MUTEK Day Five. Besides my "dessert" theory as previously explained, there's another important reason for looking forward to the final happy hour at SAT. It's Toronto in the hizzouse and I'm stoked to see my boys represent. As I arrive, Jay Hunsberger has just begun his DJ set and I'm thrilled beyond belief to state that techno, hard, minimal techno, not tech-house or IDM or some clicky gliche - TECHNO has FINALLY made its debut at MUTEK 2002 (Deadbeat-Monolake feels like SUCH a long time ago). I check out Hunsberger's skills and chill out to his gloriously rough records. Then it's time for transplanted Torontonian Mike Shannon's first ever live gig. Despite not playing live before today, Shannon is hardly an unknown, particularly in his present home of Montreal, and a good portion of the crowd this afternoon seems to be here just to see him. If he feels the pressure, he sure doesn't show it, bringing home the bacon with aplomb courtesy of a solid hour of sweeping, panoramic TECHNO while everyone in the building dances their asses off. Finally, Pan/Tone gets the funk out with his gritty, urban take on minimal TECHNO, although I certainly could have done without his afro-endowed friend who tagged along to do a couple of freestyles with the music and sit on stage, smoke, and try to look cool. This afternoon may have been the best two and a half hour stretch of the festival, and maybe my opinion is skewed because I'm so happy to hear some TECHNO, but it sure as hell feels right. T.O. rules.

Somewhere deep inside me, I've been dreading MUTEK's final night. The programme promises a Latin-tinged evening. Tribal and Latin flavoured house is probably dance music's ugliest scourge, the rhythmic overload is an unnecessary frill, in my opinion. Plus, it reminds me of dirty crusties and shallow ravers and all the other bad stuff that MUTEK manages to expertly avoid. Furthermore, if tonight is meant to be MUTEK's dessert night, it implies that we'll hear music that is fluffier and more lightweight than the previous two nights, and I've already given my opinion about those, so you can imagine my concern.

Alain Mongeau starts by spinning downtempo click dub. So far, so good. Then, Murcof brings to the table one of the most original styles of the festival. Backed by nature visuals in blurry, soft pastel colours, the music is a mix of glacially slow house beats, lush droning backgrounds a la Gas, and the soulful ambient spirit of Em:t label (RIP) ambient. Nobody knows whether to sit down, stand up, or dance, so all three end up getting done. I'm not as emotionally stirred as Murcof may want me to be, but I certainly respect his unique direction.

And I respect Juan Self for a different reason - TECHNO! Latin-tinged my ass, the advertising was false because he plays nothing short of in-your-face, pounding TECHNO. That assessment changes a bit toward the end as the tunes pick up more of a house sensibility, but any negative feelings about that are negated by his live electric piano solo, a sparkling bit of musicianship that I can't ever recall seeing during a one man show. Plus, the obvious fun that he's having on stage is infectious.

In the five minutes following the conclusion of Juan Self's show, the number of people in SAT appears to have doubled. The place is now as jammed as it was for the Sunday performances last year, and the impatient wait begins as equipment is assembled for the remainder of the evening's performances. With Uwe Schmidt, aka about a billion aliases with a billion varying styles, you can never quite be sure what you're going to get. But I definitely didn't think we'd get his interface on the video screen and find something straight out of the land of the long-lost Commodore Pet. And then he launches into highly minimal, electro-laden TECHNO. And I wonder why software needs to be so complicated. The latest issue of Grooves magazine has twenty-five pages of software reviews, and most have them feature interfaces that look like airplane consoles. I've seen simple and complicated software this year at MUTEK but Schmidt's takes the cake hands down in the rustic conservatism category. But it's absurdly simple - he loads up a bunch of audio files, synchs using MIDI loops, adjusts the levels of a sixteen-track equalizer that strangely reminds me of playing Space Invaders on my Vic 20, etc. He likes to throw free-form synth solos near the end of his greatly extended tracks, he likes to wear a straight-from-the-70's pink suit with a wide collar, and he's managing to confuse a hell of a lot of people with his performance. Yes, songs over 130 bpm do exist!!! And sometimes they even hit 160 bpm such as his final, DbB-inflected track. But the humming bass and minimal stylings have sold me no matter what the tempo. Uwe Schmidt is groovier than the surface of the moon.

Unbelievably, this evening is just hitting its stride. Dandy Jack's name may suggest that he's fruitier than an apple orchard, and the programme may suggest more Latin influences, but Dandy Jack says "to hell with that, I know what the people want and it's TECHNO, quaking beats, honest-to-goodness TECHNO" and proceeds to do just that, bringing Copacapannark levels of madness to SAT. And I realize a flaw in my earlier theories - I may have found the litmus test for tech-house, but it's a lot harder to distinguish between hard house and TECHNO. That's certainly the case with Dandy Jack's stuff. Frankly, I don't care about it too much at the moment because I'm too busy dancing my ass off. Dandy Jack's dancing his ass off as well, somehow finding the time to play music as well. And yet, the evening is still just hitting its stride.

Dandy Jack's performance segues directly into the "jam session" with Schmidt and Villalobos. The sight of the three of them on stage, playing and dancing in front of Schmidt's green and black and straight outta Commodore Pet video screen reminds me of how much I regret not having a camera with me. Last year, the screens were adorned mainly with web-cam shots of the performers, instead of the stunning visual images that are in abundance this year. Even Metropolis, whose Eurodisco image clashes with the MUTEK aesthetic, (which, like it or not, is still strongly correlated to the notion of one person, a darkened room, a laptop, and a bedroom floor) still produced some startling would-be shots of bespectacled wizards like Farben bathed in purple light and dry ice smoke. And the jam goes on, with Dandy Jack throwing spine rocking beat over spine rocking beat, Villalobos making his electronic toys squeal and purr, and Schmidt on solo synth. The beat counter on Schmidt's screen repeats 1..2..3..4.. and counts the same two bar loop, all the time, over and over, even after Schmidt bows out and sits to enjoy the rest.

Ric Y Martin rock on and on, and though many people have left due to the late hour, those who remain show absolutely no sign of tiring. And neither do the two Chileans, who shape and mold their simple beat structures into hills and valleys of TECHNO like an Underwood remix gone haywire and left to its own devices. The remaining people, let me call them the "MUTEK faithful", are thus named for creating this beautiful situation in which I find myself. They've stuck around to give the festival the brig, bright, happy ending it deserves, and whether they'd still be doing so if it was some flimsy house DJ up there is not my concern at this moment. The point is, they're here participating in an endurance contest masquerading as a nightcap, and it's not for the weak of heart. They keep up the raucous atmosphere until the energy has mostly drained away come four AM. Nonetheless, Dandy Jack and Ricardo Villalobos continue with conviction. I'm in complete awe of these guys right now, still cranking out killer material while the sun begins to rise outside. Dandy Jack has been on stage for four hours with hardly any rest. I've got to pack it in, I have a train to catch in the morning. I lose. You guys win. TECHNO wins.