Brooklyn's beloved DJ and production duo Metro Area, which was deep and techie long before it was cool, comes to Los Angeles Friday night for a DJ set. We caught up one half of the act, Darshan Jesrani, and asked a few questions:

LA Weekly: You're one of few American acts that could arguably said to be on the edge of global dance music. Why do you think stateside producers aren't as prominent in electronic dance music these days?

Metro Area – Live @ Somewhere from Roman Filippov on Vimeo.

Jesrani: I think it's simply because dance music doesn't get promoted here to the extent that it used to or does right now in other parts of the world. It takes a certain amount of promotion and culture to create even a fan of the music, and much more to create participants. It might be more underground here than it ever was, except for maybe in the late '60s and early '70s, the very beginning.

How come you would rather lug around analog gear instead of using laptops for performances? What are you bringing to L.A.?

Just in case there's any confusion about what we'll be doing in LA, we're DJ'ing, so we'll be bringing a bunch of music – records and CDs.

Melodic techno has been huge in recent years, but there's also a dark, tech-house sound coming out of Europe. What are your feelings about that vibe (coming from the likes of DJ Hell, Radio Slave, Chris Liebing)?

When you've been into dance music for a long time you can take a broad view. To me there's always been a side of European dance music which has been about darker, more intense moods, for as long as I've been listening. It's like “Jupiter Jazz” versus “Der Klang Der Familie” if you want to take an example from the early '90s.

Can you give us three new tracks that you like right now?

-New Metro Area album tracks in progress

-MG's [Morgan Giest, the other half of Metro Area] new stuff with guest vocalist, TBA.

-“Push” by Henry Maldonado and his new project.

Metro area DJs Friday with Droog at TS2, 4658 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. Info.

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