"...I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films -- these things matter. Call me shallow, but it's the fuckin' truth."
“The Birmingham-based Higher Intelligence Agency is composed of DJ/musician Bobby Bird and occasional collaborator Dave Wheels. Musically, they pitch their creative tent somewhere between the ambient and experimental techno camps, with breakbeat, electro-style rhythms and a song-oriented melodic and harmonic base informing the bulk of their most recent work. The group formed in 1992 as a live experiment performing at Bird’s Oscillate parties (which played early host to such acts as Autechre, Orbital, Mixmaster Morris, and Scanner), and has since grown into a full-on creative force, releasing a pair of albums and as many EPs. Although perhaps not as prodigious as many of their peers, HIA’s focus is on quality rather than quantity, and their released material is uniformly well-produced and meticulously crafted. In addition to constant touring and the ongoing Oscillate schedule, HIA have also performed commissioned work for museums and festivals. While still bent on working together, Bird has largely taken over HIA’s reigns while Wheels pursues a solo project, and has completed remixes for Freeform and Obconic. Collaborations in 1996 with Frankfurt’s Deep Space Network and Geir Jenssen of Biosphere also produced an album apiece, the former (Deep Space Network Meets Higher Intelligence Agency) on DSN’s Source label and the latter (Polar Sequences) on Beyond. Another collaborational series, S.H.A.D.O. with Pete Namlook, began in 1997 and resumed two years later.”
A wildly eclectic producer who released four LPs during 1993-94 but then all but retired his solo work for a place in the trip-hop duo Outcast, Beaumont Hannant began DJing in 1986 after attending several hip-hop mixing competitions. During the late ’80s he was heavily into electro, techno and hip-hop as well as indie-rock (he even managed fellow natives of York Shed Seven for awhile). Hannant began working on production in 1993 with the EP Tastes and Textures, Vol. 1 for GPR Records. One track, “Awakening the Soul,” appeared on the Positiva Ambient Collection, and Hannant released his debut album, Basic Data Manipulation (Tastes and Textures, Vol. 2) that same year. In 1994, Hannant recorded an unbelievable three full-lengths (Texturology, Bitter Sweet, Sculptured) for GPR, each possessing a breath-taking variety of styles.
By 1995, however, Hannant had begun to diversify his talents, providing remixes for Autechre, Björk and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, producing indie-folkie Lida Husik and beginning the group Outcast with his engineer Richard Brown. The duo signed to One Little Indian and released their debut album Out of Tune in 1996. Hannant appeared to have returned to his solo guise as well at the end of the year with the release of a GPR double-pack EP titled Notions of Tonality.”
“The duo of “Little” Louie Vega and Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez are the preeminent production/remix team in house music, their nom de plume Masters at Work standing behind dozens of the biggest club hits and remixes of their time. Effectively soundtracking the American nightclub scene of the 1990s, Vega and Gonzalez blended their love of the disparate music coming from New York’s underground clubs during the 1980s — disco, the freewheeling garage scene, emerging house and hip-hop styles, Latin freestyle — to enormously influence the mainstream dance sound as it coalesced during the following decade. Besides their productions, remixes, and appearances as Masters at Work, Vega and/or Gonzalez are also involved in a good dozen other projects (including Nuyorican Soul, KenLou, the Bucketheads, and the Untouchables), many of which appear on the duo’s own MAW Records label.”
“Somebody at one of these places […] asked me: ‘What do you do? How do you write, create?’ You don’t, I told them. You don’t try. That’s very important: ‘not’ to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It’s like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it.”
“Always the proper man for the job, San belongs to that rare breed of jocks who can break any type of mindblowing music to any type of crowd, without losing his edge. Be it the darkest of deephouse, the ruggedest of techno or the raunchiest of soul music – San Proper never conforms without revolting at the same time. His releases for Rush Hour are rightfully praised by connaisseurs worldwide. As a deejay, producer and bass-player for different oufits, Proper remains one of Amsterdam’s most diverse and gifted musicians.”
Nobody ever took the effort to upload this to Youtube, so I took the liberty to do so.
“Brilliant distillation of the organic and the electronic on this Warp long player from August 93’. A place where furious drum kits clash and collide and move against some snaking synth lines and hidden samples.”
Nobody ever uploaded this to Youtube, so I took the liberty to do so.
“British homies Royal Foxbridge deliver this ace 2-tracker for the Merck imprint just in time for the new year — a strictly limited edition (500 copies only) featuring two tracks of deep-cut instrumental hip hop styles, perfectly suited to Merck’s chilled-out homeboy trajectory. Supreme instrumental Hip Hop / Electronic beats — with a random portion of 7”s coming on coloured vinyl.”
“Manuel Göttsching (born September 9, 1952 in Berlin) is a German musician and composer.
As the leader of the group Ash Ra Tempel or Ashra, one of the most notable German groups of the 1970s and 80s, as well as a solo artist, he is one of the most important guitarists of the Kosmische Musik genre. He also participated in the Cosmic Jokers sessions. His style and technique influenced dozens of artists in the post-Eno ambient and New Age scenes in the 1980s and 1990s. His 1984 album E2-E4 has also been influential in the development of house and electronic music in general. The album consists of a minimalistic hour-long progressive electronic track that is subdivided into single tracks according to the stage of the song. The second half of the record is notable for Göttsching’s guitar playing. The album is named after the most popular opening chess move, 1. e4.”
“Prefuse 73 is the alias of Scott Herren, an experimental hip-hop producer whose material often features MCs buried in the mix to become more a part of the sonic texture than a focal point. Herren began his career working in commercial studios in Atlanta, but later went on to more experimental work. His first record under the Prefuse name, Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives, not only buried but cut up and spliced raps as well as allowing some more straightforward vocals from several MCs. The 2003 follow-up, One Word Extinguisher, carried on in a similar vein.”
