Caural

Born worshipping vinyl through his parents’ living room stereo, Caural (born Zachary Mastoon) based temples at his sparkly blue drum set, the Casio PT-80 and guitar. He was soon skinning his knees skateboarding with childhood neighbor <a href="spotify:artist:06RpmuneHfIPx5N70n4cPf" data-name="Stuart Bogie">Stuart Bogie</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:3kjuyTCjPG1WMFCiyc5IuB" data-name="Arcade Fire">Arcade Fire</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3HJIB8sYPyxrFGuwvKXSLR" data-name="TV On The Radio">TV On The Radio</a>), and capturing youthful interpretations of early 80&#39;s Hip Hop, new wave and pop radio hits together on cassette. Playing an amalgam of jazz influenced punk in their early teens, they went on to co-found Transmission in 1991, a group which later took a more experimental turn with the addition of saxophonist <a href="spotify:artist:4G6HhUUQ1LgyYnA2WJppf8" data-name="Colin Stetson">Colin Stetson</a>.

Equally in love with rap and shoegaze, Mastoon clarified his voice with <a href="spotify:artist:3UXq4fckDmcPmleixlrl6i" data-name="Anthony Braxton">Anthony Braxton</a> at Wesleyan University and an around-the-world gamelan orchestra aboard Semester At Sea; however, it was during his final year at NYU in 1999 that he began fusing his disparate influences quite literally with a Yamaha SU700. A CD-R of his first four compositions was slipped from his coworker at the turntablism-pioneering Asphodel Records to the head of Toshoklabs, and the first Caural album had found a home.

A critically acclaimed catalog of original material and remixes for Chocolate Industries, Mush, Plug Research, Sound in Color, and other early foundation builders of the &quot;beat scene&quot; followed. It was in early 2006 that he teamed up with LA emcee <a href="spotify:artist:43SXnO2N4X024u3l9MfvXD" data-name="Busdriver">Busdriver</a> to tour with everyone from <a href="spotify:artist:7CaUk9xCxdXAmmqQn3PLR7" data-name="Aceyalone">Aceyalone</a> through <a href="spotify:artist:7AZwAitWq1KcFoIJhRWb6V" data-name="Deerhoof">Deerhoof</a>, often bloodying fingers and accidentally tearing knobs off his sampler on stage.