Leafcutter John is the recording name of John Burton, a UK-based musician and artist. He makes frequent use of Max/MSP in his compositions. Much of Burton's style is based in computer music and use of samples of everyday sounds. However, he also has roots as a folk musician, and this influence is apparent in his more recent work.
After graduating in Fine Art Painting at Norwich School of Art (1996–1998), Burton moved to London and after a year pursuing a career as a performance artist, began to concentrate on his musical work. He soon secured interest from Mike Paradinas, owner of independent electronics label Planet Mu. Paradinas encouraged Burton to develop his electro-acoustic folk hybrid and his first full-length release, Concourse EEP, was released in early 2000. His album, The Housebound Spirit, was a response to being mugged outside his London studio. The album deals with themes of increasing alienation and agoraphobia.
His fourth album The Forest and the Sea was nominated for Best Album at the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards 2007 and was described by comedian James Acaster as "a criminally overlooked record". [1]
In 2019, Burton released his seventh album Yes! Come Parade With Us on James Holden’s label Border Community, featuring modular synth and field recordings from the Norfolk Coast Path.
Burton was a full-time member of the contemporary British jazz pioneers and Mercury Music Prize nominees Polar Bear, [2] founded by drummer Seb Rochford.
He has performed with Imogen Heap, [3] Shabaka Hutchings, [4] Serafina Steer, [5] Laura Jurd [6] and Talvin Singh, [7] supported Matmos [8] and Otomo Yoshihide, and been in Beck's band [9] at the Barbican, London. In 2007, he performed at Jarvis Cocker’s Meltdown Festival. [10] He played alongside jazz pianist Michael Wollny at the opening night of the Bauhaus 100 festival [11] in January 2019. In autumn/winter 2019, he supported The Comet Is Coming on their UK tour. [12]
Leafcutter John is also an accomplished producer and remixer, having worked on projects for: DJ /rupture, Ed Dowie, [13] Melt Yourself Down, Mu-ziq/Speedy J, Electric Company, Badly Drawn Boy, Capitol K, Bas Jan and others.
Leafcutter John has engaged in several projects, both commissioned and DIY. Examples include installing microphones under a creaky wooden floor to record and manipulate the sounds in a software program, growing and constructing piezoelectric crystal microphones, touring the Grand Union Canal, [15] building a laser "microphone" and creating a massive morse code chorus for BBC Radio 3.
He has also worked on theatre, dance and poetry projects, including commissions from the Handspring Puppet Company, and choreographers Wayne McGregor and Shobana Jeyasingh.
Burton is a prodigious instrument builder and uses a self-built light-controlled musical interface at his shows. [16] He won the Qwartz Electronic Music Award for Innovation in 2015. In 2017, he was a recipient of an artists award from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. [17]
Michael Robert Paradinas, better known by his stage name μ-Ziq, is an English electronic musician from Wimbledon, London. He was associated with the electronic style intelligent dance music (IDM) during the 1990s, and recorded on Rephlex Records and Reflective Records. His critically acclaimed 1997 album, Lunatic Harness, helped define the drill 'n' bass subgenre and was also his most successful release, selling over 100,000 copies. Paradinas founded the record label Planet Mu, begun in 1995, where he has championed genres such as juke, IDM and footwork.
David Grubbs is an American composer, guitarist, pianist, and vocalist. He was a founding member of Squirrel Bait, Bastro, and Gastr del Sol. He has also played in Codeine, The Red Krayola, Bitch Magnet and The Wingdale Community Singers.
Planet Mu is an eclectic English electronic music record label created and run by Mike Paradinas. The label started out as a subsidiary of Virgin Records then Paradinas set up the label independent of Virgin. After releasing intelligent dance music, the label moved to jungle and breakcore, and then grime and dubstep and later footwork. The label also releases the music of Paradinas under various aliases such as μ-Ziq, Kid Spatula and Tusken Raiders. It celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2020.
Lunatic Harness is the fourth studio album by English electronic music producer Mike Paradinas under the stage name µ-Ziq. It was released on 30 June 1997 in the United Kingdom on the Planet Mu label, and on 29 July 1997 in the United States on the Astralwerks label. It was rereleased with bonus tracks from the My Little Beautiful and Brace Yourself singles in 2022 for its 25th anniversary.
Shitmat is an English breakcore artist and mashup producer, one of several monikers used by Henry Collins. Shitmat became known in the early 2000s for releases on the Ad Noiseam and Planet Mu labels. He also set up his own label, Wrong Music and put on parties in Brighton. His 2012 project Mash Hits remixed every UK number one single from 1952 onwards. He then stopped the Shitmat project, restarting it again in 2016.
Talvin Singh OBE is an English musician, producer, and composer. A tabla player, he is known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music and drum and bass. Singh is generally considered involved with an electronica subgenre called Asian Underground, and more recently as Indian and/or Asian electronica.
Peter Edward Clarke, known professionally as Budgie, is an English drummer best known for his work in Siouxsie and the Banshees. He is also the co-founder of the Creatures.
Tim Exile is the recording alias of Timothy Charles Shaw, a producer and performer of electronic music spanning drum and bass, IDM, breakcore and gabber.
Capitol K is the name under which Kristian Craig Robinson works as a musician, producer, recording engineer and label manager.
Jochem George Paap, known by his stage name Speedy J, is a Dutch electronic music producer based in Rotterdam. His breakthrough came with the release in 1992 of the minimal techno track "Pullover". He released music as part of Warp Records' Artificial Intelligence series in the 1990s, including his debut LP Ginger (1993).
Expert Knob Twiddlers is a 1996 studio album by Mike Paradinas and Richard D. James. It was released in 1996 on Rephlex Records and is the only release credited to the two as Mike & Rich.
Jega is the recording name of the Manchester-based electronic music artist, Dylan Nathan. Jega has released records on the Planet Mu, Matador and Skam record labels.
Simon Bookish is the stage name of Leo Chadburn, a British musician and composer known for his work in experimental, electronic, pop, and classical music. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 6 Music, and Resonance FM. Originally from Coalville, Leicestershire, he moved to London and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1997 to 2001.
James William Acaster is an English comedian. As well as the stand-up specials Repertoire and Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999, he is known for co-hosting the food podcast Off Menu and the panel show Hypothetical. Acaster makes use of fictional characters within his stand-up comedy, which is characterised by frequent callback jokes, offbeat observational comedy and overarching stories. He has won five Chortle Awards, a Just for Laughs Award and International Comedy Festival Awards at Melbourne and New Zealand.
John Wizards is a South African band from Cape Town formed in 2010. They are currently signed to Planet Mu Records. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist John Withers, vocalist Emmanuel Nzaramba, drummer and percussionist Raphael Segerman, bassist and keyboardist Alex Montgomery, guitarist Tom Parker and guitarist and keyboardist Geoff Brink. The band released its self-titled first album in September 2012, which includes the singles "Lusaka by Night" and "Muizenberg". The band's style has been described as a mix of R&B, soukous, Afropop, reggae, South African house, Shangaan electro and dub.
Aaron Funk, known as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre, and is one of the most recognisable artists to be signed to Planet Mu, an experimental electronic music label. His signature style involves meticulously complex drums, eclectic use of samples, and odd time signatures, in particular, 7
4.
Dark Energy is the debut album by American electronic music producer Jlin, released in 2015 by Planet Mu. It received acclaim from critics and was named the best album of 2015 by The Quietus and The Wire.
Canadian electronic musician Aaron Funk, better known as Venetian Snares, has released 24 studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums, 19 extended plays (EPs), eight singles, four promotional singles, one remix, and one music video. Funk began producing music in 1992 and self-released several cassettes during the 90's. He released his first three studio albums in cassette. These albums are Spells and Subvert! both released in 1998, and Rorschach Stuffoacte released in 1999. He released the 1999 EP, Greg Hates Car Culture, followed by his fourth studio album, printf("shiver in eternal darkness/n"); in May 2000.
Greg Hates Car Culture is a breakcore EP released by Venetian Snares in 1999 on Minneapolis-based label History of the Future. It was his first official release and led to him being signed by Planet Mu. Twenty years later, a re-mastered version was re-released with three extra tracks on Timesig, a sublabel of Planet Mu as the twenty-fourth studio album of Venetian Snares. The tracks were originally made using an Amiga 500 and an effects pedal.
Party Gator Purgatory is the debut studio album by British experimental collective Temps, headed by the English comedian James Acaster. It was released on May 19, 2023, via Bella Union.
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