Get lifted by skweee at Elevator

DKSTR

A new monthly night of exotic electro will be kicking off this Saturday at CFC. Started up by local producer Smoked Meat Fax Machine, aka John Constantinides, Elevator will be showcasing electronic music styles that you might not necessarily know by name — including skweee and footwork — but that you’ll find eminently danceable if you’ve ever cut a rug to electro with flashes of melodic R&B, funk and chiptune sounds.

“I want to focus on producers that have original material, as opposed to just DJs,” says Constantinides. “There will also be a focus on styles of music I like that I don’t get to hear around town.”

“The name Elevator comes from an inside joke,” says Constantinides, Montreal’s pre-eminent skweee guy, who also records under the name Fengir. “I always wanted to call something — either a night or an album or a style of music — the Future Sound of Elevators, because that’s how I make fun of certain electronic beat music that I find boring. But even when it grabs me, I imagine most people will find it boring nonetheless.”

Saturday’s inaugural Elevator will be headlined by Finnish producer DKSTR (pronounced Darkstar). “He’s a somewhat OG skweee dude,” says Constantinides. “As OG as you can be.” So while not every Elevator will be devoted to skweee, night one will be heavy on the Scandinavian electro-funk. ■

Elevator, w/DKSTR, Smoked Meat Fax Machine & Radarsat-1, goes down at CFC (6388 St-Hubert) this Saturday, Nov. 24, 11 p.m., $5