Montreal’s Palomosa festival is just around the corner, and we can’t wait to experience what is basically our “most listened to” playlist live on Jean Drapeau Island. The lineup is so good it’s overwhelming, so to make it simple, we’ve picked out our top acts so that you can optimize your festival schedule.

Listen along with our playlists on YouTube or Spotify below.

Zack Fox takes the reins at Piknic x Palomosa’s Block Party with a rush of bouncy ghettotech. Between commanding packed clubs and stealing scenes on Abbott Elementary, Fox remains impossible to pin down. His comedic edge infuses his performances with a raw magnetism, cementing him as one of the (extended) weekend’s fiercest draws.

Summer isn’t over until Fcukers say it is. Pumping out hit after hit since strutting on the scene in 2022, the New York dance-pop duo has cracked the code of emulating 00s club ambiance for the digital age. Oscillating between coy and in-your-face, the playful vocals of singer Shannon Wise create instant earworms when coupled with the steamy, bass-heavy production of bandmate Jackson Walker Lewis. A logical addition to the music libraries for fans of The Chemical Brothers, LSDXOXO and Tim Goldsworthy, Fcukers 2004 breakout hit “Homie Don’t Shake” is a must-have on our USBs. Catch the pair live on Friday at the Fizz Stage.

Glitch-pop prodigy yeule takes to the Fizz Stage on Saturday, casting a spectral glow across Parc Jean-Drapeau. After fuzzed-out success Softscars, their latest record Evangelic Girl is a Gun delves into trip-hop tradition, boasting collaborations with A.G. Cook and Mura Masa. Inspired by the nightmarish vistas of Zdzisław Beksiński and yeule’s own journey as a painter, Evangelic Girl is a Gun commits to “[burning] through the canvas of post-modernity” – a work that beckons to be witnessed.

A master of wistful, head-bobbing lo-fi, Toronto-based producer, singer-songwriter and DJ, Loukeman has graduated from SoundCloud darling to underground forerunner, gracing Palomosa’s Fizz Stage on Saturday night of the festival. On his second installment of a to-be-completed trilogy, Sd-2 (2024), Loukeman interlaces Easter egg samples with minimal house foundations and melancholy synth hums à la ML Buch. If you need us, we will be swaying in the crowd.

Your favourite DJ’s favourite DJ, ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U’s audacious sets have scrambled minds across the globe. Born in Osaka, Japan, ¥UK1MAT$U started spinning in 2008, translating the rebellious and varied listening habits of his youth to the dancefloor. Before donning his eclectic sets to sweaty, transfixed crowds in the thousands, ¥UK1MAT$U worked as a construction worker until he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in 2016. Now on the other side of treatment and pursuing DJing full time, the oft shirtless scene-stealer levitates listeners with his saucy sonic sojourns. ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U is set to play the the Du Jardin Stage on Saturday night.

Known for engineering club bangers like horsegiirL’s “My Barn My Rules,” and Miss Bashful’s “Slut Commandments,” MCR-T knows how to make people move. His 2024 album NOT THE SAME ≠, released via his Berlin-based anarchic collective Live From Earth, created a one-man West Berlin ghetto-tech wave that has reached a worldwide audience, hitting especially hard with singles like “Buurman Uit Berlijn ft. Joost” and “1 Berliner”. We can’t wait to throw it back in the crowd at the Du Jardin stage.