Toxe
Swedish musician and DJ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tove Agélii,[1] known as Toxe, is a Swedish musician and DJ. Known for her experimental club music,[2] she began her career in 2015 by posting her music to SoundCloud. She has since released two extended plays; Muscle Memory (2015) and Blinks (2018), and one album; Toxe2 (2024).
Toxe | |
|---|---|
 Toxe at Sonic Acts Academy in 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Tove Agélii |
| Genres | Club music |
| Occupations | Producer, DJ |
| Years active | 2015–present |
| Labels | Staycore, Halcyon Veil, PAN, Year0001 |
Early life and musical beginnings
Agélii's parents are both artists,[1] though she has said she had no musical background. At age 14, she attended a music camp for girls, and at the conclusion of the camp performed a Deerhoof song, "The Perfect Me".[3] Her older brother installed Ableton on her laptop, and she made her first track by largely sampling her voice. She has stated that she thought this software was "too technical" but still managed to make music with it,[1] and that she "chose to not study music in high school so that [she] could separate [her] own music projects from school work and avoid getting a grade on [her] creativity." She broke up with a boyfriend at age 16, and after this she has said "music became like everything [she] did all day."[3] In January 2015, a music video for Agélii's song "Defense" was published, featuring 3D fractals by Patrice Oliver.[4]
She posted her early music on SoundCloud and gained connections with the founding members of international DJ crew and label Staycore, Ghazal and Dinamarca. As Agélii was not comfortable solely working with men, Ghazal put her in contact with other woman producers in Stockholm. She founded a private Facebook group for woman producers, Sister, which by 2016 had over 800 members and a SoundCloud mix series. Agélii spent two weeks in Paris participating at the Red Bull Music Academy in 2015.[1]
Career
Muscle Memory (2015)
October 2015, by which time Toxe was 18, saw her release the single "Determina", which had "slippery textures with menacingly sparse, creeping percussion" according to The Fader.[5] In December 2015, she released the song "Xic" on Texan producer Rabit's label Halcyon Veil.[1] This song sampled Britney Spears's "Toxic".[6][1] It was followed by her 2015 debut EP Muscle Memory, which she released at age 17. The artwork for this EP was designed by Toxe alongside computer artist and DJ Alx9696 and features images of Toxe's skin as well as a forehead scar she had obtained by falling over at age 4.[1] Exclaim! has since described it as "skull-crushing", "gristly," and "tech-heavy".[6] By 2016, Toxe was known for her "skeletal hip-hop beats, juddering house rhythms, and fluttering samples" with glass-smashing sound effects, according to The Fader. She was living an "isolated life" in Gothenburg, Sweden, though spent time travelling Europe to perform while also working on her high school studies,[1] as she was getting bookings at Sónar, Club To Club, and Berghain.[2] When finishing up high school she released a remix of Slipknot's "Psychosocial", which she said was her "graduation song".[7]
Festivals, re-edits and Blinks (2018)
After leaving high school, she appeared at the Way Out West festival in August 2016; Dazed reported that she played "hard-as-nails industrial club music, screeching rap, hardstyle tempos, and leftfield R&B." By this point she has also joined fellow musician Kablam at Drömfakulteten, a Stockholm-based music studio space.[3] She was listed as one of The Guardian's "20 under 20" of teenage musical talent that September.[8] She performed a Boiler Room studio set.[6]
In 2017, she released a mix with The Fader which featured a piano intro, string melodies, and vocals from Aaliyah,[9] and also released an audiovisual project, Morning Story,[6] in collaboration with The Vinyl Factory,[10] performed alongside artist Niclas Hille.[6]
On 22 June 2018, she released an EP, Blinks, on the label PAN, self-described as "a fractal bloom of candied melodies and minor laments set in a sweep of frenetic rhythmic scenes".[10] It features light-hearted samples including the sound of a person slipping on a banana peel.[6] "Big Age" was a pre-release single.[10] Exclaim! gave the EP an 8 out of 10, calling it "considerably more skeletal and deliberate".[6] October 2018 saw Toxe opening for British musician Actress at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center; this was her first American performance.[11]
In 2019, Toxe collaborated with Berlin-based producer Mechatok on the project Emiranda.[12] In 2021, her music soundtracked the short film The Story Of Leonora.[2]
Toxe2 (2024)
By 2024 Toxe had moved to Berlin and had graduated with an architecture degree from an Amsterdam art school,[2] Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Her thesis was titled "The Publicity Of Domestic Space & Illusions Of Intimacy", focused on the public sharing of one's private life online.[13] During her study she had written and produced Toxe2, her debut album.[2] A single, "Som En Sol", released in June 2024, was listed as one of Vogue's contenters for song of the summer in 2024.[14] Toxe2 was released in August 2024 via Swedish multidisciplinary label Year0001. Mixmag described the album as "a bright and emotive body of work that combines Toxe’s innovative production techniques with a melodic sensibility".[2]