Kraftwerk is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered as innovators and pioneers of electronic music, they were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre. The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders.
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. Most modern drum machines allow users to program their own rhythms and beats. Drum machines may create sounds using analog synthesis or play prerecorded samples. Some drum machines have buttons or pads that allow the performer to play drum sounds "live", either on top of a programmed drum beat or as a standalone performance. Drum machines have a range of capabilities, which go from playing a short beat pattern in a loop, to being able to program or record complex song arrangements with changes of meter and style.
Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music. They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and digital recording technology, and effectively anticipated the "electropop boom" of the 1980s. They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres, including synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno, while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career.
Medeski Martin & Wood is an American avant-jazz-funk band formed in 1991, consisting of John Medeski on keyboards, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass. The band is influenced by musical traditions including funk and hip hop and is known for an unconventional style sometimes described as "avant-groove".
Velocity of Sound is the fifth studio album by The Apples in Stereo, released in October 2002. The American release has an orange album cover, while the European version is green and the Japanese version is blue. The bonus track is also different for each version.
Fun Trick Noisemaker is the debut studio album by The Apples in Stereo. It was recorded in a house in Los Angeles, in Robert Schneider's portable Pet Sounds Studio. It was released in 1995 via SpinART.
Robert Peter Schneider, Ph.D is an American pop musician, music producer, and mathematician who received a PhD in mathematics from Emory University in 2018. He is the lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer of The Apples in Stereo and has produced albums by Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control and a number of other psychedelic and indie rock bands. Schneider co-founded The Elephant 6 Recording Company in 1991. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Georgia.
Yellow Magic Orchestra is the first official studio album by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, who were previously known as the Yellow Magic Band. Originally released by Alfa Records in Japan in 1978, the album was released by A&M Records in Europe and the United States and Canada in early 1979, with the US version featuring new cover art but without the closing track of "Acrobat". Both versions would later be re-issued in 2003 as a double-disc format, with the American version as the first disc.
Tone Soul Evolution is the second album from The Apples in Stereo. It was recorded from February to June and released in September 1997.
The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone is the fourth album from The Apples in Stereo. It received generally good reviews as a showcase for the band's experimental/psychedelic pop.
Chromatics is an American electronic music band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2001. The band consists of Ruth Radelet, Adam Miller, Nat Walker, and Johnny Jewel. The band originally featured a trademark sound indebted to punk and lo-fi that was described as "noisy" and "chaotic". After numerous lineup changes, which left guitarist Adam Miller as the sole original member, the band began releasing material on the Italians Do It Better record label in 2007, with their style streamlined into an Italo disco-influenced sound.
Marbles is the solo recording project of The Apples in Stereo singer and chief songwriter Robert Schneider. The project started out in 1993 when Schneider would record his various musical endeavors on cassette for various people he knew, but was somewhat abandoned as the Apples got off the ground. He would later compile some of the songs, many of which featuring backing vocals from Will Cullen Hart of The Olivia Tremor Control, and release them officially in 1997 as an album named Pyramid Landing .
Pyramid Landing is the debut album from Robert Schneider's solo project, Marbles, containing songs written and performed, usually in their entirety, by Schneider on his 4-track recorder. The songs date from a period before the concrete formation of The Apples in Stereo in the early 1990s, while Schneider was sharing an apartment with Will Cullen Hart and Hilarie Sidney, a period that also saw the recordings of the first Apples releases, and Sidney's material as Secret Square. It was eventually released in 1997 on SpinArt.
Triosk was an experimental jazz, electronica band, which formed in 2001 by Adrian Klumpes on piano, rhodes and sampler; Laurence Pike on drums, percussion and programming, and Ben "Donny" Waples on electric and acoustic bass. They disbanded in 2007. Though coming from a jazz foundation, their sound has strong electronica elements as well as influences from the textures of musique concrète, with their use of loops of hisses and crackles. They released three albums: 1+3+1 in November 2003 ; Moment Returns and The Headlight Serenade, both on The Leaf Label.
New Magnetic Wonder is the sixth studio album from The Apples in Stereo. The album was produced by Robert Schneider with additional production and mixing by Bryce Goggin and was recorded in four separate states. The album was released on February 6, 2007 via a co-venture between the actor Elijah Wood's Simian Records, Yep Roc Records and Elephant 6.
Hello Starling is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. It was Ritter's second album release nationally on the label Signature Sounds. It was originally released on September 9, 2003, a two-disc deluxe edition was re-issued on January 17, 2010
The Smile Sessions is a compilation album and box set recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on October 31, 2011 by Capitol Records. The set focuses on abandoned recording sessions from their unfinished 1966–1967 album Smile. It features comprehensive session highlights and outtakes, with the first 19 tracks comprising a hypothetical version of the completed album.
The Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) were an indie rock band formed in Benton, Kentucky in 1997 and based in both Benton and Lexington, Kentucky. Heavily influenced by 1960s pop music and promoted by Robert Schneider, the band is indirectly associated with Elephant 6 Recording Company groups such as The Minders, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, and The Apples in Stereo.
The Sand and The Stars is an album by the Bristol-based band Movietone. It was partly recorded on a beach in Cornwall Its intention was to sound 'like a jazz record being played from across the bay'. This was inspired by a review of their previous album, which had described their music that way.
Travellers in Space and Time is the seventh studio album by The Apples in Stereo released in 2010. It was the first album by the band to feature new drummer John Dufilho, as well as the first to cite Bill Doss and John Ferguson as permanent band members. It is heavily influenced by the Electric Light Orchestra, especially their science-fiction concept album Time.
