EXPANSYS

MUTEK, Montreal QC, August 20

Photo: Vivien Gaumand

BY Tom BeedhamPublished Aug 21, 2019

8
Gabriel R. Drapeau and Guillaume Sauvé capped off the first night working like painters at easels from behind their modular units, tweaking and applying patches to their overlapping analog canvases as if with tiny brushstrokes and knife scrapes.
 
The painterly dynamic is completed by EXPANSYS originator Georgi Patchouli (aka Georges-Étienne Tremblay) layering, inverting, and otherwise abstracting treatments of light sources and colourful liquids on concave discs he prepared next to them for projection behind the stage. The trio immersed the crowd in a colourful techno environment splashed with dubby touches that kept the vibe bouncy and vivacious.
 
Full of bass and rhythmic punch, they worked from a splotchy minimal chug that could propel a Willy Wonka assembly line to a more pounding knock decorated with jazzy touches like piano keystrokes, then filled in between the lines. It was the first set of the festival to get the crowd dancing with any real dedication, and they kept them there late.

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