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Music

Mateo Murphy Likes Mixing it Up

MATEO MURPHY with PAUL WALKER, THE DUKES and THE ECO SYSTEM at Red Square (205 Richmond West), Friday (April 12), $8 advance (Eastern Bloc Records), $10 before midnight, more after. www.easternbloc.com, www.vector-productions.com

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Mateo Murphy’s driving, percussion-heavy, hard techno sound is starting to get him noticed outside of his home town of Montreal.

He’s been DJing for eight years and has a reputation for being able to rock the early evening crowd as well as the 9 in the morning scene at his residency at infamous Montreal after-hours club Aria.

But, he confesses, this versatility hasn’t always worked in his favour.

“A couple of years ago I played a drum ‘n’ bass set at a party here called Cream, and people still thought I was a drum ‘n’ bass DJ two years later, even though that’s probably the only d ‘n’ b set I’ve ever played,” says Murphy from his Montreal apartment.

“I decided I needed to develop more of an identity, so I’ve definitely become more associated with techno.”

Murphy has released singles on labels like Turbo and Haute Couture and a well-received full-length album on Districk, but unlike many studio fiends he still looks forward to DJing out in clubs each weekend.

“I like playing long sets and adjusting to different guest DJs. I find it really boring to hear one style of music for three hours, so I like starting out the night with some house and working up to harder stuff.

“It’s different for DJs who grew up in the rave circuit, where people are often only playing an hour — they tend to just play one style of music.”

Regular club gigs have left little time to pursue the jet-set superstar DJ life, but he will be doing his first European tour this summer.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t got all the dates confirmed yet, but I decided to go over anyway. Right now we’ve got France, Spain, a good chance in England and then Germany — my records sell well in Germany, more so than in England.”

Also coming up within the year is a full-length album with labelmate Tiga, Montreal’s resident electro junky and auteur of the ridiculously fun acid-techno cover of Corey Hart’s Sunglasses At Night that’s been getting tons of play from a wide range of DJs over the past year.

“I think the combination of our influences means that there will be a definite electro vibe, although maybe less electro than 80s in general. Not in a tongue-in-cheek way, more a bringing up to date, like what a lot of house producers did with mining the 70s.”

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