set, and our only regret was that it came to an end before midnight.

Heatsick (photo by Caroline Hayeur)

11. Heatsick can do amazing things with an old Casio.

Later on Friday night, the Nocturne line-up at the Museé d’Art Contemporain was headlined by Heatsick. The Berlin-based PAN affiliate is known for his rudimentary set-up, and sure enough, he came to EM15 with just an old Casio keyboard and a few pedals. It would be easy for a project like this to delve into kitsch and general silliness, but Heatsick’s set showed a real depth and artistic vision that transcended his limited tools. Though many of the individual sounds were cheap or thin, his knack for live assembly and composition resulted in a session of genuinely compelling house music. Interestingly enough, the vibe was somewhat tropical, probably because he relied upon the Casio’s built-in “samba” setting or some other vaguely Latin sound palette that often came standard in those devices. Furthermore, it was all characterized by a sort of loose swing, likely due to the fact that so much of it was being played by hand; regardless, it lent the music a sort of free-flowing spirit, and kept the dancefloor moving.

Prison Garde (photo by Diego Cupolo)

12. Iron Galaxy’s first live show was impressive.

Low-key producer Iron Galaxy has been on our radar for some time as one of Montreal’s hidden talents—he was the subject of one of our Bubblin’ Up profiles last year—and Saturday night found the project debuting its live show for the very first time. Producer Adam Hodgins was at the helm, but he enlisted fellow Montreal artists Dave Shaw and Francis Latreille to help him man the small fleet of gear on stage at Métropolis. With only an hour to perform and a room that was slow to fill up, the trio’s show initially faced a daunting atmosphere, but Iron Galaxy rose to the challenge, presenting a melodic, synth-driven brand of house—with occasional forays into techno and electro—that sounded great. The trio looked—and sounded—at home on the big stage, and the set brought to mind fellow Montrealer Jacques Greene’s debut live set at MUTEK a few years ago. That was one of our favorite performances back in 2011, and this one was similarly superb.

JTC (photo by Diego Cupolo)

13. Piknic Electronik has exploded.

Each year, one of MUTEK’s highlights is Piknic Electronik, a Sunday afternoon, open-air party that takes place on Montreal’s Parc Jean-Drapeau. In truth, Piknic Elektronik is a weekly series that happens every Sunday during the summer in Montreal, but the MUTEK edition always features an especially high-quality line-up curated by the festival’s organizers. EM15 kept the Piknic Electronik tradition alive this year, and presented DJ sets from the likes of Donato Dozzy, Move D (who had also performed the night before alongside Juju & Jordash as Magic Mountain High), Ricardo Villalobos, dubstep veteran Pinch (who had also performed on Saturday night at the festival), and others. Many of the artists even seemed to tailor their music to fit the vibe of a sunny Montreal afternoon, which meant that the Piknic soundtrack was, as always, just about perfect.

Still, there was something noticeably different about the EM15 Piknic—it was insanely crowded. Apparently, the 2014 season of Piknic has been greeted with sudden spike in popularity, and attendance has skyrocketed. While this meant that the party was especially popping, it also resulted in some unexpected growing pains, including some absurdly long lines and what could only be described as a worrisome number of “party bros” (and whatever the female equivalent of a “party bro” is called) in the crowd. Let’s put it this way—never before has a MUTEK-related event been attended by so many musclehead dudes in fluorescent tank tops. That being said, we should be clear that regardless of the higher-than-usual “bro” quotient at this year’s Piknic, it was undoubtedly a fun afternoon and one of the festival’s highlights. Sure, there may have been more squealing girls and cheeseball dudes in the audience than we expected, but they ultimately did little to detract from the high-quality tunes and the park’s idyllic surroundings.

Archie Pelago (photo by Caroline Hayeur)

14. EM15 presented a real abundance of quality acts.

Although we won’t go into detail about each and every set we witnessed throughout the week, the collection of artists assembled for EM15 was rather impressive to behold, especially now that the festival has concluded. Apart from the folks we’ve already mentioned, the festivities included performances from Oneohtrix Point Never, Archie Pelago, Holly Herndon, Max Cooper, Egyptrixx, Marc Houle, Kangding Ray, Mike Shannon, Robert Henke, Rashad Becker, Tom Trago, The Mole, and literally dozens of others. EM15 may not have been for everyone, but there’s no denying that those names alone offer quite a variety of sounds—at least within the electronic spectrum—and the festival deserves a lot of credit for bringing them all together in a remarkably cohesive fashion.

15. At EM15, even the most elaborate festivities felt personal.

After six days and nights at a festival, it would be normal to feel absolutely exhausted, but as we sit now, we honestly feel just fine, and that’s a credit to EM15’s organizers. On the whole, this year’s festivities were incredibly large in scope; even if one discounts all of the lectures, panel discussions, exhibitions, and daytime performances, there were several evenings when EM15 had four or five different rooms going simultaneously across multiple venues. At the same time, apart from the surprisingly stuffed Piknic Elektronik and Saturday night’s Ricardo Villalobos set at Métropolis, the festival felt rather, well, relaxed. And no, that’s not a clever way of saying that EM15 wasn’t well attended; on the contrary, even the week’s lower-profile events seemed to attract a decent crowd. It’s just that the crowds were never larger than they needed to be; more importantly, they were by and large populated by died-in-the-wool fans of the music being presented.

After 15 years in the game, the MUTEK organizers know their audience, and it’s safe to assume that their partners from Elektra know theirs. As such, EM15 was planned in such a way that attendees would not only be entertained, but would be able to experience the week’s plethora of music and activities in a way that was both comfortable and optimized presentation without sacrificing comfort. MUTEK has always put a premium on production, even when doing so is expensive or impractical. As such, the sound at EM15 was generally excellent. As expected, the visual element was always attended to as well, whether it was lighting or stage design or something more elaborate. EM15 wasn’t about making money, or putting on an ostentatious event; it was painstakingly designed to present an authentic, singular experience for those in attendance, and in that sense, the festival was an unqualified success.

Over the past weekend, XLR8R made the trip to Barcelona in order to attend the annual Primavera Sound festival. Now in its 14th year, Primavera has grown to become a world-recognized gathering, one whose curation leans heavily towards the more respectable ends of indie rock and pop, while dedicating a portion of its line-up to a select range of electronic talents. Navigating the 12-stage event for the principal three days of the festival, XLR8R had the opportunity to take in a bevy of live acts and DJ sets while continuously trotting around Barcelona’s seaside Parc Del Forum; in the aftermath, we’ve compiled the eight key takeaways which, for better or worse, left a lasting impression following our weekend at Primavera Sound.

The Pitchfork Stage and surrounding Parc Del Forum

1. Jamie xx loves disco.

Though this has never been a closely guarded secret, Jamie xx has quite an affinity for classic disco sounds and their related offshoots. Grabbing strictly vinyl for his opening 60-minute session on Thursday (Primavera’s first official night), Jamie xx laid down a well-paced run of horn-heavy, funk-laced disco tracks, touching on bits of vintage electro and soul along the way. This was exactly what the party needed to get started at 9 p.m. on a Thursday, with his selections proving to be both effortlessly fun and playfully disarming. The music certainly went over extremely well with the jam-packed crowd inside the Bowers & Wilkins + Boiler Room tent, which could hardly have fit another person by the time Jamie xx took to the decks. Appearing for a more “proper” DJ set much later in the night (actually, 4 a.m. the next morning), the UK DJ/producer’s love of disco still echoed amongst a mix of his own tunes and a tasteful selection of moodier cuts from contemporary producers. That said, while this late-night endeavor showcased plenty of skill, it ultimately paled in comparison to Jamie xx’s earlier set, in which he had easily gotten the party started just a few hours before.

Top: Jamie xx; Bottom: View from inside the Bowers & Wilkins + Boiler Room tent

2. Fort Romeau is a solid DJ.

Again, this shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise, but if there were any doubts concerning Fort Romeau‘s abilities behind the decks before his set on Thursday night at the Bowers & Wilkins + Boiler Room tent, he quickly and completely laid them to rest. Beginning at midnight, the London-based Ghostly affiliate built up a solid dancefloor, running through a well-balanced selection of chord-heavy house tracks that favored juicy pianos, purple synths, and rounded, active basslines. At times, his set did not sound too far off from what one might expect to hear an artist like Motor City Drum Ensemble throw down, favoring low-swung grooves and Detroit-indebted bits of luscious soul. Still, Fort Romeau did not stay in any particular corner for longer than necessary, connecting the dots between spacey, synth-led house and tunes flushed with pulsing Rhodes and Juno stabs. The most surprising turn of the 90-minute set came when Fort Romeau snuck in Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”; the track shouldn’t have made as much sense as it did in that moment, yet it elicited some of the weekend’s biggest smiles—right up until it was painstakingly teased out and replaced by another grooving track.

3. FKA Twigs is on to something.

At first glance, it was hard not to be a touch skeptical of FKA Twigs as she took to Primavera’s Pitchfork stage with a three-piece ensemble on Friday evening. Considering her recent ascent up the indie-music hype ladder, her attire for the day (think Salt-N-Pepa meets Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes meets rain gear from the future), and the fact that the only real instrument on stage was a single guitar, one could easily have imagined that the XL/Young Turks-signed artist was about to offer up something far more self-servingly artsy than substantive. These initial impressions, however, turned out to be very short-sighted, as FKA Twigs’ performance was actually an utterly captivating affair. Utilizing no backing tracks, the “band” triggered sparse rhythms, chords, melodies, and FX from a series of MIDI drum pads (each member controlled at least two), while FKA Twigs concentrated on her vocal performance, displaying a great deal of control as she led each slow, jagged endeavor with her graceful voice. The outfit’s set was by no means perfect—the band at times had trouble syncing together, and there were one or two minor technical hiccups along the way—but these did little to take away from the overall performance which was, when at its best, remarkably powerful and engaging. Unbreakably intense during her vocal parts, FKA Twigs was surprisingly endearing between songs, her banter making her seem genuinely overwhelmed by and grateful for the love the crowd gave her each time a song concluded. In a musical landscape swelling with dubious alt-R&B personalities, FKA Twigs proved to be the real thing at Primavera.

Top: FKA Twigs from the crowd; Bottom: Factory Floor on the Pitchfork Stage

4. Factory Floor is fantastic live.

Last year’s self-titled LP from Factory Floor was a benchmark for the DFA outfit, finding the trio funneling all its experience in the realm of UK post-punk and no wave into sharp dance cuts led by fervent synth sequences and driving machine rhythms. At Primavera, the group’s live set was about as accurate a representation of that as possible, with the unrelenting pulses heard on record magnified by the group’s live presence and the fact that one was surrounded by a few thousand fellow revelers. Basically, one had to really force themselves not to dance while Factory Floor took to the Pitchfork stage on Friday night, as the three-piece laid down its energized, back-to-basics dance music with hardly a lull in momentum (and absolutely no applause breaks) during its 60-minute run. (It should also be pointed out that the performance featured some of the festival’s best visual accompaniments.) With one member (Dominic Butler) manning the “mothership” of laptop and FX, another (Nik Colk Void) played bass, keyboards, and occasionally sang—through layers of manipulation—into a mic on a select few cuts. Still, it was the drummer (Gabriel Gurnsey) who was working the hardest, adding a live touch and moments of unpredictability to the proceedings. Together, the trio forged an enthralling flurry of no-bullshit dance music that came and went far too quickly.

5. The Range and SBTRKT needed some work.

There is really no other way to say it: During the course of Primavera, the only two artists that truly fell short of our expectations were The Range and SBTRKT. In each of their defenses, the cards did seem stacked up against them to a certain degree. On Thursday night, The Range was tasked with delivering a DJ set to one of the smallest audiences to gather at the Pitchfork stage all weekend (likely due in part to the fact that Andy Stott was performing just a 10-minute walk away). Still, the Rhode Island-based producer did himself few favors, sounding rushed as he ran through a clunky set of glowing future beats, re-fixed R&B tracks, and the numerous juke-indebted permutations of bass music. The speed bumps were many, especially considering how fast The Range attempted to switch between tracks, hardly letting a selection play for more than 40 or 50 seconds. Spinning for just over an hour, the Stateside producer failed to lock into any sort of groove or build much palpable momentum during his time behind the decks, and a few minor trainwrecks also seemed to further signal that he was in the midst of an off night.

By all accounts, SBTRKT was one of Primavera’s Friday-night headliners, as he was slated to give the final performance on festival’s large ATP stage. In anticipation, a substantial gathering of fans had amassed in front of the stage, where a few spontaneous acapella versions of “Wildfire” and “Something Goes Right” sprang up in anticipation. However, from the moment SBTRKT (now performing a three-piece live act with a dedicated drummer and without Sampha serving as a regular member) stepped onto the stage, it was clear that technical problems were afoot. The trio’s opening jam seemed to be a test of the system, which led SBTRKT himself to call for a stagehand to come and attempt to fix the issues; still, nothing seemed to be completely resolved. Even with Sampha appearing on a few songs towards the middle of the set and adding some much-needed energy to the performance, SBTRKT struggled to build any sort of momentum as technical difficulties continued to plague the set. When the show concluded, SBTRKT actually thanked the audience for their patience. It was a shame really, as the few new songs the trio managed to partly pull off sounded promising. Whether it was caused by factors out of the group’s control or was simply the result of a lack of preparation, the technical issues were immensely frustrating and resulted in an underwhelming headlining performance.

6. We have no idea what to do with ourselves during a Haxan Cloak performance.

As it turns out, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, London-based sound designer and multi-instrumentalist The Haxan Cloak delivered one of the more spellbinding sets of the festival. Performing inside what had largely been a dancefloor-friendly venue, the Bowers & Wilkins + Boiler Room tent, The Haxan Cloak wasted no time completely changing gears. As such, some of those left over from the techy DJ set that preceded him were unsure of what to do with themselves as the Tri Angle-affiliated artist began to construct dense webs of sound. We elected to just stand in awe as The Haxan Cloak’s visceral soundscapes and intense, methodical rhythms formed, shifted, and pushed their way through the custom soundsystem at what seemed like the “Loud as Fuck” setting. Though his set was only 45 minutes in length, The Haxan Cloak’s impact was deeply felt, as his immense textures morphed through both evil and gorgeous forms while he unraveled a series of vividly dark compositions.

Top: Outside the Bowers & Wilkins + Boiler Room tent on Friday night; Bottom: One of four custom speaker stacks for the Bowers & Wilkins Sound System

7. The Bowers & Wilkins Sound System was as good as advertised.

In anticipation of the Primavera festival, last week we had a quick Q+A session with British hi-fi speaker designers Bowers & Wilkins, who had specifically built an ambitious custom soundsystem for the festival’s appropriately named Bowers & Wilkins + Boiler Room tent. Housed inside the rounded, igloo-shaped Igloovision tent (which displayed custom live visuals in its upper ring all throughout the festival), four main speaker stacks made up the system that powered some of the best DJ sets and live performances of the weekend. During our discussion with B&W, the company had stressed its goal of using the opportunity at Primavera to produce clean, hi-quality sound for a new audience, and in that respect, it surely succeeded. To call the system “mind blowing” would be to go too far, but perhaps that is because good sound isn’t necessarily something that is beyond comprehension—one knows it when they hear it. As a variety of electronic styles pushed through its system across Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, the Bowers & Wilkins Sound System consistently sounded crisp and intelligible; its low-end material was robust, but still detailed, and the highs and mids remained present without becoming harsh. Rarely did it sound like the system was struggling or being overworked by the musical content, and—though it may sound like a small observation—the snares and claps on tracks noticeably cut through the tent without being overbearing.

Again, to say that B&W had created a perfect listening environment would be an overstatement; quite frankly, even a great sound system is bound to be compromised by the audience chatter and revelry that any good dancefloor is bound to have. Still, those who paid attention were impressed, and those who didn’t reaped the benefits of B&W’s labor nontheless.

Top: John Talabot; Bottom: Genius of Time’s live set

8. John Talabot and the Hivern Discs showcase stole the show.

Primavera’s Saturday session—the last full day of the festival—seemed to bring many extra busloads of people to the Parc Del Forum, as every stage’s crowd extended out a few more feet than it had in the days before. The Bowers & Wilkins + Boiler Room tent (which, for those who haven’t figured it out yet, is where we spent a majority of our time at Primavera) was no different, which came as little surprise considering the home field advantage held by John Talabot and his Hivern Discs label showcase. From the beginning moments of Talabot’s opening set at 9 p.m. on Saturday, the tent was filled to capacity; even those stuck four or five feet beyond the stage’s enclosure were dancing anyway. Starting off the night strong, the Barcelona-based DJ delved into a remarkably musical set, focusing on disco-related sounds with bits of soulful house and synthy electronics peppered throughout. Spinning for just an hour, Talabot could basically do no wrong in the eyes of the crowd, and seemed to use this freedom to try out a number of different musical corners; sweeping strings would give way to lush piano chords, which would then land on tribal percussion pieces, and so on. As long as the music was fun and a bit funky, everything seemed to be fair game.

Off to an excellent start, the Hivern Discs showcase was basically the only place that fans of quality electronic music needed to be for the rest of Primavera’s Saturday night. Following Talabot’s run, the tent remained packed with dancers for the better part of the next 9 hours, with DJ sets from Dani R Baughman, Marc Piñol, and Mattis With (of the Michael and Mattis pair) proving to be especially impressive. In addition, live sets from New Jackson and Swedish duo Genius of Time kept things moving nicely—the former delivered dreamy house-pop hybrids with languid grooves, synth solos, and vocoded voice, while the latter outfit pieced together an exceptional mix of live house, utilizing a large array of synths and sequencers and occasionally playing lead lines by hand on a handful of synthesizers. Looking back, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what stylistic throughline connected the Hivern Discs family’s offerings at Primavera. It seems the label has a noticeable appreciation for musical personality, and that is what shined through during the course of its showcase. The DJs and artists, though like-minded, were allowed to follow their own muse, and it resulted in a fantastically varied party, one which was expertly finished off by Talabot, Piñol, and others together as the “Hivern DJs.” With that, the entire showcase ensured that Primavera Sound ended on one of its highest notes.

The festival gates

Some final thoughts.

One thing was clear during the course of Primavera: a festival is a festival is a festival. Despite being halfway across the world, the four-day gathering was strikingly similar to many of its American counterparts; though civil and never too time-consuming, lines were constantly forming and disbanding, drugs were had by many, corporate sponsors abounded, and disregarded beer cups and bottles were strewn all over the grounds. In other words, Primavera fit the mold of the modern-day festival. However, this did not turn out to be an entirely bad thing. Though frustrating and understimulating at times, Primavera’s organizers did appear to put a good deal of effort into creating platforms for unique musical experiences, especially in terms of its electronic selections, which were not the focus of the festival’s line-up by any means, but were still well curated and attended. In the end, this almost made the weekend’s select electronic events seem a bit more exclusive—while most everyone else was running off to see bands like The National, The Pixies, and Kendrick Lamar, the congregation of dance music heads had their own little world to exist within. When the music was right, and the vibes were good, something about it all felt really special.