SETH TROXLER: BOOGYBYTES VOL.05 (BPITCH CONTROL)

BPitch Control’s Boogybytes series has garnered a reputation for exploring the less processed facets of the glitched-out, sometimes overly serious minimal sound synonymous with the label’s home city of Berlin. Previous artists to take the helm have all been BPitch Control signings (Modeselektor, Kiki, Sacha Funke and label boss Ellen Allien), and over four years have thoroughly explored the German capital’s capacity for the heady, thought-provoking and downright challenging yet highly infectious body-moving music. 
Or so we thought.
Step up Seth Troxler, the Michigan born Berlin adoptee whose crisp, intelligent, head-melting productions and awe inspiring skills at mixing the unpredictable have propelled him to fame with breakneck speed. With this precocious talent and his legend as a Grade A party monster who often leaves Sven Vath looking like a cake-baking member of the W.I, it was almost inevitable that Berlin and Seth would end up embracing eachother like long lost friends.
“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.” 
This portrait takes the form of an 80 minute exercise in juxtaposition. For the most part traditional beatmatched mixing has been eschewed, yet the transition between tracks could scarcely be more seamlessly and natural; the pounding tech-house of Alex Delano, Jabberjaw and Hearthrob feel bizarrely contemplative while the haunting, melancholy vocals of Fever Ray and Birds and Souls end up compelling the feet to move. The track selection flashes between the mature, considered approach of a veteran dancefloor manipulator and the excitable child dragging your here and there to look at his latest find. Craig Smith and The Revenge’s piano tinged glitterball workout The Soul Part II slides effortlessly into Baeka’s organic, jazz flecked roller Right At It before dropping down into Dinky Feat. Upstate’s smoky, soulful, vocal house. Every next track comes as a surprise yet feels totally natural within the sphere of influences Troxler has managed to compile. If his mix CDs are this good, just imagine what he’s capable of in a nightclub.

Words by Chris Lawes.