Thavius Beck
On October 29th 2012 LA producer Thavius Beck presents ‘The Most Beautiful Ugly’, on Plug Research records.
Thavius has remixed Nas and Nine Inch Nails, and collaborated with Saul Williams, Cedric Bixler-Zavala from the Mars Volta, Zack De La Rocha from Rage Against The Machine, plus Trent Reznor.
Beck is an Ableton Certified Trainer, who has given private lessons to Photek, Rhianna/Beyonce producer DJ Frank E and Skylar Grey - the US hitmaker for artists including Dr. Dre.
Plug Research is the label responsible for Flying Lotus’ debut album, plus releases from Sonnymoon, Dntel, Daedalus, John Tejada, Thomas Fehlman and Bilal.
The high drama of album opener ‘Eye Of The Beholder’ sets the scene for a cinematic and technicolour ride through fifteen slabs of sonic excellence, at times reminiscent of DJ Shadow, Rustie, pre-‘Dollar’ Aloe Black, Platinum Pied Pipers, Model 500 and Dam Funk.
Not afraid of a big sound, ‘Break The Broken’ rivals Kanye’s ‘All Of The Lights’, both as a high-end production and in its double time hi-hats, also redolent of Planet Mu luminary Kuedo.
From the beautiful cosmic boogie of ‘Atmos’, to ‘Labward Bound’, which twists drum machines and brass into shapes you never thought possible, to the vocoder-synth- squelch-bounce of Ain’t Nothin’, to the glistening space shanty of ‘Shuckie Duckie Chuckie’, this album really shines.
Thavius Beck is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He played alto and tenor sax throughout school and by his teens also picked up the bass guitar. At summer art camp when 12 tears old, he first encountered the Ensoniq SQ-2 sequencer and the Roland S-50 sampler.
Tumult at the homefront led to Thavius’ departure from Minneapolis to LA at 16. Within months, going by the alias Adlib (named after from his days as a jazz saxophonist), he met and joined the crew that would become Global Phlowtations.
Due to his early proclivity towards samplers and production (as well as rapping), Thavius became an integral part of the GP crew - producing, MCing and engineering the vast majority of their first underground classic, ‘Phlowtation Devices’.
Whilst working at the famed Amobea record store in Hollywood, Thavius gave Busdriver a batch of beats to consider for his ‘Fear Of A Black Tangent’ album. Busdriver happened to be playing the music one day while Saul Williams was visiting; Saul was impressed enough to ask for Thavius’ phone number and called him on the spot. Very soon afterwards, Thavius produced ‘Act 3 Scene 2’ for Saul’s self-titled album, a cut that featured Zack De La Rocha.
Saul soon asked Beck to play bass and trigger samples in his band on the road. After a period, he decided Thavius was all the band he needed and the two spent considerable time touring. The collaborative energy spilled over into the studio while Saul was working on his ‘Niggy Tardust’ record, which gave Thavius the chance to work alongside Trent Reznor.
If all that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Beck has found time to create with various underground luminaries including Subtitle and K-the-i???. His tech-savvy saw him being one of the first to embrace and understand the power of Ableton; in a short time he became a certified Ableton trainer. He designed and teaches courses for Dubspot, a music school based in New York (who also teach online).
He works regularly with Novation/Focusrite doing demonstrations for their Launchpad and Ultranova products throughout Europe. Additionally he’s currently working with Izotope (makers of the VST's Stutter Edit, the T-Pain effect, Ozone and Iris), as well as Keith McMillen (makers of the SoftStep, 12Step the QuNeo midi controller) demonstrating their products.
Citing Jean Luc Ponty’s feted machine-jazz fusion as inspiration, with Beck’s background so rich in both top-drawer musical colleagues and cutting edge technology, it little surprise that he’s crafted what will no doubt become a classic electronic album, rooted richly in the best of black music.