Damon Frost
– Music producer
Genres:
Boom bap
Hip-Hop
Soul
Blues
Abstract
Experimental
BIO.
Damon Frost is a non-conformist. Not by design, but by default. He is a black Jew, has five middle names, and he refuses vehemently to be remixed. The Los Angeles born and Stockholm based producer, rapper, and professional dancer is a Swedish Grammy nominee and Swedish P3 Gold National Radio award winner, whose signature brand of boom bap is hard wired to sound like how he dances. He is one half of pan global hip-hop prog band, Hearin’ Aid, whose, 2005 debut album, The Boom Lucy, wooed fans and critics alike. It rendered Peter Krüder from Krüder and Dorfmeister ecstatic, vowing that he ”will start playing hip hop again,” while Straight No Chaser, Blues and Soul, and IDJ magazines, equally rhapsodic, described the band as highly talented, innovative, forward thinking, brilliant, quirky and left field.
Named in Mathew Herbert’s 2008 ”Ones to Watch” list in Clash Magazine, Herbert reluctantly divulged, ”I’m almost loathed to mention him as his work is one of my favorite musical secrets.” Chorusing the fanfare, Mercury Music Prize nominees The Invisible’s frontman and guitarist David Okumu wrote, ”I think you’re my fav producer on the planet” after hearing Damon’s //Data-Bwoy digital spiritual remix of the band’s material.
With the European Space Agency choosing his music for a scientific project aimed at broadcasting music into the future and predicting what music will sound like in the future, it seems Damon is primed for galactic domination. Lasers set to stun.
The bits and bytes behind the beat maker are many. He is a Bay area BMX pioneer who spent the former part of the 80 ’s in dance battles at New York hip hop institutions The Roxy, Latin Quarter and Danceteria. Largely unknown to the music cognoscenti he is legendary in international street dance circles. Niels ”Storm” Robitzky, choreographer of the FIFA 2006 World Cup opening ceremony, credits him for having the biggest affect on the popping and waving street dance styles in Europe from 1987 onwards. Dubbed ”Rubberband” for his ’elastic properties,’ he has danced behind hip hop royalty Queen Latifah and toured the world with the celebrated Rock Steady Crew.
Eschewing the Americas for Sweden in 1986, Damon was forever modded after hanging out with son of iconic producer Quincy Jones, QDIII, watching him sampling and sequencing with an Akai S1000 and an Atari 1040ST. He begun beta testing with his dance troupe turned rap group Magic E, whose 1992 white label EP remains a highly sought after pioneering and historical slab of Swedish hip hop acetate. Several bug fixes later, he formed Hearin’ Aid , and released the acclaimed The Boom Lucy LP in 2005 and the Hearin’ Aid presents //Data- Bwoy EP in 2008.
With diverse influences ranging from Autechre to Zeppelin, he cites Bay area college radio of the 1970’s, particularly The Wolfmann Jack and Dr. Demento shows, as significant code in his programming.
Armed with some classic synths, a cult sequencer sampler, and using compositional processes that involve setting up accidents on purpose, and leaving what Quincy Jones calls ”space for God to walk through the room, ” The Explain My Drive EP is the latest update in his version history. He joins the band of musical mutineers on Accidental Records in releasing genre bending music without compromise.
Abstract and experimental are tags often linked to his music, but when pinned down to describe it himself, Damon, without an inkling of irony, simply states, ”It’s dance music.” Word to the motherboard.
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