Lee Curtiss Details

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. His love of his craft shines through in his tracks’ every bump and shudder. From last year’s Visionquest remix of Kiki’s ‘Good Voodoo’, sighted by many as the underground smash of the 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.

Lee grew up in Western Michigan and eventually moved to Detroit, living the guitars-to-turntables, concerts-to-underground-parties arc shared by so many other children of the electronic music revolution. The similarities end there though. Lee displayed an immediate knack and passion for dance music that translated his love of Prince, Quincy Jones, and good old underground disco into a production and DJ style noted for its sensuality and effortlessness. Recently back in Detroit after an extended stay in Berlin (where he swapped ideas and lived with his close friends and partners-in-crime Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson and Shaun Reeves), Lee continues to produce vital releases and remixes on labels including Spectral Sound, Get Physical, Dumb-Unit, Wolf+Lamb, Esperanza, and Mothership, and play DJ gigs the world over.

Lee’s previous trans-Atlantic tours have seen him play at some of Europe’s most important clubbing institutions including, Fabric in London, Watergate in Berlin, The Rex Club in Paris, City Fox in Zurich, and the UK’s Bloc Weekender Festival. This July, Lee is set to make his debut at Berlin’s iconic Panoramabar. He’s recently torn up the Toilets in East London for Kubicle, supported long standing friends Wolf+Lamb in Paris and look his, as Resident Advisor described it, ‘libidinous tech funk’ to Bristol, Leeds, Cardiff and Aberdeen. On the other side of the Pond, Lee is a regular fixture at The Detroit Electronic Music Festival and Canada’s Mutek Festival and plays regularly at Wolf+Lamb’s legendary parties at The Marcy Hotel in Brooklyn.

Lee’s live debut at Fabric earlier this year was met with universal praise and Matthew Dear was so impressed with his live show at the Spectral party at the Miami WMC that, he immediately invited Lee to join him as the live face of Spectral Sound, touring alongside Matt over the coming months. Lee has just finished a week in the studio with Matt, the fruits of which are scheduled for release later in the year and his remix of Matt Tolfrey and Inxec's spring hit "Hollywood" will be out soon on the LA-based label Culprit. In June Lee is set to follow up his Beatport chart topping ‘Love In The Key of Freak’ EP on Get Physical with ‘I Can Hear You Arthur’, his tribute to Arthur Russel on Guy Gerber’s Supplemental Facts label which is set to be one of the summer’s biggest underground anthems.