Montreal DIY Scene

Since the late 2000s, numerous musical artists from the neighborhood of Mile End, Montreal have recorded, released and performed what the press has considered to be weird,Trapunski, Richard (September 19, 2012)
"The New Weird Canada: exploring the emerging music underground"
Aux.tv. Retrieved November 25, 2016. experimental, DIY music of a variety of styles. All of these acts that are considered a part of the DIY scene initially played their music at parties only around the Montreal area, but it wasn't until the year of the release of singer-songwriter Grimes' album ''Visions'' (2012) that the subculture garnered attention worldwide.

Background and early history

In 2007, many artists including Sebastian Cowan, Alexander Cowan, Ezra Gray and Jeff Boyd, as well as video director Emily Kai Bock, formed the artist collective and venue space Lab Synthese in Mile End, Montreal, Quebec.Noel, Alyssa (June 12, 2012)
"Burning Down the Loft: Inside Montreal’s DIY Scene"
''Spin''. Retrieved November 25, 2016. Acts from the Mile End neighborhood such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Arcade Fire are considered the DIY scene's ancestors. Kai Bock recalled the place being "really intense and beautiful." She highlighted its "glow of inspiration that filled edroomsduring the shows, and the rich conversations that lasted late into the night would sometimes leave me with a deep sadness that such an oasis of collaboration couldn't last forever."

Several acts of the Montreal scene started performing in parties at Lab Synthese and other venues close to it, and '' Dazed'' magazine described the live shows as "forcefully human" and "overly theatrical." The artists performed at these parties where it was more "secure" for them, explained musician CFCF, instead of touring in other places; this was because, as ''Dazed'' analyzed, most audiences outside of Montreal who didn't know these acts would never care about them. Lab Synthese was shut down on October 31, 2009, only two years after it was founded, due to evidence from police of crimes such as heavy liquor drinking going on at the venue. Lab Synthese has been compared by '' Chart Attack'' to Andy Warhol's Midtown Manhattan-based studio The Factory.Edwards, Samantha (October 8, 2013)
"Loft Envy: How Montreal’s DIY Pop Scene Outgrew Itself"
'' Chart Attack''. Channel Zero. Retrieved November 25, 2016.

In 2008, Sebastian Cowan was influenced by the concept of Constellation Records to form Arbutus Records as part of the Lab Synthese art collective; the intention of the label was to release music by artists that each had their own individual style of music instead of focusing on issuing records of only one type.Olbrich, Suze (July 10, 2013)
"The Warehouse Pop of Arbutus Records"
'' Dazed''. Retrieved November 23, 2016. In the words of ''Dazed'', the music that has been distributed by Arbutus include the "luminous lullaby techno" works of Blue Hawaii, the "provocative cabaret confessionals" by singer-songwriter Sean Nicholas Savage, energetic sample-heavy music by Airick Woodhead's project Doldrums, and indie group TOPS' "hazy" dream pop; however, they all feel "enchantingly disparate." Silly Kissers, a defunct group whose members included Savage and all the people who would later form TOPS, were labeled by ''Dazed'' as an inspiration for the Arbutus acts to experiment with pop music, as well as the ethos of the Montreal scene.

Recent years

Claire Elise Boucher, known by her stage name as Grimes, was one of many artists who learned how to produce music from her acquaintances that were a part of the scene. She, along with Purity Ring and Sean Nicholas Savage, were the first acts to garner critical acclaim on the site Weird Canada in early 2009. Grimes' first two records, ''Geidi Primes'' (2010) and ''Halfaxa'' (2010) were issued on the Arbutus Records label. The year when her third album, ''Visions'' (2012), was issued on the British label 4AD, the DIY scene garnered attention from international listeners. The British newspaper ''The Telegraph'' labeled the DIY phenomenon as "the new Brooklyn." ''Visions'' was critically acclaimed, was nominated for a 2012 Polaris Music Prize

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases