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NORTHMIX: Mateo Murphy

To help initiate Montreal's 16th edition of Mutek, Montrealer Mateo Murphy pulsates through this Northmix.

Mateo Murphy is one of Montreal's oldest and most revered techno artists. For nearly 20 years, he has harnessed a pulsating techno reign at each Mutek edition since its inception. As the final pieces of Mutek's 2015 edition are coming together, it's hard to imagine a better way to leap into this week's festivities than with a truly dark Northmix from Murphy.

As a long time Montreal native and veteran in the Canadian dance music scene, Murphy has seen the progression of the digital arts and music celebration from its humble beginnings to its current reign as an international digital arts brand. "It grew out of a new media festival, so there has always been a very strong digital culture side within it. It wasn't just about partying, the way a lot of other music festivals are. It was really about electronic music as art. One of the consequences of that is there has always been a focus on live performances—there are usually very few DJ performances at Mutek. It is an opportunity for artists to showcase their own music, rather than playing the hits."

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Murphy has often been one of those artists, dabbling with both live shows and DJ sets in and out of Mutek. His Northmix is a showcase of his skills, as he presents the vivacious techno he's known for through an arrangement of dark, rhythmic tracks. Although he claims that DJ sets allow for a more comprehensive connection with the audience, due to the ability to shift the energy with more material, this year he is returning to a live show set-up. The set-up is undoubtedly inspired by his studio experience last year, where he imposed on himself the intense task of producing a track once a week for the entire year.

Dubbed the 7506 Project, "the whole approach was about adding constraints."

"My thinking was that the more choice you have, the harder it is to decide what to do. That feeling is especially exasperated on a computer when you technically have all the sounds in the world accessible to you. Deciding on a certain sound set or on a certain bpm made it a lot easier. It enabled me to be a lot more creative," says Murphy. In addition to achieving a wider range of material, the process built his level of confidence in the studio—something that young producers could benefit from. "Now it is a lot less intimidating for me when I sit down in front of the computer to come up with something final. I have done it so many times now in the last year that it is not a big deal."

The discipline he gained from the 7506 Project also seeped into his live shows. "On the CNTRL tour, it was very much an appropriate venue because everyone who was there already works in that way. Everyone who was there works on CDs or computers." Headlined by Richie Hawtin, the CNTRL tour's mandate was to not only bring the sounds of techno to a younger North American audience, but to educate producers on the trials and tribulations (or successes) of both the local and international techno artists touring today. "As far as the panel goes, the people who already know the music show up there. I think the goal of that was less about exposing people to new things, and more about inspiring them," explains Murphy. "You could sense that the people who have a lot of trouble finishing tracks or growing as an artist were inspired at some point by the larger artists. It was great to see the line-up of people who were there giving demos to Richie. I think that is a net win for everybody because there are not a lot of artists that are accessible that way anymore."

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In a similar fashion, Mutek brings the sounds of international artists and presents them in a somewhat untypical environment. "One of the thing Mutek does is a series of free shows. Some of those are outdoors and that will attract people who don't go to music festivals at all," he says. "Four or five years ago I played a Mutek show in the subway. From playing in a setting like that, it was clear that there was a lot of exposure to people who would otherwise never go to a techno show."

With more than 80 live performances from 110 artists, Mutek will once again push the live expression of digital arts creation to the forefront. There is an onslaught of free days parties at Mutek this year and a demanding night schedule for the techno tourist, you can catch Mateo playing live at the Roland showcase on Friday, May 29 at the Phi Centre.

Mateo Murphy is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Instagram

Geoff is on Twitter.