Lyrics Born (a.k.a. Asia Born) is Tom Shimura (b. 1972), originally from Berkeley, California, though through his childhood he lived in Tokyo, Japan, and Salt Lake City, Utah. He began his hip hop career while at college at UC Davis, where he was a DJ at the college station KDVS. He is a founding member of the group of artists known as Quannum Projects. He is also one half of the group Latyrx with fellow MC Lateef The Truth Speaker.
(...)It was 1992 at the Berklee School of Music, and a few high school summer session kids exploded onto the Boston jazz scene with killer chops and bottomless energy. Drawn together at the altar of funky soul, Eric Krasno, Sam Kininger, Adam Deitch, Erick Coomes, Jeff Bhasker, and Ryan Zoidis began taking over local clubs and jam nights on borrowed sound equipment. Brash and precocious, the guys always got what they needed: "Let us borrow your gear." "Let us play one more tune." "Let us crash on your couch." Thus Lettuce ("Let us...") was born, and the funky gospel found another apostle.
Nicola Conte is a DJ and producer from Bari, Italy known for introducing an innovative style of acid jazz that incorporates bossa nova themes, melodies drawn from Italian film scores of the 1960's, easy listening themes, and ethnic Indian music. Conte, a classically-trained musician, is mastermind of a collective of acid jazz revivalists, "The Fez collective" (and originally a member of the group Fez Combo), based in the Italian town of Bari, and the Schema label, their record label for promoting their distinctly Italian approach to acid jazz.
Pete Um (UK) is a tape-poet from Cambridge, UK, with sardonic humour, unreliable MD player and a bunch of weird electronic miniatures. When not depressed, he can be a great entertainer. Meanwhile, his music had been boosted by eccentrics such as Ariel Pink. Attempts to define his personality provoke his peers to phrases like
The Impellers are a funk outfit previously known as Ed Meme & the Forms. The band is currently signed to Freestyle Records and is set to release their first album Robot Legs in 2009. Band members:
Glenn Fallows (aka Ed Meme) - Guitar, Hammond, Rhodes
'Lady' Clair Witcher - Vocals
Alex Berry - Bass
Tom Humphries - Sax
Chris Evans-Roberts - Sax
Gram Canyon - Trombone
Mark Yexley - Trumpet
Will Stanley - Drums
Barry 'Impact' Lalanne - Guitar
Natural Self is a Brighton based producer who makes excellent, funky music. He also goes by the name of keno-1 depending on type of sounds he's making. He is related to tru thoughts. Natural Self is the ongoing project of Nathaniel Pearn, aka producer Keno-1. Pearn was originally inspired by the rhythmic force of The Bomb Squad's productions for Public Enemy, and hip hop was the primary influence on his first forays into music. His hometown of Oxford was just near enough to London to pick up Tim Westwood's then seminal Capital Rap Show floating across the airwaves.
Audio artist Barry Adamson started out as bass player for British punk band Magazine, however, he's since carved more of a name for himself equally for being a founding member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and also for composing a large chunk of the score of David Lynch's Lost Highway. Adamson's solo work varies heavily between Film Noir and classic to industrial rock, whilst taking in everything in between, making him almost impossible to pigeonhole.
Guitarist, composer, music producer and multi-instrumentalist born in Brazil, EdO Portugal migrates to London, UK in 2003 where he's been living since then. EdO has experienced in many different fronts such as bossa nova, trip-hop, acid jazz, funk, rock and electronic, as well as composing music for films - an art he started back in 2001. EdO has worked with many musicians from all over the World and today is working in many different projects such as producing artists Bice Holden and Eleni Mylona - with whom he also has another band brewing -...
Stereo MCs are a British rap group formed in 1985 in London, England. The group consists of Rob Birch (vocals), Nick "The Head" Hallam (turntables, production), Cath Coffey (backing vocals) and Ian "Owen If" Rossiter (drums). They are best known for their 1992 single "Connected" which was a major hit in the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as a crossover success on American alternative rock radio.
Just some nice guys making nice.