ok, it’s been a while since the last post on teshno (life kinda gets in the way, you know) but i’m back. in the coming weeks i have a deniz kurtel interview for you but, in the meantime, enjoy (hopefully) this feature i wrote on seth.
it was originally published in last month’s dj mag but i reproduce it here, in full, so more people get to see it. (incidentally, it was published with the same images, too, which i assume gave the piece its title in the mag. they are now part of my private collection.)
it seems that everybody wants a piece of seth troxler. his podcasts and interviews have livened up the internet throughout the last 18 months; his gig schedule has taken him all round europe and both americas; he’s released on spectral sound, crosstown rebels, w&l, wagon repair and more, and now ellen alien has asked him to mix the fifth instalment of her boogybytes compilation because, she tells us, “he has sunshine in his heart.” troxler is the first non bpitch artist to be involved with the series and, with that; the storm around him continues to brew.
“i’m a bit of a blond i guess. i try to just take life as it is, kind of imagine the hype’s not there” says seth. “i don’t like the outside drama of it all.” whether he wants to acknowledge it or not, it’s there and, despite not fuelling his own fire as avidly as do others, it’s unlikely to go away anytime soon. especially, that is, if boogybytes volume 5 is any sort of barometer.
troxler’s first commercially released mix cd is a deft and vivid mix during which every track paints a real picture. so much so, in fact, that each record has so much to say for itself that it would almost sound as good on its own; out of context, and that’s not often something you can say of most compilations during which many soulless, sound-a-like tracks just get lost in the mire; fade into the mix.
starting with a critique of cod-shit club-chat, boogybytes 5 plots a journey through loose, cosmic vibes from luciano; timeless 4/4 shuffles from baeke; some excellent druggy tech from newcomer deniz kurtel and the trippy, heavy, minimal of matthew dear as jabberjaw, before finishing up with nicolas jaar – one of 2010’s hottest prospects – and his dreamy, afterhours house masterpiece ‘time for us.’ the mix peaks, however, with troxler’s own clever remix of fever ray’s introverted ‘seven’. it’s a dark and brooding track which subtly extrapolates the menacing foundations of the original, and is evidence of how troxler is someone who aims to create a feeling both with his productions, and his dj sets.
“when i was asked to bring the mix together i had a busted set up so ellen sent me her turntables. i think how [a mix is recorded] is a cool question but, in my mind, why is more the idea behind it. so, i took tracks that i really enjoyed at the time, sat around at home and tried to get a vibe. the music on the mix is not really the music being played in berlin now per say, but it’s very much the attitude that bpitch idealizes and a representation of my own feeling toward the city”seth explains. “it’s a fun place and i think in many ways it represents a part of me and how i play, and more so what i enjoy.”
if you’ve come across the kid from kalamazoo (the largest city in south west michigan) at all in recent months, it’s likely you’ll think that what he enjoys is partying: in successfully cultivating a moustachioed, drunken and womanizing persona – both through his music and in real life – and in often being labelled an amateur raver turned pro, seth troxler has become something of a pin-up; a cult underground figure who apparently prises jokes over all else. but, if you believe that, you’d be wrong. for one thing, the raver turned pro tale which precedes him is rather more idealistic than the truth.
“in reality i didn’t really get into raving ‘till i moved to lake orion, the suburb of detroit i grew up in. i was 14, it was 2000, and my mom just got married. i really was a bit clueless, but i met some kids who lived near me and they invited me to go to this party in the city. so we go. it’s like robert hood and adam x playing i think, so totally old warehouse and i was like ‘ohhh, this is a rave.’ i was into the music, but at the time, i had never related to it in that context.
“it was super funny because matthew dear was from the same suburb and this kid i was hanging with, little pat, had an older brother who used to go raving with matt. we stole the flyer for that warehouse party from his room, and then went along: that’s how we started our little rave crew. from then on, we drove to this city every weekend and straight away i asked for turntables for my 15th birthday. i got some along with loads of records from my step dad, and then a sort of tragedy happened…”
“my friends and i wanted to make a party. we got out my records and turntables, put them outside my house in the garden, and then went to get some food. on the way back for eating we saw all these fire trucks and i made a joke, ‘ha ha, i hope my house didn’t burn down.’ sure as shit it did.”
“so, i just moved to this new city and, within a few months, my house burned down and all i was left with was turntables and records. all my stuff from my whole life was gone… all my toys; my entire child hood. so, with just my records left, i took it as like a sign from god. i was like ‘wow, so weird, i guess this is what i need to be doing.’”
after that, young seth spent hours a day playing records. records from his father – “old dance mania stuff, black nation records, some electro” he tells us – and then he started journeying to detroit in pursuit of the ben simms, frankie bones and acid records he was hearing at raves during the time. these early musical pilgrimages shaped troxler’s musical make-up (along with, he says, “r&b and jazz which i really liked as a child, and which appealed to my softer side – it’s where my melody comes from”) and of sorts were mirrored in 2008 when the then 22 year old again chased the eye of techno’s storm, and moved to berlin along with detroit friends and fellow djs ryan crosson and lee curtiss.
“i think my tastes now are determined by my experiences, experiences of buying from mike huckerby back in detroit at the melodies and memories record store [where he also worked alongside people like techno luminary theo parrish], my early love of perlon and classic records stuff but, mainly with my sets now, i want to paint a picture. i want to tell a story in the club: i’ve always looked for records that were unique and stood out not as some party jam, but as a party jam with something to say; a party jam that’s not so obvious.”
so whilst troxler looks for something beyond the obvious when filling his record bag, it’s also something he aims to achieve with his own productions: they go from trippy minimal monsters to elongated house workouts, but always come with humour in spades. it’s that which stand them apart from the slew of oh-so-serious techno everywhere else, and that which adds to the appeal of this seemingly misunderstood renegade.
“i don’t mind the reputation i have. obviously i party, but i have quite a lot of depth as a person – you catch me on a deep one and i’m talking about what is existence, consciousness, knowledge, space, midgets, and rainbows. i don’t just get on it all the time.
“it’s like at the beginning of the boogybytes mix, i wanted to make an intro about club life, about how i imagine the life of some bpitch fan walking around mitte being hip, like a hot chick living life, listening to modeselektor in her headphones. but she has like glasses. and is liberian. but on the weekend goes out and raves full on. that duality is amazing. i love people who live life and really want to be something, but who also love having a laugh and chasing the dragon at the weekend. to me, partying is cool, but it’s a celebration of life: if you have your life together and you’re working it, then party as much as you like.”
the partying you may see or hear about, then, is the end of a long process for troxler: it’s his reward to himself for having his life together. at just 24, he has successfully steered the underground house and techno scene towards a more explicit, colourful end a million miles away from the bleak and austere minimal landscapes of days gone by. his array of aliases and the fantastical corresponding back stories are fun concepts, and his twisted vocals (seth has most recently added his tongue to a forthcoming deetron single) are all part of “adding an extra dimension; a great quest to find out what it is to be human; how i can express that, and how i can help other people find or express who they are, and what it is to be alive” he says.
“i have targets in the sense that i want culture to progress, and i want this brand of music to both challenge and unify people. but, no matter what depth you go into with your ideas, i think people’s natural reaction to any music is fun, and that creates the level of enjoyment i aim for. fun has been, and always will be, at the heart of what i do.”
said fun which exudes from a troxler set or production is a result of the man investing a lot of himself into his work. he treats music as art – an expression of self – rather than as a business like too many of his peers who aimlessly churn out copies of what’s en vogue; copies of what will get them a hit. like any producer worth his salt, a troxler record is instantly recognisable as such: from the tortured vocals of ‘hurt’ with tiefschwartz, to the poetic beauty of ‘aphrika’ via the dark, atmospheric longing of ‘love never sleeps’ – these textured records ooze personality and come from someone whose mind brims with ideas, curiosity and a desire to push the envelope.
“i’m from an art school background and really believe in the idea of concept. that drives me, representing my concept of life and my general ideas on how i look at the world. i think when you create something as a whole. e.g. packaging, images, sounds etc. it should hit your mind on loads of different levels. i want you to have to look at all of these factors and then have your mind put it all together, like a challenge. i don’t want to just make a song with nothing behind the curtain. i want the music to be more cerebral, have an added dimension. that’s why i have so many aliases, so i can create whole characters and stories.”
in 2010 those characters will continue to evolve, as do seth’s ambitions. “right now, i’m working on a few new things. ryan crosson, lee curtiss, shaun reeves and i are going full-on with our visionquest project this year. we’re going to turn it into a really big live thing with visuals, with the idea being this extra added dimension to the music. also, i need to make an album. it took the last year to redesign my studio in berlin, so i have some new kit and now it’s just finding the time.”
whilst a whole lot of people hope he does, the things troxler occupies himself with in the meantime sound just as promising (“bill patrick and i are trying to make a new super dj tag team with our new genre ‘prog?’ it’s like old 90′s tech house, that bit prog-y, lots of chords and some air, and it’s like ‘is this prog? i don’t know but i love it. let’s just feel good. let’s just dance.’ fuck this bongos shit; it’s time to make bad house disappear“) and ensure that those still wanting a piece of seth troxler will have plenty to go at, for a while to come.
beautifully done, monsieur kristan.
"let’s just feel good. let’s just dance"
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