Visionquest ← Back to artists

Visionquest are: Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson, Shaun Reeves and Lee Curtiss, the most innovative and exciting new breed of DJ/producers to come out of the city of Detroit in a generation. Last year their remix of Kiki's 'Good Voodoo' on BPitch Control was one of the summer's biggest underground hits and together they have released tracks on leading labels like Crosstown Rebels, Spectral Sound, Get Physical, Circus Company, Supplement Facts, Wolf+Lamb, Wagon Repair and Minus. Both individually and together they play regularly at clubs the world over like Fabric (London), Watergate (Berlin), Cityfox (Zurich), Tenax (Florence), Fiesta Privada (Rome), Cocoon (Frankfurt) and Circoloco@Dc10 (Ibiza) as well as holding their weekly 'Soulshower' residency at Club Der Visonaere in Berlin. Their Visionquest party at the Old Miami at this year's Detroit Electronic Music Festival brought together many of the scene's freshest talent in a spirit of friendship, fun and radical progression, much needed in a scene so easy to stagnate.

First up a bit of history... for over two decades the city of Detroit, Michigan has been the home and birthplace of techno. In the mid eighties, inspired by German electronic bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, the 'Bellville Three' (named after their high school), Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May started experimenting with synthesisers and drum machines establishing a musical soundscape that was soon hailed as techno. In the early nineties local African-American DJs like Jeff Mills, Rob Hood and Mike Banks were joined by local white kids, Richie Hawtin and Dan Bell, who experimented with stripping the sound back to its bare essentials creating the early template for minimal techno. A decade later, this inspired Ann Arbor college kids Matthew Dear, Ryan Elliott and Hawtin's friend Magda, to build on this sound, exporting it globally and creating one of dance music's dominant scenes. While all this was happening house legends like Theo Parrish, Kenny Dixon Jnr and Aaron Carl were defining the Motorcity's unique and deeply emotive take on house music.

Now comes Visionquest, a new generation of young, talented producers from Detroit who draw influence from all who have come before them, following in their footsteps, while defining a unique sound of their own. Here you have four DJs who have grown up organizing parties and DJing in the city and around the world for the last ten years. Together they're on a heartfelt mission to save the world from boring minimal techno and wannabe Frankfurt house while having as much fun as possible in the process. Their attention is firmly focused on the deeper soul of quality electronic music, driven by emotion and developed from their very different musical backgrounds. Visionquest have their roots in Motown, draw ambitious spiritual vibes from forerunners like Theo Parrish and Moodyman, deliver the quality of sound and attitude of a best selling Minus record rounded off with the dreamy, otherworldly vibe of the Spectral sound. Visionquest are:

SETH TROXLER: "I've always been kinda bat-shit crazy', explains Seth Troxler. Spending time in his company is like trying to break dance in a tornado. At 24 years old he's the youngest of the four but, standing at six foot two, also the loudest and most confident, a constant ball of energy exploding with new ideas and concepts. Descended from a family of cowboys and Baptist preachers, he's part African-American, part Egyptian, part Cherokee Indian but while his heritage is all-American his global outlook transcends his small-city Mid-Western origins. When he's not tearing up clubs the world over he's responsible for laying down some of the most original vocals in house and techno today. At 14 he threw his first party and booked Madga to play for him. At 15 he landed a job as techno buyer in Detroit's 'Melodies & Memories' record store working alongside dance legend Theo Parrish. Less than a decade later he's just landed a summer residency at Circo Loco, arguably modern day underground house and techno's most influential club.

RYAN CROSSON: Ryan Crosson makes house and techno inspired by the historical precedent set in his native city of Detroit and his adopted hometown of Berlin. His musical output is shaped by pioneering artists like Kevin Saunderson, Richie Hawtin, and Moodymann in the US, in addition to European heavyweights like Pantytec, Ricardo Villalobos, and Thomas Brinkmann. Situated loosely between these two defining poles, alongside his fellow American peers like Shaun Reeves, Seth Troxler and Lee Curtiss, Ryan delivers a obsessive attention to the constant progression of his sound and embodies a ceaseless energy that carries itself from the studio directly into his live set and DJ performances. Ryan's music has evolved from early minimalist releases as Berg Nixon on Minus to the real essence of contemporary emotional electronic music in his new guise as Birds and Souls (on Spectral and Supplement Facts) and with Argentinean house maestro Guti.

SHAUN REEVES: Shaun Reeves is something of an enigma. His often-deadpan demeanor, punctuated by the occasional wide grin and wry snigger, belies a brain that never stops ticking over, plotting his next move with the measured calculation of a Russian chess master. Partying has always been integral to Shaun's make-up. "The first rave I went to was in Kalamazoo, where Seth comes from." At one of these early raves Shaun heard Magda DJ for the first time. "She was busting out all these Perlon records which at the time no one else was playing. It was mind blowing." When Shaun left school he began throwing parties, first in small bars and attic spaces and later in loft and warehouses booking DJs like Magda, Dan Bell, Derrick May and John Tejada. After a run in with gangsters who tried to rob him of the takings from one of his parties, Shaun decided to leave Detroit and make a fresh start in Berlin. Soon his close friends Ryan, Lee and Seth soon followed suit.

LEE CURTISS: "It takes a lot to break out in a city like Detroit", explains Lee Curtiss, "there are a lot of very talented people making a lot of great music". Over the last two years Lee Curtiss has made a name for himself creating primal, exquisitely deep and emotional dance tracks that pulse with life, sex, and humour, incorporating countless influences and genres but beholden to none. With his broad shoulders, even wider grin and keen sense of humour, Lee may give off the straight-shooting air of a Midwestern woodsman, but he's got the ear, plain and simple. Lee Curtiss is an eccentric, an original, an innovator, a ten-year veteran of the electronic-music scene. From last year's Visionquest remix of Kiki's 'Good Voodoo', sighted by many as the underground smash of last year, to his 'Black Door EP' on Spectral (Mixmag's techno 'Tune of the Month', October 09), Lee has an innate ability to create instantly memorable lead riffs that will stand the test of time. Having recently moved back to his hometown of Detroit after an extended stay in Berlin, Lee continues to produce vital releases and remixes on labels including Spectral Sound, Get Physical, Dumb-Unit, Wolf+Lamb and Mothership, in addition to his forthcoming summer smash 'I Can Hear You Arthur?', a tribute to Arthur Russel, on Guy Gerber's Supplement Facts.