Among the most eminent beatmakers and studio producers in French-speaking America, Quebec’s Jean Massicotte (Lhasa, Arthur H, Jean Leloup, Patrick Watson, Alejandra Ribera, etc.) and Acadian Arthur Comeau (ex-Radio Radio, Nom de Plume, etc.) have together managed to expand an outstanding playlist and illustrate their 2020 version of a global sound. The tandem consistently recruits top-quality artists such as Dominique Fils-Aimé, AfrotroniX, Djely Tapa, Samito, Maya Kuroki, EIHDZ, and Quenton Hatfield. The integration of beats, instruments, synthetic sounds, and artistic personalities is worthy of the best polymorphic concepts, for the relevance and fluidity of the mixes, for the groove, for the arrangements, for the sound, for the expressivity. Thus, Djely Tapa’s Malian inflections blend with a hellish electronic reggaeton and more. AfrotroniX can count on master producers to refine the electronic curve of his Saharan blues. Maya Kuroki allows herself another experience outside of Teke:Teke, this time against a backdrop of synthetic krautrock. Dominique Fils-Aimé lends her voice to an electro space-disco number, accompanied by the engaging lines of Arthur Comeau. Samito offers dub-flavoured cumbia, performed in Mozambican Portuguese. EIHDZ and Quenton Hatfield are involved in a more pop passage, a little more conventional but well conveyed. There’s more, too… All this mixes happily under a true dual signature, illustrating Montreal’s cosmopolitanism (and more) at its best: French and English, Acadian, Malian, Chadian, Japanese, Mozambican, Haitian… Slim Wall, indeed. How easy it is to build them high when you have this talent and openness!
