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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 …

With lunar-landing samples, a Pink Floyd-inspired album cover, and a 22-minute single, the Orb was perfectly suited to the drug-fueled raves of the early-1990s London acid house scene. The Orb's debut was the closest thing to an auditory hallucinogen…

Radiohead burst onto the Britpop scene in the early 1990s with a clamorous, post-U2 take on guitar rock, buoyed by the hit "Creep." They subsequently developed their songwriting and production skills on THE BENDS and achieved iconic status with their…

A fearless sonic adventurer, Icelandic songstress Bjork first appeared prominently on the musical map in 1988 with LIFE'S TOO GOOD, the debut album of her band, the Sugarcubes. Four years later, the group split, and Bjork wasted no time in working on…

Offered to dance music punters as the "intelligent way out of blind-alley hardcore', Future Sound Of London emerged in the 90s, the brainchild of Garry Cobain (b. Bedford, England) and Brian Dougans (b. Glasgow, Scotland). They met at college in Manc…

Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliffe started out as two British DJ's enamored of the sounds of '70s funk and '80s house. By the mid-'90s, the pair were turning heads with singles and remixes that used house as a starting point for innovative explorations…

As one of the first acts signed to the U.K.'s famed Warp label, Nightmares on Wax (the duo of Kevin Harper and George Evelyn) were instrumental in ushering in the golden era of U.K. dance and electronic music of the late 1980s and early '90s. The pai…

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 …

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…

French 1990s neo-disco duo Daft Punk found stardom as a discovery of the Chemical Brothers. With an egalitarian approach to making people move, Daft Punk utilized everything from strict club beats to Beach Boys and Roxy Music samples when making its …

Gus Gus is probably the most acclaimed and successful band to emerge from Reykjavik, Iceland since the Sugarcubes. Like their fellow national, Björk, they have developed a sound that is all their own: innovative and challenging, yet accessible and ev…

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…

This UK electronica duo comprises Tom Findlay (b. Cambridge, England; bass, trumpet, keyboards, sampler) and Andy Cato (b. Yorkshire, England; trombone, keyboards, bass guitar). Cato, a 6 feet 8 inches tall Yorkshireman, grew up playing in a colliery…