The Bristol collective known as Massive Attack arose out of the acid house scene of late-1980s England to become one of the 1990s' greatest innovators. The group has literally changed the face of music every time out. They invented "trip-hop" on thei…

Underworld rose from the semi-successful '80s synth-pop outfit known as Freur to become one of the great innovators in electronica. While the group's sound can easily be whittled down to its core elements--trance, dub, ambient, and a certain punkish …

The music of the Chemical Brothers, a pair of DJs who helped popularize the "Big Beat" electronic subgenre in the '90s, has the heft of rock, the groove of club music, and the spirit of experimentation that lifts all boats. Through their collaboratio…

Diminutive, bald-headed Richard Melville Hall, better known as Moby, achieved greater mainstream success than any other electronica artist by virtue of his willingness to adapt electronic dance music to a well formed pop sensibility. From the '90s on…

As Thievery Corporation, Eric Hilton and Rob Garza started working together in the mid-1990s, crafting a sound initially rooted in electronica, but deeply influenced by dub, Latin jazz, and bossa nova. Their atmospheric, low-key style has made the Wa…

French postmodernists Air raid every aspect of retro pop music, from the sublime to the ridiculous, in fashioning their sonic bricolage. Everything from Krautrock-inspired electronics to 1960s lounge music is incorporated into the work of Nicolas God…

In the mid-1990s, the dreamy-but-grooving sound of trip-hop was confined to the U.K. underground until Portishead brought it to the worldwide mainstream. Combining electronics, lush production, Ennio Morricone-like guitar breaks, and angelic singing …

Leftfield consists of Paul Daley and Neil Barnes, two London percussionists-turned-DJs who tore up London's underground "progressive house" scene in the late '80s and early '90s with their early singles. In 1995 they released LEFTISM, which has been …

As a young boy growing up in Cornwall, England, Richard James made his first music by banging found objects together. Whether he's working under the moniker Aphex Twin, Polygon Window, or AFX, James has continued to experiment with sound in increasin…

Formed in the early 1990s, Orbital was the brainchild of the English brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. Drawn from a wildly diverse set of influences, ranging from disco to hardcore, Orbital's style broke free from dance music conventions. It is rich a…

Perhaps a crude simplification, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland - the Crystal Method ' have been described as the USA's answer to the Chemical Brothers. They relocated from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in 1989 after working on vocal house tracks but having…

The musical careers of former studio engineers Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker were given a boost by old college chum and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich when he let them remix OK COMPUTER's "Climbing Up the Walls." The resulting product led to greater…

With a background in classical music, heavy metal, folk, jazz and bhangra, Toby Marks (b. England) formed Banco De Gaia in Leamington Spa in 1989 after absorbing sounds he heard while travelling around the world. For the first six years he worked clo…

Active from the early 1990s into the 21st century, DJ Shadow (Californian Josh Davis) has been called the Jimi Hendrix of sampling. His songs shift tempos in a blink, incorporating multiple time signatures, and it's to Shadow's credit that he's as co…

Norman Cook's first foray into the music biz came as the bass player for 1980s UK pop/rock band the Housemartins, but once he got into the DJ world, he hung up his bass for good. As Fatboy Slim, he was at the forefront of the mid-'90s "big beat" move…

Beginning as a member of the Massive Attack collective, Tricky released his own major claim to greatness, MAXINQUAYE, in 1995. The down-tempo grooves, husky rapping, and general air of menace all became hallmarks of the genre known as trip-hop, but T…

With roots in the UK House scene, British dance-pop collective Faithless made a big splash with its debut single "Salva Mea," a highly influential chart smash. Theirs was a multi-hued style, with Maxi Jazz's rapping, the mixing skills of Rollo and Si…

Publicity shy London, England-based duo Dego MacFarlane and Mark "Mac' Clair first emerged at the height of the late 80s acid house explosion. Together they established the Dollis Hill-based Reinforced Records, which became the foremost UK outlet for…

Since Ministry and Nine Inch Nails hit it big in the early-'90s, no other electronic dance-rock band pushed the boundaries and rocked as viciously as The Prodigy did. Their 1997 worldwide breakthrough, FAT OF THE LAND, hatched a swarm of copy-cat act…

Tosca is essentially a side-project for Richard Dorfmeister, one half of Austrian dub-breaks artists Kruder And Dorfmeister and is a collaboration with his old school friend, Richard Huber. Tosca's 1997 debut, Opera, established the duo's unusual and…