Paul Robb | |
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Born | Paul Jason Robb February 8, 1963 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Synthesizer player, producer, songwriter |
Website | http://paulrobb.com/ |
Paul Jason Robb is an American synthesizer player, producer, songwriter and one of the founding members of the band Information Society. [1]
Robb was a member of Information Society from its inception in the early 1980s until 1992 (after its third release Peace and Love, Inc. ).
When Information Society's contract with Tommy Boy/Reprise/Warner Bros. Records ended, Paul (who at the time had a new infant) chose to work in films and commercials, winning two Clio Awards for BMW ads in the process. In 1996, he started a record company called Hakatak International. Hakatak featured his one-man industrial-tinged band Think Tank, as well as a trip hop- and world music-flavored collaboration with Minneapolis folk singer Barbara Cohen named Brother Sun Sister Moon.
When trip hop briefly gained mainstream popularity following the release of Portishead's Dummy , Brother Sun Sister Moon recorded for Virgin Records, causing the temporary dissolution of Hakatak in June 1997. No album ever resulted from that deal, however, and to this day neither Robb nor Virgin will say what happened.
Robb continued to do TV, film, and commercial work but had no further commercially recorded output until January 2002, when he reappeared with a new record company named Bleep! Records and an album under the name of Luminous, which turned out to be a renamed Brother Sun Sister Moon. The Bleep! Web site promised a new Robb solo album under the name Bitcrusher, but that album was not released before Robb's investors pulled the plug and killed Bleep! in late 2002.
Robb owns a recording studio in Los Angeles called Digitalis (a pun on the heart drug) and continues to produce music for advertisements and television shows. His credits include MTV's The Real World and Road Rules and the score for Trey Parker and Matt Stone's first movie Orgazmo . [2] He later remixed the theme for Parker and Stone's long-running South Park series and was involved in the Chef Aid album as well.
It was announced in 2006 that Robb and James Cassidy would reform Information Society with a new vocalist, Chris Anton. Original vocalist Kurt Harland opted out, citing work and family obligations for a time, but resumed his role as lead singer in 2008. In 2007, the band released an EP, Oscillator , and a new album, Synthesizer , under the resurrected Hakatak label. In 2014 Kurt rejoined the band full time and the album Hello World was released being the first studio album featuring the lineup of Harland, Robb and Cassidy since 1992.
Hakatak | |
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Founded | 1995 |
Founder | Paul Robb |
Genre | Electronic |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Official website | www |
Hakatak International is an American independent record label founded by Robb. It specializes in electronic music acts.
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Information Society is an American electronic band from Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota, initially active from 1982 to 1997, primarily consisting of Kurt Harland Larson, Paul Robb, and James Cassidy; the latter two reconvened the band in 2006, initially with Christopher Anton as lead vocalist, then with Harland rejoining them as lead vocalist by 2008.
Kurt Harland is an American singer, songwriter, and audio engineer and is the lead singer of Information Society. He also works on video game scores, including two of the soundtracks for the Legacy of Kain video game series.
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"Running" is the debut single by the band InSoc originally released on the Creatures of Influence album in 1985. The single for Running was distributed to club DJs, and became a favorite all over clubs, particularly in the Latin clubs of New York City. The single was later remixed by Tommy Boy Records and the remix single was released and became even more of a club hit, eventually reaching number 2 on the Dance/Club Airplay charts. Tommy Boy Records signed Information Society in 1986 and their self-titled album soon followed, featuring a mix of the single. In 1988 Information Society's self-titled album was released and went platinum.
The InSoc EP is an EP by the synthpop band Information Society. It was their first record.
Creatures of Influence is an independent album by the synthpop band Information Society. The album was temporarily made available for free listening on the band's website; it was removed in preparation for the re-release in the Apocryphon compilation.
Information Society is the debut studio album by American synth-pop band Information Society, released on June 21, 1988, by Tommy Boy Records and Reprise Records. It was the band's first release under a major label, after two independently released extended plays. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on December 6, 1988, denoting shipments in excess of 500,000 copies in the United States. Four singles were released from the album, including "What's on Your Mind ", the group's most commercially successful single to date. It was one of the only albums released in the seldom-used CD+G format.
Pure Energy: The Very Best of Information Society is a compilation album by the electronic band Information Society. It is generally poorly regarded by band members.
Peace and Love Inc. is an album by the synthpop band Information Society. The album received great critical reviews but the label did little to promote it. It was the least successful of the three albums released by Tommy Boy/Reprise and was the last Tommy Boy title to be distributed by major-label channels, although Warner Bros. Records owned a stake in the label until 2002. The track "300bps N, 8, 1 " is actually a text file encoded as modem tones. When decoded, the content is a tale by Kurt Harland about a bizarre but purportedly true event that took place when the band was playing in the city of Curitiba, Brazil.
Oscillator is an EP by Information Society. It was their first new commercial release after six-year break.
Synthesizer is an album by the electronic band Information Society. It was released on September 1, 2007, from the band's official website, and on October 9, 2007, in record stores.
Christopher Anton, alternately styled christopher ANTON,, is an American singer-songwriter. Anton is known for being the vocalist of the synthpop band Information Society, as well as the synth rock band Pseudocipher. In 2010, Anton gained popularity as a solo artist with the release of his cover version of the dance single "Fade to Grey". After the success of "Fade to Grey", Anton released his debut album Destination: X.
Hello World is an album by the electronic band Information Society. It is a return to the band's "classic" 1980s lineup.