Traxx

Traxx is a lover of music — one with a passion so intense that it overcomes genre divides to weave an altogether original, exciting, and multi-textured musical fabric which envelops both the avid clubber and the home listener, as well as everyone in between. Not content to be labeled as merely a DJ, a producer, or even a DJ/Producer, Traxx is a self-described “artist of sound.” A sound that is distinctive and highly emotional which defies classification and invites analysis and discussion. From eclectic and avant-garde tunes to old school jack tracks and far beyond, Traxx hears it all without discrimination, pretension or elitism.

Traxx has released music on numerous underground labels in the US and Europe including Gigolo, Relief, Muzique, M/O/S, and Crème. His music has come to the world under a bucket load of alias' including Dirty Criminals, XX Art, Mysterio, ViLLan X, Saturn V (with Tadd Mullinix), X2, and more. He's also collaborated with the heads of underground acts including DJ Hell, Green Velvet, Legowelt, Mount Sims and many more to shape his unique definition of Jakbeat that was created amongst James T. Cotton and D'Marc Cantu in the early years between 2005- 2007.

In addition to releasing music for other imprints Traxx also started his own label Nation in April of 2007 which has allowed him to develop and re-contextualize the various aspects of his sound. In 2009 Traxx stepped out into the light with his first full length Faith album under his own name for his Chicago based imprint Nation which received positive response and feedback from around the globe. Like many in Chicago, Traxx was drawn into house music through the legendary WBMX radio shows and two trips to see Ron Hardy at the legendary Music Box. Describing his first experience with house, Traxx recalls, "nothing could compare, things were being discovered... this period stays with me because of the intense energy that was applied - it's a feeling, an emotion, a mental state of transcendental connection - a spiritual force with the higher being through the physical vessel of the body."

His first release appeared on DJ Hell's Gigolo label in the early '00s under the collective alias The Dirty Criminals which was a Chicago based collective that featured mainly the work of working with collaborators like Charles Manier, Mystic Bill Torres, Daryl 'Deecoy' Cura, Brendan M. Gillen, Matt Nee(Kompute), Josh Werner, Stephen Hitchell plus early on work from Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being. In addition to a number of 12"s Dirty Criminals released, two albums were very well received in Europe - 2004's Organized Confuzion and 2006's Collision Between Us And The Damned which featured a cover of an early unreleased version of "Acid Tracks" by Phuture that was played around Chicago.

Traxx also contributed vocals to the track "Let No Man Jack" on Hell's NY Muscle album on Gigolo but it's perhaps on his many mysterious 12"s that Traxx has set the ground work for in the last seven years where there's been a constant stream of them burning up dance floors with the new sound of Jakbeat that's shaping the scene by releasing an 'Adjustment Production' for Gavin Russom of DFA's LCD Soundsystem from 1 of his current alias projects as Mutant Beat Dance for a sombre tingling cosmic, deep disco brilliance concept, and also releasing with New York label Rong Records with another excellent 2 track release of 'Another World/New News Is Old News' to releasing a stunning solo project on MOS Deep Under The Poetic Painter M pseudonym, with a frenetic yet hypnotizing house track that echoes memories of down-pitched Newbeat material and the hooky coldness of new age, following thru with incredible support and feedback in 2012 then again with another solid production from analog machinists Traxx and Wanzer for another Mutant Beat Dance release for the Rush Hour label with 'Let Me Go' featuring Naughty Wood on vocals that have said that they produced arguably 'the best 80s Chicago house record NOT made in the 80s. -inspired by the early days of house music-

In an age of digital perfection Traxx is analog, when he DJs he plays vinyl and when he's in the studio he uses hardware. His sound recalls the past but pushes for the future with an overtly emotional and experimental approach.