Loco Dice is The Antidote to Cheesy, David Guetta House: He DJs Tomorrow at The Music Box

Loco Dice.

We're glad trance is finally over (isn't it?), but something just as cheesy has stood up to take its place. While we won't name any names (Afrojack, Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta), they call this new sound "house."

Now, if you've been alive since Clinton was president you know that house music comes from gay black people, Latinos who would rather listen to salsa, and church ladies who snap their fingers.

But "house" as its marketed today is just bombastic, trance-like shit that gives you a headache. We're not sure the electronic dance music producer Loco Dice intended to be marketed as the antidote to this crap. But he is:

Mr. Dice was born in Germany to Tunisian parents and actually came up as a hip-hop DJ and artist (extra points). So much so that he actually opened for the likes of Usher, Snoop Dog and R. Kelly.

Why anyone who has had such success would want to dive into the anonymity of clubland is beyond us. But Loco has been a stalwart of the new sound killing it in Europe, mainly that deep, dark, dubby, "druggy" flavor that rides between the rails of true house and minimal techno.

This month Senor Dice is celebrating the release of the Desolat Christmas Sampler, a collection of tracks from Desolat, the label he founded with fellow jock Martin Buttrich. He's DJing at the Music Box (tickets) in Hollywood Saturday.

If you want to seem really cool to your younger friends, tell them Guetta is 2005 and that Loco is the real deal. Better yet, take them down to Hollywood Boulevard tomorrow.

Who you tryin' to get crazy with ese? Don't you know I'm Loco?

Do you play different in America?
Not really. It doesn't have to do with the country. I play different everywhere I go. It depends on the crowd, room, sound-system. There is a great knowledge and tradition here when it comes to rooms and sound-systems, so here I definitely can play less obvious, straight-tracks.

At the end, it's always Loco Dice style, somewhere between house and techno.

How does your style contrast with the uber-melodic flavor of the moment (Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, etc.). Do you feel like you provide an antidote?
I don't see it as an antidote, because we're talking about music. Antidote sounds so technical and exclusive. My style is just another color in a musical spectrum. Despite that fact, I also don't like to compare myself with the artists mentioned above.

Not a lot of build-ups and crescendos in your sets. Why?