samplesSexplosion, the new EP from l’enfant terrible of sophisticated techno, Seth Troxler-here recording under his debauched alter ego Sex Trothler-is a complex, multifaceted, and yet decidedly horny affair. These are the sounds of doing unspeakable and anonymous things to girls in dark backrooms and being too confident to regret it the next day…the sounds of your favorite sexual memory transformed by your overactive fantasy life into scenes of utter perversion. The first track, “Jusyour,” combines Troxler’s signature use of the classic, organic sounds of Detroit house and techno with an avant-garde, fragmented, almost mournful sensibility. It’s a contemporary jack track as appropriate for a dark, seedy club as it is for an afterparty orgy on your friend’s broken futon. It’s almost as if music could yearn and sweat and think all at once. It’s followed by a brief vocal “Internude” to remind you that being a good lover always means having enough of a sense of humor to laugh at other people laughing at yourself. Think tinkertoys meets the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Black Shampoo.” Humor aside, the final track, “Face,” utilizes airy percussion and deep, almost cinematic chords (reminiscent of Troxler’s remix for another precious youth, Nicolaas Jar on New York’s Wolf+Lamb label). Its masterful and restrained use of processed vocals manages to leave behind so much of the pointless darkness that has plagued techno, whether minimal or otherwise. It builds slowly yet aggressively, like a hard, focused grind with someone you can’t actually even really stand. This is music for people whose time at art school was spent getting naked and not hating themselves for it.
