I first heard of Brighton’s Murlo when I went trawling through forums looking for good bashment refixes. His refix of Busy’s ‘Wooeii Gal Wooeii’ sparked off an interest in his other productions including Summer Tusk (a hot rework of Sticky and Natalie Storm’s ‘Look Pon Me’). You may also recognize him from his recently released mix for Palm Out Sounds which has garnered a lot of attention, or his refix of Tek Buddy Gal featured here on the Mixpak blog.
How did you get started?
Well I started DJing at parties and fundraisers when I went down from the East Midlands to study in Brighton, around 4 years ago. That went down well so I started a club night called Angry Dance Party which finished last year, quickly realising that i’m not so good at the promoting side of things, so I took to remixing and producing some of my own stuff.
Who are your dj and production influences?
So much influences me, I started out DJing a lot of bass orientated music like bassline and then started playing bashment and soca. I love anything with energy basically. The UK scene is so strong at the moment that I always find you don’t have to look far to stumble on a new sound or a new direction. I think the UK is great for its ability to act as a petri dish and its diversity to allow diferent genres of music to evolve. Saying that, other DJs abroad like Ghislain Poirier, Uproot Andy and Matt Shadetek are all influences.
Your Palm Out Sounds mix was on repeat over the christmas holidays, with its varied selection (garage, R&B, grime, soca, rap, bashment, funky) . Is that typical of your DJ sets?
I didn’t want to really focus on a particular genre when I was choosing the playlist for the mix, I was searching through my folders and scrolling through songs and was just throwing in every tune that got me excited.I tend to play a lot of bashment at the moment but I always try and throw in come cheeky 160 bpm soca tunes wherever I can.
The first time I heard of you was that Busy Signal ‘Wooeii Gal Wooeii’ refix, what drew you towards that Busy tune?
Yeah I seemed to get a good reaction from that refix. I wanted to do a Busy refix for a while and when I first heard the simple stripped-down percussion it was a nice invitation for some coupe decale drums.
You have been on Twitter saying that 2011 is the year of soca, why do you think that is?
With the exposure it got last year and also with genres like footwork and juke, I think a lot more producers are willing to nudge up their BPM now. Even though soca seems to have a purpose: a lot of tracks are produced and promoted at certain periods of the year in anticipation for the Carnivals, I’ve been coming across a lot more attention to the genre in general. Palancin into 2011!
What is your favourite soca tune?
Fay Ann Lyons – True Lies (Road mix). It’s pure energy.
What are your upcoming projects for 2011?
If all goes well I should be having an E.P released on an exciting new label. I’m also planning on doing a couple of collaborations as well. Other than that I’m just gonna carry on making tunes.
Interview: Inie Banigo
