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Some police officers in Toronto will begin sporting lapel cameras - as part of a new project approved by the City’s Police Chief, Bill Blair. 

That’s according to the Toronto Star, this move was announced on Tuesday, following a recommendation made in a 20-13 Community Engagement Report.

A successful study out of California showed that body cameras on front-line cops were seen to reduce incidents and complaints by 60 and 90 per cent respectively.

Some details about the project still need to be determined, such as the policy surrounding it and the budgetary constraints in Toronto’s police department.

Bring out those retro one-piece snow suits or your best costumes and let the electronic music induced shenanigans begin! DJ MNJIVR from CJLO's AutoBeat (Thursdays 10-11PM) is proud to take you on an ocular journey across time and space, starting way back in January, where a diverse group of artists and DJs performed at the eighth edition of Igloofest to a chilly crowd of die-hard electronic music lovers at Montreal's Old Port. While you're at it, be sure to check out even more amazing Igloofest photos on MNJIVR's Flickr account.

Stage light show at Igloofest

January usually means long winter nights and cold weather, but it also just happens to mark the beginning of Igloofest, Montreal's première winter electronic music festival at the Old Port. This year marked the eighth edition of the festival, and Montrealers were able to catch the hottest local and international electronic DJs every weekend starting January 17th all the way through to February 8th! With a new stage setup and a killer lineup packed with big-name veterans and many up-and-coming acts that are sure to make heads turn, 2014 had all the ingredients for an awesome good time.

Many big names performed at Igloofest this year, including Pete Tong, Claude Vonstroke, and Just Blaze. The Videotron Mobile stage had a wicked lineup of themed nights, each focusing on local and European labels and their artists. First up was the highly popular hip-hop infused Booty Bakery Collective, featuring Phil Parkz and Compton Chic. Up next was the house-oriented label Mile End Records, featuring Maus, Monitor, and rare appearance by Kressel. The Sapporo Stage featured artists from the Drumcode Recordings label, including Montreal DJ/producer Mateo Murphy, Ida Engberg, and the highly-popular DJ Adam Beyer!

Weekend One: January 16-17-18

Opening weekend set the right tone for the festival. The Thursday night lineup included sets by Toronto's own Art Department, Kenny Larkin (one of the main DJs behind the resurgence of Detroit techno), and Montreal veteran DJ Pat Boogie, who performed his soulful deep house.

A tech-house flavoured Friday night followed, with Ghostly International co-founder Matthew Dear headlining alongside the German label Innervisions founding duo, Âme. It was a very good night for this city, as two additional Montreal veterans got the crowd dancing! On the Videotron Mobile stage was People's owner Mike Perras, followed by the legendary godfather of the local electronic scene himself, Christian Pronovost. Pronovost's Lost Heroes was a wonderful artistic and musical imprint!

Phil Fiction

Saturday the 18th marked the most highly-anticipated night ever since the Igloofest lineup was revealed! This was probably one of the best nights I was fortunate enough to cover. Phil Fiction started things off with a fine house and techno set, and Booty Bakery head-honcho Phil Sparkz and Compton Chic made sure festival goers had their fair share of head-bopping, booty-shaking grooves to keep them going the whole night over at the Videotron stage!

Up next was London DJ and producer BrEaCh. The Naked Naked label boss put on a groovy high-energy set that got the crowd dancing in the snow. 

BrEaCh

This set the tone for Skream, who is considered one of the key players in the emergence of the bass-heavy dub and reggae-infused style called dubstep! Originally from Croydon in the south of London, Skream is renowned for having produced many big names in dubstep including Digital Mystikz, Loefah, and El-B. He also produced a string of underground classic anthems, and finally broke into the mainstream in 2005 with the track "Midnight Request Line". Since then, Skream has veered away from dubstep toward a more varied style that mixes house, techno, and disco. We got a glimpse of his latest sound on Saturday with a remix of "This Charming Man" by The Smiths, followed by a non-stop party with lots of disco and house edits. Both Skream and BrEaCh took time to address the crowd and tell them how much they were enjoying their time and the crowd's reaction.

Skream

Weekend Two: January 23-24-25

The second weekend of Igloofest proved to be a roller coaster ride weather-wise—with minus 34-degree temperatures starting on Thursday, to snowy blizzard conditions on Saturday—but the bone-chilling cold didn't stop fans from filling up both dance floors all weekend long! I even considered staying in, but music-wise I knew the headliners that night were going to be crazy! The people of Montreal were in for a real treat, starting with veteran broadcaster and DJ Pete Tong, and a rare performance by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED).

Tazz

Kicking off the weekend was a house and techno-filled set that really got the amassing crowd going. Montrealer Tazz (of New Kanada, Underground Quality, and Tsuba fame) has been active in the local house scene since the late 1990s, crafting his production and djing styles, while keeping it fresh with many different sounds from tech or deep house, to the techno side of the electronic soundscape. That versatility caught the ear of Underground Quality's boss Jus-Ed, who signed him to the label. Recently, Tazz has been part of the up-and-coming Canadian label New Kanada, headed by DJ/producer Adam Marshall. His hour and a half set made us forget the cold and prepared the crowd for the next DJ.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

Oxford, England native Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs gave the festival a rare glimpse of his musical abilities. He's known for his musical mosaics, merging genres from electro pop to house and bass-y tunes. As expected, he got the large crowd in a roar with the first tracks, and a non-stop rave of melodic rhythms and catchy songs ensured, including a few tracks from his latest album, Trouble. This was a set not soon to be forgotten!

Bringing his signature Ibiza sounds to the Sapporo Stage, Mr. Essential Mix himself, Pete Tong ended the Siberian cold night on a hot note. Better known for the long-running BBC Radio 1 show Essential Selection, his legendary Essential Mix, plus a residency at the Pacha nightclub on the Spanish resort island of Ibiza. His set transported us to some far off destination where classic electro tracks met current big hit tracks, and they made any thought of the bitter winter conditions a very foreign concept.

Pete Tong

After blistering-cold weather for two days straight, Saturday night turned out to be the hottest night of the weekend! It was so hot that it actually snowed... a lot! Actually, maybe that the fact that three great duos were about to raise the temperature considerably and mother nature would drop a generous serving of snow. Any thought on the weather would be but an afterthought considering the sheer talent that was going to playing on the Sapporo stage that night! Kudos, to the Igloofest staff for making it happen. I caught the tail end of the first DJ-duo Kyle Calma and Seb Diamond, to artists that are prominent at many after-hour parties and big club events around town. The opening set, with its big house beats and fast paced rhythms, really got the crowd ready for the rest of the night.

Crowd at Igloofest

Up next was the duo I was waiting to see since the 2014 line up was unveiled back at the beginning of December. The Montreal DJ/producer duo known as Prince Club have come a long way since their first encounter at a Montreal Music school. Zach and Max started performing back in 2010 under the name Madkids, playing Igloofest's summer counterpart Piknic Electronik alongside Italian DJ/producer Riva Starr. Everything changed after that performance! The duo impressed Riva Starr so much that he signed the guys to the SNATCH! label and changed their name to Prince Club. After a long hiatus from performing in their hometown, Prince Club were finally back to get the crowd going with their signature bubbly house sound, it felt like it was already summer! The duo even played some new material during their superb set.

Prince Club

Don't miss a thing! Click here for the AutoBeat interview with Prince Club.

Capping off an amazing night filled with great music and a terrific atmosphere was Bay Area native and Dirtybird Records boss Claude Vonstroke, in town to do a back-to-back DJ set with fellow label mate Justin Martin, mixing everything house to funk with some bassy tracks. The duo got the temperature to rise so much that a few brave souls started taking their shirts off! Vonstroke's innovative style combined with Martin's underground sound made for one formidable and intense set. It's easy to see why the Dirtybird imprint has gained praises and respect over the past few years among underground and mainstream fans. Their musical flow was hard to resist, and each took turns behind the decks to raise the energy level at Igloofest to new heights.

Claude Vonstroke

Saturday, January 25th was quite possibly the best night so far, with its high level of energy and intensity from start to finish. The performers set the bar high for other international and local DJs spinning Igloofest the following weekend. Prince Club's set was the highlight of the weekend, as well as being just a few feet away from my favourite radio host/DJ Pete Tong. Can't beat that!

It wouldn't be Igloofest without the locals in their crazy costumes!

Scratchy, is that you?

Every day is Halloween

Make a wish!

It's time to dress up right

Tickle Me Elmo

Keep your eyes peeled on the CJLO Magazine, MNJIVR is getting set to bring you a complete rundown of Igloofest weekends three and four in the coming days!

Holy balls, have we not talked about Kataklysm? How have we not talked about Kataklysm? Somehow I feel this could only be your fault.

On the 25th of October, in the 2013th year of our lord and flavour, Cheesy Crust, the aforementioned Montreal metalloids dropped their eleventh studio album Waiting for the End to Come, a steaming pile of awesome, right in our collective laps. It is heavy and rad and have I shown my hand too early? Well damn, I guess I have to deliberately waste your time until I find a way to wrap this up. If you're that impatient you might as well save us both the trouble of going through this tirade and just get your ass out and buy this album.

Whatever it is that people who make melodic death metal do (I somehow imagine it involves rusty meat and a defibrillator), Kataklysm have done it damn proper. Mind you, I by no means renege on all the tongue-bathing I've given Dissension over the past year, they're still awesome and I will continue to thoroughly embarrass myself at their all too-infrequent shows. They've got a symphonic thrashy air mixed in there, and this review would be about them if I didn't think I've already chaffed my knees enough on their account. Kataklysm has more of a Fear Factorish situation going on, though. That normally wouldn't be a compliment in my books, because I've never been a Fear Factory fan, but I am a fan of what I'm hearing from our boys on this one.

Like any other relatively self-aware metallurgist, I have wrestled the beast known as "It All Sounds the Same". Let's call him Geoffrey. Sometimes someone unleashes Geoffrey on something near and dear to you, and you fight the f***er off tooth and nail. Sometimes the tables turn and you are the aggressor. Sometimes you are the unwilling custodian of Geoffrey, and as you feel the oppressive weight of his shadow and the curdling reek of his breath upon your nape, you know that he knows that you've crumbled. As an honest and avid consumer of black and thrash metal, I sometimes wonder if Geoffrey is the goal. In this particular instance, however, Geoffrey can go take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut, and that's just the way I like it.

I'm not going to say Kataklysm have broken any ground with this record; I'm not going to suggest that you probably can't find a thousand other albums just like this one. It's straightforward melodic f***ing death metal, I might as well say it's chocolate ice cream, you already know what to expect.

I will, however, tell you that it is the best dang chocolate ice cream I've put in my ears in quite some time.

Rating: Arbitrary number of thumbs up.

Hosted by: Catlin Spencer

Stories by: Saturn De Los Angeles, Danny Aubry & Catlin Spencer

Produced by: Jenna Monney-Lupert