POP Montréal Day 4 | A Saturday Night at l’Esco: N Nao, Activity, Water From Your Eyes

by Théo Reinhardt

POP Montréal is undoubtedly one of the major fall events for true music fans. From Wednesday, September 27 to Sunday, October 1, dozens and dozens of discoveries and acclaims from artists nestled in pop are taking place in Montreal. Follow the PAN M 360 team until Sunday!

Activity

Activity is a quartet offering slow, atmospheric rock with occasional crescendos. The post-rock inspiration is clearly present, but there are also occasional references to trip-hop in the rhythms, in the manner of Mezzanine, let’s say. Extensive use is made of feedback, string rubbing and reverb to set up the soundscapes. The singer’s voice is nasal and listless.

Dark and stoic, this band’s music stands out for its restraint. We sense that we’re only being offered the surface, that things are bubbling underneath without our being able to see it. And yet, the bass drum resonates to the max, it’s tectonic. Activity evokes the mouth of a volcano as much as a calm, threatening lake in the middle of the night. It’s gloomy. Even if we’d like to feel less in constant anticipation, the music is spellbinding.

N NAO

If the experimental side of N NAO is a little overrated, this music takes on its full meaning in live performance. The proposition is much more striking, especially in the cramped space of L’Escogriffe. It veers towards the noisy, towards performance art. N NAO’s watercourse, a symbol of choice for the album, becomes a waterfall, a tsunami. With a percussionist and a guitarist-sound magician, Naomie de Lorimier pulled the crowd completely into her deep currents. Using looping, bricolage, recorded sounds and the use of various objects, the music tends towards sensual impressionism. The whole is evocative, romantic, chaotic and sometimes violent. These strong feelings have charmed, and are not about to leave us.

Water From Your Eyes

Take garage rock, offer it as many excitants as depressants, make it spit black ink, throw a few knives and shurikens at it, and you’ve got a picture that looks a bit like Water From Your Eyes. It’s a mix of pop, punk and rock, with programmed jaw-breaking rhythms and a nonchalant vocal presence, a sort of acidic, corrosive patchwork of modern life. The guitar tone is damaged, the bass is crunchy… every musical element seems to have been pulled out of its original place, held to the others by barbed wire. Water From Your Eyes, as their name implies, shun sentimentality, have an almost extraterrestrial point of view. We wouldn’t say we were dancing, but we were swinging our heads violently from side to side.

Latest 360 Content

Blondshell – If You Asked For a Picture

Blondshell – If You Asked For a Picture

Hitting a Fever Pitch at the Ribbon Skirt LP Launch 

Hitting a Fever Pitch at the Ribbon Skirt LP Launch 

Wu-Tang Clan & Mathematics – Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman.

Wu-Tang Clan & Mathematics – Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman.

Dalit Hadass Warshaw, Boston Modern Orchestra Project / Gil Rose – Sirens

Dalit Hadass Warshaw, Boston Modern Orchestra Project / Gil Rose – Sirens

Howard Shore/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France – Shore : Anthology

Howard Shore/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France – Shore : Anthology

Quatuor Diotima – Boulez : Livre pour quatuor

Quatuor Diotima – Boulez : Livre pour quatuor

LMNL – Rainbow

LMNL – Rainbow

Strat Andriotis – Exits

Strat Andriotis – Exits

Richard Reed Parry – The Actor

Richard Reed Parry – The Actor

Tamara Stefanovich – Organised Delirium

Tamara Stefanovich – Organised Delirium

Galan Trio – Embrace

Galan Trio – Embrace

Jack Van Zandt – A Chaos of Light and Motion

Jack Van Zandt – A Chaos of Light and Motion

Tommy Crane – Reality Curated: Live at Ursa

Tommy Crane – Reality Curated: Live at Ursa

Thomas DeLio – Anti-paysage

Thomas DeLio – Anti-paysage

No Hay Banda – Steven Kazuo Takasugi : Il Teatro Rosso

No Hay Banda – Steven Kazuo Takasugi : Il Teatro Rosso

Vancouver Contemporary Orchestra; Vancouver Chamber Choir – Christopher Tyler Nickel : Mass; Te Deum

Vancouver Contemporary Orchestra; Vancouver Chamber Choir – Christopher Tyler Nickel : Mass; Te Deum

Hypercube – The Force for Good

Hypercube – The Force for Good

PUP – Who Will Look After the Dogs?

PUP – Who Will Look After the Dogs?

Duo AYA – Cycles

Duo AYA – Cycles

Papillon Social Club – Dur de la feuille

Papillon Social Club – Dur de la feuille

Coalescent Quartet – The Wall Between Us

Coalescent Quartet – The Wall Between Us

Samuel Bonnet Trio – Live in Harmony

Samuel Bonnet Trio – Live in Harmony

Marc-André Hamelin; Quatuor Takacs – Dvořák & Price : Piano Quintets

Marc-André Hamelin; Quatuor Takacs – Dvořák & Price : Piano Quintets

Subscribe to our newsletter