// machinedrum
( / )Wann / Wo >> /
Travis Stewart is an electronic musician and one of the artists who helped launch Merck Records. His debut album was released under one of his aliases, Syndrone. The style of which could best be described as tracking Autechre stylized glitch but adding a bit of venous melody. Syndrone's debut, Triskaideka started off small but within a matter of years sold out of 1000 copies and was soon licensed by a respected European IDM label called Djak-Up-Bitch.
In 2000 he went off to college at a prestigious audio mastering school and acquired many new instruments and samples. Out of this squalor of college living came his next musical project, Machinedrum. This alias can be described as hiphop accentuated by mutant drum patterns, dense IDM style melodies, and MCs freed in the digital world to slip up and double back on their rhymes. His first release as Machinedrum, entitled Now You Know, was a defining moment in electronic music and hip-hop. Travis was instantly in competition with Prefuse 73 as the new era of electronic hiphop, initially started by the likes of Gescom & Push Button Objects. His second release "Half the Battle", was a more focused affair musically, still cutting beats from jazz records, but laying down a much smoother and more jiggy atmosphere. It includes remixes from Brothomstates, Proem, Lackluster, Esem, Tim Koch, and many others. Since those releases he has released two more well regarded albums as Machinedrum entitled Urban Biology and Bidnezz, as well as a follow up to the debut Syndrone album entitled Salmataxia.
Currently Travis plans on releasing a ground breaking Battle Record for turntablists in collaboration with DJ I.Emerge (2 time DMC world champion) on Inside Records and plans of releasing two more albums with his new label Normrex. Machinedrum live performances range from dancy upbeat club type shows to live guitar/laptop/drums fueled sound. The combination of the 3 elements provide a very powerful sound of beat heavy psychedellia and melodic sound collage. 2006 looks to be a very exciting year for music and Machinedrum is sneaking his way to the top of his game.