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…

Taking their name from the organization that produced lo-fi, arty films that influenced their early sensibilities, this Scottish electronic duo made big waves with their 1998 album MUSIC HAS THE RIGHT TO CHILDREN. They combined '80s-influenced synth-…

This British-French outfit started out in the early 1990s, with a sound that incorporated French-chanteuse vocals, primitive electronics, and Velvet Underground-meets-Neu chugging rhythm. Over the years, they refined their approach immensely, with ec…

British electronica duo Autechre (Sean Booth and Rob Brown) grew up with the sounds of hip-hop and electro in the 1980s. Further inspired by the sounds coming out of Detroit in the early '90s, they turned out a unique UK variant on techno, more abstr…

During the early 1990s, Tortoise helped to lay the foundation for what's come to be known as "post rock." Part of an incestuous Chicago scene bent on using rock instruments and formats without adhering to traditional song structure, Tortoise incorpor…

This experimental UK-based techno outfit comprises Andy Turner and Ed Handley, who are signed to influential label Warp Records. Turner and Handley discovered electronic music while at school, where they had access to a Moog synthesizer in their musi…

It's hard to mention Birmingham, England's Broadcast without referencing two other acts: the Anglo/Franco art-pop band Stereolab and the 1960s art-rockers the Unites States of America. Stereolab released Broadcast's early singles in the late 1990s an…

One of the key artists of the folktronica movement, Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, mixes samples of jazz, acoustic, and psychedelic music with mid-tempo techno and hip-hop beats to create a uniquely warm and organic form of electronica. 2003's ROUNDS i…

b. Scott Herren, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Producer Herren creates the most incredible of musics under the Prefuse 73 moniker, drawing on hip-hop's restless range and electronica's pioneering legacy. Although he says his impetus to record music was Mich…

Formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1996, Mogwai are proponents of mostly instrumental, guitar-based indie rock that relies more on atmospherics than traditional pop song structures. Like their American counterparts Low, the band creates soundscapes that …

In the mid-90s, UK DJ Tom Jenkinson was one of a number of artists who attempted to create more integrated dance music in the midst of a splintering scene. He began playing the bass guitar and drums as a teenager, inspired by his father's collection …

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…

Yo La Tengo started out in the mid-1980s and became perhaps the ultimate critics' band. Led by former NYC rock journalist Ira Kaplan, they syncretized numerous, often esoteric influences to eventually create a distinctive sound. They started out in h…

San Francisco-based electronica duo Matmos (aka M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel) make clever, cerebral, beat-driven sound collages using a variety of found sounds, ranging from surgical equipment and amplified human body parts to broken musical instrume…

b. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Tobin visited Europe as a child and returned to the UK in his teens when he developed a passion for hip-hop, blues and jazz, including the music of Grandmaster Flash, Lightnin' Hopkins, Eddie Palmieri and Thelonius Monk. Wh…

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…

b. Jimmy Tamborello, Silverlake, California, USA. Assuming the enigmatic Dntel moniker because it sounded like an archetypal electronica track title, the self-confessed nervous recluse creates the most beguiling of musics at the midpoint between sopo…

Although they describe their modus operandi as prosaically as "We do one layer of keyboards, then another, then another', French artists Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau create a music that is momentous and epic enough to suggest otherworldly, …

Sixty percent of Icelanders are reported to believe in the existence of fairies and Orvar Thóreyjarson Smárason, Gyda Valtysdóttir, Kristín Anna Valtysdóttir, and Gunnar Tynes create music that is magical enough to suggest they may have a point. Alth…