The New Deal

Toronto is known for its cultural mash-ups, and its musical exports are naturally reflective of the demographics. You can hear some of that multiculti genre-fusing in the sounds of the New Deal, an exploratory "livetronica" band that merges house, breakbeats, and electro on top of global drum programming. As a trio, the group is at its best during live shows, when it's known for delighting jam-band followers and pill-popping electronica fans at the same time. That's not easy to do, but since commonalities exist between those two scenes, it's only right that a group like the New Deal would take advantage. The trio has spent the past eight years building a following throughout Canada and parts of the United States. But it wasn't until its self-titled debut hit the web in 2007 that the group's status started to grow. Anyone who caught the New Deal at Langerado earlier this year should remember its ability to make us all temporarily forget about the cold. Even though it merges Disco Biscuits-style knob-tweaking with London brokenbeat, it's still funky enough to keep those who enjoy electronic soul music well satisfied.