Getting To Know Gesaffelstein

French techno rebel Gesaffelstein (aka Mike Lévy) has made music for Kanye West's electro-punk Yeezus. Now he's dropping his much-anticipated debut album, the techno noir Aleph, led by the searing Pursuit. So why is he reluctant to talk to the media?

Lévy has always been secretive. He offers scant biographical guff online. Even in a new press shot the brooding DJ/producer, resembling a dapper European count, is shrouded in mist. “I'm not looking for mystery,” Lévy protests in lilting English.

The Lyons native has had a rapid ascendance, premiering in 2008 with the characteristically forcible Vengeance Factory on OD Records before forging an alliance with The Hacker – the Zone label boss a key influence on his post-electro techno. But it wasn't until Lévy, currently Paris-based, aligned himself with Tiga's Turbo stable that his career 'exploded' – and he settled on a media strategy. “I decided to not do interviews and stuff and focused on the music,” Lévy explains. “If you look cool, if you look 'fashion', all that stuff, then people are gonna forget about the music. Also I don't like to talk!” Lévy's Gallic techno needs no elucidating – or mythologising. “There is nothing special behind that – it's not like Daft Punk-style or Underground Resistance-style. I have nothing to say, you know? It's really, really simple.” The irony? Lévy, today hot property, is signed to a major through the Warner-owned Parlophone – and disseminating artily slick videos such as that for his latest single, Hate Or Glory.

Over time Lévy famously befriended Louis “Brodinski” Rogé, releasing music on his cult Bromance Records. He remixed Lana del Rey's Blue Jeans. Still, dance types were aghast when Lévy contributed to Yeezus – he's credited as producer on the single Black Skinhead and Send It Up, both alongside Daft Punk and Rogé. Send It Up, industrial ragga, is trademark Gesaffelstein (Aleph's grinding Hellifornia is its relative). West had dug Lévy's 2011 Viol. However, Lévy was unfamiliar with Yeezy's catalogue – and, he's claimed in interviews, was no hip hop head. “I discovered hip hop with Brodinski, like, four years ago,” Lévy clarifies. “I'm a newcomer in this world. So it's not my favourite music. But there are a lot of interesting things in it.” West wasn't seeking straight hip hop beats, anyway. “It was a good opportunity to add, I think, electronic music to hip hop. The way he asked us to produce music for him was just the best way – because we were like, 'What do you want to do?' And he was like, 'Just do what you want!' So for us it was just easy, in a way.” He is proud of his involvement in Yeezus. “I was really impressed by the way he works with his team. It's really different than the way I work in electronic music because, when I go to the studio, it's a solitary thing. When you go to the studio with Kanye, there are a lot of people with him. Everybody shares ideas, so it's really different. I was a bit afraid of this process, but the result is really good. I can tell that I'm happy about that – and I think I learned something from that story… maybe.”

Oddly, Lévy appears more comfortable discussing Yeezus than Aleph – which vacillates between portentous, maleficent techno and urban ambience. French touch, it ain't. Lévy admits that it's rare a “techno” LP is “interesting”. Dance DJ/producers either cut a set of club tracks (“really boring”) or tackle divergent electronic genres like, say, trip hop. But there's nothing so contrived, or random, about Aleph. It's integrated. “I'm not doing just techno – I'm influenced by many styles of music, from electro to New Wave and disco and hip hop. So I'm not sure if it's a techno album.”

Lévy is open to (other) pop collaborations – eventually. “I'm gonna go on tour and I don't think that I'm gonna have a lot of time to go in the studio this [next] year – so maybe in the future. But I would love to do that. At the same time, I have no idea what I'm gonna do. Maybe I'm gonna produce for Kanye again or maybe I'm gonna do a remix again, but I don't know anything about the future. We'll see.”

Lévy is returning to Australia following 2012's inaugural outing with Stereosonic. This tour he'll stage his live show at Future Music Festival. “I'm really excited. It's really different than a DJ set because, when I play live, I play only my tracks – so I can change all the tracks from the album and then I can add many effects and a lot of things to it. When I play as a DJ, I just play the records from other DJs... Also I have more pleasure playing live.”