Bryan Hollon has had his dusty fingers in the crates of old vinyl for quite sometime. It wasn’t always like that. Before 1992, his life was mostly filled with guitars, drums and pianos along with the cassette tapes of Sonic Youth, Hendrix, Prince, Bowie and other musical heroes. “The times were a changing” and Bryan sought after a new medium in making noise, the turntable. In 1992 he set off on a path of discovering original hip-hop sample material on classic jazz and funk albums that littered the Cincinnati thrift stores. Once his arsenal was built, he began experimenting with looping and chopping the drums he discovered on the dirty “Headhunters’” record he claimed to be his favorite. Soon after he discovered a bass line on a Ron Carter record that fit perfectly in the groove of the sampled drums and then a string line from a David Axelrod album. The gates crashed open.

Bryan began doing his own radio show on WAIF-FM 88.3 called “Madstract” in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1993 and djing at coffee houses and small clubs in the area. This led to other club nights and opening slots for larger bands that came into town. His name started getting around town and people were taking notice of this quiet kid with impeccable taste in early instrumental hip-hop and jazz influenced beats. He needed a name for the flyers of the events he was doing so he chose “Boom Bip.” This term was taken from the terminology of an early jazz vocalist for the sound of the drums. Ella, Joe, Duke and Miles had also used this term in describing the sound of the kick drum and the snare. These are the two drums essential in nearly every rock, jazz or hiphop song.

A small record label in transit and conception found itself on Main Street in Cincinnati in 1996. They had heard Boom Bip at a few events and listened to the radio show late at night and decided that his sound should be the sound of Mush. Mush records put out his first EP titled “Low End Sequence.” “Low End Sequence” caught the attention of Giles Peterson in London, Andrew Jarvis in San Francisco and Jeannie Hopper in New York City. Low End Sequence was being played in rotation in most major cities across the globe, soon making Boom Bip a recognizable artist in the electronic jazz-based community.

In 1998 things were about to change dramatically for Bryan. Not only in his sound, but also in his popularity as a recording artist. Bryan met poet and rapper Dose One a.k.a. Adam Drucker. The two of them recorded a full length album for Mush titled “Circle.” “Circle” was an album unlike any other album in existence. It combined several genres of music with twisted lyrical compositions describing the life and times of Bryan and Adam. Once the project was completed the two of them came to the realization that they had no idea what they had just recorded. It was such a burst of raw energy and artistic expression that only in hind sight could they focus on what had just taken place. They had no clue how the press or their fans would react to the album. Nor did they care.

The reaction was shocking. People described “Circle” as a masterpiece. While magazines like Wire, Village Voice, Urb, Spin and others gave it huge praise, John Peel on BBC radio began playing “Bird Catcher’s Return” in heavy rotation on his program. The album was picking up steam on all four corner’s of the globe on underground radio and in record shops. “Circle” to this day is still heralded as one of the best underground hip-hop albums of all time. John Peel described it as a modern day “Captain Beefheart” and asked the two to do a live Peel Session on the BBC program. Village Voice, Exclaim, Wire and other magazines named it one of their albums of the year in 2000. “Circle” to this day continues to sell and be one of Mush’s best selling records to date and draws interest from companies such as Sony for Playstation games, extreme sport television and skate videos.

In 2001 another record label approached Bryan. This time it was the electronic based Warp Records in London, England. They were home to artist such as Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada and Squarepusher. Tom Brown who worked at Warp talked to Bryan about a new offshoot of Warp called Lex. Tom had a vision of what he wanted Lex to be and felt that Bryan should be part of defining the sound of Lex. Bryan had completed his contract with Mush and was looking for another label to embrace his ever changing sound. Lex was the perfect place for this change to happen.

“Seed to Sun” was the first full length release on Lex in late 2002. The album was embraced by the Press and became a significant album in a new genre of combining electronic production work with hip-hop and rock. Some would say that these three genres come perfectly together on this album, unlike many others who have tried and have not found the proper balance of all three.

“Seed to Sun” led Bryan on a whirlwind of press interviews, features, tours, shows and increasing fans. During most of 2002 Bryan was on the road touring with his band and playing festivals such as Glastonbury in England, Triptych in Scotland, Dutch Electronic Music Festival, Bitz Festival in Italy, Les Nuits Botanique in Belgium, Transmusicales in France and many others. He was also invited back with his band to record an “in session” Peel Sessions on John Peel’s BBC program.

The release of “Seed to Sun” also put Boom Bip on the lips of many other artists from rock to electronic and led to a string of successful remixes by Boards of Canada, Mogwai, Venetian Snares, Lali Puna and others. He has since remixed such artist as Amon Tobin, The Free Design, Super Furry Animals, Mogwai, Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, Mountaineers and many others. Boom Bip is now embarking on a new full release as well as a compendium release featuring many of the remixes of his “Seed to Sun” tracks and his most recent Peel Sessions. He is also doing several remixes at the moment for artist on various labels. Boom Bip’s drive to push the envelope and experiment with combining several genres is second to none and none have proven to do so as well as he.

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