Music Review: Seth Troxler Boogybytes Vol. 5

Possibly the baddest of all bad lads, currently residing in Berlin, Seth Troxler makes Hugh Hefner, Ron Jeremy and Keith Richards look like the Holy Trinity.......

............well young Seth is the latest guest to feature in Bpitchcontrol's Boogybytes compilation series, notable not just for guests like Ellen Allien and Modeselektor, but for Axl Jansen's 'Shaking Heads' profile photographs of the cover star. It's released on February 22nd.

Having listened to this constantly for the last 2 weeks, it's like Balance 014 all over again. This compilation is a treat, you never know what's coming next, whether Seth is going to hit you harder or pull away into some alluring atmospheric bliss and more than anything, the joker in Seth means you can't even begin to work out what it all means. No doubt we'll still be scratching our heads about what is real, what is a piss take, what is intended, what is a mistake and that's not even mentioning the bluffs and double bluffs. A great compilation that will keep you going for a long time.

  

Listen to two of the stand out tracks here:

Baeka - Right At It

Fever Ray - Seven (Seth Troxler Remix)

Tracklist

01 Seth Troxler - Intro
    Ryan Crosson - Amb 1
02 The Royal We - Party Guilt (Dinky's Arp-A-Pella)
03 Luciano - Fran Left Home
     Mike Shannon - Sweet A Pella
04 Craig Smith & The Revenge - The Soul Part II
05 Baeka - Right At It
06 Dinky feat. Update - Westoid
07 N/A feat. Rosina - Fables and Fairytales (Deniz Kurtel Remix)
08 Spektrum - Freakbox (Richie Hawtin's Uncontrolled Edit)
09 Alexi Delano - Molar One
10 Jabberjaw - The Connie Shake
11 Heartthrob - Signs (Thrill Cosby aka Seth Troxler Remix)
12 Birds And Souls - Birds And Souls
13 Roman Flügel - Stricher
14 Fever Ray - Seven (Seth Troxler Remix)
15 Kiki - Cinema Obscura
16 Nicolas Jaar - Time For Us

www.myspace.com/sethtroxler

www.bpitchcontrol.de/

Press Release

“Boogybytes - it's about score, about clubs and pubs, about personality and the things that define us...” This vocal introduces the next instalment of the Boogybytes mix CD series. Volume 5 is the first CD not to feature a star from the label but to give a surprise appearance to the extremely charismatic and not-so-secret insider tip Seth Troxler. His top-drawer DJ, remixing and production skills, as well as his highly praised releases on labels including the Ghostly International sub-label Spectral Sound, have helped him attract considerable interest and great bookings in his home city of Detroit and his current surroundings in Berlin. BPC aficionados may be familiar with Seth through his collaboration with Ryan Crosson and Sean Reeves. The trio delivered an extremely successful remix for Kiki under the name “Visionquest” which has been licensed for numerous other releases.

After the success of their night at the Berlin club Watergate, the paths of Ellen Allien und Seth Troxler crossed once again. Seth was spontaneously given the honour of making a Boogybytes CD. After agreeing euphorically and without hesitation, Seth took the time to carefully reflect on his new environment in Berlin: “I wanted to do something which would set itself apart from all the trends, and yet paint a picture of this city and portray it the way I experience it.”

The track selection which came out of this process conveys this picture superbly. Its palpable deepness occasionally harbours a touch of melancholy, yet never becomes overwhelming, for at its peaks - which certainly include Seth's Fever Ray mix - the tension is released in the most explosive and unbridled manner. Seth already considers certain tracks as classics. For him, Nicolas Jaar's “Time For Us” and the epic “Birds And Souls” are works with a great future.

Seth's particular way of combining the most varied of musical elements is shown both in his fitting track selection and in his remarkable mixing technique. Not only are the individual remixes artfully arranged and intertwined, but single elements are also occasionally reemployed as material in a sound montage. Seth merges tracks into one another almost imperceptibly whilst constantly creating new angles in the way they overlap and retreat from one another. Other songs, on the other hand, follow one another abruptly and yet completely seamlessly. Sound elements are dispersed over the tracks, acting as recurring signals. In the case of the dancefloor stormer “Stricher” by Roman Flügel (one half of the duo Alter Ego), a complete section of the song is remoulded as a transition between tracks. The 4/4 kick drum does not remain fundamentally in the foreground; in the funk-jazz-tinged pieces by Bakara and Dinky its presence is withdrawn, although the compulsion to dance is never lost. Seth Troxler pays homage both to his Detroit roots and to the minimal house style of his new home, and as a result he moves his hallmark sound beyond the limits of 12” releases for the first time.