DJ T.

MR. T.’S COMMANDMENTS Koch’s DJ sets compel you to hit the dance floor.

Raised on disco and funk, steeped in Teutonic electronics, Germany’s Thomas Koch—better known to clubland citizens as DJ T.—is one of the founding members of Get Physical, a beloved label that first came to prominence in 2002 as one of the leaders of the then-burgeoning electrohouse/electrodisco scene. The label’s sound has since branched out to include everything from top-shelf house and techno to off-kilter experimentation, an evolution that mirrors that of Koch’s own music. His early releases, tracks like 2002’s “Philly” or the following year’s “Freemind,” are steeped in influences from his boogie-beat upbringing; his recent album, The Inner Jukebox, draws from a far broader (though no less electronic) palette of sounds. Koch, 40, is in the middle of a brutal four-continent tour, which finds him at Sullivan Room on Halloween for the Sleepy & Boo’s Basic NYC bash. Well, maybe not so brutal; he was chilling in a hotel room in San José, Costa Rico, resting up for a gig at the famed Vertigo club, when he gave TONY a call.

This is a very long tour you’ve embarked on. Did you enter into this with any trepidation?
Yes, quite a bit. I’ll be away from Germany for three and a half months total.

You’re not going back at all, not even for the holidays?
[Sighs] No…

The logistics in planning this must have been a bitch.
Yes. For instance, there are many vaccinations that you get when you tour through South and Central America. I had lost the card that says what kinds that you have received in the past, so I had to redo ones that I know that I already had. It actually was only three shots, but two of them were big cocktails with many substances in them. You do feel a bit odd for a while after you take them.

Your music has progressed quite a bit over the years. Has that been something you’ve worked at?
Some people tell me the music sounds completely different, but I’m not so sure. I think the main thing in my music is this understanding of grooves and beats, and that remains the same. Of course, the earlier music is more of a retro thing. But at that time, this retro sound—taking influences from the late ’70s through the ’80s, from disco, funk, electro and early house—was very current. The new album is more in the here and now, but I think my roots still show a bit.

Do those roots still show in your DJ sets as well?
Actually, if you hear me five times, you may here five completely different sets. I have so many things that I like that I don’t like to focus on one style. I always carry music from the last 25 years with me, and I when I get into the mood, I might play two hours of only classics. I guess in New York, I will play a very eclectic set. I guess I can play what I want to, right?

Why not—it’s Halloween! Do you have a costume picked out?
People have been asking me what I will dress as. I guess I will be dressed as a DJ.

DJ T. spins at the Basic NYC and KGB party Saturday 31.

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