Seth Troxler, Loco Dice and Victor Calderone

Who they are

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  Loco Dice

  Tunisia · 8 bookings since Jun 2024

  “Every so often a DJ or producer comes along who inspires the collective imagination.”

  their own biography

  the whole biography

  Every so often a DJ or producer comes along who inspires the collective imagination. Via his DJ sets or his productions on labels like M_nus, Cadenza, Ovum, Four Twenty and Cocoon, he merges perspectives in his delicate sense for sounds and reflective atmospheres, underpinned with solid, physical grooves inspired by the hip hop that was his early sonic stomping ground in the mid- to late ‘90s. There’s something there for the dreamers, as well as for the 9-to-5ers who just want to lose everything in a moment of abandon on the dancefloor. Don’t think that merging of perspectives is accidental. This Loco Dice, with his mercurial temperament, may let his thoughts run away with him, but he tends to chase those ideas and make them into an artistic reality. His DJ sets, whether at Germany’s biggest rave Timewarp, Cocoon in Ibiza or a beach party in South America, are spontaneous orchestrations fueled by the nuances of a night/venue/crowd. He began a fruitful studio partnership with Martin Buttrich in 2002 leading to tracks like Phatt Dope Shit, MeninaBrasiliera, and Seeing ThroughShadows, and Dice meticulously plans these productions. It’s a directorial, cinematic outlook, which permeates Dice’s everyday life, and comes not just from the outlandish escapades and scrapes that he has sometimes found himself living out in real life. It also stems from elaborate film scripts imagined as a young Loco Dice on the streets of Flingern in Düsseldorf and the Kerkennah Islands in Tunisia. This continues to be a habit of Loco Dice’s today: to close his eyes for just one minute, and see a whole cornucopia of scenes and atmospheres. As one manifestation of this, visitors to Düsseldorf were early 2008 able to see an exhibition of photographs taken by Loco Dice & Martin Buttrich during the year they spent in New York City to work on the Loco Dice album. It’s an album that re-imagines the soul of a city, built from careful observations of urban tribes that crisscross and sometimes clash, of minute details and sensory impressions. Family is important to Loco Dice, as you might have noticed if you’ve seen one of his tattoos, a Chicano-style artwork with the legend “Guadelupe”. His love for music stems from hearing soul and funk in the kitchen, and holidays with his mother to Tunisia, where he absorbed North African and Middle Eastern folk music and occasionally sneaked away to watch his grandfather playing dice at café tables on the street. Family is how he’s always regarded the people close to him, and it’s how he regards subcultures too. As a football player, those who build strong teams of creative people around them inspire him. This sense of family is what he wants to create with projects like his and Buttrich’s label Desolat, and an artist management agency he run with Tom Preuss called Artist Alife. When you visit the office of Desolat and Artist Alife, you’re struck by the fact that everyone seems to come from a different cultural background. Loco Dice’s experience of Germany is one that includes friends and collaborators, who are of African, Eastern European, Italian or Turkish descent. Loco Dice is interested in all kinds of people and artistic subcultures: he’s proud of people, who bring a creative flair to what they do, informed by lives lived ever so slightly less ordinary. In that sense, Dice’s innate understanding of people: what they sense, what they feel, what they want to imagine, is a part of what distinguishes him from other DJs. He’s very aware when playing in Ibiza of the multiplicity of nationalities that are gathered there, the morass of different desires to be catered to. His inner film scriptwriter makes him capable of translating sounds and kicking it like a local, whether it’s in Naples or in New York. Loco Dice is similarly capable of inspiring, of creating that heady atmosphere that can only be experienced in a crowd of thousands. This skill of his, first cultivated at DC-10, is also no doubt informed by his experiences touring with big name hip hop artists in the ‘90s. Mark Spoon used to promise him that at some point Loco Dice would shuffle sideways from his beloved house and hip hop to “come over and be one of us”, one of the techno believers. In a sense, he was right, though Loco Dice never leaves anything behind: he still brings out classics, whether classic techno from Maurizio to Basic Channel or gritty boompty house by DJ Sneak, and he’s still fond of composing music, as linear as it may be, that draws on hip hop song structures and basslines. At the end of the day, as Loco Dice sees it, everything runs in loops, and it’s his job to trace a line, to sketch out the next scenes in this soundtrack. Even if life tends to be unpredictable, a little chancey, the next move doesn’t have to be a gamble. In fact, Loco Dice shows via his compositions that it can be very well planned. Listen to his music, imagine the cinematic accompaniments, and you’ll understand how something carefully constructed can begin with a flight of fancy, or a roll of the dice.
  Discography ↗
  Their RA profile lists Ovum Recordings, Four:Twenty Recordings, Cocoon Recordings, M-nus and 6 more.

  Recently at 99 Scott Ave, Brooklyn Storehouse, Sunset Park Rooftop · often with mink, Brunello, Hot Since 82, none of them here that night

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  Seth Troxler

  Detroit · 15 bookings since Oct 2023

  “Seth Troxler is one of electronic music’s most instantly recognisable artists.”

  their own biography

  the whole biography

  Seth Troxler is one of electronic music’s most instantly recognisable artists. He has carved out his own unique path as a cultural commentator, art curator, restaurateur and entrepreneur. Descended from a family of cowboys and Baptist preachers, Seth is part African-American, with a singular approach to viewing the world through the prism of contemporary music culture. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and raised in suburban Detroit, Seth learnt the art of DJing initially from his stepfather (then a college radio DJ) and later from working, at only 16, behind the counter in legendary Detroit record store ‘Melodies & Memories’. It wasn’t until Seth made the decision to explore new horizons in the mid-2000s, moving to Berlin fresh out of his teens (after debuting at Panorama Bar at just 18 years old), that his DJ career really took off. Since the move from Detroit to Berlin, then settling in London for a number of years, and now with his time divided between Ibiza and Berlin (Round 2), Seth has established himself as one of the world biggest DJs (voted the world’s number one DJ in scene bible Resident Advisor and gracing the front cover of Mixmag three times). He’s equally at home playing to the smoke-filled dance floors of some of the world’s most discerning nightclubs, such as CircoLoco, fabric (London), Nordstern (Basel), The Lux (Lisbon) or Blitz (Munich), as he is headlining the world’s largest festivals, like Glastonbury, Movement, Roskilde or Sonar. Right from the word go, Seth has been as passionate about food and contemporary art as he is about music, and these two interests have resonated at all points, and in parallel, to his music career. A multi faceted modern artist: he has held residencies at talismanic music institutions, run numerous record labels, and pursued his own solo recording career (including the recent ‘Play In The Dark’ collaboration with the Martinez Brothers on Crosstown Rebels, and ‘Lumartes’ that kick started CircoLoco Recordings in Summer 2021). Furthermore Seth has found the time to launch the successful Smokey Tails’ restaurant in London, to create and host his own party during the Rio Carnival, and then to stop everything and to take the time out to climb Kilimanjaro for charity. More recently Seth has focussed his creative energies on his ‘Lost Souls of Saturn’ project, alongside Phil Moffa and further opaque participants, that sits firmly at the intersection between futuristic electronica, contemporary art and technology. In 2019 Lost Souls Of Saturn presented their audio/visual installation Transmission at the Saatchi Gallery in London, after its premiere during Art Basel in Switzerland, and collaborated with the Met in New York and the Fondation Beyeler in Basel in 2021. Lost Souls Of Saturn are currently recording their second album and conducting further experiments in augmented reality and virtual reality, which will be revealed soon. Extremely well travelled, constantly searching and experiencing, Seth Troxler continues to follow his own unique path.
  SoundCloud ↗Discography ↗
  Their RA profile lists Ninja Tune, Crosstown Rebels, Warp Records, Universal Music and 6 more.

  Recently at Refuge, 99 Scott Ave, Brooklyn Storehouse · often with Bedouin, Chloé Caillet, Carlita, none of them here that night

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  Victor Calderone

  New York City · 14 bookings since Jan 2024

  “The words “world-renowned” and “influential” get thrown around all too often these days, to the point of almost becoming cliché.”

  their own biography

  the whole biography

  The words “world-renowned” and “influential” get thrown around all too often these days, to the point of almost becoming cliché. While few artists actually measure up, all it takes is one look at Victor Calderone’s 20+year track record and the facts speak for themselves. From past collaborations with some of the biggest names in pop like Madonna, Sting and Beyoncé Knowles, to more recent collaborations with the likes of Adam Beyer, Richie Hawtin, Nicole Moudaber and Paco Osuna, Victor’s constantly evolving approach and contributions to the worlds of house and techno music has earned him a place firmly at the top among the world’s most prolific DJs and producers. Introduced to New York nightlife at only 15 years of age by his older brother Cesar, Victor quickly developed an intense passion for dance music that would form the foundation for the Brooklyn native’s remarkable career. While his accomplishments as a remixer, producer and DJ are well known among those in the scene, Victor understands and appreciates the importance of continually evolving. He has reinvented his musical style and now treats listeners to an edgier darker sound. An influential and inspirational talent, Victor has entertained millions of people, generously donated to charitable causes and earned the utmost respect of his peers, all while boldly pushing the universal limits of originality and ingenuity.
  SoundCloud ↗Discography ↗
  Their RA profile lists Cyber Records, Drumcode, Octopus Music, Mindshake Records and 3 more.

  Recently at Refuge, Sunset Park Rooftop, 99 Scott Ave · often with Avision, Anthony Middleton, Tony Humphries, none of them here that night