2011.09.07

Artist Spotlight: BT

Posted in Music, Music Spotlight at 6:51 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel

I’ve been writing up electronic music artists on another web site for a while now, and thought I should start doing the same here. I’m going to take the posts from the other site, adapt them somewhat, and post them here.

So this is the first in what will probably become a series of posts about electronic music artists. I’ve been a fan of electronic music for a long time, and It seems the genre is neglected by many, and with the trend today of pop music edging into dance music edging into electronic music, many people are missing the depth that electronic music has to offer. Yes, there’s more to it than the latest LMFAO single or Lady Gaga remix.

BT (also known as Brian Transeau) is an American-born electronic artist, but his background might surprise you. He’s classically trained, and so has a very critical ear. He time-corrects samples with an uncompromising exactness, and he does things with sound on a near-genetic level that nobody else does, which gives his music a very distinctive signature sound.

He started out doing what we would call experimental trance and techno. So experimental that at the time, he couldn’t find an audience in North America and thus he moved to Europe where he was discovered (in a sense) by well-known DJ and producer Sasha. And the rest is history.

His more recent work still contains a lot of trance music, but his style often incorporates other non-electronic instruments as well, leading to a sound closer to rock or metal in some cases and classical in others. He has composed and performed movie soundtracks as well, which was always one of his career goals. Notably, his soundtrack for Monster is at once stark, depressing, beautiful, and delightful. Even in his diversions from his usual sound (notably This Binary Universe) he’s brilliant in a way that can’t be described unless you give him a listen.

My first introduction to BT was when I special-ordered ESCM in 1998 after hearing Flaming June on the Digital Empire compilation. The diversity of sounds on ESCM made me realize there was a lot more to him than just trance music, and I became a fan pretty quickly. I think my only real regret at this point is I have never seen BT perform live, something I hope to rectify in the future.

If you’ve never listened to BT, you should really check him out. As a “starter” album I would suggest either These Hopeful Machines or Emotional Technology.

My favorite BT tracks (albums), in no particular order aside from being grouped by album: