Tyondai Braxton - Biography
American composer Tyondai Braxton is that future-forward, mercurial musician that comes along only every so often. His music refuses to be pinned down to any genre distinction, melding elements of many musical strains (new composition, avant-rock, minimalism, ambient electronica, etc) into a highly personal and singular style. Like Brian Eno, or even Braxton’s avant-garde jazz master of a father Anthony Braxton, Tyondai Braxton’s work is utterly unique, emotive, challenging, and truly progressive.
Raised in both Northern California and Connecticut, Braxton went on to study composition at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. During this time he played with an experimental rock band called Antenna Terra as well as performing some orchestral work. While he has been writing and producing his own music since the early 1990s, Braxton’s first solo record didn’t appear until 1999. Released very well under the radar in a small edition, The Grow Gauge, which Braxton released under the moniker Loopchoir, lays out what has become this musician’s signature technique. Using guitar effects pedals, namely a variety of phrase looping pedals like the Echoplex, Braxton improvises pieces with vocals, guitar, and sometimes electronics. He catches rhythmic and melodic phrases, looping and overlaying them into a swelling, undulating virtual chorus. In effect, he’s creating a small ensemble in real time.
In 2000 Braxton teamed with guitarist Jonathan Matis to record the Death Slug 2000 album. Flirting with free-jazz and noise, the record seems to wed underground noise rock to Braxton’s father’s avant-jazz style. Around this time Braxton moved to Brooklyn, New York and set to work on his next solo record, the first to be released under his own name.
History That Has No Effect, released on the JMZ label in 2002, remains an auspicious proper debut. Its here that Braxton crystallizes his trademarked orchestra of loops technique. These nine songs are a strange and engaging mixture of fragmented, angular rock, the looped minimalism of Steve Reich, and ghostly ambient music. The closing two songs, “Struck Everywhere” and “Hold On to Distance,” simply sound like nothing else at all. Both hint at traditional song structure, even feeling melodically anthemic at times, but crack and fragment in the most mesmerizing ways. It’s fractal-pop, for lack of anything else to call it. Driven by Braxton’s unique guitar playing, distinctive vocals, and keen ear for processing sounds, History That Has No Effect remains one of the most original art-rock records of the 00s.
During this time Braxton became known for his intense live shows. Usually seated cross-legged on the floor surrounded by a semi circle of pedals and cables, he would conjure ever evolving, cyclical whorls of sound and soaring, urgent vocals anchored by off-kilter rhythmic pulses. Voices mass with guitars into a multilayered, hypnotic flow of organic, yet extremely alien music that sounds somewhere between a heavenly choir and the ominous grumble of malfunctioning machines. The fact that this music is created on the fly, in real time, makes the sounds you’re hearing all the more astounding.
The next release came in the form of a split full-length with Brooklyn art-rockers Parts & Labor. Rise, Rise, Rise was released on the Narnack label in 2003. Braxton’s three long compositions easily stand out, expanding on the sound of his debut. Vocals, guitar, and heavily processed electronic sounds still take center stage, but he folds in piano, flute, trumpet, viola, and cello for greater textural variety. Due to the processing techniques used, these new sounds feel extremely natural, easily falling into Braxton’s unique world. “Stand There” still ranks as one of his best songs.
Around this time Braxton joined forces with Ian Williams (Don Caballero, Storm & Stress), John Stanier (Helmet, Tomahawk), and Dave Konopka (Lynx) to form the art-rock supergroup Battles. The band took Braxton’s techniques, similar to ideas Williams had been exploring in his previous groups, and applied them to a propulsive, often funky, post-rock style. After several EPs Battles signed with Warp Records in 2006 and released its full-length debut, the stunningly original Mirrored. Immediately an indie sensation, the band toured relentlessly for the next three years, causing a gap in Braxton’s solo releases.
The next solo record wouldn’t arrive until September 2009. Central Market sees Braxton broaden his palette exponentially. It seems like the record he’s been threatening to make since he started. Made in conjunction with the Wordless Music Orchestra, it’s a hyper-dense collection of seven pieces featuring countless string, brass, and woodwind instruments. This record finds the composer showcasing all of his post-classical ideas. Combining his processing and looping techniques with proper arrangements, the music here is something like Steve Reich’s minimalism made for short attention spans. Hyperactive, rich with detail, and supremely concerned with structure, its prog-rock, post-punk, modern classical music with a great sense of humor. Further away from rock music than anything he’s ever done, Central Market is extremely distinctive and marks Braxton as a true innovator in avant-garde music.
Braxton has been an active collaborator through this decade, working with Bjork, Glenn Branca, and Prefuse 73 among others. He’s also been commissioned for work by Bang on a Can and the Kronos Quartet. Braxton announced he was leaving Battles in the autumn of 2010 in order to return to his solo pursuits. His future music will continue to be released via Warp.
