Randall Jones, Creator & Maus @ Aria

A last minute addition to Aria's March booking, Randall Jones came to us from Philadelphia to deliver some house groove upon Montréal's Aria Afterhour crowd. But Randall Jones is not only a DJ, he's also a producer involved with Philly's Tigerhook Corp. He's also released tracks on his own, on labels such as Bedrock, Hooj, Saw & The End. In other words: a veteran, who's been DJing since '92.

So, how did Randall's big night in Montréal go?

First up was Aria resident Creator, who laid out a textured build up that eventually led to harder, tribal-infused tech house. Not exactly my cup of tea, but nevertheless it got the party started right.

Randall Jones came next with a middle-of-the-road tech house set – a little bit of everything, to please everyone. He wasn't boring, but he wasn't exciting either: good, but not spectacular. I'm glad I didn't pay more than the regular Saturday night cover to hear him play; otherwise I might've been disappointed. He did play Goldfrapp's "Ride a White Horse" (the François Kevorkian remix, if I'm not mistaken), which was the highlight of his set for me. Although I can't be sure since it was the first time I heard him, I had a feeling he was trying to play "harder" than he normally would've, perhaps to cater to Aria's demanding crowd.

Next up was DJ Maüs. Also a resident at Aria, she plainly and simply stole the show (as she often does). Maüs performed an amazing, intelligent yet easily approachable set, mostly in the harder range of her repertoire but nonetheless varied, ranging from minimal to techno, with a few drops of acid and, of course, just enough electro. We got to hear some cool tracks: Steve Bug's remix of Tiefschwarz "Fly" (which I don't believe I've heard played in Montréal before), as well as Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", Tiga's remix of Freeform Five's "Muscle Car", Who Made Who's "Rose" (a nice surprise!), Ame's excellent "Rej" track, and the Soulwax remix of Gorillaz's "Dare".

A strong party vibe that manages to break through Montréal's glacial early march weather is always appreciated. Although I wasn't "wowed" by Randall Jones, his set was quite alright, and Aria's residents definitely convinced everyone in attendance to boogie down. All in all not a bad evening, looking forward to many more at the Rue St-Denis venue.

Check out Aria's website here.