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. Designed by OCAD University-affiliated Super Ordinary Lab and produced with Envision Management & Production, the two-hour interactive experience envisioned a future where AI, algorithms, and digital infrastructure don't just reshape creative expression—they weaponize it.

In this hypothetical landscape of a collapsed world in 2035, mainstream art has become a tool for mass control, algorithmically optimized for maximum social impact. Meanwhile, underground art, incomprehensible to AI systems and thus unable to spread virally, is protected by small collectives. As virtual reality facilitates mass gatherings of the mainstream and surveillance threatens heartfelt artistic expression, musicians emerge as agents of chaos. Their performances, staged in the shadows of a decentralized world, become acts of defiance. Music evolves beyond entertainment into a new form of communication and resistance, hidden from the omnipresent eye of Big Brother AI.

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.

^{Photo credit : Sarah ODriscoll}

• Night Lunch: Love Letters and Sonic Depravity (art pop, indie pop)

Written like a love letter tainted with a deadly crime, Night Lunch's set was a good lesson on controlled distortion and deliberate awkwardness, as bassist Marley Kay unveiled moments of brilliant musicianship like treasures hidden in rubble. The band's new songs struck a grittier chord while maintaining their signature sound—a charming and naive fusion of indie pop, 1970s New York glam rock and a feeling of nostalgia for 1980s synths. The band might not seem convincing on your first listen, but behind its sunglasses and its strange, nervous-system-deteriorating manner, these true rebel lovers concoct a sexy sonic depravity for a pagan gospel, where subliminal messages help couples unite sexual energy with the energy of the heart.

• CDSM: Hedonistic Disruption Protocol (dark disco, electronic dance)

How does an almost unknown band from Atlanta transform l'Esco into ground zero for sonic rebellion? CDSM's efficient formula was indeed intoxicating: sharp saxophone riffs slicing through strange disco synths, all underlaid with hedonistic lyrics and a healthy dose of no wave nihilism. The band's unconventional lucky charms (dead babies' heads carefully arranged in their tour van) seemed to work their dark magic of delirium. There must be something shady happening in this gang, because a good band works mainly with the public's psyche. This Celebrity Death Slot Machine is definitely here to stay, having hit the jackpot in Montreal.

• Alix Fernz: Digital Punk Rebellion (post-punk, synth pop)

Rising rapidly as one of the underground's new favorites, Alix Fernz stormed the stage with an attitude that could only be compared to a young Johnny Rotten. With bleached hair and strategic safety pins, Fernz embodied a casual, detached nonchalance that perfectly captured the troubled-but-trying ethos of true punk. Like a dog barking through digital distortion, Fernz's performance was a genuine cry for youthful rebellion against the alienation of our cybernetic era.

Mothland's showcases at POP Montreal proved once again why they're part of the beating heart of the underground scene, bringing together left field acts that transformed their venues into cauldrons of raw, unfiltered energy.

• Population II : Encrypted synergy (prog rock, krautrock)

Population II's journey into psychedelic realms began with their first album "A La Ô Terre" - a playful way of saying "allo la terre". Channeling the erratic dementia of Syd Barrett, the album emerged as a defiant fusion of 1970s prog rock grandeur and krautrock's guerrilla energy that feels like a long-lost mystical horror film soundtrack (think of a mix of Nosferatu, Suspiria, Aguirre the Wrath of God). Presented live at POP Montreal, the trio's second album is a less obscure prog rock trip, revealing a playful sense of humor deeply rooted in their Québécois identity. When Rose Cormier (Mulch) joined them at Quai des Brumes that night, her raw, feminine energy amplified the band's intensity, creating a new promising electrifying synergy.

• White Knuckle : Cracking the Shell (egg punk, punk)

Embodying egg punk, an internet-spawned microgenre marked by lo-fi aesthetics and satirical edge, White Knuckle plays with cheap synth and loud guitars that seem to have escaped from a dark cartoon and a nervous high speed energy reminiscent of egg punk projects Snõõper or Pressure Pin. Live, you get the feeling the singer Trevor Bushey might crack his own shell at any moment, teetering on the edge of a violent outburst. Yet paradoxically, this very tension creates the feeling of a safe space to release our own anxiety.

• Faux Real : Faking It For Real (avant-pop, anti-rock)

The Franco-American brothers behind Faux Real might have started their project in 2019—or perhaps twenty faux years ago, as they've allegedly been working on it twenty faux hours a day since childhood. In a world where the lines between authenticity and artificiality blur daily, Faux Real embraces the contradiction: whatever is faux is real, and whatever is real is faux. After all, they argue, society is built on weird angles anyway. Like double agents trying to infiltrate the mainstream world, Faux Real is avant-garde meeting ill-equipped eurodance pop head-on, DIY ethos (which they call DIWABOOP, Do It With A Bunch Of Other People) amplified to stadium-show proportions, like ballet dancers steering a Formula 1 car. Their POP Montreal performance crackled with anticipation, as the brothers prepare to release their first album "Faux Ever" on October 11. Plugged into what seems like a thousand-watt energy bulb, Faux Real delivered a show that might have made the most impression during this 23rd edition of POP Montreal.

• Chaia: Dancing Through Diaspora (kleztronica, electronica, yiddish song)

Chaia transforms dance music into a powerful exploration of identity, weaving house and techno grooves with klezmer and Yiddish music. Her electric grooves and archival samples from her grandmother merge seamlessly with club sounds, creating a sonic bridge between centuries of Jewish diasporic experience and contemporary dance floors. During her performance, she drew a crucial distinction between Eastern European Yiddish traditions and Zionism, inviting the audience to embrace her heritage by joining in a collective circular dance. This simple act transformed into a deeply emotional moment, as ancient rhythms pulsed through modern beats. Through her brilliant fusion of old and new, Chaia suggests that transgenerational trauma can reshape identity - and that learning to love this transformed self is a complex journey worth taking.

Le Büro wants to express its gratitute towards POP Montreal and Jérémy Spellanzon for putting their trust in this weird endeavour.