Fly the Boho Flag High: Shash’U and Montreal’s Hybrid Spirit

Ray-Ban and Boiler Room are back at SXSW Festival with an exclusive showcase presented by Kaytranada. Keep your eyes peeled for artist announcements everyday this week.
–

Montreal is, in a lot of ways, a model for how a 21st century city can build a clear personality of its own from a pile-up of history and modern influences. As the largest city in Quebec, it is at the forefront of French-Canadian identity, culturally half a step removed from the rest of the country, and with more than a hint of rebel spirit about it. But it is also hugely ethnically diverse, with distinct communities from the Lebanese to the Haitian – it’s the kind of place where you might easily walk past a Cypriot Social Club to see a bunch of old Greek men playing chess and conversing away in French.

All of which add up to a city where hybridity and unpredictability are celebrated, and which punches well above its weight in the production of innovative and interesting musicians. We’re super-happy that Kaytranada brought Montreal’s Shash’U on board for our Ray-Ban x SXSW show, because he’s emblematic of precisely this character: his fusions of R&B, hip hop and electronic more obtuse, but still groove-based, experimentalism don’t come of any self-conscious desire to disrupt any one genre or the other, but more from a very natural sense that hybridity is how culture works. And to celebrate his participation, here are ten more of his hometown compadres who have added to the richness of the electronic music landscape:

Jacques Greene
One main pillar of the Quebec-Scotland love affair, Jacques Greene has been a mainstay of the LuckyMe stable – and of the international scene – since 2011, and it’s fair to say is one of the most influential new dance producers of the 2010s.

Poirier
The king of Quebecois dancehall and hyperspeed soca hybridised with techno, dubstep and a dozen other forms, Ghislain Poirier has been a mainstay of the scene for more than a minute, and is still shelling down parties worldwide.

Kid Koala
Alright, he’s Vancouver born, but turntablist maverick Eric Yick-Keung San has been Montreal-based since the late-1990s. He’s released comic books, build-your-own turntables, opened for Björk, Radiohead and the Beastie Boys, and his note-bending scratching style still has the power to boggle.

Boogat
Told you Montreal was a hotbed of hybridity: trilingual rapper-singer Boogat, a frequent collaborator of Poirier, brings a Spanish sensibility to the city’s bass music scene, blending cumbia, reggaetón and other Latin sounds with rap and electronic sounds.

Bowly / MTSP / DÐD
Olivier Borzeix is one of those crucial behind-the-scenes guys – as a staff member at Atom Heart records, he was responsible for a lot of great records coming into the city, and as a promoter he brought a load of garage / UK funky names in to play. His own releases – as Bowly, MTSP and DÐD – and even more so his live sets show a deep understanding of the funk that underlies all dancefloor genres.

Lunice
The second of the twin pillars of that LuckyMe Montreal connection, Lunice Fermin Pierre II is consistently ahead of the curve when it comes to kicking down the barriers between rap beats and the world of club music. And he makes sure everything he does is done with personality, from his home video dancing to “Footcrab” to appearances with Azealia Banks to his global club smashers with Hudson Mohawke as TNGHT.

Tiga
If anyone in this list needs no introduction, it’s Tiga James Sontag (no we didn’t know it was his real name either). Mainstay of electroclash, international man of mystery, remixer of The xx, LCD Soundsystem, The Kills, Cabaret Voltaire, Scissor Sisters, Peaches, Moby, Depeche Mode, Justice, Friendly Fires etc etc, still a bold flyer of Montreal’s boho flag – and, of course, the man who got us all chanting “Bugatti… Bugatti…” – it’s fair to say that Tiga has conquered the world, one club at a time.

Iron Galaxy & Sexlife
Both among the more “classic” sounding four-to-the-floor producers on the scene, Iron Galaxy and Sexlife specialise in wiring of a Basic Channel / Chain Reaction dub-techno sound palette to a funkier rhythm chassis. Have notably released on Tiga’s Turbo imprint, but together and alone are amassing an impressive catalogue.

Skinnybones
“Outsider house” is a sketchy genre name but if anyone lives up to it, it’s Skinnybones – maker of spiky, spacey, primitive yet somehow radically advanced rhythms and deeply peculiar re-makes (check his “Little Fluffy Clouds” bootleg). Mind you, he prefers “occult house” and who are we to argue?

Project Pablo
You don’t need us to tell you that we think Vancouver’s 1080p are a very decent label – after all we got them in to do our latest Upfront mix – and… well… we probably don’t need to direct your attention to their Montreal representative Project Pablo, as we Debuted the title track of his recent I Want to Believe album after it went on heavy rotation in the Boiler Room office.

The post Fly the Boho Flag High: Shash’U and Montreal’s Hybrid Spirit appeared first on BOILER ROOM.