Beau Wanzer

Chicago-based producer Beau Wanzer makes dark, gritty electronic music inspired by early industrial and minimal synth from the '70s and '80s as well as low-budget horror films from around the same time period. Often consisting of zombified vocals croaking over hypnotic machine rhythms, his music is eerie, grotesque, and a bit sleazy, but it always contains a crucial element of twisted, macabre humor. While some of his tracks are DJ-friendly and he's often associated with techno, he doesn't consider himself a part of the genre.

Wanzer grew up in Midwestern America, and his family constantly relocated, so he never spent more than a year in the same place. He got heavily into industrial and EBM as a teenager, with acts like <a href="spotify:artist:0sY0sggayqH5fxwe3abfUn">Absolute Body Control</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2tyMOS8xKREgpEwHnLc6EX">Front 242</a> making a major impact on him. Later he got into power electronics and noise, particularly labels like <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cold+Meat+Industry%22">Cold Meat Industry</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ant-Zen%22">Ant-Zen</a>. He began making music at age 18, and after moving to Chicago around the turn of the millennium, he started working at Weekend Records & Soap, a shop run by <a href="spotify:artist:4kna4AADtdELxqW2xWeoWF">Magas</a>, where he was exposed to the darker corners of electro and techno. He continued recording raw, one-take minimal electronic pieces, slowly amassing a huge catalog of material. He became friends with Melvin Oliphant (aka <a href="spotify:artist:5MahxTNW8wHIFj44aQgWVF">Traxx</a>), and the two eventually started making house music together as <a href="spotify:artist:1Nvf2CmBYahgJzINgmD7PP">Mutant Beat Dance</a>; their work was released on labels like <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Rong+Music%22">Rong Music</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3H56BvuMQIB1h9IZQSQce3">Rush Hour</a>. Wanzer also recorded hypnotic electropop with <a href="spotify:artist:2n0WpHMIPgmzyWj83nlL0P">White Car</a>'s Elon Katz under the name Streetwalker, and worked with Shawn O'Sullivan (<a href="spotify:artist:7nSugyz6DIqMJEqwooKw3y">Led Er Est</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2zZF7G8tfRRwci8FsLaslj">Further Reductions</a>), producing techno as Civil Duty.

Wanzer began releasing solo material in 2013, with a self-titled EP on <a href="spotify:artist:3l8tiiJagegHYKPqCdbnla">Ron Morelli</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22L.I.E.S.%22">L.I.E.S.</a> (Long Island Electrical Systems) as well as two 12"s on its Russian Torrent Versions sublabel. Wanzer's Power Outage 10" EP was released by Oliphant's Nation label in 2014. Since then, Wanzer has self-released several limited, untitled LPs and singles, including a 2015 collaboration with Corporate Park. He also collaborated with <a href="spotify:artist:2DRMyBNnQGATkVnoy3omna">Maoupa Mazzocchetti</a> under the name <a href="spotify:artist:1PNWK7i61aRzuB5g0Lpwmd">De-Bons-en-Pierre</a>; their debut EP, Crepes, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Dark+Entries%22">Dark Entries</a> in 2017. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi