Montreal’s most recent large-scale festival is a stunning display for both the eyes and the ears. Three stages make up the grounds, where ice sculptures and mulled wine can be found at every turn, backed by the thump of ever-present basslines. Don’t let the cold turn you away, even if heated wine isn’t in the budget; the body heat from the crowd is a wonderful thing, and leaves you feeling like you’re (at least) at room temperature without the buckets of sweat that accompany a trip to an indoor venue. Plus, if you’re too cheap for the mulled wine or not clever enough to sneak your own alcohol past the bouncers, you can take drugs (but say “no” to drugs).

Watch out for the early start, as the first acts are on by 6:30 p.m., and the evening wraps up by midnight. While this may shift your pre-drink by an hour (or three), it’s a small price to pay, and who doesn’t have drinks with dinner anyway? Tickets are $20 “at the door,” $18 with an online purchase, and $16 if you go to a listed boutique (such as Off the Hook or Moog Audio).

Igloofest has officially begun and we’ve heard good things about the last weekend. To help the Igloofest-naive navigate the many nights of revelry still ahead, we’ve written a few short blurbs about the most promising nights coming up. The cheesy titles we gave to each evening reflect The Daily’s interpretation of Igloofest’s lineup, and are not endorsed by Igloofest.

January 24 (Thursday) –“Girls in the House”

This year Igloofest has invited serious female DJ talent to an almost-all-girls night on Thursday, January 24. Local producer Alicia Hush will initiate proceedings with a tech-house set at 6:30 p.m., followed by Miss Kittin’s throwback electroclash, and finally, the good old techno of Germany’s Ellen Allien.

If we were comparing the festival’s female DJs, Russia’s Nina Kraviz would certainly come out on top (she would also stack up well against any of Igloo’s male picks). She plays on Friday with the excellent Pan-Pot. For Thursday’s fest, our favourites are still our hometown heroes, Nymra & Sofisticated, who’ve held down Piknik and Salon Daomé for years with their rock-solid house sets.

January 26 (Saturday) – “(We) Beez in da Trap”

In some circles, this is shaping up to be one of the bigger nights at Igloofest, with a hip-hop theme that will likely attract a massive crowd. On at 8 p.m. is Kaytranada, who has been making a name for himself with an array of beats that are fantastic to funk to (funk to, guys). His remix of “If” by Janet Jackson is a particular highlight. After him comes the celebrated duo of Hudson Mohawke and Lunice, also known as TNGHT, whose music looks to be a great fit for the open spaces and contagious energy of Igloofest. Trap music, polarizing as it may be, is their calling card, and the combination of minimal melodies with in-your-face bass can only result in what many are so eloquently terming “a massive party”. This is one you don’t want to miss.

February 1 (Friday) – “Acid/Techno/UK garage/insertgenrehere”

How better to avoid hypothermia and satisfy your MDMA-induced dance-lust than a night of UK garage? Going over the classics, we’re forced to ask ourselves, was dubstep ever necessary? Anyway, local garage heads Lexis and Dr. Love will be holding down the “Virgin Mobile Igloo” while a killer trio – Montreal’s Vosper, Berlin’s Ewan Pearson, and Detroit’s Magda – will be spinning various flavours of techno and house on the main stage. This is the mixed-bag night where you’re certain to find something you like, and probably something you’ve never heard before.

February 9 (Saturday) – “Techno über Alles”

Deutschland is coming to the main stage: Tommy Four Seven and Chris Liebing will be rounding off another year of Igloofest with crisply produced minimal and tech-house beats, timed to exactly 134 BPM (just kidding). But we are not kidding about the seriousness of this night: it’s a chance to catch a glimpse of the Berlin club culture without the price of Stereo or a plane ticket.

The post Preview: Igloofest appeared first on The McGill Daily.

As half of WEFUNK, Professor Groove’s specialty unsurprisingly comes from his “skills mixing funk.” After arriving in Montreal from Connecticut in 1994, Professor Groove has fit in well with the city’s cultural landscape, and has helped shape the Montreal funk/hip hop music scene. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from McGill, and now works at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

DJ Static, Groove’s partner, moved back to Vancouver three years ago. Also a McGill graduate and the second half of WEFUNK, DJ Static brought to WEFUNK his knowledge and love of hip hop. “We learned from each other,” Nick said. “We helped each others’ knowledge and love of music grow.” Fearing that WEFUNK would deteriorate and lose its direction after DJ Static’s move to Vancouver, Professor Groove was happy to see the project develop further, despite his partner’s absence. DJ Static calls in sometimes, and since his departure, WEFUNK has received more on-air guests, because Nick soon realized he did not like sitting by himself.

Nick and Mike were paired together randomly when they both joined CKUT in 1996. Growing up listening to music and playing instruments, Nick joined the radio  station (and subsequently started his own show) because he wanted to share the music he loved. “I wanted others to discover it,” he said. “I wanted people to know about it,” ‘it’ being funk. Starting with seventies funk, with artists such as James Brown, Kool & The Gang, and Sly & The Family Stone, Nick was hooked on funk (not the more electronic eighties funk, though –  let’s not mix them up). Currently, Nick spends nearly all of his time listening to music. Whether it’s in the background while he’s at work or when he’s relaxing, Nick marks the songs that grab his attention, to later create his set for WEFUNK on Friday night.

Mike brought into Nick’s love of funk some old school hip hop, such as Gang Starr, Eric B. & Rakim, and Nas. Nick says that WEFUNK was driven exlusively by the music. “Some radio shows are like talk shows, and are based on the hosts. Ours was and is based on the music.”

Though Nick acknowledges the change in the importance of radio in our lives, he believes that rather than disappearing altogether, it has merely changed by becoming digitalized, with live streams and podcasts online. Regardless of how much radio changes, or how small its share of our media consumption, Professor Groove believes that radio will always be different from other sources of entertainment, because it allows us to discover new songs and expand our music library.

In 1998, after 167 shows, Professor Groove and DJ Static started recording them. This helped monumentally, Nick says, when the time to put them up online came. In 1999, they started webcasting their shows, which is why WEFUNK is as well known as it is in Europe and elsewhere.

Considering that Nick views radio as an important part of our lives, particularly in enabling musical discovery, it comes as no surprise that he was pleased when the motion passed to increase CKUT’s opt-outable fee by $1. As a long time McGill student himself, he understands how the bureaucracy within the university works, a structure that I have so far been unable to decipher.

Wearing a blue shirt and sporting an impressive beard, Nick was waiting for me at a cafe on St. Laurent. “I’m drinking tea,” he said when I arrived, “I have to cut back on my caffeine intake.” For someone who’s been on the radio for almost 17 years and whose alias is known on both sides of the Atlantic, Nick was down-to-earth, humble, shy even. He must have been surprised when I asked him if people recognized him on the street, because, as he so aptly pointed out, “They don’t know what I look like.” But one night, walking down a tunnel in the Zurich metro while on one of their tours around Europe, Nick and Mike were recognized by their voices by a random passer-by. If that doesn’t encourage involvement in radio, I don’t know what will.

—

Download the WEFUNK app or go online to wefunkradio.com to listen to 24/7 streaming of their old shows. If you experienced the eargasms I did, come to their live show on December 15, at Le Bleury (2109 de Bleury), featuring DJ Akalepse.

The post On that funk tip appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The best writing is found, however, in the most unexpected blogs. The ones that do not necessarily impress the guy sitting next to you on the metro, but the ones that want to make you wish you could string together words like those on the screen if only with the hopes to understand life better or something.

Coolopolis, a blog by Kristian Gravenor, is just that – an unexpected and pleasant surprise, a blog so great I didn’t want to share with anyone. Then it would be like Kings of Leon, and soon everybody would know about it and the situation would just go downhill after that. Regardless, having spent some time reading it, I’ve come to realize it’s a hidden gem on the internet, and somebody needs to put it on StumbleUpon, because it needs to be discovered.

Most blogs about cities are just condensed, easier-to-read versions of travel guides, but Coolopolis stands out among the rest. As Gravenor aptly states on the blog itself, it is “[his] twisted, unique take on Montreal,” one that does not promote the city through restaurant recommendations, but rather focuses on crime, politics, and land use in Montreal. Gravenor says that he writes about what he feels passionate about and interests him, and over the last six years, the feedback and response he’s received has encouraged him to continue. The comments, he describes, are a “love affair, man,” and only rarely does it become YouTube-esque.

Kristian Gravenor is a great conversationalist. Some people just have a way with words, are effortlessly talented with them, and Gravenor is one of those people. With his love for a good story and desire to share what he discovers with others, Gravenor’s enthusiasm and good nature is reflected in both his writing and conversation. Even though he used to write for the Montreal Mirror, which he believes is where he learned to develop an ear for an offbeat story, Gravenor realized it was not what he wanted to do. However, that is exactly where he finds himself today: a part time, or as he calls it, a “wanna-be” journalist. He also works as a realtor on the side, about which he has published The Confessions of a Slumlord, along with his best-selling book, Montreal: The Unknown City.

Born and raised in Westmount, Gravenor currently lives in downtown Montreal. Having spent his whole life here (with a few years in Vancouver to spare), Gravenor cannot imagine moving somewhere else, though he argues, “it would have to be warmer.” He finds Montreal a magical place, and feels a profound connection to the city. Gravenor sees Montreal as “hallowed ground,” and his love for the city is evident in his reflection of the city in Coolopolis. Gravenor says that through his blog he has found others that share his “weird passion,” and that working in a domain that interests him has lead to a profound sense of enjoyment.

Not only is Coolopolis Gravenor’s passion, it is also an implicit rebuttal to the mainstream media. He believes the mainstream Canadian media should be challenged because, he argues, they are scared, and he would love to see an energized, stronger media tradition rooted in the country. He holds that the media are swayed too much by the government and powerful corporations. Though Gravenor does appreciate the resources the mainstream media have provided him with, he believes this wealth of knowledge should become available to everyone, which is one of the reasons he writes Coolopolis.

Gravenor writes about a variety of things, ranging from the Montreal mafia to “bonding through music in the internet age,” from Montreal in the 1920s to the largest cocaine busts in the city’s history. But though Gravenor covers dense topics (such as homicide or Montreal prisons), his personal and simplistic approach makes it intriguing for even the least curious of readers. Even if history, politics, or criminology is not your thing, this blog is the best way to learn about those aspects of Montreal, from a true Montrealer.

As a sucker for political criticism and a good put-down, I cannot explain the number of times I smile while reading Kristian Gravenor’s entries, especially those pertaining to Montreal’s government and judicial system, both past and present. It is not everyday someone stands up to call governmental leaders “squeaky-voiced men that [make] Mrs. Doubtfire look like the Hulk.” Gravenor proves that having an obsession with the past does not have to come at the expense of humour.

However, Coolopolis is not only a ground for political statements – it is six years’ worth of information on Montreal’s history, culture, and land. Every once in a while, Gravenor even posts old photos of Montreal and asks where it was taken, though don’t feel bad if you can’t figure them out. Gravenor admits that he probably wouldn’t be able to guess them, either.

Read about Gravenor’s “twisted, unique take on Montreal” at coolopolis.blogspot.ca.

The post Blogging the metropolis appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Emile Berliner was a German-born inventor, piano player, father of seven, and merchant. Berliner dedicated his life to inventing and improving new technologies, and one of his most prominent inventions was the gramophone, which he later on connected to the radio. Berliner, who is also known for initiating the recording industry, worked on the telephone shortly after its invention by Alexander Graham Bell, and improved its transmitter by installing a microphone.

Berliner is particularly significant to Montreal history because he worked at the Montreal branch of the RCA in the early 20th century. Robert Bisson, a renovation technician at the museum, told me that Berliner lived in the building next door (which I understand to now be the Home Depot parking lot). The museum itself was one of the two RCA communication and production centres, and played an essential role during World War II in communication and information delivery.

The museum is currently housed in a large loft-like room lined with wall-to-wall electronics for the current exhibition, From Morse Code to Text Messaging: The Technology Evolution of Telecommunications. This ranges from the most primitive Morse code transmission machines to the military radios used to communicate with Eastern Germany after World War II, and from the first calculator to the first typewriter.

According to Bisson, all of the items in the exhibit are donations except for one gramophone that the museum procured, which is not on display. Bisson and other technicians volunteer on Wednesdays to fix and renovate old radios, computers, phones, and other electronics, and give them to the museum for exhibitions. At night, the old radios can pick up certain signals. If ever you find yourself by Place St. Henri at unholy, dark hours of the night, head over for a quick listen to the radio that may have been a part of solving the Cuban Missile Crisis (you never know). Midnight gramophone session? So avant-garde.

The most interesting aspect was seeing how much technology has changed. In addition to the innovations I wasn’t alive to witness (the gramophone, the first telephone, typewriters), they have some appliances that will make you realize you’re older than you think. From ancient-looking 1990s landline telephones to the original, candy-coloured iMac, even Millenials will find something to be nostalgic about. Experiencing emotion toward obsolete electronics is one of the unexpected pleasures of the museum.

Regardless of what interests you, visiting the Emile Berliner Radio Museum will be a time well spent. A haven for broke college students (there’s only a voluntary entrance charge), reaching new levels of hipness is inevitable. Pose among the retro electronics, and don’t forget to set your Instagram filter to Earlybird.

The post .-. .- -.. .. — / — ..- … . ..- — appeared first on The McGill Daily.