Si Begg

London-based electronic musician Si (Simon) Begg is one of techno's most chameleonic producers. A restless, often ruthless experimenter with little respect for boundaries, Begg's recorded work toys incessantly with the conventions of ambient, breaks, U.K. garage, and electro (among other styles), the results often deviating so sharply from classification that they're simply lost on the listener. Begg's penchant for bugged-out basslines and his sense of playfulness often get him tagged as "wonky techno," but his mastery of sound design has landed him high-profile work creating scores for films, television, and video games.

Begg was born in Leicester, England in 1972. Weaned from his teens on a range of progressive music -- from prog rock and metal to electro and free jazz -- Begg joined the Cabbage Head collective upon being introduced to <a href="spotify:artist:0eNVBq4ee0qY2FCY3oSorx">Cristian Vogel</a> by a mutual friend. Begg began working as a sound engineer, and started DJ'ing in 1991, the year he moved to London. He began making music in 1993, and released a few experimental cassettes as well as a series of techno 12"s with <a href="spotify:artist:0eNVBq4ee0qY2FCY3oSorx">Vogel</a> under the name Inevitable Technology. The duo also formed the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mosquito%22">Mosquito</a> label to release dancefloor music with a high quotient of weirdness. Releases as Bigfoot began appearing on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Eukatech%22">Eukatech</a> in 1995, with the moniker expanding to Bigfoot Futures Ltd. the following year. Begg hooked up with <a href="spotify:artist:5wnhqlZzXIq8aO9awQO2ND">Coldcut</a>'s Jonathan Moore and <a href="spotify:artist:2qIuYMTtZUYYLLdums3xZ3">Matt Black</a> through London's local music scene. He released his first EP as <a href="spotify:artist:3MyeAtgxZyE5AhlOizEhTM">Cabbageboy</a>, Sausage Doctor, on the pair's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ntone%22">Ntone</a> label in 1995, following it up with an additional EP, Planets, the following year. He started releasing futuristic electro-breaks records as <a href="spotify:artist:4xStnj2LVi3jkiO7hqN42o">Buckfunk 3000</a>, with releases appearing on <a href="spotify:artist:4WkFf12XddnybDrZ1KfxNC">Moody Boy</a> <a href="spotify:artist:0bGWaOPlgV2snPdJGbjDpE">Tony Thorpe</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Crammed+Discs%22">Crammed Discs</a> subsidiary <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Language%22">Language</a> beginning in 1996. Begg also began releasing records under his own name in 1996 -- the downtempo EP Nothing Is True Zen Say appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mille+Plateaux%22">Mille Plateaux</a>-affiliated Chrome, while Opus was issued by techno institute <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Tresor%22">Tresor</a>. Begg started another label, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Noodles%22">Noodles</a>, in 1997, debuting with the compilation Noodles Part One: The Death of Cool.

The 1998 <a href="spotify:artist:4xStnj2LVi3jkiO7hqN42o">Buckfunk 3000</a> LP First Class Ticket to Telos was followed by a Si Begg full-length for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Caipirinha%22">Caipirinha</a>, Commuter World. <a href="spotify:artist:3MyeAtgxZyE5AhlOizEhTM">Cabbageboy</a>'s Genetically Modified followed on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ntone%22">Ntone</a> in 1999. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mosquito%22">Mosquito</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Noodles%22">Noodles</a> both remained active, releasing music by Begg as well as artists such as <a href="spotify:artist:6ASGmWCYupa0CXGtsDdYSI">Jamie Lidell</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2Dv40C26DYmaTgCFGjqlTU">Neil Landstrumm</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:17xmALptr1ZmzU2oBLGy3K">Cursor Miner</a>. Begg signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22NovaMute%22">NovaMute</a> in 2001, releasing The Mission Statement under the name <a href="spotify:artist:0WmeWbetmsNpyvdrpA4SXv">S.I. Futures</a> in 2001, followed by Director's Cut (credited to his own name) in 2003. The singles "Revolution" and "Revelation" were issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22NovaMute%22">NovaMute</a>, while many other releases appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Noodles%22">Noodles</a>.

Begg initiated a multi-part series of Jetlag and Tinnitus EPs in 2006, continuing to push the envelope with intense, glitchy, bass-heavy sound constructions. His work was embraced by proponents of the harder side of dubstep and electro-house, and artists such as <a href="spotify:artist:1JPy5PsJtkhftfdr6saN2i">Bassnectar</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7kDf1ziRxPFtWbbZB1XmrM">Kid606</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3C7luJUpKIOoMLjsZXYjQM">Kanji Kinetic</a> remixed Begg's tracks around the turn of the decade. Film soundtracks U.F.O. and We Made Our Own Disaster appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Noodles%22">Noodles</a> in 2012, while Permission to Explode (a 20-track full-length as well as several related 12" EPs) was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Addictech%22">Addictech</a> in 2013. The ambient album Extreme Environments appeared in 2014, and a series of Refugee Appeal singles was released in December of 2015. These were collected as Music for Refugees in 2016. The same year also saw the release of another experimental ambient album, Extreme Environments, as well as two more soundtracks, Hard Tide and Kicking Off. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Shitkatapult%22">Shitkatapult</a> released Begg's ambient album Blueprints in 2017. ~ Sean Cooper & Paul Simpson, Rovi