* En anglais uniquement
Latroit is the foremost alias of Los Angeles-based, Detroit-rooted producer
Dennis White. Although the house artist debuted the name in the mid-2010s, he has been active in dance music since the late '80s, when he became a touring musician with
Kevin Saunderson's
Inner City. In addition to several charting remixes under the guise -- including one for
Depeche Mode's "You Move," which won a Grammy in 2018 --
White has released numerous solo and collaborative
Latroit singles for the high-profile Armada and Dim Mak labels, along with his own outlet, House of Latroit.
Originally from Detroit and raised directly north of the Motor City in Utica,
Dennis White attended Berklee College of Music, after which he returned to the city of his birth and formed
Charm Farm with fellow Berklee student
Tommy Onyx.
White and
Onyx happened to be living in a loft on what
Derrick May termed Techno Boulevard, within close proximity to
May and other high-tech soul innovators such as
Juan Atkins and
Kevin Saunderson. The circumstances led to the latter enlisting
White and
Onyx to perform with
Inner City. Touring England to play Top Ten U.K. hits "Big Fun" and "Good Life" (which also topped the U.S. club chart),
White was inspired by seeing rock bands such as
the Stone Roses and
Primal Scream play raves. He took a similar approach to mixing club and rock music back in the States with
Charm Farm, whose recordings through the mid-'90s culminated with the Mercury-licensed album
Pervert.
White maintained connections with several genres the whole time, either remixing or playing on recordings by the likes of
the Final Cut,
George Clinton, and
Kenny Larkin, traversing industrial, funk, and techno. He also continued to work with
Saunderson as part of Unreleased Project.
White's own output by the end of the '90s included singles and remixes as the Love Club,
Static Revenger, and Control Freq. Well into the 2010s, he continued to rack up 12" releases on F-111, Subliminal, and
Ministry of Sound, among other labels, operating most often as
Static Revenger. Starting in 2014, he concentrated on the commercial house-oriented
Latroit, issuing primarily solo material on House of Latroit and collaborating with the likes of Bishøp,
Stooki Sound, and
Lliam for Armada and Dim Mak releases. Most successful was his 2017 remix of
Depeche Mode's "You Move," which won a Grammy in the category of Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical. Additional remix commissions followed suit, but
White was behind a larger amount of original material, such as the two-part
Inner City reunion "You Give Me That Feeling" (2018) and "Four on the Floor" (2019). ~ Andy Kellman