This week’s featured mix comes from the esteemed Montreal/Berlin producer Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts. This is an artist I’ve always held in high regard given his consistently solid productions, especially one track entitled, “Hélicoptere,” an incredible piece of work that has become a fixture in my DJ sets for whenever I’m looking to raise the stakes on the dance-floor. After searching around, I found this year-old recording of a performance at the West Coast techno mecca known as Kontrol in San Francisco, and have since had it in heavy rotation.

This performance is bloated with impeccable dance-music, the hallmark being the vast array of influences crammed into this hour-and-a-half set. Everything from afro-beat to R&B, gospel to hip-hop, gets a nod here and culminates into one massive inducer of dance-frenzy. I’ve read that Guillaume aims to shape his performances to sound as close to a live band as possible and after listening to this set several times, I’d say he’s hit the nail on the head.

This is, however, not the end-all-be-all of live sets. While he starts out strong, things definitely take a bit to get warmed up and there’s a spot towards the end that I skip over entirely, given the under-whelming foray into hip-hop territory, but from about :24 to the 1:15 mark, this performance is rock-solid and chalk full of everything that’s right about dance-music, undeniable percussion, funked-out and radically creative synth work, and some of the hottest bass-lines I’ve heard in a minute, dropped to maximum ass-shaking effect. Give it a spin and check back often for more titillating tunes of the highest order.

Listen to Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts Live @ Kontrol 3/6/10 here.

Download here.