Montag - "Going Places"

Montag - Safe in Sound (feat. Amy Millan) (Carpark 2007)

Montag - Going Places / Carpark

Ah, Mondays. There's nothing like a little Memorial Day to slow down the pace of things, a much-needed time to relax and recharge for the long summer that inevitably lies ahead. For me personally, Monday is all about a re-evaluation of what I did on Sunday... Which was watch the biggest day in motor racing. I started off with Formula 1's Monaco Grand Prix in the morning, watched the excruciatingly drawn-out Indianapolis 500 in the afternoon, and for some reason also kept up with NASCAR's Coca Cola 600 in the evening. It was the motoring equivalent of de-evolution. Put better, I went to bed last night feeling a lot less cultured and classy than when I woke up.

So when this morning rolled around, I needed something savvy enough for me to feel like I'd recovered from a Casey Mears hangover but approachable enough for me to get into it immediately. I needed something that captured the joie de vivre of a culture far, far removed from anything paved and ovular. Montag and his real name Antoine Bédard is that guy.

Why do we care about Bédard? If you're interested in independent music at all, you've probably already heard his name: The Quebec-born, Vancouver-raised electronic wizard is incredibly prolific, having released 2005's Alone, Not Alone while playing live with Xiu Xiu, Ghislain Poirier, The Russian Futurists and Ulrich Schnauss to name a few. He's remixed Stars, he's scored poetry by Kim Doré, he's been to SXSW. The only thing it seems he hadn't done was release a second album, but that's taken care of now.

In keeping with what must be a highly gregarious nature, Montag didn't work alone by any stretch of the imagination. Poirier, M83, Final Fantasy and Au Revoir Simone are some of the more notable names to drop in during the course of Going Places, but each seems to take their respective songs in a slightly different direction. While "I Have Sound" starts off with the Anthony Gonzalez collaboration, none of M83's hallmark analog whitewash is to be found; instead, the synths-as-airy vocal harmonies work their magic for what sounds more like Montag than even Montag could've hoped for. It's starry-eyed, it's breathing in deeply and smiling stupidly, it's the essence of what's to come.

"Best Boy Electric" sounds like it came off a synth-pop assembly line in its Dntel-like drive, but the beat never gets the best of the humming refrain and ultimately livens up the first half. You'd think the Ghislain Poirier match-up on "Alice" would be a little too in-your-face for Montag, but don't laugh, it's not post-modern: Instead, it's short, subtle and pretty. Very muted, even.

Which is the main story to this album, actually. Take any particular song with any particular collaborative effort and it seems like Montag got the better of them all. The Amy Millan collaboration "Safe in Sound" is less Small Brown Bike and more Stars of course, but both Millan and Bédard have virtually anonymous vocals on this track and no one else fairs much better. There's no doubt about it: Bédard knows exactly what he wants out of his own album, and on Going Places he's hit it squarely on the mark.

I could use all kinds of circularity to tie up the loose ends and talk about how while I went nowhere yesterday watching tons of guys drive hundreds of miles for me I've driven many more miles even than them to get back to Columbia and then on to Vancouver mentally to join Montag in his scene-setting, but I think you see where it's going. Just know that while Going Places isn't revolutionary, its irrefutable pleasantness is what sets it apart from so many other releases. Relax, it's going to be alright. See? "Hands Off, Creature!" You'll be okay.

Ah, Tuesdays.