DBX | |
---|---|
Birth name | Daniel Karl Bell |
Born | 1967 (age 55–56) Sacramento, California, United States |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | Music producer, DJ |
Years active | 1991-present |
Daniel Bell (born 1967) is an American minimal techno DJ. He was born in Sacramento, California, but grew up outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and later moved to Detroit, where he collaborated with Richie Hawtin as Cybersonik for three years on Plus 8. In 1991, he started his own label, Accelerate, where he released a string of influential releases as DBX. [1]
Bell was influenced primarily by Chicago House as well as the works of the minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass. His productions are characterized by minimalist house grooves accented by blips and bleeps. Some tracks feature bizarre voice effects and eerie atmospherics such as 1994's delay driven "Losing Control". [1]
Bell moved behind the scenes to set up 7th City Distribution in November 1994. Smaller U.S.-based techno and house labels required distribution overseas and domestically and 7th City moved in to fill this void. However, by 1998, the number of active, independent techno labels in the U.S. dropped significantly and Bell closed the distribution company. [1]
In 2000, he relocated to Berlin, Germany, and released his first mix CD, The Button-Down Mind of Daniel Bell, on Tresor Records. [1] 2003 brought a follow-up release on Logistic records, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back and soon after a retrospective was released: Blip, Blurp, Bleep: The Music of Daniel Bell. [2]
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture in the early/mid 1980s, as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat.
Breakbeat hardcore is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats, the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns, hoover, and other noises originating from new beat and Belgian techno, sounds from acid house and bleep techno, and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals.
Warp Records is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon. It is currently based in London.
Richard "Richie" Hawtin is a British-Canadian electronic musician and DJ. He became involved with Detroit techno's second wave in the early 1990s, and has been a leading exponent of minimal techno since the mid-1990s. He became known for his recordings under the Plastikman and F.U.S.E. aliases. Under the latter, he released his debut album Dimension Intrusion (1993) as part of Warp's Artificial Intelligence series.
Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter, Drexciya, Mike Banks, Dakim Sadiq and Robert Hood. Artists like Terrence Parker and his lead vocalist, Nicole Gregory, set the tone for Detroit's piano techno house sound.
Vincent John Martin, known professionally as Vince Clarke, is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the main composer and musician of the band Erasure since its inception in 1985, and was previously the main songwriter for several groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and the Assembly. In Erasure, he is known for his deadpan and low-key onstage demeanour, often remaining motionless over his keyboard, in sharp contrast to lead vocalist Andy Bell's animated and hyperactive frontman antics.
Microhouse, buftech or sometimes just minimal, is a subgenre of house music strongly influenced by minimalism and 1990s techno.
LFO was a British electronic music act formed in 1988 consisting of Mark Bell and Gez Varley. They released their acclaimed debut LP Frequencies in 1991 on Sheffield label Warp. After Varley left the group in 1996, Bell continued solo to release Advance (1996) and Sheath (2003). Bell died in October 2014, effectively ending the project.
Justin Karl Michael Broadrick is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and industrial music. Following Godflesh's initial breakup in 2002, Broadrick formed the band Jesu.
Minimal techno is a subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition and understated development. Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detroit-based producers Robert Hood and Daniel Bell. By the early 2000s the term 'minimal' generally described a style of techno that was popularized in Germany by labels such as Kompakt, Perlon, and Richie Hawtin's M-nus, among others.
Warp 10 is a series of compilation albums issued by Warp Records in 1999 to celebrate the label's tenth anniversary. The collection spans three double CD/quadruple vinyl sets, which can be purchased individually. Each volume in the set highlights different phases of electronic music, including influential tracks not originally released by Warp, early releases from the first four years of the label's history, and the last being remixes by contemporary musicians of Warp's catalogue.
Rhythm King Records Ltd was a British independent record label, founded in the mid-1980s by Martin Heath, Adele Nozedar, DJ Jay Strongman and James Horrocks. It was based in Chiswick, London.
The North Pole by Submarine is the only album released by ambient techno artist Bleep. Bleep was the one-time moniker of Geir Jenssen, who is more widely known as Biosphere. Shortly after North Pole was released, Jenssen moved in a far more ambient direction with his music, and changed the name under which he released his new music to avoid any comparison with "bleep house".
Back to the Planet are an anarcho-punk band from London, England. Their music blends elements of ska, dub, punk, and electronic dance music. They formed in 1989, split in 1995 to pursue personal music projects. They had a reunion gig in 2006 and played together irregularly since.
Ginger is the debut studio album by Dutch electronic music producer Speedy J. Released via a joint deal between Plus 8 and Warp in September 1993, the album was the sixth release in Warp's Artificial Intelligence series, which focused on "electronic listening music" by different artists. It peaked at number 68 on the UK Albums Chart and remains Speedy J's most successful album there.
A Word of Science is the debut studio album by British electronic producers Nightmares on Wax. Released by Warp Records in September 1991, it is the act's only album as a group before it became a solo vehicle for George Evelyn. Evelyn nonetheless recorded and produced the album alone, incorporating samples and elements from demo tapes he made in the late 1980s. Although Nightmares on Wax debuted with two well-received techno singles in 1989-1990, A Word of Science is eclectic and largely moves the act towards a more mellow style influenced by funk, soul and hip hop, while still incorporating techno and house styles.
Recondite is a German musician, techno producer, label owner and sound artist.
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat. Artists may use electronic instruments such as drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers, as well as digital audio workstations. Drum machines from the 1980s such as Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro instruments are popular.
Chilean electronic music refers to the electronic music genre and its subgenres produced in Chile or by Chileans.
Bleep techno is a regional subgenre of techno which developed in the late 1980s in Northern England, specifically Yorkshire. Named after its minimalistic synthesizer sounds, bleep techno combined influence from American techno and house with electro elements and heavy sub-bass inspired by reggae sound system culture. The style was commercially successful between 1989 and 1991, and became associated with artists on the Sheffield label Warp Records. It has been characterized as the first uniquely British style of electronic dance music.