In the contemporary landscape of underground electronic music, few figures straddle disparate sonic worlds with as much grace, rigor, and open-minded curiosity as Matthew Xue, globally recognized as Moopie. Operating out of Melbourne, Australia, Xue has carved out a singular trajectory over a 15-year career that defies neat categorization or predictable industry narratives.
On any given weekend, Xue can be found commanding festival stages and cavernous warehouses, driving crowds wild with functional, heads-down techno, heavy-hitting breaks, and hypnotic electro. Yet, by Monday morning, he pivots entirely, managing A&R for A Colourful Storm, his fiercely independent and wide-ranging record label founded in 2016. Across a catalog spanning over 50 releases, A Colourful Storm champions everything from hushed spoken-word poetry and bleary-eyed classical compositions to avant-garde industrial noise, vintage Japanese psychedelia, and archival IDM.
This dual identity—operating as both a high-octane club purveyor and a delicate, avant-garde curator—is not indicative of an artist caught between conflicting impulses, but rather one who actively dismantles the artificial barriers dividing them. As Moopie prepares his contribution to DJ Mag’s prestigious Recognise mix series—a 16-track journey blending Drexciyan sizzle with classic IDM and razor-sharp percussion—this feature explores his upbringing, his curatorial philosophy, and the profound emotional depth driving his artistic journey.
Detailed Chronology
Formative Years: From Beijing to Melbourne and the Alt-Rock Awakening
Matthew Xue’s story begins in Beijing, China, where he spent his early childhood before his family relocated to Melbourne, Australia, when he was four years old. The migration was undertaken largely to secure access to an exceptional education—a plan that Xue jokes "totally backfired" once he hit adolescence.
Growing up in a traditional Chinese household meant undergoing formal musical training; Xue was subjected to rigorous piano and violin lessons. However, a rebellious streak quickly took hold. Rather than earnestly practicing scales, Xue would smudge fingerprints onto the piano keys to fake a session.
In high school, a pivot toward alternative rock, post-punk, and indie music altered his life’s trajectory. "I started listening to alternative music and it all went down from there," he reflects. "I started getting into a lot of trouble, and now we’re here."
The Daft Punk Epiphany and the Mixtape Masterclass
The gateway to electronic music arrived in 2007 when Daft Punk brought their legendary Alive 2007 tour to Melbourne. Invited by a friend, a teenage Xue was transfixed not just by the spectacle, but by the sonic economy of synthesized music. "I realised that all of these sounds were synthesised," he recalls. "There was a real savviness to it—you could do so much with so little."
Shortly after, Xue discovered Erol Alkan’s double-disc compilation, A Bugged Out Mix / A Bugged In Selection. The mix served as a skeleton key, demonstrating how genres like M83, Nirvana, and DJ Koze could be seamlessly spliced together to author a brand new narrative. Armed with a fake ID, Xue plunged headfirst into the minimal techno and electroclash scenes, practicing on friends’ CDJs before graduating to small local clubs.
Early on, his style was deeply influenced by the late, great producer Silent Servant, whose boundary-pushing sets combined industrial music, dub techno, and classic synth-pop by acts like SPK and Basic Channel. It was during this period of youthful exploration that the moniker "Moopie"—originally a child-friendly computer program term for "movies"—stuck.
The Inception of A Colourful Storm (2011–2016)
By 2011, while studying architecture at university, Xue was spending his extracurricular hours immersed in the burgeoning electronic music blogosphere. Alongside friends, he launched a precursor mix series designed to showcase their increasingly eclectic tastes. The guest lists featured left-field luminaries ranging from noise icon William Bennett to tape-music experimentalist Frank Bretschneider, setting a precedent for uncompromised curation.
The transition from digital curation to a physical record label materialized through a moment of serendipity. While researching out-of-print Australian coldwave, Xue discovered "California Dreaming," a 1982 lo-fi cover of The Mamas & the Papas classic by local outfit Denial. A fortuitous connection made through electronic producer Nerve led Xue to the original label owners.
In 2016, A Colourful Storm officially launched with two releases that would map out its future: a repress of Denial’s long-lost single and a brutal, industrial techno two-track debut from Nerve.
Supporting Context & Metrics
The Philosophy of Taste: Rejecting Conservative Curation
In an industry where DJs and label heads often curate rigid, highly calculated personas to signal "good taste," Xue adopts a radically open-minded ethos.
"As time goes on, I want to be more and more open-minded," Xue explains. "I don’t want to make any one kind of music or art my identity. Taste is conservative. Come on, if you want to push that you have good taste all the time, you’re a bad person!"
This philosophy allows him to inhabit seemingly contradictory spaces with total authenticity. When booked to play commercial tech-house parties for crowds entirely unfamiliar with his independent label, Xue embraces the functional power of formulaic four-to-the-floor dance music.
"The beauty of that music is that it’s formulaic," he notes. "If you’re going out to dance for eight hours a night, you’ll want to listen to formulaic music. The feelings you can conjure in a beatmatched set cannot be replicated with any other technique or technology."
A Label Defying Categorization
Over the span of a decade and roughly 50 releases, A Colourful Storm has resisted easy genre classification. Its catalog spans:
- DIY Folk & Dream-Pop Compilations: Intimate, organic songcraft designed for inward reflection.
- Vintage Japanese Psychedelia: Archival recordings celebrating historical counter-cultures.
- Trance-Inflected House & Free-Jazz Slammers: High-energy workouts that bridge the gap between contemporary club utility and improvisational chaos.
Xue models his label on historic institutions like Brussels’ Les Disques du Crépuscule, valuing the overarching curatorial dialogue over isolated releases. For Xue, a label’s true power lies in its ability to connect disparate threads, opening up new worlds of imagination.
Official Statements & Insights
Reflecting on his expansive career path during a spring interview in Melbourne, Xue shared core insights regarding his creative output, DJ sets, and the emotional core of his work:
- On the Emotional Mandate of Art: "All art should evoke some feeling. It can’t be indifferent. That’s the worst. You either love it or you hate it… There’s always been this emotional aspect about [A Colourful Storm]. It’s about working with intuition and judging things by how it makes you feel immediately after."
- On Bridging Disparate Worlds: "The idea that I can potentially do a gig with Mark and an indie-pop band on the same bill—that’s probably the dream of the whole thing."
- On Navigating Mistakes Behind the Decks: "What the DJ plays in those moments is very defining. If I compare a DJ who is still slamming it when the lights have gone on and there’s only three people, versus someone who says, ‘Okay, I might use this opportunity to play the weirdest stuff possible’… There are very low stakes. Why not take advantage of that?"
Future Outlook
As of late 2026, Matthew Xue shows no signs of slowing down his relentless international touring schedule or his meticulous curatorial work. Following performances at premier global venues—including Berghain and Else in Berlin, Lux Fragil in Lisbon, Bassiani in Tbilisi, Dimensions Festival in Croatia, and Organik Festival in Taipei—Xue continues to refine his distinctive approach to hybrid DJ sets.
Looking ahead, A Colourful Storm approaches its second decade with plans to expand its sonic borders even further. Eschewing commercial pressures and internet-driven micro-trends, Xue remains committed to a childlike sense of naivety and discovery. Whether he is unearthing obscure 1980s EBM tracks (such as Front 242, SPK, or The Neon Judgement) to slip into a peak-time club set, or preparing to release a ferocious hardcore punk record on his label, Moopie’s ultimate artistic directive remains unchanged.
As he summarizes with a knowing smile: "It’s like any art form. It’s like looking into someone’s heart."
Recognise 116: Moopie Tracklist
- Lucinda – ‘Strobe’
- Tevatron – ‘Nu-tronik’
- E.R.P. – ‘Perfume Persuasion’
- Claro Intelecto – ‘Resonation’
- Morphology – ‘Information Paradox’
- A Guy Called Gerald – ‘Dirty Trix’
- Dark Matrix – ‘Wave Particle Theory One’
- Terrence Dixon – ‘Beat’
- Casino Classix – ‘Ringer’
- Aubrey – ‘Inner Passions Out’
- Planetary Assault Systems – ‘Function 4’
- Dulha – ‘Lotus (Pluralist Remix)’
- Noyeahno – ‘Pushing Percussion’
- Mono Junk – ‘Mainio’
- Seimei – ‘Metropolitan Drums’
- Bandulu – ‘Blank Tape’
