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-…

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…

In the first half of the 2000s, Canadian bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor, Arcade Fire, and the Stills began taking the indie-rock world by storm. While they didn't break through to the mainstream, Broken Social Scene nevertheless joined those r…

Dan Snaith aka Manitoba is a Toronto, Canada-based classical/jazz trained musician and a Master-qualified pure mathematician. Merging pretty synth lines, gentle glitches and crisp programming, Manitoba's 2001 debut Start Breaking My Heart shared styl…

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…

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, …

This highly acclaimed Norwegian down-tempo electronic act comprises Svein Berge (b. Bergen, Norway) and Torbjörn Brundtland (b. Bergen, Norway). The childhood friends grew up in Tromso, a small city located 800 kilometres within the Arctic Circle and…

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 …

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 …

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…

Originally a hardcore punk outfit formed in Munich, Germany by Mecki Messerschmidt (drums), Markus Acher (vocals, guitar) and Micha Acher (bass), Notwist first came to prominence when, in 1989, they submitted a demo recording of their song, "I Don't …

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…

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…

Dan Snaiths early recordings as Manitoba underlined his status among the chattering electronic classes as one of the brightest talents to emerge during the early 2000s Having already proved himself master of the sublime with his 2000 debut EP People …

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…

The Animal Collective won over a sizable audience in the mid 2000s despite its seemingly inaccessible brand of fractured, experimental folk. Although the Brooklyn-based Collective's music isn't exactly mainstream and can, at times, be quite difficult…

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…

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. 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…

As far as German bands that were actually influenced by the Krautrock sound of the late 1960s and '70s, Mouse on Mars are one of the most successful and influential children of that scene. Formed in the early '90s, the Dusseldorf-based twosome use du…