Troy Kurtz press photo.
Audio By Carbonatix
Troy Kurtz realized, following a gnarly surfing accident that broke his ankle, that producing music required just as much of his mental health as it did his physical. “I was on a surf trip at the beginning of March in Portugal,” Kurtz tells New Times. “I was thinking about moving to Lisbon, and I had hurt myself, breaking my ankle and doing a ton of ligament damage. It’s funny to be at the end of it now, but it definitely led to an elongated period of depression and isolation.”
Kurtz used the time to “sit with his feelings” and fiddle with new music, resulting in a total of fifty demos that he sent to Miami’s homegrown DJ, producer, and label head of Omnidisc, Danny Daze.
Daze chose four tracks. Now with his bones, tendons, and mind repaired, Kurtz found it appropriate to release a new EP, Meridian Slide, on Omnidisc and set for release on October 15. But this is not under Troy Kurtz’ name, one usually associated with a breezy, fun sound from his late Slap & Tickle parties. Instead, this EP is the genesis of his maritime nom de guerre known as R:V Calypso, an homage to Jacques Cousteau and his research vessel. “Some of my earliest memories were watching old Jacques Cousteau tapes with my grandma and being fascinated with underwater exploration.”
New Times writer Jose Duran profiled Kurtz in a 2021 interview. He began DJ’ing in the 2010s and earned an EP release on John Digweed’s Bedrock label by 2013.
Kurtz later caught Danny Daze spinning at Bella Rosa while Kurtz was still a UM student. “I remember seeing Danny at places like Pawn Shop, and it was mind-blowing. I think the first time I really got to meet him was at one of my nights at Bella Rosa. He wasn’t even there to DJ; he would just come into the booth and start cutting into a SoulWax track. I have a crazy respect for him on a DJ tip,” Kurtz shares.
Kurtz ran an electronic blog titled “Got to Dance Dirty,” where he would share Daze’s tracks, and the two stayed in touch. Earlier this year, Kurtz began working for Omnidisc as its label manager, allowing him to see the production side of the label’s surreal and abrasive electronic sounds.
Though his sets may have a more house flair, Kurtz is a well-rounded, inclusive DJ who can earn an EP off John Digweed’s Bedrock label while also opening for acts like Rusko during the dubstep boom. He explained that his sounds come from the holy trinity of US cities: Detroit (techno), Chicago (house), and Miami (bass). He compressed all his experience into a four-track EP that is devoid of any singular sound.
“I don’t think this EP has a genre,” he posits. “It is supposed to serve, in some ways, as an ‘escape route’ to enjoyment,” a phrase Kurtz borrowed from the late artist Andrew Weatherall, who explained that he was “aware of genres but from the age of 12 or 13 I didn’t want to limit my escape routes so I embraced pretty much everything.”
Kurtz remarks that he has played almost every genre under the sun in his sets and is an artist with a love for all genres, so why not pour it all out into an EP? Meridian Slide lacks any clear order of operations, coordination points, or constellation, which is ultimately what the EP was supposed to be: a rough blueprint laid out with numerous escape routes. Really, look no further than the first track, “Meridian Slide,” which he released as a single on October 8.
Kurtz incorporates a strong, whiplashing bass line that reverberates off the track’s four corners. He then blends into the Omnidisc IDM (“Intelligent Dance Music”) sound, characterized by wobbles and synths. Then, because it has yet to explode within under five minutes, he throws in some R&B vocals.
The second track, “Lava Flows,” brings a tech-house Circoloco sound to an otherwise bellicose Omnidisc label. If anything, it sounds like a track right from the Chris Stussy playbook with its sleek and fast tech-house fare and ‘90s-styled pads.
“K Walking,” the third track, in collaboration with the Grammy-nominated producer Charles Moon, begins to shift towards more familiar territory. The two integrate a crawling bass line with beeps and bops, and this underlying growl and gurgle that gives the listener some confinement from the otherwise freeing previous two tracks.
They got to know each other over the years and played a seven-hour all-vinyl back-to-back set in Miami. “We went surfing and had some fun club nights in Miami,” says Kurtz, explaining that the two began producing the track during Moon’s vacation from Mexico to Florida. “He’s one of my brothers. I call him to hype him up before a big show.”
Lastly, there’s “Trits” with its galloping percussion, vocals that sound like laughing children, and a modular feel that scales up and down. “It’s funny that Danny picked this track. It was a 32-bar loop, and Danny said, ‘Finish this one.’ It’s actually the one he’s been playing out most. It’s great to have Danny on it, because these are not four tracks that I would have thought to pair together. Still, as an EP it shows the diversity of sounds and genres I’m into that I don’t get to play much in Miami.”
It’s hard to say if the pain and recovery were worth the EP. Maybe that is okay. Kurtz, however, is ready to put it behind him with the new EP and see where the fresh beginnings take him. “I’m feeling extremely grateful, just going to see where this wave takes me.”
