In the misty landscapes of Montreal's indie scene, La Sécurité's latest offering "Detour" emerges as a reflection on beautiful imperfection. The band embodies this philosophy firsthand, having formed as a serendipitous accident during the pandemic. The band is currently riding a wave of success, touring America alongside British veterans The Go! Team, who are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their seminal album "Thunder, Lightning, Strike." This tour coincides with La Sécurité's signing to the prestigious Bella Union label, helmed by Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins, Snowbird) who was attracted by the band's ability to reconnect him with his own post-punk roots, both musically and historically.

After diving into the aquatic depths of L'eau et les rêves (Mothland) and exploring the mystical reflections of Miroir, N NAO emerges with ‘Corps’, a work that marks a promising turning point in her artistic career. Composed alone and in isolation at the Baie-Saint-Paul convent on a simple 4-track, it heralds the release of her next album, Nouveau Langage, due in January 2025.

Taking his moniker from a Godspeed You! Black Emperor album inscription ("...and these quiet armies will march on..."), Thisquietarmy is the project of Montréal artist Eric Quach, a pioneer of the Canadian experimental music scene. His sci-fi post-apocalyptic musical landscape looms not in destruction, but in the relentless march of optimization. Released on Coup sur Coup, Les Estampes maintains the solid, ambitious formula that defines Thisquietarmy: improvised soundscape sketches, one-takes featuring multiple-textured loops occurring simultaneously, wide frequency ranges, bassy low ends, crisp details, and a meditative aspect that induces a hypnotic state of mind.

Raised in a musical family in rural upstate New York, Isabel Vazquez is a vocalist, composer, and producer who began her musical journey after saving up money and moving to London alone as a teenager. She keeps this story somewhat elusive, but one can guess that this call for a nomadic lifestyle comes from a longing for something unearthly, a quest to not go astray, a search to soothe a broken heart. A medicine that she found in herself.

What happens when algorithms start shaping culture and when mastering digital tools becomes a survival skill? At the Pathwaves Futures World-Building workshop organized during POP Montreal International Music Festival, participants explored this question, imagining music's role in 2035. In the spirit of resisting algorithmic curation, the bands featured in this article were chosen through a deeply human process. Rather than relying on data-driven recommendations, we turned to the most original and already available algorithm: community knowledge and genuine diversity. As artistic expression is transformed by technological change, this selection of artists from POP Montreal represents a digital survival strategy—a secret language protected by the few who still believe in the power of human connection.

On the eve of a European tour with Ky Band last spring, the Montreal experimental trio Yoo Doo Right announced their return with their latest EP The Sacred Fuck. Nominated in the long list of the prestigious Polaris Prize for their second album A Murmur, Boundless to the East, released in June 2022, Justin Cober (guitar, synthesizers, vocals), Charles Masson (bass) and John Talbot (drums, percussion) left their mark with their unique sound, skilfully blending elements of krautrock, shoegaze, post-rock and psychedelia to create an atmosphere reminiscent of a car crash in slow motion, looking out to infinity and our own personal flaws.